Working for the Empire’s Bureau of Magical Investigation was a tremendously honorable affair. The salary itself wasn’t much, but it guaranteed a stable future, and life became easier in many ways due to the close proximity to state power.
It wasn't something to be spoken of loudly, but there was a fair bit of money that came in through the back door as well. However, there was one single drawback. As a newcomer, you had to work day and night.
It was the same for Jonathan, the top graduate of the Magic Academy. Jonathan was woken up at three in the morning by a glowing crystal orb. The crystal orb’s color was red.
It meant he had to report to work.
"I'm dead tired..."
He immediately put on his uniform and went to work. He arrived at the underground interrogation chamber. As soon as he entered, he said: "My apologies for being late.
New Investigator Jonathan reporting for..." His words trailed off. Jonathan’s gaze was fixed on a man sitting in a chair in the interrogation room, beyond the reinforced glass.
Disheveled hair, empty eyes. But he clearly remembered that face.
"Crazy... that's Malakai!"
Jonathan's eyes widened. His senior colleague nodded. Malakai, the Blood Mage.
An underworld mage who had a warrant out for his arrest across the Empire a few years ago but had vanished into the shadows, his whereabouts unknown.
"The Capital Guard handed him over this morning. Turns out he was the one who released the orcs on the outskirts of the capital."
"Wow... so that's what happened. I thought it would spread beyond the Guard's jurisdiction, but they handled it well on their own."
"I heard it wasn't the Guard that handled it."
"Then who was it?"
At Jonathan's question, his senior handed him a file. A single name was written on the parchment.
[Arresting Officer: Isaac Upperhills] "...
A civilian, and an individual at that, caught him? And it's that famous 'hero' everyone's been talking about lately?"
"That's right. The Magic Tower freshman."
Bound in mana restraints, Malakai stared blankly into the air, completely out of his mind. From behind the glass wall, he repeated the same words like a parrot. -"It's a catastrophe... that thing is a catastrophe..." Jonathan asked his senior.
"What's wrong with that bastard? Did he hit his head?"
"I don't think so... he's just not talking. Why don't you try poking him? See if we can get a different answer out of him."
"Yes, sir."
Jonathan picked up the microphone and asked Malakai on the other side of the glass.
"Who told you to become a Blood Mage? You should've just learned Element Magic fair and square."
Flicker.
Malakai's eyes opened. -"That bastard! That bastard!!" -"He stole... the blood magic I dedicated my life to! That wasn't magic.
It was a scam! A scam, I tell you!" Hearing Malakai's words, Jonathan's senior was lost in thought.
"Stole it, he says..."
"Could he have absorbed his mana?"
At Jonathan's words, his senior shook his head.
"If he did something like that so openly, the Dean would never let him live."
"Right... that's true."
Grrr.
Malakai began to foam at the mouth. Interrogation was impossible in this state. Instead, they headed to the analysis room where the Red Ear’s body was laid out.
The Red Ear's appearance was bizarre. It was shriveled up like a dried mummy, without a single drop of blood. Malakai was a Blood Mage.
Naturally, manipulating blood was his main domain.
"And yet the result is... a bloodless corpse. It means he was defeated head-on in his own area of expertise."
Mages of the underworld spend their entire lives honing a single skill. For them, magical enlightenment isn't as important as the 'power' of their magic. But a head-on defeat...
How? Why?
Jonathan, with his limited knowledge, couldn't understand. His gaze turned to his senior. Perhaps he knew something?
"What, why are you looking at me? I don't know either."
"Just grab the pliers so we can get to the bottom of this. Let's go pull out Malakai's fingernails."
"Yes, sir."
Jonathan picked up a blood-stained tool. Now, the 'real' interrogation would begin.
Early in the morning, before the sun had risen, I was sitting alone in my lab. I had pulled an all-nighter, but my mind felt clear. I had saved all the children and the guards, and the madman who had been lurking beneath the capital was gone.
My heart felt light, as if a layer of old grime had been washed away. Just then, a knock broke the silence. If it were Giuseppe, he would have just walked in, which meant work had come looking for me.
'Things were just starting to feel good, too...' There was just too much work inside the Magic Tower. When I opened the door, the guard captain was standing there.
"What brings you all the way..."
Clack.
The moment he saw me, he snapped into a sharp military salute. I stood there, bewildered. I stared blankly at the guard captain.
But the guard captain's posture remained unchanged. This person wasn't lowering his salute. '... Don't tell me.'
On a hunch, I returned the salute. Only then did he relax his posture. Legally, I might be treated as an officer, but I shouldn't be obligated to salute.
Why?
The guard captain's mouth opened right after.
"Thank you so much. For saving all of my men."
"... Please, come in and have a seat."
It would be rude to leave someone who was speaking like this standing outside. I served the guard captain the tea that Giuseppe liked best.
"You don't need to go to this trouble..."
"It's good, so please drink."
"Then, thank you..."
The guard captain took a sip of tea and then began to speak.
"The Capital Guard is usually a post for those who have distinguished themselves on the northern front."
"I see."
"And distinguishing oneself in the north means having had to bid farewell to many comrades."
I was at a loss for words for a moment at the heavy topic.
"Thank you. For making it so I don't have to part with my subordinates."
"I was just doing what had to be done."
The guard captain was looking me straight in the eye.
He spoke.
"The Capital Guard will always be on your side, Mr. Upperhills."
"Within legal boundaries, of course, right?"
At my joke, the guard captain was silent for a moment.
"... Sometimes, it is necessary to turn a blind eye to a comrade's faults."
