“Hey, hey, hey now good mister! Don't just run away! Let us just cut you down and we'll be on our way!”“C-Cut you, please!”“——Like hell I would!”Jumping back and forth, dashing left and right, tumbling high and low, Cian was doing his best to avoid the children that moved as fast as he was. They were attempting to cut him as his clothes were already shredded to bits, and with his strong morals disallowing him to hurt children, he couldn't bring himself to lift a hand.“——Tch! Give me a break!” His stamina was running out while the two seems to be even livelier than ever. Cian knew that children have twice the stamina of an average adult, and so stopping right here would mean that he'd get cut. Without the capability to cast magic nor even use his Grant, he had one more thing that he could rely on. “W-Wait! Before you cut me down, what are your names? Introducing yourself before cutting down someone is somewhat courtesy!”With a sweatdrop on the side of his cheek, he composed h
“Today, the first day of the Mixed Magic Arts Tournament had concluded. There were over 137 casualties and over 143 injured and 120 were disqualified! The casualties this year were extremely lower than last year, and——”With a press of a button, the television was abruptly shut.Evan had turned off the small vintage television that was hanging above a desk at the corner of their office, sitting beside Kira who had sat on her desk.She was dozing off with a grim look on her face, and as Evan tried to wave a hand right in front of her, she wouldn't blink. “Evan. Did you check up on them?”“——Yeah. I just did. He'll be fine for now. There are no problems in his body whatsoever, but he'll need to be bedridden in the next two weeks.”Evan would take a seat right beside her, looking at the television that reflected their images through the black glass. “What about her?”“...She decided to forfeit. She thinks that Vincent needs her by his side.”Kira was referring to Saeko. She had been be
“——Alright. Let's get this straight. These are all the remaining participants, huh?”Inside the training room, a large table was conjured as piles of papers were scattered around it. Everyone was looking at the table and each paper contained a profile of the person that Sabrine had broken down into the tiniest of details.“These are the available information I could gather from the Black Skulls and Vipers, and even Violet Hex and some other groups. The rest are remains of other groups that managed to survive, we can look at them later.”In the table, there were almost ten groups of papers that were labeled together including the three organizations. The others were but a bunch of random groups that were of no threat, so they skipped them and focused on those three only.“Those small twins are called Yuuri and Yuuta. They wield large blades that resemble scissors when joined together. I was only able to know a bit of their magic since they didn't properly show it.”With the Magic tab
“——There's someone right outside the building. They aren't doing anything, but I guess that they're sent by someone trying to gather information from us. A Wind Magic user, be careful not to open any windows.”It was in the early afternoon. Kurumi had her eyes on a certain person right outside their building, hiding behind a tree. She was able to sense their presence due to a Core being present in their body, a hired private investigator who was an Elemental Mage.“Let them be. When he leaves, I want you to tail him. I'll inform the others so they'll not be careless about saying anything dumb.”“Yes.”Kira would leave Kurumi to keep an eye on the figure, watching their every move as they switch from place to place. They were moving too obviously for someone who was supposed to be professional, but maybe it might be because they were hired by a third-rate organization and not the Black Skulls or Vipers.In any case, they were on high alert. “For our news today in Moonblight, there w
“Huh. Where is Sabrine?”Back in the office, Kira went downstairs and back upstairs to ask Saeko who was left alone in the office.“——Eh? I thought you were with her?”Saeko didn't know as she had thought that Sabrine was downstairs, only Kira would realize that Sabrine had gone and went against her orders.“That damned woman. Does no one listen to me at all?!”Kira could only run her hand down her face as she sighed, disappointed at how stubborn all of her members were. But somehow, she could get a laugh out of it. “Kuhaha! They're cocky, aren't they?”Looking through the window, she would look in the direction of District C, grinning as she observed the rising smoke. “C-Cocky? I wouldn't say that. However, I'm not entirely sure why you are letting them be when we have a tournament.”Saeko would try to understand what Kira was thinking. Instead of going to stop them, all she did was sit and wait.Kira would suddenly extend her hand right towards Saeko, gesturing three fingers for
“Haaah... Haah... Bastard.”Breathing in and out, Cian was just catching his breath when he could finally rest after knocking the imposter out of his transformation. He was knocked unconscious despite being able to withstand the full brunt of the blast. It was just as expected of Cian's ability to withstand his own ability after all.“It looks like this copycat cannot fully copy everything. If he perfectly copied my body, then he should have withstood that, but he ate it and withered away.”It might have been too much for the imposter to handle both physically and mentally. Being burned entirely at ground zero was not an experience anyone would treat as normal after all. “——Cian!”From behind him, in the distance, Sabrine's voice would alert Cian as she supported Kurumi. They were walking to close the distance as Cian had his feet stepping above the unconscious imposter. “Why did you just leave us?! You——!!”She cuts herself out of words, seeing the unconscious person below Cian's f
——There was a woman clad in light, a body glowing silver as she stood before them. Amidst his recovery, Magi could only look at the blood that was slowly, and disgustingly flowing back into his body. He wondered if it was Teresa's ability at first but knowing nothing about it, all he could do was watch and guess. “What is this...?”Magi stood up as his body felt pristine. His exhaustion was gone nor his coldness and all he could feel was the sudden hunger.“I turned your satiety into health. Thanks to my other ability, Focused Improvement, I improved your recovery and doubled up that aspect.”“———”The words that came out of her mouth were somehow something he couldn't understand. Maybe it was because he was still confused and couldn't comprehend what happened, but the important thing was he was saved by her.“Thank you. You saved my l——”“Geez. Just don't. It doesn't suit you.”Before Magi could even finish speaking and bowing, Teresa would wave her hand and lift his shoulders, t
“——So, how did it go?”“Oh! Err... it went well, but they didn't forfeit the tournament.”“If they didn't, then it didn't go well.”Passing by a white glow in a crowd of a fancy party, a man with a stylish look had bowed before another. It was Asa who shapeshifted into such a handsome man, and in front of her was a man with a grim expression. The man before her looked pale and had a darkish tone below his eyes, his green iris stared right through her face, intimidating even her supposedly carefree self.“What did you do then? I told you that if you failed, cause a major distraction?”The pale man was holding a glass of wine as the glitter of whisky rises to its surface, smelling it before taking a sip. “We couldn't. It's just that the Red Trackers were already there. I had to beat a girl just to provoke one of them and damn, one of them was powerful. Like what was that?! It felt like the sun was right beside me——!”“Cian Magicroft, huh? It seems like the information in our networks