Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? - Volume 36 - Chapter 3

He Who Slumbers

Sunday, July 10th

Once Maki collected herself, Koutarou and the girls made their way toward the west gate. Fortunately, everything seemed to be back to normal now. Snoozy was restlessly running circles around Maki at first, but he’d since climbed back atop her left shoulder and settled down in the usual fashion.

“Hey, Koutarou...”

Meanwhile, Sanae likewise plopped her head over Koutarou’s left shoulder, craning her neck to talk to him.

“Yeah?”

“Sorry about earlier. I said a bunch of stuff that I shouldn’t have.”

When the girls had discovered Maki in tears, they’d instinctively laid into Koutarou without a second thought. Later, however, Sanae came to realize that Koutarou wasn’t the reason Maki had been crying. That was why, to her credit, she was apologizing for the mistake now.

“It’s okay,” he replied.

“You’re not mad?”

Sanae felt Koutarou was at least a little angry about the misunderstanding, but he certainly wasn’t acting like it. He didn’t look it, either.

“Truthfully, it would have been better if I had made Aika-san cry.”

At first, Koutarou was glad that he wasn’t the reason for Maki’s tears. But the more he thought about it, the more he felt he’d rather her cry over him than her sad past with her parents. That was why he hadn’t raised one word of protest when the girls berated him, and why he wasn’t upset about it even now.

“I see... Eeheehee.”

“What?”

“You’re so manly, Koutarou.”

“Like I said before, I’m trying to be for you guys.”

“I think you’re doing a good job. Two thumbs up from me.”

Sanae left the conversation at that and simply clung to Koutarou’s back. It was the best way she knew to convey her true feelings.

“...”

“...”

Silently watching on from behind were Harumi and Shizuka. When they saw Sanae clinging to Koutarou, they shared a glance and a smile... all while thinking they’d like to try doing the same thing later for themselves.

In the working-class districts of Thorthe, labor recruitment was anything but rare. A well dressed man doing the recruiting, however, was a different story. Foremen usually recruited for themselves, relatably dressed in work clothes as fellow laborers on the job. That was why an expensively dressed recruiter stood out like a sore thumb.

“It should be around here...” Maki mumbled.

She then came to a stop a few dozen meters beyond Thorthe’s west gate. The area outside of the city was almost completely undeveloped, so the land was rather bare and desolate. She’d asked around inside the city limits and heard that the recruited men had all gotten into a vehicle waiting here outside the gate.

“It would make sense to gather the laborers out here. Which is why nobody suspected anything,” Koutarou said as he looked around.

Civilization in Folsaria was concentrated in the most defensible areas for fear of Darkness Rainbow attacks—which were now a thing of the past. Consequently, less defensible real estate was now starting to see development as well. It was cheaper to buy up and build on, so it was a no-brainer investment.

“Maki-san, what should we do now?” Harumi asked.

She already had several ideas, but this was Maki’s test. Barring an emergency, she wouldn’t interject herself unless Maki specifically asked for her help.

“Let’s have the haniwas take a look,” Maki decided.

To the naked eye, there were no traces of what had happened, but that didn’t mean the trail had gone cold. The haniwas would be able to run all sorts of analyses.

“Piece of cake, ho!”

“Ho! Leave this to us, Maki-chan!”

At Maki’s summoning, the two haniwas seemed to appear out of nowhere, eager and raring to go. Upon seeing them, Snoozy let out a small cry.

“Meow!”

“Little Brother, if you ever have any doubts about your relationship with your master, you can talk to us! Ho!”

“We’re veteran familiars ourselves, you know, ho!”

“Meow!”

Despite the haniwas’ sudden appearance, Snoozy didn’t seem the least bit surprised. Perhaps he’d come to understand this was how they operated, or maybe his instincts had alerted him to their presence.

“I’ll look too!” volunteered Sanae.

“We want our turn in the spotlight, ho!”

“You’ll outshine us, ho!”

The haniwas’ tiny bodies were packed with all sorts of useful functions, but in terms of raw spiritual power, Sanae had them beat by a landslide. If she threw herself into the running, they knew she’d outperform them.

“Then let’s all work together!” she offered.

“Good idea, ho! I shall focus on image processing, ho.”

“Then I shall analyze the network, ho.”

“All right, let’s do this!”

“Ho!”

“Ho-oh!”

The two haniwas floated over to either side of Sanae’s head and merged their auras. The three of them then gathered information from all around, sharing it mutually via their spiritual connection. This allowed them to collect and process a much more in-depth analysis than any one of them could have alone.

“Hmmmmm...”

Sanae looked around with an uncharacteristically somber look on her face. Since this mission determined whether or not Maki would become a magical girl, she was taking it very seriously.

“How does it look, Sanae-chan?” Shizuka asked, peering at her.

Sanae seemed troubled as she replied, “Well, there was a weird guy mixed in with the other people gathered here. He was using his head like Theia and the others.”

“A weird guy? Like Theia-chan and the others?” Shizuka repeated with a perplexed expression.

She was struggling to connect the dots in her head. The rest of the group shared her confusion.

“We don’t understand, Sanae,” Koutarou said on everyone’s behalf. “Can you explain yourself properly?”

“You should always understand me! You love me, don’t you?!”

“Love has nothing to do with this.”

“Gosh, you’re such a pain! Now, you... c’mere!”

Giving up on explaining, Sanae decided to use force to get the answers needed...

Pop!

“Kyaaah?! S-Sanae-chan!”

