Atrum Galliasta is the head of the Galiasta family. The reason why he now became involved with the Iselma family was very simple. You could say it was like a child's temper tantrum.
The Iselma and Galiasta family competed in an auction for the relic of a dead hero. The relic consists of a blade stained with a person's blood.
It is a relic to summon a Heroic Spirit.
-???-
He ever wondered if this was going to happen. No, he never asked himself that question. Now that he had that person's blood on his hands, he closed his eyes tightly.
The estate of the Asahi clan was devastated. There were only corpses in every house. Sharp weapons scattered on the ground showed the signs of opposition from the clan members.
They were all killed. Not a single one was left alive, or that would be the case. It was a deal with one person that meant that only one of the clan would be left alive.
A silver-eyed boy, petrified before the corpse lying in the pool of blood. The wood and paper walls were splattered in blood, where a woman lay lifeless. She had her eyes closed with a couple of dried tears on her face.
The boy fell to his knees and held the woman in his arms.
Asahi Toru saw the corpse of his own mother....
-By Toru-
I have never felt happy, sad or angry. I came to think that I was not born as a human being, that I was different from others.
I was wrong.
When the blood covered my hands, when I realized she was gone, I....
"Okaa-sama..."
At first I was confused. Something inside me refused to believe what was in front of me. Then I felt desperate, an emotion that soon turned into anger, sadness and fear. I remembered how she always scolded me every time I came home late. I remembered her usual goofy smile and closed my eyes. Her voice echoed inside my mind.
When I opened my eyes, I could only see the blood and feel the deathly silence....
Ah... okaa-sama....
"Aren't you going to scold me because I came home late, aren't you going to get angry?"
Okaa-sama, at that moment I thought of something.
...
...
Will I be able to see you smile again?
-Near Iselma Towers-
The group walked through the plains in search of the next clue. Previously this whole case had turned into total Chaos, but Waver already has many things thought of for many possible scenarios.
Thinking through the possibilities was a good move. Having a weapon of mass destruction like Toru is, it shouldn't be such a big problem to face this battle.
Just like a few minutes ago, Flat was rambling strange things about his master while Svin was scolding him. Fortunately, with Toru standing next to Gray, Svin right now had stayed away. Though there was one thought that bothered him quite a bit.
'Why does my Gray smell like that guy', although outwardly he was still arguing with Flat, in his mind he was thinking a thousand ways to solve this riddle without having to resort to killing a ghost. Later he would regret his own thoughts.
"We have guests", Toru said.
Gray stopped next to Toru and looked at the two approaching women. Flat and Svin did the same as Waver approached them.
"Silver Princess", he addressed the two women. "Rejina."
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Lord El-Melloi II. I have heard a little about you", the princess said.
"Knowing the things they say about me, I don't think you've heard anything good."
"Regarding my sister's. Did you find out anything?"
"Ah, yes. First of all, my sincere condolences for your loss. I feel it is for this very reason that I must discover the culprit in all this."
"So you think your sister is innocent?"
"That's right."
"I see... You have a good brother, Princess El-Melloi."
Reines replied, "I certainly do. Also, what happened to Trimmau, if I may ask?"
"The Mystic Code. It's kept in a safe place."
"I understand. I leave it in your care."
"Now that we're talking about things", Waver reached into his pocket and pulled out a necklace bearing a strange spiral symbol. This was an object he obtained from inspecting Karina's corpse. "This was your sister's, am I correct?"
Karina looked at the necklace and recognized it instantly. She took it shyly between her hands and made a graceful bow.
"Thank you. Yes, it was my sister's."
"It looks like a Celtic heirloom."
"You are very perceptive, Lord. When we were born, our grandmother-"
"Wait", Toru said suddenly. He was looking at a specific spot, and just at that moment, Reines got a stinging pain in her eyes. Flat and Svin looked at each other, because somehow they also felt the same thing.
The activation of a powerful magecraft.
"Silver Princess, does this have to do with the Bounded Field on this ground?"
The princess denied. Waver even scolded Reines for asking that right off the bat.
Flat stepped forward at the same time as the Silver Princess took her leave to find out what was going on. When the two women left, Toru accompanied Flat and looked off into the distance.
"Even if I can't use senjutsu, I could feel that clearly."
"Senjutsu? Like a ninja?", asked Flat.
"Yes. Exactly that."
To think of the sage arts as a ninja art is a bit of a misguided thought. Senjutsu is outside the category of ninjutsu, though ironically it uses the same bases to effect itself.
"There seems to be more than ten people beyond the forest. Is it some sort of war?", running his hand over his forehead to get a better look, Flat narrowed his eyes.
"So someone is attacking Iselma?"
Waver took it upon himself to answer Reines' doubts. Taking a puff on the new cigarette, he sighed out a cloud of smoke as he spat out the answer "Yes. That's right. Flat, those are the people I asked you to investigate."
