Chapter 13
“Is this it?”
“Yes. I checked it multiple times to make sure it hadn’t been swapped like last time.”
“Hmmm. It does look pretty ordinary… heh heh heh.”
Erica seemed to share my thoughts exactly. Watching her examine the hourglass, shaking it to stir the supposed demon bone dust inside, reminded me of myself just a moment earlier.
Of course, she was smiling as if thoroughly pleased, which was a bit different from how I’d reacted.
It had no special patterns or decorations—just a simple hourglass of transparent glass, filled with bone-dust-like sand.
I half-expected some sort of ominous aura from the demon bone dust, but there was nothing unusual.
“Anyway, good job. We’ve barely had any casualties on our side.”
“Really? Impressive work from everyone.”
“Of course. They’re my team, after all.”
Erica chuckled with pride, pulling down the hood covering her mouth and untying her hair.
Though I’d seen her briefly before, her appearance hadn’t changed a bit. She looked as regal and beautiful as a princess of some kingdom. Her silver hair shone under the moonlight, giving her an even more ethereal look.
“So, this is worth fifty million gold…”
“Hehe. We finally found it.”
“Do you want to deliver it yourself, or should I give it to Addy?”
“You take it, just to be safe. Ah, this is refreshing. By the way, where have you been lately? Weren’t you taking a break?”
“Ah, there’s a bit of a story there. I was planning to relax out west for a while, but things came up, and now it looks like I’ll be staying in Crescent.”
“Crescent?”
Talking with Erica made my recent experiences feel almost surreal.
The unexpected Academy entrance quest, taking the top spot in the entrance exam and speaking before a crowd of students, getting assigned to my class, and even getting into a scuffle with a new ‘friend.’
“Yeah. I’m at Crescent Academy.”
“What? You need to retrieve something?”
“No, it’s not that…”
Unlike Addy, who could brush off my presence there, I knew Erica wouldn’t simply ignore the fact that I was attending the Academy as a student.
This was a situation that called for a vague answer.
“I’ve just got some things to take care of.”
“Hmm. So, it’s a mission you’re not sharing with your captain.”
“Something like that, yeah.”
Since quests were technically missions, I nodded enthusiastically.
Erica, seeming to understand, shifted her gaze toward the ‘village,’ still engulfed in flames.
Though it looked like a village, it was more like the headquarters of some organization, with no civilians in sight.
“Alright… time to head back? Returning to the base now?”
“Yep. I’ll bring the team back slowly.”
“Good, good. Take care of the cleanup.”
Though I would’ve liked to catch up more with Erica, we both had our duties to attend to.
Even though the operation was over, leading the troops to a safe location was part of the captain’s role.
With the fifty-million-gold hourglass safely in hand, I waved to Erica, who was smiling softly.
It had been a short reunion, but a welcome one.
Buzz—
And just like that, I was back in my office.
“Addy!”
“Mission accomplished, sir?”
“Whoa!”
Expecting her to be waiting outside, I was startled when Addy answered from behind me.
She’d done this before too—appearing suddenly as if on purpose.
“I believe I’ve mentioned that I’m the one who gets startled, sir.”
“Whew, you scared me. Here, fifty million gold.”
“Ohhh.”
“Heh heh heh.”
Addy, rarely showing emotion, accepted the hourglass from me with a gleam in her eye.
Addy, just like Erica and I before, thoroughly inspected the fifty-million-gold hourglass, then carefully placed it in a specially crafted box.
Watching Addy put the hourglass in the box, I felt like a troublesome matter, one I’d buried in the back of my mind, was finally taken care of. Although Erica did most of the hard work and I only contributed at the very end, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride that we finally completed this long-standing mission.
Plus, fifty million gold! It’s almost on par with Black Shadow Corps’ revenue from last quarter. I couldn’t stop myself from grinning.
“Take care of the rest for me, okay?”
“Yes, sir. You’ve done great work today.”
“Heh. I did put in some effort, had to even pull out the gloves.”
“Oh? Was there someone that strong? As expected for a fifty-million-gold mission.”
“There was someone I wasn’t really compatible with, you could say. But anyway, good job waiting. Be sure to pass my regards to Erica when she returns.”
“… Hmm? By the way, did Erica not give you any trouble about being enrolled at the Academy?”
“Hah! As if. That’s why I didn’t tell her.”
“…”
“Explain it to her for me later, alright? I’m off!”
“… Oh dear.”
Buzz—
I thought I heard Addy let out a genuine sigh at the end, but I ignored it and returned to my room.
