Saikyou Mahoushi no Inton Keikaku (LN) - Volume 3 - Chapter 10

Tenth Chapter 

A Strange Attack 

With the extracurricular lesson behind them, the season was already starting to change. 

That said—there wasn’t much that changed in the Institute. There was nothing to compare to the heat waves of the Inner World summers. 

Babel’s interior, inside the barrier, was filled with human ingenuity, and weather manipulation and temperature adjustment were well within the realm of possibility. The temperatures only varied by five to ten degrees during the year, allowing for comfortable living, and all the weather patterns in the false skies were just artificial images. 

Even the clear skies were just vividly colored. 

Then again, it wasn’t overly unnatural. Those who lived before the disaster had almost forgotten what the real skies looked like, and had gotten used to their artificial environment. And those who only knew of the inside, saw the fake as real. 

Ironically enough, this technology provided humanity with the means to sustain itself semi-permanently—if not for the external threats. 

At the same time, it meant that interest in the Outer World was extremely weak. If the threat of Fiends was eliminated, this small world might be enough to satisfy the people forever.

Summer vacation had just begun for the Second Magical Institute that Alus attended. 

Though it was vacation time, the students looking to become Magicmasters were exceedingly ambitious when it came to improving themselves. And the students were everywhere, still wearing their uniforms and studying on their own as if the meaning of vacation was lost on them. They were passionately asking teachers questions, or taking part in mock battles at the training grounds, pretty much the same way they always did. 

Of course, there were also many students who visited home during this time. Speaking of passion, the noisy red-headed girl who was always dropping by Alus’ laboratory, Tesfia Fable, was also visiting her parents at home. 

Perhaps that’s why Alus felt a sense of freedom like he’d felt when he stepped down from the frontlines, even if it would only last one week. 

Incidentally, there was yet another girl as passionate as Tesfia. Though as this one wasn’t as noisy, she was much easier to deal with. But in the end, Alice was equally a handful. 

While Alus had found these two to be a pain, lately he’d started warming up to teaching them techniques and knowledge. 

* * * 

Today the laboratory was filled with silence, perfect for training. It was a mixture of Tesfia’s absence and consideration being shown for Alus, who was still in bed. 

He had come back from a preliminary look for an assigned mission, and finally gotten some sound sleep. 

In the quiet laboratory, Alice’s training began with the usual: pinning down her mana. The stick she used for training repelled mana, making it perfect for practicing mana control. By now, she’d gotten used to the weird-looking stick, and she poured her entire focus into improving her technique. 

Unfortunately, like Tesfia, Alice also struggled with this practice. 

It wasn’t like she wasn’t improving at all; but she couldn’t feel herself getting better at the same pace as she had at first. So, she felt she was progressing slowly. 

Unable to watch anymore, Loki curiously asked, “Ms. Alice, can I borrow that for a moment? ... To be honest, the military tends to not put much emphasis on mana control. And of course, they don’t have anything like that stick for training.” 

Alice was surprised. “Really? I thought all Magicmasters in the military could do it easily.” 

“That’s true... While there’s a bit of difference in skill, it is something they are all capable of. If not, they wouldn’t be able to survive in the Outer World. That’s why there are many Magicmasters practicing it on an individual basis. That’s the level of skill the two of you are trying to achieve.” 

It seemed even active Magicmasters couldn’t do without mana control. Having reaffirmed that, Alice scratched her cheek and handed the training stick over to Loki. Apparently this wasn’t something one picked up in a day’s work. She was ashamed she’d thought so highly of herself, believing she would be able to do it quickly. 

“I can indeed feel some repulsion just from holding it,” Loki said. “Having something like this would help in becoming aware of mana, and giving direction to it.” 

The reason was because a minuscule amount of mana leaked from the hand. Moreover, once someone could give direction to mana they could intentionally stop that mana from leaking out. Since merely holding the stick would exert a force, mana unconsciously converged. 

“Yes, I can kind of tell how my mana flows. But it’s only a feeling.” 

“I don’t think there’s any problem with that. The two of you started your mana control practice by pinching each other. That’s because—method aside—a sense of pain or an emotional condition plays a big part in mana control.” 

Next, Loki focused her mind on the stick and released her mana. The mana slowly stretched from her hand to the tip of the stick, with a destination in mind. “This certainly is...” Loki furrowed her brow. 

Slowly but surely, Loki’s mana made its way to the tip of the stick, unlike Alice’s mana. At the same time, the mana undulated, going between being pinned down and repulsing, gradually covering the stick. 

“That’s Loki dear for you!” Alice let out a small cheer of admiration. 

With a soft sigh, Loki quietly undid the mana. As her focus disappeared, the mana still on the stick’s surface dispersed. “I’m sure Sir Alus would be able to enchant it much more efficiently...” 

“Ah, yes... he showed us once before.” 

Loki had boasted proudly about Alus as if she were talking about herself, while Alice nodded along. In Loki’s mind, Alus was the best, and the target of her admiration and respect. 

“A-Anyways, I get it now. Ms. Alice...” 

“Yes!” 

Loki proceeded to give Alice some instruction. This time, Alice didn’t treat her as ‘Loki dear,’ but instead listened to her advice in earnest as her teacher. Then again, she could feel a smile coming on as Loki was being so cordial. 

“There’s a proper balance to pinning down mana. Why not get a grasp for that first? But this is just my idea. My suggestion isn’t as appropriate as Sir Alus’ would be.” 

“You still make sure to give Al respect, huh... but yes, in the end, my mana always runs out of strength and gets repelled. Even when I’m giving it my everything.” 

“That’s not bad either, but the point of this training is to control mana. In other words, to learn how to efficiently handle your mana. So you have nothing to lose from grasping the directionality needed to pin down the mana.” 

As Alice received the stick back from Loki with a smile, she immediately tried a different approach. “You’re right! But I have to use practically all of my strength to hold it down.” 

“That’s because you’re still inexperienced,” Loki said, with a small smile. 

Alice happily responded with, “That’s true.” 

A somewhat frank mood filled the laboratory. Even in that atmosphere, Loki didn’t forget to watch the time. It was almost time to wake Alus up. 

She wasn’t looking forward to it because she was uncomfortable being with Alice. If anything, she felt it would be even more enjoyable if Alus were here too. 

However, there was no need for that— 

“That was a terrible way to wake up.” Alus peeked out from the now-open door, brushing his hair aside. His mood could easily be discerned from the bags under his eyes. 

It took Loki a moment to realize what Alus meant by terrible. 

“Sheesh, what kind of idiots are these?” Alus tiredly leaned over at the window and stared outside. 

Behind him, Loki accurately reported the results of her detection magic. “There are five intruders.” 

“Huh? Intruders?!” Alice reacted to the word. She was confused and didn’t understand what they meant right away, repeating the word to herself. 

So these must be humans...? 

Currently, Fiends were humanity’s common enemy. And in that situation, there was nothing as pointless as fighting amongst themselves. 

The military always manipulated information to keep the existence of atrocious criminals hidden. By directing all hatred towards the Fiends, humanity’s solidarity was strengthened. Everything the military did was for that cause. 

Moreover, from a practical standpoint, there were major issues with deploying competent Magicmasters inside the nations as well. 

In that moment, several explosions rang out. The building rumbled. 

“Did they think the Institute would be short of hands because it was vacation time? Talk about a stupid bunch.” 

While it may have been a while ago, the principal was once a Single Digit Magicmaster who alone could easily wipe out a mere five assailants. There were also several other formerly high-ranking Magicmasters on the school faculty. 

However, the intruders’ goal was unclear. Were they after someone? Looking to destroy the facility? Or was it something else? 

A few seconds later, a shrill alarm rang out alerting the Institute that intruders had entered the grounds. The announcement told the students not to leave their dorms until the threat was eliminated. 

But Alus felt it was issued a bit too late. No, perhaps the intruders’ skills should be lauded for that. 

He saw a single intruder approach the research building at a breakneck speed. The worn-out black robe concealed his or her physique. With a hood covering the head, the intruder looked rough despite the brilliant display. 

As the silhouette reached the building’s entrance, a teacher blocked his path as if he’d been waiting for it. 

“Hm?” Alus raised his eyebrows as the teacher politely gave the intruder a verbal warning, holding onto his AWR, but the way he was trying to pacify the assailant was too lax. “Idiot! You can talk after you’ve disabled him.” He was disappointed by how poorly the teacher was handling the situation. 

“The intruders are splitting up and heading to the boys’ dorm, the girls’ dorm and the main building,” Loki told him. “Another is moving around the other side of that building. It may be a pincer attack. What do we do?” 

“Hmm, well, let’s leave that to Sisty. The students have been told not to go outside anyways. Besides...” 

Before Alus could finish his sentence, the intruder facing off against the teacher below pulled a short sword AWR out from beneath his robe, and unleashed a spell without hesitation. 

The ball of light instantly created from the weapon’s blade flew straight toward the teacher. 

“... Oh?” 

His initiative taken away, the teacher responded, after a slight delay, by raising the ground to create a barrier. The protective wall of dirt—most likely created by earth magic—rose up just in time. When the ball of light touched the wall, it swelled up in size and burst. 

A considerable amount of mana must have burst, as the earth wall was blown away by the blast. The teacher was slammed into the research building by the impact, and fell motionless. 

That was the light attribute! 

Having thrown the teacher aside, the intruder felt Alus’ sharp glance and looked up. 

They exchanged glances. The intruder then marched inside the building. 

“What a pain... he’s coming. Loki, you deal with it... but incapacitate him without killing him. There’s something on my mind.” 

“I understand.” 

Alus gave the instruction while leaning against the wall. He was also using this opportunity to confirm Loki’s resolve for the upcoming mission. 

Perhaps Loki sensed this, as she immediately got ready to fight. That said, she still looked the same as always, remaining calm and dignified, like a longtime maid preparing to welcome a guest. 

Suddenly, a worry popped up in Alus’ head. The intruder’s outfit reminded him of the bunch he’d encountered in the middle-class neighborhood last night. Then again, he could just confirm that later. 

“As for Alice... you can come over here for now.” Alus invited Alice to stand by him, and she obediently came, her gaze on the door all the while. She looked worried that the intruder would come bursting through the door at any moment. 

“Will Loki be okay on her own? S-Should I help too?” 

“No, you just watch. This is something she has to do.” 

Alice found that questionable, but chose not to say anything about it. 

And since Alus needed to keep the circumstances hidden due to the secret mission, he’d explained himself in a roundabout fashion. 

Alice, though, seemed to be feeling some fear. She anxiously nodded. 

“Well, if something happens I’ll intervene, so don’t worry. I don’t want him smashing through the door, so lure him in and intercept him.” The last part was addressed to Loki. 

“Yes...” 

Alus had the door unlocked, to let the intruder enter. Loki then pulled out her knife AWRs. 

And while it was a trivial thing—this also meant they wouldn’t go against the order given in the alarm. They wouldn’t be going outside. 

“He’s coming!” 

As Alice gulped, Alus and Loki spotted the intruder. 

The intruder didn’t seem fazed by the unlocked door, as he or she sent a killing intent towards Alus. 

