"So yeah, I hate bratty kids the most! You never know what they might do!"
"Are you talking about yourself, meow?"
Angell recognized the hat as merchandise from his shop at first glance.
After all, Angell had designed the outfits and signature items for the Magical Girls, both before and after they transformed.
The Jazz Hat was a Magic Item belonging to Lisa, the Magical Girl whose signature color was blue.
Lisa was born into a middle-class family and attended Cecilia Girls' School. Clever and composed, with excellent grades, she was a proper little lady. Yet she dreamed of getting into City of Academies' School of Mathematics and becoming a female physicist. That was why she would sometimes pretend to be her twin brother and sneak into the Public School's physics electives.
(Angell: Does this character have a real-life inspiration?
Allen: Hahaha, does she?)
The Jazz Hat was one of the props Lisa used when she dressed up as a boy.
Angell had made it one of the tutorial items in the fighting game Magic Arena, where it taught players how to control their characters and use their Ultimate Skills.
To suit Lisa's "clever" trait, Angell had added a large amount of Memory Grass when making the hat. It could remember the player's mistakes and remind them when necessary.
Honestly, though, Angell hadn't expected this piece of merchandise to sell well at first.
Of the outfits and items belonging to the five Magical Girls, the Jazz Hat looked the most unremarkable. The Movie was also too short to properly showcase each Magical Girl's traits. When Allen was writing the script, he had asked Angell if they should cut a few of the Magical Girls, but Angell had refused. Instead, he'd had Allen write a ton of dialogue and plot for the related game series, planning to let players fill in the story themselves. Magic Arena was one of those games. Even so, Lisa didn't seem like the sort of character who would be popular.
Angell had categorized the hat as an unpopular item, to be sold as part of a set.
Memory Grass was cheap, anyway.
But Angell hadn't expected anyone to use the hat in such a strange way.
Angell didn't make a fuss. He just went back and checked the numbers, confirming that in the short span of half a month, before Magical Girl☆Maya had even premiered, Lisa's Jazz Hat had become an unexpected hit, with two-thirds of the stock sold.
—Of course it had. An entire school had bought them in bulk. How could the numbers not be high?!
The culprit was easy to find, too.
His name was still on Magic Arena's Hall of Fame!
Angell used the name to track him down to a weapon shop in town.
Little Bolo was hiding under the covers, trembling.
The moment he saw Angell, he realized the truth had come out. He immediately started shouting, "They started it! Mr. Yara's still being held there. They're insisting he helped us cheat, and they're planning to fire him!"
"...Even so, didn't you bring the hats over because you intended to cheat from the start?" Angell said.
He wasn't going to be fooled by a couple of words from a kid!
Angell believed the students had indeed cheated together partly out of indignation that the idiots had given their teacher a hard time. But had they really bought the hats in advance because they'd anticipated this?
Never mind that they'd initially bought them just to have a Reading Pen that could help them memorize vocabulary.
"Waaah!" Little Bolo wailed.
He hadn't wanted things to get so out of hand!
When Little Bolo had unexpectedly gotten the hat, all he'd wanted was to secretly "improve" on his own.
But after wearing the hat to school, he quickly realized that his plan wouldn't work very well:
The hat was too conspicuous!
Few people wore hats indoors, and during an exam, it would definitely attract the teacher's attention. Besides, the hat was quite stylish. Before the teacher even said a word, a bunch of classmates had come over to ask Little Bolo where he'd gotten it.
But would a lousy student give up his plan just because of that?
Of course not.
Little Bolo immediately bragged to his classmates about his visit to Magic Gear. The next day, a few classmates from wealthy families showed up wearing the same hat.
Little Bolo still thought that wasn't enough. He'd heard from a player at the Workshop that the hat was supposedly from some Movie, so Bolo carefully searched through several newspapers and magazines. He picked out the ones with photos of Lisa and brought them to class to promote the hat. Soon, even more students at the school were wearing them. Word spread, and a trend took off.
Once everyone had a hat, it didn't seem so strange if a few people occasionally forgot to take theirs off in the exam hall.
Angell: ...If you put that much effort into studying, wouldn't that be better?
