It was at the library’s first floor.
It seemed the cape was not waterproofed. The man’s black cape, completely soaked in rain, was dragging on the floor and leaving water marks.
“Hm…”
There was a man walking with the cape dragging on the floor.
The suspicious man in black cape didn’t bat an eye for the smell of blood that was filling the air inside the library since a while ago. Instead, he was carefully going over the books on the shelves.
“No, no… and no!”
Thump.
The man took a book from the shelf, but he cringed and threw the book in frustration.
“Damn it all! There are too many! Way too many!”
It seemed he could not find the book he was looking for.
He scratched his head hard instead to vent his frustration, but then he suddenly raised his ears in response to small sound of someone’s breathing.
“…”
“Um?”
Huup…. Huup…
The small sound of someone's breathing shaking was indicating that someone had the mouth tightly closed with a hand.
“Ummmm?”
The man had experienced situations like these many times, so he knew instinctively that there was someone hiding, choking in fear.
“Who could it be? Who is…”
The man in black cape laughed like a madman and finished the sentence he could not continue a moment ago,
“… playing a hide and seek like this?!”
Wheec!
The man in black cape turned the corner and had his eyes met with those of the person who was hiding in the corner. Having confirmed the woman’s clothing, he wiggled his eyebrows as if he was overjoyed.
“Ohoh?!”
“P… please… my life…”
With an apron to the front, the woman was certainly a librarian who knew well about the library.
“A librarian! Ms. Librarian, you are exactly who I need right now!”
After seeing the man speaking in loud roar-like voice, the librarian, who was holding her breath on the corner with her mouth closed with her hand until now, thought she was going to die now. She was shaking with her tears hanging on her eyes.
“Please…”
It was because she witnessed how the man brutally murdered the people gathered at the first floor.
“… Sir dark mage…”
“Um?”
Librarian pleaded with shaking voice.
“Um?”
Black colored magic, black cape…
The man that the librarian saw had just those two characteristics. However, they were enough to make her think about the infamous dark mage.
That was the reason why she pleaded.
“Ahah! It’s nothing, nothing!”
“…”
Having noticed the librarian in tears, the man waved his right hand and said,
“I think there must be a misunderstanding. I’m not the dark mage.”
The man smiled like a good man to the librarian and extended his hand to her.
“I’m just a visitor who came to visit the library.”
“Is that s…”
“… Quiet….”
With hand extended toward her, he had the other hand’s index finger to his lips. He walked toward the librarian and said,
“I’m your customer.”
“…”
“Shouldn’t you treat me like one?”
The man, who had a refreshing smile on his face, opened his eyes narrowly.
The librarian was shaking in fear of the eyes looking down at her. She carefully grabbed his hand and stood up.
“There is a book that I’m looking for.”
“A book?”
“Yes! I’ll be leaving quietly once I find that book!”
“…”
The man said again with a smile.
The librarian nodded as she shook in fear.
For now, it was best for her to just do as he asked.
“Please, spare my life… I have a daughter at home. I’m all that she has… If I’m gone… She can’t be without me. So…”
For the sake of her daughter, the librarian had to survive this no matter what.
The librarian pleaded again.
“I’ll promise you. If you find me the book, I’ll leave quietly.”
The man smiled and promised.
“What is the book that… you are looking for?”
“Ah, it’s nothing special.”
The man kicked a book that was laying around the ground. He explained the book to the librarian.
“Not these kind of books. That…. The book about the weather, you know? It would be best if it was about the Rainfield’s weather! It would be even better if it was about the Rainfield’s clouds!”
Having heard what he said, she nodded as if she understood. Leading the way, the librarian moved toward where books of such subject would be.
“…!”
“Ah, don’t mind those people and just lead the way!”
The librarian, who was leading the way, ran into a corpse with black eyes. The man with black cape, who was following her, gestured and moved the corpse. The man asked the librarian to hurry.
“If you look at the books in this area, you probably can find the book that you are looking for. Books pertaining to Rainfield’s weather or rain clouds are all in this area.”
Having heard the librarian’s explanation, the man went over the books on the shelves. It seemed he found the book he was looking for. He opened his eyes wide and extended his hand towards the book.
“Ohoh! This is it!”
The book he picked up was titled ‘Regarding Rainfield’s Clouds.’
“H… have you found the book?”
