漫画大王

Chapter 143

“I briefly stopped by that newspaper club, the Monthly Royal or Royal Monthly or whatever it’s called. There was an article in one of their previous issues about there potentially being members of the Demon God Cult within the Temple.”

“... Ah. That internal monthly magazine for the Royal Class?”

“Yes,” Charlotte responded.

Charlotte had not gotten the information from me, but from those newspaper club guys. Realizing I wasn’t the source, Ceres looked at me apologetically, and I just shrugged.

“I’ve told you countless times not to engage in such pointless endeavors...” Ceres sighed, clearly exasperated.

It seemed pretty clear that no one really read that magazine aside from that one issue that was about me, given that both seniors seemed to be hearing about it for the first time.

Of course, Charlotte didn’t have any intention of just letting it go.

“You seem to know something, don’t you?” Charlotte asked.

“Ah... No. About that... I don’t know,” Ceres replied.

Ceres seemed to know something, but was reluctant to speak. Certainly, she had previously mentioned that speaking about the Demon God Cult carelessly could lead to severe consequences, that could include torture or even death for some people. That was why she had cautioned against spreading baseless rumors.

The fact that the princess was now digging into the matter made the student council president all the more reluctant to speak.

Of course, Charlotte seemed not to believe the student council president’s claim of ignorance.

“Hmm...”

Before Charlotte could say anything further, though, Olivia opened her mouth.

“There’s no point in hiding anything, Ceres,” Olivia said.

“P-President! What are you saying!”

It wasn’t just Ceres. Olivia also seemed to know something about this matter.

“Don’t underestimate the princess; if we don’t tell her, she’ll find out about it from somewhere else anyway.”

“...”

The implication was clear: the princess would eventually find out what they knew through other means, so hiding it was pointless. Ceres’s face turned red when the fact that she had lied in front of the princess was laid bare.

“I understand the concerns you might have, and so I don’t really mind the fact that you’ve lied. Just tell me what you know.”

Charlotte seemed to have guessed that Ceres was worried about innocent people getting caught up and killed in unfounded witch trials.

With Olivia having spilled the beans, Ceres sighed and wrote something on a piece of paper before handing it over.

“Here. It’s really nothing to worry about.”

Ceres had written a single word on the note that she handed over.

“Exodium.”

***

After Ceres and Olivia left, Charlotte and I sat quietly in the café.

“Whether or not it’s a big deal, it still seems incredibly suspicious,” Charlotte said.

Indeed. From what I’d heard, it seemed like a bizarre gathering.

“They only meet on Saturday nights, and aside from the president, the members don’t know each other’s identities,” she continued.

While clubs sometimes had their activities on weekends, they mostly convened during the weekdays.

However, in this case, the gatherings took place only at night, and on the weekend. Moreover, all the members were anonymous, and wore hooded robes that covered their faces during meetings.

This sounded ridiculously suspicious. Could it really be nothing? Even if it wasn’t related to the Demon God Cult, it was definitely prone to misunderstandings.

“Exodium.”

That was the name of the club that was shrouded in misunderstanding, suspected of being a part of the Demon God Cult.

They gathered at night, and aside from the club president, no other member knew the identities of the others. Plus, the club hardly took in new members.

The club seemed very exclusive.

The purpose of the club was said to be “research on unusual phenomena”, but it was unclear what these phenomena were supposed to be.

For a club that claimed itself to be harmless, it had an extensive list of suspicious attributes.

“Considering they don’t take new members, it’s impossible to sign up and go undercover... What can we do?”

Charlotte seemed to believe that the excessively suspicious nature of the club meant that there was even more reason to investigate, and she was pondering the best way to go about it.

“We could ask the head student council president to hand over a list of members’ names... but I’m hesitant about that.”

“Why?”

“Even though I’m a princess, I’m just a regular student at the Temple, and I don’t have the authority to order the general student council president around. Of course, I could apply pressure, but just the act of doing that would already be problematic if the general student council president were to take issue with it.”

Clubs fell under the student council’s purview, so even teachers could not meddle with them carelessly. Moreover, since this was not a club exclusive to the Royal Class, Ceres could not get involved in obtaining the member list either.

In fact, Ceres said that she had heard “through the general student council president” that the club was not dangerous, which meant Ceres hadn’t actually visited the club for herself.

Therefore, asking the general student council president for the list of names was out of the question because of a lack of justifiable reasons. It would be a violation of the Temple students’ autonomy, which was granted by the royal family.

If the general student council president was unreasonable, it could lead to a confrontation with the princess right there. As the representative of the nearly one hundred thousand Temple students, the president had enough backing.

In any case, while interfering wasn’t impossible, it wouldn’t be beneficial. The general student council president seemed to respect the anonymity of this Exodium club.

I crossed my arms.

“It’s hard to find something that isn’t suspicious about it,” I said bluntly.

“Exactly....”

Joining the club to spy on them was impossible. Acquiring the list of members to track them down also seemed like a farfetched idea.

