Discourage Bargains, Incite Fights (1)
“...Isn't that a place you lot can't just barge into?”
“That's exactly why you haven't touched it even though you know where it is.”
Raban didn't need to slap on a mask of brazenness— a black mage's face was tougher than iron by default. He deftly slipped a penny's worth of exaggeration between the cracks of truth.
“No, that's not it. How the hell did you even find it if you can't get close?”
“Process of elimination. If we—who can search all of Hikarius City—can't find the Ochan right away, then there's only one spot left, right?”
Salamandine scratched her head. The logic was sound, but when it came from a mascot, you had to suspect beans sprouting from a bean field at least once.
“So it's all just suspicion in the end?”
“That's why we couldn't even dispatch a magical girl. As you know, we can't just intervene in the Black Forest ourselves. Not without special circumstances, anyway.”
The other Heavenly Kings claimed Salamandine's brains were on par with—or even below, according to Dunamis himself—that birdbrain, but she wasn't truly dim. She just skimped on thinking because she had the overwhelming firepower among the Four Heavenly Kings. She wasn't so dense she couldn't grasp a simple metaphor like this.
“What a personality. You want us to strike the Black Forest first and draw out the Ochan? Then your precious Mother Fairy will greenlight her deployment?”
Raban added a line to his mental library: Mascots can't approach the Black Forest casually—on orders from the Mother Fairy.
'When the magical girls come chasing me later, I'll distract them with familiars and dig a tunnel underground to the Black Forest.'
“I can't say that officially. We respect Mother's will, after all.”
“How slimy.”
Salamandine clicked her tongue at the mascot's sleaziness. It meant they'd treat any agreement here as if it never happened. But she seemed to grasp the crisis in allying with the Ivory Tower like this.
“Fine. We don't want to advertise borrowing your help either. When?”
“Charles of Na Ju Pharma has returned to the Black Forest right now. Let's set it for midnight on the day he leaves Hikarius.”
“Hmph. That cowardly human, huh. Got it.”
A satisfying deception.
Raban chuckled alone while tidying the counseling room. He wanted to slink into a corner and flash a sinister grin, but a gloomy black mage getting more gloomy would just invite heavenly retribution.
Charles was a prime example.
'He went around acting all "I look suspicious," practically begging for it, and ended up facing divine punishment from a righteous black mage like me.'
'Too bad I can't touch him directly.'
This was the reasonable line.
In truth, Raban didn't want Charles going all-out against the Ivory Tower. He'd carefully orchestrated things to prevent an all-out war between Charles himself and the Tower. Charles's resources—well, his wealth, but the words were similar enough—were beyond even Raban's reckoning.
If the Heavenly Kings, thinking the enemy was just shadow mages—the Ochan—charged in yelling “Kyaaah! Time to heroically exterminate the Ochan!” only to get swept away by that vile black mage Charles's surprise attack, things would get dicey. Sure, the Ivory Tower—rival in the Hikarius negative-thought harvesting biz—being out of commission would give Raban a smidge more freedom for, what, three seconds?
Then the magical girls, mascot subcontractors screaming “Where'd this filthy black mage come from?”, would launch their black-mage incineration op.
He could already picture their stiff faces at the sight of an Ochan, a black-magic monster variant, debating whether to “teach Hikarius a lesson.” And now a black mage who could produce black-magic monsters was on the loose?
'I'd blast him with mana bombardment too.'
Black mages were pariahs. Raban felt a twinge of sadness recalling the archduke of the demon realm's insults.
Thus, exposing Charles's true colors would bring too massive a backlash. That's why Raban picked the timing after Charles left the Black Forest.
'Nai Hyun said he shows up out of nowhere and leaves the same way. It won't take long to get Salamandine moving.'
There were ways to ruin the sacrifice ritual besides killing the black mage himself.
Raban's real target was the Black Forest itself. It seemed like the plan was to infuse it into Nai Hyun, so if he lit it up with beautiful lighting (a Heavenly King's flames) to boost mana extraction, that plan was toast.
'The mansion probably won't burn down.'
Charles was the paper owner, but Nai Hyun lived there—no need to torch someone else's house. His vein familiars hidden under the Black Forest would sprout just right on the outskirts when the Heavenly King stirred, keeping the flames from reaching the house smack in the middle.
Probably.
“So, Uncle. Why'd you show up out of the blue this time?”
