“Silence. Hidden Will.”
After firmly locking my bedroom door, I sat down in the plush velvet chair, closed my eyes, and concentrated.
The faint thread of Demonic Energy gradually became clearer, and before long, I connected with Lerajio.
My vision went completely dark.
Then Lerajio’s field of view spread across my vision like ink bleeding through paper.
‘...This is.’
It was one of Aeria’s narrow, tangled back alleys.
I could even feel the damp air and smell the acrid stench of tobacco.
It was so vivid that I almost felt as though I were standing in the alley myself.
‘Anything unusual?’
I sent the question through our connection, and Lerajio’s thoughts flowed directly into my mind.
Aside from occasionally spotting people who looked like bandits, there was nothing particularly noteworthy.
‘Hmm?’
As I continued receiving his report, I made a puzzled sound and raised my left eyebrow.
Among the rabble, I had sensed an enormous presence.
I would need to investigate more closely to know for certain, but judging by the amount of mana alone, it belonged to at least a 4th Circle mage.
‘What? That shouldn’t be possible....’
Whoever it was had done a fairly good job of suppressing their Mana Residue, but I was certain.
Starting from the 3rd Circle, a mage was no longer classified as an Apprentice Mage, but as a full-fledged Mage.
And even an ordinary Mage was treated almost like a noble.
There were also countless places eager to employ mages.
So why would a proper mage be lurking in the back alleys...?
No matter how I thought about it, something was strange.
‘Something smells suspicious.’
I focused my consciousness and ordered Lerajio to return to the place where he had detected the mage.
Lerajio rapidly fluttered his small membranous wings through the alleys until he abruptly stopped in front of a building.
It was a tavern with a picture of a mug of beer painted on its signboard.
Despite the late hour, the tavern was packed with people drinking, and noise spilled out from within.
‘Go inside.’
At my command, Lerajio slipped through the doorway behind a customer who had just opened it.
Although it was already late at night, the tavern was bustling.
Drunken voices loudly boasted about money and women.
‘Doesn’t look like they’re here.’
I concentrated again, but I could no longer sense the mana I had noticed earlier.
‘Did they leave? Nothing I can do about that. For now, come back.... Hmm?’
At that moment, two men caught my attention.
One was thin.
The other was bald.
They sat in a secluded corner, talking with humorless expressions.
My senses had been sharpened while searching for mana, which allowed me to pick up their suspicious conversation.
‘Over there.’
Lerajio crawled across the ceiling and moved considerably closer.
But he was currently invisible through magic.
There was no chance they could detect him.
“Don’t you think it’s strange that more people in the organization have been dying lately?”
“What?”
The thin man set down his mug and snorted.
“I thought you were going to say something serious. Those idiots probably fought among themselves and got unlucky enough to die.”
“This time is different.”
“What’s different about it? Did they put on helmets and declare war on each other this time? Like knights?”
The bald man answered in a low voice while the other man snickered.
“They say no bodies have been found. Not a single piece. No one even knows whether they’re dead or alive.”
“What?”
The man who had been joking around while imitating knights abruptly stopped laughing.
Then he began rubbing his chin.
“If that’s true, then this is serious.... That means someone’s deliberately picking us off.”
“Fuck. What bastards are screwing with us?”
“As far as I know, the only people who’d do something like that are....”
The man holding the mug seemed to realize something.
His eyes widened, and he lowered his voice.
“Damn it, could it be the Inquisitors?”
Those who despised sin and possessed the authority to interrogate heretics or pass judgment and execute them on the spot.
They were the only people in the kingdom legally permitted to kill in such a manner.
If it were them, they would not hesitate to inflict grotesque deaths on criminals.
If I knew nothing about the circumstances, I might have reached the same conclusion.
“Or wandering Black Mages. But it looks like the higher-ups have already decided it must be the Inquisitors.”
“Well, there’s no reason Black Mages would come after us....”
Tap.
As if warning him to stop talking, the bald man lightly struck the other man’s arm.
“Yeah, yeah. I know. It was a slip.”
The man raised both hands and gave a crooked smile.
“Anyway, they’ve got some nerve messing with our Silver Wolf. If I see them, I’ll cut their heads off.”
‘Silver Wolf?’
Silver Wolf was one of Aeria’s major bandit organizations.
I had seen its name frequently in the newspaper ever since I was old enough to walk around on my own.
The thin man glanced around, then hunched forward and lowered his voice.
“But if the Inquisitors are tearing this place apart.... They haven’t found out, have they?”
“Shh. Watch your mouth. There’s no way they have. The boss told us, remember? A big shot came. Besides....”
The man raised a finger to his lips, glanced around, and continued.
“We’re not exactly some tiny organization. They must have prepared countermeasures.”
“Well, if everything goes wrong, we can just run. No one’s going to notice if low-level grunts like us disappear.”
The two men ended the conversation by clinking their mugs together.
“Anyway, about Jamie from the flower shop....”
Leaving them to their meaningless chatter, I severed my connection with Lerajio.
“…….”
I slowly opened my eyes.
My dark, silent room came back into view.
“Silver Wolf....”
Judging from that conversation, they clearly had something to hide.
And I had a strong feeling that whatever it was had something to do with Black Mages.
It looked like I needed to investigate them more thoroughly.
“Dad, what is Silver Wolf?”
It was dinnertime.
I asked in the brightest voice I could manage, pretending to know nothing.
Roat set down his fork.
“Where did you hear that name?”
“In the newspaper a few days ago. It was printed in really big letters.”
Roat muttered with a troubled expression.