As if to intercept it, Loki stepped in between the intruder and Alus. “You need to know your place if you’re trying to go after Sir Alus.” 

“Ki... kill, Rank 1... found you... sei...ze y-your body... too?” 

The intruder tilted his head and inhumanely and creepily spoke these grating words. The next moment, he held his short sword and moved on Loki as if she was in the way. His movements were strangely mechanic and difficult to fathom. 

“I see, you’re crazy. That explains it.” Loki fought back with four knives between her fingers in each hand. She used a method she hadn’t shown during practice because this was a real fight. The knives were enchanted with electricity that would cause great damage if they made contact. 

However, the intruder showed no hesitation and swung down his short sword. 

A loud metallic clash rang out between Loki and the intruder. Electricity surged from the knives. 

The electricity ran through the intruder’s short sword and into his body. “—!!” But there was no pain in the intruder’s expression. 

Loki wondered if he even had any nerves from how little his expression changed, as he put even more strength behind his blade. 

Eventually, Loki was slowly pushed back by that insane force. “Urgh...” 

Surprisingly, the intruder broke the stalemate first. He let up on his pushing just a little, which ever so slightly threw Loki off balance as she was desperately pushing back. 

The blades separated. The intruder’s blade swept back towards Loki. 

Seeing that, Loki quickly pulled her upper body back. Of course, it wasn’t just to avoid the attack, but to counterattack. Something like this wasn’t enough to create a big opening. 

Loki scraped her leg across the floor. Spinning around, she used her momentum to unleash a roundhouse kick that struck the intruder in the upper arm that held the short sword. 

“—!” 

While Loki’s body was small, that was taken into account as she kicked. With the power behind the kick, it wouldn’t be unexpected if it broke the arm. 

Despite that, the intruder didn’t let go of the short sword. His arm and Loki’s leg clashed, resulting in a back and forth pushing. 

The intruder’s expression under the hood remained unchanged, as he finally repelled Loki’s kick with just his arm. 

What ridiculous strength... 

At a closer look, the intruder’s physique was surprisingly slim. Just where did that slender arm hide such power...? 

Loki jumped high up to dodge an attack, and threw her knives from midair. Her aim was true. The knives ran through the intruder’s feet, pinning them to the floor. 

After Loki landed and backflipped, she couldn’t believe her eyes. 

The knives had gone straight through the intruder’s feet and blood stained the floor red, but the intruder showed no signs of anguish. If anything, he forcibly pulled his feet out, worsening the injury when he could have just pulled the knives out with his hands. 

That abnormal behavior didn’t just send chills down Loki’s spine, but Alice’s as well. 

Then again—that wouldn’t stop Loki. Before the knives were completely out, she jumped up again. 

Seeing Loki’s movements, the intruder brandished his short sword and constructed his spell like he had against the teacher. 

Loki lightly shook her knife. A thin lightning bolt ran from the tip of the knife toward the ones in the intruder’s feet. 

The bolt ran through the intruder’s entire body, the shock canceling out his spell. 

Picking up even more speed, Loki drove her knee into the intruder’s chest. She could feel the bones crack. After confirming this, she quickly backed off to observe the results. 

The force caused the knives to fall out of the intruder’s feet. He fell backwards towards the wall, next to the door. The air exited his lungs with a sound, and he collapsed on the floor, falling silent. 

Loki watched suspiciously, waiting. She’d felt her attack work but it also felt strange, like she was dealing with someone who was already dead. Then again, after falling to the floor, the intruder remained unmoving. 

Seeing that, Loki understood the fight was over. She glanced at Alus. 

But in that instant— 

“—kill, die,” the intruder said in a hoarse voice. He pushed his hand against the floor and unleashed a killing intent once again. 

At the same time, the magic formula on his short sword that he’d held onto till the end activated instantly. 

“—!!” Shocked, Loki turned around, but what she saw was the intruder’s hand crushed, and the short sword dropped to the floor. 

That wasn’t because of something emotional like losing the will to fight, but a physical reason. His fingers were bent in unnatural directions, the bones broken. The hand couldn’t hold anything anymore. Even the palm was disfigured. It looked like something bizarre was hanging off the intruder’s wrist. 

Without even sparing a look at his ruined hand, the intruder tried to pick up the short sword with his other hand. 

But once his fingers moved, his body was pushed into the floor as if he was being crushed. The floor creaked, and an ominous sound came from his bones as well. Pressure was unnaturally being applied to select parts of his body. 

As the intruder reached his limits, he spat up blood. His eyes rolled back, and he lost consciousness. 

“Don’t let your guard down,” a cold voice said. 

Alus had manipulated space to literally apply pressure to the intruder. This was a power that even controlled gravity. It was an application of the Gravity Cliff spell, but as this was an inferior version, it didn’t even have a name. That said, considering the complexity, it definitely belonged among the advanced spells. 

“Forgive me,” Loki muttered, her eyes cast down. She reflected deeply on her blunder. 

“Well, I still give you a passing grade.” As Alus made his way towards the intruder, he put his hand on Loki’s head as he passed her by. 

Ultimately, he’d ended up finishing off the intruder. While he’d only applied pressure on parts of his body, it wouldn’t be strange if he’d broken some important bones. He’d left the arms and legs alone, but the joints had certainly been affected by the pressure. Even if he was lucky enough to escape with his life, he’d likely never walk again. 

Either way—this was something Alice shouldn’t see. 

But due to her military experience, Loki was quick to change gears. She knew what needed to be prioritized. “Sir Alus, this thing acted very strangely. Reaction to pain, and its reflexes seemed to be non-existent. Perhaps its nerves aren’t functioning properly.” 

“Probably. Extreme excitement can let you ignore pain, but it wouldn’t stop your reflexes. His sense of pain... or rather his reaction to external stimulus in general seems to be mostly shut off. This is no normal human.” 

Alus carelessly stepped next to the intruder and pulled off the robe. Hidden beneath—as he’d suspected—was your everyday slender woman in her early twenties. 

Her cheeks were scrawny and her hair was tangled up, making her look weary, but that was likely because she wasn’t taking care of herself. She wore undergarments that clung tightly to her body. The robe she’d been wearing looked worn out, but it appeared to be made with magic-resistant materials. 

Alus looked over her body closely before deliberately pulling up her hair, and staring at the back of her neck. There he saw what seemed to be stitches from an old wound. It was clearly the scar from a carelessly-performed operation. 

“Al, is she dead?” Alice timidly asked from behind him. 

“No, I didn’t kill her. Well, she’s in no position to move though.” 

“... I-I see.” 

Alus had felt a strange displeasure at Alice’s tone of voice, and said he didn’t kill her; but in reality she was on the ropes. It was possible she’d only last for a few minutes more. 

Alice knew she couldn’t do anything either way, but managed to stop herself from asking if she could help, as she was unfamiliar with fighting people and seeing someone so critically injured. 

Crouching down next to the intruder, Alice peeked at her face. “Are you sure that she’s not dead?” But carelessly getting close was a clear mistake. 

“You’re better off not looking.” 

“Huh—?!” Suddenly, Alice let out a short scream. The reason was that the intruder’s rolled-back eyes rolled forward again, the pupils staring at her. 

After glancing at Alice, the eyes looked around in search of something else. 

Alus clicked his tongue, forcibly pulling Alice’s arm. As he held Alice in his embrace, the intruder moved in a bizarre fashion, raising her upper body using all four limbs. 

Using that momentum and posture, the intruder attacked a cabinet. The shelves with a glass door fell over, throwing the equipment that was inside out and across the laboratory. Documents and glass shards flew in the air, and using that moment when everyone was distracted, she charged toward the smallest of them all, Loki. 

“Loki, move!” 

Loki was already jumping aside by the time she heard Alus. 

Behind her was a window that led outside. The intruder broke through the window with her head, and fell out. 

After stopping Loki from giving chase, Alus looked down through the broken window. 

It wasn’t suicide. Mustering up strength from somewhere, the intruder had scraped down the wall to slow her descent before landing lightly on the ground. She took off at an incredible speed, heading away from the Institute in the same four-legged posture. She was abnormally fast, making Alus wonder if she wasn’t actually a quadruped instead. 

He sighed as he stared at her running away. “That... sure wasn’t normal,” Alus said in an exasperated tone. 

Meanwhile, Alice, still in his embrace, looked more amazed than scared, holding onto him. 

“Sorry, Alice.” 

“Ah, no, it’s fine... I was just a little surprised,” Alice said, almost to herself in an effort to calm herself down. She joined Loki at the window, and the two of them scanned the surroundings. After all, there was more than one intruder. 

While Alice had her back to him, Alus picked up a test tube and collected some of the intruder’s blood. 

“Sir Alus, there are still two intruders on Institute grounds. What should we do?” 

“I underestimated them. If they have to go up against those things, the teachers alone won’t be enough. Sorry, but can you back them up, Loki?” 

“... Understood. If that is your order.” 

He had indeed let his guard down. Looking at just their skill with magic from when they’d broken into the Institute, they weren’t very impressive as Magicmasters. The only unexpected thing was that abnormal tenacity. 

In person to person combat, even the veteran teachers might find the tables turned on them. If those things put their incredible stamina to work, even the most experienced Magicmaster could wind up on the receiving end of an attack from an enemy they thought they’d defeated. 

As Loki stepped onto the window frame, Alus gave her words of advice. “Make sure to properly finish them this time. Loki, go for the heart or head. They won’t go down otherwise... the trick is to not consider them human.” There was a bit of sadness mixed in as he said this. He’d worried that this was something Loki would have to confront ever since she became his partner. 

Normally, this was something Alus should be doing on his own, but if Loki was going to stand by his side and fight ‘humans,’ this was a necessary experience. It would likely decide whether she lived or died. 

And Loki would likely overcome it. She had the talent for it. Being able to make calculated decisions after encountering something only once before, meant she had the ability to separate emotion from logic. 

Loki realized what Alus was thinking. “I will take that to heart,” she resolutely said. Completely disabling an opponent was far harder than simply killing them. She might have the rug pulled out from under her the way she was right now. 

That’s why he’d said that... his advice was intended to make sure Loki protected herself. 

Yet while she understood Alus’ hesitation, she was ready to push her will through. She had no problems dirtying her hands. That’s why she was sure she wouldn’t create a situation that would worry him. 

She kicked off the window frame. Obeying Alus’ order, Loki headed out to aid the teachers, her figure disappearing into the distance. 

Having seen Loki off, Alus expelled his worries with a sigh. For now, at least—“Alice, go check the lock on the door. I’m sure you can do it. I left it open before, but it’ll be needed for next time.” 

Alice looked anxious and uncertain, but she wordlessly nodded and headed to the door to check the console that controlled the lock. 

While she did that, Alus shifted his attention to the test tube from before. The intruder’s blood he’d collected would provide a clue. He already had what he wanted. 

The intruder’s actions had come as a surprise, but he’d decided to let her go. It was clear she’d undergone some kind of body modification from the scar on the back of her neck. 

He’d considered fully incapacitating her, but considering how bizarre she was he’d thought better of it. In the worst-case scenario, she might even do something as dangerous as self-destructing. 

