Beyond the blazing flames, a faint light rose.
The burned-out buildings collapsed in black ash, and in their place was the rising sun.
The sun mingled with the smog in the 45th district, scattering light in all directions.
It still felt dark compared to the rest of the city, but in a neighborhood filled with neon signs, this much light was actually a blessing.
“You've unintentionally kept me up at night.”
“Yeah. I'm tired. Let's go back and get some rest.”
“Isn't there something we haven't taken care of yet?”
“That's all we have to do. We'll leave the cleanup to Camilla.”
Camilla, Emerald, Amethyst, and Topaz would clean up the mess.
Osian couldn't help but chuckle at Diolan's confident and brazen statement.“If you do, you're really going to get shot next.”
“Yes, but Camilla has something to gain from this, too.”
“I see.”
Osian suddenly understood the relationship between Diolan and Camilla.
Diolan handles the cases and Camilla cleans up after them, but it's not necessarily a lose-lose situation for Camilla.
It's like a crocodile and a crocodile bird relationship.
Camilla also cleans up behind the scenes and takes care of her own things.
The only complaint she shows is that the crocodile's teeth peck harder than usual.
It doesn't hurt the crocodile.
“Well, this time, Camilla will take a lot especially thanks to you. Her position as a guest, which was a bit of a hindrance, will improve.”
“A woman of her caliber shouldn't have to stay in such a dangerous place, is there any reason for it?”
“Because of her constitution. If she doesn't use the drugs Emeralds makes regularly, she gets sick.”
Osian remembered the green liquid Camilla smoked.
It wasn't something she smoked for fashion or flavor.
“You don't have to take it so seriously. Living in a place like this, everyone has one or two of those, and Camilla's in pretty good shape.”
“I see.”
To live with something. That was something that even Osian, who lived in modern society, could relate to.
It was also a kind of constraint.
Living in a city like Tirna, it wouldn't be easy to escape such constraints.
“Anyway, Camilla will take care of the reward and send it to you, and I'm sure she'll make sure the other organization bosses don't get a cut.”
“You won't have to worry about that. They owe us their lives, so they won't be so brazen.”
Osian remembers the look in Sertus' eyes the last time he saw him.
After being the head of an organization in such a seedy place, he must have seen the worst in people.
So there was a certain conviction, or pride, in his heart.
If nothing else, he was a man who could certainly count his blessings and his enemies.
Diolan's eyes widened in surprise.
“Owe us their lives? That would be one less thing to worry about. People here have a lot of pride.”
“Something like that.”
“Haha. I only came here to check on the magic rampage case, but I unintentionally got a debt from the 45th district. This is going to be a good hand to keep.”
Well done.
Diolan said and held out his fist.
Osian smirked at the sight, then brought his fist up to meet Diolan's.
-Poof.
*
In the darkened office, the man who realized the latest turn of events was the first to speak.
“The agent we sent to the 45th district has been cut off.”
[The 45th district, the place where they were researching the strange cold fluid? What do you mean, they've lost contact with the agent?]
Facing him, a translucent glass plate floated in the air.
One by one, each of the people in black were reflected on it.
In response to his noisy counterpart's words, the man who broached the subject first replied in a calm, heavy voice.
“It is what it says. There is no evidence of treachery. On the contrary, the interruption of his regular reports suggests that something has gone wrong.”
[That's surprising. I thought the experiment in the 45th district was going smoothly?]
The person on the other screen asked.
[I know we've put a lot of work into this, but isn't it dangerous to have a failure like this already? It could potentially expose us.]
This was not something that could be dismissed as mere anxiety.
The people here are all researchers and scientists from the “White House”.
With their brilliant minds, they have succeeded in spinning a spider's web of complexity out of a large organization that was once one, with secret bases that remained in place even after the organization was disbanded.
And so, out of sight of the city of Tirna, they continued their research with more freedom than ever before.
“If they've heard the news, they know we're alive.”
[And how are you responsible for that, Dr. Cromwell, head of biotechnology?]
The man called Dr. Cromwell.
The man leading this meeting had a cold gaze in the darkness.
“They were going to find out at some point. Besides, unless they're stupid, they must have realized we weren't completely gone, that we were moving around somewhere.”
His words were matter-of-fact, and no one disputed them.
“Besides, we're operating in a strictly point organization. The failure of the 45th district shouldn't affect us this far.”
[The problem is, we lost an agent, and the whole experiment in the 45th district was scrapped, wasn't it?]
A woman's voice was clearly audible over the noise but Cromwell shrugged.
“I suppose so.”
[I'm sure not, I've heard it took quite a bit of money to create that concoction, are you okay with that being taken away from you?]
“What if it’s not okay?”
[We'll find out.]
“We prepared for any unforeseen circumstances, and even deployed agents. However, the fact that we have lost contact with the agents means that we are virtually annihilated. The enemy’s power is that great, and you want to retrieve the stolen goods? Did you say you want to go to war right now?”
[......And we're supposed to just sit back and let them beat us up?]
“That's how I've survived so far, and if you ask me to do it again, I'll do it again.”
Cromwell snapped his fingers, covering the corners of his mouth.
“Of course, I don’t intend to just let it go. We need to find out who and how the experiment at District 45 was disrupted. Of course, in secret. It would be bad if our identities were revealed now.”
[I don't mind. I think it should be that way.]
[I agree.]
[I agree, too.]
[I'm sure the guys who aren't here feel the same way.]
It was an unanimous vote that set the course of action.
“Then we'll have to find out who's been sabotaging our experiments in the 45th District, a neighborhood the city has abandoned.”
Once found, the next step was simple.
