Finding the Culprit
Yuri explained it simply. “The principle is straightforward.”
As she spoke, she cast spells with both hands. Since they were basic first-star magic that any second-star mage could perform, it looked easy enough on the surface. But looking deeper, that wasn’t the case at all.
“It feels like chanting two spells at the same time. Like having two brains, I suppose.”
“Two brains?”
“Yes. So if you apply that principle—”
Yuri demonstrated two third-star spells simultaneously. Both spells truly activated at the exact same moment. In theory, it should have been impossible. Most mages didn’t learn to use two different spells at once; instead, they practiced casting the same spell twice in rapid succession. Veteran mages who had mastered that high-speed chanting could achieve speeds comparable to Double Casting.
But that didn’t mean Yuri couldn’t learn high-speed chanting herself. As a result, the gap between her and other mages would only continue to widen.
“Did you understand?”
“…To be honest, no.”
Kyle mulled over the magical theory Yuri had just taught him. He’d been wondering if he could somehow apply the principle of Double Casting to swordsmanship, but simply grasping the concept itself was proving difficult.
It seems like something worth learning, though…
When he was younger, Sir Leon had told him that becoming a mage wasn’t just about having talent for handling mana. It required a variety of different talents. Only now did Kyle truly understand what he had meant. It wasn’t just mana—one needed considerable intelligence as well.
“It’s fine. In the end, it’s just a trick.”
“A trick…”
“If you compare Double Casting to an Aura Blade, I’d much rather have the latter.”
The power of an Aura Master that could cut through anything. A miracle that even magic couldn’t replicate. Yuri had often said that having an Aura Blade would multiply what she could accomplish, and that she would trade Double Casting for it in a heartbeat if she could.
Hearing that, Kyle had chuckled and told her she should just learn swordsmanship instead. In reality, even if she trained, the odds of Yuri realizing an Aura Blade were practically zero.
“By the way, you reached third-star mage right after figuring out Double Casting. Yuri, aren’t you a genius?”
“Yes. I’m a genius.”
“…I’m not joking, you know? Could you not look at me with those gloomy eyes?”
Kyle made a wronged expression toward Yuri, who was staring at him with a melancholic gaze, and shrugged to convey that he had no intention of deceiving her. Come to think of it, calling a mage who had just reached the Expert level a genius after becoming a Master himself might indeed sound like mockery.
Deciding to watch his words next time, Kyle casually turned his head toward the door.
“—Young Master Kyle. You have visitors from the academy.”
“From the academy?”
At the butler’s words from outside the door, Kyle told him to let them in. A moment later, the door opened and two men in neat suits appeared. One had an unmemorable face, while the other was a handsome man with clean, refined features. The handsome man in front smiled brightly and introduced himself.
“Nice to meet you, Cadet Kyle Meyer and Cadet Yuri Grace. I am Special Investigator Ivan.”
“Yes, Investigator Ivan. What brings you here?”
“Would it be alright if we sit down to talk? And this isn’t something we should discuss in front of others.”
When Ivan glanced at the butler, the man bowed lightly and left the room. Once only the four of them remained, Ivan took out a magical tool from his pocket and activated it. The mana it emitted hummed loudly as it enveloped the area around them.
Wondering what kind of tool it was, Kyle looked at him. Ivan waved his hands as if to say not to worry.
“Ah, this is simply a device that prevents our conversation from leaking outside. It’s a very important matter, after all.”
“What exactly did you come to talk about?”
“You’re aware that valuable research materials were stolen recently, correct?”
Kyle nodded. He had gone through the trouble of donating research materials that enabled Double Casting, only for the headmaster to immediately claim they had been stolen. At first, he had suspected the headmaster might be trying to monopolize the incredible achievement, but the man had looked genuinely upset, saying he had been too busy to even read the materials properly. The deep regret of a mage who had missed out on Double Casting was clear on his face, so Kyle had quickly dropped his suspicions.
“I heard about it.”
“Yes. I was dispatched to find the culprit who stole those materials.”
“Couldn’t you just make the materials again?”
“Without catching the culprit, they would only get stolen again.”
Kyle shrugged, wondering how exactly they planned to catch them. Several days had already passed. It wouldn’t have been strange if the thief had already fled to another country with the materials. But Ivan shook his head.