"Then it looks like we came at a good time."
The sky suddenly darkened and everyone's hair stood on end. Toru sighed and ran ahead of them. He gave a mighty leap upwards as they all looked up at him.
Gray was the one who could clearly see what Toru was doing, as she was about to do the same.
Toru's eyes glowed faintly purple and he extended his hands pointing to the sky. Just a split second later, a killer lightning bolt struck from high in the sky. Its blinding light caused everyone to close their eyes.
When the light faded, Toru fell to the ground leaving a small crater.
"Assassin!"
Gray was the first to go to his aid. She had also felt the danger of the lightning, but just as she tried to grab Add, Toru beat her to it and caught the lightning with his hands. The voltage of the lightning is enough to kill a person without magical protection. If someone like Waver had received the lightning, he would have undoubtedly died.
Putting that aside, Gray bent down to look at Toru, but the boy sat on the ground. His body was expelling small leftover lightning bolts from the lightning bolt that struck him earlier. Also, with his eyes closed, Toru was letting out a couple of tears of blood.
"I'm fine, in case anyone asks", he got up from the ground with his eyes closed. He then covered his eyelids with his right hand, which was glowing in shades of blue. "Is there anyone here who can use healing magecraft?"
"I know. Let me help you", Flat walked over to Toru and put his hands on his face.
Gray was confused by Toru's actions.
"I don't understand... Why did you do that? I could have used Add as a lightning bolt."
"What a rude brat", Add snorted after what his owner said.
"Because if you had interfered..."
Toru opened his eyes. His eyes were bloodshot, but her presence was stronger than ever. The small rays still sparkled in his body, but these soon faded. Soon his eyes returned to normal thanks to Flat.
As for what Toru did, Waver was the first to understand everything.
"The Mystic Eyes?"
Toru denied. "It's a different kind of eye ability. Because of the restriction placed on me by the grail I can't use it freely. When I try to use it this happens."
"So you absorbed all the energy from the lightning?", asked Svin.
"Yes. The bad thing is that's all I can do under the restriction. I can't use it much because of this very thing. In fact, I shouldn't have used it because I can go blind, but I can't waste energy as powerful as nature's."
"Nature? Isn't it a person's magecraft?"
Gray's doubts would be answered by Waver, who went into his teacher mode.
"It is a magecraft that harnesses the weather above us. It looks like it was used to break the Iselma family's Bounded Field. If what I think is right, it should already be starting this war right now. It would be best to withdraw for now."
"What a cowardly man", Add laughed.
"I'd rather be a coward alive, than a brave man in a grave. So, Flat-", he turned around only to notice Flat was gone. "Svin, wait!!!", even Svin had vanished into thin air running after Flat. A vein swelled in Waver's forehead. "Agh. It's just that I already knew, that's why I told the two of you that you shouldn't come here!"
***
Meanwhile, outside one of the towers, Byron was already in front of the perpetrators. They were about ten people wearing hooded cloaks and gas masks that concealed their identities. Each was preparing to launch their magecraft.
Some used spells, others stones and runes, while there were a few using staffs as mana catalysts. All of this led to the ten people casting a shower of golden lightning towards Byron.
"It seems to me that I'm missing something. It should be a good idea to welcome my guests."
Byron pulled out his staff and slammed it into the ground. Immediately a wave of rainbow bubbles emerged from deep within his mana. The bubbles impacted against the lightning bolts and dissipated them.
At the same time, Flat and Svin were already there to put their plan together.
The first thing was to help Byron so that Byron, as a form of thanks, would return Reines' Hydragyrum Volume to them. In that case, they must take action and help the man.
***
"Is it okay that you let Svin and Flat go?"
Gray's question was enveloped in the noisy rain of this place that had formed in consequence of the enemy's magecraft (Weather Manipulation).
"Yes. They will be fine. Anyway both of them will seek battle without anyone asking them to. Even if their opponents are magus of reasonable caliber, they won't let themselves be defeated. No matter how much of a problem child they are, they frankly are at that level of ability."
"Although it seems that the main opponent is more than a reasonable caliber magus", Toru interjected. "You came to this place preparing some things beforehand. If that's the case, the person you asked to investigate must be the one who is now looking for trouble here."
"Correct. This is Atrum Galliasta. Galliasta is an ancient Middle Eastern bloodline, recently aligned with the Clock Tower. Their magecrafts are in the field of curses, so they will be troublesome opponents. In any case, they used that magecraft to force cooperation from nearby organizations, securing the rights to oil drilling operations. As far as worldly affairs influence is concerned, they are at the forefront next to the Clock Tower. And if that wasn't enough, they were involved in an auction for a certain talisman in which they fought to the end against the Iselma family."
"The talisman you mentioned earlier, uh...", Reines joined the conversation.
