Chapter 20: Playing detective.
Akko was in the library again. This time because Diana had said she had something to do in the morning and they would be practicing spells during the afternoon. Now, Akko's brain didn't exactly work the best in the early morning, but being there so early definitely had some advantages. Mainly that her friends, Sucy and Lotte, were there as well.
"Found anything yet?" Akko asked.
"Not since you asked five minutes ago." Sucy glared at her.
"I wasn't asking you." She stuck out her tongue childishly.
"All these texts…" Lotte sighed, clearly exhausted already. "They're in lunar runes. And they talk about things that I don't know about! It's been days and I feel like we haven't made any progress at all."
"That's because you're trying to do what Diana said." Akko answered dismissively. "But that prophecy was obviously written in an ancient magical Asian language. You should seek an Asian witch and see if she can translate it." Her friends turned to look at each other in disbelief, and Akko mentally pat herself in the back for her brilliant idea. Of course only she would think of such an obvious solution!
"You don't know?" Sucy asked.
"Know what?"
"Well… there's no Asian witches." Lotte said sheepishly.
"What? That's ridiculous! I'm sure there must be at least one!"
"Seriously Akko, did you ever pay attention at school?"
"Hey! I paid lots of attention to the practical subjects, thank you very much." She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at her friend.
"You know the story of the Nine Olde Witches, don't you?" Lotte asked gently, and Akko hesitantly nodded in response. At least she had the gist of it. "Well… at first they were ten."
"What?" Okay… maybe she knew less than she'd thought.
"The tenth one was of Asian origin and founded the first magical academy of the far east." Lotte continued. "However, she was corrupted by magicless humans and had a falling out with the Nine Olde Witches shortly after the sealing of the Grand Triskelion. Legend says she stole something precious from the Nine and then disappeared."
"Legend also says that her daughters committed suicide and her school fell to ruin." Sucy interfered. "Which is why there's no Asian witches now a days."
"I feel like that's not the whole story…" Akko commented.
"Of course not. But it is what we know." Sucy shrugged.
"Besides, there are witches of Asian origin." Lotte said. "But they're all partially of another ethnicity, since the Nine Olde Witches all originated from other continents."
"Yeah, I mean… I'm from Philippines, you know?" Sucy interfered. "But my ancestors hundreds of years ago were from Europe. Probably Spain."
"Okay?" Akko scrunched her eyebrows in confusion. "But then why do you say there's no Asian witches when there obviously are?"
"What we really mean is… there's no witching tradition in Asia." Lotte explained.
"Which is why I had to come all the way here to learn magic." Sucy added. "Back home, magic teachings are passed down from generation to generation, but it's obviously not the same as going to an actual school. Plus, all our knowledge comes from a European tradition anyways, since the Asian school of magic was destroyed and the traditions were lost over time."
"I see…" Akko's brain was working at full capacity to try and understand. "So you're saying that the scroll Amanda stole is of an Asian origin, from back in the time of the Nine Olde Witches, but since Asian magic tradition was lost, there's no one alive who could read it?"
"Exactly." Lotte nodded.
"Well… what about dead people?"
"W-what?!" Her friend exclaimed.
"Diana said that powerful witches turn into trees when they die, and their spirit is contained within such tree." Akko explained. "At the initiation ceremony I should be meeting Beatrix Cavendish and… I wonder if she might just be able to translate it."
"If she knew half the languages Diana does, I bet she can." Sucy shrugged.
"But… wouldn't you need to be chosen over Diana in order to meet her?" Lotte pointed out.
"Pft, don't worry about it!" Akko exclaimed with a lot more confidence than she had any right to have. "I will absolutely kick Diana's butt, just you watch!"
"Ahem." Akko jumped out of her skin when she heard someone cough behind her, but when she turned around, she discovered that, thankfully, it wasn't Diana. Surprisingly enough, the one who had interrupted their conversation was a boy, probably around their age, dressed with an expensive-looking black suit. He was quite tall, with perfectly combed brown hair, bright green eyes, and extremely handsome features. His sole presence made Akko feel somewhat inadequate.
"I'm sorry to interrupt." He spoke with a deep and soft voice. "I was told I could find Diana here."
"You're looking for Diana?" Akko raised an eyebrow. Well, this was interesting. "Wait! Are you her secret boyfriend?!"
