“No way!” Daisuke excimed in a hushed tone, his eyes darting nervously around the room. “It’s a secret entrance. But how did I even activate it? Does... Reginald know about this?” he mused excitedly, stealing another furtive g the library door. “If it’s a hidden chamber, then something a and evil may be sealed away down there, or it could be some sort of treasure.”

  Optimistically ging to the tter possibility, which could prove to be a crucial asset for his escape, Daisuke swallowed hard, willing his rag pulse to slow as he prepared to explore the mysterious depths below.

  As he desded the creaking stairs of the trap door, he found himself in a dimly lit chamber that exuded an aura of age. The air held a heavy humidity, which made breathing difficult and unfortable.

  The mustiness lingered in every er, a testament to the passage of time and the secrets that had accumuted in this subterranean sanctum. Cobwebs decorated the nooks and ies of the dungeon-like room. Vats of strange and curious spes were arranged on shelves in taheir tents hidden behind cloudy gss. Apanying them were a colle of weathered books. Their leather-bound spines bore the weight of time, their pages yellowed and fragile, each a repository of wisdom.

  In the ter of the room, a work table stood, its surface marred by the imprints of tless experiments. Jars of various sizes and shapes were scattered about, some half-open with tents long since dried or evaporated.

  The unwavering glow of a magic crystal dimly illumihe tarnished metal instruments that y strewn across the table—tweezers, fsks, and other mysterious tools with purposes known only to the previous owner.

  Does the power of mana crystal mps usually st this long? Daisuke thought absentmindedly as his fingers ran across the dusty workspace. Then it came to a halt atop a rge grimoire ed in eerie leather. With bated breath, he slowly opehe thick cover and coughed as the accumuted dust particles assaulted his lungs.

  “Yeah, it’s definitely been a while sineo came down here,” he remarked upon opening the rge book to its first page. Let’s see…”

  “My name is Cedric Osercival—first of my name. If you are reading this text, it means you have followed the correct sequeo unlog this pd have been judged worthy of my legacy. Otherwise, the path would not have opened, whether by fire, flood, or decay.

  Since I was but a child, I have pohe ins of man and the universe. This led me to the discovery of alchemy. Despite the foul gazes of my family and brethren, I moved away from the capital and to the tryside. Here, I could foy work away fr eyes.

  It took aire lifetime, but I mao perfect my craft, and in doing so, touched the very face of God. It was only then that I realized the potential dangers of my achievement and the cataclysmic threat it posed to the world. Human greed surpasses even that of the gods’—to that end, I refused to trust even my very seed with the power I have fostered. You, however, have been deemed worthy.

  I spent the ey of my life disc this gift, and you will spend yours sharing its many blessings with those who desperately . Though we may not be reted by blood, you will heh bey successor. Never diverge from the righteous path you have chosen.

  Godspeed.”

  On the page was an intricately drawn circle. Before Daisuke could even sider deciphering the letters and symbols that elegantly interwove with the diagram, he felt his mouth moving of its own accord, reg them with an effortless and eloquent grace.

  “Per scriptum et signa, obligatus sum; in regno alchemiae, potentiam inveniam.”

  The transmutation circle ignited with a stunning blue luminesce as the intation was evoked. In an instant, a searing pain surged through Daisuke, c from the of his head to his eyes, which welled up with blood.

  In his fusion, he abruptly wiped away what he believed were tears, only to front his moistened fiips with a growing panic. For a moment, he felt nauseous and unsteady on his feet.

  ging to the table’s edge for stability, he observed the grimoire’s timeworn pages now devoid of any tent. Before he could grapple with this enigma, a familiar rumble reverberated, and the chamber trembled akin to before.

  It was an unmistakable signal; a prompt to depart, and Daisuke quickly climbed the stairs as he wiped the st of the blood from his fao sooner had the a sanctum vanished from sight did the doors of the library burst open and in rushed a startled guard. He looked around cautiously before fog his suspicious gaze on Daisuke.

  “I heard a loud otion from down the corridor,” said the man. “Is everything all right?”

  Daisuke schooled his fato a perfect mask and replied. “Yes, I’m fine—just a little act is all,” he poio a nearby dder leaning against a shelf. “I fell while trying to reach a book.”

  He repared to use the bloodstains on his fio fortify his cim, though the prospect of sulting a medical practitioner or healer was an unwele invenience.

  Fortunately, the guard departed with merely a cautionary remark, leaving Daisuke to breathe a sigh of relief once he was alone agaiempted to replicate the as he had taken with his hands in the empty slot of the bookshelf, but to no avail.

  Given that the trap door had swiftly closed upon anyone’s approach to the library, Daisuke surmised there must be a sophisticated meism io deted respond to unwele visitors. Though he couldn’t fully prehend what had transpired during his time in the secret study, a gut feeling told him there was likely nothing of i left to discover, even if he mao reopeh.

  ***

  Daisuke was just finishing up brunch with April inside his room when an ued visitor arrived. Standing in the doorway, freshly scrubbed and a nightgown, was aribute, her expression one of devastation.

  When she revealed who had beeinald’s room in tandem, Daisuke’s features torted into a dark refle of the girl’s own anguish. In a frenzied whirlwind of thoughts, he grasped his head, his eyes trembling intensely. His fingers ched and crumpled his shirt as his heart threateo rupture from his chest. Desperately, he searched for a solution, but every avenue he sidered led to the same grim clusioh.

  Why? Why did he suddenly decide to ge his routine? Why did I even think he had a routio begin with? Sheba. Sheba. How I save her? What I do?

  Daisuke was beyond frustrated. He knew nothing could be done, but still he probed every facet of his mind, desperately trying t out a miracle that would never ma.

  Crushed beh the weight of these relentless misfortunes, he balled his fingers into fists and sank to the floor. Their hearts breaking in unison with his own, both girls cradled him in their arms, his soft cries resonating through them both.

  ***

  April shifted her gaze from the Beastkin to Daisuke, both of whom were sound asleep on the bed. Seated in the bedside chair, she tenderly trailed her tiny fihrough the silver strands of hair on his forehead. Dark circles marred the skih his eyes, and his tear-stained face retained a flushed hue, evidence of his sorrow.

  April pouted.

  She had never witnessed her typically cool and levelheaded brother in such a state of helplessness before, and it vexed her beyond reason. From the moment she got kidnapped until now—no, even long before that, she had felt the naggiion of being a burden to him.

  As these turbulent thoughts brewed within her mind, April g the bedside table, her gaze nding on the hairpin Daisuke had entrusted to her for defehen, like rainclouds creeping to the forefront of her sciousness, a target slithered into her thoughts.

  The Beastkin stirred from her sleep in time to witness as April vanished beyond the door. Then, with a gentle nudge, she roused Daisuke from his slumber.

  “Huh? April? Where is she?”

  Before the girl could shed light ouatioed that the hairpin was missing from the bedside table and was easily able to ect the dots.

  Fear of monsters & the unknown: 28.6%