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The air against my skin grew suddenly cold, and a rough wind swirled around me.

I couldn’t feel any magic, but instinctively I realized I had just teleported.

“……”

As I gently opened my closed eyes, what greeted me was a vast, blue sky.

The city of millions was suddenly reduced to a tiny dot beneath my feet.

The rough wind softly cradled my body, and the fluttering fabric of my clothes tickled my skin.

Against the backdrop of the broad heavens, Camila, shining with purity and smiling brightly, spoke to me.

“… You’re awake?”

She was reaching out to me.

—

Episode 17 – The Tree that Drinks Blood

—

Above the skies of Petrogard, the capital of the Kien Empire.

Red flames flickered in the blue sky.

“Hotta, an Englishman has appeared!”

Camila, in a crouched position, blurted out an odd phrase. Around her, embers danced about, not yet extinguished.

With flames trailing behind her like a tail, Camila pulled out a box from her arms. The cube-shaped box, seemingly carved from stone, was unlike anything I had ever seen.

It was a magical tool.

“Yap!”

As I pressed a groove on the side with my thumb, a sharp sound echoed. The cube began to move.

The top rotated two times to the left, the bottom three times to the right, and the sides rolled up and down.

No common noise came from the rotating stone. The cube, receiving magic power flowing through my thumb, spun smoothly and emitted a soft light.

Just as the rapidly adjusting cube was about to stop functioning—

– Pop!

A bright flash erupted, and red magic power began to envelop us.

“That’s it!”

Camila declared.

“Now that the magical tool is activated, we won’t have to worry about falling.”

Camila stood with both feet in the air, as if an invisible floor existed beneath her.

“Try getting up.”

She pointed to the air confidently while I looked at her, skeptical.

Following the direction of her finger, I turned my head, but no matter how hard I looked, there was no place to stand.

“Come on.”

“……”

“Ah, you really don’t trust me.”

As I continued to look around while on her back, Camila, slightly tilted, began to give me an exasperated glance. But I felt wronged.

What was I supposed to do when there was no place to stand? If only there was a glass floor, I’d be worried no more!

Yet, her composure while standing mid-air was too tranquil. It was as though she was standing on solid ground. Camila was naturally walking in the sky.

“I’m telling you it’s real! Why can’t you believe it?”

Camila, her voice full of indignation, started to bounce up and down in place, trying to show that it was safe.

Of course, from my position on her back, it was quite a chilling act.

“Uh…!”

Like a redneck atop a bull, I clung to Camila’s shoulders, struggling. Regardless of my protests, the magician didn’t seem to know what to do with her overflowing energy and kept bouncing.

Eventually, thinking I might end up falling off completely, I made up my mind to get down. As I flailed my legs in search of solid ground, I barely managed to get down.

“……”

Despite my worry that I might soon plunge towards the earth, the sensation of standing in mid-air felt surprisingly comfortable.

“Wow?”

“See? Safe!”

It’s real.

I mumbled as I tapped the air beneath me.

Though I had feared I might fall through, even after parting from Camila, my feet remained firmly planted in the air.

Clouds flowed beneath my feet, and upon turning my head, there was the magnificent blue sky.

After gazing around blankly, a small exclamation escaped my lips.

“Look at this!”

As I stood in awe, Camila suddenly took off running across the sky.

Whoosh, she dashed ahead, making a powerful jump, then hopped between clouds.

Her figure resembled a frog that found itself in water. Sprinting across the sky, she leaped up to the opposite cloud.

Once her teleportation was complete, Camila frolicked freely atop the clouds. Blinking in disbelief at the surreal scene, she turned around and grinned at me.

“Isn’t this your first experience?”

I nodded.

While it’s not unheard of for magicians to fly on brooms or carpets, Camila was the only one I had ever seen jumping around in the sky like this.

Neither the Ministry of Defense, which conducts research on magical engineering as a national effort, nor the Ivory Tower or Magic Tower, which only delve into magic, had ever witnessed such magic before. Curiosity piqued, I asked how she achieved this.

“Oh, this? It’s the power of the magical tool.”

Camila showed me the cube-shaped magical tool with a bright smile.

“To fly, you need a broom, right? But brooms are expensive and, more importantly, cumbersome.”

Jingle, jingle. The cube, held in her small hand, let out a mystical sound as it shook.

“So when I asked the professor for another way, he gave this to me.”

“What is it?”

“A flying cube!”

Camila exclaimed, lifting the cube into the air.

“Of course, it doesn’t really let you fly; it just helps you walk as if on the ground while in the sky. It was made by a friend of the professor’s and given to me as a gift. The professor said he wouldn’t have any use for it, so I might as well keep it.”

“A friend? Could it be the Archmage?”

“Yup.”

I stared at the cube with a dumbfounded expression. A magical tool from the Archmage!

