At first, I thought that the thugs were somehow doing this to subdue us, but they seemed just as confused as me.
“What…is going on?” one of them gasped.
Even the one holding onto my neck loosened his grip in confusion, and I managed to fill my lungs with fresh air.
I was worried about the weird haze surrounding us, but my priority was thinking of how to get away from my captor… But then, he just let go of me.
And then, he addressed me.
“Oh, miss. I’m sorry for what I just did.”
Huh?! What?!
Unable to process what had just happened, I started looking around, and sure enough all of the other thugs were saying similar things.
“I was behaving like some thug…”
“I’m so, so sorry.”
“I should have known better than to use violence!”
Everyone was apologizing, and some of them were even bowing down on the floor. Just… What is going on here? Only moments ago, all these apologizing men were making scary faces and fighting against us. I couldn’t understand.
I tried looking at Cezar and Sora, but the two of them were also gaping at each other in confusion.
What is happening? And what should we do? I asked myself, when I heard a familiar voice nervously calling out to me.
“Lady Katarina!” The voice was followed by its beautiful owner, running toward me with her golden hair fluttering up and down. “Lady Katarina!” Maria cried once again as she hugged me tightly.
★★★★★
This happened some time earlier. I, Maria Campbell, was in my room at the Harbor Restaurant, intently studying the Light Covenant. I do not know just how much time I have spent doing so.
I was trying to find a spell which could be useful in helping Lady Katarina and the others, but, alas, due to the lexicon at my disposal here not being as comprehensive as the one at the Magical Ministry, I was having a hard time reading. The spells I could read did not seem very useful at all, and the more I read, the more I was taken by anxiety.
It was then that I heard a noise outside of my room. I left, hoping to be greeted by news on the situation, but I only found Miss Regina, Miss Larna, and some men I did not know talking to each other with preoccupied looks on their faces.
“What has happened?” I asked.
“No matter how much we ask around, nobody has seen either Katarina or Sora, to the extent that I’m getting suspicious. It’s almost as if whoever did see them had had their memories erased.”
“Do you mean…?!” My eyes widened, and Miss Larna nodded.
“I think that Dark Magic is involved. Just as we suspected before coming here,” she said gravely.
Again, we were up against Dark Magic. A forbidden magic which one could only obtain by taking someone’s life, in exchange for the power to control people’s memories and intentions.
We had dealt with it several times, but especially so after we had started working at the Magical Ministry. Lady Katarina, by sheer coincidence, had even happened to stumble upon a Dark Familiar, making her connection with Dark Magic even stronger.
And now…that strange aura which I had felt. The evil aura approaching Lady Katarina. As I was not sure of its meaning, I never spoke of it with her…but it was likely that a Dark Magic user was after my friend. And I knew it, did I not…? Please, Lady Katarina—please be safe!
“But they can’t have tampered with everyone’s memories. They must have missed someone…” Miss Larna said just as the door opened and a man barged inside.
“We found someone who witnessed those two!” he shouted, bringing us the news we had been waiting so long for.
“Well done! And where’s the witness?” Miss Larna asked.
“I can bring him in in no time…but…” he trailed off, looking worried.
“But what?” she responded, her face darkening.
I was starting to feel nervous as well.
“But this witness, you see, he’s kind of a tough nut. He’s seen those two, but we don’t know if he’ll talk about it,” he explained, making Miss Larna’s eyebrows rise.
“That might take some time then.”
After a while, the agent brought in the witness about whom he was talking. At a glance, he looked like a crude, impolite person, and in this instance the contents of the book perfectly matched the cover.
“I’d like to know where the young man and young woman you’ve seen have gone,” Miss Larna began, and the man grinned.
“I can tell you. For a price,” he smirked. He was going to withhold his information unless he was paid for it.
“How much?” Miss Larna asked, dubious but eager.
“How much can you pay?” he countered, and Miss Larna told him a figure that drew another grin out of him.
“Sounds good. Pay in advance,” he demanded, and Miss Larna obliged and then spread a map in front of him.
“Kind of in this area,” he said, circling a very wide portion of the map with his finger.
“That doesn’t help. Can’t you be more specific?” Miss Larna, who was now visibly starting to get angered, asked.
“Maybe I can. But it’ll cost you extra,” he chortled, then shrugged.