“Based on what we know, their meetings are supposedly held somewhere in the general club building around nine o’clock on Saturdays,” I said.

Charlotte nodded at my statement.

“How about eavesdropping around that area then?” I said with a grin. “My hearing is pretty good, after all.”

Using enhanced hearing to eavesdrop on their conversations should be entirely feasible.

***

Friday went by, and Saturday evening came.

“Are you ready?”

“Kind of, I guess.”

The sun had set long ago, enveloping the entire Temple in darkness. Charlotte and I were both cloaked in hooded capes.

The Exodium’s club room was said to be in a compound within the Temple that had been designated for club activities. Given that the buildings provided for the club activities of over a hundred thousand Temple students, it was undoubtedly enormous, although I had never been there before.

Charlotte and I took the tram to where the general club buildings were located. Since it was late at night, the tram seemed to be mostly occupied by staff members, with students being a rare sight.

“I hope it’s nothing serious, just like those seniors mentioned.”

“Yeah, me too.”

The club seemed suspicious in too many ways. The best scenario would be if the club turned out to be harmless, just as Ceres claimed. If it were discovered to be truly a gathering of Demon God Cult members, not just the club, but also the head student council president—who had dismissed it as nothing significant—would have to bear the responsibility.

The tram eventually stopped in an area densely covered with buildings that facilitated club activities. Charlotte looked surprised as she observed the sprawling compound.

“Hmm... It seems we’re not the only ones active at night.”

“It seems so.”

There was evidence that some sports clubs were practicing at night, since the lights that illuminated some of the fields were turned on, and students were running about.

In fact, many of the club buildings had their lights on, and from some, the sounds of musical instruments and singing could be heard.

It seemed many at the Temple were passionate not just about their studies, but also about their hobbies. Though I knew the Temple was incredibly vast, most of the descriptions I’d written had been focused on the Royal Class, and hardly any attention had been paid to the other club activities.

To me, this sight felt like an additional setting that hadn’t been in my plans.

It was quite an intriguing sensation.

“Exodium meets in building 3 over there,” Charlotte said, pointing to a building similar to a classroom block, and we walked towards it. “Do you see some of the members?”

“Yeah.”

As the time for Exodium’s club activity approached, Charlotte and I could see students wearing robes entering the building intermittently.

“Hmm...”

Charlotte seemed to be pondering something as she observed the silhouettes cloaked in robes.

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“Huh? No, it’s just... They all seem a bit small in stature.”

Indeed, those wearing the black robes seemed small in stature, though it was hard to be sure from their attire.

The meeting location was on the third floor. Although the building had a similar layout to the classroom blocks, the atmosphere was distinctly different. There were various unidentified items lined up along the corridor, and each door had a club name written on it.

This place was a place where the one hundred thousand or so members of the student body could gather to enjoy their hobbies. The abundance of buildings and the chaotic nature of their interiors were completely expected.

Although there was quite a lot of activity at night, it was still less bustling when compared to the daytime.

Charlotte and I did not head straight to the third floor, but entered the second floor instead.

To be precise, we planned to eavesdrop from right below Exodium’s club room and catch any sounds that might come from above.

Fortunately, none of the clubs on the second floor seemed to be having their gatherings at that moment, so no one was around to question us.

“It seems we’re just in time... Can you make out any sounds?”

The members were likely gathering above us by then. We could already hear footsteps echoing in the upstairs corridor.

There were also sounds of conversation.

—Black.

—Herald.

They were short exchanges, made up of single words.

After a moment, the same question and answer was heard.

—Black.

—Herald.

The repetition of the same phrases twice made me think of something.

“... What the hell are these guys doing?” I said, dumbfounded.

Charlotte gazed at me, wondering what was going on.

“Are they using some kind of password?”

“... A password?”

“Black. Herald.”

These guys were using passwords for a mere club activity?

Charlotte seemed to grow incredulous at the mention of passwords.

“I can’t hear anything from inside the room. It seems like they’re not speaking at all.”

Not only that, but it appeared that they wouldn’t say a word until all members had arrived. Only the exchange of passwords was heard whenever someone entered.

And then, it was past the time that the club activity was supposed to start. No more exchanges of passcodes could be heard.

“... I can’t hear anything.”

Charlotte tilted her head at my words.

“They’ve gathered together but no one is saying a word...?” She asked.

Charlotte was confused by the lack of conversation, despite the passage of time.

However, it wasn’t that.

“... No, I think it’s something else.”

I couldn’t tell how many members had arrived early, but I had heard the password exchange at least five times.

That meant there were at least six people inside.

“With more than six people in there, you’d expect to hear the sound of chairs moving, someone clearing their throat, or something, but there’s absolutely no sound.”

There was absolutely no sound coming from the direction of what we assumed was the clubroom.

“... It seems like they might have put a noise-canceling magic spell around the room.”

It was clear that some sound-suppression magic was in place to prevent any conversations inside from leaking out.

“What in the world?!”

Charlotte’s face twisted. ‘How could this not be suspicious?’