Discovered
The woman who shrieked in irritation, practically spitting the words, looked quite young. The embroidery and ornaments on the robe she was irritably brushing off were far more luxurious and overwhelmingly ornate than anything anyone else here was wearing.
“Kkkl. Miss Rosaria. How about calming down and showing a little dignity? There are so many eyes on us, yet a high-ranking mage of all people is shoving her manners into that mud pit over there. Tsk tsk.”
The old mage standing beside her cackled as if deliberately pouring oil on the fire, leaning on a grotesquely twisted staff. He was a mysterious old man with a gaunt, skeletal frame that gave off an eerie, sticky aura.
“Aang? What the hell did you just babble, you gloomy old fart? Could you please stop talking to me? I already feel like puking from this sewer stench, and now I’m getting nauseous thinking your rotten breath might rub off on me. It’s seriously disgusting.”
By now, I had successfully crept close enough to hear their conversation crystal clear.
Of course, I wasn’t crazy enough to sneak right behind the mages. I was still lying flat behind a garbage pile, a good several dozen meters away from them.
The secret that let me eavesdrop on those mages even from this distance?
It was all thanks to my magic.
I’d simply taken the same trick I used to enhance my eyesight and applied it to my ears. Their voices now drilled directly into my brain as if I’d slapped on a top-of-the-line listening device.
The sensation I’d used to amplify my vision—I imagined that exact technique stretching out from both ears in the form of intense shadows.
The result was a resounding success.
The shadows wrapped around my earlobes and began filtering the surrounding noise with incredible precision.
Of course it worked. When I focused on the image of listening to those people’s conversation, the panicked chatter and wind noise faded into the background, and only the voices of my two chosen targets stabbed straight into my ears.
It felt exactly like I was wearing the latest high-performance bugging equipment.
Shadow Eavesdropping — Enhanced auditory perception through shadow manipulation. Target voices isolated with perfect clarity.
“Haha. Both of you, that’s enough. Let’s calm down. There’s no need to waste your precious energy in a place like this, is there?”
Slipping between the mages’ power struggle, a man with short blond hair and a cheerful face—Fabio—stepped in with an awkward laugh, trying to mediate.
“Stay out of this, beanpole.” “Ha, hahaha.”
Fabio scratched the back of his head sheepishly and forced down a bitter smile.
Just as the rumors said—she really had one hell of a temper.
That arrogance of hers, bristling at everyone and spitting venom. Yet no one dared call her out on her attitude.
With her intense red mane that looked like blazing flames and a captivating beauty that could stop a person’s breath, her name was Rosaria.
She was an unprecedented, unparalleled genius in the history of imperial magic.
At the mere age of fifteen she had shattered the wall of sixth-class magic—where one could first be called a high-ranking mage—and now, at seventeen, she had reached the true pinnacle of seventh-class.
“Fabio, my boy. I only gave some well-meaning advice to a wayward child out of concern. I’m sorry if I put you in an awkward spot in the middle. Hehe.”
Rosaria’s golden eyes, filled with killing intent, turned toward the old man. Nevertheless, the elderly mage stroked his bizarre staff and continued to cackle leisurely.
“Still, this stench is truly awful. I want to finish this quickly before the smell soaks into me and return to my warm, comfortable laboratory. Heh heh.”
Lokis. He was the senior researcher who effectively ran the Imperial Magic Research Institute, and a living legend who had reached the unreachable eighth-class realm that no one present could even dream of approaching.
“Haha, Lord Lokis. This is all for the Empire, after all. Just bear with it a little longer.” “Yes, yes, you’re right, Fabio.”
Lokis and Fabio chatted amiably, chuckling away.
Rosaria, who had been glaring at the scene from the corner of her eye, swallowed her irritation and bit down hard on her lower lip.
Tsk. Why the hell did I have to get dragged all the way out here just to stand around smelling this godawful stench? I’m seriously going to lose my mind.
It was nothing but grunt work—checking whether some stupid rock had disrupted the flow of mana or if there was a structural flaw. Something like that could easily be handled by that grinning earth mage Fabio over there or any run-of-the-mill low-ranking mage. So why did they have to drag a high-ranking mage like herself, who stood at the very peak of flame magic, into this disgusting mud pit?
This infuriating question that refused to be answered only made Rosaria’s irritation boil even hotter.
Despite the murderous aura rolling off her, the inspection proceeded without a hitch.
Fabio put on a serious expression and deployed his fourth-class earth magic. The ochre mana that flowed from his hands dug into the slum’s dirt floor, traveled along the deep roots of the barrier, and began meticulously scanning for cracks in the ground and any structural abnormalities.
At the same time, the eighth-class archmage Lokis lightly stamped his foot without even uttering a single incantation.
His emaciated body immediately floated up into the air, completely ignoring gravity.
Floating in midair, Lokis rose to the very top of the towering barrier and began closely observing the faint flows of the barrier magic weaving between the moss.
Since those two were handling things on their own, the inspection itself would probably be over soon.
Rosaria let out an irritated mental sigh, crossed her arms, and tried to redirect her hypersensitive nerves that were currently spinning in circles.
The place her attention landed on was a certain Asirian girl who had been hiding behind a garbage pile for a while now, eyes sparkling as she stared persistently in their direction.
Judging by her skeletal frame, ravaged by long-term malnutrition, she looked no older than eight at most.
But the waves of mana swirling around her body revealed that the girl was at least twelve years old in reality.
Above all, the jet-black hair and the vivid blood-red eyes beneath it were textbook proof of the cursed Asirian bloodline.
In truth, all three of them—Rosaria, Fabio, and Lokis—had perfectly sensed the girl’s secretive, excited gaze from the very moment they first set foot in the slum.
Yet none of the three had bothered to mention the existence of that gaze out loud.
After all, to these high-ranking mages standing at the apex of the Empire, the gazes of others mixed with awe and fear were as ordinary and commonplace as pebbles on the roadside.
It was exactly the same as a lion not bothering to pay attention to the gaze of an ant crawling at its feet.
Of course, the fact that the girl was crudely and clumsily extending her mana to eavesdrop on their conversation did irritate Rosaria just a tiny bit.
Right at this moment.
Fabio and Lokis were pouring all their concentration into their original duties, leaving them no room to look elsewhere.
Thanks to that, only Rosaria—who had been left with nothing to do in the middle of this disgusting slum and whose irritation had shot through the roof—now had a sliver of attention to spare for that pathetic, audacious little bug who dared spy on high-ranking mages.
Daring to stretch out such sloppy mana to eavesdrop?
Rosaria’s red lips drew a captivating yet cruel curve.
Her burning, arrogant gaze slowly and precisely locked onto the pile of garbage where the girl was hiding.
Vita’s shoulders, pressed flat against the ground, twitched violently.
She realized instantly that Rosaria’s call was aimed directly at her.
After all, the only living thing breathing within range was herself.
Even though Rosaria hadn’t taken a single step closer or turned her head, Vita instinctively knew that gaze was piercing straight through the obstacle and boring into the top of her skull.
Why? How the hell did she get caught?!
Vita’s mind went completely blank. She had believed her concealment and eavesdropping were nearly perfect.
She had erased her presence, her footsteps, even her breathing. So what mistake had she made?
Like a starving tiger had been thrown in front of her, Vita’s body began to tremble uncontrollably, seized by absolute terror.
And that pitiful, shabby vibration was completely transparent to Rosaria, the genius mage who could read even the faintest flows of mana as easily as breathing.