Since the war with the Cult, the possessions of the Archmage had become immensely valuable. Not only due to their historical worth but also for their renowned magical quality.

Even ordinary items bear the magical traces of their users.

The concept of magical traces was famous in rhetoric for crime scene investigations, but it’s also significant in the studies of mages. With them, one could research the magic of the owner.

Thus, the items and attire used by the Archmage were all designated as treasures. Not just any treasures, but national treasures!

However, not just an ordinary item, but a magical tool!

“……”

Considering the vast budget the Magic Tower allocates to secure the magical tools left by the Archmage, it was astonishing.

The Duke’s decision to casually hand it over to Camila was shocking.

I looked at Camila with a frowning expression. She was delicately caressing the cube with cautious movements.

Sigh.

“When you were shocked to receive stolen goods as a gift, I didn’t expect you to have even swiped a national treasure. I guess you really are English?”

“Be quiet.”

—

As the Duke promised, participating in Camila’s magic practice offered a unique memory I had never experienced before.

“Yah!”

Having ascended onto the clouds, Camila showcased an array of tricks.

Running amidst the clouds and bouncing off them had become second nature by now. Camila repeated her sprinting and jumping, now attempting the bizarre and whimsical.

“Leap of Trust!”

Shouting out an absurd technique name, Camila dived between the clouds. With her legs together and arms behind her back, she jumped off in a peculiar pose.

Imitating an assassin with a missing ring finger, she quickly began mimicking another style.

Lying flat on her stomach while shooting flames like a psychic, she pretended to be a superhero, and with her thumb, index, and pinky extended, she acted as if she were shooting a web.

Her imitations didn’t stop with just imaginary characters. With the blurry moon in the background, she hovered her legs, mimicking a singer.

“Camila. That’s not a British singer, that’s an American one.”

“Music has no borders.”

“Well, you’re not even black…”

With the conversation flowing, she broke into song.

Camila effortlessly belted out superbly the song of a legendary British rock band that started in the ’70s, known widely now as the title of a film. Even after 29 years, it was a piece that would occasionally come to mind.

I silently watched her sing passionately as she bounced around the clouds, her face radiating pure joy.

“Ah, that was fun!”

After a good while of dancing and singing, Camila beamed at me brightly. She seemed to have played enough.

“Looks like you’re enjoying life in the Empire?”

“Don’t even mention it.”

With a shining smile and a bright reply, Camila seemed utterly happy. She expressed that this moment was her happiest, adding,

“I’m never bored. Every single day is different. Right now, I’m the happiest I’ve ever been.”

And she really looked like it.

The moment the exuberant Camila approached me, I instinctively began scanning the area around us.

In the open space free of clouds, all that surrounded us was the clear sky.

“What are you looking around for?”

“Nothing. Just relieved to see you doing well.”

Having confirmed that no one else was listening, I turned to Camila and spoke. The truth was, my concern for her safety was not the sole reason for coming to the Empire.

“Were there any issues while staying with the Duke?”

“Anything suspicious?”

Camila shook her head.

“I haven’t particularly seen anyone suspicious. But why do you ask all of a sudden?”

I answered honestly.

“My information agent was assassinated.”

“… Assassination?”

“To be precise, they were executed.”

I explained to Camila about the events that transpired. My informant had been killed by what seemed to be the Empire Information Agency.

In the past, I would have likely omitted the details and only shared information she needed to know, but given the circumstances, I laid everything out.

“It was the National Security Agency. There was a journalist managed by the information agency of an allied nation. After confirming that communication was lost during their regular rendezvous, they sent someone to the hotel, only to discover the dead informant.”

“Do you know who did it? Did you check the surrounding CCTV?”

“I couldn’t. The hotel’s generator and magic supply went down at that time. The assassins probably took measures to prevent it.”

The fact that they knew the location of the lodging and disabled monitoring equipment implied this incident was a planned crime. A tactic of information agencies indeed.

Realizing this, Camila’s expression turned serious. She started bombarding me with dark questions.

“Did information leak?”

“Not really. It seems she was assassinated not as a foreign spy but as a dissident.”

“Are the specific circumstances still under investigation?”

“Personally, yes.”

“Personally? What does that mean?”

“It means the agency isn’t conducting the investigation.”

Unfortunately, the grim reality is that the deaths of informants are commonplace.

Information agencies maintaining national-level information networks manage numerous informants. Thus, when the counter-intelligence agency begins to uproot an information network, multiple informants are bound to lose their lives.

Information agencies are not omnipotent gods.

With a finite budget and personnel monitoring hundreds of nations, they prioritize every task, including the lives of informants.

Therefore, unlike the thorough investigations and agency-led funerals, with compensations granted to the families of information officers, the deaths of informants quickly fade from the spotlight.

Since they aren’t anyone tied to the agency.

