Chapter 62: She keeps stumbling and falling.

When Charlotte walked out of Mashiro’s office, Elsa, whose academic credits had already surged to 250, was waiting for her at the door.

“That’s strange. Why would Master Mashiro give the commission she finally secured to you, an outsider, instead of letting me handle it? Do you have some unspeakable secret with my Master?”

Elsa leaned against the wall, her arms crossed, complaining with a look of dissatisfaction.

“She offered it to me, and I didn’t even want it! Every time I do a commission, she finds all sorts of excuses to deduct huge amounts of my academic credits! She’s deducted so much that I almost didn’t make it to the next year! If I didn’t desperately need the academic credits right now, I wouldn’t want to take any commission she assigns me!”

Charlotte was utterly baffled. Both she and Elsa had received the Academy Head Noelle’s blessing a year ago. Why was she the only one constantly suffering from bad luck while Elsa never experienced any misfortune? Had Elsa somehow absorbed all her luck?

“Hmph? Let me see what kind of commission Master Mashiro gave you this time!”

Saying this, Elsa immediately snatched the scroll from Charlotte’s hand, opened it, and read it carefully.

“I see, it’s this kind of commission!”

“Hey, I haven’t even read the content yet!”

Charlotte quickly snatched the scroll back from Elsa.

“Well, this commission is quite suitable for you!”

“Hmm?” Charlotte opened the scroll and read the commission’s content. Her eyes widened. “What! It’s this kind of commission! That old woman actually gave me such a troublesome commission!”

Over the past few days, there had been frequent, unexplained incidents of freshmen being bullied in the first-year student dormitory. After an investigation, it was discovered that the magical power of these freshmen had been completely drained for some unknown reason.

Charlotte’s job was to find the unknown cause.

‘Good lord, she’s treating me like Detective Conan!’

“It’s too late to back out now, even if I wanted to.”

“How about we make a bet on who finds the real culprit first?” Seeing the troubled look on Charlotte’s face, Elsa smirked confidently.

“I don’t want to! I fought to get this commission, and I need the academic credits from it to turn my situation around!”

“I won’t steal your academic credits. However, if I find the real culprit first, you have to be my maid and serve me for one day. How about that?”

“And if I find them first?”

“I’ll be your maid and serve you for one day.”

“I don’t want you to be my maid. I already have a maid at home.”

“Then what do you want me to do?”

Charlotte was about to think carefully, but a shout suddenly interrupted them.

“Miss Elsa!”

Charlotte turned her head and saw Nicole, Elsa’s exclusive maid, running toward them.

Seeing this, Charlotte immediately had an idea.

“If she wins, you have to lend me your maid for one day!”

“Lend you my maid? What do you want to do with her?”

“That’s none of your business. Just tell me if you agree.”

“Of course, that’s no problem.”

“Then it’s happily decided!”

“I’m certainly not going to lose anyway.”

After the two settled their respective stakes, Nicole slowly ran up to Elsa. Seeing the insidious and cunning smiles on Elsa’s and Charlotte’s faces, Nicole looked utterly confused.

She had no idea that she was currently at risk of being gambled away by her own mistress.

****

After leaving the academy’s office building, Charlotte walked toward the girls’ dormitory where she was to begin her investigation.

Generally, the witches who studied magic at the Starsea Magic Academy lived in the student dormitories within the academy.

However, Charlotte did not live there.

A year ago, when Master Chloe sent her a letter, she also sent a bronze-colored key with it.

At the time, she didn’t know what door the key opened and stayed in the student dormitory with the other freshmen.

It wasn’t until a month later, after she had completed the commission Mashiro gave her and had 100 academic credits deducted, that she finally learned from Mashiro that every official witch owned a tower of her own.

A magic circle that protected the nearby ley lines was embedded inside the tower, making the surrounding area essentially the territory of the tower’s owner.

Mashiro’s tower was called the Sun-Glow Tower.

And Master Chloe also owned a tower: the Night-Glow Tower.

The key Master Chloe had sent her was, without a doubt, the key to the Night-Glow Tower’s main entrance.

Realizing this, Charlotte and Lillian went to the tower and successfully opened the door.

But to her surprise, the interior of the tower was covered in dust, and spider webs filled the corners.

It looked like no one had lived there for a very long time.

Charlotte realized that Master Chloe had sent her the key just to make her help clean the tower.

Although Charlotte was a bit reluctant, Lillian was incredibly capable. In just one night, she cleaned the entire Night-Glow Tower until it was spotless, leaving a comfortable place for her to live.

She could now live in the tower with a clear conscience.

