"Come back, [Magic Beast (Ditto)]."
Dark raised his Magic Guide Card and dismissed the summon. The [Magic Beast (Ditto)] that had melted into a puddle of liquid gradually dissolved into light and slipped right through the bars of the [Six-Pillar Light Cage], retreating back into the card.
Dark smiled and gave the [Magic Beast (Ditto)] a little pat as it reformed on the card's surface.
Tonight's plan had gone off without a hitch — and [Magic Beast (Ditto)] deserved every bit of the credit.
From luring Virt by transforming into the girl, to transforming into Virt and drawing Vlad out — both performances had been nothing short of perfect.
The latter, especially, demanded a level of skill Dark himself wasn't sure he could have pulled off. But [Magic Beast (Ditto)] was a Magic Guide Spirit with the [Imposter] ability — mimicry was simply in its blood. When playing the role of Virt, it had to nail not just his appearance and mannerisms, but also sync perfectly with Virt's "voice acting." Not a single slip was allowed.
Speaking of the "voice acting," though…
Dark was still a little surprised. He hadn't expected Virt's contribution on that front to be quite so flawless either.
The thought made him glance upward. A wisp of breeze — a gift from Professor Silf — threaded quietly through his golden hair, flickering with a faint green glow.
"So this [Wind Spirit] blessing doesn't just block a disaster once — it can also carry sound and transmit voices?"
"Professor Silf can even use it as a substitute for sight. Though that must be a high-level application."
Dark filed the thought away and turned his attention back to the [Six-Pillar Light Cage].
Vlad had outwardly displayed signs of self-destruction, but whether that was truly the case still needed to be verified. Given a vampire's treacherous nature, this could easily be another smokescreen.
That said, without a host body, Vlad's available abilities were severely limited. There was no way he could fool Professor Kazel's detection a second time.
...
With several pairs of eyes watching, Professor Kazel stepped up before the [Six-Pillar Light Cage].
He felt no particular regret about Vlad's apparent self-destruction. They had already resolved to send him on his way here tonight to prevent any chance of escape — this was simply a little ahead of schedule.
Professor Kazel raised his wand and pressed the tip against the curtain of light between two of the pillars, then murmured an incantation. The tip of the wand began to glow with pinpoints of light, and ripples spread outward from the contact point on the barrier.
Then, the tip of the wand pierced through and probed inside.
With his left hand, Professor Kazel produced a Magic Guide Card. Magic flowed between the card and the wand, channeling the card's ability through the wand's tip. Ring after ring of light radiated outward, spreading layer by layer into every corner of the light cage.
About three minutes passed before Professor Kazel finally stopped.
"Kazel, what's the verdict?" Professor Silf asked.
Professor Kazel withdrew his wand and smiled. "Death confirmed. But the remnants of his soul are still locked within the [Six-Pillar Light Cage] — please wait a moment."
With that, he retrieved a glass vial roughly the size of a knuckle from his card pouch, placed it inside the light cage, and began collecting the remnants.
"Professor," Dark said, curiosity getting the better of him, "do souls leave remnants?"
Professor Kazel worked as he explained, "Souls, of course, leave remnants. When all is said and done, both soul and body are vessels of consciousness. The meaning of death is the extinction of consciousness. We bury a corpse in the earth, and it decomposes there. We bury the remnants of a soul in the wind, and they dissolve there."
Dark absorbed this with a quiet nod of understanding.
Different world, different rules. To truly understand the laws of this world, one had to correctly identify its contradictions and work through them.
Magic, at its core, was idealist in nature. Only the death of consciousness — of the mind — was true death.
...
Inside the [Six-Pillar Light Cage], tiny points of light like fragments of starlight emerged under Professor Kazel's spellwork. These "soul remnants" were then gathered together, ground down into fine dust, and guided into the small vial.
In the terminology of alchemists, the powder ground from soul remnants was known as "Soul Dust" — an extraordinarily useful alchemical material.
Once all the Soul Dust had been transferred into the vial, Professor Kazel sealed the mouth of the bottle with a barrier, then capped it shut. He gave it a little shake, peered at the luminous powder drifting inside, and then — to Dark's surprise — held it out toward Dark Demon.
