"Why did this happen?"
This was the first question Lord El-Melloi II considered whenever he handled one of the Clock Tower's many cases. A magician's abilities rendered ordinary methods ineffective, but magicians were still human. Indiscriminate murder was rare among them.
Gray had followed Lord El-Melloi II through so many cases, and with her usual love of detective books, she had grown tremendously since first leaving her village.
"First, why hasn't the enemy appeared? If there really were an enemy, they couldn't have trapped us inside the barrier without showing themselves. So what if there is no enemy?"
Reines El-Melloi Archisorte picked up where Gray left off. Gray was not the only one influenced by Lord El-Melloi II; Reines had been as well.
"What do you mean by that? Are you saying there's a problem with my setup? Impossible. I never use such second-rate spells."
Luvia sounded displeased. She was no fool and naturally understood what Gray and Reines were implying. If there was no enemy, then the Mystic Barrier here was malfunctioning.
For magicians, accidents involving magecraft or Mystic Barriers were nothing unusual. Every year, quite a few newcomers to the world of magecraft got themselves killed—some trapped themselves in barriers they had cast and ultimately starved to death. Of course, that mainly referred to those who had stumbled into the world of magecraft by chance. Any magician with even a little inherited knowledge would not make such mistakes.
"Precisely because you use only the best, something went wrong. I sensed something off when I first came in, and now I finally understand. You've been far too wasteful. You attended my brother's class on barriers before, didn't you?"
"Well..." Luvia immediately hesitated. She had denied it only because she did not want to lose face before Tohsaka Rin. But