Chapter 28

I couldn't help sighing.

Lusien asked me over the phone for the cyborgs' exact location. The Shield of the New Star had searched the entire area, but somehow hadn't found any suspicious targets.

I frowned. I wasn't quite sure exactly where this was. I looked around and spotted a landmark. "There's a Fifth Divine Era Magic History Exhibition Hall nearby."

Hmm, it looked pretty good, too. Mel and I would have to visit another day.

Now that I was sure the man wasn't an assassin, my familiar boldly perched on a windowsill, pretending to be a cute, innocent bird.

But soon, my familiar's vision began to blur. The paper familiar was almost out of Magic Power, and I regretted that it probably wouldn't last until Lusien and the others arrived.

Lusien thanked me over the phone and said it was all right. Guarding the capital was their duty in the first place.

Relieved, I prepared to go to bed once my connection to the familiar was lost.

From a distance, I heard them speak very carefully, using words like "sewer," "vent," and "detonation." I moved closer, and they said some long, incomprehensible technical terms and also mentioned-Mephistopheles.

Mel???

My familiar fluttered in shock, but my vision was beginning to fill with static, like a TV with a bad signal!

Oh no!

If I had the money, I'd definitely get a metal familiar like Mel's. Then it wouldn't let me down at a crucial moment!

Damn it, hold on!!!

My familiar flapped its wings, trying to get closer to them. I felt as though I were seeing through the eyes of a drunk who'd had far too much. I slapped the table in frustration, startling Lusien into asking anxiously over the phone whether I was in danger.

I had no time to pay him any attention. I concentrated on controlling the familiar, trying to hear more, but the loss of Magic Power not only distorted my vision; the sound was muffled as though by a layer of water. I roughly made out words like "the next few days," "hurry," and "blow up."

Damn it, what the hell are you people plotting?

How dare you set your sights on Mel???

My familiar was about to stop working, yet I still couldn't see any sign of the Shield of the New Star. Wasn't Lusien a knight? How could he be as slow as an ordinary peace officer?

We're out of time! The familiar's out of Magic Power! Lusien, can you people track down these bad guys or not?!

I made a snap decision and immediately directed my familiar to struggle into the air, activating the last bit of its Magic Power. Bang! My familiar burst into a cloud of bright red smoke. I figured it would be quite vivid against the night sky, and my vision returned entirely to the apartment.

Lusien, if you still can't find the targets after that, quit being a knight and retire to a nursing home!

"Thank you! The Shield of the New Star has found the targets!" Lusien didn't disappoint me. He shouted into the phone, and the call was cut off.

Chapter 28

After the call ended, Lusien didn't contact me again, so I had no idea how they had handled things. That left me uneasy all night, and I slept so poorly that I had to get up and drink half a bottle of sleep potion. Even then, I still had a whole mess of dreams.

Hmm... Mel is an amazing dark mage. There's no need for me to worry like this. What's wrong with me? A mere handful of cyborgs couldn't possibly catch Mel in their scheme... could they?

I couldn't help getting up and casting a dozen detection spells on myself. Had I picked up some kind of curse somewhere? Otherwise, why was my judgment getting worse?

But what if those villains have some new trick? What then? A lot of villains were really very clever. If they put the brains they used to hatch their schemes into academic research instead, I figured the quality of academic papers would take a huge leap forward every year.

Should I go sit in on the summit? Uh... but I don't have permission to attend. What should I do? If I go find Reynold now, would he be willing to help me get permission?

At a loss, I turned on the TV, unsure what to do. The morning news was on, so I left it on that channel and prepared to listen—if Lusien and the others had caught a major villain or one of his lackeys, it would surely be on the news.

"...The federal prison in Holy Light City was recently the target of a terrorist attack, leaving several guards seriously injured. Fortunately, there were no fatalities. Under the leadership of Warden Angela Rhodes and Magitech Corps commander Martha Alesia, all the intruders were eliminated on the spot. No prisoners escaped, and only some suffered frostbite... Shield of the New Star commander Lusien Xiujia is beginning an investigation into the matter... No organization has yet claimed responsibility... Follow-up work is proceeding in an orderly manner. The public need not worry, and prison visits will continue as normal..."

