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"So that's what happened during this time?" From the other end of the phone, Sylvia's elegant voice carried faint amusement. "In other words, anyone associated with you is now within the sights of Academy City's upper echelons, right?"
Her tone betrayed no anxiety. Calm, even playful.
Fang Li leaned back against the balcony rail, cell phone pressed to his ear. His gaze slid back into the room. Index, sprawled haphazardly across the bed, breathed evenly in deep sleep.
"Even if we've been exposed, nothing major will change for now," Fang Li replied lightly, as if speaking of something trivial. "Our exposure's been pretty limited."
Objectively, he wasn't wrong.
Sylvia rarely intervened within Academy City, never flaunted any Ability, and spent most of her life abroad on tour. Her ties were faint. Fang Li's? More complicated. But the fact remained: though some had noticed him, no one had placed their hand just yet.
For the moment, those who knew were waiting. Measuring.
After all, Fang Li had struck against the Magic Side again and again, stealing grimoires and disrupting their schemes. And yet, not once had he turned blade or bullet against the Science Side.
From Academy City's perspective, that was something to quietly welcome… not punish.
But the politics cut deeper than surface logic. If a hidden element, such as Fang Li, someone the Science Side had never accounted for, suddenly made noise within their stronghold, the ripples could become waves sweeping across both worlds.
For now, the higher echelons remained silent. Watching.
Fang Li chuckled faintly. "If it comes to it, they'll come for me. Just remember to come and rescue me when that happens."
"…If you're already asking me to come rescue you…" Sylvia's helpless sigh brushed across the receiver, a trace of laughter beneath the exhale. "So, what happened to those magicians?"
"They left." Fang Li's tone was flat. "After that rooftop, I haven't seen either of them again."
Indeed, Kanzaki Kaori and Stiyl Magnus had vanished. Gone without trace, as though erased from the city itself.
Yet, Fang Li had received a letter.
The sender: Stiyl.
He remembered the opening line as clearly as the flame of a cigarette:
"I'll skip the extra talk and get straight to the point."
It was blunt, heavy. From there, the letter plunged straight into naked truth.
"After confirming the child showed no abnormalities, we, under orders, reported to the higher-ups of the United Kingdom Puritans. They verified the existence of the Collar, confirming your earlier claim."
"We were indeed duped like fools. But don't expect us to move against those above. Even if I have the urge to burn the Cathedral, doing so would only mean my own death. So we swallow it as our failure. And we stay silent."
Fang Li could all but hear Stiyl grinding his teeth between each line.
"Then came the orders. Since the Collar was removed, the first command was to retrieve the child immediately. Personally, if I am to be honest, I don't want that child near you either. But… after we reported you possess those Mystic Eyes, the orders changed."
"Whether out of fear or calculation, they have chosen not to act. For now."
"Their conclusion: rather than forcibly reclaiming an Index who now knows too much, it is preferable to wait. And watch."
"Don't mistake their hesitation as weakness. The Puritans remain among the greatest magical forces in the world. If they decide to reclaim Index, they will not falter because of you. All they've made is one judgment, better to observe for now, than to risk more."
The letter ended with that bitter warning.
"If you truly want to stay with that child… then pray you hold the strength to defy everything. Don't end up like us, defeated by reality, swallowed by helplessness, becoming the very fools you despise."
"And one last warning."
"Don't you dare develop any improper thoughts toward that child, you thief who specializes in stealing originals."
"If all of this is because of what's inside her head… and in the end, you betray her and make her cry, then no matter what I must give up, I will burn you alive."
"I mean that."
With those final words, the magicians were gone.
Silence and distance swelled in their absence.
But truth lingered still within Index's body.
There existed another mechanism besides the Collar.--- John's Pen.
The system. A technique designed to overwrite Index's consciousness with a substitute, an artificial intelligence-like program, an execution unit installed to preserve the forbidden-book Index at all costs.
If Index's life was threatened… or if the 103,000 grimoires in her head risked theft… then John's Pen would awaken. A mechanical adaptability would take over. It would eliminate danger without hesitation. It could wield the power of 103,000 originals in her stead, defending the library by any means.
In that state, Index could even use magic.
In truth, the reason Index could not wield magic normally was because her magic power was perpetually consumed in sustaining John's Pen. In her everyday life she was left powerless. But once the system activated, that power could be fully diverted.
At that moment, the silver-haired nun became a mage carrying incomprehensible might, one step shy of a Magic God.
When Fang Li destroyed the Collar, John's Pen had stirred. For an instant, the mechanism tried to activate.
But perhaps it saw something.
It judged that any reckless interference would be obliterated by Fang Li. After calculating gain versus loss, weighing threat versus preservation, John's Pen elected silence.
And so Fang Li left it be.
He did not destroy the defense system.
Because, in truth, a method of protection, which could awaken to shield Index in mortal danger, was not entirely a curse. It could serve her.
The problem was that the system had not been built for her sake, but for the Church's. What ways they possessed to manipulate John's Pen remained uncertain.
For now, it had no practical use.
Fang Li chose to remain watchful.
"If necessary, I'll kill it later," he murmured softly.
To him, with Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, that system was nothing more than a line waiting to be severed, a death ready to be cut.
"No matter what," Fang Li said quietly into the receiver, "Index is staying with me. When you return, you'll meet her yourself."
Across the line, Sylvia's voice chuckled faintly, laced with elegance.
"That's something to look forward to. Though… until I come back, don't do anything strange to her, alright?"
"..."
Fang Li found himself speechless.
(So you didn't say that to Orphelia, did you? But suddenly to me, when it's a fourteen-year-old girl? …Just what kind of image do you have of me in your head?)
(End of Chapter)