In other words, she reached inside of herself and forcibly pulled out Sanae-san. Sanae-chan still dominated Sanae’s personality, generally speaking, so it was rare for Sanae-san to make an appearance alone. She was utterly shocked to be so rudely brought to the forefront like this.

“What are you doing?! What’s going on?!”

“I’m busy working here, so you do the talking.”

Indeed, Sanae had brought out Sanae-san to explain things to Koutarou and the others for her. As the calmer, more rational side of Sanae, Sanae-san was much better suited for the job than Sanae-chan.

“That’s all you’re giving me?!”

“Yup! The rest is up to you.”

“A-Auuugh...”

Sanae-chan thus happily withdrew inside Sanae to concentrate on gathering information with the haniwas. This left a troubled Sanae-san to relay said information to the group.

“It’s probably best just to give in and leave her be,” Koutarou said of Sanae-chan. “She’s incorrigible when she’s like this.”

“You don’t have to tell me that... I mean, it is me we’re talking about.”

“Yeah, you’ve been pretty crazy lately.”

“I’m really sorry about Sanae-chan...” Once she got a handle on the situation, Sanae-san let out a resigned sigh and shrugged as she composed herself. “Um, so where was I?”

“You were saying something about a weird guy, and something about him being like Theia.”

“Ooh! Right, right!”

“Heh.”

“Huh? What’s so funny?”

“You’re just you, Sanae.”

Forgetting where she was in the middle of her own explanation was just like Sanae, Koutarou thought. While Sanae-san and Sanae-chan were polar opposites personality-wise, they shared some rather comical traits. Koutarou couldn’t help but find it amusing.

“O-Of course I am.”

“Yeah. Sorry for interrupting. Carry on.”

“Sheesh...”

Sanae-san was modest to a fault, but Sanae-chan had summoned her here on business today—and she took her job seriously. She puffed her cheeks out in a pout at the interruption. That reminded Koutarou of Sanae-chan too, but he refrained from saying anything this time.

“Saying the guy was weird and that he was like Theiamillis-san meant the same thing.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Um, he was thinking in a way that stood out from everyone else. Like he was using some kind of machine or some kind of magic to translate for him.”

Although all languages used the same language center in the brain, no two had the exact same formation process. The transfer of one into another manifested as a subtle difference in one’s psychic wave patterns—that was what Sanae had meant when she said he was using his head in a weird way.

“Aha, so you mean he’s using some kind of automated translation like Theia, Ruth, and Clan.”

“Yes. I think there were even some instances of unique Folsarian words he didn’t know being replaced with other words.”

“You can even tell things like that? That’s impressive.”

“It’s thanks to the haniwas’ help. And it’s not like I can tell what the actual words were or what the conversation was about. I’m just picking up on the residual energy from it.”

Sanae had only noticed the subtle difference in the waves because the two haniwas were helping her pick up on and analyze them. Three heads were better than one, so to speak.

“It’s still impressive.”

“Th-Thank you.”

Sanae-san bashfully turned red. Both Sanae-san and Sanae-chan were part of Sanae, so she naturally felt like she was being complimented to her face when Koutarou praised Sanae-chan.

“The weird guy left in a vehicle that went that way, ho!”

“Looks like the tracks continue to the northwest, ho!”

“Great! Can you follow them?” Koutarou asked.

“Never fear, ho! The dependable Flame Knight is here, ho!”

“Don’t forget the Cat Knight, ho! I’ve determined that it was a large work vehicle, ho!”

With the information Sanae had picked up, the two haniwas were able to find and follow tire tracks from the vehicle in question via their high-powered image processing. It was something Sanae never would have been able to do on her own.

“The question now is if this weird man and the well dressed stranger are the same person,” Harumi put forward, addressing the real problem at hand.

Their only psychic lead right now was that someone using automated translation of some kind had left the city in a work vehicle. There was no guarantee it was the same man who’d been recruiting in the city. If they followed these tire tracks, they could be taking themselves on a wild goose chase.

“Investigations are all about legwork... I think we should follow the tracks. Witnesses say the recruiter left in a large vehicle, so this sounds right. It would also make sense that he needs automated translation if he’s a foreigner here. I think we need to check it out,” said Maki.

She didn’t think it was a bad lead. A large work vehicle made sense for gathering and transporting laborers. And even if the weird stranger was unrelated to the recruitment, he at least had magic or technology that exceeded what was available on Earth. She believed they should confirm his identity.

The land west of Thorthe was almost completely untouched, which made it easier for Koutarou and the others to follow the tire tracks. Once they were far enough away from the city, they were virtually the only tracks around.

“Even I can see them now. That’s what these are, right?” Koutarou asked.

“You got it, Big Brother!” the haniwas confirmed.

Koutarou had spotted three different sets of tracks. The first was set with deep grooves, the second was lined with side-by-side treads, and the third was largely unremarkable. Since Koutarou knew they were following a work vehicle, he guessed the plain set of tracks was what they were after.

“Meow!”

“Little Brother got it right too, ho!”

It was unclear if Snoozy actually understood what the group was talking about or not, but he leaped from Maki’s shoulder and happily began following the third set of tracks. He looked like an adorable little hunter on the move. The girls instantly fell in love with him all over again.

“I can’t help feeling mellow with Snoozy around...” Shizuka sighed.

She was the most smitten of all with the kitten. While she knew they were out here on serious business, she just couldn’t keep her eyes off of him. With the draconic emperor inside her, however, a little distraction here and there was no real danger. Alunaya would never let anything happen to her.