"Boyfriend?" The boy stared at Akko like she was crazy. "I'm her cousin, Andrew Hanbridge."
"Ohhh…" Yeah, now that he mentioned it, he did have a lot in common with Diana. Not really physically, but… perhaps it was that arrogant attitude of them. Or their rigid posture. Or maybe just their regal beauty. Whatever the case, it wasn't hard to believe they were relatives.
"You must be new here." He said. "I didn't know the Cavendish had hired more personnel."
"Wha- I'm not a maid!" Akko exclaimed. "I'm a witch, just like Diana! I'm the daughter of the one and only Shiny Chariot!"
"My apologies." Despite his words, he didn't seem to be very apologetic. "Are you her friend then?"
"Well… sort of?" Yeah, they weren't really friends at all, but she wasn't going to admit that to this handsome guy who just happened to be miss perfect's cousin.
"Right." He raised an eyebrow, skeptical. "Do you happen to know where she is?"
"Well, she… Why do you want to know?" Akko looked intently into Andrew. Could he be the blood witches' spy?
"I am merely concerned about her wellbeing." He explained. "I've been trying to communicate with her for a while, but my efforts have been fruitless so far. I was hoping to meet her here today, but… I'm afraid that informing her of my visit might have been a mistake." He sighed.
"Right." Akko narrowed her eyes. "Sounds like she's avoiding you. Why is that?"
"Well… we're not exactly close." He admitted. "That isn't really a secret, but… she's still my cousin and I'm worried about her."
Akko studied his face closely, looking for any sign of dishonesty or malice, but… so far he seemed honest enough. Granted, he still had that "Cavendish attitude", as Akko liked to call it, but she guessed that couldn't be helped.
"Diana went to town." Akko finally said. "She was going to meet with someone."
"I see." Andrew frowned. "That's strange. I thought she'd be focused on her initiation right now."
"If you wanna get to the bottom of this, why don't we go looking for her?" Akko wasn't exactly sure what compelled her to suggest it, but she did it anyways. Maybe she had been wanting to go spy on Diana for some time, but she would prefer if she was accompanied by someone.
"That is a peculiar suggestion." He raised an eyebrow.
"Hey, I might not be her friend, but I worry about Diana too." She explained. "And together we might be able to figure out what's going on and maybe help her if we need to."
"Akko… weren't you supposed to study?" Lotte shyly interfered.
"Not to mention, Diana will kill you if she finds out." Sucy added.
"It'll be fine." She dismissed their concerns with a wave of her hand and then turned to Andrew. "Anyways, you're in?"
"I guess I'm already here, so… why not?"
The two got into Andrew's limo and were taken to town by his driver. It was quite an awkward ride, however, since any attempt Akko made to start small talk was quickly shut down by him, and she wasn't about to start talking about Diana while the driver could hear them, so she just had to stare out the window and endure the silence.
Thankfully, the town was only a twenty-minute ride away from Diana's home, so they soon were out of the limo and into the streets with one goal in mind; searching for the Cavendish girl.
"You said she came to town?" Andrew asked.
"Yeah. She said she was seeing someone." Akko explained, only to be met by a raised eyebrow from Andrew. "Nothing romantic. Apparently it's another witch who is helping her figure out who killed her mother."
"I see. That does sound like Diana." He sighed.
"Where do you think they could be?"
"Knowing her… probably somewhere secluded and quiet." He adopted a thoughtful expression as he looked around town. "She really liked to hide at the second floor of the town's library. Let's start there."
"Alright!" She exclaimed enthusiastically and the two set off to search for Diana. Still… Akko really needed to ask. "But… Why did she hide?"
"Oh?" Andrew seemed surprised at her inquiry. "Well… I don't really know." He admitted. "Diana was never the type to have friends, so I just assumed she preferred to be alone rather than spend time with me and the other kids."
"I see." Akko felt like that didn't really answer her question, but she decided to drop it for now in place for another question. After all, it wasn't every day that she had the opportunity to talk to someone who actually knew Diana. "What about Hannah and Barbara? I thought they were Diana's friends since childhood."
"I don't really know." Andrew admitted. "Witches don't usually mix with normal people, so whenever I hanged out with Diana it was only us and some other children of noble birth."
"Ooh! Have you met the royal family?" Akko couldn't help asking.
"Of course." He answered like it was no big deal.
"Cool!"