If there was any of the original fluid left, they could retrieve it, and if not, they could raise the alert level now that they recognized the threat to themselves.
Besides that, if there were any lab journals left in District 45, they might be able to get some data on the drugs and experiments that had been created with the original fluid.
“Don't worry about it. We still have plenty of materials. There's no shortage of experiments we can run.”
Even if they had to stay in the dark they had endless possibilities, that was the beauty of Tirna.
They just had to make good use of it.
“I'll send an agent, then. Someone fast and clever.”
*
“That's the end of the request.”
~A secluded café outside the Academy in the 30th District~
There, Osian sat across from Thalia.
Fiddling with a steaming mug of coffee, Thalia asked.
“Are we done, really?”
“It is. It won't happen again. Unless a similar copycat shows up.”
With that, Osian handed Thalia the report he'd gotten on the case.
There were photos attached as evidence.
“There were people working behind the scenes, and we succeeded in taking them down. Is that all the proof you need?”
“Yes.”
Thalia seemed convinced. In fact, there had been no recent incidents of magic rampage.
As of the last time she had confronted Osian inside the Academy, it had effectively ended.
“How is the atmosphere inside the Academy?”
“Everyone's pretty relaxed about the whole thing. They're trying to keep the rumors from getting out.”
“And the victims?”
Osian thought of Slaine, the boy who had gone to such extreme lengths to hide his weakness.
“That's okay, they're trying to be nice to him, even though they know it's to keep him quiet. What's especially surprising is that my idiot brother has been more supportive than I expected.”
“I see.”
I'd expected him to just give up and call it a day, but Terence had done his own thing inside the Academy.
He was a quirky guy.
To summarize the story.
First, the professor was suspended. You might ask, how can he be suspended after what he did, but it was only a verbal suspension.
It was just to keep the rumors from spreading outside, but the internal judgment would be clear.
Depending on which faction he belonged to, the other faction with a stake in the academy would be out to get him.
In Slaine's case, he was awarded the Brave Student Award.
He didn't actually do anything untoward, and the fact that he was injured during the incident was a big factor.
Terence's support also helped.
As a result, Slaine became a student who tried to stop injustice, winning awards and a two-year scholarship.
With a new outlook on life, and the bullies gone thanks to Osian's threats, the rest of his time at the Academy should be a pleasant one.
“There.......”
Thalia's eyes lit up.
That reaction alone told Osian what she wanted to know.
“No.”
“What? You know what I'm going to say?”
“You're going to ask me the details of what happened in the 45th District, who was behind it, that sort of thing.”
Thalia's eyes narrowed. That was the right answer.
“It's dangerous. That's why it's not good for you to know.”
“Well, I'm the client, right?”
“Shouldn’t it have been enough to complete the request? Otherwise, when submitting the request, you should have included a clause requiring reporting of the progress and other details.”
“That’s not fair!”
Thalia pouted her lips.
Osian shrugged, a faint smile playing across his face.
Pouring herself a cup of coffee and taking a sip, Thalia asked as if she'd remembered something.
“By the way, don't you drink coffee? This cafe uses really good beans and it tastes good.”
“No, but I ordered one anyway. It must have taken a while for it to come out because they didn't have what I wanted.”
As they say, even a tiger will come if you call it, and at that moment, an employee came with a coffee cup and placed it in front of Osian.
The waitress glanced at Ossian with an odd look and stepped away.
Thalia's eyes widened.
Her gaze focused on the coffee cup in front of her.
“What is that?”
Thalia asked, as if she'd seen something new.
She had to ask, because all she knew of coffee was drinking it straight from the bean, or with water.
Students preferred to add cream, milk, and sugar to it but Osian was different.
Espresso lungo? Or cafe tirna?
She saw similar things, but Osian's had a whole lot of ice in it.
It even had a straw!
“What's wrong?”
Osian picked up the coffee cup full of ice and pecked at the straw.
Thalia's eyes trembled like a wild goose. So did her curled fists.
“That's an insult to coffee!”
Thalia's words echoed through the café.
*
“Well.”
Back at the Violet Fox, Osian shook his head at Thalia's scolding.
‘This is what I get for putting ice in my coffee.’
Tirna was full of cafes serving coffee, as befits the setting but Osian had one complaint: they didn't have iced Americano.
Oh, no.
This was unacceptable to Osian, who was used to carrying a to-go cup full of ice in his chilled hands to work, even in the dead of winter.
So he asked the staff to put a bunch of ice in it himself, and guess what?
He received stares as if he was insulting their coffee and a snide remark from Thalia.
Worse, both the café owner and the waitress nodded as if Thalia was right.
Osian shook his head.
‘They don't even know coffee.’
It would only wear him out to try and argue with them.
With that thought in mind, he arrived at the Violet Fox, but the atmosphere inside was strange.
Lorraine and Diolan were frozen in place. It was as if someone uncomfortable had arrived.
“What's going on?”
Osian asked, narrowing his eyes, and Lorraine and Diolan, who had just noticed him, rushed over and grabbed each of his arms.
“I'm a little busy right now, so let's go out for a while.”
“Yeah. I think that's a good idea.”
Suspicious. Too suspicious.
Osian's gaze drifted to the back of the building, toward the clearing where the knights trained.
“There's something.”
Osian took a step forward, and Lorraine and Diolan followed.
No matter how hard they tried, they could not overcome Osian, who had the body of a knight.
As they emerged through the back door into the clearing, Osian could see.
The knights-to-be fell to the ground, injured, and Asmer, who was holding his sword like a cane but was on one knee.
And a small, petite child, looking down on him casually.