The Shadow Behind the Smoke
For an Orangeline investigator, a dispatch to the Redline was a widely avoided assignment. The reason was simple: it did absolutely nothing for one's career.
It was a matter of cost-benefit analysis.
Even if a powerful mage appeared and reduced a city to ashes, they were only strong "by Redline standards." They could not compare to the heinous criminals of Orangeline.
Resolving a threat of city-wide collapse added only a few lines to one's resume.
"Killed a Lower-class X-rank mage responsible for the estimated deaths of XX people," "Contributed to stabilizing public security in Redline."
Of course, in extremely rare cases, a mutant-like, exceptionally strong lower-class mage might appear. In such instances, the dispatched investigator would have to risk their life, but who would ever appreciate how much they struggled?
Furthermore, when an investigator descended, criminals tended to hide like rats, making the process incredibly tedious. In short, the return on investment was terrible compared to the effort required.
Even the working environment was wretched.
The mana was choked with impurities, making one's chest feel stuffy with every breath. The weather swung wildly between summer heat and winter cold within a single day. And the local officials were utterly incompetent...
Unless you were a rookie for whom every minor achievement counted, it was an assignment most people loathed. From that perspective, dispatching a seasoned veteran was highly unusual.
It was a decision made by Second-class Investigator Aiden Bern himself, who had volunteered for the post.
Slide.
Early in the morning, the hospital room door slid open.
"It's been a while, Senior."
A familiar face, a familiar voice, and a familiar title.
Shadia Drury blinked, then let out a bitter smile.
"A distinguished guest has arrived. I should have gone out to greet you."
"I figured you would, so I slipped through the gates quietly in the dead of night."
"Please, speak comfortably. You are being far too polite to a subordinate."
In the Empire, the name value of a high-ranking official from an upper region is immense. Unless visiting for personal reasons, they possess the authority to command local state agencies when performing official duties.
Of course, moral respect is necessary. For example, a mere official from Greenline cannot treat a powerful figure ruling a city in Yellowline unfairly.
However, Redline was an exception in many ways.
A dumping ground treated with absolute disdain by the entire Empire. Moreover, with the Security Bureau completely collapsed, the title of Chief of the Eastred Security Bureau carried no authority whatsoever.
The reason Aiden showed Shadia respect had nothing to do with such a hollow title.
"The memories of being scolded by you are so vivid that my words naturally stretch out."
"I would be glad if my training helped shape the investigator you are today, even in some small way."
"You were never the type of superior to waste time on useless training."
A mix of complex emotions crossed Aiden's face as he looked at Shadia.
What a tragic life.
Shadia Drury.
A former First-class Investigator of the Eastorange Management Bureau, an elite mage who had entered Yellowline at the young age of twenty-six.
Even in Yellowline, she had joined the guard and built a reputation, but she was implicated in a Class 1 magic crime, placed under a restriction, and demoted to the Redline Security Bureau.
Normally, one would have become a broken wreck or turned to crime.
For a mage, restriction is a far more unbearable disgrace than a fall in social status. It meant being unable to exert even ten percent of one's original skill, with all avenues of growth completely closed.
In fact, half of the mages demoted to Redline commit suicide. The rest dabble in forbidden arts or vanish without a trace. Only a handful manage to live normal lives.
Thus, Shadia's actions after her fall were nothing short of extraordinary. She had built up a Security Bureau that was once a plaything for outlaws and managed to semi-stabilize Eastred.
But now, even that was a thing of the past.
She might look fine on the outside... but she must be rotting away on the inside.
He felt pity for the senior he had once respected. This pity was one of the reasons Aiden, who had eventually become a respected senior to others, had personally stepped forward.
"Let's move on to business."
Aiden set down a fruit basket and pulled up a chair.
"I received a separate report on the details of the incident from a mage named Muzark."
"...You met Muzark?"
"Is there something wrong with him?"
"No, not at all. He is an outstanding talent."