"Diana has too." Andrew added. "They even asked her to show off her magic a bit, although she seemed somewhat uncomfortable."
"Why?" Akko frowned. "I'd take any chance to show off how cool my magic is!"
"Well… she's…" He sighed. "I don't know, maybe she just didn't like how they asked."
"What do you mean?" She tilted her head.
"Look, it doesn't matter. That won't help us find Diana right now." He said rather curtly.
"Right." Akko decided to agree for now. She didn't want to upset him, after all. "But then… can you tell me what you know about her mother's death?"
"I only know a witch killed her, and it's not the first time something like this has happened." He shrugged. "There's been a few incidents in the past, including one in which Diana herself almost died. It must be hard being a witch."
"Wait… hold on. What?!" She exclaimed. "Diana almost died?"
"I don't remember much." He quickly answered. "I was about two years old and she was still a baby, but sometimes people still talk about the incident." He paused, signaled Akko to follow him as he turned a corner to a side street and then continued talking. "Apparently some bad witches attacked the Cavendish household, although their target wasn't really Diana. However, when they didn't find what they were looking for, they tried to take her."
"How did she survive?" If blood witches were the ones who carried out that attack… well, Akko had read enough about the kind of things they did to babies.
"Another witch saved her." Andrew explained. "No one really knows her name, as Bernadette decided to keep her identity secret as protection. I only know she was the original target of the bad witches."
"That's… weird." Akko frowned. Had the blood witches used Diana as bait then? To lure out a witch that was apparently powerful enough to stop them? That didn't really seem to align with their modus operandi, according to Diana's books. Sure, maybe they'd been overconfident on their own abilities, but… still. Something was fishy. "Do you think the same witches killed her mother then? And her… uh… grandma and… sister?" That was what Diana had implied the other day, right?
"I have no idea." He admitted. "There's too much I don't know about the magic world to really give you an informed answer."
"Diana seems to think so, though."
"Diana is rarely wrong." He said it more like it was a defect than an actual compliment. "This, however, makes her arrogant in most cases. I am afraid such arrogance will put her in danger sooner rather than later."
"Yeah… I don't think her trying to solve her mother's murder on her own will lead to anything good." Akko agreed. "I'm not saying she should trust me in particular, but… even if she just had her goons helping her I'd feel better."
"We're here." Andrew stopped in front of a building that looked like it'd seen better days. It was three stores tall and made of greying stone that had probably been white once upon a time. The architecture also appeared to be rather old, perhaps gothic? Although Akko really didn't know anything about that stuff, but the gargoyles on the railings seem to point to that time period. Was this really a library?
"This building used to be the local University a long time ago." Andrew answered her unspoken question. "It became a library after Appleton was constructed."
"I see." Akko nodded. "Do you really think we'll find Diana here?"
"It's my best guess." He shrugged before getting inside, being closely followed by Akko.
The interior of the building really didn't seem like a library at all, except for the eerie silence and the unfriendly-looking lady behind a desktop that barely spared them a glance. It was more… like a big patio leading to a central staircase. It even had some plants in pots decorating it! All the books were probably in the many rooms distributed on the sides of every level. Yeah… this really seemed like it'd work better as a school than a library…
"The study room is upstairs." Andrew interrupted her thoughts. "Diana is probably there or in the History section."
"Let's go then!" Akko exclaimed rather loudly, only to receive an unamused glare from Andrew. "Oops! I mean… let's go." She amended with a whisper.
The two climbed up a large set of stairs and turned to walk towards one of the many doors of the hallway. Some of them were closed, Akko noticed, but the ones that remained open had signs on them denoting the topics of the books inside. On this side of the building there were two doors; history and politics, but Andrew stopped before they could get in any of them.
"You're a witch, correct?" He asked her.
"Uhm… yeah?" Honestly, she wished she could say it more confidently.
"Can you make us invisible? I don't think Diana would take it kindly to see us here."
"Well…" She trailed off. Truth to be told, she did remember the invisibility spell, but she'd never practiced it before. Still, she figured it was worth a try. "Sure thing! Just hold still." Getting out her wand, she closed her eyes and concentrated on her magic. "Toriara faciesse!" After a few tense seconds, she dared opening one of her eyes to see the result of her spell, but… well…
"Am I really invisible now?" Andrew asked, looking intently at his hand as he turned it around as if trying to see if it'd suddenly disappear.