It was the end of a long day, in more ways than one.
***
In the dead of night, with only the moonlight streaming through the window to illuminate the room, two people engaged in a quiet conversation in near darkness, barely able to see each other’s faces.
“… Stolen, you say?”
“… Yes, sir.”
“The perpetrator?”
“That’s…”
The man seated, facing the moonlit window, rose slowly, unsatisfied with the answer he received. At this, the man kneeling on one knee in the center of the room bowed his head even lower.
“We lost the artifact, and we don’t even know who took it.”
“A-According to reports, Shen and Max, who were guarding it, also vanished without a trace. It seems they were… dealt with.”
“Hah?”
The man who had risen chuckled, an expression of disbelief at the continued bad news.
If it hadn’t been for the trembling voice of his subordinate, so serious it left no room for jest, he might have thought it was all some kind of joke.
“Impossible. Wasn’t there a barrier I set up in that location?”
“The… barrier remains active.”
“And?”
“But no one is inside the barrier. There’s no trace of any living being, and the artifact… is gone.”
“That’s absurd…!”
The man, Randgar Bayel, barely contained his rising fury as he listened, almost lashing out at the man kneeling before him.
“Are you telling me Shen and Max were defeated, even together?”
“… Based on the current information, yes.”
Randgar struggled to accept it. Max was one thing, but Shen was a competent mage, even by the organization’s standards.
Shen, who specialized in lightning magic, was a promising talent Randgar himself had taken under his wing. Though not yet at elder level, he had enough skill to compete for an elder position in the future.
Moreover, he had Max, whose reckless yet powerful attack style was unmatched. But to think that both were completely overpowered and left no trace…
“Is that even possible…”
“Sir, though this is unconfirmed, there’s…”
“What is it?”
“There’s a rumor that the group responsible for the attack might be the Black Shadow Corps. Some claim to have seen the Silver Tracker at the scene.”
“Hmm.”
Randgar groaned as he processed this information. The name Black Shadow Corps was one he knew well.
They’d been quite a nuisance lately, even today. Years ago, when they stole the Dragon Heart from the O’Neill Kingdom, he’d brushed them off as brazen thieves, yet they had only grown more active since then, continuing to evade capture and becoming a greater menace.
“Why the Black Shadow Corps…”
Gulp.
Randgar stopped muttering to himself when he heard his subordinate gulp nervously below him.
“Head back for now. I’ll check the scene myself tomorrow night.”
“Understood.”
Poof!
With a sound like a balloon popping, the subordinate who had been kneeling in Randgar’s room vanished in an instant.
Randgar, now alone, clasped his hands behind his back as he gazed at the moonlight streaming through the window.
“Salvation… isn’t easy, after all.”
Randgar thought, gazing at the unusually bright moonlight that night.
A nameless organization serving an unnamed demon.
Randgar was one of the Seven Elders in that nameless organization.
“Hmm…”
Thinking of how much effort the organization had poured into retrieving the hourglass containing the demon’s bone dust, Randgar felt a surge of anger he barely managed to suppress.
Losing it so easily felt like a mockery. But anger wouldn’t change anything now.
“The Black Shadow Corps, huh.”
Even if the information wasn’t verified, it seemed worth investigating. If they were indeed the ones who had infiltrated the O’Neill Kingdom’s defenses to steal the Dragon Heart, it was possible they could have bypassed his barriers and defeated Shen and Max.
The most credible rumor about the leader of the Black Shadow Corps was that their head was a woman—and that no barrier could withstand the skills of “The Black Shadow,” the leader of the Black Shadow Corps.
A genius mage with unparalleled intelligence, said to be able to disable most barriers within seconds.
If those rumors were true, the Black Shadow Corps was indeed the prime suspect behind the attack on the seventh branch.
“They bypassed that barrier?”
It was hard to believe, of course.
Randgar recalled the magic circle he had personally installed at the seventh branch. Even with the aid of the Great One, it was his creation—the finest defensive barrier ever to appear on the continent.
It blocked access to anyone with mana, and even Randgar himself would need significant time to dismantle it.
“Sigh.”
With a long sigh, Randgar deactivated the soundproofing spell he had set up in the room.
As he moved from the window, the unusually bright moonlight filled the room where Randgar stood.
Sigh.
He sat down heavily in a nearby chair, letting his gaze fall on the nameplate on his desk, glistening in the moonlight.
[Randgar Bayel, Vice Principal of Crescent Academy]
The nameplate sparkled under the moonlight, oblivious to Randgar’s turbulent thoughts.
—
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