The ones who hired the informants were the officers and operatives in the field, not the headquarters. If weighing the life of a hand-trained employee in the millions against that of a purchased informant, the agency would always choose the officer.

“……”

That…

As I began to tell the story, Camila started to look a bit sullen.

Avoiding her gaze, I casually opened my mouth.

“What are you staring at? Isn’t this what you already knew?”

I thought Camila was disappointed by the harsh reality of the industry.

But it seemed I was mistaken.

“…Are you alright?”

She spoke to me with a worried voice.

Just as I was about to respond, I swallowed my words at the piercing look Camila gave me.

In the end, all I could let out was a heavy sigh.

“…Will it be okay?”

I exhaled softly.

“I’ve been carrying this person for years. And now they just died without being able to do anything.”

“…….”

It wasn’t the first time I lost an information agent, but I still hadn’t adjusted. To be honest, I didn’t want to get used to it.

As I sighed and lamented, I felt a small hand on my shoulder. Camila gently brushed my shoulder, offering her comfort.

“Is that why you asked me? About whether you met someone suspicious?”

“Yeah. You never know with people.”

“…….”

Camila, who had been deep in thought with a serious look in her eyes, suddenly began to speak. It was about something that happened last week.

“Actually, last week, some people who seemed to come from the counter-intelligence agency visited the mansion.”

“Counter-intelligence agency?”

Camila nodded her head.

“Why did they suddenly come here?”

“I didn’t hear all the details. But I did hear that they inspected the safety and security of the entire mansion.”

Safety and security of the mansion, huh? I guessed it was a routine security check.

Well, it made sense for a duke’s mansion to undergo security checks from the counter-intelligence agency, since places where royalty resided were considered national security facilities.

However, something felt off.

As Camila mentioned that event from last week, she tilted her head with a puzzled expression. She licked her lips and continued explaining.

“The Imperial Guard or police people brushed it off as nothing. But the professor said something strange?”

“Something strange?”

“She didn’t say exactly… but…”

She added.

“She said an important guest was coming.”

An important guest.

If the Duke of the Northern Regions and a senior member of the royal family mentioned someone important, then they definitely weren’t a regular person. The authority of a duke surpassed even that of the interior minister, who was important in the cabinet, or the head of the information agency, as well as the chief of staff overseeing the military.

Who on earth could it be?

Lost in thought, stroking my chin, I noticed that Camila seemed to recall something, saying “Ah” quietly.

“Family.”

She said.

“My family is coming.”

*

After hearing all the explanations, I began to organize my thoughts.

Alexandra Petrovna is a senior member of the royal family. As the younger sister of the previous emperor, she is Nikolai VI’s aunt and the crown prince’s great-aunt.

In other words, when referring to family in her empire, it immediately means royalty. The Duke’s family can be exempted as they have no direct lineage left since Alexandra Petrovna.

The crucial piece of information here is what the Duke said.

The Duke mentioned that royalty would come to his mansion and emphasized that they were an “important guest.” If it’s someone important to her, it wouldn’t be a distant relative but a direct one.

Considering that Nikolai VI is suffering from dementia and can’t even move, it’s likely referring to the crown prince. Broadening my perspective further, it might be someone of high status among the crown prince’s sisters or half-siblings.

“…….”

Whoever it may be, it’s clear that royalty is on the move. There might also be a chance that a member of the Oracle Committee or a high-ranking official from the Ivory Tower is getting involved, but if that’s the case, I could inquire through Francesca.

However, in the tightly controlled Petrogard, I would have to go to the embassy to make contact with her. More specifically, I needed to head to the embassy’s surveillance control room.

Organizing my thoughts, I immediately shifted my gaze to Camila.

“Let’s go down.”

“Alright.”

Camila, who was clinging to me, pulled out a cube.

Holding the softly glowing cube, she inserted her finger into a groove on the side. As she pressed the groove firmly, the wind brushed against our bodies, and—

“Ahhhhhh…!!”

We began to plummet toward the ground.

I was connected to Camila using gear. As we fell through the air, I extended my arms and legs to take a stable posture, facing her directly.

Through the wind goggles, I saw small dots moving erratically below us. Those dots aggregated into clusters, forming the city on the ground.

“Is there a way to land?!”

I shouted.

Camila, pressing the goggles firmly against her face, raised her voice.

“I’m going to use magic!”

Due to safety concerns, the destination for our teleportation was fixed high above Petrogard. If anything went wrong, we could end up trapped between the underground and the outer walls of buildings.

Considering that teleportation and even flying were forbidden in the capital, it was a very unusual situation. If the Duke had not obtained the government’s permission, we might have faced the combat magicians of the anti-aircraft forces as soon as we appeared in the air.

“Why are we so high up?!”

“It wasn’t me! It was the professor!”

Of course, I had assistance from the Duke when using teleportation magic.

