Ch.227Episode 12 – The Greatest Magician in History

# Snow is falling.

Black snow.

The earth freezes solid in the cold wind blowing from the frozen ground, and ash lifted high into the sky scatters on the breeze.

Standing in the middle of the black blizzard, I look around.

“Bring the fire extinguisher!”

“Fire! Fire! FIRE! The oil’s caught fire! Fall back before it explodes!”

“Where’s the healing priest!?”

“…”

A navigator dead with his head smashed against the windshield. A soldier face-down in a ditch, still clutching his rifle. Scattered shell casings. Above the shoulders of the corpse holding the machine gun, there is only desolation.

Imperial soldiers who arrived late at the scene tried to find survivors from the burning vehicles, but there were no living souls here.

Only soldiers and Magic Department investigators turned into cold corpses, and burning vehicles.

“…”

Among them, I clearly saw the truck engulfed in flames.

A truck protected by powerful preservation and security magic, which no one could open without authorization. The means to transport the bodies of Imperial military mages in the safest way possible.

The truck containing crucial evidence that could reveal the full picture of the incident was burning black in the fierce flames.

## Episode 12 – The Strongest Mage in History

The Empire was in turmoil.

An unprecedented murder in the North. Evidence that could reveal the truth of an incident where the interests of the Empire, the Church, the Magic Tower, and various countries were intricately entangled had disappeared.

The Magic Department investigators transporting the bodies and spider samples were massacred. The mechanized infantry unit escorting them had all perished at the scene.

Evidence and witnesses had evaporated in an instant.

No one knew who was responsible. It was impossible to tell.

But humans are creatures capable of imagination, and the more chaotic the world becomes, the more fertile imagination grows.

It took no time at all for all kinds of rumors about this incident to spread like mushroom spores.

“Chief, all sorts of wild stories are circulating,” Jake began with a troubled expression.

“From what I’ve gathered, the Church, Magic Tower, and Empire haven’t yet issued official statements about the incident. Given the lack of news from the embassy, that seems certain. However…”

“But what?”

“Rumors are spreading, particularly among the Holy Knight Order and Magic Corps in the North.”

An information memo was placed on the hotel table. It was a brief report analyzing the movements of Church and Magic Tower organizations operating in the North.

Judging by the daily memo format, it seemed to have been collected and submitted today. The intelligence was gathered by Jake and Charnoi.

Jake, who had been dispatched to Francesca’s side as a contact, recited the intelligence he had collected.

“Among the Magic Tower’s Magic Corps, laborers, and administrative staff operating in the North, rumors are circulating that the Holy Knight Order might be behind this incident. There’s also talk that this will be used as a pretext for a major heresy inquisition in the North… They’re all baseless rumors, but the atmosphere is quite unsettling.”

“What’s the Church saying?”

“According to what Charnoi heard while moving with Saint Lucia, the situation isn’t much different on that side either. Many are claiming it’s the work of a black mage dabbling in forbidden arts, or sabotage by a corrupted mage in league with demons.”

“…”

There were many rumors echoing among the clergy and mages operating in the North.

Unverified rumors with flimsy evidence were spreading from person to person, being reproduced uncontrollably.

Demons. Inquisition. Black magic.

Good excuses. I’m not sure if they’re imaginative or just seeing what they want to see. How can people think so conveniently?

Sitting on the sofa, examining the report with a cigarette between my fingers, I tap the cigarette pack. The sound of the few remaining tobacco leaves colliding inside breaks through the silence.

“So, do they have any countermeasures?”

Jake exhaled a faint sigh and shook his head.

“Everyone’s in disarray. According to the Foreign Ministry, the Military, Foreign Affairs, and Magic Departments have formed a temporary task force to respond, but it hasn’t been functioning properly since the Magic Department investigators were attacked. The Military Command is in a similar state.”

“What about the Holy Knight Order and Magic Corps?”

“They’re not much different either. The entire North is in a state of confusion…”

Well, that makes sense. The Rift was attacked four days ago, and today the Magic Department investigators were attacked.

After reading through the entire report, I felt a complex mix of emotions.

