“This is terrible.”
A police officer in a navy-blue uniform, his cap pulled low, murmured quietly as he looked at the corpse, which had shriveled like a mummy.
That made six already.
It was a busy time, with dark mages running especially rampant.
Even this place, reputed to have better public order than other regions, seemed unable to remain safe from their hands after all.
A fellow officer, who had been examining the corpse closely beside him, spoke.
“They say dark mages use magic at the cost of their own lifespans, so I don’t understand why they have to drag off innocent people and do this to them.”
“It means they intend to fill the void with other people for every bit of lifespan they spend.”
They were people who deserved divine punishment.
On top of that, some of them were said to walk the path of a dark mage despite undoubtedly possessing mana.
The reason was simple.
Dark mages earned more money.
They used every kind of illegal method and loophole to earn enormous profits ordinary people could not even dream of, so a mage who pursued money would have no choice but to be tempted by such wicked dealings.
“I will go call someone to move the body, so please keep watch here.”
“All right.”
The officer brushed past him.
As he did, he secretly glanced sideways at him. His face still looked puzzled.
“Never seen that man before. Who is he?”
The officer who had come out of the narrow alley muttered to himself.
The man’s face looked far younger than his own.
He looked no older than eighteen at most. His hair was white as well, the sort that instantly drew people’s eyes.
“Should I check again?”
Recently, a strange rumor had been circulating within the police.
It was an unbelievable story that an unidentified dark mage had joined the police.
It was closer to a ghost story with no evidence whatsoever.
But the officer could not shake his unease, and when he returned to the alley, an unbelievable sight unfolded before his eyes.
The corpse was still there.
But that was not what the officer’s eyes were fixed on.
Gone.
The officer who had been speaking with him only moments ago had vanished without a trace.
“What the……!”
Knock, knock.
Someone knocked on the door.
There was no response.
Even after knocking on the door again and again, the result was the same.
The officer gave a short snort.
Since he knew perfectly well that the man was inside, the fact that he was holding out so stubbornly made it clear that he knew what he had done.
“Are you there? I have come to learn from a senior.”
It was an unconvincing statement.
The resolve and wariness he felt from beyond the door grew even stronger.
He would have reacted the same way.
He said,
“Please open the door without fear. I am a dark mage, just like you. Otherwise, how could I have found this house so quickly?”
He had already confirmed that the house next door was empty.
No one existed there who could hear whatever conversation might take place here.
“I also know the magic you used in this incident. You used ‘Atain,’ which allows you to control others at will, lured them near your house, and stole their lifespans. Am I right?”
“How did you know I was here?”
Perhaps hearing even the name of a technique that only a dark mage would know had earned him some trust, because a cautious male voice came from behind the door.
“For a dark mage, detecting someone whose lifespan has suddenly increased by a great deal is easier than breathing.”
Mages could not sense a person’s lifespan.
And a police officer certainly could not.
Dark magic was strictly prohibited by national law.
That was why even using it once out of curiosity would result in a severe punishment.
The door opened with a clatter, and a white-haired boy with a dark coat draped over his shoulders stood there, wearing an inscrutable smile.
“What is your name?”
“My name is Rud. I am a brand-new novice who has only just become a dark mage.”
“Why did you come to me?”
“I came hoping to receive your guidance, Senior.”
The dark mage frowned.
In the past, young dark mages had asked to work with him, but Rud was the first person to ask for instruction so directly.
“Do you even understand what you are saying?”
“Of course! They say dark mages never even keep their own parents at their side because they never know when they might be betrayed.”
There were exceptions, of course.
Just as there were people in the world with all kinds of beliefs, he had once heard somewhere that some dark mages joined hands solely for their own benefit.
The dark mage studied Rud closely, then cast Atain on him.
He had intended to brainwash him and examine his true thoughts, but his own mind gradually began to grow hazy, and soon he could no longer think at all.
It was the sensation of falling alone into the depths of an endless sea.
The dark mage’s time came to an abrupt halt. The focus vanished from his eyes as well. He looked like a puppet whose soul had slipped away under brainwashing.
“Why are you suddenly standing there like that?”
A large hole had opened in the center of the dark mage’s upper body, wide enough for the scene on the other side to be clearly visible.
Just before he could be brainwashed by Atain, Rud had acted first, firing a spell and striking him with an instantly fatal blow.
“If you stole people’s lifespans, you should meet an end worthy of that sin.”
Rud was a dark mage.
Taking lifespan from a person was a simple matter.
But he could not return it to its original owner. No, it would be more accurate to say that doing so would be useless.
The dead were dead.
It was the same principle as granting life to a chrysalis whose essence had already gone; a butterfly would not form inside it again.
“You bastard……, how dare you do this to me and think you can get away with it……?!”
Rud seized the still-living dark mage by the throat.
The dark mage’s skin shriveled like a mummy in an instant. Rud had sucked away every last bit of his remaining lifespan.
“I will put the lifespan I have received to use for the public good.”
With that, the mission was complete.
Rud threw the mummy in his hand to the floor as if discarding trash, then leisurely left the scene.
The police quickly gathered.
Entry to the building where the murder had taken place was restricted, and citizens passing nearby stopped in their tracks and murmured among themselves.