Alus felt something was seriously off based on the abnormal atmosphere around her and her flow of mana. Moreover, her goal was unclear. Looking at her crazy movements, it wasn’t unreasonable to assume her objective was something insane like indiscriminately killing everyone—but ultimately her true motives remained obscure. 

Considering she made a beeline toward us, and the direction the other intruders went in... they even approached Sisty, so it seems they’re focusing on the main building. 

Looking at it from another point of view, it was possible they were targeting the stronger people at the Institute. 

But even then, their behavior didn’t fully make sense. Even if they used their overwhelming stamina to launch surprise attacks, anyone capable wouldn’t fall victim to something like that. In other words, it seemed like the intruders were attacking just to be defeated. 

Meaning, it could be reconnaissance in force to gather information. 

Considering that possibility, Alus letting her escape might not have been that bad after all. With the intruders’ body modifications, he wanted to avoid showing all of his cards. As there was no guarantee the intruders didn’t have cameras or other information-gathering devices or spells, he didn’t want to give too much away before he began his mission. 

Most of all, that worn-looking robe and those bizarre movements reminded him of the strange group he’d encountered the night before. So they’re making their move. 

Alus was all but convinced of his hunch, as he told himself this in his mind. 

* * * 

It didn’t take long to figure out the situation as to the rest of the attacking intruders. 

Loki returned with the information. By the time she’d arrived, the intruders had all escaped. The reason they didn’t catch anyone was because of their stamina and movements, and because Sisty had shown earlier than expected. Sisty, having realized how absurd the intruder making his way toward her was, had immediately decided to deal with him herself. 

The only damages suffered were minor injuries to two teachers and ten of the students. 

The teachers that had been unable to stop the students from getting hurt made one question their abilities, but the real reason was that the students had ignored instructions and gone outside to fight. In other words, they’d gotten their just deserts, so the teachers really couldn’t be blamed for that. 

Fortunately, that youthful recklessness didn’t end up harming the Institute. Moreover, the students ended up with minor injuries because the intruders didn’t take them seriously, as they weren’t interested in them. The reason was probably because the intruders were targeting the strongest, on top of some other objective. 

Looking at the results, the five intruders all managed to escape. Of course, Magicmasters had been sent out to pursue them, but the Institute already had strict security to ensure things like this wouldn’t happen in the first place. As the intruders slipped through that check, it was clear who should be held responsible. 

Shortly after Loki returned, it was announced by the principal herself that the situation was resolved and the threat was over. 

Alus, Loki and Alice heard the broadcast from the laboratory. Details were omitted from the announcement. Instead, Sisty directly appealed to Alus to appear. 

Since he’d confronted one of the intruders, Alus had expected this so he wasn’t surprised, but it was still a pain. Besides, he had other things to concern himself with... so he simply put the call in a corner of his mind. He gazed at the laboratory and said, “I have to clean this mess up first, huh.” 

As he checked out the room, there were papers scattered about everywhere, along with glass shards from flasks and test tubes. Fortunately, none of the important machinery had been destroyed. 

Alus’ honest impression of the intruder was that she’d rampaged through his laboratory before running away. He was likely going to be questioned for another reason, but if things were going to end up like this, he regretted his choice of not fighting them before. 

Of course, there was still something gained. He stroked the test tube in his pocket, and let out yet another sigh. 

“P-Please leave this to me, Sir Alus.” 

“Yes, we’ll be done in no time.” 

Sensing Alus’ feelings, Loki readily offered to clean up, while Alice rolled up her sleeves. 

Loki in particular got to work immediately, perhaps regretting her inability to stop the intruder. Then again, Alus had been the one to pick the laboratory as the battlefield, so he wasn’t innocent either. He joined in with a “Let’s clean this up.” 

Loki was in charge of putting the documents back in place, as she knew where they were usually stored, while Alice was in charge of cleaning up the floor. 

Alus already had anything he didn’t want anyone else to see locked up elsewhere, so he had no problems with this. The only problem was the skills of these two girls who would put veteran housewives to shame. With them around, Alus, despite being the lord of the room, felt like he was only getting in the way of the cleaning. 

He already knew that of course, since without Loki there probably wouldn’t be anywhere to stand with equipment and papers strewn across the floor at all times. 

The laboratory was being cleaned up in the blink of an eye, like magic. In fact, it was even cleaner now than before the fighting broke out. That was something to rejoice over. 

As long as you didn’t look at how useless Alus felt... “Sorry for making you do this.” At best, he could only thank the girls. He was half impressed by their cleaning skills, and half guilty over barely doing anything himself. In the end, he only put a plank over the broken window to seal it up. 

After that hard work, though that might just have been how Alus felt, the three enjoyed some tea as if nothing had happened in the first place. 

“Sir Alus, don’t you have to go to the principal’s office? It’s been about an hour since the broadcast.” 

“Well, I don’t think Sisty will mind. She should have some paperwork to do because of this incident, and we’ve been cleaning up over here. She probably won’t complain,” Alus said in an attempt to avoid the whole thing... but it wouldn’t go the way he wanted. 

A bell rang out. The signal that another announcement was starting. 

“Alus Reigin. Come to the principal’s office right this instant. If you don’t, your credits will breathe their last!” Sisty was making the announcement herself in a clearly irritated tone, and for some reason there was a sound of tearing paper mixed in as well. 

“Hey! What the hell!” Alus let out a shout by reflex, but now was not the time to make a fuss over abuse of authority. Witch Sisty could make all of his credits disappear from his report card with a snap of her fingers. “Can you really say ‘breathe their last’ when talking about taking credits back?” 

“Of course not.” 

Letting out the heaviest sigh of the day, Alus grimaced as he sipped his tea. His inability to calm down after finishing his tea wasn’t just because his credits were at risk. 

Two stares focused on him, and he could more or less guess what they wanted to say. 

“Sir Alus...” 

“Al...” 

“Ah fine, I get it, I’m going.” Alus put down his cup and stood up from his chair. “This is depressing. Well, I don’t know when I’ll get back, so can you escort Alice back to her dorm when she’s done training?” 

“Understood.” 

“I’ll look forward to it, Loki dear.” 

Loki splendidly ignored Alice as she nodded to only Alus. Or perhaps their answers just happened to overlap by accident. It wasn’t like this was the first time he found something to be a pain. But this time, he wanted to get to analyzing the blood sample he got from the intruder. 

The elements... they’re supposed to be scarce... 

Alus’ mind was on the magic the intruder used. Dark and light magic were special attributes referred to as the elements. Unlike the other attributes learned after birth, an affinity for the elements was something you were born with. 

Yet the intruder had used it. An intruder that had undergone body modifications, at that. He couldn’t conclude that this was related to his current mission. 

But there was something that kept him from discarding it as unrelated. 

On his way to the principal’s office, Alus ran through a number of ideas, but in the end the main building came into view before he could gather his thoughts. 

Damage from the attack could be seen in the form of crumbled parts in the building’s walls. 

Standing before the familiar office, Alus hesitated for a moment. What fate awaited him? He didn’t understand the mind of someone who willingly jumped into the danger. But in reality, he had no way to escape. It wasn’t until now that he understood how a student could feel nervous before facing the principal. 

Anyways, he had a lot of bad memories of this place, especially with misbehaving students. At least Sisty shouldn’t have any prior engagements this time around. 

Alus finally steeled himself. “I’m coming in.” 

Inside, the elegant desk was piled with papers, and a fed-up face peeked out from that mountain. Principal Sisty’s furrowed brows showed how bad of a mood she was in. “You’re late!” 

“I had something to do. Also, Institute-wide announcements draw unnecessary attention, so I’d prefer it if you didn’t do that again.” 

“A principal’s orders should be prioritized above all else! And if you start showing up quickly after I call for you, I’ll think about changing my ways. Besides, you’re...” Pouting like a teenager, Sisty began issuing a string of complaints to Alus. 

Alus gave her an insincere “I’ll do my best,” but it fell on deaf ears. 

After enduring the barrage for a while, he moved to push the conversation toward the real issue at hand. “What’s that?” Alus said, pointing at the mountain of documents on the desk. They were stacked really high, and if they got knocked over and scattered, Sisty would surely want to cry. 

“They’re reports on injuries, and information on the intruders. It’s all from the people who encountered them, so I still have to compile the information.” Sisty poked at the pile in a show of discontent. She was expressing her wish to push the problem away, but she still needed to report this to her superiors. It was boring but necessary work. 

“And what do you want with me? I’m not going to help you with the reports, just so you know.” 

“Is that so?” Sisty said, in a disappointed-sounding voice. 

Did she really call him out to help with the reports? Then again, her expression looked a bit too put-on to be real. 

“If that’s really what you wanted, then I’m leaving.” 

“Well now. Have a seat.” 

They were talking past each other, but Sisty was trying to drag Alus into her way of doing things. She’d learned that getting irritated at everything wouldn’t solve anything. 

As if to escape her pile of work, Sisty got up from her chair and moved to the sofa, facing Alus. Her expression turned serious as she got to the main question. “So, who were they?” 

“What are you asking me for? Weren’t they intruders?” 

The principal’s eyebrows furrowed slightly at Alus purposefully dodging the question. Of course if he didn’t, she’d drag him into her pace. 

She continued without changing her cheerful expression. Though she was smiling, Sisty’s pressure on him was palpable. “Are you messing with me? I’m saying they were no normal intruders.” 

“So you noticed?” 

Sisty glared after hearing Alus’ barefaced reply. Because she was the principal, she wasn’t going to let any more jokes slide. 

“I honestly don’t know either. Did the one you dealt with use any magic?” 

“Yes, he used the light attribute.” 

“So did the one at my laboratory.” It seemed all the intruders had used the light attribute. Alus was deep in thought. 

“No secrets, now.” 

“...” 

Sisty looked at Alus with a smile that left no room for negotiation. 

“They’re probably some kind of experiment. Looking at the scar on the back of her neck, she probably received some body modifications. Their minds have been messed with as well.” 

“And of course, they weren’t just your ordinary intruders, were they?” 

“I think they had some kind of goal... From what I could tell, their routes of attack were more or less predetermined,” Alus said. 

The Institute had disclosed general information about itself to the public. It couldn’t maintain itself without the support of the citizenry, so basic facts like information on the teachers and other things were readily available to anyone. 

In other words, it was relatively easy to find the relevant information in order to prepare an attack. But the Institute had security. And moreover, there couldn’t be that many reckless fools that would attack a place where Magicmasters trained daily to defeat Fiends. 

“And what goal would that be?” 

“I have no idea. I haven’t been able to tell that much.” 

“... But this was an attack from five rare light magic users. It’s very possible that some organization is behind it.” 

“Who knows? If we knew that much, we would have done something before they attacked.” 

It wasn’t as though there was no one hostile to the Institute. There were organizations and religious groups who tried to ostracize Magicmasters. There were also cults that declared Fiends to be messengers from God sent upon them for humanity’s arrogance, believing that because Fiends were born with the ability to use magic, they were more closely tied to it than humans. 

There were plenty of examples of anti-Magicmaster organizations, heretics, and Fiend worshipers carrying out terrorist activities. Sisty was likely suspecting something like this as well. 