"Tonight's vampire hunt was almost entirely your doing," Professor Kazel said. "Consider this vial of vampire Soul Dust your reward."
Dark reached out and took the vial, visibly moved.
...
Almost simultaneously, in the deep of night, inside the tower.
In the dormitory of Astronomy Professor Medea Bartholomew.
Medea Bartholomew was deep in conversation with a beautiful woman whose blood-red hair was pinned up atop her head.
Both wore matching sets of sleepwear. The curtains — replaced with black velvet — had been drawn tightly shut, not a sliver of light allowed to escape.
Despite the late hour, neither of these two equally striking women showed the slightest trace of drowsiness.
Between them sat…
Not a tome of magic theory. Not a star chart for divination. But a set of Magic Guide Chess.
"Medea, why do you think Virt likes a game this unbalanced?" The crimson-haired woman rested her cheek in her palm, her gaze wandering, her thoughts clearly far from the board.
Medea seized the moment to capture one of her pieces, then said, "Maybe because it's fun."
"Fun?" the red-haired woman echoed.
"Yes. Fun," said Medea.
"Still such a child," the woman sighed.
"He is a child," Medea replied.
"He's twelve. In the old days, that was already an age to start thinking about children of one's own."
"Times have changed, Lia."
The red-haired woman addressed as "Lia" let out a soft sigh, about to continue her musings on the passage of time — but then something stirred inside her. She rose to her feet.
"What is it?" Medea asked, puzzled.
Lia smiled mysteriously. She reached into a low cabinet beside the bookshelf and carefully lifted out a glass bottle roughly thirteen centimeters in diameter, then set it gently on top of the cabinet.
"What is that?" Medea couldn't help but lean in for a closer look.
Inside the bottle was some kind of special liquid. The liquid itself was transparent, but within it floated a great number of fine, tiny bubbles.
Medea and Lia shared a dormitory, but Medea had always been careful never to pry into the other woman's private affairs. She asked, puzzled, "When did you get your hands on something like this?"
"Shh!" Lia raised a finger to her lips, signaling her to keep quiet, then cradled the bottle and gave it a gentle shake.
The liquid inside sloshed with the motion. The bubble-like particles within it drifted together, making contact, slowly merging — until at last they coalesced into a single bubble the size of a fist.
"Just as I thought!"
Lia stared intently at the fist-sized bubble, her expression alight with excitement.
Medea, however, was completely lost. She couldn't help but ask again, "So… what exactly is this?"
Lia straightened up, and finally answered: "A soul."
The puzzlement on Medea's face instantly gave way to shock. "A soul?"
"Yes." The corner of Lia's mouth curved into a cold smile. "I intercepted some fragments of a soul and placed them in a cultivation vessel to nurture — something similar in concept to a lich's phylactery. Once the original body dies…"
"Whose soul?" Medea cut in. "Is he dead now?"
Lia let her expression soften back to its usual warmth, but merely shook her head. "That's a secret."
"A secret, is it…"
Medea's mind turned quickly. She suddenly leaned over and grabbed Lia's arm, shaking it back and forth. "What could possibly be so important that you can't tell me? Come on… I won't breathe a word, I promise."
But Lia shook her head again. "It's not that I'm worried you'd tell anyone. Come now — let's keep playing. We're only halfway through this game."
...
Back in the castle classroom.
Dark studied the Soul Dust in the vial with careful attention.
A vampire's Soul Dust was clearly an extraordinarily precious material, but he hadn't yet decided how to make use of it.
"Put it away for now," Professor Kazel advised.
Dark nodded and slipped the little vial into the inner pocket of his card pouch.
On the surface, the whole affair seemed to have finally come to a close.
In reality, it hadn't gone quite one hundred percent according to plan.
Once Vampire Vlad's presence had been confirmed, the main challenge was how to extract him from Robert's body. Tonight, they had employed a method that was, on the face of it, less than clean-cut. On one hand, it was to maximize safety. On the other, it was to make a show of the "vampire hunt" — to make it look like an opportunity for a certain someone to exploit.
The former objective had indeed been achieved. The latter had come up completely empty.
Professors Kazel and Silf had laid web upon web throughout the castle's second floor, yet not a single trace of the "invisible person" had been found.