“How much have you found out?”
A detective who had entered the building and was looking around grabbed a nearby officer and asked.
“The details are still under investigation, but we believe the victim was the dark mage responsible for this serial murder case.”
“Is that true?”
“Yes. This person’s characteristics match almost all the evidence we currently have.”
The detective lifted the white cloth covering the corpse slightly to check.
“There is a hole in his chest?”
“It seems certain that the suspect is another dark mage, but we have not been able to identify the magic used, so there is a strong possibility it was unique magic…….”
A unique magic user.
It referred to a mage capable of reinterpreting existing magic and using it in a new way.
But their numbers were overwhelmingly small; people said one might go a lifetime without ever seeing one.
A dark mage had killed another dark mage.
In a world where they all regarded one another as enemies, it was not such a rare situation.
Ordinarily, the police might have offered a reward, but since a dark mage’s very existence was illegal, the state would grant no benefits whatsoever.
“How was your first mission?”
On a bench across the park, a man with a fedora pulled low had a cigar between his teeth.
Rud kept his gaze fixed on the ground and muttered.
“I do not feel anything in particular. I merely cleaned up one piece of trash. Is there anyone in the world who would feel pity over that?”
“Maybe it is because you are a dark mage after all, but the way you talk is starting to sound more and more like those bastards.”
“I learned it all from you.”
Rud had been born to parents who had been gang members.
The shack was crawling with cockroaches, the streets were filled with gunfire, and corpses whose time of death no one knew were left carelessly in the road to rot.
There had been no salvation.
It had been a world where he had to survive by his own strength alone.
Sick of that life, Rud fled the slums blindly and escaped to a nearby town.
Then, by good fortune, he received help from a certain police officer and barely managed to build a stable life, but—
BANG!
Once again, the gunshot that haunted Rud’s mind like a nightmare took the life of his benefactor.
Rud fell into despair.
The person who had been his only guidepost vanished overnight. The emotion he felt then was so wretched that it could not be put into words.
If not for him, Rud would already have collapsed somewhere and died.
Rud decided to become a police officer in order to carry on his benefactor’s will.
However, a dark mage could not become a police officer.
Even so, Rud had been able to become a figure of public authority largely thanks to this man.
Gared J. Auschwalen.
He was one of the top investigators of the Praid Magic Investigation Agency (PMI).
He was also the foremost expert in the field of dark mages, and his influence within the agency was strong enough that he had helped Rud work as a secret police officer.
Gared spoke as he leisurely smoked his cigar.
“You need to do your job well. You were able to get in here thanks to my influence, but if you show even the slightest suspicious behavior, not only I but you as well will be in danger. The people at the top are already watching you closely enough as it is.”
“But it is also true that I am the only person in the police right now who can stand against dark mages.”
There was only one reason the police had accepted Rud.
Their interests aligned.
Rud wanted to eliminate every dark mage—the kind that had killed his benefactor. The police likewise wanted to eradicate the dark mages who disturbed society.
Rud was a unique magic user.
On top of that, his ability to detect lifespans was far superior to that of other dark mages.
He had also mastered all forms of dark magic.
Used properly, there could be no better piece, so in exchange for turning a blind eye to his use of dark magic, the police had obtained a servant named Rud.
“You are quite the oddity yourself.”
Gared said this while tossing the cigar he had been smoking into the trash can beside him.
“You could simply find and kill the dark mage who killed him, but instead you insist on running around trying to exterminate them all. I suppose being young is not always such a good thing.”
“If we do not eradicate dark mages this time, more victims will continue to appear. If we are going to do it, we should do it properly.”
“A dark mage uprooting dark mages? How ironic.”
It was not that he could not understand.
After all, it was none other than Gared who had delivered the news of his death to Rud.
He still remembered that day as clearly as if it were yesterday: Rud clutching at his trouser leg, weeping and wailing in hysterics.
Gared took a deep pull from his cigar and exhaled the smoke.
“Rud, this world will never be easy. Secret police work is the sort of thing that would wear down even the sharpest mind. On top of that, you are a dark mage. The pressure and persecution you will face from now on will gradually make you ill. Are you still all right with that?”
“I started this after preparing myself for all of that.”
Rud spoke firmly.
He did not care what anyone else said. Rud only had to achieve his goal.
“Then I will give you your next mission.”
Gared reached an arm back and handed him a photograph.
“This photograph was taken recently in Galatia. He is a dealer who makes drugs with dark magic and sells them to people. His name is Fran Rekdorf. We have been chasing him for a long time, but he is so cautious and meticulous that he will be difficult to catch.”
“Is there any other information?”
Rud asked as he examined the man in the photograph carefully.
“Get the details from the secret police officer undercover in Galatia. If we discuss them here, the information could leak.”
As if he had said all he had to say, Gared rose from the bench.
Rud glanced back out of the corner of his eye, but Gared had already disappeared completely into the crowd.
“Galatia.”
Rud muttered briefly.
It was a rather distant region.
He would have liked to handle the matter at leisure, but Galatia had few train connections. If he did not move quickly, he would not arrive until sometime tomorrow.
Rud quickly rose from the bench and headed for the train station visible in the distance.