While Camila is an exceptional magician, there are limits to how many spells she can use in a day. Magic isn’t a skill that can be recklessly unleashed just because you have accumulated enough magic power.

But as always, the Duke found a way.

To help Camila practice, Alexandra Petrovna etched a magic circle into the mansion. The location was the backyard. Although it was a limited area, as long as we remained there, Camila could use magic freely whenever she wanted.

Thanks to that, Camila received assistance from the Duke and successfully soared high into the sky. Of course, since we had already left the backyard, using magic freely was no longer possible. However, only one spell was needed for landing.

As the city appeared closer through the clouds, Camila prepared her spell.

“…Huh?”

Camila unexpectedly uttered a sound.

I looked at her with a confused expression. She was fervently trying to prepare something.

– Crackle.

The gathered magic in her hands made an ominous sound as it dispersed. I felt like something was going horribly wrong.

A sudden sense of foreboding hit me. In the blink of an eye, Camila turned to me, having realized something.

“…This isn’t working.”

“…….”

Blinking. Blinking.

Camila met my gaze with an awkward smile. I stared at her blankly.

After maintaining the silence for a moment, I reached behind my back. But no matter how much I searched, I couldn’t feel the parachute.

Then it suddenly hit me.

Ah.

I forgot to take the parachute when we started.

“…Kyaaaaaaaah!!”

“Gaahhhhhh!!”

Just a safe distance above the ground remained.

The terrified screams of a man and woman echoed across the sky of Petrogard.

*

Fortunately, there weren’t two body shapes recognizable as corpses forming on the asphalt of Petrogard.

Thanks to Camila’s quick thinking.

“Gaahhhhhh!!”

Clinging tightly to me, Camila screamed as loudly as her lungs would allow. The courage she had while leaping through the clouds was nowhere to be found.

“What do we do? What do we do? How are we going to survive?!”

“Why are you asking me?!”

“We’re all going to die!”

Camila, who was plunging toward the ground, began to wail uncontrollably.

Yelling that we were all going to die, it didn’t take long for her to snap back to reality, glancing around. Then she spotted something.

“There!”

It was a lake.

Pointing to the lake, Camila shouted.

“If we jump into the water, we can survive!”

“If we dive into the lake from here, we’ll die!”

“Oh, we can just use magic!”

“But you can’t!”

The plan to safely teleport to the ground had already gone awry. She had tried magic several times but failed every time.

However, Camila was a magician. More than that, she was an outstanding student who had passed through a prestigious institution.

Even while plummeting toward the ground, she analyzed the cause of her failed spells. Realizing there was still magic power left in her body, she concluded that the failure wasn’t due to internal factors but external to her.

“There’s still magic power left! And I have teleportation spells available too!”

The cause of her failure was distance.

Alexandra Petrovna had numerous magic circles drawn in the backyard. The purpose of these circles was to allow Camila to use magic safely and freely without being restricted by limited opportunities.

However, just before she used teleportation, the Duke added another magic circle, enhancing the range of the teleportation spell.

“I can’t move a long distance all at once either! Without the assistance of that secondary technique, I would have teleported to the rooftop of the mansion instead of high in the air!”

“Get to the point!”

“The mansion is beyond the range I can move to right now!”

She was sure.

“I can’t go to the mansion, but I can teleport just above the lake!”

She suggested teleporting over the lake instead of the mansion. Based on her experience, using magic would significantly reduce momentum temporarily, allowing them to only endure the fall equivalent to the shorter distance.

Of course, her reasoning was based on her instinct.

I’d never heard that using teleportation magic would instantly reduce your momentum. I wasn’t a magician, nor did I have a scientific background, so I hadn’t had the need to study such things in the first place. But whether crashing into asphalt or water made no difference; if I was going to die, it was better to gamble.

“Ah, let’s do it quickly then!”

As a bird flew by, flapping its wings, Camila prepared her spell.

Destination: the lake.

There was only one chance.

“Go…!”

A scream escaped through clenched teeth. At the same time, flames flared up from the edges of her clothes.

Like a meteor breaking through the atmosphere, we gradually began to engulf in flames. I shut my eyes tightly as I watched the fast-approaching lake grow larger.

And then, when the flickering flames consumed us completely.

With a burst of magic, a massive splash of water shot up in all directions.

“…….”

“…….”

Raindrops fell. Fish splashing on the shore, and citizens passing by stared at us, dumbfounded.

As I stared blankly at the bystanders, I turned my head to look up at the sky. The filthy-clear sky of Petrogard loomed over us as if questioning what had just happened.

“…Camila.”

“…Yeah.”

“Next time, let’s be sure to bring a parachute.”

Camila nodded in agreement, saying nothing.

Amid the torrential downpour of water and the fish flopping on the grass, we lay sprawled—silently gazing up at the sky.

It was the last dance of our lives.

 

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