There were seven days left until Luffe Aros.
Time was ticking. And yet I found myself forced to go out the following afternoon. My destination was the White Bell, a bookstore a little ways off the main street. As its name implied, a white bell adorned the entrance of the small shop. I’d stopped by the place a few times before on my way to the castle. The selection was decent, and every now and then, you’d find a hidden gem.
This time, however, Yubaet Ludmischen—a mysterious, self-proclaimed member of the Twelfth Order—had asked me to bring Teoritta there to meet him. How we were supposed to converse in a bookstore was beyond me, but I decided not to dwell on it. The Twelfth Order… If Yubaet was to be believed, they were a top secret intelligence unit, so maybe they had some special way of doing things.
At any rate, we arrived early, so I decided indulge myself in a bit of browsing. I’d been looking for a certain book anyway.
“My knight! There are so many books here!”
Teoritta was unusually animated. Now that I thought of it, this was probably our first visit to a bookstore together.
“I know how you feel, but you have to keep it down. This is a bookstore.”
“Okay! …But there are even more books here than there were at the Great Exchange. This is incredible…!”
Had she never seen a bookstore before? Or did she simply not have any memories from before I awakened her? Whatever the case, Teoritta kept asking me to rate various volumes.
“My knight, what about this one? Is this book any good? Would I be able to read and enjoy it?”
She was holding an anthology of poems about the size of my palm titled Sweeping the Stars. It was written by Ravetelio Riunesse, a poet from the so-called modern era. That said, he’d lived about fifty years ago, before any sightings of the Demon Blight. That meant it would be quite difficult to understand. It was hard to imagine a society without the Demon Blight, after all. And if you didn’t understand the poetry leading up to his era, you’d miss a lot of the nuances that made it interesting.
“I think that one might be a little too high-level for you.”
I decided to be honest. What’s more, it seemed a little crazy to me for someone just starting to get into books to jump right into poetry.
“I think a novel would be better. They’re easier to read, too.”
“…I want to read the same books you do, though.” Teoritta pursed her lips in dissatisfaction but quietly returned the book to its shelf.
“You need some background knowledge to enjoy stuff like that. For now, you should pick something easy to read. Want to try something I’ve read before?”
“Sure. I’ll let you pick it out.”
“All right… Just let me find what I’m looking for first.”
“Oh?” Teoritta seemed interested in my search. “What exactly are you after, my knight? Another anthology of poems? Let me help you.”
“No, I’m looking for a book called Vladd’s Secret Records. It’s like an encyclopedia with pictures.”
“You can count on me! I shall find it for you in no time! Hmm…”
“Hold on. I found the spot. It should be on this shelf right— Ah, here it is.”
“Y-you did not even give me a chance to look! I have not had a single opportunity to shine since we arrived in the First Capital!”
“Sorry, but it’s a famous book, so it wasn’t that hard to find. Just about any bookstore will have a copy.”
I picked up the book. Supposedly, it was written in ancient times by one of the heroes summoned during the First War of Subjugation. Up until the most recent outbreak of Demon Blight, it had been considered merely a collection of legends and myths. But now it was regarded as a historical, academic text. Its pages contained the names of demon lords and faeries that had appeared in the past. Even now, whenever a new demon lord appeared, the Allied Administration Division would assign it a name based on similar ones from the text.
“Hey, can you help me find something?” I opened Vladd’s Secret Records so Teoritta could see. If I didn’t get her help on something, she’d start sulking. “I saw a faerie in town yesterday. It looked kind of like a knocker, but it was like a doll made completely out of iron. I suspect it was a new type of faerie.”
“Okay! Um… An iron…doll-like faerie…”
Teoritta stared intently at the book. Then, all of a sudden, a shadow fell across the page.
“That would be a coblyn, Xylo Forbartz.”
The unfamiliar voice was followed by a finger reaching out and turning the page to point at one of the book’s illustrations.
“Although it has a body made of steel, it isn’t a knocker. They are said to be weapons and armor corrupted by the Demon Blight. What you saw was most certainly an undiscovered species of coblyn.”
“Hmm?”
“Mnn!” Teoritta and I whipped around at the same time, but the goddess was the first to voice her displeasure. “Yet again, I am robbed of my moment of glory… Why have you thwarted me?! I was just about to find the answer myself!”
“You have my deepest apologies, Goddess.”
The man bowed with exaggerated politeness. I found his smile sadistic and deeply suspicious. Where had I seen him before…?
“Oh!” exclaimed Teoritta. “You are the man who visited Xylo in Ioff when he was resting!”
“I am honored that you remember me.”
Back when I’d seen him in Ioff, I’d figured he was an intelligence agent, but it looked like he was an even bigger deal than I’d thought.
“My knight! You remember him, right?!”
“Yeah…”
“You did not tell us your name then, however. Where are your manners?”
“My apologies, Goddess Teoritta. I am Kafzen Dachrome, captain of the Twelfth Order of the Holy Knights.”
His manners were impeccable, but only his manners. He was exactly the sort of person you should never trust. I glanced behind him. If he was truly a captain of the Holy Knights, he should have his goddess with him. Yet he seemed to have come alone.
“Well, I don’t see your goddess.”
“Enfié is shy, and I couldn’t risk bringing her around the city with me. It would be far too dangerous. She is a very important goddess to both of you as well, so I trust you will understand my caution. You may even thank me, if you wish.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It isn’t a riddle, and I’m not interested in explaining further. At any rate, your goddess here seems to have a far more curious mind than Enfié.” He turned to Teoritta. “It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Goddess Teoritta. I always hear so much about you and your knight and everything you do for mankind.”
“It sounds like you know a lot about us.” Teoritta tensed slightly and grabbed the hem of my mantle. “…Are we really that famous?”
“But of course. I know much about you as well, Xylo Forbartz. Back when you were a Holy Knight, you stood out as much as Captain Buchs.”
“Well, I don’t know a single thing about you.” I’d only heard rumors about the Twelfth Order. I hadn’t even been sure they existed. “You sure the captain of a secret order should be waltzing around town and introducing himself in public?”
“There is nothing to worry about. This bookstore is just one of the many buildings belonging to my Twelfth Order. As it so happens, I am the owner.”
I scoffed at this absurd revelation. The store manager had always been a rotund old man with gray hair, ever since my student days. But right when I was about to tell him that the owner of this place was no freak, I glanced back into the store and realized the old man was nowhere to be found. Had he been Kafzen in disguise the whole time? Or was he just lying? You could never trust intelligence agents.