From there came the theory that Galliasta was the murderer of the Golden Princess, but that didn't explain Karina's death. In any case, it wouldn't make sense to have prepared everything so meticulously, much less put Diadra back to bed. On the other hand, there was also the Mystic Lock. Another possibility was also the existence of a second culprit. For now, something that also drew a lot of attention was the absence of mirrors in the princess's room. All this was getting them nowhere.
Listening to these people talk so intellectually made Gray's head hurt. Even if she understood a little of what they were talking about, she also wanted to be a participant in this. She felt left out, but she also felt pathetic. Add was whispering to her that she's a cowardly girl who procrastinates her thoughts, repeating 'I can't' over and over, it annoyed the Mystic Code.
Then, as she did with Toru that day, something inside her prompted her to say what she thought and wanted.
"While the princess's beauty was certainly something prefabricated, on that level, whether it was natural or not is irrelevant. The artificial concept is one that goes back to nature anyway. Whether polished by running water or polished by a person's hand, a rock is still a rock. In short..."
Toru narrowed his eyes....
"It would be better to be dead", Gray said as she pulled off her hood.
Waver was startled and Reines was just confused.
"My face... I think my face might be related to what's going on."
Although Reines secretly already knew this, the fact that Gray said it herself surprised her.
Gray then went on to explain what Add was and what it contained. Almost whispering, she mentioned when she was terrified to see her face change in front of the mirror. That somehow gave Waver some ideas, no... in fact, it was something more crucial.
"Transform... I can't believe it's that easy."
"And I can't believe you won't say it at once", Toru said with his dull voice and monotone face.
"Wait. Give me some time. Let me think."
"There he goes again."
To Reines it seemed like a very everyday thing how out of nowhere Waver starts mumbling things that no one understood.
Suddenly.
"Gray, Assassin. I have a favor to ask of you."
***
Flat was disabling the enemies magecraft, while Svin was slashing and tearing with the claws of his glowing wolf body.
"Game Select!"
"Ahh!"
One after another, Iselma's enemies fell. However, someone else entered the stage. It was the man with blond hair and brown skin, the leader of the attackers.
"What the hell is going on here?", for upon seeing his men defeated, he could only spit out a curse to turn his attention to the children who had caused this ruckus.
***
Moving through the lush forest, it was Gray and Toru.
"What you said earlier also gave me an idea of what must be going on. In that case, the murderer isn't Lord Valueleta or Byron Iselma. It's someone external to them. Also, the transformation thing makes me think that, somehow, who we saw in that bed wasn't the Golden Princess."
Gray was quiet and focused on the road, so she didn't say anything to Toru.
"In this Magus world, it must be easy to change other people's appearance without needing a scalpel. Imagine, how you can change your appearance just by looking for the right person. So, what if the one we saw in the bed was actually Karina and the one we saw in the water was Diadra. It doesn't make sense, does it?"
"Hey, child. Answer the boy who's talking to you!"
"Uh- I, I'm sorry. I was thinking about other things."
Anyway. Toru wanted to confirm something.
"Don't worry. Regarding earlier... Aozaki Touko is here..."
There were many things they both don't know about that woman, but the little they knew was that she is a very capable magus with a wide variety of magecrafts. If her presence was enough to turn this whole situation around, there's a chance that she was the trigger for this case in the first place. And, if it's just a theory pulled out of thin air, in that case it didn't matter because Lord El-Melloi already has his own conclusions.
"She must know something..."
"What if she doesn't know, but she still did it?"
Gray didn't understand that. So here was the second theory based on what Toru saw during the start of the party at the Moon Tower at the time they arrived.
"Do you think there is a medicine that can erase memories?"
She paused at the question. Toru climbed the nearby tree and looked at her from there.
"The answer is simpler than it seems..."
"And possibly it's something my mentor already knew..."
Everyone who was in that room half an hour after Diadra's corpse was found is a suspect, but right now two of them have been ruled out. Counting Reines, that would be three of the culprits ruled out at the moment, which would leave Touko, Maio and Mick Grajile as the prime suspects.
"If we think the Galliasta family is who Mick works for, then the prime suspects would be Touko and Maio."
"You deduced that with so little - I'm shocked!", said Add.
"If that's possible, then..."
"It's also likely that Touko works for Galliasta. Then that puts Svin and Flat, who are facing the Galliasta family soldiers, in grave danger. We need to hurry."
"I understand..."
They both continued running in the direction of the battle, but from one moment to the next, Toru vanished into thin air.
"I'll be your bodyguard this time. I promise you that nothing will be able to harm you as long as I am near you. That will allow us a greater chance of victory."
Gray nodded and picked up speed. The only thing wrong with this was that she never thought she would face such a formidable foe....
***
In front of Svin and Flat, Aozaki Touko looks at everyone silently. She defended Atrum, who was about to be defeated by these two child prodigies. With that, Toru's theory had been confirmed. Magus like Svin and Flat were nothing compared to this woman, who is one step closer to the origin than any magus in this world.
To be continued...