From then on, she moved out of the student dormitory and lived directly in the Night-Glow Tower.

Although she felt a little cruel to the roommate who had only stayed with her for a month, she could only let her find a roommate who could truly accompany her for a lifetime.

“Speaking of which, it’s been several months since I’ve been here. I actually feel a bit nostalgic!”

Looking at the plain white dormitory building before her, Charlotte sighed with a nostalgic feeling.

“Alright, now that I’m here, where should I start the investigation?”

The moment the words left her mouth, a sound of books dropping came from nearby.

“Hmm?”

Charlotte turned her head in confusion and saw a pink-haired girl lying on the ground, with several magic books piled on top of her head.

“Hey! Are you alright?”

Charlotte quickly helped the girl up.

“Sorry, sorry, meow. I accidentally fell, meow. Thank you for worrying about me, meow.”

The girl quickly thanked Charlotte.

Charlotte felt that the pink-haired girl, who ended her sentences with “meow,” looked strangely familiar, as if she had known her for a long time.

The pink-haired girl picked up the scattered magic books and slowly walked away from Charlotte after thanking her.

Charlotte didn’t pay much attention to the brief incident. Just as she was thinking about where to start her investigation, the sound of books dropping came again.

Charlotte turned her head and saw the pink-haired girl she had just helped up lying on the ground again, having fallen for no reason, with the thick magic books piled heavily on her head again.

“Seriously, why did you fall again? Are you an unsupportable A Dou?¹”

This time, Charlotte directly helped the pink-haired girl onto a nearby bench, asking her to rest for a while, and placed the scattered magic books neatly at her feet.

“Sorry to worry you, meow! Yuffie is fine now, meow. You don’t need to worry anymore, meow!”

“You don’t look fine to me!”

It seemed the girl had tripped more than just these two times. A serious bruise had already formed on the pink-haired girl’s forehead, with even a slight trickle of blood.

Fortunately, Charlotte quickly cleaned all of it up with Holy Magic.

“Is Yuffie your name?”

“Yes, meow! My name is Yuffie Inola, meow. You can call me Yuffie, meow. By the way, what is your name, Senior?”

“You can just call me Charlotte.”

“Huh? Senior is the most powerful but also the most unlucky Calamity Witch, meow?”

“What kind of ridiculous nickname is that? I’m not a Calamity Witch!”

“Sorry, meow! Yuffie said the wrong thing, meow!”

“No, you shouldn’t be the one apologizing! By the way, Yuffie, do you also live in this dormitory?”

“Yes, meow!”

Hearing Yuffie’s answer, Charlotte had a reasonable guess. Perhaps this girl named Yuffie was also a victim of the incident where magical power was inexplicably stolen.

“Yuffie, do you often trip and fall for no reason?”

“No, meow. Yuffie’s body is very healthy, meow. But recently, Yuffie has been falling unconscious sometimes for some unknown reason, meow.”

“Let me check your body!”

“Eh?”

Charlotte reached out and began to feel Yuffie’s body without asking, which flustered Yuffie.

“Senior! What are you… don’t touch there, meow!”

“As I thought, Yuffie! Your magical power has been draining very quickly these past few days!”

“Let me ask you, have you encountered anything strange recently?”

“Anything strange? Nothing particularly strange, meow!”

“Are you sure? Think again, Yuffie!”

“Hmm… If I had to say anything strange, I’ve been frequently dreaming about the same person wearing white armor these past few days, meow.”

“A dream?”

The previous victims also didn’t know when their magical power was stolen. Perhaps they were being drained of magic while they were sleeping.

‘That means, if I find the person in the white armor tonight, I’ll be able to figure out why this person is stealing the other girls’ magical power.’

‘Maybe it’s not a dream at all, but reality!’

“Ah? That shouldn’t be possible, meow! This is a Magic Academy! How could someone in white armor be wandering around our dormitory hallways, meow? Senior must be imagining things, meow! Well, Yuffie won’t waste Senior’s time, meow. Goodbye, Senior! Bye-bye, meow! Bye-bye, meow!”

Saying this, Yuffie was about to hug the stack of magic books at her feet and continue on her way.

But before she could take two steps, she suddenly fell to the ground without warning again, and the scattered books once again landed heavily on her head.

“If you keep falling like this, it’s questionable whether you’ll even make it back to the dorm alive!”

¹ unsupportable A Dou: A Chinese historical reference to Liu Shan (Liu Adou), the son of Liu Bei in the Three Kingdoms period. He was known for being an incompetent emperor whom his officials tried hard to support, leading to the idiom “A Dou who cannot be helped up”