So, the Protagonist of a Romance Fantasy Wants to Meet Me

At Lena's words, Breck and I let out brief sighs.

"A mage."

"Haah, damn it. Those guys are a pain to deal with..."

As Breck said, mages were troublesome opponents.

"You mean we have to break into the workshop?"

The first thing mages did when settling down was create their own domain—in other words, a workshop.

Unless it was merely an area they were passing through, there was no way a mage spreading a drug like this would not have a workshop.

Such workshops were usually outfitted with countless magic circles to support the mage.

Naturally, dealing with a mage holed up in such a workshop was an extremely difficult task.

"Lena, what rank is that mage?"

If so, the first thing we needed to know was how strong the mage was.

"Ah, Lord Abel. Just a moment... Hmm... Red. Yes, red, I think."

"Red."

Hearing Lena's words, I let out a small sigh of relief.

Though I had not been particularly interested and therefore had not known much about her, Bella was another illegitimate child of House Nebla.

Once, when I saw her robes, I had investigated out of curiosity.

I had wondered why the colors of mages' robes differed.

What I learned from looking into it was that mages took tests at the Magic Tower according to their achievements and received robes after passing.

They began with white robes, gradually inherited darker colors, and ended with black.

Red was positioned roughly in the middle.

In simple terms, it was the boundary separating ordinary mages from high mages.

"Abel, you brought down a blue mage's workshop before, didn't you?"

"Hm? Oh, that."

At Breck's words, I recalled the time I had faced a blue mage—one rank above red—after someone spent an enormous sum to have him kill me.

He was probably thinking of resolving this situation based on that experience.

"It won't be much help, though."

"Hm? Why? As far as I know, blue is a higher rank, isn't it?"

Yes, in principle, that was correct.

Blue was a step above red—in other words, roughly the upper level of high mages.

That fellow had certainly been strong.

When we fought in his workshop, he had been able to bring out more than twice the power he had displayed outside it.

"But that guy was an idiot who built his workshop in a completely empty open field, wasn't he?"

Whether he was intoxicated by his achievements or thought non-mages were idiots, who knew?

He was an idiot who built his workshop in an open field with no nearby homes or civilians.

No matter how advantageous a workshop was for a mage, all you had to do was blow up the entire workshop.

"Even then, I deliberately triggered the alarm spell as I entered, bought time, and detonated countless bombs around the workshop to kill him. Doing the same to this mage would be a little..."

"True. There are civilians nearby."

Getting civilians involved made things extremely troublesome.

It would also be uncomfortable from a humanitarian or moral standpoint—not that either Breck or I cared about that.

Of course, even if it was an accident, if we harmed civilians of the Empire, the Empire would certainly take action.

No matter our goal of cracking down on drugs, that was simply how civilian casualties worked.

We could not blow up a house just to catch a bug, after all.

"First, we need to find out about this mage. We should be able to get information by searching the Magic Tower, so let's split up for now."

As he said this, Breck picked up the composite sketch Lena had drawn of the mage responsible for this drug crisis.

"I'll take this with me and use it to pressure the Magic Tower. If the culprit behind the drug crisis is a high mage who received a red robe, they'll cooperate as well."

"Ah, then I'll leave my signature, too. A sketch bearing [White Shadow]'s signature will be more credible than simply carrying in a sketch of the culprit."

"Good. Then I'll contact you once I learn this mage's information from the Magic Tower."

***

After Breck finished speaking, Lena decided to return to [White Shadow] for the time being.

Since Mist and I no longer needed to attack the nearby minor families, we decided to make use of our free time.

In simple terms, we were killing time.

"So that's why you came to me?"

The Master asked this in disbelief at my explanation.

He looked at me as though he were looking at some lunatic.

"Haha. Ah, I brought some fruit because I felt awkward coming empty-handed. Come on, let's go inside and eat some fruit."

The Master watched me speak as smoothly as a snake slipping over a wall, then sighed and stepped aside from the door of his house, which he had been blocking with his body.

"Phew... Come in."

"Then excuse me."

The Master's house was far neater than I had expected.

It was not flashy, but it was a comforting room filled with quiet, elegant decorations.

Soft jazz playing from a gramophone was soothing both body and mind.

"Hmm...?"

After setting the fruit basket down on the dining table, my gaze was naturally drawn to something that did not fit the tranquil scenery.

"Master, this."

"Hmm... Ah, those are tools I used frequently in the past. They're junk now, though."

"Junk?"

At the Master's words, I turned my gaze to examine the equipment filling one wall.

Chainmail capable of stopping arrows, as well as the lightweight armor worn by knights in this era.

Moreover, there were swords and daggers on either side, along with countless firearms.

All of it was so well maintained that it could be used immediately—no, used at a moment's notice.

"Isn't that a bit of an exaggeration?"

"If you don't use it, it's junk. Here, drink this. Since you're a guest, I'll give you at least this much."

Click.

It was not a cocktail, but it was good liquor.

After taking a sip, I found that it went quite well with the fruit I had brought.

"Mist, you sit down, too."

"Yes, understood."

Clunk.

Jazz music that did not interfere with conversation, and good liquor.

Just as I unconsciously held the liquor in my mouth to savor its fragrance, I remembered why I had come here.

"Master."

"Hmm?"

I called out to the Master, who was sitting across from me at the dining table and drinking with the liquor and fruit Mist had prepared as snacks.

"There's something I want to ask you."

Surely I had not come here without a plan.

Half of it had been a joke.

"The shop was half-destroyed that day, right? I wanted to ask what happened."

The Master was skilled.

I had never seen his abilities firsthand, but the subtle control he displayed over mana was enough to make me believe he was a formidable fighter.

