Chapter 29
AFTER PAYING the repair costs for the hotel room, Mira and Scorpion once again dashed through the nighttime city and arrived at the warehouse compound. And just like last time, they passed through the magic sensor and security checkpoint with ease.
Mira was getting cocky—what couldn’t she do with Wasranvel’s power?
As if on cue, the spirit spoke up. “By the way, Mira? I know this is a bad time, but I’m running out of power.”
“What?!” She was startled by the sudden confession.
Wasranvel explained, rather apologetically, that his concealment was essentially hiding oneself from the very world. It was more of a bug than a feature. On top of that, Mira hadn’t been contracted with him for very long, and the time limit unfortunately reflected that.
Recovering would take quite a while, though it did depend on one’s affinity with mana. With time and experience, their contract would grow stronger and allow her to use his power longer and recover faster. But at the moment, it would be surprising if he recovered a single minute in a whole day.
If he could feed off of Mira’s mana, he could continue to conceal the sounds they made, their figures, or their mana and presence. She could pick one, but not all three.
Finally, he strongly recommended they save whatever time they had left in case of emergency.
“Nrgh… We’ll have to hurry.”
Total concealment may have been a powerful ability that could erase one’s presence, mana, and any trace visible to the five senses, but it turned out she couldn’t leave it running forever. Hopefully they at least had time to spirit the family away.
Mira accepted this unwelcome news and rushed even faster through the compound, trying to buy as much time as possible.
***
They wound their way through the compound until they reached the heavily secured area that housed the War-Torn Burial Ground. From here on, Scorpion took the lead, as Mira’s memories of the area were fuzzy.
Scorpion navigated the twists and turns without hesitation until they reached the correct storehouse. They peeked in the window and again spotted a child’s underwear hung out to dry. This had to be the place.
Mira used Biometric Scan and confirmed the presence of one adult and one child. Unsurprisingly, at this late hour, they were immobile—presumably asleep.
“This seems the most likely to me…” Mira murmured as she looked around the room.
She just couldn’t say for certain that those sleeping people were Johan’s wife and child. Chimera Clausen was the kind of cowardly group who kidnapped people’s loved ones for their own ends; there might be other families here besides just the alchemist’s.
But Mira and Scorpion had no way of determining this from where they stood, so there was only one option. They crept to the door, which was obviously locked. Scorpion got ready to try picking it, first looking around for patrolmen. She was still under the effects of concealment, but it was her lifelong habit to be wary of her surroundings.
“Mmm… This one seems pretty tough. Not as bad as the other one, though,” she murmured, shooting a glance in the direction of the storehouse with the entrance to the catacombs. The lock used there was as sturdy as those used in royal vaults, but even this lesser design was still quite the challenge.
Faced with such a foe, Scorpion did not back down. She gleefully opened the box that Johan had given her, which contained the alchemical lockpick.
It seemed she was in the mood to try her new toy right away. Scorpion took the metal rod in hand and read the instructions under the faint lamplight, skimming them from top to bottom in the space of a minute.
“Okay, got it!” She folded the instructions back into the box and returned it to the pouch at her hip.
Her face scrunched as she inserted the black rod into the keyhole. Silent and unmoving, she focused her senses on the task before her.
The black rod’s tip split into many branches, filling the complex mechanism. Each branch gathered information about the lock’s construction and fed it back to Scorpion. Normally, one would gradually obtain this information through the use of several lockpicking tools, analyzing it bit by bit, and devise a strategy to overcome the puzzle.
But this special device communicated all that necessary information at once. Someone with no experience would naturally not understand it, and even many with experience would be overwhelmed by the information and unable to analyze it.
However, Scorpion was exceptional; she perfectly understood all of the data it poured into her mind. In less than a minute, she exhaled long and slow, turned, and said proudly, “Piece of cake.”
The door was now slightly ajar.
“Fantastic work,” Mira praised her.
Scorpion looked over to the warehouse that hid the catacombs and said with a grin, “I bet I could open that one, too!”
***
Beyond the door was a one-room apartment. The only illumination came from the streetlamps outside the windows, so it was dark and difficult to see clearly. But as far as they could tell, the place was full of the essentials for living. Perhaps it was the ideal space for a shut-in.
In the corner of the room, at a blind angle from the window, was a bed. That was where Mira had felt the biometric responses.
“Let’s undo the total concealment. Soundproof the whole room, please.” Mira checked that the door was securely shut and issued new orders to Wasranvel in order to economize. As the spirit of stealth, soundproofing was as easy as breathing; it wouldn’t run down the clock on his power.
“I’ll switch now,” Wasranvel replied. After a moment, he signaled to Mira that he was done.
Though there were no visible changes, she could tell it had worked. Still, Mira thought, it was a quite plain ability.
At his signal, Mira and Scorpion walked slowly toward the bed. First, they had to confirm whether they had the right people. But just then…
“Oof!”
There was a soft yet bone-chilling noise in the quiet room, and Mira started hopping all around while holding her shin. She had accidentally knocked into a table in the darkness. Scorpion internally praised her for not screaming, though she noted the tears in the small summoner’s eyes.