Noticing the man acting happy about the book, the librarian asked carefully.
“Yes! I found it! This is it!”
The man put the book inside the cape, leisurely turned around and looked at the librarian.
“T… then?”
“Yes! As I promised, I’ll go, quietly.”
“… Ah.”
The man smiled big and walked away in back-steps.
Watching the man, the librarian sighed in relief.
“That’s goo…”
Thump.
The head of the librarian fell without being able to finish the sentence.
“I’ll be leaving quietly.”
It seemed someone used wind magic. Her head was cut-off clean. On her face, the look of her sighing in relief was still there.
“… quietly.”
Looking at the librarian’s head on the floor, the man whispered really quietly.
“As I promised, I’ll leave quietly, but I didn’t promise you that I won’t kill you.”
The man started to walk with a creepy smile.
“Kuuuu, Ku… Kuuuuuuu.”
The librarian’s dead body twitched once, and she struggled and got up like other dead bodies inside the library, in order to turn other living beings into corpses.
“Ah, should I attach the neck for you?”
With the book he needed now in his possession, the man no longer had a reason to be in the library. He turned around to look at the librarian’s dead body, which had the head and the body separated, and asked.
“…”
“I think you will need them together if you want to meet your daughter?”
“…”
The dead body was not able to respond.
“What? You say you don’t need it?”
“… Kuuuu.”
“Hm, how ungrateful.”
The dead body barely responded with a sound. Responding to the sound, the man clicked his tongue and started to walk again.
“How ungrateful! You changed your mind so easily like flipping one’s hand! You have no right to be a mother! You are totally disqualified!”
The librarian’s head, which was on the ground, started to shed black tears as she looked at the man’s back.
Step, step.
The man with black cape casually walked out of the library. Fiddling with the book in his arms, he had a bizarre smile on his face as he said,
“Still, I should help you reunite with your daughter even if you don’t care.”
* * *
“Ang? Dead bodies are coming back to life? What kind of bull…”
‘What kind of bull crap are you talking about?’
Riley was about to ask that. However, Riley followed Nainiae to the second floor’s corridor and looked at the center area below. Riley didn’t finish his sentence.
“…”
“What should we do?”
Noticing Riley being silent, unable to wait any longer, Nainiae asked.
“Those guys… They seem to be similar to the ogre that I saw last time. Am I right?”
Riley asked as if he was not sure. Nainiae nodded and explained what she knew at the moment.
“Yes. I think that dark mage is inside the library.”
“Ugh.”
Finding all this ridiculous, Riley cringed.
“… It’s not like this is a zombie movie…”
Having heard what Riley said, Reitri and Nainiae tilted their heads side to side.
“A zombie movie?”
“What’s a zombie?”
Riley would not have been surprised if they asked about the word ‘movie.’ However, Riley wasn’t expecting them to ask the meaning of the word ‘zombie.’
“… Ugh.”
Having realized that those words do not exist in this world, Riley sighed big enough to make the ground sink.
“Anyway…”
Riley decided to explain later. He looked at the corpses again in the center area.
‘Their hearts are not beating, so they are definitely dead. They are not being influenced by mana either… Still, they are moving.’
With his eyes narrowed, Riley observed the first floor. He turned his gaze to a side.
‘Is that… a survivor? That person seems injured?’
Riley found someone hiding at the corner. Riley stared at the survivor holding the arm dripping blood and asked Nainiae,
“By any chance, were the screams earlier related to these?”
“Yes, I believe so.”
Seeing Nainiae nodding, Riley asked the next question.
“How did the dead bodies attack?”
“What do you mean?”
“Like beasts, did they scratch, bite… Did they attack like that?”
“Ah, yes. It was like that. They seemed to be a little stronger than ordinary people.”
“Is that so…”
The explanation sounded like they were exactly fitting the descriptions of zombies.
Dead bodies.
Black eyes.
Charging at living people and biting them.
They were just like zombies from Riley’s past life.
‘If there is one thing different, that would be…’
He looked at the injured survivor in the first floor again.
‘Infection… is not part of it.’
The survivor had the injury, a bite, held for quite a while, but there were no symptoms of zombification. That made Riley certain of it.
‘Is it more like controlling dead bodies? In that case, one condition for making those must be that the subject has to be a dead body.’
Riley, who roughly organized the information in his head, slowly turned his head and looked at Nainiae.