I was about to put the crumpled cigarette in my mouth and light it with the lighter from my inside pocket when Pipin spoke up.

“Chief.”

“Yes, Pipin. What is it?”

“We just received a call from the embassy. ‘Headquarters’ wants to receive a direct report from you in person.”

“…”

At Pipin’s report, I closed my eyes briefly and fell into thought.

After a moment of silence, I ground the unlit cigarette into the ashtray and got up from my seat.

“Bring my passport.”

*

“What a spectacle.”

As soon as I received the embassy’s call, I took the warp gate to Abas.

And headed straight to Military Intelligence Headquarters.

For the report.

“Monsters invade the Rift, spiders the size of villas appear and smash tanks, divine energy is detected from the corpses of combat mages… And now the mages transporting those bodies are dead too.”

Leoni tossed aside the document she was reading.

The office, more organized than before, was finally beginning to look like a proper office. Though it still smelled a bit musty and lacked nameplates due to ongoing interior work. The reorganization seemed to be taking longer than expected.

“Too many coincidences… Everything lines up just a little too perfectly. Am I the only one who thinks so? Hmm?”

“…”

“Begin.”

I reported all the intelligence collected and information produced from the North to Leoni, my superior and the head of overseas intelligence operations for Military Intelligence.

Basic information such as the war situation in the North and internal affairs of the Empire.

“Currently, the Kiyen Imperial Army has formed a defensive line centered on the Naroda Mountains. They are clearing the coniferous forests in the Naroda Mountains for an offensive operation scheduled for next spring, and Camilla Lowell’s ability, which can almost uniquely inflict effective damage on the Rift-infected coniferous forests, is being used in that operation.”

“After verification through multiple sources, including Military Command staff and Kiyen Defense Ministry officials, the offensive planned for spring is estimated to be groundwork for a declaration of victory and end of war to coincide with Army Day in March. In the Empire, Army Day is a major event with political significance comparable to Foundation Day and the Emperor’s birthday…”

Information about the Empire, Church, and Magic Tower operating in the North.

“All military forces in the North are under the control of the Military Command, which functions as a martial law command. Here are the devices that have intercepted communications between the Military Command and various units deployed to the front lines, as well as with the Defense Ministry.”

“The Holy Knight Order and Magic Corps operate in their assigned areas. They perform a wide range of missions from combat to combat support, civilian assistance, and relief activities, though their specific areas of responsibility differ slightly. The Magic Corps operates under the command of local informant Francesca Ranieri and Secretariat executive Juan Pablo Martinez, working on road network restoration…”

Intelligence about secrets the Empire wants to hide.

“Here is film capturing the military facilities installed at the Rift. The unit stationed there is an elite force with exemplary armament levels, training standards, discipline, and morale…”

“The road network in the North has all been requisitioned by the Military Command, but there are separate roads primarily used for military purposes. Regarding railways, the western railway is currently operational, but the eastern railway is damaged due to the effects of combat. Our local informant is leading Magic Tower mages in rebuilding that railway, but it will take about a week to obtain the blueprints and specific data.”

“According to analysis with help from the recently defected individual, the Crown Prince is expected to receive military authority from the Emperor, but at present, it’s impossible to make a judgment about the Emperor’s health and personal situation…”

“Regarding the vigilante organization formed around the Northern Academy and university magic departments…”

And finally, what’s happening in the North right now.

“The Magic Tower plans to propose a joint investigation to the Empire. The Church appears to be demanding a rigorous investigation, but according to reports from informants within the Church, there is a very high possibility they will modify their diplomatic strategy to match the Magic Tower’s response approach.”

“There is no specific information revealed about the details of the corpse spider and giant spider attacks, or the killings of combat mages and Magic Department investigators. The field team is currently investigating.”

Despite being a brief report, there was really a lot to cover. It was natural considering I hadn’t been able to leave the North for almost two weeks.

As the report was concluding, Leoni called in staff members who opened my luggage brought from the North.

When they opened the bag marked as a diplomatic pouch, storage media spilled out in abundance. These were devices that had manually collected and stored all types of communications taking place at the Military Command over the past two weeks.