“I can’t give you the details, but… from the day the materials were stolen until today, no one has left the academy and failed to return.”
“Which means…”
“Yes. The culprit is still inside the academy.”
At those words, a suspect immediately came to Kyle’s mind. Professor William, whose supernatural ability was strong enough to fool even a Master like himself. Wouldn’t he be capable of sneaking into the headmaster’s office and back out?
Kyle immediately shared that thought with Ivan.
“If it’s Professor William, sneaking in and out should be possible.”
“All potential suspects are currently under investigation. And Professor William has already been cleared.”
“Yet you still came to us, which means…”
“Professor William is not the culprit.”
Kyle didn’t know what kind of investigation they had conducted, but if a special investigator was saying the man wasn’t the culprit, he had no choice but to accept it. After some casual conversation, Ivan finally brought up the actual investigation.
“Now then, I’ll ask. Kyle Meyer, Yuri Grace. Are the two of you the ones who stole the research materials?”
“…No?”
“Do you know anyone who might be the culprit?”
“Um… Other than the professor I mentioned earlier, not really.”
“And you, Cadet Yuri?”
“No.”
“Very well.”
The moment the two questions ended, Kyle felt a very faint wave flying toward him and tilted his head slightly. The wave hadn’t come from Ivan standing in front of him, but from the unremarkable man standing behind.
“That concludes the investigation. We’ll be taking our leave now.”
“That’s it? What did you even do…”
“It’s an investigative secret.”
Ivan retrieved the sound-absorbing magical tool and stood up. Kyle let out a hollow laugh, thinking the man had asked all those random questions just to pose those two. He looked at Yuri, but she simply met his gaze with a perfectly calm expression, as if this was completely normal.
“What?”
“No… I was just wondering if that even counts as an investigation.”
“Is there a problem?”
“What kind of investigation is that? Don’t they usually look for evidence or something?”
“Look for evidence? What kind of investigation is that?”
Yuri looked at him as if she genuinely couldn’t understand.
“You can just find the culprit with magic and Force.”
“Huh?”
“Isn’t manually searching for evidence without magic or Force the more primitive method?”
She was right. This was a fantasy world, and in a fantasy world, there were fantasy-appropriate methods of investigation. The reason Ivan had left after asking only two questions was because those two questions alone had been enough to determine whether the two of them were the culprits or not.
Time passed. Whether because the theft at the academy was supposed to be kept secret, no rumors about it spread, and classes were never canceled because of the incident. At the same time, however, there were no rumors about the culprit being caught either. It seemed like the case was going to quietly fade away.
Among the students, some even started saying that the headmaster hadn’t had anything stolen at all and had simply misplaced it somewhere. Honestly, considering the headmaster’s age, that seemed far more believable.
The investigation feels so fantasy-like that I can’t even trust it.
If they had done something like fingerprinting, footprint collection, or identity verification with cameras like they did on Earth, it would have felt more credible. But when two investigators showed up, asked a few questions, and left, it felt less like an investigation and more like some kind of word game.
Are you the culprit? No. Alright, good job then.
It felt exactly like seeing one of those memes that floated around the internet in real life. I let out a sigh and stretched.
Recently, neither Sera nor Yuri—who had been expecting to receive rewards—looked particularly happy either.
How can we find the culprit?
As I walked while pondering that question, something soft suddenly pressed down hard on me from behind. Wondering if a slime had attacked, I turned my head, only to see Aria smiling brightly with her golden hair shining.
“Hi! Long time no see, Kyle.”
“Aria. It has been a while.”
“Got something on your mind?”
She tilted her head and hopped forward with a bounce. Her large chest and the hem of her skirt fluttered with the movement, stealing my gaze. But no matter how she tried to seduce people, I couldn’t talk about a secret investigation, so I shook my head.
“It’s nothing.”
“That’s not the face you make when it’s nothing… Well, if you say you’re fine, then I guess you are!”
Having said that, Aria naturally stuck close to my side. Since there was no particular reason to push her away, I walked through the academy with her.
Even though I stayed silent, Aria kept throwing all sorts of stories I didn’t know about at me.
“The other day—”
“Yeah.”
“So that happened~”
“I see.”
