Chapter 27 (continued)

I hurriedly pulled out my phone. The number I had just saved was already coming in handy. I called Lusien, and he picked up very quickly. He clearly knew it was my number, too. I figured Ms. Angela had already told him.

"Good evening, Mage Field. This is Lusien Xiujia. Did you need me?"

"Where are you on duty right now?" I asked, getting straight to the point.

He paused for a moment, then answered, "I'm leading a team to set up defenses around the parliament building."

The shadow was exceedingly elusive. Under cover of night, it was especially hard to make out with the naked eye. If my familiar hadn't been able to locate it through spiritual power, I was afraid I would have lost it. As I controlled the familiar to follow it carefully, I told Lusien as concisely and clearly as I could:

"Then you're very close! I spotted a suspicious character in the blocks near the summit venue. He might be a cyborg."

After I spoke, I used a more precise detection spell on the target ahead to make sure. The spell's results confused me even more than what I could see with my own eyes. According to the spell, this oddball was a mishmash of things, and I couldn't tell what on earth he was. These days, our mages' detection spells often failed, mainly not because the spells didn't work, but because there were so many mishmashes like this one. He was definitely a cyborg, but he also looked a lot like an assassin. That really tested us mages' imaginations.

Such combinations were rare among spellcasters, but similar problems often cropped up with martial artists. A perfectly ordinary martial artist might, for various reasons-most commonly injury or disability-have some Magitech-made mechanical prosthetics mixed in. Unless the mage doing the detection was experienced, they could easily mistake him for something like a mech warrior, when he might actually be a knight, berserker, or another kind of martial artist.

So I cautiously added, "I think he's a cyber assassin."

But I wasn't sure whether I'd coined the term correctly. After all, as Moli put it, I was still "clueless about electronics."

To my surprise, Lusien said "oh," clearly understanding my original term. I was quite pleased with that.

That was also why I didn't dare get any closer. I really wasn't sure whether the cyborg was an assassin. If he was, he could very well detect my familiar. Assassins had plenty of strange tricks, after all.

By assassin, I meant a class. Classes and occupations were very different. In ancient times, there was no definition of a class, and everyone understood what an assassin was. But that didn't work in modern society. In modern society, "class" and "occupation" were two separate terms. The Grand National Defense Joint Council had coined the word "class" specifically to distinguish people "capable of using special powers," such as mages and knights.

People with classes could be understood simply as people capable of using special abilities. Take me, for example. Mage was my class, but my job was an academy researcher. The latter was how I made a living, a concept of the same kind as a corporate office worker, and I could change it at any time. But even if I died, I would still be a mage. At most, I would become a dead mage. From the moment I cast my first fireball, I would be a mage for the rest of my life. Even when my bones had rotted to ashes, those would still be a mage's ashes.

The concept seemed troublesome when you first encountered it, but once I understood it, I still felt that modern society needed such a definition. It wasn't as much of an issue for us mages, but with the military, ambiguity could easily arise without classes to clarify things. When ordinary people spoke of a "warrior," they meant someone whose occupation was fighting, such as a professional soldier. But a type of martial artist passed down from ancient times who could use rage to strengthen themselves was also called a "warrior." In that case, you had to distinguish between the "warrior class" and the "occupation of warrior." Not every modern soldier had the warrior class. The same applied to bards. Those who could use spiritual power to cast charm spells through their voices were said to have the "bard class." But some third-rate pop singers, unable to become popular, had openly hyped themselves up as "bards." This had once drawn strong protests from the Bards' Guild, and the matter had even made it onto the annual anti-fraud gala.

Ah, how had I gone off topic again?

Back to assassins. Assassins were more complicated. Many people claimed to be assassins, but they could at most be considered professional killers, and the Assassins' Shadow Alliance would not recognize them. Simply working as a killer didn't make someone an assassin. Only if he learned stealth and counter-stealth, as well as poisoning and detection, did he count as one. That was what I meant: if that cyborg really did have the assassin class, he would definitely know stealth and detection, and my familiar could very well alert him.

In the legendary era, having a class was normal. A city gate guard might have been a warrior, and an ordinary

farmer

might have been an archdruid. But in modern society, again because of the "lightless years," it wasn't just us mages whose numbers had dwindled. The legacies of all ancient classes had been affected by technology.

So after I spoke, I had expected Lusien to be at least somewhat surprised by the appearance of a cyborg, just as I was. Instead, he was more sensitive to another issue and reacted with surprise. "An assassin? Do you mean an assassin with a class?"

Only then did I follow his train of thought. Finding an assassin in the capital was even more alarming than finding a cyborg. These days, all sorts of private military companies employed cyborgs. Although our Osland Federation strictly controlled military enterprises, it wasn't as though we had none. Assassins, by comparison, were much rarer. Unlike ancient legacies with glorious histories, such as mages and knights, assassins made their money taking lives, after all, so their existence was a serious violation of modern law. The Shadow Alliance had been registering fewer and fewer assassins over the years, and calls within the Grand National Defense Joint Council to ban the Shadow Alliance had grown louder and louder. Assassins had truly become a rare species.

"I'm not sure either," I answered carefully. "That person definitely has mechanically enhanced parts, so with my experience, I really can't make a good judgment. I just saw that he was extremely agile, and... ah, he can predict the movements of the patrolling peace officers and evade them perfectly."

"Could you check whether he's wearing any electronic equipment on his face, or see whether his eyes have had mechanical implants? Let's hope he's just an ordinary cyborg," Lusien said gravely.

Oh, was that how it worked? Then I'd find a chance to check.

The cyborg suspected of being an assassin really was rather impressive. I saw him evade not only the ordinary peace officers patrolling the central district, but even a patrol from the Shield of the New Star with precision. Because the central district had so many government offices and important landmark buildings, it wasn't as lively as the ordinary districts. Holy Light City's main districts were usually brightly lit and bustling, with a rich and varied nightlife. Only the center was relatively quiet, because all sorts of important institutions were located there. Besides, with the summit being held recently, the central district was practically under martial law. Petty thieves would definitely head for the busy districts, and if this cyborg had shown up here without some major plot, then I must be Reynold's true love.

Lusien's tone grew more serious. "No, don't check after all. Leave it to the Shield of the New Star. I'll be there immediately. Please stay safe, and you'd better leave there quickly!"

Hmm... of course I was safe. I was sitting in my apartment. The familiar had just been folded from a piece of paper and was a consumable to begin with. I was only worried that if it got taken out, I wouldn't hear any more intelligence.

Soon, he made contact with more suspicious characters. They were holding some strange-looking devices with blinking red indicator lights. They were definitely some kind of technology.

After risking a closer approach, I felt a little more at ease. Using the method Lusien had taught me, I found that the man probably wasn't an assassin after all. What looked like an assassin's detection skill was actually an infrared detection lens worn on his face. I could at least recognize that thing. I'd watched sci-fi blockbusters with Moli, and those things all looked more or less alike. This product of technology was probably even more powerful than an ordinary assassin's detection ability, but it only worked on living things. My familiar flew brazenly past him, and he didn't grow suspicious. Still, looking at it this way, although assassins were nearly extinct, the illegal business of killing and bloodshed had yet to be wiped out.