The Imperial Direct Territory of Imperium’s Public Safety Bureau Headquarters, [ Equilium ].
Not a single day went by peacefully for Deputy Director Primienne.
Dozens of “unreported Red Tracks” were captured each day, Betan was engrossed in inventing blood magic to distinguish Red Tracks, and the Great Elder of the desert merely sent word to “take care.”
“……This one.”
Upon that tedious, dull sheet of thin ice, a day like today was especially sharp, like an awl.
Primienne, wearing the expression of someone whose finger had been cut, asked the employee of the 「Intelligence Bureau」.
“Why is this name on the list?”
“It is a surveillance and observation list compiled by the higher-ups.”
“……”
The agent of the Imperial Intelligence Bureau, dressed in a suit, answered perfunctorily.
These damned bastards were always like this. Either they had gathered only idiots, or they castrated their emotions while training them.
However, this name was far too special to let pass as usual.
[ List of Observers Requiring Attention ]
：Sylvia von Yusepin Iliade：
“If Iliade had earned His Majesty’s displeasure, you people would have moved yourselves. Seeing as you’re trying to dump it on us like this…… did the eunuchs ask you?”
The House of Iliade was not one even the Intelligence Bureau could touch lightly.
Because the Intelligence Bureau extremely detested “surfacing above the water,” unless it was by the Emperor’s command, they refrained from investigating great houses.
“Surveillance and investigation were already being conducted independently by the Intelligence Bureau. Also, this is not dumping work on you, but a request for cooperation. If you agree to cooperate, we will hand over the relevant materials.”
At the agent’s words, Primienne tapped the register. It was a sign of consent.
Then the man held out the documents.
[ Suspected Violation of Article 3, Clause 3 of the Imperial Magic-Related Laws: Second-Class Magical Murder ]
[ Suspected Violation of Article 8, Clause 1 of the Imperial Magic-Related Laws: Invention of High-Grade Dangerous Magic ]
[ Suspected Violation of Article 1, Clause 8 of the Imperial Intelligence Act: Currently accompanying Rohakan’s former comrade, “Idnik” ]
[ Overall Assessment: High-risk individual requiring close observation ]
“Did this Sylvia kill someone?”
“To be precise, the magic created by the caster devoured a person. A similar incident occurred on the Floating Island as well, but it was resolved through the ‘Right of Bail,’ which amounts to immunity.”
“And?”
“Only the matter on the Floating Island was resolved. The murder case within the Empire falls under the Empire’s jurisdiction. The investigation is still—”
“Do you take me for an idiot?”
Primienne leaned back against her chair. Then she glared alternately at the two Intelligence Bureau agents.
“Even if she killed a few people, with talent of this degree, no one can punish her. If you pointlessly peck at her and she defects to another country, only the Empire suffers for it. Isn’t she exactly the kind of talent useful to the ‘Great Empire’ you people so desperately desire?”
Realistically, the only ones capable of punishing a mage of Sylvia’s level were the Floating Island, Bercht, or the Emperor himself.
“Even so, the reason she’s under surveillance is because of this Rohakan and Idnik, is it?”
“Deputy Director Primienne. This is now your work as well.”
Primienne gave a small snort, mocking him with her mouth alone. Her eyes were always indifferent.
“Even if it is my work, it would be inefficient for me to do it myself. Only a mage understands the physiology of a mage. We need the counsel of one of her own kind—in other words, a mage.”
“Do you have a suitable talent in mind?”
At that question, Primienne thought of someone.
A person who could carry out persuasion, capture, or interrogation in the most effective manner.
Also, the risk factor Primienne herself was watching with the greatest caution.
However, if she were to recruit him, she would have to bow her head as though serving a superior.
“Deculein.”
……
The 77th floor of the Mage Tower.
Primienne looked around the obsessively clean office. She even sniffed the air.
Surprisingly, there was a faint scent of soap.
Sarak— sarak—
Deculein was looking through the fifty-page request for cooperation. With a cold expression, as though he were merely reading a novel.
“It is not such a serious matter. We will be organizing our own surveillance and observation team, and we only need a small amount of help from you.”