And so…
There was no avoiding a twinge of disappointment. Vampire Vlad had been eliminated just like that. Even though both professors felt it had gone rather too smoothly, neither could put a finger on exactly what had been overlooked.
To ensure every loose end was thoroughly tied up, Professor Kazel did not depart immediately. He began operating the Golems throughout the entire second floor, conducting a thorough sweep and cleanse of every corner of the castle.
Professor Silf, meanwhile, took charge of escorting the three students back to their dormitories.
They headed first to Knight House tower.
At the bridge entrance before the tower, Professor Silf administered a stern verbal reprimand to Virt and Robert for their breach of school rules. But as she went on, her tone gradually softened. She apologized to Robert for what he had suffered that night, praised Virt for his "voice acting," and concluded by awarding both of them a small number of credits as compensation — enough to smooth things over.
She also made clear, of course, that confidentiality was expected.
Dark watched Professor Silf handle the whole matter from start to finish. Only after she had seen Virt and Robert safely inside the tower did he fall into step beside her toward Noble House tower.
Without Virt and Robert present, the two spoke with considerably less restraint.
"The likelihood that their target was Vampire Vlad has dropped," Professor Silf said in a low voice.
Dark nodded in agreement. "It seems so. And the possibility of Ophelia Blood being somewhere within the academy has also decreased."
"That's true," Professor Silf sighed. "Now that we've found the reason Robert glimpsed Ophelia through the mist — wait, does that mean Vlad actually knew Ophelia?"
"A vampire knowing the last princess of the Blood Clan," Dark said, "isn't strange at all."
"Fair enough," Professor Silf murmured thoughtfully. "But to leave such a strong impression that she appeared in a Love Divination reading?"
"Professor, that technique is a form of mental guidance and projection," Dark said. "It combines rhetoric with magic. What I mean is — he may simply have thought of the Blood Princess in that moment."
"So why would he have thought of the Blood Princess at that particular moment?" Professor Silf asked.
Dark stopped walking. He raised his head. "That is a question."
Professor Silf stopped as well.
Moonlight fell across her pale gold hair, delicate and otherworldly.
She chose her words carefully. "This matter will need more deliberation. The invisible person's existence remains an ongoing problem — but given that it never surfaced even through Vampire Vlad's entire ordeal up to his soul's destruction, we can logically set aside the connection between its purpose and Vlad's presence for now. To draw it out at this point, I suspect we'd have to restart the 'key' plan."
Dark gave a slight shake of his head. "That plan is too obvious. If even the Vampire Vlad incident couldn't bring it out, then whoever — or whatever — this is, they're either genuinely harmless, or they have a depth of cunning that goes far underground. A fake key won't fool them."
"Then we use a real one," Professor Silf said with a faint, cool smile. "Since it's now been confirmed that Vampire Vlad was not hiding in the secret passage, the passage can't remain sealed forever."
Dark thought for a moment, and an idea came to him. "Professor, I've always thought that fabricating a key to break the seal on the secret passage isn't particularly meaningful. What if, instead, we create an access card system?"
Professor Silf blinked. "An access card?"
Dark nodded. "Access cards. Only those holding a card would be permitted to enter the passage. It prevents unpredictable anomalies from arising due to too many people wandering inside, while also allowing us to make proper use of the passage's unique properties. As you said — the secret passage is a part of St. Marian. It can't stay sealed forever."
Professor Silf considered this carefully for a long moment, a thoughtful expression crossing her face. "That does seem right. After all these years, not one of us ever thought of it from that angle."
"A matter of perspective, I think," Dark said. "From a professor's point of view, the primary worry is students getting into danger inside the passage. So there's a natural tension between wanting to use it and wanting to keep people out — which is probably why no one ever went down this road."
"You're right," Professor Silf said, nodding. "Here's what we'll do — once all the loose ends from the Vampire Vlad affair have been dealt with, I'll go discuss this possibility in detail with Principal Cynthia."
"It certainly warrants careful consideration," Dark said. "Hopefully the Principal will be open-minded about it."
Professor Silf let out an amused laugh. "I can see right through you — you just want to get inside the passage yourself, don't you?"
Dark looked up at her, entirely unembarrassed. "That's correct."
Professor Silf stood with the moonlight at her back — but her smile was brighter than the moon itself.
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