Chapter 256: After the Rain (3)

Click-clack—

Elise set foot on the floor of the airport. She looked around with her large suitcase by her side.

Most of them were mages in robes.

Naturally, since it was the Magic Tower's exclusive airport

For Elise, it was a novel feeling.

Starting today, I would be integrated into this society, learn countless practical skills at the Magic Tower, and transform into someone else.

I have no regrets.

Rather, I feel relieved.

There's no longer a family holding me back.

Just like Shion said, plus minus zero.

After such a long time, I've finally returned to the starting point

Ding-a-lini

Her smartphone rang. Elise's expression stiffened slightly.

Ken Petra. It was her father.

Her heart fluttered for a moment, but she had decided not to run away anymore.

Elise answered the call.

Hello?"

Ken was silent Elise waited quietly.

He let out a small sigh.

—It was you.

An accusation.

Elise responded softly.

"Yes. It was me."

-Why?

Ken asked for the reason.

Elise walked through the airport, pulling her suitcase. Suddenly, a light robe for sale in the duty-free shop caught her eye.

"Because you're becoming a monster."

.Monster.

"Yes."

She spoke to the clerk with only the movement of her lips.

'I'll take this one, please.'

—You were raised in my family.

Ken's voice was now tinged with anger.

—You lived in luxury because of the family's wealth-

"I know. That couldn't be helped. But it's not like I wanted to be raised in the family, right? I didn't take anything from the family with a guilty conscience."

She had left the money earned from selling luxury goods right there. After much deliberation, she simply took out a credit loan.

Just the Magic Tower admission certificate was enough to borrow a significant amount

"Father. From now on, Petra may not be able to go to the council's round table."

She donned the blue robe.

"I promise you."

She saw herself in the mirror.

At a glance, no, she truly looked like a mage.

"I'll try to become a mage greater than the family."

—You are an enemy of Petra-

She hung up the phone immediately.

The training grounds of the Aerial Garden were divided into two sections.

In section one, Team 1 was stationed, while Team 2 occupied section two, each conducting their own training exercises.

From what I heard, Team 1 was engaging in agent protection training, where they hired other Chasers to attack them, and Team 2 was constructing an artificial magic space for some kind of urban warfare training or something.

It seemed quite interesting.

"...Do we just wander around?"

On the other hand, Team 3 was neglected.

Completely neglected.

We just sat in an open field, spending time aimlessly without any specific guidance or direction.

"I, I don't know. What are we supposed to do?"

The short man with glasses stuttered as he scratched the back of his head.

His name was Ben, a second-year Chaser.

"...They say that moving in is the most dangerous mission. What do we do?"

This short-haired woman, Sia, looked worried as she inadvertently dampened the morale.

The woman who stared at me pleadingly for help was Chloe.

.Sigh."

Truth be told, there are Chasers who are just salary thieves. Those who suddenly got assigned to Chasers after joining Libra Station.

Of course, they could give up voluntarily, but the Chaser's allowance is substantial enough to turn anyone's head.

"Well then."

With no other choice, I spoke to them.

"Would it be alright if I became the team leader?"

"Th-that would be great!"

"Of course!"

"Yes!"

The three Chasers' eyes sparkled.

I gave a wry smile.

Well, I need a 'squad' too. It's hard to maintain my position as Zia's second-in-command all alone.

For now, she pretends to care for me, but as soon as I become useless or someone more useful appears, I'll be discarded immediately.

"Then everyone, please tell me about your Spectrum and specialties."

"Me!"

Ben raised his hand eagerly.

"I, I can do transcription!"

Transcription. Simply put, it's like a text version of telepathy.

"Oh. That's quite rare."

There's a reason he was assigned to Chasers.

"What's the medium?"

"This!"

Ben pointed to his glasses.

"If you wear these lenses imbued with my magic, you can exchange thoughts in the form of sentences!"

"Understood. Please distribute the lenses to all of us."

"Y-yes!'

"Next, what about you, Sia?"

Sia pouted a little.

"People don't usually disclose their Spectrum so easily."

"I know. But we need to share it among teammates. Moving in is a dangerous mission, and a mistake could be fatal."

You could die. Sia seemed frightened by those words, her eyes arching.

"I can spread my mana into the air. It allows me to detect movements of people, animals, anything really, through the particles."

That's not a bad Spectrum at all. Perfect for tracking.

"How far can you spread it?"

