Youngest 134
by Cristae134
“Very well. Let’s go into my office! And about our special curriculum going forward…”
“Pardon? No, I just wanted to look at the books in the archive.”
“Sorry to break it to you just when destiny seems to be calling, but the archive is off-limits for a while. Luckily, I’ve made a few copies of some texts, so we can start with those…”
“……”
“Miss Rubian?”
Rubian’s lips moved as if to speak.
“Huh, this wasn’t what I meant to do…”
“What was that?”
“Ah, nothing!”
“But… what’s that you’ve got with you?”
Yuliophe’s gaze fell on the large basket beside Rubian.
With some effort, the girl dragged the basket over and set it down before Yuliophe.
“Oh, this is my lunch. I ordered it from the student cafeteria and brought it along!”
It was filled with shrimp sandwiches, sweet fruits, drinks, and more.
“So… would it be alright if I look at the transcripts while I eat?”
Rubian asked. Yuliophe rubbed at the dark circles beneath his eyes and nodded.
“Do as you like—just come in for now.”
“Yay! Thank you!”
As I stepped inside, I paused.
“……”
The professor’s office was utter chaos, completely disordered.
Objects lay everywhere, and even the curtains were tightly drawn, plunging the room into gloomy darkness.
‘He must have forgotten to open the curtains.’
How busy can one person be?
It would be no surprise if a person turned into a ghost in this environment!
“Professor! It’s scary in here—so dark! And it smells musty… May I open the curtains and windows?”
“Windows…? As if there’d be any in my office… Oh, there are?”
Yuliophe shuffled over to the window, slowly, and drew back the curtains and opened it.
As soft morning sunlight poured in, his furrowed brow creased even more.
“All right, let’s talk while we look over the transcripts. Over there by the shelf—”
“Professor!”
I pulled up a random chair and table and sat down.
“I’m hungry! Would you like to eat this with me?”
When I tugged the basket toward us, Yuliophe scratched his chin, looking troubled.
“I’m not particularly hungry. Why don’t you sit and eat by yourself. I’ll show you the books after you’re done.”
“…I don’t like eating alone. I’m the youngest at home, so I’m used to noisy, crowded meals with my family…”
“Ah…”
“Really, I’m sort of a spoiled brat at heart…”
“All right, all right. Don’t start to tear up on me. I’ll eat with you.”
Seeing my downcast expression, Yuliophe seemed to give in and sat across from me.
He picked up a big shrimp sandwich and took a small, reluctant bite. I watched him and ate my own sandwich.
“It’s delicious! Right?”
“…Yes, well. It’s all right.”
Even while picking at it, Yuliophe ate about half of his sandwich.
A short while later, I began panting for breath.
“For someone who said she was hungry, you didn’t eat much, did you?”
“At my limit, reached my threshold, full, urp…”
“Even if my office is a garbage heap, no throwing up.”
Ugh. The professor ate so slowly, I ended up overeating.
As I patted my swollen stomach, Yuliophe looked at me for a moment and let out a soft chuckle.
“Come to think of it… thanks to you, it’s been a while since I had lunch.”
“Why? Isn’t it important to eat three meals a day…?”
“I suppose so. Honestly, it really has been a long time since I ate like this.”
Looking a bit more at ease, Yuliophe cleared off the table.
“Now, then. I’ll show you the transcripts.”
“Okay!”
I swung my legs as I watched Yuliophe’s back.
On one side of his desk lay the old tome I’d seen earlier, treated with utmost care.
Hmm…
‘Now should be about right.’
As I lightly moved my fingers, a sudden gust blew in from the opened window.
The curtains billowed, and the documents in the room fluttered wildly in the air.
“My goodness.”
With a frown, Yuliophe hurried to the window to shut it.
“A sudden gust—this must be autumn weather…”
“Whew, that startled me.”
Silently, I lowered my hand, letting the magic within subside.
“Are you all right?”
“Yes, yes. I’m fin… Huh? Professor!”
I opened my eyes wide and stared straight ahead.
“The old tome on your desk…”
“Oh, no.”