Huh? Are they talking about what happened to us that night?

On screen, the prison was tidy, and there were no obvious signs of damage in the corridors. There were just a few prisoners on camera with severe colds and high fevers...

I thought about it. Uh, could the frostbite some of the prisoners suffered have been caused by that blizzard spell I botched?

Fortunately, the news didn't report anything about that. Ms. Angela had indeed kept everything about Mel and me completely under wraps, just as she'd said she would. It seemed those two outstanding ladies had discovered us, but they had honored our agreement. Neither Mel nor I appeared in the news at all. As for the frostbitten prisoners, the anchor said that Shield of the New Star commander Lusien had used a new type of weapon, but the results had been less than satisfactory. Warden Angela had lodged a strong protest and demanded that Lusien apologize publicly...

Uh... thanks for taking the trouble, Lusien.

"...Commentators have analyzed the incident and believe that this terrorist attack may actually have been aimed at the International Magic Summit currently underway, with the intention of creating chaos during the event..."

The anchor's face was grave.

"...The Grand National Defense Joint Council has expressed concern over the matter. The Holy Dragon Empire's Ministry of Foreign Affairs promptly sent a message of sympathy and strongly condemned the act. At the same time, the Dragon Emperor once again appealed to the international community, stating that 'violence cannot solve problems'..."

Wow!

"Violence cannot solve any problem" was a famous maxim on governing that had circulated in the Holy Dragon Empire for hundreds of years. But if you asked me, those dragon knights flying around on giant dragons had no right to say it. Only when they managed to rein in their own violent red dragons and stop them from flying around breathing fire and wrecking other people's meetings could they say that with any conviction.

I remembered one Grand National Defense Joint Council meeting where the eldest prince's dragon had burned the host completely bald, without a single hair left on his body. (Yes, every hair on his body, but without damaging the slightest bit of skin. That level of control was worthy of the extraordinary dragon race.) It was because the host had accidentally made a joke about the eldest prince losing his hair.

Besides that, the Holy Dragon Empire's dragon queen had the bad habit of going around dismantling people's mechs, supposedly because she liked a certain shiny component in their engines. They also had a blue dragon prince who liked to go around snatching princesses and princes, claiming he wanted to experience the life of an evil dragon from the legendary era. Such farcical exploits had once drawn strong condemnation from the international community...

That was why the Holy Dragon Empire had always been jokingly called the Fairy Tale Empire—they were practically there to make people laugh!

"...In addition, the holding of this summit has prompted dissatisfaction among certain 'extremist anti-magic organizations.' The well-known anti-magic organization the Dawn Alliance is holding large-scale marches and rallies during the International Magic Summit, promoting extremist ideas such as 'abolish magic' and 'technology first'..."

I couldn't help sitting up straight and frowning. I knew of the Dawn Alliance. Despite its rather nice-sounding name, it was a radical pro-technology organization that was vehemently opposed to magic. They openly declared that the "lightless years" were the most glorious era in human history, and that magic, along with things like Dou Qi, which had a nearly equally long history, were relics of a bygone era that should be utterly eradicated, ushering humanity into a new world governed entirely by technology.

As far as I knew, the organization had been officially declared illegal in both the Osland Federation and the Holy Dragon Empire, but many countries still declined to take a position. Looking across the human nations of the entire continent, only the Osland Federation placed importance on magic, and it was also the foremost magical power. The others generally leaned toward whichever side was profitable... As for the Holy Dragon Empire... Although it wasn't a magical nation, half the country was crawling with dragons. They were living legends, and dragons over a thousand years old had witnessed the previous Divine Era firsthand. The Dawn Alliance would have loved to blow the Holy Dragon Empire flat, so naturally the two were bitter enemies.