We set ten days from now as our escape date. It was a moonless night.
The most important task to do until then was to investigate the Shadow Contract. Karina and Rudis also offered to help, but as expected, I, being in the Magic Tower, had the highest chance of success.
If they could not find a clue to the Shadow Contract by the escape date, they decided to inform me of the failure before nightfall.
"Even if we don't succeed on the first escape attempt, don't worry too much. We will try again and again until we save the Lady."
"Um... if all else fails, there is also the option of throwing the Tower Master in jail instead of escaping the Tower."
I felt my heart warm at the answers given by the protagonists, who seemed to be united by a sense of justice. Carrying the courage and hope I had received from them, I returned to the Magic Tower. However, the moment I stepped into that gray building, my head began to ache again.
'It's obvious it gets worse when you come to the Magic Tower.'
Until now, I thought the cause was lack of sleep. Since I frequently tossed and turned in my sleep due to nightmares, it was only natural that I would have headaches. Thinking this might be what doctors call a psychosomatic condition, I tried taking various liquid medicines, but they didn't help much.
‘Is it mental illness...?'
It might be an extreme diagnosis, but there was a reason for it. It was because I was hearing auditory hallucinations. At first, I thought I was hearing the maids' voices. The mumbled voices gradually became clearer, and now I could understand their meaning precisely.
[Sally, you're back. I'm so happy.]
[Sally, I'm here. I've been waiting for you here.]
A child's voice was speaking to me from a distance, or as if whispering in my ear.
Eon's question about whether I could hear strange sounds came to mind, but I didn't want to talk to him about my symptoms. It didn't seem like anything good would come of telling him.
'Could it be auditory hallucinations stemming from the fear of Sally?'
Eon, that man's bizarre obsession had left a twisted afterimage in my mind. Seeing the name Sally appear repeatedly, it was entirely possible.
[Sally, I want to see you soon.]
[I have so much I want to tell Sally.]
I entered the laboratory as if chased by the persistent sound. Of course, closing the door did not prevent the sound from entering. Moreover, it was an auditory hallucination. The sound still lingered around my ears.
'First the maids' singing, and now a child's voice.'
I wasn't a person with particularly strong willpower or courage. As an ordinary human being, I spent a month living as if I were the protagonist of a horror novel.
'It wouldn't be too strange even if he had gone completely insane.'
I turned my gaze to the bookshelf. There was no other way to escape the auditory hallucinations than to focus on something else.
'Were there always this many books here?'
The books filling the wall looked so distant, as if they would stretch to the ends of the earth.
'At this level, it seems like there is every magic book imaginable.'
The problem was time. Examining thousands of books and looking through the ones related to the contract page by page, if I was lucky, it would take a few days; otherwise, it would easily take a week.
And even if I had found out about the Shadow Contract, that wasn't the end of it. Whether I could handle that magic was a completely separate issue from knowing the details.
'Let's get started instead of wasting time like this.'
I scanned through the books one by one, starting from the ones closest to the door. I was in a hurry. I went up and down the ladder dozens of times and took dozens of books out and put them back in. Since I lacked basic knowledge, I had to skim through every single book, such as [Magic Using Elemental Power] and [Grandeus's Theorem], whose contents were difficult to guess from the titles alone.
'At this rate, it's going to take longer than I thought.'
With the windows covered by curtains and the light from magic stones illuminating the laboratory, it was difficult to discern the passage of time. Researchers came and went, but they, too, were busy with their own research.
“Selinia?”
Just when I thought I hadn't been flipping through the book for quite a while, my name was called. I slowly turned around. Chaotic letters were flying around before my eyes.
"How many times do I have to call you... What is it? Are you feeling unwell?"
'Are you asking what's wrong? Are you asking about my headache? Or is it this auditory hallucination?'
As I groped my way down at Sally's question, my stomach rumbled.
"How long have you been here?"
“Wednesday afternoon?”
"You aren't saying you've been here ever since then, are you?"
