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Deliberately ignoring Chloe’s suggestion to at least eat before leaving, I immediately returned to the mansion.

As soon as I discovered Espin rolling around on the bed in my room.

I immediately dropped the Grand Magician on the floor and briefly said.

“I brought him.”

“……”

Espin, not expecting that I would bring the Grand Magician while he was rolling around.

Jumped in surprise, falling off the bed, then stammered and shouted at me.

“Ah, why did you come back so quick… No, more importantly, what did you bring?”

“I brought the Grand Magician.”

“……”

The moment Espin heard my words, he blankly stared at the floor.

Then, as if unable to believe it, he opened his eyes wide and started quickly alternating his gaze between me and the Grand Magician.

I clicked my tongue and crossed my arms at Espin’s behavior.

“Stop with the strange acts and let’s start the interrogation.”

“Wait, you just brought the Archmage? Why? Weren’t you supposed to kill him?”

To that question, I answered as if it were obvious.

“Of course, there are more advantages to keeping him alive, so I brought him back alive.”

“Well, that’s true. But it’s a bit unexpected.”

Espin sighed deeply while straightening his clothes.

He continued speaking while fixing his hair with his fingers.

“For now… I’ll start the interrogation. But it’s not appropriate to do it here… Can you move him to the interrogation room?”

Since it wasn’t a difficult request.

I nodded and started to put the Archmage back in, when.

Espin sighs and speaks to me.

“So what exactly happened there?”

“Nothing special. I just used the Archmage’s family as hostages in reverse to make a deal.”

“That’s not nothing special?”

He looked at me with an expression of complete incomprehension, then shook his head and continued.

“Well, it worked out. If you had really killed him, it would have been troublesome in many ways.”

I nodded lightly, and Espin picked up his coat, glancing at me.

He seemed to be contemplating something, his lips twitching several times.

Finally, as if he had made a decision, he let out a big sigh and spoke to me.

“After that interrogation… can we talk? I’d like to discuss what happened before.”

When referring to what happened before, it’s probably about when Espin tried to seduce me.

I remember resolving that incident quite well.

It seems Espin didn’t feel the same way, as he brought it up again.

“Sure.”

At my words, Espin looked at me with a complex mix of relief and complicated emotions.

Then, sighing, he nodded.

“Anyway, I’m moving things. I’ll go get some supplies for a moment.”

At the mention of getting supplies, it suddenly crossed my mind why he was lying in my room instead of his own.

But I deliberately kept my mouth shut, fearing a situation similar to before might unfold if I asked.

‘In any case, what’s important now is extracting information from that magician.’

I decided to proceed with the main task and headed to the interrogation room.

* * *

To cut to the chase, the information extracted from the Archmage was mostly worthless, more so than expected.

‘It seems the Heaven God Cult also realized that the Archmage wasn’t such a useful long-term piece.’

Perhaps it was obvious, if you think about it.

After all, given how many forces of the Heaven God Cult were already affiliated with the central government.

There’s no way the Archmage, being a figurehead for the magic society and families, wouldn’t have been informed of this.

‘Perhaps that’s why the Heaven God Cult didn’t give the Archmage much information.’

It would be fair to say that’s why we drew a blank.

‘However, what I don’t understand is, no matter how much of a figurehead he is, an Archmage is still an Archmage. It must have cost them quite a bit to move this guy.’

Deren couldn’t understand why they sent him out knowing full well he would be caught by me.

‘I don’t know what the Heaven God Cult’s intentions are… but one thing is certain, it seems they tried to gain something elsewhere while I was dealing with the Archmage…’

No matter how much I think about it, I can’t figure out what it could be.

For now, I’ve confirmed that there are no problems with Sien, the Illusion Library, Rumi, Delia, and Espin, so what’s left is…

It would be places that are difficult for me to pay attention to, like the central government, the Magic Association, and the Academy.

‘… Wait a minute. Come to think of it, why did the Archmage bother to stage a kidnapping at the Magic Association?’

If they wanted to successfully complete the kidnapping, it wouldn’t have been in the ‘commercial district center’ where the eyes of other magicians are gathered.