But Alus still felt they were unrelated to the attack, in part because he saw a connection between this attack and the group from yesterday. “This is just my assumption, but I don’t think it’s related to one of those groups.” 

“What makes you say that?” Sisty prodded him for more information. 

Alus put his hand up to stop her. “You’ll have to turn to the Governor-General for any more than this. This is all I can say.” This suggested that Alus’ reticence was due to a military secret mission. 

Knowing the military was involved helped explain things to Sisty. “So that’s how it is. Got it.” 

“Then I’ll be taking my leave.” 

“Yes. Good work today.” 

“Good luck on dealing with the aftermath. It’s clear now that there’s a hole in security, so I understand how you feel.” 

“If you do, then help me out!” 

“Unfortunately, I have work to do.” Going any further than this would be asking for trouble. Who knew what kinds of problems Alus would be roped into if he agreed to help? With that, Alus decided to leave, and went to the door. 

As he exited the main building, students who had taken shelter indoors and in the dorms came out as well. They made a stir as they saw the traces of battle with the intruders. Alus could also hear them whispering about several teachers who’d been taken to the infirmary. Having not gone up against the intruders themselves, they felt less fear and more curiosity. 

Some students with big egos bragged that they could’ve handled the intruders themselves. In fact, several rash students had gotten injured by ideas like this. 

Alus brushed off these empty discussions and set out for the laboratory. That’s when— 

“Mr. Alus!” 

A female student with long black hair waved to him, as she made her way through the crowd of students to his side. The one politely bowing and gracefully smiling at him was second-year student Felinella. 

Alus hadn’t done anything to deserve this, but Felinella was well-bred enough that it could be passed off as a normal greeting. 

At this overly-formal greeting, Alus reluctantly stopped. “... Feli,” he said quietly, mindful of the eyes of others. 

“It’s been a while.” It had indeed been a while, but that was because she’d said she would show her face at the laboratory, yet never stopped by. 

Actually, Felinella had attempted to do it several times but always lost her nerve, using any excuse she could to call it off. Not only was she the dorm supervisor, but she also helped out with her father’s business, so she hadn’t had much time either up to now. 

Felinella wasn’t officially in the military yet, but she was always called upon when something happened. But since that was also what she wanted, she couldn’t lay all the blame on her father. Lately, however, the frequency and importance of the assignments went beyond the level of just helping out. Of course, she knew her place as a noble and didn’t question it. 

In order to maintain her rank, she needed to contribute to the military and to the nation as an excellent Magicmaster. 

“Are you all right?” 

“What do you mean?” 

“Well, you were called to the principal’s office...” 

“Ah, well, it was just some light interrogation.” 

“Wha—!!” 

In that moment, Alus saw a hallucination of Felinella’s hair rising up, ignoring gravity entirely. At the same time, her smile twitched a little. “A mere former Single Digit interrogating you? That’s concerning. Just who does she think she is?” 

Alus didn’t overlook the corners of Felinella’s eyes lifting up, as she said these thorny words. Sensing this uneasy atmosphere, he felt like grumbling while also regretting his exaggeration of what had happened. With a wry smile, he tried to stop Felinella. “She only asked me some questions.” That should safely put out the small flames that might lead to disaster. 

“I-I see... but wasn’t that stepping out of line for someone as old as her, Mr. Alus?” 

It seemed the flames were still smoldering... “Well, while I’m at the Institute I have no choice but to obey the principal.” 

“Even if you say that—” 

“More importantly, what were you doing, Feli?” Alus tried to put a stop to the discussion, and clumsily changed the topic. 

“Actually, I fought one of the intruders, too.” 

“And then the other students caught you and barraged you with questions, I take it.” 

“Yes...” Felinella answered, with an exhausted voice and bitter smile. She’d grown weary of being stuck in the circle of classmates as well. 

Alus figured that’s when she saw him pass by and decided to kill two birds with one stone by calling out to him. In reality, Felinella just wanted to talk to him, but he had no way of knowing that. 

Eventually Alus realized that he and Felinella standing around and talking was attracting stares from those around them. Wary of starting any more fires, he decided to start walking. Felinella caught on, and walked next to him. 

“You don’t look to be hurt either. That’s good.” 

“... That’s right!” After a short pause, a happy smile appeared on Felinella’s face. 

Alus’ words had simply been an acknowledgment of her abilities, not out of consideration for her, but that misinterpretation didn’t bring sorrow to either of them. “Did they use magic?” 

“Yes. I never expected them to make a move like this. They must be getting desperate.” 

“...! So you know about them.” Alus gave Felinella a sharp glance. 

Seeing his look, Felinella’s eyes opened wide in surprise for a moment. Then she understood why Alus was astonished. 

Alus, at her change in expression, used magic to expand his perception into their surroundings. There didn’t seem to be any third party listening in. 

Picking up on that, Felinella paused for a second, then brought herself closer to Alus, their shoulders touching as she whispered into his ear. “... You mean the Governor-General didn’t tell you?” 

“... What?” 

Felinella was dumbfounded. She smiled wryly to hide her bewilderment. “Well, you see... I’m actually involved in this case. I’m mostly in charge of information gathering.” 

“I see.” Alus showed surprise for an instant, but he honestly thought it was brave of her. If she was involved in information-gathering missions, then there was only one person Alus could think of who was in charge of that in Alpha. 

Indeed, Felinella was almost certainly under the command of her father, Lord Vizaist. That was also the only route she could take to be involved in military missions. 

“Did Lord Vizaist tell you to?” 

“No, I was the one who begged him.” 

Vizaist was at one time Alus’ direct superior. Back then he was part of the temporary special forces. Now, Vizaist was head of the intelligence department, which was the department that provided the information for Alus’ secret missions. 

Just how soft can you be on your daughter, Alus called out his former superior in his mind. 

Felinella’s sharp eyes picked up on Alus’ cheek twitching. “Uhm, was there something wrong with the information you received...?” 

“N-No, the information itself was well researched.” He wanted to continue with a ‘but,’ yet when he saw that bright smile pointed at him, he had no choice but to swallow the word. “And? You said you never expected them to do something like this?” 

“Yes, these intruders were without a doubt a part of Godma’s experiments. It seems they have a way of escaping from our surveillance. Alternatively...” 

“They’ve spread them out all over the place to be able to adapt to whatever happens.” 

“That’s possible. But in that case, it would be difficult to find all of their bases. We wouldn’t make it in time.” 

“I bet. In the worst case, we’d have to at the very least eliminate Godma, the primary offender. So what is he after?” 

“I’m sorry,” Felinella said. “I don’t know that much... But I don’t think there was much meaning in this attack on the Institute. Headquarters has concluded that he’s already completed his research, and that this attack was a flashy way to show off his wares.” 

Alus put his hand on his chin, and thought for a bit. “What do you think, Feli?” 

“I feel the same way. Godma has probably succeeded in allowing his test subjects to pick up the ability to use the elements after birth. I don’t think there’s any doubting that, after seeing the intruders. He’s gathered orphans and turned them into element Magicmasters to sell off to nobles to raise funds.” 

There were some nobles who secretly adopted children that had the makings of excellent Magicmasters. They had such talent that there was a good chance they’d become high-ranking Magicmasters, thus protecting the noble family’s name. 

Like with the example of Cabsol Denvel, there was no guarantee that children would inherit their parents’ talents. 

“He probably needs a collaborator,” Felinella continued. “So I imagine his and his collaborator’s goal would be to secure funds to expand his research. He’s probably looking to sell outside of the nation... so perhaps this was just a demonstration for the sake of stirring up interest.” 

But something still didn’t sit right with Alus. If Godma’s sole intent was to get money through artificially creating element users to develop the idea further, there were several things that didn’t add up. 

For starters, suddenly acting out in the open and making yourself a target for the military after safely operating in secret was just foolish. If he got wiped out before siding with any foreign collaborators all would be for naught. 

That’s why Alus wanted to look at it from another perspective. “You can’t say that for certain. Who knows what goes on in the heads of researchers. You can safely assume they have a few screws loose.” Since he was one such researcher, he felt a sense of self-mockery at his words. 

One could say that the fate of a researcher was to spend their lives perfecting their research, and go even further beyond. There was a possibility that Godma was possessed by some kind of conviction. “It’s possible that his research isn’t perfected yet. That’s a common thing among researchers. Either way, this all ends in three days.” 

Next to him, Felinella nodded. Her expression was filled with determination not to slack on information gathering until then for Alus’ sake. 

“Would you mind telling me if they make any moves before then?” 

“If that’s what you desire, then I’ll speak with my father.” 

“No... well, I’ll leave it to you.” Alus had been about to say that it didn’t matter, but changed his mind. He felt like saying that he’d leave it to her sounded self-indulgent. 

When he thought about why, he saw a smile like Sisty’s flash before him; but surely that was just him thinking too much. It was the seductive smile of a bewitching type of woman. With the principal as a precedent, he’d thought he’d have a hard time dealing with Felinella. But she was clearly a different type of woman from Sisty, with only their atmospheres being similar. 

That said, while he did indulge himself with Felinella’s offer, the report that was supposedly created through her efforts was well researched. Her investigative abilities were clearly quite high, so nobody should end up losing out with this. 

The research building wasn’t far away to begin with, but before they knew it, it was right in front of them. 

“What do you want to do? Are you going to come up for a while?” 

“That’s a very welcome invitation, but... well, my father is calling for me.” Felinella hung her head, seemingly disappointed. 

“Is it about the incident?” 

“Yes, I think so.” 

“Then Lord Vizaist will probably scold me if you’re late.” 

“Surely not. If that happened, I would be the one scolding my father.” Felinella elegantly played off the rare joke from Alus. 

But she suddenly looked off to the side and softly whispered, “Why now of all times,” with a frown on her face. 

“What was that?” 

“—!! Ah, uhm, u-unfortunately I have to take my leave now.” 

“Yeah. Give Lord Vizaist my regards.” 

As Felinella said goodbye to Alus in front of the research building, the sun was already starting to set, with the moon peeking out from the other side of the fake sky.

Loki had probably taken Alice back to the dorm when they finished training. She might have gone out shopping too, while she was at it. 

A strange silence hovered in the background of the empty room. The times when day turned to night and back again were when Alus’ heart was the most discomposed. It was partly exacerbated by him being alone. 

But his life in the Outer World was deeply ingrained in him. These times of day, when Fiends began exerting their power, was when he felt the most uncomfortable. 

Trying to calm his heart, Alus brought the blood sample he got from the intruder over to the analyzer. 

While waiting for the results to come in, he moved to the kitchen to spend the time he had on his hands. But he soon realized that he didn’t know where anything was, as he rarely made tea himself. 

This area was already turning into Loki’s territory. He knew the tea tasted better with Loki making it. 

So when he thought about asking her to make some when she came back, he noticed steam rising from a pot placed on the corner of the table. 

Alus lifted the lid, though he did it timidly for some reason. The inside was filled with a liquid carrying the scent of tea. It was translucent to the point of being able to see the bottom, and it had a lustrous amber color to it. 

As he removed the lid, the rich fragrance filled the laboratory in an instant. He still hadn’t taken a sip, but the aroma entering his nose perfectly replicated the taste, and it spread through his body. 