“They have been causing quite a stir lately....”
He stroked my head before continuing.
“Silver Wolf is a bandit organization active in Aeria. Its members wear necklaces carved with a wolf’s head.”
“A bandit organization? Then do they hurt innocent people too?”
“Of course. They are vile criminals who even abduct children like you.”
I widened my eyes and casually asked,
“Then are the Black Mages you’re hunting also members of Silver Wolf?”
“…….”
Roat silently stared into my eyes for a moment.
“Kano....”
At last, he quietly spoke my name.
“You seem very interested in Black Mages.”
“What?”
‘Damn it. Have I been asking about Black Mages too often?’
I had occasionally slipped questions about Black Mages into our conversations recently.
Apparently, Roat had remembered them.
I had only asked because I had recently learned that Roat had taken an assignment in the Aeria district.
Gulp.
I met his gaze calmly and spoke.
“Well, Black Mages are bad people, right? And your job is to fight those Black Mages.”
Roat placed a hand on my shoulder.
“Kano, the only thing you need to know is that they are far too dangerous for you to take an interest in them. Curiosity is fine, but you must always be careful.”
“Yes. I understand.”
Since I was still a child in his eyes, Roat was clearly being careful about what he told me.
‘Looks like getting information from Father will be difficult.’
“Pay attention in class today too.”
“Of course, Dad.”
I calmly entered the lecture hall, then subtly glanced back.
‘This should be far enough.’
Once I confirmed that Roat had completely disappeared, I immediately quickened my pace and slipped out of the Blue Mage Tower.
I walked a little farther before turning into a secluded back alley.
After making sure no one was around, I raised my right hand and summoned Lerajio.
“Illusionation.”
I immediately cast Black Magic using his Demonic Energy.
Smoke rose from beneath my feet, wrapped around my entire body, then dispersed.
I continued deeper into the alley.
‘This place has changed a lot too.’
In my previous life, I had once come to Zeleta in order to learn magic.
Unlike many other Mage Towers, the Blue Mage Tower was relatively willing to teach outsiders.
Because of that, anyone who dreamed of becoming a mage—especially those who were not nobles—would inevitably visit the place at least once.
But doing so required a great deal of money.
And for someone like me, who had possessed absolutely nothing, there had been only one easy way to make money.
‘Information.’
I stopped in front of a certain shop.
It had neither a signboard nor any windows.
It belonged to an Information Broker.
JINGLE.
I opened the door without hesitation.
“Welco— Huh?”
The shopkeeper had reflexively begun greeting me, only for his eyes to widen when he saw my appearance.
“Oh my, what a beautiful noble lord we have here! A-and dressed like that, no less....”
The shopkeeper hurriedly cleared newspapers and drinking glasses from the filthy table while letting out an ingratiating chuckle.
His eyes rapidly swept over me from head to toe, and the corners of his mouth curled into a lecherous grin.
‘Ugh. Filthy bastard.’
It was the effect of Illusionation.
A low-level form of Black Magic cast using Lerajio’s Demonic Energy.
To that man’s eyes, I probably did not look like a child at all.
Instead, he saw the person he most desired to see.
“Please, come in! We deal in information, forged documents—anything you need!”
I slowly walked farther into the shop.
“There’s some information I want you to find.”
“Yes! What information do you require?”
The shopkeeper gave another unpleasant chuckle while shamelessly looking me up and down.
‘...I seriously want to beat the hell out of this bastard.’
Suppressing the urge to smash him in the back of the head, I spoke.
“Look into my eyes.”
“What?”
The man stupidly met my gaze.
I raised my right hand and extended it toward him.
“From this moment onward, obey me.”
“What? What are you talking ab—”
Before the Information Broker could finish, black energy surged from my hand and wrapped around his body.
“Gasp!”
I heard him suck in a sharp breath.
When the black mist dispersed, the Information Broker stood there with a half-vacant expression.
Mind Domination.
This, too, was a form of Black Magic.
However, it was ineffective against those whose souls possessed a high level of spiritual strength.
That made it nearly useless in an actual battle.
‘It only works on people like this at best.... Still, it has its uses.’
“Listen carefully to what I say from now on.”
The man’s head lolled weakly to one side.
“Bring me every piece of information you have on Silver Wolf.”
“Yes.... Understood....”
Moving like a sleepwalker, the man staggered over to a shelf and began rummaging through stacks of papers.
A short while later, he handed me a rolled sheet of paper.
“Hmm?”
When I opened it, I found the information surprisingly well organized.
For a back-alley Information Broker to already possess such a neatly compiled report on information I had requested without warning meant....
“Did someone else ask for this information?”
“Yes.... Someone commissioned information on Silver Wolf several days ago....”
“Who?”
The man weakly shook his head.
“Were they hiding their identity?”
“Yes.”
That was the usual way of visiting an Information Broker.
It would have been stranger for someone secretly purchasing suspicious information to openly reveal their identity.
If they were careless, the fact that they were investigating someone could leak out and put them in danger.
‘That’s why I disguised myself too.’
Someone besides me was investigating Silver Wolf.
For now, however, that was not particularly important.
Silver Wolf was a fairly large criminal organization.
It was hardly strange that someone else would be looking into them.
“I’ll take this.”
“Yes....”
Leaving the shopkeeper nodding vacantly behind me, I stepped out of the shop and snapped my fingers.
Immediately, I heard a loud crash behind me as he collapsed.
“...Huh? W-where did they go?”
A moment later, I heard the shopkeeper muttering in confusion.
I pulled my hood over my head and leisurely made my way back toward the Blue Mage Tower.