Taking advantage of the individualism of magicians.

It would have been a normal decision to target when Chloe was holed up in her laboratory.

‘The Heaven God Cult must have known this…’

The fact that they did such a thing in broad daylight in the commercial district center.

It’s safe to say it was deliberately ‘to draw attention’.

‘However, even the Heaven God Cult wouldn’t have known that I would go straight to the Magic Association, so it probably wasn’t aimed at me.’

It’s highly likely that it was to gather the attention of other magicians…

This means that the Heaven God Cult turned the eyes of ordinary magicians because of ‘something’ in the Magic Association.

‘What the Heaven God Cult, who doesn’t care about others’ opinions, tried to do while being mindful of ordinary magicians…’

And the reason they threw out the Archmage as a meaningless bait, even if he was just a puppet.

What do these things point to?

When I conveyed this to Espin and asked for his opinion, I received quite an interesting answer.

“Could they be conducting a massive magical experiment inside the Magic Association?”

“… Experiment?”

“Yeah, I was unsure until I heard what you said. When you think about it this way, the context falls into place.”

I nodded and looked at Espin.

Espin wiggled his fingers and began to explain one by one.

“Everything you mentioned earlier can be thought of as ‘erasing the flow of mana’, which makes sense because the intense mana waves and collapse that occur during a kidnapping would completely eliminate the mana flow in the vicinity.”

“And?”

“This is information you might not have heard. There’s talk that the Heaven God Cult is planning to use a great magician to forcibly demote most magicians and send them to the ‘lower levels’.”

It’s a bit of an abrupt story.

But if the reason for sending magicians down is to prevent them from noticing the magic experiments happening on that floor…

I could see that what Espin was saying roughly made sense.

“They’re up to some interesting tricks. But what I don’t understand is why they’re trying to conduct experiments at the magic conference specifically?”

“That’s simple. It’s either to use the countless magic materials gathered at the magic conference… or to use the magic conference itself.”

“To use the magic conference itself?”

“Huh? Oh, you don’t know this. Do you know that the Magician’s Tower changed into the magic conference?”

As this sudden different topic popped up, I nodded while feeling puzzled.

Espin then asked me one question.

“Then, how do you think the tower changed when it became the conference?”

At those words, I could understand what Espin was trying to say.

“You mean there’s powerful mana within the magic conference itself.”

“That’s right, exactly. But let me add one thing here: the magic conference you’ve seen is actually closer to a giant mana stone than a building.”

An abnormally large mana stone.

That was the true identity of the Magic Society.

* * *

Even after the conversation ended, countless questions remained.

Since these would be answered later anyway, I decided to set out to investigate the Magic Society again.

‘Now that I know the Heaven God Cult is up to something there, I can’t just leave it alone.’

Although they’re trash, the fact that they sacrificed a Grand Magician as a scapegoat meant they were likely conducting a fairly substantial experiment.

I didn’t know what it was.

Just as I was thinking about how I was already salivating at the thought of stealing… no, researching it, Espin spoke up.

“So, are you planning to go to the Magic Society right away? I’ll check if there’s anything we need to bring.”

I watched Espin moving his head busily, then shook my head, sat back down in the chair, and continued speaking.

“No. Before we go, I’d like to talk with you first.”

“Huh? What?”

“Didn’t you say earlier that you had something to say about what happened before?”

“…Well, yes, but. Isn’t it better to deal with the Magic Society issue first, since time is of the essence?”

“It’s fine. If we send Luna, we can keep track of the situation continuously.”

At those words, Espin froze like a wooden doll and nodded.

Showing a conflicted expression in various ways, he started moving back and forth.

After pacing around restlessly for a while, he finally seemed to make a decision, sat down almost collapsing into the seat, and exclaimed to me.

“Well… I’ve been thinking about it.”

“I’ve been thinking about it.”

“Well, um… Put me on that pet list too.”

“……”

I couldn’t help but squeeze my eyes shut as I heard those words from Espin… words I thought I’d never hear, at least not from Espin.