“This is practically in the realm of premonitions,” Alus quipped to himself. It was as if Loki had full knowledge of his life’s daily pace, including his stomach. Just how far could her consideration of him go...? 

For the time being, he let himself experience the fragrant tea, gratefully pouring the liquid into a cup. Thanking his overly thoughtful partner in the depths of his mind, he took a sip. That alone was enough to calm his feelings down quite a bit. 

He seriously thought about having Loki teach him how to make it sometime, but he felt like he couldn’t make it any better than this. 

After taking a break, the blood analysis results were transferred to the terminal at his desk. Alus brought the cup and saucer over and took a look at the screen. Getting a general grasp of it, he shrugged as he realized his prediction was on point. 

“... I figured it was something like that.” He put down his cup and scrolled through the vast amount of mana information. Similar information was streaming over to another virtual screen. He then compared the two screens. Incidentally, the second screen displayed the results of Alice’s analysis. 

Alus read both screens, stopping when he reached the portion about their defects. As expected, it seemed the intruder gained her affinity for light magic after birth. Her information showed signs of the original mana factor being erased. The mana information had been overwritten with the information required to obtain the ability to use the elements. 

Alus questioned if doing something this violent would really allow one to handle the light attribute. This couldn’t even be called a positive achievement. Wouldn’t this just keep someone from using the elements, or magic, altogether? 

But in reality—the intruder had used light magic. Well, the data gathered from the intruder’s blood was only usable as a reference. 

Next, Alus began looking for the part that weighed on his mind the most. 

Mana contained very basic information as well. The technical term for that was “Fundamental Words.” Mana information gradually grew more dense as the user gained more experience and memories, so it was constantly changing. The combinations reached an absolutely astronomical figure. 

However, a person’s Fundamental Words would never change, which served as a definitive characteristic. As such, it was used in systems of identifying individuals, such as door locks. 

Exact copies didn’t exist, but some portions of mana information were still inherited. The reason why a parent’s affinity so easily influenced the child’s was because a portion of the DNA didn’t change. 

A child’s affinity for the basic six attributes had already been influenced by the parents’ affinities by the time they were given life. There was still room after birth for that to change, but it was usually established by the time the autonomic nervous system had developed. 

The opinion that it was very likely the elements were acquired before birth was because there were many cases where the acquisition of light magic was recognized before the aforementioned establishment. 

Moreover, the relationship between Fundamental Words and the elements was still unexplained. It was impossible to decipher every single combination of symbols making up the thousands of characters known as Lost Spells. 

Not a single person had found a principle or combination for the formation of elements. This was considered one of the biggest questions in the field of magic. 

For starters, where the Fundamental Words were located differed from person to person. That’s why even Alus had no choice but to scroll on forever to find them. 

He was of course being helped by the advanced deciphering program he’d made himself, but even that had its limits. So in the end it was a battle of stamina and willpower. 

“—Hm?!” 

Eventually, he stopped scrolling as his eyes scanned the character strings on the screen. No, he’d instantly read all of it and grasped it, and what it meant. 

Before he knew it, Alus unconsciously clicked his tongue. This was the result and effects of Godma’s research. 

He felt a sickening feeling as if his emotions had been thrown into a mixer. But he was sure that the starting point of this research had had a point to it. If it was possible to create excellent Magicmasters after birth, they could be expected to be a sufficient force to repel the Fiends. The focus fell on the light attribute because it could be used to inhibit regeneration. 

In a sense, Godma’s research had the same purpose and goal as Alus’ research. 

But reality wasn’t that simple. Godma’s research far overstepped the ethical code set by the seven nations. 

Moreover, it was impeding the progress of Alus’ student, something he’d devoted his precious time to. Because of those two points, Alus couldn’t accept Godma’s research. 

He wasn’t going to be influenced by his emotions. There wouldn’t be any hindrances to the mission. It was just that he saw Godma’s existence and research results as harmful. 

Some simple addition showed that Godma’s research could be beneficial to humanity. It might even be far more effective than spending the time to train people like Tesfia and Alice to be competent Magicmasters. 

However, there were clear problems with the means and the process. That’s what disgusted Alus. 

Alus had the pride of being the greatest Magicmaster. He was also confident that this revolting research that violated the code of ethics wasn’t superior to the wisdom he imparted, or the time he spent training the two girls. 

Either way, Alus wasn’t going to back away from this. Which was why he was going to watch over them until the end. 

“I’m sorry for being late.” Quietly opening the door and entering, Loki confirmed Alus was home and apologized for her tardiness. 

Alus had no way of knowing if she was late or not, since he didn’t know when she’d left, but he was sure she was only saying it because he’d made it home before she did. “Welcome back.” 

Loki, her eyes cast down, headed to the kitchen to make dinner. It seemed preparations were already made as she brought out a plate of carefully cooked food. Normally they ate dinner together, but she must have sensed the atmosphere around Alus, as she rushed out a plate. 

Seeing her consideration, Alus unfamiliarly struck up a conversation to change gears. He felt like he’d go insane if he didn’t talk about something. “How was Alice’s training?” 

“She seems to have picked up on the trick for it.” 

“I see. You might be good at teaching people. I see, that’s good...” There was no vigor in his voice as he spoke mechanically. 

“... Is something the matter?” Loki asked, suspecting something, as she continued to cook. 

A question born from a trivial conversation. Her casual way of asking was another sign of her consideration. Alus smiled dryly at his partner who was so well-versed in the subtleties of men. While thinking how he was no match for her, his lips eventually curled up in a small smile. “No, it’s nothing.” 

Even if the nuance of his words gave away that something had indeed happened, he didn’t mind if he gave that away. 

“I see.” So even if Alus denied it, the sorrow in Loki’s heart didn’t disappear. But she still believed that this was fine and focused on her cooking, and before long a smile appeared on her face as well. 

Loki piled the newly-made food onto a plate. That’s when the terminal on Alus’ desk let out an unfamiliar alarm. 

It was the alert for a received message, and the focus suddenly switched away from their everyday life. 

“No change, huh,” Alus muttered, having stopped eating to take a look. 

It was a periodic report from the Governor-General’s intelligence department containing information Felinella had gathered. This happened every time, as such information greatly influenced missions, with detailed reports being delivered to him. 

The mission was set to start in three days. 

At the moment it was expected to begin in the early morning, but if the target made any suspicious moves it wouldn’t be strange to receive an order to begin the mission right away. As such, Alus always looked at the periodic reports immediately. 

He had the report displayed on the large screen by the table so he could share it with Loki. 

“... Does this mean that Godma’s backer, his patron, hasn’t been identified?” 

“Most likely.” 

The report was created from the information gathered by Lord Vizaist’s elite forces. And if there were no new developments... 

“This might be a pretty big hurdle. But there’s still a time limit. We might have to make a move even if all the information isn’t there yet. It’s better than letting him get away.” Knowing Vizaist’s skills, Alus figured that any backer, even if they were a big shot, would be discovered rather easily. But it seems they might have let the bait go. 

If that was the case, then it might be difficult to seize the mastermind. Even if humanity’s living area was restricted, the information on the nations outside of Alpha wasn’t perfect. If the mastermind disappeared into a shady territory, even the army would have a hard time finding him. 

“Will it be okay?” 

“Who knows? While it’s pointless if the root gets away, our mission doesn’t go that far. We’ll just have to leave it to them.” 

However, with the attack on the Institute, there was a chance that the nature and scale of their mission might expand. Since the intruders, who Felinella referred to as “experiments,” had reached a viable state, they needed to plan for a way to keep them from escaping. 

The mission objective was the elimination of Godma and the erasure of all research data. Moreover, based on the blood tests, the intruders or experiments had been determined to be equivalent to Godma’s research results, and as such had the same value as the other data. 

From what they knew, there were at least five or more... and while unconfirmed, if the group of three that Alus met in the city the other night were experiments, that meant the total was a minimum of eight. 

“Phew, if there’s going to be any changes I’d prefer it if they made them quick.” 

“That’s true.” As Loki nodded in response, she covered the table with plates of food. 

“Isn’t this a little too much?” 

“...! It does appear to be too much, doesn’t it?” 

Perhaps because Alice had been staying with them for the past few days, there was food for one too many. “I’m sorry, I’ll clean it up right away.” The next moment, Loki seemed to realize her error, and tried to take the food back with an embarrassed expression. 

“No, you went out of your way to make it. It’s not like it’s too much to eat, so I’ll gladly have it.” As Alus glanced over at Loki, he could see her softly bite her lip and return the plates to their original positions. 

Maybe we should have had Alice around a little longer, he thought to himself. 

“I-If Ms. Alice hadn’t stayed over to begin with, this never would have happened!” Loki said strongly, as if to deny everything Alus was thinking. Once she said this, she calmed down and sat in her chair, quietly eating her food. 

Seeing her blush, Alus felt like she’d had fun, regardless of what she was saying. 

In the end, the extra food was put away in their stomachs without difficulty. Alus relished the thought of eating Loki’s cooking since it was so delicious, that he began worrying he might end up eating too much. “Thank you for the meal.” 

“It was nothing.” After giving him an adorable smile, Loki quickly started on after-dinner beverages. 

I can’t afford to stop exercising, Alus told himself, as this long day came to an end. 

* * * 

The next day, Alus and Loki took Alice with them to the training grounds. 

Alus had made reservations a few days ago, but feeling that he’d been missing out on exercise recently, he felt that it was the perfect time. 

It was still morning, and if not for the vacation period it would’ve been time to head to class. In fact, it would have been first period right now. 

Their goal was to try out the new spell Alus had developed for Alice. Alice was astonished and exhilarated to hear it was already completed, when he went over their schedule at the training grounds. 

That said, it was a bit of an exaggeration to call it a new spell. In reality, all Alus had done was taken some elements of another attribute and adapted them to the light attribute. 

The base spell was the intermediate wind spell, Kamaitachi. 

Alus added his own touches to the magic formula, removing the attribute portions and adjusting it to work for Alice’s light attribute. 

Alice worried that it would actually work for her, as the barrier activated and partitioned off the training area. 

Having changed into their training uniforms in the locker room, Alice and Loki were walking together. Alice was one-sidedly chatting away in a lighthearted fashion with Loki, who remained emotionless, but Alus figured they were getting along from the subtle changes in Loki’s expression. 

“Normally it’d be better to directly engrave the magic formula to get you better accustomed to it, but I didn’t have any material to make an AWR. That’s why this time we’ll slowly go through the steps in the process to beat it into your head. So here we go.” 

The method itself was truly simple. With a wicked smile, Alus handed two pieces of paper to Alice. One was full of the characters that made up the magic formula, while the other contained a translation to supplement her understanding. 

As Alice surveyed the papers, she had a clearly nervous smile on her face. But as she read the translation, she realized it was something she’d be able to do right now. Her cheeks flushed in surprise. “Thank you, Al!” 

“You don’t need to thank me, let’s just get to work. Just so you know, we don’t have the time for you to spend several days learning that spell.” 

“Yes!” Alice responded without hesitation. She moved to a corner of the training area and sat down, focusing on the magic formula. 

“As for Loki... you can’t do your usual detection training here, so let’s try a different approach.” 

“Yes, please.” 