“I know what you mean. But don’t worry. I have a feeling Maki-san will evacuate him soon,” Harumi said with a smile.

“Ah, I’m glad.”

“Heehee, speak of the devil...”

Whenever danger loomed, Maki would put Snoozy inside a special carrier Clan had made for her with a combination of magic and technology. It had the stealth and flight capabilities of the haniwas, and was programmed to follow Maki from a safe distance. Its intelligent AI would navigate away when there was combat and return when it was over. With its magically enhanced cloaking ability, it would never be discovered short of entering an enemy base directly. It was also equipped with a barrier just in case, though it would likely never see any use.

“Snoozy, come here,” Maki called.

“...Meow...”

“Don’t be selfish. Please. This is an important job.”

“Meow.”

Though resistant at first, Snoozy entered the carrier of his own accord when Maki asked nicely. Her specialty was indigo magic, so even when she wasn’t doing so actively, she could read the minds of others to a certain extent through their mana. That power came in handy with animals.

“I’ll bring you back out later.”

“Meow!”

Once Snoozy was inside, the carrier seemed to vanish into thin air before everyone’s very eyes. It wouldn’t appear again until Maki judged that it was safe.

“If you’re hiding Snoozy, does that mean you’ve detected something, Aika-san?” Koutarou asked once the carrier was out of sight.

Maki only hid Snoozy when she felt things were getting dangerous—a good sign she’d sensed something. Koutarou accordingly unfastened the clasp on Signaltin’s sheath as he asked her about it.

“Yes. Please look over there,” she replied.

Maki had the sharpest eyes of the group after Shizuka (with Alunaya) and Theia. Combined with her military experience, her scouting abilities were first rate. It was no surprise she’d spotted it sooner than anyone else...

“A truck, huh? Kind of weird for it to be all the way out here,” remarked Koutarou.

The group was currently walking along a road that ran through the forest. A few hundred meters behind them was a truck coming up a different road from below. Nothing was unusual about the truck itself—it was a standard transport truck common in Folsaria. Aside from its slightly older design and the fact that it ran on mana, it wasn’t any different from one you might find on Earth. The real question, as Koutarou had implied, was what it was doing here. That was why Maki sent Snoozy away.

“Looks like we’re headed in the same direction,” observed Sanae. It stood to reason that their destinations were the same too.

“There must be something up ahead after all, then,” Harumi said as she looked up the road.

The forested path led up a small mountain. The truck below was only at the base of the mountain now. The group had a good vantage point on it because they’d gotten a head start up the slope.

“Satomi-kun, Uncle is saying that the truck is carrying food.”

“Are you sure?”

“Indeed. I hunt from the skies, so I am confident in my senses.”

Fire Dragon Emperor Alunaya’s sentience and mana resided in Shizuka, and he shared them with her. He could smell spices, meat, and bread from the truck—even at this distance. He was certain it was carrying food.

“Thinking about it, I guess it would be pretty funny if a dragon like you mistook something inedible for prey, Uncle.”

“If I do happen to be wrong here, I hope you’ll kindly forget all about it.”

“Haha. Sure thing, Uncle.”

Shizuka and Alunaya shared a familial laugh together, but Maki and Koutarou still looked quite stern. The size of the truck had caught their eye.

“If that truck is carrying food, it must be quite a lot of it,” she remarked.

“That’s true. It’s as big as the ones that deliver to the supermarket,” he agreed.

Approaching was a large box truck. If it was packed with food, it would be several tons’ worth of provisions. A supply like that would take some serious storage to keep—and some serious mouths to feed. Exactly how many people it was intended to sustain would depend on the frequency of the deliveries, but it had to be at least several dozen.

About two kilometers from where Maki had first spotted the truck, it turned onto the road that led up the mountain. As Sanae had guessed, they really were headed in the same direction after all.

“It’s hard to tell because it rained recently, but it looks like a truck comes through here more than once a week, ho!”

“If that’s all food deliveries, ho, there must be more than a hundred people up ahead!”

“If there are really that many people here, you’d think this place would get a signal...” grumbled Koutarou.

Folsaria, like Earth, had reached the age of mobile communication. It was standard practice for jobsites to have it set up for the sake of efficiency and safety. That was true across all lines of work, so it bothered Koutarou that it didn’t seem to be the case here.

“Maybe this is a confidential job and only the foreman has access to a phone,” Shizuka suggested.

Such was sometimes the case at factories that handled precision instruments and the like. The matter of classified information aside, specialized work was also often done in clean rooms where unsterilized personal items were forbidden.

“They should still be allowed to make supervised calls while they’re off the clock...” Harumi said darkly. She had a bad feeling about the fact that no one had heard from the missing men.

“Maybe there’s some funny business going on here, then,” offered Shizuka. “Like maybe the company’s found rare metals and pressed everyone into forced labor.”

Something common like iron would be nothing to hide, but rare materials would be a different story. If metals of significant value had been discovered, perhaps the laborers had been sequestered without means of communication to prevent a leak. If word about the discovery got out, after all, other mining companies would swoop in to claim a share.

Folsaria was home to special metal deposits that were steeped in mana, so such incidents weren’t unheard of. Mana-rich nickel and cadmium were used to make devices that stored magical energy. Mana-rich iron could be used to forge weapons, and mana-rich silver made excellent armor against demons. All of these metals fetched extremely high prices, and they had a long history of being mined in a secretive, unsavory fashion because of it. It was an undeniable downside to Folsaria’s magic-driven society.

“I think I’m starting to see what’s going on here...” Koutarou mused.

