Soon, Louise had also dressed.
Together, the three of them joined Hodolew, Tabitha, Tiffania, and the others who had been waiting outside the inn for some time. They hurried to a nearby restaurant—not very large, but with an air of history and warmth.
It was here that they had first met Sage Mimoza, along with her student, Arpeggio El Lalena.
"Oh my, you're here so quickly?"
Hearing the footsteps at the door, Sage Mimoza, her hair already gray, looked in surprise at the group rushing in.
She sat at a round table, wearing a tall purple hat, both hands wrapped around a steaming cup of coffee, smiling kindly as she greeted Hodolew, Louise, and the others.
She truly looked amiable and approachable.
"Huff—huff— Sage Mimoza, Sage Cato and Lady Rory haven't arrived yet?"
Louise, ever the impatient one, glanced around the restaurant.
Seeing no unfamiliar faces, she sighed in relief that they weren't late, though she couldn't help but feel a twinge of disappointment.
"They should be here soon. I heard they're coming in some sort of vehicle from another world called an automobile. I'm curious to see what it looks like~~"
Sage Mimoza chuckled as she spoke.
Just then, everyone inside the restaurant heard a deep rumbling sound outside.
Saito was the first to react, for he knew that sound—it was the engine of an automobile!
Right after him, Louise, Tabitha, and the others began smiling too.
After all, they had been to Japan before and had at least some familiarity with cars.
Moments later—
At the entrance of the restaurant, both groups exchanged lively introductions.
Louise, Saito, and their "main party" finally sat down with Cato, Lelei, Itami Yōji, and their "main party," arranging themselves around two round tables.
By now, the restaurant doors had been shut, no longer open to other customers.
But the atmosphere inside was no longer cheerful.
Instead, it grew silent, heavy, and tense.
Because Louise and the others had recognized someone Cato and Lelei had brought with them—Kurosuki Raiga.
Not that they knew him personally, but they knew his attire.
The black vest, the forehead protector engraved with the five-ringed cross—all of it made their hearts sink.
And when they heard that these shinobi, together with an army wielding firearms, had attacked the Japanese expeditionary camp through the "Gate of Ginza"—
Every face around the table was filled with disbelief.
This meant that the World Government's main forces had already arrived in Japan, occupied Tokyo, and seized control of the "Gate of Ginza"!
"How can this be possible?"
Louise turned to Saito in shock.
"Without my help opening the 'World Gate,' how could they possibly have reached your world?"
"Louise, the World Government doesn't rely solely on you as its only Void mage."
At that moment, Tabitha spoke up from her seat beside Lelei, offering the grim reminder.
"Joseph and His Holiness the Pope? But they can't use the 'World Gate'! The prayer book is still with me!"
Louise quickly protested.
She knew very well—without the Void magic, it was impossible to sense the spatial coordinates of the "Gate of the World."
"That, I don't know." Tabitha answered softly.
"Louise, even if we don't know the exact reason, the fact is right before us—the World Government has already appeared in Japan, and now they're trying to reach into this world as well."
Saito's voice grew heavy as he looked at her.
"So we need to come up with a countermeasure."
In truth, his own heart was filled with anxiety. Back in Japan, his mother and Siesta were still there.
If the World Government had managed to come to Japan on their own, then it was entirely possible they could track down his family's address.
He had no doubt that he and the others were already wanted criminals in the eyes of the World Government!
"May I ask… could you tell us more about this World Government?"
Across the table, Itami Yōji studied Saito curiously as he asked in a low voice.
"The World Government… actually, what we know is only the surface."
After exchanging a glance with Louise, Saito began to speak in earnest.
Everyone present—Sage Cato, Sage Mimoza, Lelei, and the rest—listened intently.
For a time, Saito's voice was the only sound filling the restaurant.
No one noticed, however, that at another round table, Katsumoto Wataru, who appeared to be a hearty and optimistic man, was at that moment watching Saito with a cold, piercing gaze.
He concealed it well, never allowing killing intent to leak out.
Even with several powerful magisters present, none of them sensed it.
And so, twenty minutes passed.
Saito finally fell silent, his throat dry after explaining everything.
But the weight of his words left the restaurant so heavy with tension it felt suffocating.
Especially for Cato and Mimoza, the two magister sages, who now realized the situation was far beyond what they had imagined.
The World Government—a superpower ruling over seven worlds, soon to be eight, with their own world likely to become the ninth!
This was something far beyond what just a handful of them could possibly handle!
"Hahahahaha!"
Suddenly, Kurosuki Raiga, bound by magic in the corner of the room, burst into wild laughter.