When I didn't answer, Sally said, as if she was frustrated.
"It's Friday morning! You haven't eaten anything for over a day!"
Ah. Come to think of it, this feeling was hunger. Suddenly, I felt as if my lower back was arching and the strength was draining from my body.
"Drink this for now."
Sally showed me kindness by handing me a potion. It was a fatigue recovery potion. As the medicine began to take effect, I realized that the person who had just shown me kindness was none other than Sally.
'What was the last conversation we had?'
I don't remember exactly, but it certainly wasn't a warm and friendly atmosphere. I think I was a little annoyed with her. However, she approached me as if she held no grudges whatsoever.
'I mean, she's an unpredictable person.'
There were times when she said things more chilling than the head maid, and times when she looked like such a good person.
Nevertheless, while it could not be denied that it was strange, it was certain that she was not Eon's subordinate like the senior maid. If she were a subordinate, she would have shown a much more consistent demeanor than this.
"Thank you. I feel a bit better now."
"Sometimes I stay up all night researching magic... but... what on earth are you doing stuck to the bookshelf?"
Sally sighed as she looked at the books piled at my feet, as if she couldn't understand. It wasn't a difficult question, but I hesitated to answer truthfully. If I said there was magic I wanted to know about, Sally would surely try to find out what it was.
'Should I at least ask Sally?'
The reason I couldn't ask the question rashly was that I was worried she might figure out my plan.
'That might be me worrying too much, though.'
Even if that weren't the case, I wasn't sure if Sally would answer my question honestly. After all, even if she were lying, I had no way to verify it at this moment.
"If you are looking for a specific book, you might as well ask me. I already made a book list a while ago."
“Is that true?”
Driven by temptation, I chased after Sally. Given Sally's ambition for magic research, it was entirely possible.
"When I first entered the Magic Tower, I was also really curious about what books were there."
Sally took a notebook out of the drawer. Then she placed it in the center of the desk so that I could see it too.
"I haven't been able to organize the new books yet, but I know what they are. So, what book are you looking for?"
"A book about contract magic."
“Contract magic?”
Sally's voice rose slightly.
"The Tower Master would know best about that."
It was an answer that seemed to ask why I wasn't asking Eon directly.
"I wanted to look into it on my own. I entered the Magic Tower through alchemy, and I'm worried that if I suddenly show interest in another field, I might get scolded for not focusing on my own work."
"I don't think the Tower Master would care about something like that... Besides, he cares for you, doesn't he?"
"I just want to show him only my best side, since he cherishes me so much. Do you know what I mean?"
I forced a smile, as if I were embarrassed. It wasn't just a simple act. I felt awkward speaking as if I were a shy woman in front of him. However, rather than claiming now that I wasn't in any relationship with Eon, it would be more natural to let it slide like this.
"I hear you think so. I wish I could help, but it's a shame. We don't have any books on contract magic here."
"You mean there isn't anything about contract magic among all these books?"
“Look.”
Sally held out a notebook with book titles written on it. However, just like before, more than half of the books had titles that did not reveal their contents.
'As expected, checking things one by one with my own eyes...'
Just as I was thinking of going back to square one, Sally suggested an unexpected possibility.
"But it might be somewhere else, not here."
“Where is it?”
"You should be able to guess that, too."
A sleepy and hungry person simply doesn't have the luxury to enjoy a game of twenty questions. I impatiently demanded an answer.
“Where is it?”
Sally lowered her voice and said.
"4th floor, Forbidden Room."
That was a place Sally had wanted to go to for a long time.
"Isn't it obvious? That he must have collected books or documents on advanced magic."
'I've known about Sally's obsession with the Forbidden Room for a while, but...'
However, it felt unsettling to simply dismiss it as her obsession. After all, I wasn't entirely sure what was in that room either.
"You said you wanted to know about the Shadow Contract. Then shouldn't we look everywhere we can? Besides, I heard about it from Sally, who was here before."
"The previous Sally?"
"There was a researcher named Sally before me."
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