Given how capable he was, how could his shop have been half-destroyed, even if he had been caught by surprise?

I discreetly shifted my gaze to examine the equipment filling one wall.

No matter how I looked at it, the situation was strange.

"Phew."

Perhaps he had read the question in my gaze. The Master shook his head slightly with a short sigh.

"First, I should correct a misunderstanding."

"Hmm?"

A misunderstanding?

"I'm not the kind of powerhouse you think I am."

As he said this, the Master briefly told me his story.

The Master's story, which he explained over the course of about ten minutes, could be summarized as follows.

"So, in short, you were strong in your prime, but your body was ruined after accepting a job beyond your means?"

"That's right. I may still be able to manage the basics of mana manipulation, but my body has already been ruined beyond repair. You would understand if you saw it directly."

As he said this, the Master began releasing his mana.

It was an extremely quiet release, mana so stealthy that I would not have noticed it if I had not been concentrating.

But for that very reason, the mismatch between his mana and his body became all the more obvious.

"It's true..."

It was like water and oil.

His mana was incredibly powerful, but his body could not accept such powerful mana.

"I didn't know something like this was possible."

When people awakened mana, their bodies became stronger to match it.

Although I had not trained my body either, I was capable of exerting dozens of times the strength of an ordinary person.

Yet the Master's condition deviated from that obvious common sense.

No matter how powerful his mana was, his body, which was supposed to support it, was a mess, so there was no way he could produce its full output.

"Well, at least it improved my control over mana."

"Hmm. Well, I understand."

To be honest, I had initially suspected the Master.

I could not deny that I had felt as though he had gone down far too easily.

"To be honest, I suspected you at first. Stories feature that kind of thing all the time, right? The traitor who pretends to be an ally before stabbing you in the back."

"Hah... Fair enough. If I were you, I would have been suspicious of me, too."

At that, the Master nodded as though he understood.

"I have one question."

"Hmm?"

As she said this, Mist deftly peeled an apple in an instant, then continued speaking while looking at the Master.

"I assume you have heard about the drug [Mirage] involved in this incident."

"I have. The Nostra Family told me about it."

"We still haven't seen an ability user who awakened through [Mirage]."

The supply of [Mirage] had been cut off long ago.

Perhaps because of that, we still had not encountered anyone who had awakened an ability through [Mirage].

Since it was an artificial awakening caused by a drug, we had heard that they died not long after awakening, making them even harder to meet.

"So I wanted to hear about your experience. You are the only person who has seen someone force-awakened by [Mirage] up close."

"Couldn't you hear that from the Nostra Family's members? I doubt you will get much information from me."

At the Master's words, Mist shook her head.

"No. We need the keen eye of someone who was once a powerful fighter."

"Hmm..."

At her words, the Master quietly closed his eyes, stroked his chin's beard, and began speaking slowly.

"There was something I didn't mention. The information was uncertain, and since it was obviously an ability, I thought it was merely an old man's needless worry."

"Hm? There was something like that?"

"I told you, it was an old man's needless worry."

After saying this, the Master drank and spoke with a sigh.

"My head and reason were shouting that it was an ability. It was extremely similar to the abilities I had faced."

Even I had not noticed anything particularly strange in the video of the ability user who awakened through [Mirage].

Using only mana to activate an ability was one of the defining traits of ability users, and that trait had been displayed intact in the video.

"But... something was off."

I still remembered it.

The mana of the drugged bastard who had entered his shop, [Glen Luna].

I had thought he was just another drug addict, but after I finished taking his order and brought him his drink, he suddenly stirred his mana and blew up the shop in an instant.

"It was somehow slow."

It was too fast to be a mage, yet about one frame too slow to be an ability user.

"That's why I didn't mention it. It could have been nothing more than a momentary misperception."

"...I see? That's useful information."

Having heard some useful information from the Master, I spent some time chatting with him at his house.

.

.

。

Was I more or less done with everything I needed to do?

There had been one thing that seemed a little strange. I had also figured out why the shop had been half-destroyed.

I had even deployed my ability in case the Master ran into danger.

And I had learned the culprit's face.

It was when I sat in the chair of the room Breck had prepared for me and was about to read a book.

Knock. Knock.

"Hmm? Come in."

Creak.

"Excuse me."

"What is it?"

I turned my head to look at the sky outside the window.

The moon was already high in the sky, and it was gradually becoming time to sleep.

Even though Mist was my maid and attendant, she never came in this late at night.

The problem was that she quietly stared at me when I woke up in the morning.

"[White Shadow] says there is something it needs to convey to Lord Abel."

"Hm?"

After receiving the paper Mist pulled from her bosom, I slowly began to read it.

"..."

The writing on the paper was very simple.

[The Saintess of the Church of Light, the Pure White Saintess Ariel, will arrive in the imperial capital tomorrow. The saintess has secretly proposed a temporary alliance to [White Shadow] to resolve this drug crisis. At the same time, she conveyed that the Nostra Family also intends to join the alliance.]

[Moreover, Saintess Ariel once again emphasized her request to meet Lord Abel.]

So, the protagonist of this world's romance-fantasy genre wants to meet me?

***

At dawn the next day, in the imperial capital.

A woman disembarked from the first airship to arrive there.

Pure-white hair that seemed to reject every color in the world.

A woman with features so beautiful that she could be called the very culmination of beauty, as though God Himself had carved them.

The Pure White Saintess, Ariel.

"Uuugh."

With a groan, Ariel gave a full stretch to loosen her shoulders, stiff from the weight of her chest.

“As expected”

Once her stiff shoulders loosened, Ariel smiled as she looked out at the airport, where people were already coming and going despite the early hour.

Thinking that peace like this was preferable to people's screams, after all.