The Book Chaser

(Miluno)

Although there are surveillance systems more advanced than optical imaging, cameras were eventually installed on streets and alleys to compensate for the lack of ground-based monitoring...

Neurotic.

Such a massive project can be completed in the blink of an eye? Are you showing off your infrastructure capabilities?

There's a spherical surveillance camera under every streetlamp. Is it really necessary to go to such lengths and waste money just to deal with me? Next time I want to get in, I'll just have to go into a residential building, right?

And it hasn't even been used yet.

Even if they see the door, they still can't see me; the witch who flew over sitting on a book didn't even notice me.

But...

Metal previously said that Minister Hefi was stunned by a book.

I thought, she's a magical girl, after all; how could she be knocked unconscious by a book?

The result was a book the size of a living room rug and as thick as a bedside table...

Tsk, it's a stroke of luck that he wasn't crushed to death.

They had barely arrived when a clue came knocking on their door.

As one of the witches who went to the branch to support Sun Ji along with Betelgeuse, she must also know where SpiCa was taken. As long as we follow her, there will definitely be results...

The Book Witch was unwilling to leave just like that. She pushed up her glasses, which were as thick as the bottom of a beer bottle, and the giant book beneath her suddenly opened, from which some Playing-Card Soldiers fell out, like characters who had run out of Alice in Wonderland.

These magically summoned Playing-Card Soldiers were even more disciplined than the Monster patrol. They blocked the surrounding streets side by side, then stacked themselves into three high, impenetrable walls, maintaining their formation as they marched along the streets.

Wow, so you guessed I was staying invisible nearby, and that's why you're trying to find me using this method?

But she underestimated my mobility!

With a simple push off the wall, I lightly leaped onto the roof, watching those Playing-Card Soldiers doing futile work in the street.

While I was observing, I took the opportunity to observe the Book Witch.

She was petite, with black hair in two braids, and wore thick-rimmed round glasses. She had the air of a literary young woman, but her face showed no emotion, as if she were just a doll placed on a book.

Like Fomalhaut and me, although we have a cool and aloof persona, we are not expressionless.

Like the girl with no emotions, like Antarctic Star, she may not have any expression, but that's just a manifestation of her rationality.

But the Book Witch appears hollow; not even the muscles in her face move, like a delicate porcelain doll...

Unable to find anything, the Book Witch recalled the Playing-Card Soldiers, circled in the sky once, and then retreated in the direction from which they had come.

She wasn't flying fast.

Even though I was running on the ground, I was able to keep up with her speed perfectly.

But this isn't the direction of Fomalhaut's base. So SpiCa was indeed imprisoned in a different place?

"Bang--"

Gunshots rang out during the chase, and the bullets hit the spot I had just stepped on.

They had barely taken one step when...

"Bang--Bang--"

Two more gunshots rang out, sparks flying at my feet.

I've been found out?

Wrong...

The spots hit were all floor tiles; I've triggered a trap.

Realizing something was wrong, I instinctively took a few steps back, retreating to a non-existent boundary.

It was my carelessness.

The Book Witch didn't let her guard down just because she hadn't found me. She guessed I was tracking her, so she used her ability to fly as bait to lure me here...

This is probably Betelgeuse's base?

I can't think of any other witch besides the assassin Betelgeuse who would set up such a large trap array near her own lair.

However, the trap was triggered. Although it did not harm me, it confirmed my presence to the Book Witch. She paused briefly in the air before flying into the upper level of Betelgeuse's base without looking back.

"Tsk..."

However, SpiCa might actually be hidden here. Although it looks similar to Fomalhaut's base, based on my understanding of that hunter, she can lay eleven different traps within ten steps, along with her foul-mouthed sarcastic voiceover.

Although I am perfectly invisible, they cannot see me.

However, it's impossible to avoid triggering various physically-triggered traps.

Tricky.

Unlike entering Fomalhaut's base, you can't just walk in through the main gate.

Furthermore, once the Book Witch returns, she will definitely report my existence to Betelgeuse, and Betelgeuse will certainly strengthen its defenses further until SpiCa's Witchification Process is complete...

Tsk, are we going to force our way in?

My guess came true.

A towering cliff suddenly rose up a few meters in front of me, covered in lubricant and small, insurmountable spikes; even if I sped up, I couldn't climb it.

"Oh? So this is making the choice for me?"

Aside from not knowing where I am, my existence is no longer a secret.

"Things have come to this point, the only option is to confront them head-on!"

But this wall can't stop me.

Having already witnessed what lay beyond the cliff, I casually opened a teleportation portal, sped through the sniper corridor, and headed straight for the base's tightly closed gate.

Then, he took a packaged battery from his waist and threw it toward the door.

The heavy metal door panel burst open instantly, like a balloon punctured by a needle.

Metal's magic is indeed very useful in this world!

But there are only three batteries left, and we can't keep wasting them.

Because I drove in at high speed, the traps that I had just triggered were detonated. Behind me, besides the gunshots, there were continuous explosions. But if they were all physically triggered traps, even if I stepped on a landmine, it wouldn't have been enough to hurt me.

I challenged them in front of the wrecked gate.

"Betelgeuse, hand over SpiCa!"

Now that my existence has been exposed, I don't plan to hide it anymore. When it's time to be arrogant, I won't hesitate.

Traps don't discriminate, and while the Betelgeuse tortoise formation, the other witches and Monster couldn't offer her much support.

No matter how ruthless she is, as a witch who has never "personally" gone to the front lines, Betelgeuse is, in my opinion, a cowardly woman lacking courage, even less so than that brat researcher, Golden Consort.

These cowardly traps can't stop me no matter what.

As I swiftly traversed Betelgeuse's base, just as I expected, this reclusive witch didn't even have a patrol of Monster Soldiers; instead, she had only mechanical arms and robotic clones forming a fire support team.

But these things are just toys to me.

Because they couldn't see my position, these toys could only unleash a barrage of fire on the entrance passage, attempting to stop me in this simple and brutal way. But now that I'm merged with Sirius, I can dodge bullets with just my instincts, and my sword can cleave through their metal bodies. The saying "passing through a sea of flowers without a single petal clinging to me" is not an adjective describing my purity at this moment.

In the blink of an eye, I had finished cleaning the patrol team at the entrance.

Just as I was about to search further, a strange sense of déjà vu flashed through my mind.

That is...

Betelgeuse is trying to stop me from rescuing SpiCa.

The decision was made to execute SpiCa's "images" before I even arrived.