Episode Three

I dropped my gaze to the sheet of paper spread out so both of them could see.

“A mana-absorbing monster.”

“Question for the white one.”

“Yes.”

Selene answered, composed.

“Do you know about the old Magic Association?”

“The former Association, you mean? My understanding is that the Association was once located outside the royal capital rather than here, and that it has since been sealed and left unused.”

“Correct. The top student of Edelcia’s High Academy, as expected.”

Verna’s mouth curved into a grin, and she shifted her gaze from Selene to me.

She had been pretending to guess, but she had clearly looked into us properly. I didn’t know how much she knew, but it seemed better not to say anything careless.

“Apparently a monster has taken up residence in the old Association building. I want you to go and take it down.”

Something about her words felt off, and I raised my hand slightly.

“Couldn’t you just submit that directly to the guild? I don’t understand why you’d need to name us specifically.”

“This request comes with quite a lot of complications. First, the old Association is naturally our property, which makes it awkward to go through the guild. Second, the monster in question is too unusual.”

Verna let out a bored-sounding sigh and pointed toward Rizett.

“Second question. You, the red one.”

“Y-yes!”

Rizett jolted upright, body snapping to attention. Even she, who almost always kept her brightness on show, apparently got nervous in situations like this.

“A monster that absorbs the mana of living things. Name one, even just one.”

“Uh, um, that’s… well…”

Rizett’s gaze moved around the room, her mouth opening and closing as she tried to form an answer.

“I, I don’t know… nothing came to mind.”

She answered in a deflated voice, shoulders dropping heavily.

“Correct. No such monster exists.”

“What?!”

At the sound of Rizett’s mixed surprise and relief, something of the tension left my shoulders.

Verna continued without sparing Rizett’s reaction a glance.

“The third point is the most important. I need you to capture the monster alive, not kill it. Obviously I can’t ask the guild to do something that dangerous, which is why I’m passing this to you on the quiet.”

“Furthermore, I believe that monster may also prove useful material for investigating your condition.”

Those murky jade eyes met mine again. What she was thinking, I still couldn’t tell.

“What kind of monster is it, this mana-absorbing creature?”

Selene asked, fingers at her chin.

“Apparently whatever enters the old Association has their mana drained and is then let go alive. In other words, it doesn’t kill.”

“It attacks people and yet doesn’t kill them — is that really possible?”

I had never heard anything like that, not at the academy and not at the guild.

“Who knows. At the very least, it doesn’t seem to be the kind of thing that slaughters anything in sight without distinction. The intelligence of it is unsettling, though.”

“And the word is that it only goes after people who enter the old Association. Whether it’s territorial or attacking to protect itself, we don’t know.”

“As for what it looks like, we have absolutely nothing to go on. It might be something humanoid, or it might be something enormous like a dragon.”

Verna’s voice, flowing without hesitation, began to feel distant to me. Unknown in nature, and apparently capable of absorbing human mana. An endless, formless dread seemed to be draining the feeling from my body.

“Are there no witness accounts, no testimonies from people who were attacked?”

“None. Every victim says the same thing — they have no memory of anything between entering the building and coming out again.”

“Maybe their silence is bought at the cost of their lives.”

She said it flatly, then leaned back against her chair and tilted her head toward the ceiling.

“One more question, if I may.”

Pressing down the restlessness in my eyes, I opened my mouth. I hated the sound of my own thin voice.

“If the monster turns out to be enormous, capturing it alive would be nearly impossible, I think.”

Killing something like the Brute Bear might just about be manageable. Capturing one alive was another matter entirely. Magic was useful, but not infinitely so.

“Then there’s nothing more to discuss.”

Sympathy, it appeared, was not something Verna possessed.

She began filing her nails as though she had lost interest in me entirely. Watching her, impatience and irritation piled up inside me.

There were no other options. “Can’t do it,” “it’s too difficult” — and it would simply end there. She would go back to her research, and offer no compromise.

The monster didn’t kill people, she said — but was that really true? I had no reason to think she was deceiving us, but I couldn’t say with certainty that we would be safe either.

An unidentified, unknown creature with the ability to absorb mana, and we were supposed to capture it alive. Not even a Research Director knew what to make of it.

