Time flew by, and soon several days had passed. The date gradually approached September, and the new semester at Saint Crown University, which officially started in late August, had already been underway for some time.
The sky was clear and the sun was shining brightly. The warm sunlight bathed the King's Campus, illuminating the towering spires and the mottled bricks and tiles. Weather-beaten stone carvings adorned the eaves and ridge tops, basking in the soft daylight.
As the oldest campus of the Royal Saint Crown University, most buildings in the King's Campus were nearly a hundred years old, classical and solemn, even possessing a somewhat ancient castle-like gloom. However, this atmosphere could not conceal the vibrant youthful energy of the nineteen and twenty-year-old students.
Between the corridors, students could be seen everywhere in twos and threes, carrying various amounts of books and chatting as they walked. On the lawn, one could occasionally spot a young man and woman sitting together, talking and laughing. The school's own tall clock tower chimed loudly, and students with classes rushed along the corridors.
This was a vibrant campus, cultivating the elite of the Kingdom. To enter here, both family background and talent were indispensable. They were the future pillars of Prit, and their families were proud that a member of their household could study at such a top-tier institution.
Inside the spacious library of the King's Campus, rows upon rows of bookshelves were neatly arranged. Sunlight streamed in through the large floor-to-ceiling windows. Many students moved between the shelves searching for books, while some sat quietly by the windows, flipping through books on their desks. Dorothy was one of them.
'If Grego knew that I had already entered this university, he would definitely be so excited that he couldn't sleep for days. Unfortunately, attending university at thirteen is still a bit outlandish, so it's better not to tell him.
Wearing a brown top and a plaid skirt, Dorothy sat by the window in the library, gazing at the campus outside and thinking. On the table in front of her, a large pile of thick books of various sizes was stacked. Upon closer inspection, they were all books about Saint Crown University itself.
"History of Royal Saint Crown University", "Directory of Famous Figures of Saint Crown University", "Origins of Saint Crown University", "Student Miscellany", "Crown University Student Weekly"...
These and others were the materials Dorothy was currently researching. She hoped to find traces of the ruins by relying on this information.
She had been in this university for several days now. Thanks to Beverly's help, thirteen-year-old Dorothy was now a university student, with her own student file and a complete student identity in this school, allowing her to wander around freely.
To ensure Dorothy had ample time to search for ruins and study the mysterious, Beverly had also given her special privileges. Her major and class were merely registered; she was not required to attend any mandatory classes. Of course, if she wished to attend a class, she could listen in on any one.
Thanks to the special status Beverly arranged for her, Dorothy had not attended a single class since her enrollment. She focused all her efforts on finding the hidden entrance to the ruins within the school, but with little success.
Initially, Dorothy had planned to use small Corpse Puppets to investigate the building structure and track members coming and going to find the hidden ruin entrance within the school, similar to how she found the Iggwente Secret Agency in the Cypress Fir Building.
However, the King's Campus was simply too large, countless times bigger than the Cypress Fir Building. Dorothy's small Corpse Puppets struggled to thoroughly investigate all areas. Moreover, the buildings here were ancient and complex, further increasing the difficulty of reconnaissance. There were also not numerous An Yin Bureau employees frequently entering and exiting the ruins, so Dorothy had no one to track.
Due to various reasons, after two days of fruitless carpet searches using small Corpse Puppets, Dorothy decisively abandoned this aimless method. Instead, she decided to try to find something by approaching from other directions.
What Dorothy was thinking now was to investigate the school's records, examine the school's history and strange occurrences, to see if she could find any clues from seemingly ordinary phenomena. After all, such a large ruin was underground, and this place had once served as a base for multiple societies. These factors combined made it impossible for there to be no influence on the current school.
Therefore, she recently shifted the focus of her investigation to researching materials in the library. She spent another day extensively reviewing documents about the King's Campus of the Royal Saint Crown University and finally found something.
Through the documents, Dorothy discovered that strange phenomena in the King's Campus were actually quite numerous and had been occurring continuously since the school's founding.
Eerie calls, bizarre paintings, students suddenly going mad or even disappearing... Such strange incidents happened every few years, like a tradition that continued to this day. Although these events were not recorded in the official school history, there were many accounts in magazines compiled by students themselves, some true and some false.
Initially, Dorothy was quite happy when she saw these strange tales, thinking that these rumors were because these students had encountered the entrance to the ruins and were affected by some extraordinary factors remaining inside. So, Dorothy personally went to the sites of these strange tales one by one to investigate, but she found not even a trace of abnormality.
After spending another day as a strange tale investigator with no results, Dorothy was somewhat disappointed. She suspected that these strange tales might all be fabricated by the students.
However, after Dorothy secretly checked the student records preserved in the archives, she found that students had indeed disappeared or dropped out due to madness. The symptoms of madness were very similar to Spirit Sight pollution, which proved that some kind of extraordinary factor might indeed be affecting the students.
In Dorothy's opinion, these extraordinary factors could come from two sources: one, leaking from the ruins, and two, there might be some hidden society among the students or teachers of this school...
'Royal Saint Crown University, where a large number of Prit's elites gather. The school's predecessor was originally a base for several extraordinary societies. In such an environment, the possibility of a hidden society breeding within the school is very high...'
'If there really is a hidden society in this school, then the occurrence of strange tales every few years makes sense. Accidents are unavoidable when doing extraordinary research, and since hidden societies have a lineage, such strange tales would occur continuously...'
Sitting by the table, Dorothy looked at the books piled on it and thought this. The possibility that some kind of extraordinary society existed within this school was the conclusion she reached after reviewing so many documents. And faced with this possibility, she had a way to verify it.
While thinking, Dorothy took out another "Lamp" gold coin, preparing to perform a divination.
If the divination was successful, she could determine whether there was a hidden society in this school as she suspected.
'Among the students and teachers of Royal Saint Crown University, King's Campus, there exists some kind of hidden society.'
Silently reciting the divination phrase in her mind, Dorothy tossed the coin, then prepared to cover it with her hand.
But unexpectedly, at the final moment of covering it, Dorothy's movement made a rare mistake. The entire coin accidentally slipped, slid onto the floor, rolled a couple of times, and got stuck in a floor crack, standing upright in front of Dorothy after losing its luster.
Dorothy understood that her divination had failed. She had divined against a target that had anti-divination measures configured. The divination resources she invested were insufficient to break through the opponent's anti-divination defense, and the system's prompt sound also came to her mind.
Dorothy's divination failed for the first time, but none of this mattered. She picked up the coin on the ground that had lost its luster, blew on it, and murmured.
"The divination failed... encountered anti-divination, huh? As expected, a hidden society in a school built on the ruins of the Xing Shu Xiu Shu Hui (Star Numerology Scripture Society), more or less, would have some 'Qi' (Awakening/Enlightenment) for anti-divination..."
Dorothy's purpose for the divination was to confirm the existence of a hidden society in the school. If the divination succeeded, she could naturally confirm it. And if the divination failed... well, the opponent had configured anti-divination, so there must definitely be a society.
This time, whether the divination succeeded or not, Dorothy could achieve her goal.
'So, now that I've confirmed the existence of a hidden society in this school, I'll find a way to locate them. Having been passed down in this school for so long, I refuse to believe they don't know about the ruins.'
Putting away the coin, Dorothy looked at the quiet library, thinking silently in her heart.