“What do you mean?” Maki asked.

“Maybe Rainbow Heart picked this assignment for you because they suspected something like this might be the cause of it. Even though they’re hiring you as an intermediate level magician, they know good and well that your abilities rival Yurika’s.”

Koutarou believed that busting an illegal mana-rich ore mining operation was a job worthy of an archwizard. It would be a good test of what Maki could truly do. He also thought it made sense given her history as a member of Darkness Rainbow since she would be familiar with such crimes, although he didn’t say that part out loud.

“Rainbow Heart is shorthanded right now, so maybe Satomi-kun is onto something,” Shizuka agreed with a bitter smile.

Folsaria was in the midst of a hectic reconstruction. With peace restored and their true home discovered, everyone was as busy as could be—especially Rainbow Heart. Putting Maki on a job like this would save them the time and trouble of handling it themselves.

“I’m not sure I follow, but we just have to beat the bad guys, right?”

“If everyone is right, it’s not that simple, Sanae-chan.”

“If this really is a case of forced labor, then beating the bad guys can wait. First things first, we need evidence,” Koutarou explained.

“Yeah, I guess that’s what heroes of justice should do,” Sanae replied.

“You still think just like you did when you were a ghost.”

“Don’t be like that. I know you love it,” she teased, poking Koutarou’s cheek with her finger.

“I do get jealous of your confidence sometimes,” he admitted with a shrug.

At that, stern expressions overtook the girls’ faces. They all understood now—even Sanae—that this was serious.

“Want me to go scout?” Sanae offered, although it would have been a much more honorable suggestion if she hadn’t been pointing at Sanae-san, who was currently astral projecting, when she’d said it.

“Wait, I have to go?!”

“They might find me if I go.”

As one person, Sanae-chan and Sanae-san shared the same psychic powers. Sanae-san, however, had grown up like a normal girl oblivious to them. She was far less experienced with them and almost always left their use to Sanae-chan, even now. That meant her spiritual signature, so to speak, was diminutive compared to Sanae-chan’s. Necromancy or divination magic would have a much harder time detecting her because of it.

“Hey, that’s a pretty clever trick, Sanae,” said Koutarou.

“I think about stuff too, y’know!”

“What’s your take on this, Aika-san?”

“I’m grateful. It would be a huge help,” Maki said with a nod. She felt a little sorry for Sanae-san, but it was indeed a smart plan.

“Yay!”

“Nooooo!”

Thus it was decided that Sanae-san would handle the scouting herself. This was only preliminary reconnaissance, so she’d be flying high overhead—well out of danger—just to get an idea of the place. That said, it was still her first mission alone. She was understandably anxious.

“Come on, you! Get going already!” Sanae-chan urged her.

“But...”

“There won’t be any bad guys all the way up in the sky.”

“Really?”

“Why would I lie to you?”

“You do say the craziest things sometimes...”

“Listen, our future as magical girls is at stake here!”

“Oh, yeah... I guess you’re right.”

The two Sanaes argued for a little while, but Sanae-chan eventually convinced Sanae-san to agree to the job. She slowly floated up into the air.

“I’ll be back, everyone!”

“Yeah! Come back before anything happens!”

“What?! Something’s going to happen?!”

“It’s just a figure of speech! Now get outta here!”

“O-Okay!”

Slowly but surely, Sanae-san looked around as she rose skyward.

“Jeez, that girl...” Sanae-chan muttered, watching herself go with folded arms. She felt like an older sibling seeing her little sister off on her first errand.

“That was pretty nice of you, Sanae,” Koutarou remarked.

He suspected that Sanae-chan had forcibly pulled Sanae-san out today to keep her existence from fading. Koutarou and the others shared a strong bond with Sanae-chan, so they might not notice if Sanae-san faded away. But her parents and her friends from school were the other way around. They would miss Sanae-san dearly if she were gone.

“Right?! Feel free to praise me even more!”

“Yes, yes. Good job.”

In the end, Sanae didn’t seem like an older sister for long. The second she presented her head to Koutarou for patting, she looked just like a child wanting to be spoiled.

While spiritual energy was detectable, it was much harder to pick up in a dense forest. That was the idea behind rising into the sky—the obstructions weren’t an object from a bird’s-eye view. As such, Sanae-san returned not long after she first flew off. She’d already sensed something.

“If she’s right, there should be people gathered just past that rocky outcrop,” Sanae-chan reported.

“Wait here, then. Aika-san and I will go check it out,” Koutarou instructed.

“Be careful, you two,” Shizuka called out.

“We will,” he replied.

Koutarou and Maki carefully approached the point of interest that Sanae-san had located. Since they still didn’t know what was going on, they wanted to avoid detection until they could confirm the details of the situation. That caution increased as they neared their objective.

“Aika-san.”

“Yes?”

The rocky outcrop was just in front of them now. Sanae had reported a cluster of people behind it. And if something nefarious were going on here, they could fairly expect a strict surveillance network in the area. That was why Koutarou had asked Maki, who had a wealth of field experience, to take point. He was confident that he could follow her lead.

“Avoid that tree over there. There’s a camera and a microphone on it.”

“Got it.”

They whispered advice to each other as they stealthily made their way up the slope. As they’d anticipated, the mountainside was dotted with cameras and bugs. Maki, however, artfully evaded each and every one. She moved more smoothly than Koutarou had expected.

“There it is...”

A good distance past the outcrop, as Sanae had said, was a group of people. They seemed to be spread out working on something. Out of an abundance of caution, Maki got low in a patch of nearby brush to observe further. If they could see their targets from here, then the reverse was also true.