The Principal and teachers at Third Charity School had naturally noticed the trend. But since the hats were products of Magic Gear, and Angell had sponsored the school's Mana Base Station, no one said anything.
The Principal even thought the hat looked quite nice and suited the children. Besides, the Magic Unified Examination was coming up, and he'd heard that important people from the Royal Capital would be attending. It was a rare chance to make the school more visible, so the Principal asked the parents of several wealthy families to sponsor hats for all the children.
Angell: ...
Of course, most people had no idea the hat was a Magic Item. After all, few kids were as clever as Little Bolo. And without any other text entered into it, the hat wasn't supposed to speak anywhere outside Magic Arena.
Everyone just thought the hat was a little expensive.
Until the "big shots" kicked a hornet's nest at the Magic Unified Examination.
The first day of the Magic Unified Examination was the Meditation Test. It had nothing to do with the hat, and there was no way to cheat on it. In fact, since the exam was being held outside school, the students couldn't use Magic Cubes to meditate.
That day, all the students felt they'd done poorly. The invigilators were too strict and cold, and some of them even made movements and gestures that disrupted the students' meditation. The students had plenty of complaints and felt uneasy.
On its own, that wouldn't have caused much trouble.
But the children didn't realize that when they thought they'd "done poorly," they were comparing themselves to their usual performance. After six whole months of intensive meditation training, these children, despite having no talent, had far surpassed ordinary people. They could even hold their own against Magic Apprentices who hadn't undergone long-term training.
Their meditation scores caused quite an uproar.
The "Abolitionist School" representatives from the Royal Capital started arguing with the "Promotion School," led by Mayor Owen. They even summoned the charity school's teachers for questioning. The invigilators who took the teachers away were extremely rude.
The already uneasy students immediately blew up.
The sensitive children had already vaguely sensed that the invigilators seemed to be hostile toward them. Now that their teachers had been "taken away," it only confirmed their suspicions. The adults were busy arguing among themselves and had no time to deal with the students, leaving the little brats in complete chaos. Rumors spread everywhere, and some students even proposed storming the office to rescue their teachers.
Little Bolo was swept up in the feverish atmosphere, too.
But his little brain worked pretty well. He immediately figured that a bunch of children couldn't possibly beat the adults, especially since many of the invigilators were Mages. So Little Bolo found the older student leading the group, told him what the Magic Hats were really for (X), and suggested they give those despicable invigilators a real "Hat Trick."
The other brats unanimously approved the idea.
And that was how they ended up getting perfect scores in all their other subjects.
"Didn't you realize that this would actually confirm the malicious accusations against you?" Angell asked quietly after listening to the whole story.
"...I didn't think that far ahead! I just wanted to teach those guys a lesson." Little Bolo bit his lip.
He was only nine years old, after all.
And even setting him aside, the oldest children taking the exam were only sixteen—the age when they were easiest to incite.
In fact, right after the exam ended, the children had been quite pleased with themselves. But when they realized their teachers still hadn't been released, they started to panic.
Little Bolo was especially quick to realize that if there was a "traitor" among them, he'd be the one arrested for masterminding it, and his family might get dragged into it too.
That was why he was so scared.
"Don't worry. I'm not here to settle scores with you." Angell saw the little boy curled into a ball and couldn't bring himself to scold him. He just sighed. "Besides, now that I think about it, I'm a behind-the-scenes accomplice too, since I provided the hats."
"...I'm sorry," Bolo whimpered.
He more or less understood that he'd caused trouble for the owner of the Alchemy Workshop.
"More importantly, how did you use these hats outside a Mana Base Station?" Angell asked. That was what he really wanted to know.
Although the children's meditation skills had improved, Magic Items like the hats required a great deal of mana. Even with a Mana Base Station, members with a Mana level below D couldn't use them. That was why Angell had set an entry requirement for the third floor, where Magic Arena was located, only allowing members with a certain level of mana to play.
"I... used the Runes from the Game Table," Little Bolo said.
"The Game Table?"
"Yeah!" Little Bolo explained honestly.
It turned out that the boy's family ran a weapon shop.
In the Magic Era, weapon shops, item shops, and general stores were basically part of the same chain. The shops near each Adventurer's Guild were affiliated businesses, and there were similar chains on several streets throughout the Magic Capital.
