Academy’s PTSD Chaplain

8 – Part 8: Fingers (2)

In typical academy novels, it’s common for the protagonist to stay out late and then an incident occurs when returning to the dormitory.

And I am half oblivious to the contents of this novel.

All I could do was prevent it in advance before such an incident occurred during my duty.

Before being assigned to duty, I had already confirmed that Cloe had entered the dormitory. As long as nothing happened while the protagonist was absent, I could sit comfortably and relax a bit.

“Principal Priest.”

Sophia Subdeacon called me. Not wanting to do anything, I quietly closed my eyes.

“Principal Priest?”

“…”

“Don’t pretend to be asleep.”

She’s sharp. I slowly opened my eyes. Sophia Subdeacon looked at me with a perplexed expression.

“Why are you calling me?”

“Principal Priest, your name is based on the nomenclature of the Empire, right?”

“That’s correct.”

“Then, are you by any chance from the Empire?”

Sophia Subdeacon’s eyes sparkled. There was a great expectation that I might be from the same place as her.

“No, I’m not. My father is from the Empire.”

“Then, your baptismal name? What’s your baptismal name, Principal Priest?”

“My baptismal name is Benedict.”

“Ah.”

Sophia Subdeacon nodded, smiling. How long did we continue chatting like this?

“Ugh… I’ll be back from the restroom!”

“Will it take long?”

“Well… it’s 11 now, I’ll be back by 10 minutes!”

Sophia Bujje stood up, saying she was going to the restroom. Continuing to read theological books, I suddenly felt fatigue in my eyes and took off my glasses, stretching.

After sitting for a long time, my body felt stiff.

“Phew….”

“Hmm…. Zzz….”

Professor Esther, who had been diligently reading a thesis, was now asleep on her desk. I looked at the wall clock.

The current time was 11:30 PM. The spider on the ceiling had settled down, and outside the window, darkness had enveloped everything. Only the faint glow of occasional streetlights could be seen.

I stood up from the chair and did a quick stretch to loosen my body.

According to the academy duty rules, duty officers were required to patrol 30 minutes after the students’ curfew. If it were a weekday, the curfew would likely be at 10, but on Fridays leading into the weekend, the usual curfew was 11.

In other words, it was time for patrols.

After stretching my stiff body, I approached Professor Esther, who was still asleep, and said, “Professor Esther.”

“Ugh… who…”

“Professor Esther. It’s time for patrol.”

“Ughh….”

Professor Esther rubbed her sleepy eyes, stretched her arms, yawned, pushed her chair back, and stood up.

“Haah…. Still sleepy. I had duty at the academy where I worked before, but… recently, there were too many exhausting tasks.”

“The faculty office is warm, that might be why.”

“Well, the heating is good here. But what about Sophia Bujje?”

Professor Esther looked around for Sophia Bujje. Come to think of it, Sophia had only said she was going to the restroom…

“……”

“Professor Lucio?”

I quickly checked the wall clock. The current time was 11:33 PM. Sophia Bujje went to the restroom at exactly 11 PM.

“…Constipation, perhaps.”

“Pardon?”

“Nothing at all.”

Well, while on patrol, I could stop by the restroom and bring her along. With Professor Esther by my side, even if Sophia Bujje happened to be in the women’s restroom, there would be no issue.

“Well then, let’s go on patrol.”

“Hmm… I’m a little nervous.”

Professor Esther and I made our way to the academic affairs office. The dimly lit hallway welcomed us.

* * * * *

“So, where is Sophia Bujenii?”

“….”

Currently, we were in the first floor women’s restroom of the main building where the academic affairs office was located. While I stood outside the restroom waiting for Professor Esther, she went inside to look for Sophia Bujenii.

“Professor Lucio, it seems like Sophia Bujenii isn’t here.”

“Hmm…”

Strangely, Sophia Bujenii, who had left to go to the restroom, was nowhere to be found inside. I furrowed my brows for a moment.

Unless Sophia Bujenii was an idiot, there was no reason for her to abandon the restroom that was within arm’s reach and use the restroom on a different floor.

So, perhaps she took a detour on her way back from doing errands. It was plausible for Sophia Bujenii, who had a mischievous and curious nature.

Finally, Professor Esther gave up searching the women’s restroom and came out with a puzzled expression.

“No one’s in the restroom. No occupied stalls either.”

“Ah… If she’s not in the restroom, where could she have gone…”

“Well… What if we crossed paths? It’s possible that Sophia Bujenii went to the academic affairs office while we were here.”

“Certainly. That’s a possibility.”

As I pondered, stroking my chin, Professor Esther suggested a good hypothesis. I agreed to some extent with her opinion and turned back to the academic affairs office.

However, even when we opened the door to the office…

“She’s not here.”

“She’s not here either.”

Only the warm air from the heater escaped, but Sophia Bujenii was nowhere to be seen.

By this point, an uneasy feeling started to creep in. I shook my head vigorously, warding off the anxious thoughts that were creeping up.

“What should we do? Should one of us stay in the office? Maybe while patrolling, Sophia Bujenii might return to the office.”

As I pondered her words, I immediately made a decision.

“For now, let’s patrol together and then return to the office. It’ll be faster to find her if there’s at least one more person.”

“That sounds like a good idea.”

Thus, we set off from the academic affairs office once again, continuing to walk through the darkened halls of the main building.

The midnight academy hallways, devoid of light, created a chilly atmosphere as they merged with the cold night air of early spring. Beyond the chill, the corridor was eerily silent.

But even there, Sophia Bujenii was nowhere to be found.

“Where on earth did they go…?”

“I don’t know. Damn it…”

“Should we split up and look for them?”