"It depends on the grade of the mana stone I use to disperse the magic. With a high-grade stone, I can maintain it over a long distance for a long time, but with a low-grade stone, it's only effective up to about 500 meters."

"That's sufficient. I'll provide the mana stones."

Grawl is a mine of stones. I can get as many top-grade mana stones as needed.

"And lastly, what about you, Chloe?"

"...Paths."

Chloe answered briefly.

"Paths?"

"My mana flies like a path."

"Ah."

Railroad. A [Spectrum] that is extremely useful for transporting objects.

I've seen a similar Spectrum before my regression.

"That's good. It's perfect for moving in."

"But, what about your Spectrum?"

Sia asked, furrowing her brow.

"Before I reveal my Spectrum, let me first explain that I see the moving in mission as simple. We move through enemy territory, gather information, and relay it back to the main force."

I knelt on one knee, placing my hand on the ground.

"However, as moving in agents, we are the enemy's top priority targets, so safety comes first."

I then manifested Grawl's power.

Crack

The ground rippled and transformed into a specific shape.

"I will create trenches."

A tunnel leading underground. The three Chasers' eyes widened.

"Let's go down and see."

We descended one by one.

"...Woah, it's, it's spacious."

Ben stuttered in amazement.

It was wide enough to accommodate at least three or four people.

"Yes. I'll go ahead as the vanguard and prepare these trenches. I'll create a map of their locations and distribute it to you, but you must never leak it. If we're discovered, we're dead."

Gulp— The three swallowed nervously.

They must have little real combat experience.

"Also. For information gathering, we'll be using various recording Artifacts."

"Recording... Artifacts?"

Sia repeated, puzzled.

"Yes. It's too risky to collect information in person."

Bugs, miniature cameras, magic detectors, radars, and so on... I plan to place orders with various companies.

Strangely, those who can use magic don't often utilize such devices.

But having lived almost my entire life as an underdog, I'm familiar and thorough with these gadgets.

"You'U just need to move between magic space outposts and strategically use these devices."

Johanna was looking out the window, twirling her long, slender fingers around her eyebrows.

Lately, my nerves have been quite sharp.

Is it because the move-in is approaching?

Or perhaps...

Is it because of 'that bastard'?

Johanna still occasionally strolls through the garden. The Behale Garden, created by a grandfather she had seen maybe four times in her life.

There's no particular reason.

It just seems to calm her mind to walk there.

She doesn't have any special feelings for her grandfather.

Just—

Thump- Thump-

The sound that comes to her ears, the sound of a wooden sword hitting a straw dummy.

Shion Ascal, honing himself with a sword in hand.

There used to be another guy like that.

He was also a knight, and he repeated his training in the same spot every time.

Johanna didn't know why.

She liked the rhythmic beat of the dummy being struck, the sight of swordsmanship worth watching...

"—Lady Johanna?"

Someone roused her from her thoughts.

Johanna looked straightahead.

"...Yes."

Beckman was standing there.

"Speak."

"The preparations for the move in are complete. We can soon enter through the passage we won at the auction."

The move in is essentially a 'magic space land grab.'

It's a lawless place, so there's only one rule.

720 hours are given, and by the end of that time, the Domain you occupy becomes your property.

There were a total of nine passages to the magic space up for auction this time.

Johanna had won one of those passages, so now she would be competing with the families, corporations, or organizations that purchased the remaining eight.

"Let's move."

Johanna stood up.

"Yes. The vanguard will-"

"I'll depart with the second wave."

For the move-in, the vanguard usually enters first to explore all elements inside. They're cannon fodder, to put it bluntly, but the second wave following them is just as dangerous.

"...Are you sure?"

But she's not one to back down. Even if it's a stretch schedule-wise, she wants to join the battle in the second wave.

—Above all.

"I'm fine."

Beckman.

I need to tear apart this bastard's intentions.

"It's been a while since I've loosened up."

"Yes. I'll make the preparations."

Beckman immediately turned and left

Johanna suddenly had her doubts.

He didn't try to stop her. If it had been like before, he would have raised a fuss about the danger and tried to dissuade her.

Johanna looked out the window again.

She doesn't like windows, and in other offices or residences that aren't the Aerial Garden, there are no windows at all.

Anyway, from here, she can see the entire 'Behale Garden.' The sandy area where the straw dummies are set up.

"...You're at it again."

Shion Ascal.