As staff members carefully carried armfuls of storage media out of the office, Leoni adjusted her glasses and straightened her posture.

“Good to see the operation is proceeding smoothly. Decent results for the initial phase.”

“Thank you.”

“How is Charnoi doing? I understand he’s capable enough to take care of himself, but he joined late in the game without much time to coordinate with the team.”

“He’s a good employee.”

Charnoi is adapting to field life in his own way. To be honest, he’s adapted too well.

This nymph of indeterminate identity is bringing in intelligence from all over, receiving affection (and honey candy) from Church people.

Unlike me, who has to go through the trouble of recruiting people, he just puts honey candy in his mouth and gets patted on the head by Lucia, which somehow attracts all sorts of high-ranking clergy who come over and chatter away.

Charnoi collects intelligence he ‘happens to overhear’ and produces information from it.

I added with a slightly deflated voice, finding it somewhat absurd:

“I don’t understand why these religious types can’t keep their mouths shut around a nymph.”

“If these religious fools are digging their own graves, why should we stop them? We should be nailing the coffin shut, not helping them out. Anyway, let’s move on from that.”

At her signal to get to the main point, I took out the copied information documents and placed them on Leoni’s desk.

As Leoni picked up the documents in front of her and began reading, I provided additional verbal reports on the contents of the documents.

After quickly flipping through the relatively less important documents, Leoni opened the document containing the ongoing incidents in the North. She pushed all the papers she had been reading to the corner of her desk.

Leoni spoke just before turning the cover page.

“Who do you think killed them? The Imperial military mages.”

I answered her question.

“I don’t know yet.”

“I heard that divine energy was detected at the murder scene and on the bodies.”

Leoni remarked. I nodded.

“The Church denies it, but since the first witnesses were Church clergy and there were many holy knights active at the Rift at the time, they’re being mentioned as the most likely suspects.”

“I heard they conducted a preliminary autopsy. Did they determine the time of death?”

“No. There were no forensic experts on site, so such specialized examination couldn’t be performed.”

“Any other notable findings?”

“None.”

Tsk. A short sound of her clicking her tongue followed.

As she removed her glasses, her fierce, piercing eyes were revealed. Leoni, who had somehow aged enough to show flecks of gray hair, tapped the desk with a nervous gesture.

“Is there any possibility it was an assassination operation by an intelligence agency or a demon attack?”

“Impossible.”

I flatly rejected Leoni’s hypothesis.

“To carry out an operation involving force at a critical national facility like the Rift would require at least three years of advance preparation. But the conflict has been ongoing for over five years, hasn’t it? I don’t believe other competitors could have accomplished what even Abas companies couldn’t.”

The Rift is equivalent to an oil field, nuclear power plant, or nuclear facility in Earth terms.

Considering Israel’s examples of striking nuclear facilities in Iran and Syria, targeting such facilities is a significant burden even for intelligence agencies. After all, you have to be prepared for all-out war with that country if things go wrong.

Even Israel, despite Mossad having collected all the intelligence, spent years coordinating with allies and neighboring countries beforehand.

The difference is that unlike nuclear facilities, mining mana stones from the Rift isn’t a violation of international law, and the Empire is at war with demons.

Humans stabbing other humans in the back while they’re fighting humanity’s enemy? Unless some mentally ill person like Hitler committing suicide with a pistol in a bunker or Mussolini hanging at a gas station is in power, it’s impossible.

Seeming to realize she had gone too far, Leoni calmly acknowledged her mistake.

“You’re right, there’s nothing in the North capable of that. What about demons then?”

“That’s not something we can easily conclude either.”

“Why not? Couldn’t demons have killed the mages and made it look like clergy did it?”

Batman and Superman share the common ground that both their mothers are named “Martha,” but clergy and demons have no such connection. I’ve never heard of demons mimicking the divine energy of clergy to commit crimes, even with my background in history.

Besides, this is an implausible hypothesis to begin with.

“If that were the case, the priests and holy knights who first discovered the scene would have noticed. There was even an inquisitor among them.”

