Chapter 25: The Eldritch Godness's Credit

We safely made it back to the ground floor of the student dormitory.

"You take Frieda to the infirmary. I’ll report to Lord Klaus and the others."

"Understood."

The maid—apparently quite strong—hurried off to the infirmary carrying Frieda princess-style. Meanwhile, I could barely lift anything heavier than a spoon, let alone a whole person.

"Now then… time to face Lord Klaus."

How exactly was I going to explain stumbling upon a cult hideout in the dorm basement?

Option 1:

"Frieda was kidnapped, and we found it while searching!"

"What?! And the culprit?!"

"Eaten by the monster he summoned! Teehee~!"

→ Bad. If Frieda was there, it’d look like I killed the guy. No murder accusations, please.

Option 2:

"I was taking a stroll in the dorm and heard suspicious noises!"

"Why was Iris, a non-dorm student, strolling there?!"

"Trespassing! Teehee~!"

→ Also bad. Unauthorized entry = crime.

Option 3:

"My sixth sense told me the cult was there!"

"You have that kind of power?!"

"I’m an Eldritch Godness! Teehee~!"

→ Getting ridiculous.

Option 4:

"I was chasing a cat and found it by accident!"

"A cat?!"

"Cats are cute, right?!"

"Cats are cute!"

→ Perfect. No one questions cat logic. Decision made!

I headed to the student council room, only to find Felix alone.

"Iris? You’re still here?"

"It’s getting dark. The capital’s unsafe lately. Go home."

"I need to report something to Lord Klaus."

"He’s with the Imperial Guards investigating cult activity. Tell me instead."

"Well… I saw a cat."

"…Is this urgent?"

"I chased it into the dorm and found a cult hideout in the basement!"

"WHY DIDN’T YOU LEAD WITH THAT?!"

After all my careful planning…

"You’re unharmed? They didn’t… do anything to you?"

"I’m fine. Please gather the staff—I’ll guide you."

"Good work, Iris."

Heh. Praise accepted.

Soon, faculty and Imperial Guards swarmed the basement. The discovery of a corpse meant chaos—which I deftly escaped to check on Frieda.

"FRIEDA!"

“Iris…”

Frieda sat on the bed, looking a little dazed.

“She just woke up,” the maid informed me gently.

“I see. Are you feeling alright now, Frieda?”

I asked as I walked over, keeping my voice soft. The maid’s words had been reassuring, but I wanted to hear it from Frieda herself.

“My memory’s a little fuzzy… I remember leaving the library, but after that…”

“One of our maids found you collapsed outside. I’m just glad nothing serious happened.”

“Is that what happened…? Thank you.”

Of course, I couldn’t exactly say that we’d stormed a cult hideout to rescue her, so I kept it vague. Lately… I feel like I’ve been lying a lot, haven’t I?

“If you still feel lightheaded, don’t push yourself. Just rest a bit longer, and once you’re steady, we can head home together, okay?”

“Yeah… I think I’ll lie down a little more.”

Frieda said this and gently lay back down on the bed.

“Iris…”

“Yes? What is it?”

“You are Iris, right…?”

“Of course I am.”

I gave her a dazzling, super-gorgeous smile to ease her worries. Whatever was inside me smiled just as innocently along with me.

After the national gendarmerie confirmed the area was secure, Klaus and Felix stepped into the hidden cult base beneath the student dormitory.

“So there was a space like this under the dorm…”

“It looks just as old as the one under the old school building.”

Klaus and Felix joined the gendarmerie investigators as they surveyed the underground chamber.

The bodies of the cultists had already been removed. Identification and autopsies were planned, but given the extent of the damage, there wasn’t much hope of identifying all of them.

“How many bodies?”

“So far, we’ve confirmed six that can be identified as human.”

Many of the cultists had been devoured by the monster summoned by the female librarian.

“It’s hard to believe that many cult members could have been hiding here all this time… and it’s even harder to imagine them freely coming and going through the dorm. Could there be another entrance somewhere? One that connects to somewhere outside the dorm?”

Felix voiced his suspicion as he observed the scene.

“Another access point… Let’s look for it.”

Klaus, using his family connections, got permission from the captain in charge of the operation to borrow two gendarmes and a military dog.

They began a thorough search of the underground chamber, convinced there had to be a passage leading outside the dormitory.

“Nothing so far…”

They were about ready to give up when it happened.

“What’s this?”

The military dog suddenly barked, and when Felix lit up the wall with flame, he noticed what looked like a mirror glinting through a gap in the stacked stone. The mirror was rimmed with a pale gold—not ordinary gold, but something with a strange, whitish hue—and the intricate gold frame was eerily shaped like human fingers.

“Let’s break down the wall.”

At the gendarme’s signal, they brought out a hammer and carefully began dismantling the wall. Eventually, the mirror came into full view.

But then they realized—it wasn’t a mirror at all.

It didn’t reflect their images. Instead, it showed a different kind of darkness entirely.

“Is this… some kind of magical artifact?”

“Most likely. It’s evidence. We’ll take it into custody.”

Klaus stared at the non-reflective mirror with an expression like he’d seen a ghost, while the gendarmes carefully extracted it without breaking it.

“If that thing connects to another cult base…”

“Then there could be more like it elsewhere in the academy.”

“Gives me the chills. You holding up okay, Felix?”

Klaus turned to Felix, his face pale.

“Of course I’m scared. But… it feels like the cult’s secrets are being exposed one after another. As if someone’s guiding us.”

“Right… I heard it was Miss Iris who found this place. Maybe she was being guided by that something, too…”

“Well…”

Felix looked a bit awkward at Klaus’s thoughtful remark.

“She said she found it… while chasing a cat.”

“A cat.”

Klaus blinked, dumbfounded.

“Haha! So a cat found what the national gendarmerie couldn’t? A cat freer than the nation’s dogs, huh!”

“You can’t just say that!”

As the nearby gendarmes shot Klaus sharp glares, Felix elbowed his friend hard in the ribs.