I couldn’t drag Selene into something this dangerous. But I couldn’t manage it alone either.

“C-couldn’t there be some other exchange, if it doesn’t work out—”

“No. I’ve said it once already: I believe that creature holds the key to understanding your condition. If you can’t do it, give it up.”

My weak suggestion was cut off by her cold voice.

Checkmate. The thought surfaced in my mind, and the strength went out of my hands and feet.

I had to think. Find some words that would persuade Verna. Something — some good idea.

In the silent room I pushed my sluggish mind as hard as it would go. But time passed uselessly, and nothing came.

A gentle hand closed around my dangling arm, and my awareness came back. I glanced sideways at Selene, and she brought her face quietly close to my ear.

“It’s all right. Calm down.”

The tension left my shoulders, and I breathed in several short coughs. Apparently I hadn’t been breathing properly.

A warmth at my back, and I turned to find Rizett rubbing it softly for me. She was doing everything she could to keep the corners of her mouth up, hiding what her expression wanted to do.

“In the unlikely event that it proves impossible, please give us another audience. Verna, surely you would be inconvenienced too if you couldn’t research both Sion and the mana-absorbing monster?”

Selene stepped half a pace forward and said it in a clear, steady voice.

I’ll do everything I can for you.

Her words crossed my mind.

Here she was, rescuing me again. It was my problem, and I was supposed to be the one to find a way through it. I knew that, and yet my tangled emotions showed no sign of settling.

Not even trying to hide the smirk on her face, Verna opened her mouth.

“I like you. You’ve got something. The black one looks like she’s just about at her limit, but she held on well.”

“If that time comes, bring the redhead and come back.”

That assessing gaze of hers remained, but her voice softened for just a moment.

“Redhead. Where are you attached?”

Verna picked up a pen and pointed it toward Rizett as she asked.

“Magical colour studies — under Research Director Rose!”

Rizett answered in the biggest voice in the room, chest puffed out so far she looked ready to fall over.

“Ah, that idiot woman’s place.”

“You did well too. I’ll remember your name.”

Verna said it to Rizett, who had gone rigid, while running her pen across a sheet of paper.

The rough manner of speaking and the seemingly questionable ethics didn’t look like a performance. And yet the brief flash of warmth was probably also real.

The hooded woman whispered something in her ear, and Verna rose from her chair with a big stretch.

“Sorry, time’s up.”

“I’ll say it once more. Bring me that monster alive, and the Magic Association will take full responsibility for investigating everything about you. That’s a promise.”

“See you,” she said, and passed by us on her way to the entrance, wrapped in light alongside the hooded woman and gone.

The tension that had held the room together seemed to release. I let out a breath and turned to Selene.

“Selene.”

A voice came out, more fragile than I had expected even from myself.

“Why did you accept?”

I forced the words out, fighting hard to keep my legs from folding. The nausea wouldn’t stop and my head was swimming. Perhaps I wasn’t getting enough air.

Wasn’t there some better option? Something that wouldn’t put Selene in danger, something I could have managed on my own?

I tried to step forward and found no strength in my legs. My vision lurched.

Oh no.

“Sion, it’s all right. It’s all right.”

My falling body was caught firmly in Selene’s arms. The collision with the floor had apparently been avoided.

A rapid sound came from inside her chest. Perhaps she was holding herself composed on the surface for my sake, while underneath she was just as shaken as I was.

“We’re strong, aren’t we? Both of us.”

“And now we know Verna is someone you can talk to — so let’s take that as something good.”

She spoke, coaxing and gentle, holding me as I slumped against her without the strength to stand.

She was looking at me softly right now, I was sure of it. If I looked up, she would see a face blurred with tears.

“I can’t do anything to help… but together, the White Witch and the Black Witch — you’ll be all right, I know it. Sion, please don’t cry.”

Rizett’s voice, bright and forced, trembled at the edges. She might be carrying just as much anxiety and guilt as I was.

“I… ngh… ah…”

The blur in my vision deepened and deepened. Once the dam had broken, it seemed it would be a while before it came back.

For some time after that, only the sound of me crying like a small child echoed through the quiet room.