The Troubles of Miss Nicola the Exorcist: Volume 2 (eBook)

Ito Iino (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2023
250 Seiten
J-Novel Heart (Verlag)
978-1-7183-7538-3 (ISBN)

Infos

Overcome with survivor's guilt, Nicola von Weber plans to visit the grave of a vanquished foe. In this journey, the usual suspects who constantly consult her on matters of the occult-Sieghart, Alois, and Ernst-accompany her, along with two new faces. The young adventurers' weekend trip away from the royal capital to the March of Ludendorff and Luneburg turns into one filled with pleasant and horrific surprises. How will Nicola resolve a ghoulish conspiracy involving the disappearances of a number of children from a lakeside town? And what will become of her budding romance with Sieghart as her father's imminent elevation to the rank of marquess has made her a candidate for marriage to the prince? Although Nicola knows she will never marry Alois, she is unsure about doing so with Sieghart...

Textauszug

Chapter 1: The Heart of the Heliotrope

1

Sieghart had received a particular gemstone from his mother while visiting his parents’ house the previous weekend. With a rigid rattling sound, she had set the gift on a desk before his eyes.

He gently picked up the item, wrapped in cloth that felt luxurious to the touch, and unwrapped it. Upon doing so, he found a stone somewhat larger than his thumbnail. Sieghart grasped it through the cloth and held it up to a window to catch the natural light, finding that it appeared to be a piece of quartz colored a deep purple. Even with its rough cut, it was perfectly translucent with not even the slightest impurity. The stone was most likely of good quality.

After carefully rewrapping the stone, Sieghart gave his mother a quizzical look and asked, “This is an amethyst, is it not?”

His mother nodded liberally, responding, “Yes. A gemstone seller who is a family friend told me, ‘Don’t you think this would suit your esteemed son?’ As we are well acquainted, I bought it, but you may do with it as you wish.”

Though Sieghart was reluctant to reject his mother’s gift, he believed he had enough finery to adorn himself with. He had never acquired the habit of donning various glamorous items on a daily basis.

After leaving his mother’s study, Sieghart returned to his room and wondered what to do. On his way, he crossed paths with his younger sister, who was coming the other way. He called out to her so that the two of them might talk.

Women overwhelmingly had more opportunities to dress up than men did. Sieghart reasoned that the more accessories his sister had, the better.

Having stopped in the middle of the corridor, Sieghart’s sister whirled around to face him, the hem of her dress swishing behind her.

“What is it, older brother?”

“Well, our mother just gave me a rough gemstone, an amethyst. Do you want it?” Sieghart opened the parcel to reveal the stone.

His sister stood bewildered at the stone, blinking her blue-gray eyes she had inherited from her mother, before looking up at Sieghart.

“An amethyst? Are you sure? Wouldn’t it match your eyes better?”

“I wasn’t planning on having any new accessories made. It would be a waste for me to hold on to this with no way to use it,” answered Sieghart.

She knitted her brow disbelief, appearing even more puzzled.

“Why not give it to your friend Nicola?” she murmured innocently, prompting Sieghart to stare at her in shock.

As Sieghart conjured up the image of his childhood friend in his mind, he chuckled slightly to himself.

“Given the color, Nicola would probably feel too embarrassed to wear it. At this stage, anyway...” Despite seeing his face in the mirror every day, Sieghart knew his silver hair and purple eyes made him a bit distinctive. If one were to pick two words to describe him, it would be those two colors.

Nicola would surely receive any gift incorporating one of those two colors with her trademark jagged grimace, then shove it straight to the back of her desk drawer. Sieghart placed one hand on his chin and snickered, imagining this scene playing out in vivid detail. Although Nicola was stubborn about her feelings, she was his true love.

Sieghart’s sister sighed in exasperation as her brother mused to himself, then shrugged her shoulders.

“Looks like you two never change. You really have a long and bumpy road ahead of you. But I will happily accept this amethyst if you wish.”

“That’d be a great help. It would be best for this stone to end up in the hands of someone who’ll actually wear it.”

Sieghart was confident he had handed the stone over to his sister. However, the stone lay on the desk in his room the next day. He thought his sister must have reconsidered and returned it, but she could not recall doing so.

The first time might have been a fluke. Sieghart thought of such a possibility and reassured himself that this time would be the charm. So, he entrusted his sister with the stone before climbing into the carriage that would take him back to school.

When Sieghart returned to his school dormitory, he found the stone already sitting atop his writing desk as if it were waiting for him. The second occurrence was definitely a bit creepy and cold sweat began to run down his back.