“…No. It doesn’t seem like a good idea to scatter without thinking.”

The cold air that could be felt since stepping out of the administrative office. If it were simply due to the temperature difference, it would be fortunate, but there was an unsettling feeling that lingered.

Esther, as if understanding the meaning of my words, silently nodded her head. And then suddenly, she pressed herself against my side. With a force that was almost pulling me in, Professor Esther tightly grasped onto my left arm.

“Are you cold?”

“Oh, no. It’s just… a little scary. It’s strange… I’ve never felt scared while patrolling in the previous academy… Is it because this place is larger?”

“It could be.”

We walked. Our footsteps echoed through the cold corridor for a long time.

“Where on earth did they go…”

Sophia Busje was nowhere to be seen.

Even though we had been searching for a long time, when we reached the end of the main corridor, Sophia Busje still hadn’t appeared. It was as if she had suddenly disappeared.

Now that there was nowhere else to look, we reluctantly started to make our way back to the administrative office.

And so, when we began to approach the restroom that we had initially checked.

“Professor Luccio.”

Professor Esther bent down and picked something up.

I looked at Professor Esther’s hand. When she opened her hand, there was…

“A strand of hair?”

It was a blonde strand of hair, reaching down to her shoulders.

And, I had seen this before.

“Sophia Busje…”

Sophia Busje had definitely made it to the front of the restroom. However, her whereabouts after that were mysterious.

Without saying a word, we both turned to look at a certain place. There, between the restroom and the administrative office, in a dark blackness that covered everything, a red flashing emergency light hanging from the ceiling caught our eyes.

It was the pathway from the main building of the academy to the annex.

The boundary separating the main building and the annex. We stood in front of it, facing each other, wordlessly nodding our heads.

There was no need for words. We immediately headed towards the annex.

* * * * *

The annex of the Caldera Imperial Academy. It used to be a building used as the main building, but as a new main building was built, the remaining classrooms and facilities in the annex were used as club activity spaces or occupied by the offices of some departments that had existed for a long time.

And because it was an old building, the corridors of the academy annex had a much colder atmosphere than the main building that we had patrolled earlier.

“It’s much colder here. I’m glad I wore thick clothes…”

Professor Esther continued to walk, still holding onto my left arm tightly. Thanks to her, I wasn’t shivering in the cold.

“What will you do when you have to take another night duty?”

“W-well… it’s terrifying. Really.”

However, on the other hand, I could understand her feelings. The corridor of the annex was indeed chilly and quiet.

While walking slowly, something caught my eye.

It was a staircase leading to the second floor of the annex. And in the empty space below that staircase, something white began to faintly appear, like strands of hair.

I whispered to Professor Esther, “…Professor Esther, do you see that?”

“Huh?!”

“…?”

As I whispered quietly, Professor Esther suddenly hugged my arm tightly, startled.

No, apart from the soft sensation of something molding against my arm in real-time, my arm felt like it was about to break. Seriously.

Professor Esther seemed to realize this fact belatedly and released my arm with an apologetic expression.

“I-I’m sorry. I got startled…”

“It’s okay. But, look over there.”

Her gaze, following my finger, stopped below the stairs. Then, leaning towards me like a bamboo, she spoke.

“W-what is that? A ghost?”

“I’ll go check.”

“Can’t you just leave it alone…?”

“We need to find the Sophia codex.”

Professor Esther, lips trembling, took out a wand from her bosom and determinedly mumbled, “Be careful. If anything comes out, I’ll cast a spell right away…!”

“Oh, no need for that. What if it’s a student…?”

I walked cautiously down the stairs. As I got closer, the faint white strands of hair came into focus. At the same time, a sound tickled my ears.

“Huk… hic…”.

This is… a crying sound?

Someone seemed to be holding back tears with all their might. It didn’t seem like a ghost as Professor Esther imagined.

Approaching slowly, the white hair sensed my presence and the person shivered, turning their head towards me. I recognized the face.

“…Laura von Adelheid?”

Adelheid’s dignified heiress was Laura von Adelheid. Between strands of hair stuck to her forehead due to cold sweat, her restless pupils shook incessantly, directing themselves towards me.

“Ah…?”

As I cautiously called her name, Laura, with wide-open eyes like a startled rabbit, stared at me blankly, wearing an expression as if she had encountered someone completely unexpected.

And by her side, another familiar face popped up.

“S-Sister Superior…?”

“No, was Subsister Sophia there too?”

As I looked at them with a puzzled expression, Laura and Subsister Sophia simultaneously threw themselves into my arms, their faces momentarily frozen in surprise.

“Hu-eeng! Sister Superior!”

“Hic… Huk…!”

“What is this…?”

As I awkwardly embraced the two, feeling their priestly robes dampening in real-time from tears, I slowly stroked their heads.

“…Calm down. I’m not sure what happened, but it’s okay now.”

“T-Thank goodness… it wasn’t a ghost…”

While I earnestly comforted Subsister Sophia and Laura, Professor Esther approached from an unexpected direction, relieved.

“First, it’s better to go to the administration office.”

Still leading the clinging duo like gum stuck to my side, as I tried to head towards the administration office, Laura, who had her face buried in my chest, suddenly lifted her head, surprised.

“P-Professor, Professor Antonelli.”

“Yes?”

“There’s something strange here, something weird.”

“…Weird? What do you mean?”

Laura vigorously nodded her head and then pointed with her trembling finger to the other end of the corridor.

I followed her finger with my gaze, but there was nothing there. Only a dense, dark, and eerie shadow covered the entire corridor.

Gulp—

At that ominous sight, I unconsciously swallowed saliva.