Charles shrugged. He had a fascinating observation subject, but the subject hadn't shown so much as a fingertip since arriving in Hikarius.
“Sometimes you just get the urge to go home. Worried about pets you left behind, or did you forget to turn off the AC—ordinary stuff like that.”
“Yeah, sure. Real ordinary. Normal people don't do cross-country road trips every year like you, Uncle.”
Cross-country road trip, huh. What a deceptive phrase.
Charles curled his lip. In this era, “cross-country” and “world tour” meant the same. This grotesque world, where the guardian fairy Gaiaheart had forcibly stitched together what were once separate nations—how could he just sit idly by?
“I-hyun.”
“Yeah?”
“No troubles lately?”
Bad dreams? Feeling under the weather? Charles rattled off concerns like a long-lost relative.
He watched Nai Hyun's reactions closely.
“Nah, I'm fine. My calf's sore from biking over since you came so suddenly?”
“Oh dear. My good girl turning into such a delinquent. Uncle's heartbroken.”
I-hyun joked to ease her uncle's worries.
Charles hid his deep disappointment.
When he learned she'd been chosen as a magical girl, he'd rejoiced. She could hold both Mother Fairy Gaiaheart's mana and black mana.
But her talent as a magical girl was beyond expectations—a problem. Black mana needed to balance Gaiaheart's mana, but it fell woefully short.
'I left her in this city expecting negative thoughts to pile up and accelerate black mana accumulation.'
Bestowed with magical girl duty right when she'd absorb the most negativity. Most would crumble under the pressure, but not Nai Hyun. She was diluting it through chit-chat with her fellow magical girls.
'As expected.'
Time to refine Magi White. For future convenience.
Charles decided to leave a surprise gift in Hikarius timed for his departure—a memento carefully picked for his niece. The day Magi White betrayed Magi Black would be the day he returned.
'A bit of a shame. If it was a mage from the old era who handled ancient mana... I'd have loved to meet him.'
Charles quietly prepared to depart at dawn, leaving the heavy sleeper Nai Hyun behind and boarding his private jet for the next stop. His foundation's staff saw him off.
This era's humans were unspeakably dim, but their diligence post-refinement was commendable.
'Well, that's Gaiaheart's meddling too.'
Rumble rumble rumble—!
A sudden explosion rocked the city.
Charles sensed something had gone terribly wrong. The magic beasts prepped in the Black Forest were already rampaging toward the city. They weren't supposed to grow or move like that.
A magic beast like a deformed alligator, roughly shaded black with purple tones. It'd look pretty cute based on appearance alone.
If it weren't building-sized.
“What the hell is this thing?!”
Salamandine swung flames wildly. Her glare shot to the mascot amid the magical girls.
'Where's the Ochan, and why's this trash popping out?'
“Papirun! Aren't Evil Pings not supposed to show in Hikarius?!”
Magi Black added covering fire.
A magic beast grown this huge. Basically final growth stage, right? Even if the Black Forest was blind to fairy eyes, how hadn't they noticed until full evolution?!
'Damn it, the counseling room advice was spot-on survival tactics!'
Salamandine gnashed her teeth at Papirun's cool response. The mascot was signaling this op was “none of our business.” With the unexpected crisis, Papirun ruthlessly cut ties to responsibility.
“Everyone, look here...!”
Magi White stood at the forefront against the beast. Magic circles for absorbing turbid energy from the last fight formed in her hands. At her fingertips clung something withered and twisted—like knotted twine.
It had stuck while struggling to block the beast's advance.
“I got it! The reason the Ochan suddenly activated!”
Salamandine shouted like she'd pieced it all together.
Before Hikarius was built, a fragment of the surviving Ochan from the old era had clung to this dormant super-giant magic beast, absorbing its negativity. The beast awakened in the process but fell into a seal-like state since the Ochan was siphoning its negativity.
Over eons of absorbing and regenerating negativity, the Ochan finally reassembled its ego in modern times. Sensing threat in the beast's awakening, it planned to gather enough mana, multiply itself, and devour the beast in one go.
But just now, Salamandine's own flames had incinerated the Ochan cells, freeing the Black Forest magic beast from its seal...!
'Kuh, you fairy bastards. You didn't even know that was in the Black Forest?!'
In truth, the sequence was reversed.
'What the hell is that.'
Raban muttered blankly. He'd poked something weird under the Black Forest with a vein familiar out of curiosity.
And it devoured the mana in the familiar and started moving.