In recent years, business at weapon shops had been poor. Bolo's father had been forced to learn how to repair radios, and the whole shop had become more like an electronics repair store. They only maintained weapons for old customers once in a while.
It wasn't until recently, when Magic Gear's Game Table brought the Item Shop on Heroes Avenue back to life, that those old shops started thriving again.
The owner of that Item Shop couldn't handle the orders alone and didn't want to miss out on the opportunity, so he joined forces with the descendants of some old friends to form a production line.
As the son of a weapon-shop owner, Little Bolo naturally helped out.
He'd helped his father repair radios before, and now he helped make Game Tables.
Bolo had nimble hands. After looking at the Mana Circuits inside a Game Table, he quickly learned how to make its power-supply circuit. The weapon shop had some Magic Cores in storage from before, so Bolo could put together a Game Table himself. He just lacked the crucial Rune Core.
So after getting the Magic Hat, Bolo quickly figured out how to supply it with mana.
"Impressive," Angell said with genuine admiration.
He looked at his own hands and felt that even a nine-year-old was better than him.
Angell paused, then realized something was off. "But you only installed a Magic Core in your own hat, right? What about the other kids'? Did you manage to make all of those in one night?"
"I... secretly went back to school with a few older students and copied the Mana Circuits using the Mana Base Station." Little Bolo peeked at Angell's expression, embarrassed.
He felt even more ashamed. He'd used the other man's donation to do something bad, then left him to take the blame. That was hardly what a good kid would do.
(Angell: You stopped being a good kid the moment you decided to cheat.)
Angell couldn't spare the boy's feelings right now.
His eyes widened. "Copied? How did you copy them?!"
When making an alchemical item like a Game Table, you didn't need to release mana continuously, but you did have to control its flow. That made mass production impossible and had become a bottleneck in Game Table manufacturing.
Even the workers who made Game Tables needed to be like Bolo—people with a strong enough sensitivity to mana and nimble enough hands. They were basically ideal candidates to become Alchemy Apprentices.
But to Little Bolo, this wasn't a problem at all.
"The Recorder!" Little Bolo replied.
"The Recorder?"
"Yeah! Recorders can retain mana nodes. We just had to record the mana nodes the first time, then use the Ink Machine the teachers use to copy exam papers. We could make tons of copies in no time! It just made our heads a little dirty afterward."
"...How did you figure that out?"
"I was actually trying to copy the school's lessons so I could 'study' outside, like with the Game Table, but I couldn't get it to work no matter what I tried. I just discovered that radios could record mana nodes." Little Bolo went on to explain a whole lot about magnetic heads, powder, coils, and the like. Angell's head was spinning by the end of it.
It was knowledge far beyond Angell's grasp.
And not something a nine-year-old should know, either.
Still, Angell could tell that the boy didn't understand the theory at all, whether it was magic or how the Recorder worked. He'd just wanted to play games, so he'd experimented over and over with the things he had on hand, then stumbled on the result.
But this was exactly the kind of seed Angell wanted to see.
Programmers alone couldn't make computers.
Mages alone wouldn't give rise to alchemy, either.
Even Angell was often misled by his own experience and talent, overlooking the things right before his eyes. Honestly, in Angell's era, Recorders had been obsolete for ages. He'd never even used one.
Only by exploring the space between the two could someone find the "truth" of this world.
"Maybe I'll have to talk to your dad about buying the patent for this," Angell muttered.
"!" Little Bolo froze.
He didn't understand what a patent was, but he knew that if his dad found out, his butt would be beaten black and blue!
Still, Little Bolo felt a little relieved.
If this cheating incident could end with his butt getting beaten black and blue, that might be... a happy ending, right? Even he could tell that the situation couldn't be resolved just by him getting a beating.
If I'd known things would turn out like this, I wouldn't have cheated!
Little Bolo regretted it.
For the past few days, he'd been reflecting on his attitude toward studying, hoping the whole thing would be over soon.
"I'm sorry. I won't do it again," Little Bolo said, lowering his head like a puppy.
Angell knew he'd misunderstood what he meant, but didn't explain.
To teach a brat like this a lesson, you had to let him reflect a while longer.
