Book 2: Chapter 69: School Legends About The Bruce Street
Somewhere within the grounds of the Olsyvia Academyâs western branch, the Euphemia Academy, Bella and the others purposefully sped up their pace. As there was quite the number of spirits wandering the academy for some reason, Angel was able to use her specialty magic to communicate with them and help Bellaâs group by obtaining the locations of the three students that were following them.
As the branch full of students of royal birth, the security of the Euphemia Academy was quite strong. To ensure the safety of all the royalty, students from the other branches, apart from high ranking members of the various student councils and the disciplinary committee, would have to book an appointment several days in advance before their entry onto the Euphemia Academyâs grounds.
Later, due to the improvement in relationships between nobility and royalty, some higher ranking nobles were granted the right to enter the Euphemia branch without having to wait a week after booking an appointment. This right was currently only limited to nobles with the peerage of Duke and higher and when they entered the Euphemia branch, they were allowed to bring up to three companions or servants along with them inside.
Based on the information that Angel received from the nearby spirits, Scout was currently wearing a string ring that seemed to be possessed by the spirit of a powerful old man. It was that old manâs spirit who had cast some stealth magic on Scout, allowing noble with low peerage like him to enter the Euphemia Academy.
Adelaide was royalty himself, meaning that he didnât have to take as many precautions as Scout did while following Bella. As for what his âcheatâ was, Angelâs spirit friends were unable to detect it for now. Based on the information that she had received from Ariel, Bella strongly suspected that this Adelaide was a Saviour smuggled into this world by one of the male Creators. It was just too hard to pass off Adelaideâs growth as anything less than being a transmigrator, the MC cliche was simply too strong with this one.
As for Scout, Bella was already 80+% sure that he was one of those Saviours as well. The ring containing the spirit of an old man was a cliche cheat that had been quite widely used back in Earthâs novels.
Seeing Bellaâs group suddenly increasing their pace, all three of their stalkers thought that Bella had discovered something and that they had been exposed, but chose to continue their pursuit, speeding up to match Bellaâs pace. After walking for several circles, Bella and the girls entered an elegantly designed and decored buildings.
Of the three people following them, two of them froze on the spot. Only the student council president of the commonersâ Francis branch, Britney, decided to leave her cover and continue her pursuit of Bella, after a short moment of hesitation.
Scout and Adelaide looked a little helplessly at the building in front of them, this was a building similar to the female washrooms back on Earth and there were quite a few female students coming and going from the building, the two Saviours could only try to remain hidden outside the buildings as they waited for Bella and the others to leave.
When Bella and the others sped up their pace earlier, these two had thought that the girls had discovered that they were being tailed. Seeing now that they had simply been in a rush to use the washroom, the secretly let out a breath that they had been holding for a while now, it seemed that they had not yet been discovered and all that worry was for nought.
As soon as president Britney closed the door behind her, she was grapped by someone from behind, a hand swiftly coming to block her mouth before Britney could yell for help. Quickly, two black-haired beauties appeared beside her, most likely her assailantâs accomplices, came and subdued her and then pulled Britney into a small room before locking the roomâs door.
The assailant who had grabbed her from behind was also female, president Britney had identified her attackerâs gender the moment that she had fallen into the girlâs arms, due to this, Britney didnât escalate her resistance.
âPresident Britney, you can speak now, why were you following us?â
âEr, this is all just a misunderstanding, Duchess Bellina⊠I just needed to come in here as well.â
âYouâve followed us even after weâve walked in several circles, you call that a misunderstanding? Then let me word my question differently, why is the student council president of the Francis branch wandering around the Euphemia branch?â
âIâm here to find⊠find president Ese because I have something that I need to discuss with her. For real, I wasnât trying to follow you girls.â
âThatâs strange, after dismissal today I heard from Natasha that you had something you needed to talk with president Lucia about, so why are you over here looking for president Ese?â
âUhm⊠Natasha probably remembered it wrongâŠâ
âPresident Britney, I donât think a dishonest girl is suitable to be a student council president~! How about this, Iâll come to find president Ese with you, didnât you say that you were looking for her!?â
âThis⊠I wouldnât want to bother you, so myself is enoughâŠ:
âPresident Britney, just come clean. Natasha had already told me of the contents of your talk with Lucia, youâre following me because of that reason, am I right?â
âWhat? Didnât Natasha and Lucia already promise to keep my secret, so whyâŠâ
Looking at the panicked Britney, a smile of victory appeared on Bellaâs face. When they had first met, Bella had already guessed that Britney was a rather innocent and naive beauty. Now after just a few sentences, Britney spilled the beans as to the reason why she was following Bella.