Deculein raised his eyes. Primienne continued calmly.
“Whether she has been caught up in a crime. Or whether she is becoming a criminal because she chose the wrong friends. It is nothing more than observing that.”
“……”
“We will not lock her in prison or anything of the sort. She simply needs correction before she strays any further. The talent of the mage called Sylvia requires national management and observation.”
Deculein picked up a pen. Primienne watched his hand.
Without saying a word, he signed the document.
“As expected of her former teacher.”
Her certainty that Deculein would not refuse had not been wrong.
“……Deputy Director Primienne.”
A crease formed between his brows.
“Yes.”
“Do not get ahead of yourself.”
“……Yes.”
Primienne handed him a crystal orb.
It was an orb directly connected to the so-called “Sylvia Task Force,” newly established in secret by the Public Safety Bureau.
“Communication will be through this. There will also be regular team meetings, and the relevant materials will—”
“I have a condition.”
“You have already signed.”
……Surely he wasn’t thinking of suddenly taking it back.
Primienne reached for the document Deculein had signed.
He said,
“Investigate one more person. Sylvia’s mother, Cielia.”
Her hand, which had been inching forward, froze abruptly. Primienne looked up at Deculein dryly.
A shadow had settled over his face.
That dark complexion was unexpected.
“Her entire life, the trajectory of the life she lived.”
The Head Professor of the University Mage Tower and the head of Yukline, Deculein.
Was he not a cold-blooded man who would not shed a single drop of blood even if stabbed?
Was he not, in that way, oppressing the Red Tracks?
“Grasp it, and hand it over to me.”
And yet now, why did this man Deculein……
Seem as though he was worried about Sylvia?
“……Will knowing that help with the work?”
Primienne asked back.
He said nothing, and Primienne did not get ahead of herself any further.
“Yes. Understood.”
She was the type to listen fairly well.
……
“……There are such rumors in the secular world right now. Even without such rumors, it is already an established fact that the Intelligence Bureau is watching you.”
Idnik relayed to Sylvia the words being written in his notebook.
“It is nothing to worry greatly about. Adrienne and I both went through it long ago.”
The news that the Intelligence Bureau and the Public Safety Bureau would be watching her. The fact that Deculein would join the team formed for that purpose.
“……”
Sylvia opened her eyes in silence. The scenery around her was an island.
A wide and solid earth. A stream flowing through the greenery.
The “Nameless Island,” made of the three primary colors of mana.
“What will you do?”
For three days and nights, she had created an island.
In merely those three days, a new island had been born in the orbit of the Floating Island.
“……”
Sylvia looked at Idnik with cold, sunken eyes. Idnik met her gaze as well.
“I’m thinking.”
Sylvia’s complexion as she murmured those words, her face—no, her entire body—was suffering.
However, she would never collapse.
It was only that she did not know her own suffering.
“……I thought of something.”
A child who, in a life of not even twenty years, had spent more than half of it in sorrow.
Because emotions steeped in pain, accustomed to agony, were that child’s “ordinary.”
“I’m going to invent a spell.”
She did not know she was in pain because being in pain was daily life. Even the newly soaked-in darkness, she quickly adapted to. She accepted it calmly, as though it had originally been hers.
“A spell that will watch him.”
At that, Idnik’s gaze naturally reached “Speedy.”
“Deculein has an escort knight beside him. A strong knight. Of course, Speedy is a very well-made creation, but—”
“I know.”
At that moment, an artificial wind rose. It was an updraft rising from around Sylvia’s feet.
“I’m going to put magic into the wind.”
“……Into the wind?”
“The wind will become my ears. Then Deculein won’t be able to avoid it. He probably won’t even know he’s being watched.”
The sky was filled with billowing clouds.
A full moon larger than any other day, and the flowing moonlight, drenched Sylvia.
“I should be able to ferret out the monster my unconscious supposedly created, too.”
……At that moment, Idnik acknowledged his underestimation.
In that child’s heart, the firewood called “Deculein” had not merely raised some small campfire.
Nor was it simply a blazing flame.
He was like a vast wildfire