“‘Adriana’... and the rest is too faded to decipher.”
Jin stepped closer to inspect the characters, but it was no use.
“I wonder if the Predecessor ever came here? Reiko, do you know anything about this?”
“No, Father. I don’t believe I was ever told anything of the sort.”
“I see. So even you don’t know, Reiko...”
Just then, a voice broke the silence.
“‘Adriana’?!” Goose murmured, his voice thick with excitement. “I’ve heard a legend that there was a woman by that name who stayed at the Magus’s side!”
“A connection between the Magus and Adriana? No, before that—Goose, could you tell me everything you know about her?”
Jin felt a sharp pang of regret. Ever since arriving in Mitsuho and Fusou Island, he had been so preoccupied with the Magus that he hadn't thought to ask a single question about the Predecessor.
“Well, like I said, it’s just a story that a woman with that name was with the Magus...”
Goose didn’t seem to have any further information of value, much to Jin’s disappointment.
“Father, shall we move further inside?” Reiko asked as Jin stood lost in thought.
“Ah, right. Let’s keep going.”
“This way, then. The air is clean, so please do not worry.”
There was a door set into the wall beside the inscription of Adriana’s name. Reiko opened it silently and led Jin through. The rest of the group followed solemnly, keeping their voices hushed.
“This is...”
The room beyond looked like a neatly organized living area.
“The first room was likely the entrance hall, making this the living room,” Reiko said softly. “The air here is very pure. There is almost no dust.”
Indeed, for a place that had supposedly stood for a thousand years, the lack of dust was remarkable.
“Furthermore, it appears there is something here that performs cleaning duties.”
“What?”
Reiko pointed toward a corner of the room. There stood a doll roughly Reiko’s size, clutching a broom and a duster.
“It is hardly what one would call a proper automata... but it seems to clean the room on a regular schedule.”
“Hmm.”
Since the machine had lasted a millennium, the materials used in its construction must have been chosen with extreme care.
“Safe from the degradation of ultraviolet rays, no doubt,” Jin muttered to himself. After all, the original Reiko had eventually broken down after surviving a similar thousand-year span.
“There is more further back.”
Reiko led Jin deeper into the facility. She opened a door at the far end of the living room, revealing a corridor.
“This is the end of the hall.”
Knowing there was no danger, Reiko guided Jin straight to the final room. She opened the door, and Jin stepped inside without hesitation.
“Oh...”
It appeared to be a study. A desk made of metal and wood sat in the center of the room, with what looked like a vase resting upon it. Any flowers once placed there had long since withered into nothingness.
“I found names written in the books on these shelves,” Reiko noted.
“And was it, as expected...?”
“...Yes. Mother’s name was inside.”
“I see...”
That Adriana had lived here seemed to be an undeniable fact. However, Jin couldn’t shake a subtle sense of incongruity.
“Hey, Reiko.” To clarify his doubts, Jin decided to consult her.
“Yes, Father?”
“Do you... really feel like the Predecessor was here?”
There was no room for hesitation between the two of them. Jin posed the question directly.
“...Yes. I cannot say for certain, but... I feel that something is different.”
“So you felt it too.”
“Do you understand why, Father?”
“No, I don’t know either. But I can say this much: there isn’t a single trace of the Predecessor’s usual style here.”
Reiko’s expression cleared as the source of her discomfort was finally named.
“You’re right. Mother’s scent... her presence... it isn't here!”
“Exactly.”
Jin gently opened a drawer in the central desk. Inside lay a single book.
“A book, huh? That brings back memories.”
The day Jin was first summoned to this Ars world was the day he became the Successor to the Magi Craft Meister.
“When I opened the book filled with the Predecessor’s knowledge...”
That information had flooded into Jin's mind, becoming his own. However, the book before him now was nothing of the sort.
“An academic text, maybe?”
It appeared to be a handwritten manuscript.
“It details the technology of that era,” Jin said, flipping through the pages. It was made of durable parchment, likely from the hide of a magical beast; its quality explained how it had survived for a millennium.
“...Hm?”
The name “Shuuki” appeared frequently throughout the text. It stated that the techniques recorded within were completed with the cooperation of this “Shuuki.”
“Was it Adriana who wrote this?”
There was no mention of the author’s name. Jin set the book back on the desk, worried that handling the ancient volume too roughly might cause it to crumble.
“Reiko, are there any other rooms that might hold a clue?”
“Yes. Through here.”
She led him to an adjacent room connected by a side door.
“Is this... a guest room?”
Jin’s intuition was likely correct. While there were belongings scattered about, the room lacked the warmth of a space that was actually lived in.
“There’s a book here too. A thin one.”
It was more of a notebook than a formal book, also bound in parchment. Jin picked it up gently and opened the cover.
“...What?!”
Jin’s sudden shout broke the silence of the room. Elsa and the others, who had been waiting quietly, came rushing in.
“Jin-nii, what’s wrong?!”
“Jin, what on earth did you find?” Saki asked.
“Onii-chan, what happened?” Hanna cried.
“Jin, tell us what it is,” Goose urged.
Jin took a breath and nodded slowly at his companions.
“Yeah. It’s not a secret. I was just... a little surprised.”
He looked down at the writing on the endpaper and read the words aloud, his voice steady.
“‘A request to whoever finds this record. This is the final resting place of my most beloved Adriana. I ask that you leave her in peace. Written this day in the year 2231 of the Continental Calendar, by Tsutsui Shuuki.’”