The Academy, the Banquet Hall.
Unlike the tranquility of the Twilight Tower and the cold, desolate air of the mountain path, this place was filled with the clamor of students and staff members moving back and forth.
Inside the magnificent hall, unassembled pieces of carved tables and chairs, mountains of gold-embroidered drapery, and gleaming silverware waiting to be polished were scattered everywhere. The air was thick with a pungent mixture of wood, paint, sweat, and cheap, greasy food.
Villanelle and Otto were assigned by the foreman to hang several of the largest curtains on the east side.
Neither of them used a staff. It was not that they did not know the Levitation Charm, but rather because the casting precision of third-year students was insufficient for this kind of meticulous work.
Otto held the ladder steadily, using his thick arms to pass up the heavy fabric section by section.
Villanelle stood at the top of the old ladder, carefully aligning the giant metal hooks with the catches inside the ceiling tracks.
She was very close to the ceiling, allowing her to clearly see the ornate, complex reliefs and the Rune circuits perfectly integrated within them.
Most of the Runes shimmered with the faint light produced by normal power levels.
But when Villanelle’s hand brushed against a certain section of the Runes, an indescribable sense of dissonance traveled through her fingers.
It was not a disruption of Mana, nor was it an overload, but… a sense of sluggishness in the ‘atmosphere,’ as if even the air in that space had become exceptionally heavy.
However, that strange sensation vanished quickly.
She hesitated for a moment, staring at that section of Runes to observe them for a while.
On the surface, nothing seemed wrong.
‘Was it an illusion?’
Villanelle shook her head and tossed the detail to the back of her mind.
Even if there really was a problem with the Rune circuits, who would believe her? It was better to finish the work at hand first.
“What’s wrong?” Otto asked from the base of the ladder, perhaps seeing her remain motionless after hanging the curtain.
“Nothing.” Villanelle did not intend to tell him about her discovery. She crouched down at the top of the ladder, preparing to descend to the floor.
“Then be careful.” Otto scanned the busy workers and other students around them, lowering his voice slightly. “I heard that while they were decorating this side a few days ago, a support rod came loose and fell, injuring a worker.”
“What did you say?” The surrounding noise was too loud, and Villanelle did not hear him clearly. “What dropped — “
*Crack… Boom!*
A tooth-gritting sound of snapping and the massive roar of a heavy object hitting the floor suddenly erupted from the west side, followed by a chorus of terrified screams.
Villanelle’s leg weakened as she stepped on the ladder rung, nearly causing her to fall. She instinctively turned her head toward the source of the noise.
Against a wall not far away, the stone Rune base that already held the massive Ice Crystal Gryphon sculpture had crumbled on one side without warning.
In an instant, the heavy sculpture above tilted violently and fell. Crystalline shards and dust sprayed in all directions as nearby workers scrambled away on all-paws…
The foreman rushed over, his face ashen. After a brief inspection, he began screaming at the team responsible for the installation:
“You idiots! Are you blind? Don’t you know how old this base is? You were too lazy to check it? Quick, clean up the fragments on the ground and get the spare! If you delay the festival, I’ll have your hides!”
Amidst the chaos of reprimands, excuses, and wails, Villanelle stared fixedly at the shattered base.
She knew that these bases were generally carved with reinforcement Runes on the inside.
But at this moment, amidst the wreckage, Villanelle vaguely perceived a certain uncomfortable ‘atmosphere’ slowly dissipating.
The feeling was familiar. It was that same thick sluggishness, exactly like what she had sensed at the ceiling hook, only several times more intense.
This was likely not a matter of simple aging or negligence.
She withdrew her gaze and locked eyes with Otto for a few seconds. The latter had his brows knitted into a tight knot, looking thoughtful.
After the brief interlude, work in the Banquet Hall continued. Villanelle and Otto silently polished the mountain of gold and silver vessels and moved heavy carved long tables, their ears once again filled with various noises.
But Villanelle’s thoughts were no longer on the work.
The sluggishness in the hook area, the crumbling base, Emily’s hypothesis about the “instability of the mana field,” the occasional flashes of vigilance and irritability from Ignis, and the outsiders she had seen in the Forbidden Books Area that day…
These fragments swirled wildly in her mind. Although she could not yet piece together the full picture of the events, they pointed unmistakably toward one fact.
The venue of this festival itself was likely being eroded by something invisible yet full of malice.
Who were they, and what was their goal? Was it merely to cause accidents?
But so far, she seemed to be the only one who knew all this, or at most, Emily.
No… perhaps the Academy had already noticed something wrong and was quietly taking action? It was just that she, as an ordinary student, could not see it.
Thinking of this, Villanelle felt a little more at ease.
Late at night, the work ended.
Villanelle stuffed her coin pouch into her cloak pocket, but she did not feel the usual sense of satisfaction that came with a reward.
“Thanks for the help,” Otto said to her as they parted.
“We were just helping each other… During the Winter Veil, be a little careful,” Villanelle cautioned after a moment of thought.
After Otto’s tall figure disappeared into the distance, she turned around and stepped onto the long mountain path leading back to the Imperial Palace.
The mountain path late at night was deathly silent, the cold wind cutting across her face like a knife. Fortunately, the Magic Guide Lamps on both sides glowed brightly, lighting the winding upward road as if it were day.
Villanelle wrapped her cloak tightly around her, repeatedly recalling every small detail from the Banquet Hall as she walked.
Pushing open the heavy wooden door of the Twilight Tower, the familiar scent of age and the warmth of the hearth surrounded her.
Butler Heinrich appeared quietly and asked with concern, “How was it, Miss? Are you tired?”
“I’m fine, not too tired.” Villanelle forced a slightly weary smile, took off her cloak, and headed toward the second floor.
A figure came racing down the stairs.
It was Ignis.
“You’re not asleep yet?” Villanelle crouched down and rubbed his head, a look of reproach on her face.
Ignis circled her urgently, his nostrils flaring as he carefully sniffed the scent on her.
Dust, wood, sweat, and… a faint, lingering ember of malice.
Sniffing that scent, Ignis instantly became tense.
‘Wait, man, it’s actually there?’
“What is it?” Villanelle wanted to hug him, but considering she was not clean at the moment, she simply rubbed his head again. “See, I came back in one piece, I’m just a bit dirty…”
Only then did Ignis slowly calm down.
Villanelle led him to the stairs, and as they went up, she unhurriedly recounted what she had seen in the Banquet Hall.
“The Banquet Hall felt strange. The base holding the statue suddenly shattered. It broke in a very weird way. I keep feeling like something is hidden underneath…”
‘You sensed correctly. There really is something beneath the Academy,’ Ignis thought silently.
Fortunately, she had already noticed it, so he did not need to find a way to warn her.
But this did not mean it was over.
Those stains buried within the Academy and beneath its ground were time bombs that would eventually explode.
That day would likely not be far off; it would most likely be during the Winter Veil festival. Before then, he had to quickly increase his mental strength and extend the duration of his Abyssal Critical State as much as possible.