“The wind must have been so strong, all the writing in the tome has blown away!”
I shouted dramatically, staring at the wide-open tome. Yuliophe’s expression changed at once.
“Did your salary blow away with it, Professor?”
“Miss Rubian, please… Don’t say such spine-chilling things.”
Yuliophe shuddered. Approaching the desk, he gingerly examined the tome.
With great care, he turned the pages, slipping a bookmark into the few that still remained legible.
“…Sigh. So you’ve seen it, now.”
His thin shoulders slumped.
“Professor?”
“Well, there’s no point hiding it anymore… The truth is, the books in our academy’s archive have started turning blank.”
Yuliophe confessed calmly.
I listened silently. He rummaged in the basket, stuck a straw in a strawberry soda, and set it before me.
“I’ve tried everything over the past few weeks to stop this… But it seems I’ve reached my limit.”
“Why is it happening?”
“I don’t know. No matter how I search for the cause, I can’t find one.”
A bitter smile flickered across his refined face.
“I can only say the mysterious blessing that protected the archive has vanished…”
He suddenly looked ten years older as he drank an energy tonic.
After a moment’s silence, he spoke once more with heaviness.
“I’m sorry, Miss Rubian.”
“Why are you apologizing to me?”
Yuliophe smiled faintly.
“I wanted to preserve these volumes and pass them on whole to my students. Just as my teacher did. As my teacher’s teachers did, too.”
“……”
“I’m sorry that I won’t be able to pass on this precious legacy to your generation…”
Ah, so that’s why.
At last, I understood why Yuliophe had insisted on bringing such precarious tomes to class.
He’d wanted to show us what remained of them while there was still something to show. Even if only a letter more. Even one more picture.
It pained him that we might grow up never seeing the Empire’s legacy, which had been protected for thousands of years.
With a lonely look, Yuliophe added,
“I don’t have the face to look dead colleagues in the eye now. They gave their lives for this record, and I couldn’t even protect it…”
His voice sank to its lowest pitch.
I gazed quietly at Yuliophe Molton.
He used to hide his true feelings behind talk of overwork, the importance of pay, and so on, but in truth, he loved this academy and the archive more than anyone.
‘So that’s why.’
The reason, in the original story, for Yuliophe’s death.
He could no longer bear the weight of life that had accumulated, and in the end, he chose to end it himself.
‘Not that this was necessarily the only reason…’
Perhaps there comes a point where the weight of sorrow, layered bit by bit, becomes unbearable.
And the more pure-hearted he was, the deeper his despair must have been.
“Profeeeessooor!”
Clang, clang, clang, clang.
I picked up my spoon and banged on the strawberry soda bottle.
“Are you all right? Are you sure you’ve eaten enough? Want another sandwich? Or shall we move to another spot? Need some more sun?”
“…Miss Rubian?”
I grinned as I watched the gloom settle over Yuliophe’s face.
“Life has no real meaning anyway! They say the happiest way to live is just not to think so much about meaning!”
“Pardon?”
“My grandfather said so!”
I said it with a wide smile.
‘His colleagues are gone, and the volumes they protected are lost—no wonder the guilt is unbearable.’
But, Professor Yuliophe!
There’s no such thing as an unsolvable problem!
‘First, we need to stop the blanking.’
The secret of my Crest might be hidden there. I, too, didn’t want any more precious records to vanish.
“All right… I’ll remember that.”
With a look of approval, Yuliophe patted my head. I was relieved his spirits didn’t seem too bad.
“And… can’t the blank volumes just be restored? You have tons of transcripts in your office, Professor!”
He nodded.
“Yes. We’re planning to hire restorationists from outside just for that. But… stopping the blanking comes first, or there’s no point in restoration.”
He let out a long, deep sigh.
With an effort to lighten the mood, Yuliophe smiled.
“In any case, even with things being how they are, the academy is still a fine place. Do consider enrolling next year, all right?”
“Then will you be the one teaching ancient languages, Professor Yuliophe?”
“Well…”
A slight look of discomfort crossed Yuliophe’s face.