Isekai Mahou wa Okureteru! (LN) - Volume 9 - Chapter SS4

The Aftermath 

After defeating the blond homunculus at the church, Suimei and the others met up with the magicians from the Thousand Nights Association who’d come to take care of the aftermath. One of the younger magicians, who was still older than Suimei, bowed upon seeing him. 

“Thank you for your cooperation on this mission, Lord Yakagi.” 

“Think nothing of it. Good work out here. How are the captured magicians?” 

“We’ve already restrained them with magicka.” 

Taking a closer look, Suimei could see for himself that the cultist magicians—including Saix Ruger—had all been bound with the restraining magicka that the Thousand Nights Association favored. In this state, there was no way they’d be able to move freely. 

“Then I’ll dispel the curse I cast on them. I’ll be counting on you to handle the rest of the cleanup here.” 

Suimei snapped his fingers and quickly dispelled his curse. Just like that, the burns plaguing the cultist magicians vanished all at once. Once that was taken care of, another Association magician approached with his hand to his chin in an arrogant manner. 

“Now, Lord Yakagi, what about the homunculus?” 

“Hmm? You mean little Miss Genius here? What about her?” 

“Not that one! I mean the homunculus you’re carrying on your back!” 

This new magician suddenly lost his cool in irritation, which seemed to alarm his companion. 

“L-Lord Grace, you can’t speak to Lord Yakagi that way...” 

It seemed that the younger magician knew Suimei. Trying to place their acquaintance, Suimei realized that he was one of the Association veterans he’d seen carrying out requests many times before. The angry magician, on the other hand, seemed to be a newbie. 

If that were the case, he likely didn’t know all of the Enforcers yet. Behaving so arrogantly around Suimei in spite of his reputation and pedigree, which should have made it obvious he was to be treated with respect, meant... Well, in short, this man was an idiot. And said idiot didn’t heed his senior magician’s advice. 

“And why is that? Are we not magicians of the glorious Thousand Nights Association’s magicka department?” 

“That’s precisely why I’m telling you that you can’t take such an attitude with magicians from other organizations.” 

“We needn’t humble ourselves before an agent—a mere magician that we hand down jobs to!” 

Rather than relenting in his arrogance, the haughty magician only ramped it up more. You know the type; they exist everywhere. Those who mistake authority for true strength. Suimei was tired of dealing with his ilk and didn’t really feel like putting up with him after exhausting himself using grand magicka. As such, he let out a terribly enervated sigh. 

“Lefi, Menia.” 

“What is it?” 

“Yes?” 

“I’m pretty beat after blowing away the big guy, so if this magician here does anything annoying... use your full power to beat him to a pulp.” 

The magicians of the Thousand Nights Association were startled by this declaration. No one had expected Suimei to give his companions permission to resort to violence. Felmenia, however, simply seemed puzzled. 

“Is that really alright?” she asked, her head quizzically cocked to the side. 

“I don’t care. Use your mana furnace. I’ll permit it up to lower critical pressure. As for Lefi... you’ve still got plenty left in your tank, right?” 

“I haven’t had the chance to run wild yet,” Lefille boldly declared as she forcefully thrust her sword into the ground. 

When she did, a red shockwave blew through the surrounding area. 

“Th-That’s...” 

The angry magician stumbled when the shockwave hit him, reverberating in his stomach. If he was here, it meant he had at least enough skill as a magician to be useful for cleanup work in the field. Surely he understood the threat of telesma. But yet again, instead of backing down, he began accumulating his mana 

“I’m a magician of the Thousand N—” 

“That’s enough!” 

The veteran magician roared at him before he could finish his declaration. A powerful psychic chill fell over the area, silencing the arrogant newbie. It was clear that the young magician was the stronger of the two of them, probably ranking somewhere around the adeptus class. But once the veteran was done glaring at the newbie, he turned and bowed to Suimei. 

“I apologize for his behavior, Lord Yakagi. Please stow your blade.” 

“It’s fine. Pardon me for my behavior as well.” 

Suimei politely bowed back in return. The exchange seemed amicable, but this was essentially the only way they could settle things while preserving the reputations of both their respective organizations. Suimei didn’t particularly care if the newbie got the harsh scolding he deserved after the fact. But more importantly, it didn’t seem the discussion regarding the homunculus was over yet. 

“Now, Lord Yakagi... I must say we’re not here on a fool’s errand. We’ll require a suitable reason for your refusal to hand him over.” 

“Mary.” 

When Suimei said her name, Hydemary stepped forward. Naturally, she knew exactly why he’d called on her and immediately cut to the chase. 

“We’ll be sending this boy to my father, Edgar Alzbayne.” 

“For what purpose?” 

“To fulfill the Society’s ideals.” 

“We understand the Society’s ideals... but that’s still a little vague as an answer.” 

The veteran magician wouldn’t yield for a response like that. It seemed he was rather serious about his duties. Such a capricious answer only encouraged him to be more thorough. But it went without saying that Hydemary had no intention of yielding either. The two of them glared at each other. It was clear they wouldn’t be making any progress this way, so Suimei cut back in. 

“Can I say something?” 

“What is it, Lord Yakagi?” 

“It’s critical that we start by setting the situation straight. The worst thing we can do here is get caught up in our emotions. Let’s find some common ground and work this out so we can both accomplish our goals.” Suimei then looked towards the veteran and asked, “First, you came here to take care of the defeated magicians, right?” 

To this, the veteran nodded. 

“And my request from the Thousand Nights Association’s upper brass was to render the magicians powerless, whether dead or alive. There were no instructions about what to do with the survivors, including no mention of handing them over.” 

“...” 

“Now, let me ask you again just to confirm. Your mission was to clean things up here. Nobody told you that you needed to apprehend everyone, right?” 

“That’s...” 

“And my request was dead or alive, see? So I should be free to take one or two of them with me.” 

“What sophistry.” 

“But it’s the truth. Besides, you guys have nothing to gain from going out of your way to crush this guy, do you? There’s no need to be so fixated on it.” 

The veteran paused for a pensive moment to give Suimei’s reasoning some thought, and eventually... 

“Understood. I shall be reporting this, however.” 

“Yeah, that’s fine. It won’t be an issue.” 

Everything was just as Suimei had said. His request from the Thousand Nights Association didn’t specify what was to be done with the targets after the fact. As such, they didn’t have any right to complain about how Suimei intended to deal with this particular one. 

Before long, the magicians from the Thousand Nights Association carried away the other cultists who’d really been responsible for the disturbance. And once everyone else was on their way home, Hydemary turned to Suimei in an unusually honest manner. 

“Thank you, Suimei-kun.” 

“It was nothing.” 

Suimei, however, was the same as always.