“This guy…” Miss Larna murmured to herself, clicking her tongue, “He’s going to ask us for more and more money. We aren’t getting anywhere.”
I agreed that getting the information we needed out of this man was going to be a very long process.
“Can’t we beat it out of him?” Miss Regina casually asked, but Miss Larna shook her head.
“With this kind of guy, that’s not guaranteed to work.”
“You’re right. But we’re fighting against time here… What can we do?”
I could not agree with their suggested methods, but it was true that we were in a hurry. I could not stand thinking that Lady Katarina was in danger while we were losing time. If only there was a way… Oh, of course! Maybe I could use that spell I just read about in the Light Covenant!
“There is a spell I recently learned which perhaps could make him talk,” I informed my restaurant superior and Ministry superior.
“Can’t hurt to try. Go ahead,” Miss Larna promptly agreed.
“Here…” I said, pointing my palms toward the man.
“Huh? You wanna beat it out of me? I’ll let you know that won’t—”
The man was surrounded by a brilliant haze.
“Wh-What’s this?” he yelped, surprised. And then…
“…What was I doing? I know that you’re in trouble, and I was just trying to get money out of you at a time like this… Sorry. I’ll tell you everything. Here, that girl and that boy went through this road…” His attitude changed at once and he started apologetically giving us all the information he had.
Miss Larna and Miss Regina were terribly surprised, but they quickly took note of what the witness had reported and then ordered some of the other people in the room to go there and investigate.
“By the way, Maria, what in the world was that magic?” Miss Larna, looking extremely suspicious, questioned me after the witness had not only apologized, but even returned the money we had given him.
“It is a spell that makes wrongdoers repent. This was the first time I used it, so I am relieved that it worked.” It was one of the spells detailed in the Light Covenant.
“That’s incredible. If you used this left and right, there’d be no sinners left in the world,” she marveled.
“Unfortunately…the effects are temporary,” I continued, and with perfect timing, the witness started screaming.
“My money! Give it back to me!”
The spell was broken.
“Seems like it,” Miss Larna commented with a complicated look on her face.
We went to the area the man told us about, and we found it to be populated by thugs and foreigners. Furthermore, the road leading to the exact spot he’d indicated was full of scary-looking men.
Miss Larna and Miss Regina (forcibly) asked some of those men for information, and we found out that they had been ordered to capture the girl and young man who were trying to escape from a certain building nearby with children. The young man had blue hair and eyes, and the girl had brown hair and blue eyes. There was no doubt that they were talking about Sora and Lady Katarina.
But even now that we knew where she was, we could not go past all the men surrounding the building. My companions were taking them on one at a time, but, if Lady Katarina was in danger, this approach was too slow.
I have to help somehow… Of course! Maybe I could use the spell from before and make all of these men let us through! I must do it…for Lady Katarina! I thought, concentrating as hard as I could. A bright haze, much larger than the one from before, surrounded the place, and the men who were fighting so fiercely until moments ago were now calm. I quickly ran past them. Beyond them was the person I was looking for.
“Lady Katarina!” I cried as I took her between my arms.
Feeling her so close to me filled my heart with solace.
★★★★★
“M-Maria! What are you doing here? And what was that haze just now? Did you do it?” When Maria hugged me, I instinctively hugged her back. Seeing her here made me think that maybe she was behind that weird phenomenon.
“Miss Larna and Miss Regina found out about this place, and we all rushed here. The haze was one of the spells I found in the Light Covenant,” she answered.
I knew that she was still deciphering it, but from what she’d told me, I thought that all she’d found so far were basic spells that she already knew about.
“I was reading it as fast as I could, hoping to find something I could use to save you. Luckily, I found this,” she went on explaining.
“Maria! You’re incredible!” Learning a spell like that, especially now while she didn’t have access to the Ministry’s lexicon, was really impressive.
“I had to do it,” she declared, blushing.
“What kind of spell is it, anyway?” I asked, looking at the men who were still apologizing to us.
“It’s a spell that makes wrongdoers repent for their wicked actions.”
“Wow! That’s amazing!”
“But…”
“But?”
“…Its effects only last for a little while,” she frowned.