The first to discover the scene were Church clergy. Priests, holy knights, inquisitors, and so on.

While exorcist priests may be the continent’s best at hunting demons and magical beasts, inquisitors and holy knights are no less talented. They could probably detect even faint traces of demonic energy.

And they didn’t detect any demonic energy? If so, humanity is screwed. If the Inquisition is in such a state, the Church might as well shut down its services.

Anyway, without new evidence, it’s too early to claim involvement by demons or foreign intelligence agencies.

And Leoni knew what I knew.

“I was just thinking out loud.”

Leoni rifled through the documents with a dispassionate face.

Leaning back against her chair, she asked me a few questions.

“Who attended the autopsy?”

“Three from the Magic Tower, three from the Church, and seven officers from the unit in charge of the Rift.”

“Names?”

“The less important individuals, including the Imperial military officers, are listed in the document you’re reviewing. Notable personnel include Ferretti, the commander of the St. Andrea Knight Order; my informant Francesca Ranieri; and Juan Pablo Martinez, who commands the Secretariat’s deployed personnel.”

“…”

Leoni’s hand paused as she turned the pages. She stared at the paper intently for a long time. Judging by her almost motionless eyes, she seemed to be focusing on a particular section.

Just as I was getting tense, wondering if she had spotted a typo or error:

“…”

Suddenly, Leoni reached for her desk and picked up a fountain pen.

With a natural hand movement, she took out the pen and scribbled a signature on the document. And when the ink had dried sufficiently, she tossed the covered information document into her desk drawer.

“Um, are you storing it there?”

“Is there a problem?”

“Not really, but I remember you don’t usually keep papers in your desk drawer.”

“…”

“…I must have been mistaken.”

I hastily retracted my words as she stared at me impassively with her piercing eyes.

After glaring at me silently for a while, Leoni brought out a new document and scribbled a signature. This document was tossed to the corner, not into the drawer.

With an expressionless face, she continued signing as she spoke, as if putting an end to the conversation.

“Given that this incident is being resolved unofficially through diplomatic channels between the Empire, Magic Tower, and Church, Abas does not plan to actively intervene.”

“…”

“But that doesn’t mean we can sit idle without knowing what those bastards are plotting. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“I understand.”

“This report is going up to the Prime Minister, so don’t make any mistakes.”

Leoni ordered.

“The Imperial bastards are probably on edge, so stay low and behave yourself for a while. Don’t do anything to attract attention and get yourself marked. Similarly, keep your staff in line, and find out how we can get a few employees from the Empire into the North.”

“Yes.”

“And be ready to receive communications at any time. Whether from me or Clebins. I’ll have a separate task for you soon.”

*

Be on standby to receive communications at any time.

Though it sounded like an important directive, sadly I had no mental capacity to spare for it.

I had become like Pavlov’s dog, jumping at the sound of a telephone bell. I’d reached a state where I automatically responded without even having to think about it.

So all my attention was focused elsewhere, not on the phone call that might come at any moment.

Working as an intelligence officer and diplomat in a conflict zone of a hostile country is not much different from crawling into the jaws of death.

My daily life was a war, day after day, quite literally.

“Chief, did you hear a holy knight and a mage got into a fistfight today?”

“Why?”

“Apparently they bumped shoulders on the street, and one didn’t apologize.”

“Sometimes I think it’s fortunate there’s no press in the North. What an international embarrassment… Any other issues? How about our companions?”

“The Saint is doing her usual routine of dawn mass, refugee relief, and medical volunteering at shelters, so no major issues there. Administrative Officer Ranieri went to the residential area to repair railways and collapsed houses… And the Hero apparently received a verbal warning from the military police after flying in a no-fly zone without prior permission.”

“Pipin, ask the Military Command to bring a car.”

Lucia who manages well without major incidents, Francesca who occasionally does strange things for reasons I can’t fathom, and finally Camilla who never lets a day pass quietly.

I devoted all my energy to taking care of these three.

In truth, managing Camilla alone was the most challenging task.