"Not exactly…"
Akko wasn't sure what had happened but Andrew was effectively two inches tall now. She couldn't explain how, as she had very distinctively used an invisibility spell, and didn't even know it was impossible to change someone's size with magic, but… well, those were the wonders of her weird powers.
"H-how did you get so tall?" Andrew's eyes widened as he looked up at her, and then at his surroundings. "Wait… am I…?"
"Look… I don't know how to turn you invisible." She quickly excused herself. "This will have to do for now."
"We'll have to be very careful." He warned. "Diana does have a very sharp eye."
"Careful is my middle name." She shrugged it off as she waved her wand and turned herself into a mouse. Truth to be told, she'd been practicing the metamorphosis spell both on her own and with Diana's help, so at least she was confident she wouldn't butcher it up. And, sure enough, she was soon a yellow mouse, of a height equal to Andrew.
"Hop on." She told him, positioning herself in front of the boy. "I have four legs now, so it'll be faster this way."
"I… sure." He said hesitantly as he carefully placed a hand on her fur, as if trying to make sense of the bizarre situation. He tried to tell himself it was the same as riding a horse, but as he positioned himself on the mouse's back, it became obvious that it really wasn't even similar at all. For once, there was no saddle, and Akko's body was a lot rounder and with loser skin and softer fur. There really was no way of getting a good grip, but he tried his best.
"Hold on tightly!" She exclaimed as she ran off into the nearest room, only stopping briefly at the entrance to make sure they wouldn't be seen, before going to explore the vast maze of bookcases. She didn't realize these rooms were so big! It'd take them ages to explore them all in search of Diana.
"This was her favorite section, so I figured it was worth a shot." Andrew spoke, apparently coming to the same realization. "However, exploring the rest would be a waste of time. Let's finish here and then go further upstairs to the study room."
"Sure thing!" She agreed, hurrying up to finish her exploration of the area, making sure there was no trace of Diana around, before exiting the room and following Andrew's instructions.
The study room was the first door to the right of the stairs, and it had a sign that read "No shouting". Inside there were three large wooden tables with six chairs each, and two couches at the sides of the room. The floor was covered in a nice red rug that Akko hoped would help disguise the sound of her steps.
"Do you see her?" She asked, only to be quickly shushed by Andrew.
"There." He whispered, pointing to a far corner of the room that Akko hadn't took notice of. It simply had a small table and two cushioned chairs, upon which Diana was sitting together with a woman.
The woman in question seemed to be in her thirties at most, with long luscious brown hair that almost reached her hips being the most distinctive feature. Her face was pretty, but nothing that would really stand out, and her body was almost sickly thin, but at least her tanned skin gave her a slightly livelier look. They were talking in hushed whispers, so Akko decided they needed to get a bit closer in order to listen.
"Careful." Andrew warned as Akko ventured further into the room. "Make sure they don't see us."
"You don't have to tell me." She rolled her eyes as she quickly dashed from hiding place to hiding place, trying to stay as out of sight as possible. Finally, she made it to the couch nearest to the Cavendish heir and got under it, perking her ears in order to listen to the conversation.
"You don't understand. I really think Daryl is the one responsible." Diana was arguing, still obviously trying not to be too loud, but somewhat failing.
"But Daryl has cooperated with the Rouge Hunters for many years." The woman pointed out. She had a very soft voice, almost calculating. "Even despite your late mother's wishes."
"It could all be a façade to cover up her tracks." The girl kept arguing. "I'm sure she wanted to be the head of the Cavendish, and surely I'll be the one she comes after next."
"I see." She nodded thoughtfully. "We certainly seem to have ruled out most of the staff, and your friends wouldn't have any motivation to cooperate with blood witches."
"Exactly!" Diana said rather loudly, only to flinch at how her voice resonated in the empty room, and lowering her voice as she talked next. "It must be Daryl."
"I agree." The other witch then took out a small notebook and a pen, and quickly scribbled something in there. "Unfortunately, arresting a Cavendish is no easy task, so we'll need to convince my team as well."
"I'll convince them." Diana answered rather confidently.
"I was hoping you'd say that." The older witch smiled. "We'll meet at this location in exactly one week, at nine o'clock." She tore up the page from her notebook and handed it to Diana. "Meanwhile, try to get more evidence, if possible. You still have the notebook I gave you, correct?"
