Professor Layton and the Wandering Castle

The novel described by this article has no official English localization.

Part of the information of this article may be derived from the Japanese release through unofficial translations. The content of this page may change once the novel is released in English.
The title of this article has been unofficially translated and may not be accurate. It should not be taken as the canon title of this novel until confirmed by official sources.

Professor Layton and the Wandering Castle is a novel based on the Professor Layton series. It has currently only been released in Japan.

Plot[]

A flying castle has appeared above London. Some researchers have also been reported as missing. Are the two connected somehow? Professor Layton is called to solve this mystery.

Blurb[]

Many perplexing cases lie in store for Professor Layton, the English gentleman with the top hat, and his assistant Luke, in the long awaited novelization of the hit detective game series! Can you solve the mysteries?

Characters[]

Chapter 1[]

While walking to his favorite reading spot outside on a hill, Luke Triton browses the newspaper headlines about thieves attacking jewelry stores and an elephant going missing in London. He reads a book called "The Legend of Mystery," as Professor Layton has given it to him as something of a homework assignment.

He dozes off while reading a chapter about a castle in the sky where an immortal bard sings, looking for his dead lover. When he awakes, he finds that the sky is dark and cold, and there is a castle floating above him in the sky. As soon as it appeared, it disappears, leaving nothing but some black, patterned pebbles.

He hurries to the Professor's office to tell him what he saw. While the two are speaking, a letter from Dr. Schrader is slid under the door. In the letter, the Doctor requests the Professor come visit him; an antique book collector, Thomas McCluhan, sent a letter before going missing off the Molentary Express.

The head to Schrader's apartment, and Luke remarks on seeing the dinosaur model for the first time. The Doctor shows them the letter. In it, Thomas notes that he is traveling through the Warborough plain to his birthplace of Glenstowe, and he saw the legendary wandering castle. McCluhan has been searching for this castle for many years because it is said to contain a forbidden book--the Book of the Black Curse--which holds all the bard's incantations.

The Professor decides that they must follow McCluhan's steps to find him and the wandering castle, but they must keep this a secret from everyone else.

On the way back to London, Luke and Layton are almost robbed, but Layton fends him off. When they arrive to the Professor's office, they discover Jeremy, the Professor's acquaintance, attempting to break in. Jeremy is down on his luck and currently homeless after being robbed and pushed off the underground platform. He is also a well-known physicist. Jeremy is looking to head to his aunt in Glenstowe, so the three decide to travel together on the Molentary Express, but the Professor and Luke keep their motives a secret

Soon after boarding the train, Luke notices a strange man watching them, but he ignores him for now. As the train heads north, Luke notes that the landscape is changing and seems to be "a land ruled by the devil."

Jeremy overhears train engineers talking about a body found on the Warborough Plains, and Luke wonders if this could be McCluhan. Luke sees the castle again from the train window, but the train is moving too fast to be sure. Just then, the train breaks down, and the conductor lets them know that they may be stuck for a long time, and they can walk to the next stop instead. The trio gets off and walks to Danville.

In Danville, Luke muses on feeling anxious at the sight of Celtic crosses, and notes that the town gives him a strange feeling. They stay at an inn for the night, and in the morning they meet a man who drives them to the Warborough Plains. Luke sees the strange man from the train, but Jeremy and Layton tell him he's being paranoid. On the drive, he tells them that the area is cursed, and whole towns have disappeared before.

After examining the plains for a bit, the trio heads into the woods nearby to find where the castle was that they saw from the train. Jeremy and Luke have a headache, so they take a break. Luke finds a string and follows it on his own until it leads him to a lake. He feels as though the earth is spinning, there is a rumbling sound, and his throat is closing. Though he feels like he is about to die, Jeremy and Layton arrive and he is ok.

Layton examines the area and surmises that the castle they saw was nothing more than a projection on a sheet, but since Luke has rocks from his earlier sighting, that one is more viable. They head back to Danville.

When they arrive back to the town, they discover it is gone. All the buildings have disappeared, leaving nothing but cobblestones and their luggage on the ground where the inn had been.

They decide to wait for the Molentary Express to arrive in the morning, but then a car pulls up with the strange man Luke had been seeing. Only, it's not a man, but a young reporter in disguise. Lorraine Mills of the London Times has reported on the Professor on many occasions and was following him to get the scoop on his next mystery. She drives the group to Glenstowe.

On the way there, they talk about the town and how it was built after a volcanic eruption. They weren't able to build out due to surrounding lakes, so they built up. After some time, they built a road over the lower portion of the city, creating an underground area where poverty and crime now runs rampant.

As they near the town, they see a big castle on a hill and Jeremy notes that this is the home of the ruling family, the McCluhans.

External Links[]

Publisher website
A fan translation of the book in english here : Professor Layton and the Wandering Castle