“What are they doing?” Koutarou whispered, pulling out two pairs of binoculars and handing one to Maki.

“They have several tents set up... and there’s a small structure made from stone or something...”

It was a largely open area lined with a stone structure and tents. The stone structure saw some foot traffic, but the tents seemed to be getting the majority of the use.

“Satomi-kun, the truck we saw earlier is past the tents...”

“There’s a work vehicle too. Might be the one we were following...”

Both were parked beyond the line of tents. People were offloading the contents of the box truck into them.

“It looks like they’re doing something farther back, but I can’t see from here...”

There was more activity behind the trucks and tents, but Maki and Koutarou couldn’t tell what it was through the trees from their current position.

“What should we do?” Koutarou asked quietly.

“Let’s regroup with Higashihongan-san and the others, then move a little closer. I at least want to confirm what they’re doing...” Maki instructed.

Small-scale or not, she was technically on a military operation. She needed to bring back enough information for her superiors to make an informed decision. And right now, all she knew for sure was that someone had set up surveillance on the mountain. Most commercial enterprises used it nowadays, so that wasn’t even circumstantial proof of anything. She needed more than that, so she wanted to press onward.

“Got it, captain,” Koutarou said with a playful salute.

“Captain...?” Maki asked, taken aback by his reaction.

“Well, this is your test, so you’re in the lead here.”

While he’d asked what they should do, Koutarou too had felt like they should press on for more information. This was Maki’s mission, however, so he deferred to her to make the call.

“Even so, it doesn’t feel right...”

Maki personally would have preferred Koutarou to be the one giving orders. Not because she wanted to take a backseat in the operation, but because she felt assured that his decisions took her into account—like he was always thinking of her. That said, since they always talked things out, Maki’s decisions were never much different from Koutarou’s. All the more reason, she thought, for him to take the lead anyway.

“Don’t sweat it. That’s just how tests work. Now, c’mon, let’s go...” Koutarou said, keeping low as he crept through the underbrush back toward Sanae and the others.

“Yes...” Maki replied softly, following him.

Though she had mixed feelings about giving Koutarou orders, he was right. A test was a test. She squeezed his hand, settling for accepting his help as they both stood up on the other side of the brush.

Sanae was the first to realize the location they’d stumbled upon was a cemetery. This discovery put certain parts of the scene in context—the stone structure Koutarou had seen through his binoculars was a tomb. Sanae couldn’t tell as much by looking at it, but the concentration of ghosts in the area gave it away.

“Enough with the scary stories, Sanae-chan!” Shizuka shrieked, going pale at Sanae’s report.

She’d never been scared of Sanae while she was a ghost—perhaps because she always looked and seemed so real—but Shizuka had a hard time with spooky tales and paranormal phenomena that she couldn’t confirm for herself.

“Don’t worry,” Sanae assured her. “They’re all about to disappear. I’m not even sure if Koutarou can see them.”

“I’d need to focus. I’m amazed you can spot them so easily, Sanae...” he replied.

“Eeheehee. They can’t see us, though. And even if they could, they couldn’t do anything, so there’s nothing to be afraid of!”

“That only makes it scarier...” Shizuka whined.

Since she was once a ghost herself, Sanae knew more about them than anyone. That was also why she wasn’t particularly afraid of them. Shizuka, however, was a different story. She just couldn’t sit still knowing there was something invisible and otherworldly all around her.

“Blue Knight, is Shizuka saying that she’s afraid of even me?”

“The opposite, I think.”

“Yeah, you’re not scary at all, Uncle. I mean, I know you.”

“Glad to hear it.”

“Uncle, can’t you do something with your powers to keep the ghosts away?”

“Don’t worry—they won’t come near regardless. If they did, they’d probably be blown away.”

“Really?”

“Indeed. They’re boring evil spirits who would be overpowered by my very aura.”

“Wait, what?! They’re evil spirits?!”

“Yup!” piped up Sanae. “They’re keeping their form in the afterlife through sheer obsession.”

“That’s even worse!” cried Shizuka.

With mixed feelings, Koutarou and the others carefully made their way closer to the cemetery. Shizuka understood the gravity of the situation and did her best to keep calm by trying not to think about the supernatural side of things.

“Satomi-kun, I think this is as far as we can safely go. Any closer and we’ll be inside the range of standard detection spells,” Maki whispered from the shadow of a nearby tree.

The group was now about a hundred meters out from the low stone wall surrounding the cemetery, and even farther from the people milling about. They were safe from sight, but Maki knew there were other ways—magical ones—to detect intruders. Caution was required from this point forward.

“What are they doing over there?” Harumi asked.

She’d sneaked over to Maki and poked her head out from behind the tree to get a peek at the cemetery. There were men carrying pickaxes and shovels. It seemed they were digging for something, but it was unclear what.

“Sakuraba-senpai, they’re probably excavating some ruins,” offered Koutarou unexpectedly.

He had a hunch because he was familiar with this type of work. He recognized the brushes, trowels, and small hammers the men were using—tools he himself often used at his part-time job.

“If this is an excavation, it must be something really important,” mused Shizuka.

She couldn’t imagine why else the job would sequester its workers and suppress all communication. Harumi felt the same way.

“Now that we’re this close, I can sense profound mana just over there,” she added. “That might be what they’re digging up.”

Folsaria was home to mineral deposits naturally steeped in mana, and many of its citizens carried magical devices on their person. Mana was everywhere here. But even so, Harumi could still sense a powerful mana through it all from just beyond the cemetery—and that was without any spells to aid her perception. Maki believed she was right on the mark, too.

