Let's Go Hunting
“Goddamn it!”
Ronan, realizing the situation was beyond saving, pulled out a pendant of a different shape from his pocket. It was the one his client had given him for use in the worst-case scenario.
With a sharp crack, the pendant shattered, and the magic sealed inside began to fulfill its original purpose—destroying every pendant in the vicinity.
“Ugh?!”
An inexplicable wave of pain surged through them. Ronan, who had been closest to the door, barely managed to escape the influence of the shattered pendants and fled.
“Gah?!”
But those who couldn’t make it out of the building were soon overwhelmed by the thick mana filling the air. They couldn’t resist the magic-nullifying effect of the broken pendants.
“Blegh!”
“Cough?! My chest…”
Even if someone lacked magical ability, every human possessed mana within them. The pendants were designed to suppress that mana. But when countless pendants shattered at once, releasing a massive surge of nullification magic?
“Aaaargh?!”
“Cough?!”
The concentration of magic grew so dense that it even neutralized the faintest traces of mana inside their bodies. In the process, the mana flowing through their bloodstream went into chaos, inflicting excruciating pain.
“Ugh?!”
“What… is this…”
Even Leonia, a skilled magic user, and the tough-minded Brika were not immune to the effects.
“Sel…ene…”
But Selene approached with an indifferent expression, calmly grabbing hold of the two.
“Cough?!”
Leonia and Brika gasped for air, quickly regaining their composure.
“Leonia.”
“Professor Selene!”
“We need to help the others.”
“What should I do?”
Still perfectly composed, Selene pointed at the people groaning inside the building.
“Cassian.”
“Huh?”
“Do it like you did with Cassian.”
In that instant, memories of the recent incident flashed through Leonia’s mind. Many students inside a building had fallen under hypnotic magic. Back then, she had supplied mana to Professor Viera, helping her resolve the situation.
“B-but…”
There was one problem with that method.
“Professor Viera is on vacation. We can’t call her right now.”
As Leonia despaired and asked for another solution, Selene had already stepped away from her and was staring at the floor.
“Professor Selene!”
“Viera. She’s here.”
“Huh?”
At that moment—
“Bllleeegh!”
The sight before her made Leonia feel a sudden, violent dizziness. It was bizarre that something far larger than that small body could be expelled from such a tiny mouth. Yet that impossible scene was unfolding right in front of her eyes.
“What the…?”
And what lay amid the sticky fluid she had vomited up was…
“Ugh… P-please don’t eat me…”
Professor Viera, eyes rolled back, foaming at the mouth and trembling violently.
“Professor… Viera?”
“Krrrk.”
Leonia cautiously approached and poked Viera a few times. Suddenly—
“Hyat?!”
Viera sprang to her feet.
“Whoa?!”
“What the hell?!”
Leonia and Brika flinched in surprise and stepped back.
“W-where am I? What happened to Cassian?”
“What?”
Viera looked around in confusion, babbling incoherently.
“Ugh?! This sticky stuff… Blegh! Why is it all over me?”
“Viera.”
In truth, after the battle with Cassian, Selene had planned to spit Viera out along with Rubelia. But once she learned that Viera was scheduled for a long-term leave from the academy, Selene simply left her inside her stomach. She had taken the word “rest” in a very literal—and very different—sense.
Thanks to that, the already low-profile Viera was still considered to be on extended vacation by the academy staff, so no one paid her any attention.
“Eek?! Professor Selene!”
“No time.”
“Huh?”
Selene urged the disoriented Viera, who had lost all sense of time. She pointed at the people writhing in pain inside the building.
“Eek?! What’s wrong with them? Wait, more importantly—where are we? I was definitely chasing Cassian to rescue Miss Rubelia…”
“Viera.”
“Yes!”
“Excessive magic-nullification magic.”
“Huh? …Ah!”
Selene gave Viera a brief explanation of the situation. In response, Viera instinctively began casting her spell.
“Leonia.”
“Y-yeah?”
“Viera. Supply her with mana.”
“O-okay!”
Selene immediately called Leonia over and positioned her beside Viera. Viera drew on Leonia’s mana to activate her magic, and—
“Ugh…”
“Haa…”
The people suffering across the scene gradually began to stabilize.
“Huh? Wait… Oh! I see! Everyone’s okay now!”
“S-seems that way, Instructor Brika!”
Brika, who had been staring blankly at the situation resolving itself in an instant, shouted in amazement. Leonia chimed in as well. The two of them unconsciously began overwriting the memory of what had just happened.
“Professor Selene, you even used subspace magic? That’s incredible!”
“Subspace?”
“Yeah. You must’ve hidden Professor Viera in subspace to catch them off guard, right?”
“(tilts head)”
“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about, but help me out, Miss Leonia!”
“R-right!”
Having erased the memory of the scene they should never have witnessed, the two clung to Viera.
“B-but how am I completely fine against the magic-nullification spell? And more importantly, where are we?”
“Viera.”
“Yes! Professor Selene.”
“Later. I’ll explain.”
“...Ah!”
Brika, recalling the moment just before her memory had been wiped, suddenly shouted.
“That bastard! He ran away!”
“Oh! That’s right!”
Selene answered calmly.
“I let him go. On purpose.”
“Huh? Why?!”
Selene tugged on Brika’s sleeve and pointed outside the building.
“Prey. Let’s go hunting.”
“What? You let him go so we could protect the people inside? Got it!”
Brika nodded.
“So now we just need to catch him, right?”
“(nods)”
“T-then I’ll come too!”