The training Alus thought up was to have Loki close her eyes and block his one-sided attacks. 

He got the idea from their mock battle in the past. Back then, she’d instantly sensed Alus’ attack from behind. The reason for that was her use of detection magic. By sending her mana out like sonar and searching her surroundings, she could see a person’s general location and posture based on their flow of mana. 

The idea was to make Loki able to use that repeatedly so she wouldn’t need to rely on her sight in combat. 

“If you can accurately detect my location, you won’t have any blind spots.” 

First, Alus threw an enchanted rubber sports ball. The goal was for her to be able to dodge or block it with her eyes closed. However— 

“Urgh...?!” Loki tried to catch the ball thrown in an arc, but it slipped past her hand and landed on her head. 

Incidentally, while it was enchanted, Alus hadn’t imbued it with destructive energy or hardened it, so getting hit by it wasn’t much different from getting hit by a normal ball. “The space between the mana sonar pulses is too long. You’re not using it enough times. Don’t try to perceive a vast range like normal, instead limit yourself to maybe ten meters around you and try using it 50 times a second. That way you shouldn’t have any problems with the sonar’s strength or accuracy.” 

“All right, I’ll try it out.” 

After rubbing her forehead a couple times, Loki picked up the ball at her feet and threw it to Alus. She then closed her eyes and calmed her breathing as if meditating, focusing on her sonar. 

“Oh, I can clearly tell when you repeatedly use it like that.” Alus could feel faint waves of mana crashing against his skin. That was only possible thanks to his sharp senses. Aside from affinity, how much you focused on your mana also greatly affected it. 

As proof of that, Alice showed no signs of noticing as she focused on her new spell, despite being within Loki’s range. 

Alus felt some interest as he closed in on Loki and threw a ball straight at her with more force behind it. And of course, it moved faster than before. 

With a dry sound, the ball landed firmly in Loki’s hand. 

She immediately opened her eyes and smiled when she looked at her hand. 

“Sir Alus, I did it!” 

“It’s looking good. How’s the mana consumption?” 

“It’s not that much... but I think three minutes of continuous use is my limit.” Aside from adjusting the range of the mana sonar, Loki was also using it numerous times a second. A trick not just any detector could pull off. And being able to do it right away spoke volumes for Loki’s talents. 

“Hmm, that’s still a pretty poor mileage. For now, try to get the hang of the minimum number of sonar pulses necessary for detection. We’ll need to start off with creating a standard you can reference.” 

Loki nodded firmly at Alus, as he walked over to Alice who seemed to be struggling, the ball still in his hand. 

“How’s it going?” 

“I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, it’s not activating at all.” Alice looked at Alus with tears starting to form in her eyes, her AWR in hand. 

“Fine, I’ll watch over you, so try it again.” 

“O-Okay...” 

Sensing that Loki was ready, Alus threw the ball backwards at her, without looking, watching over Alice while continuing Loki’s training. 

That said, Loki would need to find the optimal number of pulses for her mana sonar on her own, so he only had to throw the ball at her. Though he wasn’t looking her way, so he didn’t know if she caught it properly or not. 

For the time being, Alice began pouring mana into her AWR, going through the process of constructing a spell. The magic formula engraved on the blade began glowing and she swung her naginata. 

However, no spell was constructed using the mana focused on its blade—and with the misfire the mana dispersed every which way. The result was a pointless waste of mana. 

“See? I can’t do it.” 

At seeing Alice’s blank expression, Alus felt his temple twitching, thinking, Why are you like this? He could tell at first glance why the spell hadn’t activated. It was a learning problem. 

Like he’d explained before when they were studying for the exam, Alice and Tesfia only had a faint understanding of the magic formula itself. At times like these, simply memorizing the magic formula and strongly visualizing the phenomenon they wanted to create would only give them grief. 

While it was possible to activate the spell by memorizing the formula and accurately imagining the phenomenon, that prevented any fine adjustments from being made. That was because a vague image alone would make up a big part of the spell. In a sense, it would be a husk of a spell, with no traces of subtleties, depth or content. 

Not only were important topics such as the spell’s power, form and other factors ignored, but the bad habit of glossing over the staged process for creating spells could be seen even in the lectures. The reason for that was because there were no lectures on magic formulas, such as interpreting ancient language. 

In short, the spell wasn’t activating because Alice hadn’t trained in perceiving the process of constructing spells. It was an easy oversight to make, but difficult to notice. 

Fortunately, Alus remembered teaching Alice and Tesfia about magic formulas during their exam studying. Though in reality he’d only given them advice. Whether they understood it or not was a different matter. 

“Look at the formula properly, why are you omitting details clearly written on it?” Alus pointed at a sentence on one of the pieces of paper on the ground by Alice’s feet. “You’re not specifying the shape at all. Well, perhaps that’s because you’ve just used spells that only functioned when cast on your AWR, like Reflection.” 

Since even the novice level spell Arrow required the user to form the mana into the shape of an arrow, the vast majority of Magicmasters, even the beginners, could specify shapes in their head. 

However, images like that could make it difficult to acquire new spells, especially when it came to spells they’d never seen or experienced. As such, they needed to accurately define the spell by going through the process as specified. 

“Oh! Now I get it.” Alice stuck out her tongue in a cutesy way, as if to say “Whoops.” At least it was suitable for her age, and there wasn’t the kind of horrible incongruity like when Sisty did it. Which was why Alus pretended not to see it, even if it did piss him off a little. Then again, with Alice’s personality these gestures and mannerisms just came out on their own, which was a problem in and of itself. 

“I bet you don’t have an accurate grasp of the magic you’re trying to use. Think about it the other way. Normally you don’t need an image to cast, don’t omit anything from the formula, and supply the necessary amount of mana for it to activate.” 

“Yes!” 

“Now that you know this, you won’t get away with another ‘I can’t do it.’” 

Just then Loki threw the ball at Alus, who caught it without even glancing its way before snapping with his wrist and sending it back to Loki. 

Meanwhile, Alice got started on her own training. She was going through the steps of her process in her mind by now. Mana gradually transferred to her AWR, and the magic formula reacted to it. 

“Phew! Here I go, Al!” Spinning her naginata around, Alice built up momentum that she then unleashed in an upwards slash. 

“‹‹Shiylereis››” 

The blade compressed the light to its utmost limit before a sharp slash was emitted. The crescent-shaped light ran above the ground, crashing into the wall. After a heavy impact sounded on the wall, the attack’s mana was absorbed, leaving only a small ripple behind. 

“I did it... I did it, Al!” Alice stared as the mana dispersed with a blank look of surprise. After a short moment, her expression turned to exhilaration. Her face melted into a smile and she couldn’t hold her feelings back anymore. Rejoicing, she felt she could break out in a small dance at any moment. 

Considering Alice’s usual atmosphere, Alus felt that suited her perfectly fine. “I know, I was watching.” Having finally seen the fruits of his research pay off, he nodded as if he’d expected this. 

The light attribute had a different quality to it compared to the others, for example, with the expended mana. The combustion phenomenon of the fire attribute required mana to make up for many of the missing components, but the light attribute could use the light that existed in the world as a catalyst, meaning its mana consumption was lessened. 

It was said that the sun’s energy was the source of that power. The sun in the Outer World should provide an even bigger boon, but wherever there was light, the spells would require less mana even if it was just by a little. 

“Congratulations on the successful creation of a new spell, Sir Alus, Ms. Alice.” 

“Thank you, Loki dear.” 

With the activation of Shiylereis, Loki stopped her training and offered her compliments with a refreshing smile. But what she was really doing was showing appreciation for Alus’ hard work. 

“Well, it’s not like you have to be me to do something like this.” 

“You’re being too humble.” 

“Yeah, this is amazing, you know!” 

It might offend other Magicmasters, but Alus had only taken a spell from a different attribute and applied it to the light attribute, and it ended up working out. As anyone who’d developed a spell knew, as long as the proper theory and time was put into the work the spells would take shape. 

That said, to these two who didn’t know the details of how to make spells it seemed like a great achievement. 

Alice was excited to be able to put a third spell of her attribute into her repertoire. If anything, she was only getting happier. 

“For now, Alice, keep practicing that spell to make sure you can use it. Just so you know...” 

“Once you can make all kinds of minute adjustments, there’s finally a point to the repetition, right?” Alice finished Alus’ sentence for him with a smile, as she firmly held her AWR. It seemed she understood the essential meaning of the mana control training. It’d be even better if she could use it right away, but she knew that without Alus having to say it. 

“Yeah. It should be pretty usable for an offensive spell. At the very least it should work against Fiends.” 

“Understood, Teacher!” 

“That’s right, it only makes sense to be able to use Sir Alus’ work at the highest level,” Loki proudly said in an arrogant tone, for some reason. 

Her forehead was still a little red from the ball crashing into it. Alus lightly poked her forehead. “More importantly, have you gotten a feel for the number of pulses you need?” he retorted, as if to say she didn’t have the time to lord it over Alice. 

“Of course. I’ve gotten a grasp of it. Around 20 times per second is enough.” 

“Oh, is that so? Then let’s move on to a practical exam.” 

“Yes! I look forward to it.” 

Eventually they took a break for lunch, then continued training until it started getting dark out.

In the end, Alice picking up Shiylereis was a great thing. 

Normally, spells weren’t something you learned in a day. Shiylereis had the power of an intermediate or advanced spell, but the density of mana information and difficulty in activating the spell were on the low end. 

For Alice, who’d already acquired Reflection, she only needed to get used to the spell and practice through repetition to fully master it. Being able to cast spells that used motion of the AWR was something she excelled at, compared to the other students. 

Meanwhile, Loki’s training was showing some results, too. While there was some lag, she should be able to use it in live combat soon after training some more. 

Incidentally, the training ended when it did in part because it was a good time to stop, but also because Alus’ license received a private message from Felinella. She made desperate excuses, saying she’d gotten his number from her father Vizaist, and wasn’t getting to the point at all, so they decided to meet at Alus’ laboratory. 

While messaging through licenses was common, it was also susceptible to being intercepted. Alus’ license had measures in place to prevent such interceptions, but it was pointless if the other party hadn’t done the same so it wasn’t all that effective. That was also why they’d decided to keep quiet about the details until they were in private. As such, Alus headed back to the research building alongside Loki and Alice. 

They parted ways with Alice, and when Alus and Loki arrived at the door to the laboratory they found Felinella already waiting there, despite the girls’ dorm being farther away. 

Felinella, having arrived strangely quickly, looked a little nervous, standing like a statue in front of the door. 

“Sorry for keeping you waiting.” 

Seeing Alus after he called out to her, Felinella replied with, “Ah, I only just arrived too... please don’t worry about it.” She waved her hand as if brushing off his concern. In her other hand was a small paper bag, a present perhaps. 

Alus turned to the task of unlocking the door, which opened with sluggish movements. 

“Excuse me,” Felinella said, as she entered the room last. Once inside, she gazed around the room. 

She didn’t appear to be looking for something specific, as based on how her eyes were sparkling she was observing the room as if it were something sacred. She seemed to be immersed in ecstasy. 

“What are you looking at? There’s nothing that interesting here.” 