Most of my work was allocated to observing the war situation in the North and the subtle changes in relationships between the Empire, Church, and Magic Tower. Although the higher-ups (elected officials) had decided to take a wait-and-see approach to this situation, I couldn’t miss such juicy developments. I had to relay them.

Of course, this situation involving the Empire, Church, and Magic Tower was by no means pleasant.

The leadership of the Church and Magic Tower, who had harbored suspicions toward each other for over a hundred years, were setting new lows daily, proving that even basements have floors.

When the Magic Tower proposed a joint investigation, the Church tackled them; when the Church counter-proposed a joint investigation, the Magic Tower pulled their hair. Moreover, as if they had received some collective directive, personnel from both sides operating in relative isolation in the North frequently clashed whenever they made eye contact.

The Empire, on the other hand, was responding relatively calmly. In fact, they were so calm that I suspected they might be a bit sluggish.

The military began deploying additional troops to patrol rear areas regularly, and the Military Command distributed leaflets instructing people to report any suspicious persons immediately.

And I heard that Martinez was planning to combine the preliminary autopsy results of the Imperial combat mages with the autopsy results of the Magic Department investigators and soldiers to determine the cause of death.

They would determine whether it was a lone perpetrator or not, and confirm if priests were indeed responsible. I heard they planned to inform the Church and Magic Tower through unofficial channels as soon as the results were available. According to the Abas ambassador to the Empire, both the Church and Magic Tower had apparently shifted their positions to support the Empire’s independent investigation.

For reference, this intelligence was received and reviewed simultaneously from both Francesca and Veronica, so its reliability was overflowing.

So to summarize:

“Nothing has actually been resolved yet. Who knows when the autopsy results will be available? And even then, the Church or Magic Tower might not accept the results.”

“You’re being very pessimistic… truly a garbage-like, nymph-phobic human being…!”

“Keep quiet if you don’t want to hand over your wrist bones to Francesca.”

“Hieeeek…!”

Anyway, the Church and Magic Tower agreed to trust the Empire and wait for the examination results. Honestly, without investigative authority, there wasn’t much else they could do besides wait.

And so, while carrying out the mission Leoni had assigned me and spending time as a diplomat, one day:

-“Hello? This is Sunset Marine Limited customer service. The items you ordered from the Mauritanian continent have arrived at the port today, and we have some information to share. Do you have a moment?”

“Yes.”

The call I had been waiting for finally came.

*

“…”

Francesca woke up feeling a chill that penetrated to her bones.

-Knock! Knock! Knock!

It felt like she had slept deeply, but it always seemed to be this way when she woke up. Her whole body ached as if she’d been beaten, and her head hurt. It was probably because of the cold region.

-Knock! Knock! Knock!

Burrowing into the blanket and pulling up the edge of her cape, Francesca, still half-asleep, appreciated the effectiveness of the warming magic. It was warm and comfortable. Like her mother’s embrace from long ago-

-Knock! Knock! Knock!

“…”

Francesca glared at the front door with drowsy eyes.

She had specifically asked not to be woken up in the morning, but had they already forgotten? At this rate, they might be goldfish rather than humans.

Leaning against the wall and briefly entertaining cloudy thoughts as drowsiness washed over her, Francesca threw off the blanket and strode toward the front door as the knocking continued roughly.

“I believe I clearly asked not to be woken up in the morning-“

“…”

“…”

“…Oh, hello, Administrative Officer?”

Francesca stared intently at the person who appeared before her. But even after blinking, they didn’t disappear, suggesting this was not a fantasy but reality.

Well, it seems to be real after all.

Having made that judgment, Francesca couldn’t help but ask the most obvious and standard question.

“…Why are you here, Officer?”

“I’m terribly sorry to interrupt, but may I ask just two things? First, are you very busy tomorrow? Second, do you have any elegant clothes?”

“Why are you suddenly asking that…?”

Frederick answered Francesca’s question.

“Because there’s somewhere you need to go wearing those elegant clothes.”

“With whom?”

“With me.”

“Just the two of us?”

“Yes.”

Feeling suddenly wide awake, Francesca pointed to the window.

The world was bathed in darkness—a December dawn.

“…At this hour?”