Quite evidently, innocent girls werenât very well suited for this line of work. Britneyâs face exposed all of her thoughts and someone who was unable to hide their expressions was naturally unable to hide any secrets. Apparently, even though the student council presidents were generally all pretty well off financially, president Britney was the exception.
Of the five branch student councils within the Olsyvia Academy, the poorest would have to be that of the commonersâ Francis branch. Britneyâs family was actually that of an impoverished nobleâs, her father had once been the lord of a small fiefdom who had lost his land to other nobles during a territorial dispute.
After that event, Britneyâs family situation had been in a steady decline. In recent years, Britneyâs younger sister was diagnosed with a strange sickness and after expending all of her savings, Britney was unable to find a cure for her young sisterâs ailment. There wasnât much time left for her younger sister and Britney was able to see a glimmer of hope after hearing that Bella had auctioned off a bottle of âElixir of Lifeâ at the Filomina branchâs auction for the seat of honour.
Britneyâs sister had contracted a peculiar sickness and âElixir of Lifeâ just might be able to save her life. So, Britney had tried asking the Filomina branchâs student council president, Lucia, for help, hoping to be able to obtain a drop of the valuable elixir. However, due to the fact that the bottle had already been placed into the treasury by the higher echelons of the Olsyvia Academy, not even Lucia could easily get her hands on it and she could only give her apologies to Britney.
The reason as to why Britney was following Bella and the others was because she wanted to find some time alone with Bella to ask if she had any more âElixir of Lifeâ on her. If Bella had any left, Britney wouldnât let this chance slip away from her hands once more. After their conversation, Bella learned that the president of the Golden Legend, Carlos, had been constantly been offering the Francis branchâs student council financial aid in secret. However, he had always been turned down by Britney, who opposed the idea of letting Carlos back them.
Carlosâ Golden Legend had always used this method to infiltrate the ranks of other student associations and turn them into his puppets. With this method, Carlos had annexed many small and medium-sized student associations and incorporated them into the Golden Legend. Now that he was no longer satisfied with only controlling student associations, Carlos turned his eyes toward the student councils of the five branch academies. The easiest target was Britneyâs commoner council due to their financial problems, they were the easiest for Carlos to seep into.
After learning this, Bella naturally wasnât going to let Carlos have his way. Her association, the Rose Society, had already openly declared opposition to the Golden Legend. After dealing with the bunch of Golden Legend members who were making trouble for the Rose Society last time, the Golden Legendâs members had tried several more times to surround the Rose Societyâs main office and capture the associationâs last bastion.
Only after Lisha and Kriss joined the Rose Society did the Golden Legend cease their antics, at least temporarily. The abilities of these two princesses were quite widely known and their title of âHeroâ wasnât just for show, of the support that Carlos could obtain from outside, there werenât any that were able to defeat Lisha or Kriss. Carlos was too smart to send his lackeys into a fight that was impossible to win.
The Golden Legend was currently recruiting around the Olsyvia Academy in hopes of finding someone capable of bringing him victory, meaning that he hadnât given up on depriving the Rose Society of their last piece of territory, just that it would happen a little later than previously planned. So, Bella decided to help president Britney so that Carlos wouldnât be able to further expand his power.
âPresident Britney, Iâll help you cure your little sister. However, this isnât the place to have a proper talk. This transportation stone will take you straight to my dormitory if you have it out while using one of the academyâs teleportation formations. Come to find me sometime tomorrow night! We can discuss details then.â
âThank you, Duchess Bellina, do you have anything that requires help? Even though I donât have much money, but I still want to repay you for your help, I canât just receive free help from someone.â
âHmm, I havenât decided on what I want yet. We can discuss a reward when you come to find me tomorrow night, quite a detailed discussion at that!â
___
Outside of the female washrooms, Scout and Adelaide had already been waiting for over an hour, there was still no sign of Bella and the others. Even if Bella and the others were having some stomach problems, there was no need for them to stay in the washroom for so long!?
Realizing that something had most likely gone wrong, with the help of the mysterious old man in his ring, Scout shamelessly entered the female washrooms still with the stealth magic on him. He had chosen a time with the least amount of girls in the building and none of the girls inside noticed a thing. After entering the washroom, Scout immediately saw an open window on the top of the buildingâs opposing wall.
Bella and the others had escaped through the high window without a ladder with the help of Angelâs little âfriendsâ. Angel had gathered the nearby spirits and used a spell so that they would temporarily become ârealâ and formed an invisible stairway for Bella and the others. Bella knew that even though they had entered the female washroom, there was still a chance that Scout might be shameless enough to sneak his way in with the help of the old man in his ring.
