Chapter 10 (continued)

I let out a long sigh, stirring Mel's hair. I quickly drew my gaze away from that soft strand and said, "I'm a fellow at the National Magic Research Institute. I was just suspended without pay because I accidentally blew up a laboratory."

Mel looked utterly confused. This was the first time since we'd met that he hadn't understood what I said... Not that I minded, because I didn't think any proper mage could make sense of the institute's rules. It had taken me a great deal of effort to grudgingly accept them myself at first.

Mel immediately pressed me. "What's wrong with blowing up a laboratory? Isn't that perfectly normal?"

Well said, Mel. That's exactly how I feel!

"Hmm... it certainly is, but..." I thought for a moment and sighed again. "My dear Mel, you can't expect a bunch of 'mages' whose 'normal' state is swinging chairs at each other to understand that."

Mel understood at once, but he looked even more upset. Watching people fight with chairs had shocked him far more than it had me, watching through a television screen. A little displeased, he lay back down-forcefully, throwing himself into the pillow. Fortunately, the pillows here were thick and soft. He moved closer to me until our shoulders were pressed tightly together, and through his thin shirt, I could feel his rather slender shoulder and pleasant warmth.

"You really should quit, Xipei," he said irritably. "How can you stay in a place like that?"

"Unfortunately... I can't," I answered truthfully. "The Federation paid for me to attend magic academy. Until I've repaid that debt, I can't leave. In ancient times, I'd have been a court mage. Back then, royal court mages even had to sign soul contracts or swear allegiance!"

"But we live in a society governed by law now. Soul magic has already been classified as an illegal forbidden art!" Mel objected.

I smiled. "Well, you said it yourself. We live in a society governed by law now. Even without the soul oaths of allegiance that court mages swore in ancient times, the legal contracts we sign when we take up our posts are even more effective. Quitting before the contract expires is a breach, and we'd have to pay compensation under the law."

Mel was speechless.

After a moment of silence, Mel and I sighed together.

That left us both a little downcast.

After a while, Mel suddenly blinked, and a starry sky appeared on the ceiling. Deep, distant starlight twinkled in the quiet room. Mel told me gently but firmly, "This is a spell my teacher taught me. This starry sky is like the universe of knowledge. Look, it's boundless and brilliant-there's so much wonderful learning waiting for us to explore! We'll never run out of knowledge to acquire or good books to read! We can just treat those vulgar people like air!"

"You're right," I answered.

"Xipei, I really admire you," Mel said sincerely. "In your place, I might not have been able to restrain myself from blasting those people with a forbidden spell."

"Hahaha." I laughed. "I promise you, I've pictured that scene in my head more than once!"

The magical starlight fell across our faces, just as dreamlike and tranquil. Mel and I leaned against each other and continued chatting on and off, our conversation jumping from one topic to another as we grew tired. Soon, sleepiness swept over us. I didn't know which of us fell asleep first, but in any case, it was the most comfortably I'd slept in a long time...

If only I hadn't been startled awake in the middle of the night.

I suddenly opened my eyes, my pleasant dream shattering in an instant. There was a faint, unsettling commotion. Mel and I sat up at the same time, our hearts beating a little erratically from waking so abruptly. Our shadows had long since stopped dancing, but the shield and Mel's starry sky remained. He frowned at the spell on the ceiling and said, "This spell lasts about three hours, which means we haven't even slept for three hours."

Something in the distance let out a long, piercing wail.

Then we both felt an irregular fluctuation in the air, and in the distance, we could hear an alarm sounding in the prison. We went to the door, but the corridor outside was quiet. The captain from the Shield of the New Star had told us that the mage section was empty almost year-round, making the two of us rare guests. Mel was an honored guest of the Federation, and this time his only charge was damaging public property, so the guards hadn't made a big show of watching him. As a result, we were utterly bewildered, with no idea what was happening and no one to ask.

But I had at least had dealings with the Federation's upper echelons and knew a little about military and political affairs. From the faint alarm, I concluded-

"Either someone's breaking into the prison to rescue someone, or someone's breaking out. That's not the sound of a fire alarm or anything like that. It's the prison's red alert," I said gravely.

Mel looked even angrier. "Before we fell asleep, our lives were peaceful and lovely. The moment we open our eyes, there's trouble again!"

"Yes, and we'd finally gotten a chance to practice spells in peace..." I said with a frown.

I was somewhat worried. Reynold had once told me that Holy Light City's prison had the highest security level in the entire Federation. Its security was the tightest, and many of the prisoners it held... were dangerous enough to warrant it. Reynold was proud of this, because the Magic Council had contributed to the prison's security system. Besides, looking at it another way, this was the capital, a capital guarded by the Federation's elite forces, the holy land where the Temple of Light had its headquarters. Alongside the police, peace officers, and Magitech Corps, the Shield of the New Star, whose combat strength was quite formidable, also conducted routine daily patrols, as did the renowned Temple Knights. Since ancient times, those paladins had possessed combat strength that couldn't be underestimated. Their current knight commander could even split a cannon shell with a sword in one hand. So anyone causing trouble in a prison like this ought to be quite powerful too.

"I'm afraid this could be serious trouble," I said.

I shared my speculation. There were only two kinds of illegal activity a prison could face: a rescue or an escape, so it wasn't hard to conclude that if either succeeded, the escaped prisoners would cause great harm. As far as I knew, several highly dangerous prisoners were major evil figures. I guessed they were probably the sort of fiends who had only just changed classes, and who, if not brought under control in time, or if left in a legendary age with an inadequate legal system, would gradually develop into world-destroying demon kings. Countless heroes would have to march to their brave deaths one after another before the demon kings could finally be defeated with great difficulty and go down in history.

And now they'd been thrown in prison just after changing classes to fiends. They definitely wouldn't behave themselves.

But... since we'd happened to run into this, we couldn't just lie back down and go to sleep. After all, I was a government employee of sorts, and Mel was an honorary magic adviser whom the Federation relied on. I was sure I remembered that title correctly.

After hearing me out, Mel looked worried but also a little eager to act. His thoughts were much the same as mine. "Should we go see if we can help? After all... we're mages."

"Indeed." I cocked my ear and listened. "The alarm's still sounding. I'm afraid things aren't looking good. I think two mages could be a great help."

"Besides, I'd very much like to see what means they used to get through the prison's defenses."

"Could they be high-level mages too?"

"Or other high-level professionals," Mel said. "Freelance mercenaries or even private military companies are all possible. In my experience, none of them are easy to deal with."

"They could be thieves or assassins. Assassins in modern society don't have the same standards as their predecessors in ancient times, so the vast majority of them are near the top of the wanted lists themselves. They could very well be in league with the villains in the prison."

"Then we have all the more reason to help." Mel nodded.

We got up decisively and cast an anti-gravity spell on the anti-magic handcuffs, which were heavy as hell. Then we prepared to set out.

The fundamental principle of teleportation was that what you could see, you could reach. Since one wall of this cell was transparent, Mel and I could hardly be blamed for going in and out so easily. That was why I said the capital prison's design really wasn't rigorous. In case a guard came to check on us, we cast an illusion, making two fake versions of ourselves lie sleeping on the floor. Then we cast invisibility spells on ourselves, and I left an anchor rune for teleportation while I was at it. Together, we headed in the direction of the alarm.