CH 200

When she went back to the library she had to be careful.

Because the staff, whom she had met a while ago, could have recognized Rieta.

The two returned to the third floor, taking care to be as inconspicuous as possible from the staff’s stations.

They wandered through the quiet bookshelves to find if Darrell wast there, but he wasn’t.

Coming down from the third floor, Noel remembered what Rieta had said in the seminar room.

A tall professor in a shabby suit Ra… Who the hell is that?

“Do you remember anything more? About the professor.”

“He seems to have a very close relationship with Darrell.”

“Well……”

Noel thought of a few professors, but he couldn’t really narrow it down.

Darrell said he was close with anyone.

“Oh, right.”

Now that Rieta remembers one more thing, she grabs Noel’s arm.

“Umbrella!”

“Umbrella?”

“Yes, he says he forgets his umbrella every day. That’s why Darrell always brought him an umbrella…”

For a moment, Rieta stopped her steps.

This place happened to be the place where the librarian had found her umbrella a while ago.

[“…there seems to be more and more people like Professor Gilliam.”]

Then the librarian said so.

As he brought Rieta’s forgotten umbrella.

“Professor Gilliam!”

Rieta looked back at Noel with wide eyes.

***

Noel went to the library staff to verify Rieta’s words and said:

“I’m here to find Professor Gilliam’s umbrella.”

The employee then handed over five umbrellas to Noel with a visibly happy expression.

Finally, the professor’s new umbrella finder appeared, which was a good thing.

Umbrella finder.

Isn’t that the story she heard between Darrell and the professor?

Noel guided Rieta to the faculty building.

Among them, there was a building used by biology professors, passing through a small farm used for research, and entering the building, the peculiar smell of a rainy day reached the tip of her nose.

It smelled like something was rotting.

“You’ll get used to it soon.”

Looking back at Noel who said that, this smell seemed quite familiar.

The two searched for a wooden nameplate with the name “Gilliam” on it in the hallway.

However, it was not easy to even find a nameplate with the name of a person written on it, let alone the name Gilliam.

Usually, the name of the laboratory or warehouse was written.

Fortunately, they found a laboratory with his name on it in the corner on the first floor.

There was one problem.

“What? The professor is not here now.”

There was only one skinny man in a white robe in the lab.

The man introduced himself as a ‘researcher’. He says he’s helping Professor Gilliam.

“You look like an undergraduate, what did you come here for?”

He was interrupted during a quiet study, so the researcher must be annoyed.

The researcher was smiling, curling the corners of his eyes so much that his eyes could not be seen.

Soon, Rieta also greeted him.

“Hello, we are here to find someone. I was wondering if the professor had a guest.”

“A guest?”

As he seemed to be interested, Rieta quickly described Darrell’s appearance objectively.

“He’s a handsome man with a nice atmosphere.”

Then Noel tapped Rieta’s arm and gave her a glance.

“Why would you talk when you said your voice is too good to hear?!”

The researcher began to ponder based on that poor clue.

He continued to fiddle with his frizzy, gray hair.

Everytime he slurred “Ah, ah, um?” the two looked with expectations saying, “’Do you know?!’

“Perhaps…..Are you talking about Lord Mayer?”

When Rieta and Noel nodded their heads, the researcher immediately smiled broadly.

“Ah, for him, even such an explanation can only be called ‘objective’. He went out with the professor a while ago. There is something he wanted to check.”

Noel and Rietta asked what it was, but he just shrugged and smiled.

He can’t seem to tell.

Maybe they should take a look around the small farm in front of the building.

“Oh, right.”

Noel held out the pile of umbrellas he was holding to the researcher.

“This.”

“……?”

The researcher took turns looking at Noel and the umbrella.

“Why are you giving me this…?”

Noel replied with a shrug.

“It’s the umbrellas that the professor left at the library. I got it all.”

“Aahh. There’s that.”

The researcher then nodded his head, took it, and put it back in the corner appropriately.

“I will return it to the professor.”

He smiled and opened the door to the lab.

For some reason, it felt that it meant that he wanted the two of them to leave sooner.

Maybe it interfered with his research?

“Well then, good bye.”

Noel apologized and left the lab first.

But Rieta only turned her head to look at the researcher.

“……?”

He also looked down at Rieta.

With a face, wondering if she had anything left to do.

“You know.”

Rieta called to him in a low voice, but then closed her lip.

As if thinking for a while.