âIâm surprised that you didnât request anything weird of president Britney, this isnât like you at all?â
âWhat are you talking about, Ivy, Iâm a good person. Just ask Kriss, do I seem like someone who would take advantage of others?â
Britney had already parted ways with Bella and the others. Even though Britney wasnât originally planned to be one of Bellaâs targets, but Bella wasnât going to let Britney go now that she had presented herself to Bella.
Bella also realized that if she didnât make Britney herâs, Carlos would definitely use his wealth to exploit Britney and that was something that Bella definitely didnât want to see.
Even though they had thrown off the pursuit of Adelaide and Scout, Bella didnât let down her guard as she didnât know what kind of cheats they had and there was always the possibility that they wouldnât give up and continue trying to tail her.
In order to spend some quiet time with Kriss, Bella chose the location for todayâs lunch at the Bruce Street which was located at the centre of the Euphemia Academy, a shopping district owned by the Brotherhood. In the Olsyvia Academy, any places that werenât faculty related or off limits were allowed to be claimed by student associations as long as they proved that they were capable of managing it.
Along the Bruce street, there we numerous pairs of handsome male students holding each otherâs hand, living up to the Bruce streetâs reputation of being a sacred place for philosophers. There was a sign at the entrance to the street explicitly stating that heterosexual couples werenât allowed and even though the gatekeeping Brotherhood members were a little confused when they saw Bellaâs group of girls, they still let the girls in. They had seen female and female couples before but this was the first time that they had seen an entire group of girls entering the Bruce street together. While the Bruce street was a sacred place for practitioners of philosophy, female students were still allowed in.
Bellaâs earlier worries were correct, not long after she and the others entered one of the Bruce streetâs restaurants, Scout and Adelaide had somehow managed to arrive at the Bruce streetâs entrance as well. However, they froze in front of the gates as they looked at the sign that said âSingle males not allowed, male students must bring an intimate male friend along for entryâ.
Scoutâs stealth magic was unable to be maintained here, the old man in the ring told Scout that it was because he had run out of magic. The actual reason that he didnât tell Scout was that as soon as they had entered this area, he was able to feel a strange gaze wandering the Bruce street as well as a mysterious power that stopped all stealth abilities from being used.
âBella, that store seems a little different, should we go and check it out?â
âAlright, letâs all go together. That store is a bit special, itâll be more interesting if all of us go.â
After lunch, Bella and the others who were about to leave, spotted a mysterious store in the Bruce street. The exteriors of this storeâs wall were painted in dark colours and there were countless different types of various strange items on display outside of the store. For example, those strange time-stopping rings that Charlotte had gifted Bella earlier, this store had an entire pile of them on the display stand.
Compared to the luxury and extravagance of the rest of Bruce Street, this storeâs dark design and airs seemed outlandish when compared to its surroundings, however, none of the other students wandering by seemed like they could see the store and there didnât seem to be anyone entering or exiting through the front.
The name of the store on the sign was a chain of strange characters that only Angel was barely able to make out âThirteenth Exchange Entranceâ. Right as Bella and the others were about to enter the store, a pair of handsome male students who had just happened by stopped them by getting in their way.
âDid you girls just see a shop with a black storefront? You canât go in there!â
âEr, why is that senpai?â
âYou girls are new students right, so itâs understandable that you havenât heard of it yet, but this store is forbidden grounds.â
The two then told Bella and the others about the rumours circulating the Olsyvia Academy about a mysterious black store that appeared on the Bruce street at random times. No one knew who much about the store except that it would appear at random times and at random locations, seldom appearing in the same place twice in a row, only appearing to a few people at a time.
As for what was inside this store, no one knew, the students who entered either mysteriously disappeared, never to be found, or returned in a severe state of distress, many of those who entered were clerics and exorcists from the Church of Light. There was no effect when one used magic to attack the store either as if all the attacks had hit nothing.
Due to the fact that nothing happened if one didnât enter the store, the Brotherhood and the higher-ups at the Euphemia branch locked down all information about the Bruce streetâs mysterious store. One of the main reasons that the street was able to become holy grounds for practitioners of philosophy was the existence of this store.
After parting ways with the two senpais who were apparently a âcoupleâ, Bella and girls turned to look at each other. They didnât know whether this âforbiddenâ shop was recorded on the âStrange Happenings of the Olsyvia Academy After Midnightâ, but the chance was definitely likely. Ivy and Marlie were the tensest of the group, they were still normal humans, after all, it was natural for them to be fearful of the supernatural.
Bella, Angel, and Kriss were just a little curious, the three of them technically werenât fully human and they didnât know if they would be attacked by whatever it was in there. There was nothing forbidden for a group that contained demon kings and gods.
âTL NOTESâ
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Interview went surprisingly well, Iâll start paying off Pateron chapters soon
âENDâ
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