“Am I bothering you by being here?”
“Whoa, that’s amazing.”
“…You’re not even listening, are you?”
Oops. Busted. I looked at Aria standing there with an awkward expression and shook my head.
“I was just thinking about something right now.”
“What is it? Tell me. Even though I’m a commoner, I know quite a lot, so I might be able to help.”
Aria began bragging confidently that with her sharp senses, she could solve anything. Looking at her, I started thinking about how to explain the situation without mentioning that the research materials had been stolen.
“Um… So, something like this happened—”
After hearing my edited version of the story, Aria rested her chin on her hand, closed her eyes for a moment to think, then began sharing her thoughts.
“Kyle! In most cases, the person you first suspect as the culprit really is the culprit!”
“…What kind of imitation is that?”
“Oh, you don’t know? It’s a mystery novel that’s popular at the academy these days—”
I mulled over Aria’s words and fell into thought for a moment. The person you first suspect as the culprit is usually the real one…
Should I give it a try?
“Aria, thanks.”
“Huh? For what?”
“Thanks to you, I think I can find the culprit.”
“Umm… I don’t really get it, but good luck!”
She had said that in a fantasy world, there were fantasy-appropriate methods of investigation. In that case, I would go with a fantasy-style approach too.
Late at night with the moon high in the sky, the fourth-star mage and professor William Taylor finished his research and headed back to his residence. Walking alone down the main road at night would normally be quite frightening for ordinary people, but for a fourth-star mage like him, it was nothing to worry about. It meant he didn’t need to fear common thugs or thieves in the city.
Even if an assassin holding a sword appeared like this.
“William Taylor.”
A deliberately lowered voice. The figure was wearing a robe with the hood pulled low, making it very difficult to identify who it was. William let out a small sigh and glared at the assassin.
“Are you doing this knowing who I am?”
“—I came to steal back what you stole.”
“Is this about the item that investigator asked about the other day? I proved it then. I didn’t steal anything. The investigator confirmed it.”
“If you hand over the item, I’ll spare your life.”
The conversation wasn’t going anywhere. Letting out a deep sigh, William used his Force to erase his mana presence and began chanting a spell carefully.
“I told you I didn’t steal it…!”
William finished the chant in an instant and fired the spell. A powerful electric current raced across the ground toward the assassin. The assassin swung his sword at the incoming lightning.
How crude. Doesn’t he know that electricity flows through swords too—
The moment he thought that, an Aura Blade bloomed from the assassin’s sword.
“Huh?”
An Aura Master. The moment William realized what it meant that one had come to assassinate him personally, cold sweat broke out as he stared at the assassin.
“…Where did you come from?”
“Kibotos.”
“Looks like another strange secret organization has appeared. Sending a Master means they must be quite something…”
William let out a long sigh as he looked at the assassin.
“…If I give you the materials, will you really spare me?”
“—No.”
“Hah, saying it so confidently. What if I don’t give you the materials and hide them instead?”
“There’s no need for that anymore.”
The assassin spoke as he threw off the robe he had been wearing. William, who had been thinking he might as well see the face, stiffened when he saw who was beneath the hood.
“…Kyle Meyer?”
“Nice to meet you, Professor.”
“What is this? Why are you… No, more importantly—a cadet is a Master? And a first-year at that?”
William kept spitting out questions, unable to comprehend the situation. Kyle opened his mouth with full confidence.
“I never said the item was research materials. So how did you know that what was stolen was research materials?”
“Cadet Kyle. You are not an investigator. What you’re doing is illegal—”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“What?”
Kyle shrugged while looking at William, who was bringing up the law. If he had truly believed in the law from the beginning, he wouldn’t have acted this way. After all, the law wasn’t an absolute rule but a full-of-loopholes system created by humans.
“It’s called ‘scientific investigation supremacy in a fantasy world,’ Professor.”
The cutting-edge scientific investigation method that had been commonly used even when humanity created nuclear bombs and sent people to the moon. Once you designate someone as the culprit, the evidence appears later. And at this very moment—William had just confessed with his own mouth that he was the culprit.
“As an honorable academy cadet, I will arrest you, Professor.”
Resist. It’ll be more convenient that way.
With those words, Kyle shot forward.