She nodded and replied, “I think so as well. That’s why—”

But all of a sudden, a voice cried from the cemetery, “Found them! Over there!”

Movement and panic spread through the camp. The men threw down their tools and took up weapons instead. Folsaria was home to the likes of demons and monsters, so even the average civilian armed themselves for emergencies. That was what Maki suspected at first—that a demon had appeared. Sanae, however, could sense more about the situation.

“Th-They’re onto us! Lots of people are headed this way!” she announced.

This news took Maki aback. But though she was surprised, she swiftly pulled herself together and made a decision.

“Let’s run! I want to avoid combat!” she ordered.

Maki still didn’t have the decisive proof she wanted—nor did she understand the full extent of what was going on in the cemetery. And without knowing that, she couldn’t fight the workers in good conscience. As an agent of Darkness Rainbow, she wouldn’t have cared either way... but Rainbow Heart did things differently.

“Karama, Korama! Sakuraba-senpai!” Koutarou called out.

“Got it, Big Brother! Leave it to us, ho!”

“Ho! Ready to fire smoke grenades!”

“At your service, Satomi-kun!”

Folsaria was a kingdom of magic. It was a foregone conclusion that Koutarou and the group would be pursued by magical means—meaning they’d need all kinds of tricks, magical and not-so-magical alike, in order to get away.

“Targeting fifty meters out, ho, adjusted for accuracy!”

“Fire immediately, ho!”

Pop!

The haniwas fired a round of mundane smoke grenades. They were the same kind Yurika had gotten from Nefilforan’s squad, so their effectiveness was guaranteed.

Poof!

Smoke billowed out of them, blanketing the area between the group and the cemetery.

“Gather, spirits of lights! Transform into threads of radiance and weave a temporal image! Captivate, Luminous Dancer!”

As the smoke blocked line of sight, Harumi cast a spell that created illusionary copies of everyone. She then sent the illusions running.

“Mass Invisibility!”

And for the finishing touch, Maki swiftly cast a spell to make the real group disappear. With that, they’d safely be able to get away. When the smoke cleared, their pursuers would chase down the illusions instead of them.

In the meantime, they took off running in the opposite direction. Once they were far enough away, Maki let out a sigh of relief. Since she was in charge of this operation—and therefore responsible for everyone’s safety—she was more tense than usual.

“That sure surprised me... But I’m glad everything worked out,” she remarked.

“Me too, but I wonder how they detected us,” Koutarou mused.

He was relieved as well, but there was still something bothering him. He thought Maki had made the right call to flee; they didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks. That said, they’d moved carefully while taking into account the range of detection magic. So how had they been so easily discovered?

“Maybe they set up military-grade defenses,” suggested Maki. “In that case—”

“They’re coming again! We’re invisible, but it’s like they can still see us!” yelped Sanae.

“—we won’t be able to escape just by doing this!”

“Round two, everyone! Get ready!” shouted Koutarou.

It was now evident that the cemetery worksite had defenses that far exceeded the group’s initial expectations. Maki felt such precautions were extreme for a job that wanted to prevent security leaks and keep workers from escaping. That meant there had to be something else going on... which boded ominously.

The workers had quickly discovered the group and given chase with military tactics and persistence. Shaking them wasn’t easy. Koutarou and the girls could have retaliated to put a stop to the pursuit, but they were wary of attacking anyone under such uncertain circumstances. They also wanted to avoid revealing anything about themselves, so they opted to keep running. Night fell before they at last managed to break away.

“Hmm, looks like the last of them went back,” reported Sanae as she scanned the area. “I think the only other living things around now are animals.”

“Sheesh, so they finally gave up...” Koutarou said with a relieved sigh as he refastened the clasp on his sheath. He wouldn’t need to use his sword now. “Still, what were they excavating over there?”

Although the group had evaded danger, that question remained. They were a good distance from the cemetery now, too. The investigation had taken a rather large step back without much to show for it.

“Not only did they chase us off, but they followed us all this way... They must have had a good reason,” Harumi said, her brow furrowed.

All they knew for certain was that something was being excavated at a cemetery—and the crew was on high alert. But even with that small lead, there were things the group could puzzle out. For instance, why whoever was in charge of the worksite didn’t want it discovered. That said, the labor conditions and the purpose of the excavation were still unclear.

“What do you want to do, Aika-san? Sneak in again more carefully?” Shizuka asked.

She felt like it would be possible to go back a second time, avoiding detection with careful use of magic and the haniwas’ power. Maki’s job wasn’t over yet, after all. They still needed to confirm exactly what was happening in that cemetery.

“They’ll probably be on their guard now, so it wouldn’t be wise to try it again right away,” Maki replied with a shake of her head.

If she were in charge of the worksite herself, she would stop the operation for the day and focus instead on keeping an eye out for the intruders. It was common for them to return, after all. That was why Maki thought going back so soon would be dangerous. If they were going to do it, they’d need to take their time and be prepared.

“As such, let’s return to the capital for now,” she suggested.

“To meet up with Theia and the others?” asked Koutarou.

“That too, but there’s something I’d like to confirm,” Maki replied with a nod.

“What’s that?” Sanae inquired curiously. She couldn’t think of anything more important than regrouping right now.

“That place was without a doubt a cemetery, right?”

“Yeah, totally. There were a ton of ghosts there.”

“Don’t remind me...” whimpered Shizuka.