"Of course." She took out the object in question from her purse and showed it to her. It looked just like the other woman's notebook.
"Perfect." She smiled and got up from the table. "If that's all, I should probably-"
"Actually…" Diana interrupted. "There's something else I wanted to tell you about." When the witch raised an eyebrow, the girl quickly continued. "I think someone I know is a blood witch, but I'm not sure." She sighed. "And worst of all, my mom promised to let her participate in the Cavendish initiation, and now I have to honor that promise. What should I do?"
"Do you think she had anything to do with your mother's death?"
"Oh, not at all!" She answered, like the sole thought was ridiculous. "She didn't even have magic back then."
"Well then, you should probably focus on solving this before worrying about her." The Hunter responded. "Someone as skilled as you shouldn't have a problem taking out an untrained blood witch, if the occasion would arise. My advice is that you fulfill your mother's promise and then kill her afterwards."
"You think… I should take her out myself?" Diana scrunched up her eyebrows.
"Sure. You have potential to be a Rouge Hunter, and this would be good practice."
"I see." She answered hesitantly, but she quickly tried to cover it up. "Thank you for your advice."
"Take care, Diana." And with that, the other witch walked away and out of the room, leaving the Cavendish heir alone with her thoughts.
"We should probably go now." Andrew whispered, startling Akko, who squealed rather loudly upon remembering he was there.
"Y-yeah." She whispered back and ran from the couch towards the nearest table, hoping Diana wouldn't notice, but just when they were about to reach cover…
"Metamorphie faciesse!"
"Ahhh!" Akko shuddered at the rather unpleasant sensation of being forcefully transformed by someone else. Ugh. She really was hoping not to experience it again! From her place, sitting on the ground, she glared up at Diana.
"Akko." She glared right back at her. "Did you follow me here? I believe I left you studying at the library."
"Well… you didn't say which library." The other girl shot her an unamused look at her answer, and Akko couldn't help but letting out a nervous laugh.
"Why were you following me?" She narrowed her eyes.
"We weren't." Akko startled upon hearing Andrew's voice so close, and turned to see him climbing onto her shoulder, still pocket-size.
"Andrew?" Diana's eyes widened.
"Hey, cousin. I believe I informed you of my visit a while ago." It was clear Andrew wasn't exactly amused.
"I must have forgotten." Diana obviously lied. "But I don't see why you took my absence as an invitation to spy on me together with my…" She trailed off, looking at Akko as if trying to decide what to call their relationship. "My guest."
"I took it as an opportunity to go ahead and take Akko out on a date." He answered, surprising both girls. "We weren't spying you; we simply stumbled upon you by mere chance."
"So… your date involved using magic to become nearly undetectable?" Diana raised an eyebrow, skeptical.
"It was an accident!" Akko argued. "I was trying to show off my magic and this happened. Then we heard your voice and came to ask for your help, only to see you were busy."
"That… Surprisingly I can believe that." She admitted with a sigh. "What I can't believe is that you two were out on a date."
"You have a problem with that?" Andrew raised an eyebrow.
"Not at all." She tried to shake it off. "But I would appreciate it if you didn't distract Akko in the future."
"Right."
"Anyways, we should probably go now." She then lifted up Andrew with her fingers and pointed at him with her wand. "Hopefully I'll be able to reverse this."
"What do you mean 'hopefully'?"
"Metamorphie strida." And with just a wave of her wand, Andrew's height was restored. "There, you can go home now." She then turned to look at Akko with those cold eyes of her. The girl in question could only give her an awkward smile before Diana grabbed her wrist and pretty much forced her to stand up. Akko took notice that Diana's skin felt almost as cold as her glare. "We will return to the Cavendish mansion now. Have a good day."
"Really? You're just gonna leave me here?" Andrew asked, but surprisingly he sounded more amused than offended.
"I'm sure your driver is waiting for you outside." Diana simply answered and kept walking away.
"Bye, Andrew!" Akko exclaimed, waving at the boy. "It was nice to meet you." In response, Diana seemed to pick up the pace.
"Goodbye, Akko. I hope we'll meet again."
A/N: Sorry about the delay, everyone! I hurt my hand, so I couldn't write for a few days :p. Anyways, I hope you liked this chapter! And please do let me know what you think of it. It really helps a lot. And follow/favorite if you haven't yet, please. Thanks for reading.
Thanks to my beta reader moonwatcher13.