“N-No... that’s not true. What can I say... I’m just really happy.” 

“You’re a strange girl.” 

Felinella flashed an embarrassed smile, and after a polite bow, she stepped deeper inside the room. “R-Right... This isn’t anything much, but please accept it.” Inside the paper bag were high-quality snacks neatly bundled together. 

“What did you even come here for?” Alus was sure this was about the mission, so he felt the wind go out of his sails. However— 

“For the mission, of course,” Felinella answered, with a blank look of surprise. 

So this really was about the mission, Alus thought, and passed the tea snacks over to Loki. It seemed they weren’t quite seeing eye to eye. 

Felinella was nobility, she didn’t bypass courtesy, she was constantly polite and even roundabout at times. Alus on the other hand was strictly logical and wanted to finish up important matters immediately. Moreover, Felinella was being strangely meek today, throwing Alus off his pace. 

Eventually Loki came out with tea for three, along with the snacks Felinella brought, and the group sat down at the table. 

Alus had thought this before, but just the motions Felinella went through when she sat down made her look more like nobility than any other noble lady. “Alright, let’s get down to business.” 

Felinella’s expression turned sharp as Alus spoke. “Yes. The other day, the top brass concluded that the group that attacked the Institute was indeed part of Godma’s experiments. As a matter of convenience the group of experiments have been named the Dolls. The supreme commander, Governor-General Berwick, has settled on a change in policy. From now on, the mission is no longer merely the elimination of Godma. The mission is now to annihilate Godma and his Dolls.” 

“I guess they don’t have a choice.” It seemed there was no doubt the attackers were moving under Godma’s orders. And there was a good chance Alus knew what they were up to. Doing something as extreme as attacking the Institute made it clear Godma had no intention of hiding anymore. 

“What about the goals of the Dolls’ attack?” Loki interjected. This also happened to be on Alus’ mind. 

“The General Staff Headquarters has reached a conclusion about that. They believe it very likely that it was some kind of demonstration, maybe a performance test of the Dolls. Taking into consideration the existence of supporters, their success can only be confirmed through a demonstration. Taking on the army itself might have been too risky, but the Institute has future military Magicmasters as well as those retired from duty, making it an optimal location to test their strength.” 

“That does make sense...” 

“Sir Alus?” 

“Is there something on your mind? If you have any suggestions, I’m sure the top brass would take it into consideration...” 

“Yeah, I know. The deadline’s approaching after all... no, forget I said anything.” Alus had a feeling something was off, but didn’t have anything conclusive to point to. Besides, even if he made a proposal based on his worries and the top brass said yes, there wasn’t enough time to get it ready. 

Something just didn’t feel right. Like they were overlooking something. 

“In reality—the attack hasn’t changed the mission at hand that much. At best, Godma’s sensed that something’s up and made the first move. In fact, in that attack the enemy revealed their hand, giving us a lot of information. However, the pursuers the principal sent out lost sight of them.” 

“Considering how fast they ran off, I don’t blame them.” Pushing his sense of discomfort aside, Alus urged Felinella on. “What about the plan?” 

“On that day, the security forces and the military’s Magicmasters will encircle the area. Your objective remains the same, but now it’s a group annihilation instead of a single assassination.” 

“In other words, we’re not letting any one of them get away.” 

“I’m sure it will be a lot of work, but scraping together some Triple Digit Magicmasters is the best the military can do.” Felinella, serving as the messenger, cast her eyes down apologetically. 

“There’s no reason for you to apologize, Feli. This is how it always is... This is what the Governor-General has decided on. I would have made the same decision. And with Lord Vizaist taking charge, I won’t have to worry about an unexpected defeat if something happens.” 

“I will let my father know.” 

“You don’t have to go that far. It’ll only confuse him.” 

Felinella held her hand over her mouth and giggled. 

Alus continued with, “It was only a joke,” as his lips curled up into a smile, while he took another sip of tea. 

“Will Ms. Loki take part in the mission too?” 

“Of course I will. I’m Sir Alus’ partner.” 

Seeing Loki’s resolute attitude, Felinella directed a pleasant expression her way. “Let’s do our best,” she said, gently smiling at her. 

While she said that, on the day of the mission Alus would be the one doing most of the work, so the others might actually wind up with spare time on their hands. 

After that, Felinella and Alus went over the details. The more he heard, the more Alus realized how capable Felinella was at gathering information. Almost all of his questions were answered. She was very well prepared. 

Eventually, they lapsed into small talk. “I recall Lord Vizaist having an affinity to wind, is it the same for you, Feli?” 

“Yes. He’s beaten wind spells that would be useful for intelligence gathering into me.” 

I see, Alus nodded to himself. The wind attribute had a lot of spells for searching an area or gathering information. That said, it didn’t mean they got lumped in with the same category as Loki as a detector. They did, however, provide a wide selection to choose from, be it for serving at the frontlines or as auxiliary personnel. It was more apt to describe them as all-purpose. 

“Are you aiming to be at the top of the intelligence department, Feli?” 

“That’s the plan. So I hope to be of some use to you someday, Mr. Alus.” 

Loki reacted to Felinella’s cheeks turning red. “Sir Alus already has me as his partner, so you can focus on your information gathering, Ms. Felinella.” 

“Oh my, Ms. Loki, you can’t get overconfident,” Felinella replied in a slightly condescending tone, trying to pacify Loki like a graceful older sister. After smiling softly, she elegantly brought her tea to her lips. 

“It’s not overconfidence, it’s necessity!” 

Alus didn’t really get the underlying conflict, but he could tell the atmosphere was turning threatening as he shifted his eyes between the two. With nowhere to run, he simply took one sip of tea after another. Finally, his cup was empty, and he unfortunately had to put it down on the table, letting out a sigh. 

“That doesn’t matter. It only means Feli is suited for information gathering, while Loki is suited for dealing with Fiends. I don’t know what’s going on between you two, but if this is going to affect the mission I’m leaving you behind.” Alus had stepped in to mediate, but his tone was cold. 

But it seemed to work, as the two of them realized they were getting their priorities backwards. Each brought her cup to her mouth at the same time as if to signal a ceasefire. 

“Look at the time, Feli, don’t you have to return to the dorm? We can’t have the dorm supervisor breaking curfew.” 

“Oh, you’re right... Time sure does fly.” Felinella seemed to have enjoyed the time they spent together, as she had a joyful look on her face. They’d only been idly chatting in the end, but she had still enjoyed it. 

That was fine. Spending time like this wasn’t all that bad. After all, Alus didn’t feel like much time had passed during their get-together. 

Felinella, somewhat reluctantly, stood and gave Loki thanks for the tea. “Thank you, Ms. Loki, the tea was truly delicious. Why don’t we have a tea party in my room so I can pay you back?” On her face was a carefree smile. 

Loki seemed to have her guard up, but as she hesitated to answer Alus gave her back a push. First things first—they needed to form a friendly relationship, Alus thought. Loki had a tendency to keep everything bottled up inside her. That was probably something only Alus could resolve. 

With no more time to hesitate, Loki spoke out after being urged on by Alus. “If Sir Alus comes with me, then I would certainly participate.” 

“Come on, this is a personal invitation for you.” Alus was dumbfounded, as Loki continued to drag her feet. He felt like he was watching his past self. Governor-General Berwick might have felt the same way he did. “Loki, this is one of our bad habits. Why not take her up on her good intentions?” 

“Okay... then I will accept, Ms. Felinella.” Loki exaggeratedly bowed deeply. 

But Felinella maintained her bright smile. “Then, leave it to me. Mr. Alus, you can join us too if you like.” 

“I’m fine. Some other time, maybe.” 

“Yes, I’ll look forward to it. Then I’ll take my leave here, Mr. Alus, Ms. Loki.” 

“Yeah, thanks.” 

“I can prepare tea for you anytime. Ah, please wait a little.” Having remembered something, Loki went to the depths of the room before returning with a paper bag containing an expensive-looking present for Felinella. 

With a rare blush, Felinella graciously accepted it. 

Alus gazed at the two, seeing their height difference and feeling they looked a bit like siblings, and smiled a little. But if he said that, he imagined Loki would grumble. 

By the entrance, Felinella gave the two a very noble and polite bow. The sight of her glossy black hair sliding off her shoulders was dazzling, fixating the eyes of everyone present. She didn’t have the same kind of otherworldly beauty Loki had, nor the teenage girl cuteness of Alice. 

As for a certain redheaded noble, they couldn’t even be compared. She had practically none of that elegant and perfect feminine beauty, and the difference between her exterior and interior was quite extreme. 

Of course—that was part of Tesfia’s charm. 

“If anything else happens, let me know.” 

“Please leave it to me.” 

Alus offered to escort her back, which she politely declined. It still wasn’t that late, and she felt bad about making him walk all that way and back again. With that, Felinella left with a strangely happy smile on her face. 

* * * 

Two days remained until the mission. 

A very in-depth investigation had been carried out for this one. The military was being exceptionally careful. But in the end, the fact that anything could happen was the same as in the Outer World. 

The biggest causes for worry were Godma’s eerie movements and the lack of high-ranking Magicmasters. 

Estimates for the experiments put them on the same level as Triple Digit Magicmasters in terms of physical capabilities. If Alus were to go up against a lot of them, there was a good chance some might get away. 

Since the number of experiments was unknown, they were an uncertain factor. In the worst-case scenario, Alus and Loki might not be enough to deal with them all. That’s why there would be an encirclement. 

Alus wanted two Double Digit Magicmasters just to be sure, but with preparations and missions going on in the Outer World it’d be difficult to get hold of any. Like Felinella said, this was realistically the best they could do. 

While this was an annihilation mission, they couldn’t make such big moves that the citizens would notice. After all, Alus’ secret missions couldn’t really be made public.

The next day, before noon. 

The weather inside the human domain was artificial, and it was generally excellent. Neither too hot nor too cold, making it comfortable—but it was set that way by human hands. The temperature was average, with gentle breezes. The sky was almost disgustingly clear. 

But in Alus’ laboratory, a girl stood wordlessly with a clouded expression. 

“And why are you here?” Alus asked bluntly, but the girl had heard about the attack on the Institute and rushed back a few days ahead of schedule, out of worry for her best friend. That said, to Alus her return was poorly timed. 

Having enjoyed her vacation, Tesfia was currently wearing a cool tunic and lace-decorated shorts. Despite her short stature, her long legs were put on display. She had her AWR inside a bag with her. Her ponytail was tied higher than usual but was sagging, making her look like a dejected puppy. Her face looked exhausted, in contrast with her outfit. 

Alice’s name being missing from the injured list should have eased her worries, but Tesfia’s worries seemed to have another source. 

“Welcome back, Fia.” 

“Alice, thank god!” A big smile bloomed on Tesfia’s face when she heard Alice’s voice. “I went through some things, too... but don’t ask anything right now and let me hug you.” Her bag looked much lighter than when she left the Institute, and she embraced Alice with a crying face. 

The fact that she said not to ask, yet looked ready to tell Alice everything was quite amusing. 

Alice patted Tesfia on the head like she was a discouraged pet. That she was strangely good at doing this spoke volumes for how long they’d been together. “That doesn’t matter, just make sure you take that luggage home.” 

