Sibins sat in the Discipline Master’s office for the first ti in a long while. Heaps and heaps of files were piled before him. In the past, he would never have tolerated such a state of affairs, but now he no longer had the energy to concern himself with academy matters.
CLICK, CLACK... The man unconsciously capped and uncapped the pen in his hand, staring blankly at the door.
Sibins hadn’t had a single good night’s sleep since the attacks on the Imperial Palace and the Empire Parliant Building. To make matters worse, the assailants had brazenly used large-scale destructive Magic in the Empire’s Capital.
’Magic! Magic! Damned Magic!’
For Sibins, a man who couldn’t use Magic, to have single-handedly established the Empire Military Departnt’s special forces defense agency was a testant to his extraordinary abilities. After a brutal secret operation, the then-Lieutenant Colonel Sibins had lost many comrades—the Mage who killed them never once treated them as equals.
That was why he had co to this Magic Academy to beco its Discipline Master, to study and attempt to ta these young rascals who could perform Tricks. It was also why he championed a defense force loyal to His Majesty the Emperor, to guard against these lawless individuals. He had done a fine job. At the academy, Sibins was a na synonymous with terror. His Continent Defense chanism grew rapidly, and he even actively recruited talented Mages into its ranks.
But recently, the situation had taken a sharp downturn.
On Sibins’s desk lay the result of a combination of the Prophetic System and so form of alchemy technology, displaying a single image: on the day of the attack, enormous, violent vines had burst through the gates of the Imperial Palace’s outer court and the Parliant building, with thick smoke billowing out. The image was colorless, but Sibins knew from reports that it was a green poison gas. Those who inhaled it suffered from festering sores in mild cases, and shock or death in severe ones.
Who was the attacker? Unknown. What was even more damnable was that this Alchemy Paper—what Rorschach would call a "photograph"—had been given to Sibins by His Majesty the Emperor, along with His Majesty’s imnse wrath.
It was a suspected Natural System attack, and the relevant intelligence Sibins possessed ca from the very person he was waiting for today. But the so-called "Return of the Holy Mother" Sect and the foolish Nobility connected to them had already been purged. Interrogating them again would yield no progress. ’Is this revenge? Or so kind of declaration?’
His thoughts turned to the Magic Guild... The Empire’s branch and the Aurora Elders had been lukewarm in their cooperation with the investigation. They also paid lip service to the Caster screening bill passed by the enraged mbers of Parliant. Knowing these arrogant and eccentric individuals, Sibins was certain they weren’t as compliant as they appeared. They were definitely up to sothing behind the scenes...
A knock ca at the door, followed by a young man’s voice. The person he was waiting for had finally arrived. "Is the Discipline Master in? It’s Rorschach."
"Co in."
Rorschach pushed the door open and entered. Returning to the academy after his rocket promotion to Middle Level Mage had put him in high spirits. "As a model student, this is my first ti in your office. I heard you’ve been away for the past few days, so for to run into you is just..."
’Boss, it’s been a while. You look pretty worn out.’ The man behind the desk had a new pair of dark bags under his eyes, which only made his bald head look even shinier.
"I’m here because you’ve arrived in the Imperial Capital. I rushed over as soon as I received the entry report."
"My apologies. After I arrived, I went to the Guild to update my Caster information."
"You’ve been promoted to Middle Level Caster?" Sibins did a quick ntal calculation. ’It hasn’t even been six months since this kid graduated from the academy. Is the Empire Magic Academy just that good, or does the Tower of Stars have so secret recipe?’
"Yep. Had an epiphany while I was away. That’s just how it is for Mages."
Sibins, the iron-willed non-mage, didn’t press the issue on such a flippant remark. If any other Caster had overheard that outrageous statent, they probably would have coughed up a lung.
"Here’s my report. Valuvana in the Holy Kingdom has been quite lively recently." Rorschach retrieved a stack of materials in a manila envelope from his Storage Ring. The contents described his two encounters with the "Return of the Holy Mother" Sect on his journey, how the Magic Guild was making a fortune off the Starlight Torch Tower, how a godforsaken Sub-plane was being hyped up into a land paved with gold by so financial genius, and a brief record of so "small activities" conducted by a group of social activists in Valuvana.