—Especially after hearing how much "effort" this kid had put into playing games and cheating!
Angell ruffled the boy's hair and asked with a laugh, "So, where's your hat?"
He still had to take a look at the Mana Circuit the boy had made.
"In the Sewer near the school."
At this point, Little Bolo had nothing left to hide. He reported everything honestly. "After we finished 'that thing,' we were worried someone might tell on us or let something slip, so we collected everyone's hats and threw them into the Sewer near the school. That way, even if someone discovered the hats' secret, they wouldn't know how we'd used them outside a Mana Base Station."
"But why the Sewer? Wouldn't it have been better to burn them?"
"We couldn't burn them. The school's incinerator was too small, and it would've been obvious right away. But it's different in the Sewer near the school. Strange people have been going in and out of there lately. They're nothing like those respectable adults. I suspect they're up to something... But if we hid the stuff down there, people like the officials wouldn't go looking for it. Even if it got found, it wouldn't cause too much trouble."
"You little clever clogs!"
This criminal plan even included destroying the evidence?
"I can feel it. There's an intense mana reaction down there," Sera said.
She didn't need to say it; it was obvious enough. In the cage she held was a little Sprite with dark green skin. It was chirping and squawking, and a huge flower had bloomed on its head.
Sera ignored the Sprite's reaction and frowned as she stared "down."
A Sewer cover lay beneath them. In the early hours, while the plants and trees slept, they could faintly hear water below and smell the foul air drifting up.
Sera looked disgusted as she turned to her companions. "Which of you is going down?"
Two men and a young woman stood in front of Sera.
One of the men wore an eye-catching White Robe, along with an ornate High-level Mage robe and decorations. He seemed determined to stand out in the night, showing no awareness that they were on a "secret mission."
He clearly didn't want to go anywhere near a filthy place like the Sewer, and immediately took a step back.
The man questioned Sera. "Are you sure it's down there? A Magic Well isn't an actual 'well'!"
"Of course I know that. But what are we supposed to do if the Sprite only reacts to what's below?" Sera said irritably. "Actually, why are we even listening to Payson? He's only a mid-level Black Robe. Why not just accuse him of having problems with his Mana Base Station in the name of the Royal Mage Tower?"
"You're trying to start a civil war in the magic world? The Magic Association in the Eastern Territory has made it clear they're backing that Black Robe." The White Robe frowned and shot a disapproving glance at his clueless companion. "And it's not like we're planning to let him off. We just want to find out where he comes from and what cards he has up his sleeve before we make our move! A Magic Well could give us plenty of clues!"
"Then you go down!" Sera said coldly.
The White Robe man's face twitched as he looked at the Sewer.
He had a serious case of cleanliness obsession and clearly didn't want to go down himself.
So the White Robe man looked at the outsider they'd brought in for this mission. "'Doctor,' what do you think?"
The man they called "Doctor" was a tall old man with age spots covering his face and body. He looked like a giant toad, and just looking at him made Sera feel sick. Yet the young woman beside him showed no disgust at all. She clung affectionately to his arm, like a couple in love.
The old man stared blankly at the Sewer, then said to the young woman, "Beling, you go down."
"Yes, Master," the young woman replied without hesitation.
She lifted the Sewer cover and climbed down.
The old man, meanwhile, took a Crystal Ball from his sleeve and rubbed it. The view inside the Sewer appeared in the ball, clearly transmitted through the eyes of the young woman named Beling.
"Slaves like this sure are useful! I want one too," the White Robe man said with a laugh.
"If I come across a suitable one next time, I'll introduce you," the old man said darkly.
Sera stood to one side, looking disgusted.
She had never understood what those male Mages were thinking. Why were their minds so full of filthy thoughts, yet they could still go on studying magic? When God chose the gifted, couldn't He be a little more selective? Or was God like that too?
As Sera was lost in such thoughts, Beling's voice came faintly through the Crystal:
"Master, there's nothing unusual here, but I haven't detected any obvious magical fluctuations."
"Looks like we'll have to investigate after all." The White Robe turned to look at Sera.
"Fine! I'll go down!" Sera said through gritted teeth. She turned to the old man and ordered, "Have your slaves draw a cleansing circle down there first and keep the smell out. I don't want to get all dirty."
