Chapter 38

"Let's go back to class."

The bell signaling the end of lunch break marked the conclusion of the meeting. Levi pushed open the door and left with Eve. Since he had no classes in the afternoon, their destination was the library downstairs.

Eve needed time to browse through the materials provided by Rin, and Levi needed time to rest and recover to his best state. Wandering around with a girl from another school could easily cause some gossip. Thus, the library, which was almost never visited except by Yuki, became the best choice.

The afternoon sun shone through the glass, casting light into the clean and tidy small room. The neatly arranged books, the electric kettle, and other daily necessities filled the small, long-forgotten library with a warm atmosphere.

The girl who gave the library this atmosphere, Yuki, had brewed coffee for the two before leaving. Levi was now sipping his coffee, enjoying this comfortable leisure time.

On the opposite side of the table, closer to the window, a blonde girl in the Mahora uniform was reading a thick stack of printed papers with great interest.

Déjà vu—scientists believe that when humans are tired or under stress, they are prone to a phenomenon where they feel a sense of familiarity with things or situations they have never experienced before.

The scientific explanation for this phenomenon is generally categorized as fictional fantasies or memory confusion caused by an overload of brain information, in short, an illusion produced under a state of fatigue.

The exhaustion from Levi's battle with Berserker was not just physical. The mental strain from continuous teleportation was also difficult to recover from in a short time.

But he believed what he was seeing now was not an illusion. Although he couldn't explain why, the images in his mind were so clear and real.

It wasn't the school library; it was a familiar yet unrecallable room.

European-style decor, with only a sofa, chairs, and a TV. The same warm sunlight shone through the large floor-to-ceiling windows, casting light on the soft carpet.

The TV program was unclear, but he could confirm that he was sitting on the sofa, drinking milk from a cup. A middle-aged man's voice behind him seemed to be complaining about something, but he couldn't turn around to find the source of the familiar voice. He could only see the girl sitting quietly on the low stool in front of him, flipping through a thick and difficult book.

Her petite and delicate figure, with fair skin and the most fitting golden hair, sat quietly, blending beautifully with the black, cute dress she wore.

Little Princess—this seemed to be Levi's name for the girl. The clearest word in his mind, and that beautiful back view, lingered between forgotten memories.

A sunny late summer afternoon passed quietly. The leisurely and nostalgic day, how long could it last...

=================

"Wow, this place is so creepy, there might really be ghosts. I shouldn't have boasted in front of Ichi."

In the pitch-black night, the young man muttered as he walked alone into the deserted mansion. His voice was low, as if he was afraid of attracting something.

Sakai Yuzo was an ordinary first-year high school student. After entering the high school of Nissho, apart from the small surprise of being classmates with his junior high school friends again, there was nothing special about him.

This ordinary high school student, like his classmates, had long passed the age of idolizing superheroes. He did not completely deny the possibility of the existence of supernatural phenomena such as ghosts and gods, but that was the extent of it.

Even if there was really magic in the world, what did it have to do with him? If he couldn't come into contact with it, it wouldn't affect his life. Instead of pursuing the elusive mysteries, it was better to focus on his studies, both for his parents and for himself.

But this didn't mean that Yuzo lacked the curiosity and desire to explore typical of a boy his age, otherwise he wouldn't have chosen to come to this long-abandoned mansion in the middle of the night.

This typical Japanese mansion was said to have belonged to a high-ranking official on the Academy Island. After the original owner left, it seemed to have been occupied by a mysterious outsider. The reason it was called mysterious was that the outsider was neither an employee of any school nor a family member of any student. The fact that he could stay on the island without being expelled was already a topic of interest among the neighbors.

Some speculated that the outsider was a researcher hired by the internal forces of the Academy City, conducting research prohibited by the official authorities in this secluded mansion.

This speculation was not baseless.

One reason was that ten years ago, the outsider suddenly disappeared without any warning. After the incident, someone investigated the airport shared by the Central District and Mahora Academy, but found no record of a man surnamed 'Emiya' leaving the island.

The only ways to travel between the Academy Island and the outside world were by plane or large cargo ships. Cargo ships, as the name suggests, were for the exchange of goods between the island and the outside world. Not only were they not available for general passengers, but they only sailed on a regular schedule, and the time of the outsider's disappearance coincided with no cargo ships docked at the port.

After analysis, the conclusion was that if the outsider had indeed left the Academy Island, the only method would have been to board an internal flight of the Academy City.

The second reason was what Yuzo was now witnessing firsthand.

Walking through the courtyard and approaching the main house, the young man saw several obvious holes in the wooden walls and floors by the dim moonlight. These were said to be bullet holes left by large anti-material sniper rifles.

Although as an ordinary high school student, he had only seen guns on TV and couldn't determine if the holes were really caused by them, at least they didn't look like they were caused by rot or other reasons.

At this thought, a chilling idea suddenly came to Yuzo.

Could the outsider have died in this mansion?

Scenes from movies where scientists conducting mysterious research are killed by secret organizations to steal their research results often came to mind. The thought of possibly being in a place where such a scene had played out made the young man want to turn and run back to his warm and comfortable home.

In the end, Sakai Yuzo still stepped into the increasingly eerie mansion. What made him abandon the idea of running home was the stubbornness typical of a boy his age. Even if no one saw, he didn't want to admit his fear.

"It's not that bad."

Pushing open the door, he entered what seemed to be a living room. Once inside, Yuzo felt his fear diminish. It was like a roller coaster in an amusement park; you're a bit scared while waiting in line, but once you're on it, you calm down.

Unlike the Japanese-style exterior, the interior was adorned with Chinese-style scrolls—since the Academy Island was not part of Japan, Chinese people were not considered foreigners, so Yuzo was somewhat familiar with Chinese culture.

Walking into the house, the young man found nothing particularly unusual. There were no signs of paranormal activity, and it certainly didn't look like a battlefield. But since he had come, he couldn't just leave. With nothing else to catch his attention, his gaze fell on the paintings.

After walking for a while and browsing through a dozen paintings, a peculiar phenomenon caught Yuzo's attention.

"These paintings are all..."