Leonia declared she would join them and briefly let go of Viera.
“No.”
Selene immediately grabbed Leonia’s hand and placed it back on Viera.
“Leonia. No.”
“But why?”
“Leonia. You still haven’t fixed those two habits.”
“What?”
“Two habits left.”
“But that’s…”
“Not… time yet.”
And so Leonia could only watch as the two left her behind.
“Haa… haa… I really want to go on vacation once this is over. Haha.”
Together with Professor Viera, who still hadn’t recovered her sense of time…
“Damn it!”
Brika burst out of the building at high speed. But in the dark night streets of the capital, there was no trace of the criminal.
“Ah! That way?!”
Spotting a fragment of a pendant on the ground, Brika immediately dashed in that direction.
“Damn it! A fork in the road!”
Before long, she slowed down at the sight of the intersection ahead. But then—
Thud thud thud thud thud
“Whoa?!”
Brika was startled when Selene suddenly shot past her at incredible speed and fell flat on her backside.
“W-wait! Let’s go together…”
Brika scrambled to her feet and chased after Selene. Just when she thought she had lost her—
Tap tap tap tap
“Ugh?!”
Brika fell again as she saw Selene charging back toward her from the distance at terrifying speed.
“Right path. Then left.”
“What?”
“Criminal’s location.”
“Wait a second…”
Tap tap tap tap tap
Selene dashed off again at blinding speed.
“Hey…”
Brika jumped up and ran after her. Right path. Then left path. When another fork appeared—
Tap tap tap tap
Once again, Selene came racing back at tremendous speed.
“Right path. Then down the stairs…”
“Hey hey hey! Hold on!”
“(tilts head)”
“J-just go catch the criminal! Stop doing these pointless… huff… huff… things.”
“Why?”
“So we can… stop this annoying chase…”
Brika panted heavily.
“Not going to catch him?”
“What?”
But after hearing Selene’s next words—
“I will catch him. Prey.”
“So we need to catch that Ronan guy—”
“No…”
Brika realized she was the idiot in this situation.
“Bigger prey.”
“Huh?”
“Small prey. Will lead to bigger prey.”
“Ah!”
Brika caught her breath and stood up.
“Then take me with you.”
“(tilts head)”
“What are you tilting your head for?! Instead of running around like this, just carry me and fly again!”
Having finally understood everything, she urged Selene to take action.
“Okay.”
And in the very next moment—
“Hey! Wait! This position?!”
Selene lifted Brika in a princess carry and leaped into the air.
“No, why this position of all things?!”
“Huff… huff…”
Meanwhile, Ronan arrived at the meeting point with his client, convinced no one was pursuing him.
“You broke that pendant.”
“Oh? It’s you?”
Vrrrr
The client, as usual, used sealing magic to make the scene disappear. Now the entrance to the building they were in would look like nothing more than an ordinary wall.
“No no. This isn’t enough. That crazy bitch is coming after me!”
“Crazy bitch?”
“Yeah! She’ll find this place soon too!”
“I see. So you couldn’t bring the goods?”
“That’s right. After using that pendant… Wait, now that I think about it!”
Ronan recalled what had happened at the Security Bureau and suddenly exploded in anger.
“You son of a bitch, were you trying to kill me?!”
“Hmm?”
“Those pendants! What the hell happened when they all exploded at once?!”
“Exactly what you saw. They suppressed every last bit of mana, even the tiniest traces. Your colleagues are probably all dead by now.”
“You… Even so… I didn’t want to kill them too…”
“Regretting it now? How many have you killed with your own hands?”
The man’s voice at the meeting place mocked Ronan.
“Besides, even if it wasn’t you, there were plenty of others who would have done it.”
“Exactly. Those Civil Guard bastards. Every last one of them is rotten. Give them money and they’ll do anything.”
The woman’s voice beside him chimed in.
“You…”
Ronan bit his lip. But he couldn’t argue. The reason twelve murder cases had gone unnoticed was the corruption and incompetence of the Civil Guard, who only cared about cases that paid.
“Anyway, the situation has changed, Rosy.”
“Yeah. Jackson. That new Security Bureau investigation chief. Brika, was it? She’s more competent than I expected.”
“Competent? She’s just normal. The weird ones are the guys who ignore it even when their colleagues die. After all, both the investigation unit and the Civil Guard belong to the Security Bureau.”
“Hahaha, that’s true. Still, think about it, Rosy. We even had this guy forge documents, and we still ended up here?”
Ronan grew furious as the two casually called each other by their real names and conversed without any caution.
At the same time, perhaps a shred of pride as a Civil Guard member had awakened in him, because he slowly drew a sword from his coat.
And then—
“Die, you bastards!”
Under the delusion that he could kill these two and claim he had been threatened, he swung his blade.
“Gurgh?!”
Straight toward his own throat.
“W-what?! Cough…”
“Oh dear. Look at this, Jackson. He tried to bite the hand that feeds him.”
And just like that, Ronan’s life ended pathetically.
Vrrrr
Rosy flicked her fingers, using mana threads to drag away Ronan’s corpse. Then, with elegant grace, she approached Jackson and began kissing him leisurely.
“Shall we rest a little now?”
“Yeah. Since ‘that guy’ isn’t here today, let’s take it easy here, Rosy.”
“Right. Even if every mage from the academy attacked this barrier, it would—”
Crack
“Hmm?”
But they had no idea.
“Did you hear something?”
“I don’t think so?”
Crack
That they didn’t have time to sit here relaxing…
BOOM