Sibins took it with a frown. "You should have written this after you entered the country. This is unsafe and unprofessional." There clearly hadn’t been enough ti for Rorschach to write a lengthy report between landing and arriving here, which ant he must have written it while still in the Holy Kingdom.
"Right, right. So, did you find anything on that manuscript on the Leather Armor?" Rorschach guessed that of the goods he had delivered, everything except for three salvaged pieces had likely been burned. ’No,’ he corrected himself, ’the remaining three were probably destroyed by Brother Xiao and Brother Jun, too.’
"You want to know? It’s the manuscript of William van Leipzig."
"The Viscount?"
"So you know? His title of Viscount was self-proclaid. I don’t know the rest. The Military Departnt’s Caster unit has sealed all his related files." Sibins recalled that the man had died young of a lung disease, and the Military Departnt had stepped in to seal his docunts. He didn’t care about any of that; his only concern was catching the spy who had stolen the sealed information.
"My current ntor’s research uses one of his papers, on Energy-Magic Conversion."
"I wouldn’t understand it even if you told . All I know is that everyone who leaked information from the Military Departnt t an unfortunate end, because I was the one who oversaw their cases."
Rorschach nodded and asked about the attack and the new bill.
"Here." A piece of paper was pushed across the Director’s desk, spinning around to face Rorschach.
’A black and white photograph?’ Rorschach had never seen the Parliant Building’s main entrance as it was, so the black and white image of massive vines and poison gas looked quite abstract to him. "What’s this?"
"One of those Alchemy Papers you people ca up with... Oh, you an the content. It’s the scene of the attack on the Empire Parliant Building. What do you see?"
"Looking at it like this... the ’Return of the Holy Mother’ Sect?"
"The chanism thought so too, but we’ve already arrested a batch of those lunatics, including so from the Nobility. They were all in jail when the attack happened, so we can’t dig up any leads. Because Great Nobles are implicated, the chanism is also under a lot of pressure...
The new bill is about restricting and screening Casters. It passed with a high vote count, His Majesty signed it, and the Magic Guild didn’t protest. That’s the gist of it."
’Good thing you’re bald, now you don’t have any hair to pull out, huh?’ "The Magic Guild probably thinks it’s just toilet paper."
"On that point, I agree with you. But it’s a necessary posture, to let the public see His Majesty and the Empire Council taking a hard line against... your kind."
*Sigh*, the Emperor. *Sigh*, the counciln. "They’re making it sound like we’re the culprits."
Sibins cut the topic short. It was a waste of ti to expect relevant intelligence from soone who had just returned. "What are your plans now? You should have a ten-day vacation."
"Twenty days. I’m going ho first, then I’ll be representing the Tower of Stars and the Tower of Forest to organize a joint exploration of the Black Forest."
"The Tower of Forest... the Tower of Forest... Could you do so investigating while you’re at it?" Sibins suddenly felt that the best thing he had done in the past six months was to recruit this country boy. Not only was he cheap, but his value appreciated on its own, and now he was providing an opportunity for a new lead.
"Are you saying the Tower of Forest is also a suspect..."
"I’m not targeting any specific Magic Tower, just the people inside. After all, we saw this." Sibins tapped the vines in the photograph.
"I understand. I can’t guarantee any leads."
"Just having the opportunity to investigate is good enough." The chanism under Sibins’s command had grown rapidly over the years, but it was still powerless against the Magic Guild and the Thirteen Magic Towers. The very na "Defense chanism" highlighted the organization’s weakness. If he could actually make the Tower of Forest cooperate obediently with an investigation, couldn’t he just hang up a new sign that read "Caster and Supernatural Power Administration Bureau" and be done with it?
After all that, Rorschach brought up one last matter. "Director, your subordinate in the Holy Kingdom is a bit of a crook."
He tossed out a bag of Gold Coins. Rorschach, who was no longer short on cash, had never touched the money issued by the Pachaluka Trading Company, and had thus preserved the "evidence" in its entirety.
"This is the exact amount he gave . As for why there’s only a month’s worth, a gentleman from the trading company inford before I left that the rest had been converted into shares—even though I never signed a single thing or saw a single ownership certificate."
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