Chapter 2-19 : Appraising Daemon’s Map

After reading the rules, Mylia’s drowsiness was completely gone.

She put the comforter to the side slowly so as to not make any noise, put the pillow on the bed backrest and leaned against it.

She then brought the small magic light closer to the map.

（Everyone is still sleeping, right…?）

She put her hands behind her ears, trying to listen to the surrounding noises, but she could only hear the faint sound of her roommates’ breaths.

（Nice. Everyone is sleeping. But just in case… Magical power conversion… focus my magical power in my eyes… Heat sensing magic, Thermography, activate…!）

After she activated heat sensing magic, she could see three red human-shaped shadows lying on the other beds in the room.

Now that she was sure that all her roommates were sleeping, Mylia felt relieved.

For some reason, Mylia’s gaze turned to the Knight Department student she saw when she first entered the room this afternoon. She tried to greet that girl, but she failed because she was nervous. That girl was tall and had a large chest.

（That girl… I will definitely greet her tomorrow…!）

The other girls were slender and average in height.

There was one who seemed to be as short as Mylia.

（Ah, she looks the same height as me… She’s sleeping curled up like a cat. So cute~…）

While observing her roommates, Mylia, who wanted cute friends, was hoping that she could get along with them.

（Since they are sleeping, I think it’s okay to read this map a little longer… I need to be careful though. I don’t want them to find out and ask me questions about this map…）

Mylia swore to herself to read the map only in the places where no one could see her.

She was aware of her carelessness, so she thought that she would likely inadvertently talk about the Daemon’s Map when someone asked her.

If someone else knew that the Daemon’s Map’s content was a crossword puzzle, she would never be able to enter the school anymore. There was also the possibility that she would die.

（Even if I could do something with magic and manage to avoid being killed, I would still be kicked out of school, right…? Ughh… I definitely don’t wanna go back to the Atwood Family… That place was hell…）

Mylia’s stomach hurt a little remembering the muscle-brained lord and the demon queen’s faces.

To make her stomach feel better, Mylia took out a mochiyaki (roasted rice cake) from her magic bag and ate it.

（Mmm~ This is so good~ Now I understand why these sweets are popular in the royal capital… I want to eat more, but… Master told me not to eat too much snacks at night…）

Mylia felt better after eating the mochiyaki.

（And now… toothbrushing magic, activate… Hmmm… Now my teeth are clean enough but it feels weird if I don’t actually brush my teeth… Anyway… Nice, nice. There’s no sign of them waking up.）

Mylia turned her gaze toward her roommates once again just to make sure they were sleeping, and then she deactivated her Thermography magic.

She then expanded the Daemon’s Map to make it easier to see and observed it again.

（Since there are some weird rules, I think this map has some kind of magical gimmick… Alright, appraisal magic, activate… Geh!）

After activating appraisal magic, Mylia saw the Daemon’s Map turning bright red.

Several complex magic circles that look like capillaries appeared on the map.

Mylia’s appraisal magic was less accurate than Titania’s, but it was enough to help Mylia understand the anomaly of the Daemon’s Map.

（Uwahh… This is… If I ignore the rules, I will definitely be kicked out of this school and won’t be able to enter anymore… It was like a curse… I was thinking of telling Onee-chan about this map by writing on a paper or making gestures, but… now I’m too scared to try it… Ahh, I feel like I want to destroy this map with my explosion magic right now…）

Now Mylia realized how dangerous the map was.

Because the accuracy of Mylia’s appraisal magic was low, she could only see the magic circles that appeared on the surface. It was impossible to analyze the map further without Titania’s help.

（I thought I would be able to clear the puzzle easily with appraisal magic… Guess I have no choice but to do it straightforwardly… That Rabbit-chan School Director said that only Magic Department students with the best grades can have this map, so that means there are three other owners besides me, right? The best Magic Department student in the second, third and fourth grades…）

There were four students including Mylia who currently had Daemon’s Maps.

It seemed that if they couldn’t solve the map, they had to return it before graduating.

There were no students who had solved the mystery of the Daemon’s Map so far, and the one who solved it for the first time would get a star badge.

（I believe the other owners are in different dormitories… That means, I can’t ask for their help…）

Because each dormitory was competing for star badges, students from different dormitories were all rivals.

（Well, I will just do it myself straightforwardly then.）

Mylia decided to stop thinking about solving the map the easy way.

She deactivated her appraisal magic and began to focus on the map.

There were so many questions and squares on the map. Mylia got cold feet thinking that she had to clear that ridiculous crossword puzzle.

（Umm… Anyway, I should count how many questions there are.）

After counting carefully, she found out that there were a total of 500 questions.

（There are so many, but… Let’s do this!）

Mylia encouraged herself to do as best as she could and started reading the questions.

First, she read the vertical squares’ question one.

（Let’s see… Vertical, question number one…）

[1] 100 bronze coins equals 1 silver coin. 10 silver coins equals 1 gold coin. 10 bronze coins equals one ▢▢▢▢▢▢ coin.

（Ten bronze coins… Six characters… Hmm… It’s the frist question and I have no idea…）

Apparently, it was the same as the crossword puzzles that existed on Earth. You had to fill the blank squares with characters.

By the way, Mylia recognized the characters in this world as Japanese. The characters looked weird in her eyes but her brain automatically registered them as Japanese. Perhaps Mylia had this ability because she had memories of her previous life as Kanami Miria and her life after reincarnating as Mylia de la Atwood at the same time.

（Umm… Is there even a unit of money that equals ten bronze coins…? Speaking of coins, most merchants hate to be paid with a silver coin when the price of the items purchased is only a few bronze coins… Well, preparing change is troublesome after all…）

Mylia was stuck on the first question. The answer didn’t come up even after thinking for a while.

She then decided to ignore the first question for now and looked for another question.

If she kept answering the questions, the squares would be filled up with characters little by little, and those characters could be used as hints to answer unanswered questions.

（Vertical, question number 2… Let’s see…）

[2] The population of the Pompom Pien Tribe that rules the northern land continued to decline due to the great cold wave. It was ▢▢▢ grasses that saved the tribe from extincion.

（Pompom what…? I’ve never even heard of that tribe… Next question!）

[3] ▢▢▢▢▢▢ with the wind.

（That’s it? I want to answer “Gone”, but there are no movie theaters in this world, right? Besides, the number of characters doesn’t match the number of squares… Hmm… I wonder if it’s a proverb or something… Whatever. Next question!）

*/ Gone With The Wind (1939) is an American historical romance film adapted from a novel by Margaret Mitchell.

Mylia kept reading the questions in order without being able to answer them.

After a while, she finally found a question she could answer.

（Vertical… Question number…. Fifty five… Ughh… Le, Let’s see…）

[55] Elve’s ▢▢▢ are surprisingly big and long.

（Phu! What is this? Ears? No, that’s not it… Hmm… Aa! This must be akubi! (アクビ = yawn). Three characters. Perfect!）

Mylia quickly took out a pen from her magic bag and filled the blank squares with the answer.

While writing the answer, Mylia recalled that Titania always yawns big every time she wakes up.

（Fufufu! I think this question can only be answered by me!）

Before she even noticed, Mylia was absorbed in solving the crossword puzzle and ended up staying up late.