Even today, he was striking the dummy.

One week later.

Libra's Chasers lined up in front of the passage. There were about two hundred Chasers, and if you included Johanna's direct subordinates, the number easily reached five or six hundred.

"Ha, ha, ha. Mr. Ascal. I, I'm nervous."

Among them, my team, including myself, consisted of only four members.

That's how the report had been filed.

[Team 3 Reconnaissance UnitTeam Leader Shion Ascal]

"Just do as we trained, right?"

"Yes."

"...Ben. Calm down a bit. You're making me anxious too."

Sia tapped Ben on the shoulder. Ben wobbled like a squid.

I looked at the passage.

A large oval portal, like the entrance to a dome stadium.

Since Johanna won the bid for this portal, it would probably move to the best location.

"—The vanguard will now enter!"

Beckman shouted.

I also spoke to my team members.

"I'll go ahead."

"Yes, sir!"

"Take care."

Each team had about 20% of its members in the vanguard.

I stood in front of the portal as part of the vanguard.

Beckman spoke to us.

"Each team leader will call out"

Then the vanguard from team 1 raised their hand first.

"Vanguard leader of team 1, Gorgon."

"Vanguard leader of team 2, Getten."

"Vanguard leader of team 3, Shion."

Although I wasn't really a leader of anyone, but well, I played the part.

"Proceed to enter."

Beckman stepped aside.

Gorgon was the first to enter the passage with his seven subordinates, followed by Getten and his twenty, and finally, I entered alone.

The first scene that greeted me was a forest of buildings.

"...There are a lot of ruined buildings."

Gorgon, right next to me, spoke to his subordinates.

"First, secure a stronghold for the direct lineage."

They busily moved and began cleaning the buildings.

As expected, team 1 was entirely made up of elites; they quickly dismantled and reassembled the buildings to create a stronghold in no time.

Team 2 took on the role of guarding against enemies from the outside while they were setting up the stronghold.

Team 3?

"I, the leader of team 3, will act independently."

I spoke to them, who were quite busy working.

They didn't respond.

"...Whatever."

I started running.

I had quite a few tasks assigned to me.

First, I had to calculate the size of this magic space, systematically establish trenches, determine what valuable crops, minerals, or treasures grew inside, install Artifacts for scouting the opposition, and write a report explaining all of it

For three days, I dug a total of 33 trenches.

I installed hundreds of cameras and listening devices amidst all sorts of natural features, and I identified the true nature of this magic space.

"Mana stones and magical crops... This place is a gold mine."

The magic space that Johanna had moved into was a perfect treasure trove.

There were fields where magical crops grew, scattered among the forest of buildings that looked like a cityscape. Mana mushrooms, luminescent moss, bellflower roots, and so on...

"This is a jackpot."

Johanna had hit the jackpot again.

As always, her sense for picking the right business ventures was exceptional.

I slipped the report into my inner pocket.

Now, all I had to do was take this report and return.

"But., there's a problem."

I touched my ear.

Someone's voice was coming through the listening device.

—Have you located Team 3 leader Shion Ascal?

Beckman had somehow entered the magic space.

He was clearly moving with the intent to find me.

—Report as soon as you find the team leader.

His objective was all too clear.

Of course, he was planning to find and kill me.

In truth, if I were to face him head-on in this magic space, I wouldn't stand a chance. No matter how twisted his personality might be, the title of Balancer wasn't just for show.

He was a formidable opponent capable of subduing Johanna and kidnapping her on his own.

"...I figured as much."

I smirked and pulled a long object from the expansion pocket I brought from [Selfless Coffin].

It was a mannequin.

A mannequin that looked just like me.

Akane had put her heart and soul into making this doll.

"Grawl. You can get inside this and control it, right?"

—Of course-

A current of air formed from Grawl's R-elix. The creature moved from my body into the doll.

"It's ready!"

It smiled with the same face as mine.

"Good."

"Yes. So! I just need to get caught on purpose while escaping, right?"

It asked, flailing its arms and legs about.

It was rather unsightly.

"Yeah. Get caught by Beckman. But don't make it too obvious. Act naturally."

"Leave the acting to me!"

"And try to fix the way you talk."

"...Right."

It made its face expressionless.

I couldn't help but feel amazed.

"...Alright then."

Anyway, my strategy was simple.

"You handle it."

"Roger!"

In this magic space, I would be captured by Beckman and play dead.