“Then there should be records of who’s buried there,” Maki explained.

Folsaria’s records office kept data on burial sites. This particular cemetery might be too old to be logged, but aside from an extreme exception like that, the group should be able to learn more about it from public records. In other words, their work in the mountains might already be over.

As Maki’s current mission was a probationary test for her hire with Rainbow Heart, Koutarou and the others were trying to refrain from using Forthorthian technology and spiritual energy as much as possible. Maki was in charge of the investigation, and she was trying to do as much as she could by her own hand. If they intervened too much to help her, they were worried Rainbow Heart would find her results lacking.

Given the current situation, however, the group decided it was necessary to contact Theia and the others. There was a possibility the cemetery was currently being raided, after all. As Folsaria was a magical kingdom, the dead were often buried with magical articles and such. Grave robbing was a serious offense. So with something so reprehensible on the table, the group had decided to contact Theia via gravitational wave comms, as magical ones were out of range in the mountains.

“Have you heard anything yet?” Koutarou asked.

“Not since that last reply,” Maki replied.

“I wonder what that means...”

Maki had messaged Theia and asked her to relay what happened to Kaera. She also asked for details on the burial site. Within minutes, she’d received a reply flagged as urgent mail. It was simply an order to report, however, and contained none of the requested information.

“We’re almost there, so let’s just ask her ourselves when we see her,” suggested Sanae.

“You’re right.”

Koutarou and the girls were already back at the Blue Tower, currently taking the elevator to Kaera’s office at the top. Koutarou had asked Maki if she’d heard anything else just to make conversation, but Sanae was indeed right. The fastest way to get the information they wanted would be straight from the horse’s mouth.

Ding!

Before reaching the top floor, the elevator stopped to let more passengers on. The door opened to reveal a few familiar faces.

“Koutarou! You’re back!” exclaimed Theia.

“Hey, everyone.”

Theia, Ruth, Clan, Kiriha, and Nana all boarded the elevator. They’d been standing by on a reception floor and were also on their way to Kaera’s office.

“What’s the situation?” Koutarou asked.

“I don’t know. Shortly after we relayed Maki’s message, our meeting was suspended. Kaera-dono only just now called us back,” Theia replied.

Upon receiving Maki’s report via Theia, Kaera was stricken with a stern look on her usually smiling face. The same stern expression struck the rest of the elder council as well. They paused for a few moments to check with their subordinates and consult a map, and the meeting was called off immediately thereafter. Theia and company were then asked to wait on one of the reception floors of the Blue Tower.

“They probably want to talk with all of us now that we’re back,” suggested Koutarou.

“I imagine,” said Kiriha. “This seems to be a pretty big deal.”

She too wore a stern expression. Given how Kaera and the other elders had behaved, it seemed something serious was afoot. Something serious enough to warrant interrupting a diplomatic meeting between Folsaria, Forthorthe, and the People of the Earth. Kiriha had a bad feeling about it.

“It is a problem... We were in a very important meeting about all of our futures,” Ruth added in a disappointed tone.

There was no shortage of obstacles in the way, but Theia and the other girls had been in the midst of a discussion about the futures of all three nations. For it to be put off, however long, was tragic.

“Now that it’s come to this, we should focus our efforts on resolving the problem at hand,” volunteered Clan.

She was being unusually positive. Her eyes were bright with vigor and determination, and her spirits lifted Ruth’s downcast face. It also had a notable effect on the worried Kiriha and Shizuka.

“Looks like your hidden good side is coming out, princess,” remarked Koutarou. He had a much easier time complimenting her now than he used to.

“All to keep the Blue Knight sleeping within you from coming out,” she replied.

Koutarou was happy Clan had grown so much, but at the same time, there was something sad about it. He’d never hated taking care of her when she was immature and selfish, and he hated seeing her take charge when danger was involved.

The group found Kaera waiting for them when they reached the top of the Blue Tower. She’d been wearing her loose-fitting elder’s robe before, but she now donned a blue uniform. When Nana saw it, her expression changed.

“Kaera-sama, is the situation really that serious?!” she gasped.

Kaera was the Blue Tower’s commander, and she was now dressed the part. That meant she was here as a military official rather than an advising elder—a sign the Blue Tower was prepared for battle. It was a rare sight for the mild-mannered Kaera to look ready for war, which was why it shook Nana so.

“Unfortunately, it seems that way,” Kaera responded.

Nana and Kaera skipped the pleasantry of greetings. They both believed in proper manners, but this wasn’t the time for them. They wanted to get straight to business.

“Maki, I’d like to hear your report,” said Kaera. “Directly from you, if you will.”

She felt such formality was necessary before mobilizing the Blue Tower’s troops. Rainbow Heart required justification for such an act. An indirect message from Maki wasn’t enough. She needed an official report.

“Yes, ma’am! Intermediate magician Aika Maki of the Blue Tower reporting.” As a former member of a militaristic organization, Maki understood the importance of procedure. She properly saluted Kaera and began, “After accepting my mission, I spoke with the individuals who reported the missing persons.”

From there, she told Kaera how she’d heard about the recruiter. How witness reports had led her outside the city, where she’d followed tire tracks to the cemetery on the mountain. How she’d discovered the excavation there. Maki spared no detail.

“There were too many uncertainties, so I made the decision to avoid combat and retreat. That was when I messaged Princess Theiamillis, asking her to relay the circumstances to you. And afterward, I returned here per your reply.”

