LR417 year—March—1st.
On the first day of the new month, Ronald left the boarding apartnt early in the morning and habitually glanced at the mailbox by the door.
Three rolled-up newspapers.
A Citizen’s Daily, a Queen’s Journal, and an Art Weekly.
Ronald’s sense of sll was so keen he could even detect a hint of the scent of ink.
But besides that, there was also a white envelope that had clearly been delivered to the apartnt that morning.
Upon seeing the envelope, Ronald raised an eyebrow.
To the average person, it would appear as just a piece of mail, but to him, the white sheet bore a mark impressed upon it with magic power. The person who left the mark was quite skilled—there was no trace of magic leakage at all.
A person from the mystical side with weaker observational abilities would miss this mark if they were not looking specifically for it.
Ronald, however, was able to notice this subtle detail.
It was because of his previous communication with the Grand Witch, who had specifically ntioned this matter.
"..."
"Ms. Theresa Russell...?"
Murmuring to himself, Ronald thoughtfully reached out to take the letter.
The events that had followed had unfolded just as he had guessed.
After the witch incident had concluded and he had returned to Springs with the investigator, the Grand Witch, who had originally left the city with Ronald, indeed did not return. The "Twelve Witches" then stated that the Grand Witch was unwell and needed to rest within her school.
And now this letter seed to confirm that.
Ronald opened the envelope with one hand and found, as expected, a letter inside. Along with it, there was also a brand new Gret-note issued in Springs, with the fitting denomination of one dollar.
He then looked at the contents of the letter:
"Dear Ronald,
I apologize for leaving without saying goodbye.
But at my age, when old ailnts flare up, it’s true that one’s body can’t keep up. The coin in the envelope is the rent for my ti at the apartnt; I hope you can pay it on my behalf.
I look forward to eting you again.
Your faithful friend,
Theresa Russell
P.S. —
There is still so unfinished tea on my table, brought from my hotown, which carries the local flavor. If you don’t mind, you might like to try it."
"The rent was overpaid to De Pu, though..."
"..."
After reading the words in the letter, Ronald’s eyebrows raised.
During his exchange with the Grand Witch, he had incidentally taught the elderly Caster about cryptographic thods, and they had even practically reviewed it together.
And then, according to the grammatical structure of this world’s language...
The last part of this ssage seed to contain elents of that encryption thod.
Holding the letter, he walked out onto the street.
Ronald subconsciously rubbed his temples.
He had always had an excellent mory and could probably recall the initial communication— he might even rember the encryption from that experint, the Vigenère cipher, and the few lines of the transposition table.
Trying to translate it tentatively, the ssage was—
"——Under your desk——secret compartnt, a——gift placed there. If you wish to pursue——the truth——please accept this——, ——believe——it will be of help to you."
"..."
"Fluid chanics really are convenient..."
Standing still for a mont, Ronald finally pocketed the letter and coin, then continued walking towards Wis University.
Although not all characters were successfully translated, the gist was quite clear.
The grand witch had left a gift in the hidden compartnt of the desk.
Of course, Ronald had no intention of going back to the research office desk right now.
Now, as an Original Text holder with "imnse combat power,"
he could guess without trying that the Investigation Bureau had specialists watching his every move. As for studying the desk’s contents, it would be better to wait until he returned in the evening.
——
The work at the [Book Research Society] remained unchanged.
Normal reading of books, normal assistance with research, casters arguing as usual, then clocking in and out as normal.
In such a research institution, Ronald’s life showed no change, as the battle that had taken place on the beach previously didn’t affect the society’s attitude towards him.
With that, a day’s worth of work quickly passed by.
When Ronald returned to his apartnt in the evening, the landlady was sitting in the courtyard with glasses on, engrossed in reading a book, with her notes and pen next to her.
Ronald glanced at it, seeing it was a book on music composition, a topic completely outside his realm of knowledge.
So, he approached and pulled out the coins he had received that morning from his pocket.
"Miss Cynthia, this is for Mrs. Theresa Russell’s rent."
"She left in a hurry, so she entrusted to pay the rent for that period."
Upon hearing Ronald’s voice, the young landlady imdiately put her book down and looked up, her face breaking into a sowhat constrained smile:
"Oh, is that so?"
"Mrs. Russell stayed for a little over a week but not quite two, and there were no problems with the room, so just considering it as one week’s rent will suffice."
Saying this, she took the coins. Cynthia patted her clothes’ side pocket, then imdiately stood up and walked towards her own room.
"Mr. Ronald, I seem to not have any change on , co with to get so from my room."
Hearing this invitation, Ronald gave a slight smile:
"I’ll wait here."
...
Gracefully accepting the change, Ronald bid Cynthia farewell and went up to the third floor.
After hanging his coat on the rack, he went straight to the balcony and drew the curtains.
Once he blocked out the sunlight and prying eyes, he started fiddling with the desk in the center of his room.
Considering the grand witch’s way of doing things, he was inclined to believe that the ’gift’ ntioned in the letter was in the compartnt of his own desk; otherwise, after the grand witch left the apartnt, there was a high chance the ’gift’ would have been taken away by the Investigation Bureau.
And as it turned out, Ronald’s guess was in line with what the grand witch had in mind.
Right below the top drawer of his desk, Ronald quickly found sothing extra.
—It was a sheet of paper tucked into the back of the bottom of the cabinet.
He carefully pulled out the sheet.
Ronald looked at the paper with a serious expression.
[A significant, actual, and standardized plan of a glowing, loud spell regulatory diagram...]
"....."
"Well..."
He couldn’t help but scratch his head with a wry smile at the white paper with black letters.
It was the sa encryption thod they had used before.
However, compared to the encrypted text in the letter that morning, which still held aning, the words on this sheet were clearly more unfamiliar, obviously a piece from when the grand witch had just started learning encryption.
In other words, so ti before she had left town.
The grand witch had already prepared this ’gift.’ It was now, following the narrative of paying the rent, that she revealed the existence of this gift to Ronald.
For the grand witch to inform him in such a manner...
The thing the grand witch wanted to tell him was likely of great importance.
User Comments
0 comments from readers