“Of course I will! I have underwear and other embarrassing things I wouldn’t want you rummaging through,” Tesfia said to Alus, her red face peeking out from Alice’s chest. 

“Why the hell would I do that?!” 

“Well, Al’s a teenage boy, after all,” Alice said mischievously, her finger on her chin. “Besides, that’s all the more reason not to...” 

“Yes, I’d throw it away,” Loki declared, interrupting Alice. 

“Uhm, but it’s mine, though...?” 

“I’d throw it away.” 

“But I might just accidentally forget it...” 

“Yes, and I might just accidentally throw it away,” Loki continued without hesitating, a smug smile on her face. It appeared Tesfia’s luggage wasn’t making it past her harsh inspection. 

“That’s not accidental. You’re actually declaring that you’d throw it away!” 

“The trashy items inside are the last things Sir Alus needs to see. You’re taking it away, right?” 

“Y-Yes...” 

Thus the attempt at lumping together the greatest Magicmaster with your run-of-the-mill boy in puberty was tragically cut short. That said, Alus already lived with Loki and was skirting the line of ethics. 

Picking up the bag she’d put down, Tesfia made sure to put it where she could see it. 

“Now I get how you see me,” Alus said. “But fine, it would get thrown away anyways all the same.” 

“You can’t! I finally found some cute clothes. I also have a present for Alice.” 

“Oh Fia, you only went home for a bit. You didn’t have to do that.” 

“It’s fine, I bought it because I wanted to. Ah, I got something for you too, Loki. I’m positive you’ll look good in it, so look forward to it.” 

“...” Loki had called it trash before, but Tesfia’s unexpected consideration left her speechless and puzzled. It was a complete surprise to her and she didn’t know how to react. “I-I’ll reconsider throwing it away.” All she could do was rush those words out. 

“Yeah, thanks,” Tesfia replied lightheartedly—and the atmosphere in the room softened up. 

Loki felt a little awkward, and Alus, a few steps away, had a gentle glint in his eyes. 

He thought to himself that things like this were important, too. He wasn’t able to put it in words, but that only made it seem all the more precious. If he were to try to explain it, a portion would surely be lost in translation anyway. It might make it stale, or even dull the recognition of its value. And most of all, just speaking of it was uncouth. 

“You better not have spent all your time at home playing around,” Alus said jokingly, the edges of his mouth bending upwards. 

“Of course not!” Tesfia responded immediately. 

Alice and even Loki smiled a little. This exchange seemed nostalgic to them. 

Before she knew it, Tesfia’s clouded expression was starting to break up in the soft atmosphere. “I didn’t go home to horse around... and of course, I didn’t skip out on practicing my mana control.” Pulling out the training stick, which had been slightly sticking out of the bag, she got in position. 

Before long she began coating it in mana. While slow, Tesfia’s technique was stable and it covered the surface without breaks. It seemed she had indeed kept up with her training. However... 

She really is easy to read. Her flow of mana still remained a little unsteady. 

Looking on, Alus realized it wasn’t a problem with technique, but was rather due to hesitation, unease or concern. It was a problem in her mind. Mana definitely had a connection to the mind and emotions, but it was rare for it to be this obvious. In a way, it was a very honest manifestation of her mana, just like her. Even if she could temporarily distract herself from it, there was probably some kind of concern in Tesfia’s mind. 

And it was Alice who brought it up. “Fia... Did something happen? There shouldn’t have been any problem about your grades, so was it your magic?” 

“That was okay, too. In fact, Mother even praised me.” Tesfia gave an awkward and embarrassed smile, but her eyes looked down at the training stick in her hands, then she looked at Alus. “So, uhm... Al. My mother found me when I was training at home.” She flashed a wry, uncomfortable smile. 

Seeing that, Alice saw she probably had an even deeper worry, one that Tesfia herself would prefer not to touch on. But she pretended not to notice, saying instead, “And you wouldn’t be able to make any excuses to her...” 

“Hm? Was there a problem with that?” Alus asked. There shouldn’t have been any problems with her family seeing her training. But there was something Alus had completely forgotten. 

Alice was the first to say it. “You said so yourself, Al. That stick is made of a precious material and only two exist in the entire world.” 

“—! Right. If I recall, your mother was a capable Magicmaster.” 

“She was in the military and went to the Outer World a lot. So she’s interested in magic and knows a lot about it.” 

“Of course she would...” A first-rate Magicmaster would be able to tell what kind of thing the training stick was just by touching it. Conversely, its appearance was only that of a creepy-looking piece of wood. “And then your mother said something.” 

“Y-Yeah... she asked me who I’m getting guidance from... and just who that person is.” 

“I bet she would. I honestly would have felt the same way.” 

Tesfia looked away, scratching her cheek in embarrassment. 

Seeing her best friend like that, Alice could imagine Tesfia’s mother barraging her with questions, and a bitter smile appeared on her lips. “I bet that was tough. Fia’s no match for her mother, after all.” 

“Urgh...” 

“Geez, you only bring problems with you, don’t you?” 

As if embracing Alus’ exasperated words, Tesfia hung her head down. But she’d still done her best to protect the secret. “I thought you would find that bothersome. That’s why I never told Mother who was teaching me, no matter how much she asked.” 

“Well, it is a bother, but it’s also a blunder on my part.” 

Tesfia meekly raised her head to look at Alus, who realized it was partly his mistake. He was aware that considerations like this needed to be taken into account when teaching the two. 

“Good luck, Fia,” Alice said, pampering Tesfia, as if to say that her mother would come around eventually. She succeeded in further taming the redheaded girl who was now as meek as a critter. 

Next, Tesfia looked at Alus with a guilty expression. “Al, I didn’t say your name or rank, but I think Mother suspects something. I couldn’t...” 

“What does it matter? If she’s a former soldier, then there’s a chance she’ll figure it out sooner or later. Especially when it concerns her own daughter. Isn’t that all right?” Alus had the preconception that that was just how parents were, and he wasn’t all that wrong. 

That said, since he didn’t know Tesfia’s parents, it was just a presumption on his part. If biological parents and foster parents acted the same, then Berwick or Vizaist would be useful as examples of how Alus would be treated. 

But even if he thought about that, the situation wasn’t going to improve; so he changed gears to something more realistic. “Right, now that the noisy one is back, the two of you should get back to training. I’m going back to my own research.” 

Tesfia slowly raised her hand, for some reason not reacting to being called noisy. “Uhm... should I help too as an apology?” 

“Oh? Are you trying to cause me even more problems? In fact, how do you think you’re going to help me with my research?” 

“That’s right.” Loki didn’t miss her chance to throw in a sharp retort of her own. She didn’t need to wait for Alus to say something to know his research was exceptionally advanced. If not, Loki would have long since been his research assistant as well as his partner. 

But this time, she relented on stepping in any further, and left the explanation to Alice. “Tell her, Ms. Alice.” 

“Uhm... o-okay.” Alice was taken aback by having the topic suddenly thrown in her lap, but did as Loki asked and explained it to Tesfia. “Fia, thanks to Al’s research I’m able to use another spell now. That’s the kind of level it’s on... so I don’t think you’d be very useful.” 

“... Aren’t good intentions enough?” 

“Hmm, I think you’d only get in the way.” Unlike before, Alice had had several opportunities to look at Alus’ research process. When she saw the complex character strings and books on advanced magic theory that were lying about, she just felt overwhelmed. 

“That’s too bad... let me know if I can do anything.” 

“If you have the time for that, get to work on improving your own skills.” 

“Geez... I get it... I’m going to get much stronger before you know it.” Tesfia reflected on her remark before saying it out loud. Her tone of voice made it sound like she was trying to convince herself, and behind that was yet more anxiety. 

As if to shake free from those feelings, Tesfia forcibly changed the subject. “... Anyways, isn’t that great, Alice! Congratulations on acquiring a new spell! That’s always been on your mind, after all.” A joyful look appeared on Tesfia’s face as though she was happy for herself, and she took hold of Alice’s hands so quickly that she threw her balance off a little. 

“Y-Yeah. Thank you, Fia. Thank you again, Al.” 

“Don’t worry about it,” Alus simply accepted her thanks. Since he didn’t feel like he’d done anything special, he actually felt a little abashed. “Anyway, you get it now, don’t you? I’m not doing the kind of research you’d be useful for.” 

“What’s going on in your head, anyway? Being a Magicmaster and a researcher at the same time is a little extreme.” Tesfia’s way of thinking was common among Magicmasters. To her, Magicmasters were purely people who put theories into practice, leaving research of magic to the specialist scholars. 

Behind the explosive development of magic was an orderly division of labor, and a pursuit of logic. Which was perhaps also why the system was so rigid and unchanging. 

“This is the problem with people who don’t think things through. Why don’t you study up on the magic you use a little more?” 

“Hrk...” Having had a sound argument thrown her way, Tesfia stumbled for words. But she quickly got herself together and said, “Your sublime research has left a deep impression on me. If possible, I would ask you to impart your teachings on the depths of magic to this unworthy mind of mine.” 

Tesfia held the hems of her tunic, putting a leg back and bowing, a considerable contrast to her ironic smile. A backhanded compliment, it seemed. 

“...” Her intentions aside, Alus felt like this was the first time he’d ever seen her behave like a noble. But since he knew what she was normally like, it felt horribly wrong, too. Normally, one might be captivated by her appearance, but Alus couldn’t imagine it. “That’s what I’m calling shallow. Talk about shrewd.” 

“Urgh... t-that’s right... I have a present for you too, Al! I’ll give it to you later.” 

She can be clever in the strangest ways. But she’s shrewd either way, Alus thought. 

“The ice attribute has a wide variety of spells. Once you’re able to put those to use, we can move on to the real thing.” 

“Got it!” Tesfia’s mischievous smile was replaced with an innocent one. 

“Also, if you’re going back to the dorm, make sure you eat there. I don’t want you mooching off of us.” 

“Who’s mooching here! You don’t even prepare the food yourself.” Tesfia childishly stuck out her tongue in a meager show of revenge. 

After that, Tesfia and Alice returned to the girls’ dorm to change and eat. The training grounds had been reserved so Alice could more quickly make minute adjustments to her new spell. However, they had a brief period of free time before then, due to the time of their reservation. 

Additionally, Tesfia had shown up with so little luggage because she’d had most of it shipped back, and it was just about time for her to pick it up. 

Finally, Alus and Loki were left alone, and silence filled the laboratory after the selfish storm had passed. 

Alus sighed, muttering, “Geez, talk about noisy.” But for some reason it didn’t feel as unpleasant as he thought it would. Then again, if it would continue on forever, that would be a problem in itself. His mind would break down from the mental fatigue. 

Either way, now was a good time for a break. Just as he was about to ask Loki for some tea, he noticed that something strange was still here. 

“... Is she really an idiot?” 

Tesfia had gone and left her luggage behind, just after all they had discussed. 

Maybe it really was intentional. At the very least, that present of hers should be inside. Which was why—“Don’t throw it away, Loki.” 

“I know. That was a joke.” Loki frowned and muttered, “What a hopeless person,” as she glanced at the bag that contained a present not just for Alus, but for her as well.