Chapter 41
We set the escape day for ten days later—a night with no moon.
The most important task until then was researching the Shadow Contract. Karina and Rudis offered to help, but since I was in the Tower, I had the best chance of actually finding something.
If I couldn’t find a clue by the escape date, I decided I would tell Karina before nightfall that we’d failed.
“Even if we don’t succeed the first time, don’t worry. We’ll keep trying until we get you out,” Karina said.
“And if all else fails, we can just throw the Tower Master in prison instead,” Rudis added.
Hearing those righteous words from the protagonists warmed my heart. Holding onto the courage and hope they gave me, I returned to the Tower. But the moment I stepped into that gray building, my head began to throb again.
‘It’s definitely worse when I’m here.’
I had thought the headaches came from lack of sleep—after all, I’d been having nightmares. I even tried various potions, thinking it was stress or nerves, but nothing really helped.
‘Maybe I’m going crazy…’
It might sound extreme, but I had my reasons. I was hearing things. At first, I thought it was just the maids whispering. But the murmurs became clearer, and soon I could understand every word.
[“Selly, you’re back. I’m so happy.”]
[“Selly, I’m here. I’ve been waiting for you.”]
A child’s voice whispered, sometimes far away, sometimes right in my ear.
I remembered Eon asking if I heard strange things. But I didn’t want to tell him. I didn’t feel like anything good would come from confessing that to him.
‘Maybe the voice is just my fear of Selly messing with my head.’
Eon’s twisted obsession had probably left some deep imprint on my mind. The name “Selly” being repeated like this seemed to prove it.
[“Selly, I want to see you soon.”]
[“I have so much to tell you.”]
The voice chased me all the way to my lab. Of course, if it was a hallucination, shutting the door wouldn’t stop it. The whispers still clung to my ears.
‘From haunting lullabies to a child’s voice now…’
I wasn’t particularly brave or mentally strong. I was just a normal person, living like the main character in a horror novel for a month straight.
‘It wouldn’t be that weird if I had lost my mind.’
I turned to the bookshelf. The only way to fight the voices was to focus on something else.
‘Were there always this many books?’
The shelves stretched endlessly, like they would reach the end of the world.
‘With this many, there has to be something about the Shadow Contract…’
The problem was time. Skimming through thousands of books, checking each one about contract magic, would take days if I was lucky. Maybe a week or more.
And even if I did find something about the Shadow Contract, that wouldn’t be the end. Just knowing about it didn’t mean I could use it.
‘No use hesitating. I should just get started.’
I began with the books closest to the door. I was in a rush—climbing the ladder dozens of times, pulling books out, flipping through them, putting them back. I had no base knowledge, so I had to check even the ones with vague titles like “Elemental Power in Magic” and “Theorems of Grandeus.”
‘This might take even longer than I thought…’
With the curtains drawn and only magic stones lighting the room, it was impossible to tell the time. Researchers came and went, but they were too busy with their own work to notice me.
“Selinia?”
I’d been digging through books for a while when I heard my name. I slowly turned around. Letters were swimming in front of my eyes.
“How many times did I have to call you… What’s wrong? Are you feeling sick?”
‘Is she asking about my headache? Or the voices?’
As I tried to figure it out, my stomach growled loudly.
“When did you get here?”
“Wednesday afternoon?”
“You’re not saying you’ve been here since then, are you?”
I didn’t answer, so Selly let out an exasperated sigh.
“It’s Friday morning! You haven’t eaten anything for over a day!”
Ah. So this weak, wobbly feeling was hunger. Suddenly, my knees buckled, and my body lost all strength.
“Here, drink this.”
Selly handed me a potion—an energy recovery potion. As its warmth spread through me, I realized who had just shown me kindness: Selly.
‘What was the last thing we said to each other?’
I couldn’t remember clearly, but I knew it hadn’t ended on a good note. I think I’d been annoyed at her. Yet she came to me now like nothing had happened.
‘She really is unpredictable.’
Sometimes she said creepier things than the senior maids. Other times, she seemed completely kind. Still, one thing was certain—she wasn’t one of Eon’s spies. If she were, her behavior would’ve been way more consistent.
“Thanks. I feel a little better now.”
“Yeah, it’s normal to stay up all night researching magic, but what were you doing stuck to the bookshelf like that?”
She looked down at the pile of books around me and sighed. It wasn’t a hard question, but I hesitated to answer truthfully. If I said I was looking for a specific magic, she’d definitely try to figure out what it was.
‘Should I just ask her for help?’
I was afraid she might guess my real plans. Maybe I was being overly cautious.
Even if she answered me, how could I know she wasn’t lying? I had no way to confirm anything.
“If there’s a book you’re looking for, just ask me. I already made a list of all the books here a while ago.”
“Seriously?”
Hope sparked in me. Selly was passionate about magic, so it made sense.
“When I first came to the Tower, I was super curious about what books were here.”
She pulled out a notebook and laid it open on the desk where I could see.
“I haven’t updated it with the newest arrivals, but I know what those are. So, what kind of book are you looking for?”
“Something about contract magic.”
“Contract magic?”
Her voice rose a bit.
“In that case, the Tower Master would know best.”
Her tone made it sound like she was wondering why I hadn’t just asked Eon directly.
“I just want to check on my own. I came here for alchemy, and if I suddenly show interest in something else, he might scold me and say I should stick to my field.”
“I don’t think the Tower Master would care that much… He really likes you.”
“I want to look good in his eyes because he likes me. You get what I mean, right?”
I gave a shy smile. It wasn’t entirely fake—saying something like that made me feel genuinely awkward. But pretending to be a flustered girl in love was easier than denying everything between me and Eon.
“That’s sweet… but too bad. There aren’t any books about contract magic here.”
“In all these books, not a single one?”
“See for yourself.”
She showed me her notebook. But just like before, half the titles were too vague to guess the contents.
‘I guess I really do have to check with my own eyes…’
Just as I was preparing to start over, Selly offered a surprising idea.
“But maybe… the book you’re looking for is in a different place.”
“Where?”
“You can probably guess.”
Hungry and tired, I had no patience for riddles.
“Just tell me.”
Selly lowered her voice.
“The Forbidden Room on the 4th floor.”
That was the place Selly had been obsessed with since before.
“Isn’t it obvious? That’s where they’d store high-level magic books and secret documents.”
‘I always knew Selly was obsessed with that room…’
But now, I couldn’t just brush it off as obsession. After all, I didn’t know what was actually in that room either.
“If you want to know about the Shadow Contract, you have to check every possible place. And besides, I heard about it from the previous ‘Selly.’”
“The previous Selly?”
“There was a researcher who held the title before me. She was called Selly, too.”