At once, every eye turned toward him.
"Now you understand, don't you?"
"Now you see just what kind of terrifying existence you're preparing to oppose!"
"If you have any sense, you'll release me right this instant, then immediately send someone to offer yourselves to the World Government!"
His face twisted into a mocking sneer.
"Even our shinobi world couldn't stand against them. Your pitiful, fragile world doesn't stand a chance of stopping the flood of the World Government!"
"Young man, do you still remember how you were captured?"
Cato, his wizard's hat casting a shadow over his eyes, asked in a deep, steady voice.
Raiga's expression faltered, but he quickly forced himself to retort.
"Hmph! Old man, sure, you're stronger than me. But the World Government has as many fighters at my level as they could possibly want!"
"And those stronger than me—while you can't exactly say they're beyond counting—still number in the hundreds, even thousands! But how many magisters like you exist in this world?"
Louise, Saito, Tabitha—all those who had personally encountered the World Government—were visibly tense and uneasy.
At that moment, Sage Mimoza spoke up.
"Our world has gods—twelve main gods."
"And the authority over the 'Gates' lies in their hands."
"If anyone in your world has any sense, they would never send their most important forces through."
With that said, she ignored Raiga and turned to her old friend Cato.
"I think we need to speak with Magnus at once!"
"Agreed." Cato nodded.
Rondel was governed by seven elders, three of whom were sages.
Magnus was the third sage.
In effect, he was the mayor of the city—and the most powerful magister in terms of authority.
"Still, the greatest hope of our world lies with the lofty main gods…"
Here, Cato let out a long sigh. As the strongest magister alive, he knew better than anyone the vast gulf between himself and the gods.
And that was in his prime. Now, he was old.
"Don't worry. The main gods surely already know of these events."
Sage Mimoza lifted her gaze to the ceiling.
Her wistful eyes seemed to pierce through the roof, reaching up into the layers of clouded sky above.
She suddenly recalled the days more than fifty years ago, when she had once traveled alongside Lady Rory.
Back then, she had still been a young and beautiful girl.
And to think—that woman would become the thirteenth main god in less than forty years.
A pity. She herself would likely not live to see it.
...
News of the World Government.
At last, word began to reach the major powers across the continent of Falmart.
By late afternoon—
The sages and elders of Rondel, the city of knowledge and magic, gathered in the council hall at the summons of Sage Magnus.
There, they began their solemn discussion regarding the World Government.
Meanwhile, Raiga had already been locked away in a laboratory cage originally built to confine magical beasts.
A magister skilled in mental magic was placed in charge of manipulating his consciousness in an attempt to extract more information.
But neither the magister skilled in mental magic nor the three master-level magisters working alongside him in the laboratory noticed the presence looming behind them—
A pair of invisible, transparent eyes, staring coldly at their backs.
[Swish! Swish!]
In an instant, just as the magister skilled in mental magic prepared to ask his second question—
Two snow-white arcs of blade light suddenly burst forth inside the laboratory, cutting through the air with a piercing hiss.
It all happened far too quickly.
The magisters didn't even have time to cast defensive enchantments upon themselves.
In the blink of an eye, the blade light swept across their throats, and hot blood sprayed into the air.
"Uhh—!"
"Ghhah!"
The magister skilled in mental magic and the others' eyes bulged wide.
Shocked and terrified, they clutched at the slashes on their necks.
But it did nothing to stop the blood spilling endlessly between their fingers.
No sound could escape their throats—until at last they collapsed heavily to the floor, their eyes gradually dimming.
Inside the laboratory's cage—
The binding spells and the mind-bewitching magic upon Raiga instantly dissolved.
His consciousness returned.
Through his still-hazy vision, he first saw the four corpses lying in pools of blood.
Then he lifted his head, and through the bars glimpsed a black silhouette—strange yet familiar—holding a long blade, gazing at him with calm eyes.
A ninja!
Raiga's face instantly lit up with joy.
"You're—"
But Gekko Azayū had no intention of wasting words.
He swung his blade again, slicing through the bars of the cage.
From the tactical pouch on his leg, he drew out a kunai and a Purple Butterfly Emergency Pill, tossing them across.
"Hide yourself. Tonight, join up with the arriving Team Seven squad and help them extract Louise!"
With that, Gekko Azayū vanished once more into thin air.
Raiga caught the items, utterly speechless.
He still tossed the Purple Butterfly Emergency Pill into his mouth, then vanished without a trace using the Invisibility Technique.
In the end, the laboratory was left with nothing but four still-warm corpses and pools of scarlet blood.
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