Shadia's eyes trembled slightly with relief. As expected of someone whose mind and body were unstable, her emotions were clearly on display. It was a slip she would never have shown in the past.
"That's unlike you."
"What do you mean?"
"You used to absolutely detest anything that interfered with official duties."
Aiden spoke nonchalantly.
"What happened to Muzark Bespard last night?"
Though he had a long conversation with Muzark at dawn, he hadn't heard the full story. There must have been parts Muzark hesitated to share.
But Aiden could deduce it.
"For someone who supposedly ran around all day, his appearance was too clean, as if he had just washed. He also showed signs of mana exhaustion—pale face, blue lips. And I caught the faint scent of blood that hadn't been fully washed off."
"Did you not ask him directly?"
"I only secured his promise of cooperation. I plan to meet him next, and well, if he's had some time to think about it overnight, he might open up a bit more. So, I'd like to hear it from you first, Senior."
He reached for a cigarette but stopped, remembering he was in front of a patient.
"I need to know the truth beforehand so I can tell if he's being honest, hiding something, or trying to deceive me entirely, don't you think?"
This was Aiden's way of sizing people up.
Though they had agreed to cooperate, it was merely a verbal promise. While having a secret or two was acceptable, if Muzark spewed outright lies, he would have to be cut loose.
It was a trait his wife often criticized as being underhanded.
"Don't worry, I have no intention of making an issue of the act itself. If my guess is correct, it was a drastic measure, but personally, I consider it a merit."
"You haven't changed."
Shadia let out a sigh.
Even when they worked together, Aiden valued efficiency over rules. He was the type who would rather deal with the messy aftermath than be called indecisive.
It was an ironic twist of fate.
Aiden, who walked the tightrope between legal and illegal, had become a successful investigator, while Shadia, who strictly adhered to the rules, had been disgracefully demoted.
"...Very well."
Hiding something that had already been figured out would only disrupt the investigation. Though she hesitated out of guilt for not being able to help Muzark, Shadia had no intention of obstructing the investigator's work.
After hearing the whole story, Aiden smiled.
"If that's true, he really is a remarkable fellow."
A massive terror attack that literally blew up the Security Bureau.
The mastermind behind such a calculated move would never walk around defenseless immediately after the attack. They would almost certainly have mages as bodyguards.
Indeed, the three tracking stones Shadia had given Muzark all pointed in the same direction. If they had gathered out of fear of retaliation, it made perfect sense.
And he crushed them with sheer force? A rookie mage of only one month?
He certainly didn't seem like some ordinary street thug.
"This is shaping up to be an interesting meeting."
If there were flowers carefully raised in a greenhouse, there were also sharp thorns that tore through piles of garbage to thrust themselves upward. Aiden was a man who was undeniably drawn to the latter.
"I'll find out more about the rookie myself."
Aiden crossed his legs.
"Chief Shadia Drury. It seems you kept a dangerous bastard inside the Security Bureau."
His polite tone vanished in an instant.
"Why is Harmensales here?"
At the site of the collapsed Security Bureau building, rescue operations were still underway.
Mages had been deployed, but their numbers were few, and the magic available to lower-class mages was limited. Progress was slow, as they lacked even a crane to lift the heavy debris.
At this point, finding survivors was realistically impossible. The work was merely to recover mutilated corpses. The desperate motivation on the faces of the laborers had long since burned out.
"The atmosphere in the city is grim," Aiden said, looking at the buried site alongside Muzark.
"I can see what kind of city Eastred was. Order was maintained solely by the power of the Security Bureau. Losing its practical function is one thing, but having its symbol trampled is a massive blow."
Muzark turned his gaze to the streets.
At every corner and main road, people were stealing glances at the shattered Security Bureau. It was impossible to tell if they were honest citizens or criminals-in-waiting.
Anxiety was spreading through the city like poison.
Some, surely, were basking in a sense of liberation.