Discounting this accident, they managed to reach the bed in one piece. As expected, a little girl and a woman in her thirties slept together under the quilt.
Mm, I can’t see them well… Mira tried to get a good look at their faces, but it was too dark to see. She had no way of knowing their names, either.
At this point, the fastest way would be to simply ask them. Even if they were the family of a victim other than Johan, finding them would give Mira and Scorpion the opportunity to identify more people being forced to work with Chimera against their will. And if they happened to be members of Chimera themselves, they could at least serve as another source of information.
Mira and Scorpion nodded to each other. Mira reached out and touched the woman’s shoulder. Then she did it again. After the third jostle, the woman began to roll over. The fourth prompted her to slowly open her eyes.
“Mmh… Anne? What’s the matter?” the woman murmured sleepily. When she saw the girl sleeping next to her, she cocked her head in confusion. Had she just imagined being poked?
While the woman gazed at her daughter and stroked her hair, Mira spoke gently to avoid startling her.
“Psst. Over here.”
As soon as Mira’s voice reached her, the woman jerked fully awake.
She slowly turned. When she locked eyes with Mira, her voice squeaked out. “Huh…?”
The dim light seeping through the windows illuminated Mira’s fine silver hair and fair skin, bathing the adorable girl in an otherworldly glow. At a glance, she might easily be mistaken for an angel. Despite the situation, the woman found herself staring.
But that did not last long. When she saw the catlike eyes of Scorpion floating behind this “angel” in the dark, everything changed.
Her eyes and mouth alike opened wide, but Mira’s hand shot out to cover her mouth before she could scream.
“Mmph!”
Nobody would hear anything thanks to the room’s soundproofing, but it would be hard to have a conversation if the woman freaked out now.
Still holding her mouth closed, Mira gazed deep into her eyes and asked confidently, “You are Johan’s wife, Angelique, correct?”
She had said the name of Johan’s daughter in her sleepy daze, after all. What were the odds there were other captive daughters named Anne?
Angelique nodded in response.
“Your husband asked us to save you. We are friends—but please stay quiet.” Mira waited for Angelique to nod again. Then, she removed her hand from the woman’s mouth.
Mira took a step back, but Angelique leaned toward her and begged, “My husband… Is Johan safe?!” Her trembling hands seized Mira’s shoulders and refused to let go.
“Yes, there’s no need to worry. Settle down, please,” she replied soothingly, as if talking to a child, and put a hand on Angelique’s head.
***
After Angelique calmed down, they managed to discuss a few things.
It turned out she hadn’t been given a proper explanation of events at all. She’d been told that a mishap had occurred during an experiment, and that she and Anne would need to be isolated from Johan for their own safety. On the strength of that vague lie, they’d been confined here for nearly five years.
So, Mira told her the full truth…the short version of the full truth, anyway. An evil organization known as Chimera Clausen had joined forces with Melville Commerce, and Johan’s father had created the weapons that gave them power.
After the loss of his father, Johan was the only one who knew the sorts of things his father had been making, thanks to the research notes he’d left behind. They were monstrous creations made to harm spirits. Once Johan learned this, he refused to continue manufacturing them.
But as he was the last person left who could make them, the evildoers kidnapped Angelique and Anne. With his family held hostage, Johan had no choice but to continue making their tools.
“We learned all of this from speaking to Johan himself. We believed him and came back here to save you two.” Explanation complete, Mira took a step back, puffed out her chest, and added, “Everything’s going to be okay now.”
Mira’s smile was kind, oddly comforting, and brazen all at the same time.
Angelique gazed at her as if she were an angel of salvation and simply answered, “Okay.”
They had just come to this place of mutual trust when the young Anne woke up. She sat up in bed and locked eyes with Mira.
“Mommy, what’s going on?”
It would be a pain if she made a scene now, but Mira couldn’t just clap a hand over her mouth in front of her mother. She smiled a big friendly smile like a staff member at a theme park to keep from scaring the child.
It seemed Anne was still half asleep. She gazed at Mira for a while before mumbling, “Too weird.” Then she hugged Angelique and snuggled back down to resume her slumber.
“Well… Shall we make our exit?” Mira was privately rather wounded by Anne’s remark. Then again, she never was good at forcing smiles.
Mira shook it off and explained the next part of the plan to Angelique.
First, she told her about Wasranvel’s power—the effects and range of total concealment, what would nullify its effects, and the like. Scorpion grinned wryly; she had firsthand experience accidentally nullifying it, after all.
The strategy itself was simple. They would escape the compound while concealed, then head back to the mansion and meet up with Johan. They would then take the family to a safehouse and shelter them until the situation with Chimera was resolved.
“Given the circumstances, they may not be the most comfortable accommodations.”
Angelique and her daughter would simply be moved from confinement to confinement. It might be painful for them, but Mira and Scorpion knew what Chimera was capable of—if they wanted to keep Anne and Angelique safe, this was their only choice.
“No, I understand. We’d only slow you down. I’m just grateful for your willingness to rescue us.”
If they merely wanted to strike a blow to Chimera, they could have simply taken Johan away without saving his family. But they didn’t do that.
Angelique bowed deeply to her saviors.
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