“Nainiae.”
“Yes.”
“I roughly understand what is happening here, but…”
Riley didn’t bat an eye although he heard two different screams earlier.
“It seems like this is not important enough to warrant you coming to find me in a hurry like this?”
Looking at the situation in the first floor, Riley furrowed his brows as if he found all this to be a bother. He mumbled with an annoyed voice.
“My apologies, Young Master. I’ll need to use fire to neutralize them. However… Considering the location, it would be difficult…”
Ashamed to face Riley, Nainiae lowered her head and explained why she came to see Riley.
“Fire?”
Having heard Nainiae’s concern for the books, Riley turned his head and looked at the library’s ceiling.
The top of the center area was covered in glass so people could see the rainfall outside.
“… Reitri.”
“Yes?”
“Is glass expensive in Rainfield?”
“I’m not sure? I don’t think it is too expensive. Why do you ask that all of sudden…”
Riley skipped answering. He turned to Nainiae and extended his hand.
“Here.”
“…?”
He pulled away her raincoat. Nainiae vacantly opened her mouth.
“Get going.”
“… Ah.”
Soon, Nainiae figured out what Riley’s action meant. She nodded and placed her hand on the corridor’s ledge.
“Well then, I’ll be gone for a moment.”
“M… Mage sis?”
All of sudden, Nainiae jumped down to the first floor. Horai, who was watching from the side, said ‘Huk!’ and looked below.
“Guuuurrrr…..”
Nainiae, who jumped to the first floor, used gravity magic and landed gently. She said toward the corpses that were looking at her.
“… Soon…”
The corpses were all shedding black tears. She narrowed her eyes and ignited black flame.
“I’ll make you comfortable.”
Nainiae had black colored, closer to grey to be precise, flame on her right hand. On her left hand, she made a piece of ice with a similar color.
“Guuuuurrrr!”
Dead bodies charged toward Nainiae.
* * *
“… Ah?”
The man with black cape, who escaped the library with the item he wanted, changed the look on his face after detecting that his ‘puppets’ were being reduced in numbers.
“… Burned? They were burned?”
A blood vein popped up on his forehead.
It seemed he got quite angry because someone was interfering.
“Who… How rude. Who dares to burn my hopes!”
Badududuc.
He ground his teeth loud enough to make the sound of rainfall feel ashamed. With his eyes red, he turned to look toward the library.
“How dare! Such insolence! They don’t understand my grand plan for the greater good! They dare to interfere…”
The man with the cape was shaking in fury. From his back, Rainfield’s guards passed him by and ran toward the library. They were entering the library in an orderly manner.
“… No.”
Having seen the guards entering the library, the man barely managed to stop being infuriated and put his hand inside the cape.
“That’s right. It does not matter…”
Urururung….
It seemed there was a lightning strike nearby. The sound of thunder filling the air erased the sound of man’s mumbling.
‘Regardless, under this rain, only mine will remain.’
The man said those words during the sound of thunder.
“Huhu….”
The man suddenly started to twitch his shoulders and laugh.
“As much as I have lost, I just need to make more…”
Ururururung…
Another lightning fell.
“… more graveyards.”
Flash!
The surrounding area was bright for an instant from the lightning and darkened again. At that moment, the man with the black cape disappeared without a trace.
* * *
Loud steps could be heard inside the library.
They were the Rainfield’s guards that came to handle the horrible situation that unfolded inside the library.
“Freeze… Huh?”
The leader of the guards was about to shout in a loud voice, but he tilted his head side to side.
‘Sound of rain?’
It was because he could hear the sound of rain inside the library.
Shuuuuwaaaaa.
Noticing the sound coming from the center area, the guards walked toward the area. What they discovered was a girl.
“Huh?”
In library’s first floor’s center area, there was a girl in maid uniform. She was standing on the floor covered in broken glass where the glass ceiling was broken and letting rain to fall inside.
“Young Master, it is done.”
Wharururuk.
Concerned that the guards may notice, the girl moved her feet and extinguished a small black flame on the ground that still remained. She lifted her head up again.
“Oh, well done.”
The girl was looking up toward the boy who was standing on the second floor.
“…”
Unlike the look on the boy’s face, the orange haired young man and child next to the boy said,
“… Oh my god…”
They seemed impressed by the girl who was looking up toward them. The two were not able to close their mouths