“Retreating was a wise decision. You could have been in danger if you’d stayed to fight,” Kaera concluded with a nod. She approved of Maki’s actions during her mission, and Maki had now reported everything she needed to know.

“Kaera-sama, just what was that place?” Maki asked.

She wanted to learn more about who was buried in the cemetery, but that information so far had eluded her. She’d have to find it from somewhere—from someone—in order to continue her investigation.

“That’s a Folsarian top secret,” Kaera replied.

“It’s classified, then? So that’s why no one replied to my inquiry...”

Such sensitive material couldn’t be divulged so carelessly. Especially not over wireless communication that could be intercepted by anyone. When she realized that, Maki understood why she’d gotten no answer.

“That’s right. That’s also why I need you to keep quiet regarding what I’m about to tell you.”

The situation was such that Kaera could no longer keep this from Koutarou and the girls. They had every right to hear it.

“The truth is,” she began in a low voice with a somber expression, “that place is where the earliest inhabitants of Folsaria are buried.”

“Why were they buried somewhere so remote?” Maki asked.

If they were the founders of the nation, they were of great historical significance. Maki wanted to know why their graves were so far removed from the capital. Koutarou and the others were wondering the same thing too.

“Long ago, they committed the great sin that resulted in us Folsarians being banished from our true home. As such, people objected to burying them anywhere near the city.”

Once they were exiled, many of them reformed and devoted themselves to finding a way to survive in Folsaria. But even so, the generations to follow considered what they’d done to be unforgivable. The crime was far too great and the consequences far too severe. That resentment outlived them, so it was clear that an easily accessible graveyard would only be an object of vandalism. To avoid that, Rainbow Heart instead buried Folsaria’s founders deep in the mountains.

“Their research was another reason for it. The studies of their leader, the Grand Wizard, were particularly dangerous. And so it was all buried with them in a cemetery on the outskirts of society.”

Kaera was referring to research and studies on dangerous magics. There were calls for it to be destroyed outright, but people were afraid that would cost them their only means of defense against it if it were ever leaked to the wrong parties. Like an infectious disease, it couldn’t be completely disposed of just because it was dangerous. And so the founders’ arcane research was sealed away in the cemetery instead—that was why its location was considered top secret.

Not incidentally, Nana had been so wary of Koutarou when they first met because she caught him using the type of magic the Grand Wizard himself had specialized in. Rainbow Heart believed it to be extremely dangerous.

“What was his name?!” Koutarou demanded. He’d been quiet thus far because this was Maki’s mission, but he had to know.

“We are forbidden from speaking it.”

Like with the People of the Earth, most Folsarians distanced themselves from talk of their original leader. For generations, Rainbow Heart was forbidden from speaking his name as a form of self-censure.

“Was it... Grevanas?” Koutarou asked.

Kaera hadn’t said it, but he suspected as much. Court Magician Grevanas was one of the masterminds behind the coup d’état in Forthorthe two thousand years ago.

“How do you know that?!” Kaera exclaimed.

Seeing her reaction, Koutarou knew he was right.

“No... I should have expected as much, Koutarou-dono,” she relented. “In our texts, you are known as the Arbiter.”

Over the past two years Yurika and Nana had spent with Theia and the other Forthorthians, they’d come to understand that Forthorthe was their true home. The deciding factor was finding Sariachal Castle, which Koutarou and Clan had seen in past Forthorthe. After hearing word of this, Kaera recalled the legends claiming a man in blue armor had been the one to exile Grevanas and his magicians.

“The Arbiter, huh? I guess that’s one way to look at it, but I was just desperate at the time.”

Koutarou didn’t think of himself as a judge. His intention wasn’t to banish anyone as punishment; he’d only meant to stop Maxfern from destroying all of Forthorthe. His last resort was the Super Space-time Repulsion Shell, and the rest was history.

“I understand,” Kaera said calmly.

She knew the story. While speaking Grevanas’s name was forbidden, the details of what had happened were passed down for posterity. She didn’t hold it against Koutarou, but there was no way of telling how anyone else might respond, so she’d kept the truth to herself. Theia and the others didn’t spread word of Koutarou’s identity to the Folsarians for the same reason.

“How were Grevanas’s final years?” Koutarou asked after a long pause.

“I do not know if he repented for what he did or if he died resenting the man who banished him from his home... It was many centuries ago, after all, and records of that kind have not survived. That said, the Grand Wizard’s influence has lived on over the years. To this day, he has many ardent followers. Even if his research had been utterly harmless, he still would have been buried in an unmarked grave far outside the city.”

“Ardent followers, you say? If the people at that cemetery are after Grevanas’s magic...” Kiriha said quietly.

She couldn’t help finding Kaera’s mention of “followers” troubling. That would explain why people were excavating, and Koutarou and the other girls tensed up when Kiriha suggested as much. The motives of the grave robbers were now alarmingly clear.

“Satomi-kun, Grevanas was researching necromancy, with a focus on plagues! If—”

“If the magic he used to control me gets out, it will spell disaster!”

Harumi and Alunaya knew better than anyone what evil Grevanas had been capable of working. Necromancy was deathly magic that included spells of poison and plague. Alaia and Charl had fallen victim to such in the past. Moreover, Grevanas had access to strong mind manipulation, the likes of which had enslaved Alunaya and deprived him of his freedom.

Kaera had suspended the diplomatic meeting earlier when she realized that the diggers at the cemetery might be after such terrible magics. Fearing the worst, she’d issued the order for Maki to return to base. There was far more than just a state secret at stake here... This could mean the return of a nightmare from centuries ago, or millennia for some.