Though she couldn't stand the male Mages' behavior, she had no qualms about ordering her "slaves" around.
After all, they were just ordinary mortals.
Worthless ants.
After making her demand, Sera murmured an incantation and covered herself in a Defense Barrier before climbing down the ladder into the Sewer.
It was indeed filthy down there.
Darkness and a foul stench rushed at her, making Sera feel as though she might faint.
She remembered that ever since they had discovered her talent as a High-level Mage, she hadn't had to suffer like this again.
"Where's that commoner? Didn't I tell her to draw a cleansing circle?" Sera said irritably.
She cast three cleansing spells in a row before she finally felt a little better.
Sera looked around, but couldn't find Beling anywhere.
The Sprite in the cage in her hand only grew more agitated. "Ah! Aaaah!"
The Fairy let out a strange shriek and hurled herself against the cage, smashing her head until it bled. Petals fell from the top of her head.
"Shut up."
Sera spoke coldly and looked in the direction the Fairy had been throwing herself.
Only then did she notice a large hole in the Sewer wall that hadn't been there before.
"Oh, how did a hole get here...? It definitely wasn't in the image just now!" Sera said in surprise. She turned toward the Sewer entrance and called, "Hey! Can you see this?"
There was no reply from above, as if nobody were there.
"Men really are useless!" Sera muttered.
She hesitated, unsure whether she should keep taking the risk or retreat.
But as a High-level Mage, she had already come this far. Leaving now would be a little embarrassing, so Sera went over to take a look at the hole. Beyond it was a room, and Beling stood alone in the middle.
"What are you doing?! Why didn't you answer me just now?!" Sera demanded. She warily stayed outside and ordered, "Hey! What are you standing there for? Come out!"
"...I'm sorry," Beling replied slowly.
She tried to turn her head, but halfway through, it rolled right off her neck and hit the ground.
A sobbing voice came from somewhere in her body. "I've been a little confused lately. I don't know what I'm doing anymore! Miss Sera, you're a High-level Mage. You can save me, can't you?"
"Please, save me!"
The headless body staggered toward Sera.
Sera watched her performance coldly.
As a High-level Mage, how could she possibly be afraid of a mere scene like this?
"Quit the theatrics!" Sera scoffed, raising her arm to cast a spell.
But she quickly discovered that she couldn't summon the Mana inside her body. Worse, her mind was blank; she couldn't cast any spells at all. She was just like a Commoner.
Sera's eyes widened in terror. She hurriedly tried to take out a Magic Item, but found nothing—not even the cage holding the Fairy in her hand!
"I-I get it! This is an illusion!" Sera shouted, trying to sound confident as she completed the gestures for her spell.
But Beling's headless body was still there, almost right in front of her. "Miss Sera?"
"..."
Sera shuddered, shoved Beling hard, and turned to run.
She didn't recklessly flee deeper into the Sewer. Instead, she grabbed the ladder she had just climbed down and scrambled back up.
Nothing got in her way on the way up. Soon she saw the dim yellow glow of the streetlamps outside and heard the White Robe say, "Why are you back so soon? Did you find anything?"
"—This isn't about finding anything! That slave..."
Sera wanted to ask for help, but didn't mention that she couldn't use magic. She simply tried to report Beling's strange behavior. "That slave's head fell off! And she could still talk!"
"Oh, is that what happened?" the White Robe asked.
Sera looked up. Beneath the dim streetlamps, the White Robe and the old man were both smiling at her. They seemed perfectly normal, except... except they were holding their own heads in their hands.
...What a clichéd ghost story!
Sera immediately thought of climbing back down the shaft, but when she looked down, she saw Beling holding her head and staring at her blankly.
Sera broke out in goosebumps and finally reached for the one thing she'd kept as her last resort.
Thank goodness, it's still there!
Sera pressed the gem at the center of the Magic Circle on her lower abdomen and let out a piercing scream.
Flames erupted from the gem and enveloped Sera.
A moment later, nothing remained where Sera had been.
"She escaped." Holding his own head, the old man stared fixedly at the spot where Sera had stood. "What a shame!"
"Ah, what a shame," the White Robe agreed.
He put his head back on his shoulders.