[Inspector Aerel's POV]
Rien rested well for the first time in three days in the infirmary while Mel, having arrived successfully at the academy, slept fitfully under the watch of Jeanne after her encounter.
As the day passed into the next morning, Inspector Aerel sat down at her desk, a cup of bitter coffee resting lighting in her fingers. The office smelled faintly of paper and ink, warm in the morning light.
The door burst open.
"Ma'am—!"
Casey rushed in.
Casey's hair wasn't done up and flailed around her shoulders like an unbrushed bunny's wayward fluff. She hadn't even bothered to put on her hat and held it under her arm. While Aerel was disappointed that Casey wasn't presentable on duty, some part of her nevertheless found it quite cute.
Aerel's adjutant skidded to a stop in front of her, her cheeks flushed and gasping for breath. "From headquarters," she gasped, offering Aerel a sealed envelope.
Aerel took the letter with her pale, slim fingers. As Aerel took the letter, Casey collapsed into a nearby couch.
Aerel glanced at Casey out of breath, and her adjutant's messy hair.
Casey caught Aerel's gaze and desperately patted down her hair. "W-Well, it was important, so…" Casey mumbled, flushing in embarrassment as she shrunk in on herself.
"Hmmn," Aerel nodded. She quickly cased the letter, her eyes scanning the paper. She snapped her fingers.
*Ttak!*
Even without an incantation, the Silencieux spell encapsulated the room with its shimmery mantle.
"Updates from headquarters," Aerel said calmly. "The princess arrived last night and is settling in. And we've gotten a new lead on SN. They're here, at the academy."
Casey straightened. "Really? Do we have any identification?"
"No," Aerel elegantly shook her head, scattering the silvery ribbons of her long hair. "What we do know is that they are carrying 'the cross.'"
"That's… Vague. Wow. They couldn't have been any more descriptive?" Casey tilted her head slightly in a questioning motion, mid-way of collecting her hair into a messy bun.
"It is," Aerel said, her voice cooling as she read more and more of the letter. "The source is worse."
Casey hesitated. "…Worse?"
Aerel sighed, pushing back from her desk and leaning back into her chair. "It was intercepted from a tainted witch's communication spell."
Casey's expression slowly fell as she made a small 'o' shape with her mouth.
Aerel folded the letter neatly. "That means they already know their target is here," Aerel continued. "At the academy."
Her fingers tapped once against the desk. "With the Archmage gone, they have little reason to hold back, even with the headmaster here."
Casey shrunk. "Ah."
This had suddenly just gotten quite dangerous and complicated…
*Tok, tok, tok.*
Aerel set down the letter and tapped her finger on the table, thinking to herself.
Then, she quickly stood. Her bangs bounced as she slid on her trenchcoat, sweeping her long ponytail behind her collar in one, graceful motion.
"When you have the time, Casey," Aerel said, "send the message out to all officers at the campus that we will begin daily patrols immediately."
"Yes, ma'am."
"And request two additional companies from headquarters. We still have the capacity to house them."
Casey fumbled for her notebook, hastily scribbling.
"I want them here before the ball tomorrow."
"Yes, ma'am!"
Aerel adjusted her top hat with a small, precise motion. "Oh—and one more thing."
Casey froze mid-writing.
"Begin inspections on all privately owned swords within the academy. You can leave the swords in the armoury alone. I believe the head commissioner has already incorporated that into her search. The search for SN has now just become… quite a delicate issue."
Casey blinked like an uncomprehending bunny. "May I ask why?"
"You'll see," Aerel replied vaguely, her cold grey eyes gleaming. "For now, though…"
She stepped up to Casey who was still sitting on the couch, tucking away her notebook and dipped into a perfect, gentlewomanly bow.
"May I bother milady to accompany me to the headmaster's office?"
Aerel's voice was as low and cold as usual, and surely it was just a joke. But coming from Aerel, it made Casey's omega heart skip a beat as colour rushed to her face immediately.
"E-Eh???" ///
Aerel straightened as if nothing had happened. Then she simply grabbed Casey by the waist and pulled her upright.
"Come."
"W-Wait—Inspector—!"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The duo walked out of the constabulary detachment's office and down the hall before climbing a stairwell, up one, two, three flights of stairs, their boots echoing softly against the matted wood.
Aerel turned to a winding corridor and stopped before a heavy door.
A plaque on the door read:
[L.P. Adam - Headmaster]
Aerel grasped the brass knocker with her elegant fingers.
*Kung, kung, bang, bang!*
A couple of seconds later, a soft, boyish voice spoke through the heavy wood. "Who's there?"
"Perona Aerel. Accompanied by Casey Lim."
"...Enter."
*Kki-ik*
The heavy doors creaked open and Inspector Aerel stepped in, Casey following closely behind.
The room was… suffocating. It was piled high (almost to Casey's chest level) with books, and giant bookshelves lined the walls, but even then those dark wooden frames caved and overflowed.
All around them, sitting on the piles of pages and tomes were… puppets? Mannequins? Some were polished porcelain, smooth and pristine, while others were wooden. A few were disturbingly lifelike, and if Casey didn't know better, she'd probably have mistaken them for dead bodies.
A few faces of the latter were frozen mid-expression.
Casey shivered.
She could barely even make out the layout of the room in the gloom—aside from a faint light, (presumably that of a desk lantern) the entire room was quite crepuscular, devoid of almost all illumination like it was night rather than early morning.
Aerel navigated the disarray as though she'd been here many times before, arriving in front of a massive desk in the center of all the clutter, where dim light shed by a single, lonely gas lantern revealed its occupant.
Behind the desk sat a small boy with brown hair, maybe fourteen or fifteen years in age with pure, unblemished skin—almost like he was crafted out of porcelain. His eyes were closed, almost like he was sleeping, his posture slack like a puppet whose strings had been cut and forgotten.
And though there was no clock in the room—
*Tick, tock, tick, tock, jjae-kkak, jjae-kkak.*
Something mechanical was ticking.
As Aerel stopped before the desk and bowed, Casey couldn't help but take a step behind her boss. Some instinct in her heart told her that whatever was before her was impossibly dangerous.
Even if she was an officer, whatever the boy was…
"Headmaster Adam," Aerel said cautiously.
For a moment nothing happened.
Then…
*Whirrrrr-uung.*
The boy moved, his body tilting forward in a single, precise motion like a mechanism with an intended task. His arm lifted, planting his elbow onto the desk as he leaned forward.
Then his eyes opened, gleaming a bright unnatural gold, like he was alive, yet not. Casey huddled closer behind Aerel, swallowing.
A smile spread across the boy's face, soft and childlike.
"Miss Aerel," Headmaster Adam said, his voice light and innocent. "I do hope granny Seo isn't asking for another favour."