As if on cue, we immediately saw one of the men running toward us, screaming “What the hell was I doing?!” It seemed that the effect of her spell had expired. We’re going to be surrounded again! I panicked, but Larna, Regina, and the others were already knocking them out quicker than they could regain their senses. Cezar’s reinforcements finally arrived too, and they started fighting according to his instructions. Shortly after, all of the thugs were tied down and the children were safe from danger.
“It’s over now. It’s going to be fine,” I comforted the children. I was impressed by how well all my friends were collaborating.
Larna, done giving orders, approached me. “Are you guys all right?” she asked.
“I’m fine, but Sora looks wounded,” I reported, glancing in his direction.
“Don’t worry, we have people who can treat you,” she said, looking at him, “so go and have them tend to your wounds.”
Sora, however, shook his head. “It’s nothing major. But an acquaintance of mine is still inside the building, so let me come along if you go inside,” he requested, pointing at the people who, having dealt with the thugs, were ready to enter the hideout.
I knew that he was talking about Arneau. Larna thought about it for a moment, then gave him her approval. “Be careful,” she added.
“I would like to go along too!” I piped up.
Larna nodded at me, but Sora furrowed his brow. “You’d better wait outside.”
“I’m also worried about Arneau! I have Pochi with me and I promise I’ll be careful!” I added.
Sora finally gave me a completely unenthusiastic “Fine.”
In the end, the party that entered the building consisted of the Ministry people, Cezar and his men, Maria, who’d said she wanted to help, Sora, and me. The first time I came inside there I was being forcefully dragged, and then when I left, I was running away from thugs. Because of all that, this was the first time I got a really good look at the place. It was dirty but large, with lots of rooms.
“It kind of looks like a noble’s mansion…” I muttered to myself.
One of Cezar’s men, overhearing me, replied. “It’s exactly that. It used to be a noble family’s vacation home. It turns out they were using it for unsavory things though.”
“Unsavory things?” I asked.
“Nothing that a young woman like you should know,” he responded with a laugh. This man’s attitude reminded me of Cezar’s, maybe because he was one of his subordinates.
While discussing things like that, we kept checking the building’s rooms. Pretty much all of them were empty, since most of the people inside had come after us when we were escaping. However, when we reached one of them, we heard someone inside. We carefully opened the door, and inside there were several men lying unconscious on the floor. And right in the middle of them, looking as if he was about to fall down himself, was Arneau.
“Arneau!” Sora shouted, running toward his friend. I followed him.
Once we drew closer, we saw that Arneau was so badly wounded that it was a wonder he was still standing.
“Did you take on all of these guys by yourself?” Sora asked, rushing to support Arneau’s weakened body.
“…Sorry. That’s as much as I could do,” Arneau replied with a husky voice.
“…You try-hard,” Sora said, furrowing his brow.
“We must heal you as soon as possible,” I told him, worried about all of his wounds.
But he just insisted, “…No. I deserved this.”
“But you fought to help us. You definitely didn’t deserve this. We owe you. Let’s get you treated! I’ll call someone who can see to that!”
“It’s all my fault you people were involved in this…” he stated.
“Excuse me! Is there anyone here who can treat wounds?” I shouted.
“Shall I use magic to cure him?” Maria, who had Light Magic at her disposal, answered my call.
“Oh, right, you’re able to do that, aren’t you? Please.” First I forget Pochi, then I forget Maria can use healing magic? Get it together, Katarina!
“Of course,” she smiled.
“I said that I…” Arneau tried to stop her.
“Come on, Arneau, we’ll get you patched up,” I said, and he squinted his eyes.
“Are you all right? Does it hurt too much?” I continued.
“That’s not it. It’s just that it’s all my fault if you ended up here. You should be angry with me, not grateful…”
“Maria, go on,” I requested, helping Sora rest Arneau on the floor.
“Give up, Arneau. She can’t even hear you,” Sora chuckled.
“But I…”
“Just shut up and do as you’re told.”
“I will start now,” Maria declared, and light started coming out of her hands. No matter how many times I saw it, Light Magic was always a sight to behold.
Thanks to Maria’s efforts, Arneau was healed to the point where he could be brought to a hospital and receive more thorough care later.
I overheard Cezar and Larna discussing something complicated, but at least this whole ordeal was finally over. We’d found and rescued the baron’s daughter who had been kidnapped.