His face was endlessly serious.
"Gasp!"
Marcus's eyes shot open with a start. Looking around, he seemed to be in the medical ward. The faint smell of disinfectant made him realize he was alive.
'Looks like the main force arrived in time.' As he let out a sigh of relief, the faces of the children flashed through his mind. 'Since I went down... they probably didn't make it.'
Just then, he felt a heavy weight on his stomach.
"Huh?"
Looking down, he saw a small, black-haired girl sleeping soundly, leaning against his stomach.
"This child is..."
Upperhills.
It was that brave girl with the same last name as the hero.
"Thank goodness. At least one of them survived."
As he sat up, he heard a voice from the next bed.
"Are you awake, Sergeant Marcus?"
"Huh? You guys... how are you all alive?"
"What's with that reaction? Did you want us to die?"
"That's not what I meant..."
Weren't all the other squad members, besides himself, supposed to have become orc food?
"Researcher Upperhills saved all of us."
Marcus's subordinate told him everything that had happened. How, on the brink of certain annihilation, Isaac had appeared, saved everyone, and even crushed the enemy... In a way, it was a story straight out of a fairy tale.
"So, did all the kids survive?"
"Yes."
Phew...
Marcus let out a deep sigh. The tension drained out of him.
"You really like kids, Sergeant."
"There's no reason to dislike them."
"That's true."
Marcus stared blankly at the ceiling of the hospital room and muttered.
"If I knew this would happen, should I have just tried to persuade Mr. Upperhills instead of acting so rashly?"
If he had, there might not have been any injuries at all. Just then, Anna Upperhills, who had been leaning on Marcus, woke up.
She spoke.
"No. I'm really grateful to you too, mister."
"Whoa! You scared me! ... Were you listening?"
"Yes. I'm a light sleeper."
Anna wiggled herself off the bed and bowed her head clumsily.
"We survived thanks to you. Thank you."
Marcus waved his hand.
"No... Mr. Upperhills did everything. All I did was pass out."
But Anna shook her head.
"Of course, I'm sure he did. Defeating the enemy, saving everyone. How could ordinary people like us do something like that?"
'Ordinary people like us.' Marcus was at a loss for words at her unchildlike choice of vocabulary.
"But I think you did your best too, mister. You stood in front of us even though you knew you couldn't win."
"... You think so?"
"Yes."
A moment of silence fell over the hospital room. All eyes were on Anna. The attention seemed to be a burden, as the child's face turned red.
"Anyway. I'll definitely repay this debt someday!"
Bow.
Anna bowed her head deeply once more and then trotted out of the hospital room. Marcus stared blankly at the door Anna had left through. A ticklish, proud feeling in a corner of his heart.
It was far from military spirit, but honestly... it wasn't bad. For the first time in his life, Marcus thought. It was a good thing he joined the Capital Guard instead of retiring after the war.
The hero had his part to play. And he had his.
Princess Isolde was reading a stack of reports on her desk for the third time. She tapped a certain part of the parchment with her finger and said: "Dean, could you take a look at this?"
"Is this the report on the Malakai case?"
"Yes. As you know, the result is satisfactory. But the process..."
"Are you not pleased with it?"
"No, no." Isolde continued.
"I'm just wondering... if this is really possible."
[Report on the Capital Underground Block D-7 Disturbance and the Capture of Blood Mage Malakai (Confidential)] The author was Isaac Upperhills.
The report dryly listed the course of the battle. All infiltration team members survived.
Enemy subdued.
Isolde quietly recited a passage from the report.
"The target was proficient in magic using blood as a medium, but this falls under the category of 'Fluid'. Therefore, control of the system was seized by continuously calculating the approximate values of the fluid's flow."
The Dean's eyebrows twitched minutely. Isolde couldn't hide her excitement and continued.
"Do you know what this means, Dean?"
"He didn't counter blood magic with blood magic. He seized the very ownership of the magic with a higher-level law."
"Do you... think this is possible?"
The Dean couldn't answer this easily either. Is it possible?
Or not?
If one were to calculate approximate values every moment, the accumulated calculation errors would cause an exponential rebound... Isaac was not a mage with such an outstanding amount of mana. 'Which means he completed all the calculations on the spot with high accuracy...'
That, too, was a bit strange.
How?
The princess rose from her seat and looked out the window.
She spoke.
"He's always new. It's exhilarating."
"To predict that an underworld mage was behind the orc appearances and to defeat him with a brand-new magic never before seen in the world. Could it be that he found the perfect stage to prove his theory himself?"
"I don't think that's likely."
"No, no. He must have foreseen it all."
The Dean gave up on trying to persuade Isolde. Isolde was already thoroughly smitten. But, was it really nothing more than infatuation?
Seeing the princess's complete lack of doubt, the Dean tilted her head. 'Could it be that child really did foresee all this...?' Even at this very moment, Isaac's reputation was skyrocketing.
When one's reputation grows, it's only natural for flies to gather. The princess's name could shield him from political threats, but not from the threats of the underworld. 'If you think of it as him sending a warning to the underworld by preemptively eliminating a threat with his trump card...'
It wasn't out of the question for a clever boy like Isaac.
Drip.
Tea overflowed from the teacup.
"... Dean?"
"Yes?"
"Your tea is overflowing."
"Oh, my. My apologies."
The Dean calmly set the teacup down. Isolde's mouth opened.
"Anyway, this commission was also a great success. I'll have to double his reward."
"I'm glad you are satisfied."
Huhu. Huhuhu.
The laughter of the two powerful figures echoed through the office.