While he could not wait to dispose of the stone, he recognized that anyone he tried to thrust it upon might hesitate to accept it due to its shady history. In the end, Sieghart wrapped the stone tightly in several layers of cloth and shoved it deep into a locked drawer. He finally had the stone under wraps, or so he thought.

On the very next day, as Sieghart walked through the halls of the school, a sudden feeling of discomfort originating in the pocket of his uniform jacket prompted him to stop in his tracks. He carefully reached into his pocket and felt inside until his fingers struck a hard object.

Sieghart’s sudden gasp reverberated awkwardly through the hall. His heart pounded so loudly he could feel his pulse ringing in his ears.

He gingerly pulled the object out of his pocket, and what settled in the palm of his hand was the amethyst he had safely stowed away the previous day. This was the third time. A certain sense of resignation in his chest accompanied this realization.

“Ah... Here we go again.” Sieghart closed his eyes and slowly shook his head. He sighed, ashamed of being so useless and needing to depend on his childhood friend. He glanced down at the purple gem in his hand once more.

2

“Ugh...” This is the worst, thought Nicola von Weber while gazing at the sky. The window in her room, which was on the second floor, had a broken lock. Since she had nothing of monetary value, she was not concerned about getting robbed. What worried her was not being able to lock her window because the draft coming through the remaining gap would be unbearable.

The weather outside her window was fine, but Nicola could see many leaves had begun changing color on the branches swaying in the breeze. Under the sunlight, the reds and yellows of the leaves were vibrant. On the other hand, this meant that each morning and night would soon be that much chillier. Her poor circulation gave her a natural disposition to feel the cold, which left Nicola with a terrible melancholy.

“Something tells me those guys will soon bring some sort of trouble to my door.” It was almost always the case that whenever something unlucky happened to Nicola, this foreshadowed a visit from one of those guys, bringing another onerous problem for her to solve. Nicola’s premonition, unfortunately, turned out to be more or less correct.

Will it be him this time or both of them? Nicola slumped her shoulders at the thought of the troublesome matter they would thrust upon her in the not-too-distant future. She then fidgeted as she donned her navy blue uniform.

Nicola knew that the longer she left a truly malevolent case alone, the worse it would get. Pretending the problem was nonexistent would be the same as digging her own grave. She told herself it was best to deal with it sooner rather than later.

Having made her mind up, she slapped both hands against her cheeks with substantial force. She reluctantly decided to go straight to the student council room after class before exiting her dormitory.

◇

At the end of the school day, Nicola walked through the stone-paved hallways, her pace matching her melancholy. Despite her intense reluctance, she reached the student council room. She had no recollection of ever joining the student council, so she should never have had any reason to visit the place. Yet the people she sought had chosen it as their meeting place, forcing her to head there.

The Royal Academy of Daustria, which Nicola had enrolled in, was a co-educational boarding school attended by royals, nobles, and the sons and daughters of powerful merchants. It was the fusion of a finishing school where unmarried young women had a cultural education and a boarding school that required all of its students to live on its premises. Nicola had commenced her studies at the school only a few months ago.

One could only enroll at the Royal Academy when they turned sixteen. Nicola was fifteen, soon to turn sixteen. But it would be a mistake to reckon the age of this viscount’s daughter in this way. From birth, she had greater awareness than her current age suggested, equipped with the knowledge and experience she had accumulated as a different person.

As uncanny and outright bizarre as it might sound, Nicola had found herself reincarnated in this world with the memories of her previous life intact. She could not help but feel that it was slightly misleading to introduce herself as an innocent fifteen-year-old girl.

The person Nicola was in her previous life was born in a small island country called Japan, when she had a different name, Rikka Kurokawa. Although she was in a particular line of work, she went about it with some pride, regarding herself as a respectable, fully grown woman.

In her past life, Nicola’s job title was that of an “exorcist” who dealt with apparitions, ghosts, urban legends, and other things. This included all phenomena deemed abnormal, unbelievable, obeying unknown principles, or unexplainable with mere logic. It was a...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 2.11.2023
• Reihe/Serie: The Troubles of Miss Nicola the Exorcist
• Reihe/Serie: The Troubles of Miss Nicola the Exorcist
• Illustrationen: Kinokohime
• Übersetzer: Joshua Douglass-Molloy
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Fantasy
• Schlagworte: aristocratic intrigue • awkward couple romcom • childhood friend • Reincarnation • school academy setting • snarky female protagonist • supernatural and the occult
• ISBN-10: 1-7183-7538-7 / 1718375387
• ISBN-13: 978-1-7183-7538-3 / 9781718375383