"Don't get your hopes up. I have no intention of restoring order to Redline. It's far beyond my duties, and above all, it's not what the state wants."
"I know. Redline must have its own role to play."
The structure of the Empire was bizarre.
In any nation, regions closer to the capital tend to be more developed, but the Empire was particularly extreme. The lower regions lagged behind the upper regions in almost every aspect.
Any talent that surpassed the local level was pulled upward. No matter how hard one struggled, the hierarchy between regions could not be overturned. And the wretched regions had their own specific utility.
An exile. A place to dump the Empire's trash.
"First, let's set a clear goal."
Aiden clicked his tongue and took off his coat. This godforsaken place was hot one hour and freezing the next, and now it seemed to be summer again.
"We're going to drag out the wild dogs who crossed the line and kill them. It's a fitting punishment. Actually, there's no other way. We can't exactly put Redline criminals into Orangeline prisons."
"The mastermind has already been killed," Muzark confessed honestly. He had thought about this beforehand. Since Shadia and Yen already knew the truth, he judged it would be difficult to play dumb.
It was a city where human life was cheap.
Even the Security Bureau's basic principle when dealing with criminals was execution or exile. The underground holding cells were a storehouse for demons, not a place to feed and house criminals.
Shadia was undoubtedly a rigid person.
But she wasn't an idiot who would preach about human rights in a lawless land without a court. She might have worn the uniform, but she too was an outlaw who had adapted to the Redline.
In other words, killing the terrorist could be a crime or a merit depending on Aiden's judgment. Rather than being caught and held hostage by it later, it was better to cooperate proactively.
"You're being honest."
"Excuse me?"
"I heard it from the Security Chief."
He had made the right move. If he had hidden it, he would have been in trouble.
"Quite impressive. You fought mages?"
"...There were three of them."
"Do you know the identity of any of them?"
"I only know Lahar, who was a security officer. He probably wasn't a registered mage. No one knew he could use magic."
Aiden nodded.
"You remember the faces of the other two, right?"
"Yes. And since I saw their magic, it should be easy to identify them."
"Good. Find out their names through the Security Chief and let me know. Just the names will do. I need to mark them as deceased in the archives."
There was no need to discuss the non-mages.
Redline had no computerized resident management system. Any data collected by the Security Bureau was surely gone. If no bodies were found, they would simply become common missing persons.
The more I learn, the more I realize this is no place for humans to live.
To someone like Lahar, it might be a city of freedom, but to Muzark, it felt like nothing but a beast's den. To avoid becoming a beast himself, his only option was to climb higher.
"By the way, things have become a bit awkward."
Aiden crossed his arms with a weary sigh.
"You and I agreed to help each other, but the case is already mostly resolved, isn't it? Dear me. It would be embarrassing to back out now, so what should we do..."
Muzark had a counterargument.
This case isn't over yet.
It was a suspicion he had harbored for some time.
The Demon Bomb used in the terror attack was the decisive evidence. The method was so stealthy that even Yen and Shadia had failed to detect it.
Yet, the mages Muzark had fought were mediocre at best.
Combat and manufacturing demon bombs might be entirely different fields, but still, there were limits. Lahar was a half-baked mage who was embarrassing to even call a mage, and the other two were nothing more than third-rate.
There was only one logical conclusion.
In other words, there is a mastermind who supplied them with the Demon Bomb.
The reason he couldn't capture them alive for interrogation was because of Harmensales. At the time, the nameless mage had said that offering humans to a demon was a grave magical crime.
In the Empire, it could be considered a crime worse than murder. To avoid detection, no witnesses could be left alive. Or perhaps Muzark had simply been too furious to remain calm.
Just as he was about to hint at his thoughts to Aiden—
The intent was conveyed secretly.
Muzark rolled only his eyes, glancing sideways. His seemingly ordinary yet extraordinary partner was biting down on a cigarette with a bored expression.