The library was unnaturally silent. Normally, besides the staff, there would be several guards patrolling here around the clock. But now—nothing. Not a single soul.
"They were all taken out, huh…" Yotsuba Mahiro muttered under his breath.
To subdue so many trained magicians without even raising an alarm… whoever these intruders were, they had prepared thoroughly.
Mahiro crouched low in the shadows of the counter near the entrance. His perception magic—"Sharingan"—spread his consciousness outward, sweeping across the first floor like an invisible current. Every fluctuation in psion particles was translated directly into his awareness.
"Seven in total," he whispered.
Four armed fighters were hidden behind pillars on the first floor. Another student kept watch from the corridor above, and three more were stationed inside the special reading room at the far end of the second floor.
But what really caught his attention was the identical brass rings each one wore. At the center of every ring gleamed a faint golden-orange stone.
"Crystal Sunstone… tch."
The gemstone was rare, a relic material mined only in the ruins of high-altitude civilizations. In the modern world, its only known application was to generate interference waves that scrambled activation sequences, disrupting a magician's ability to cast.
For most of the school's guards and teachers, such interference would cripple their casting completely—no wonder they'd fallen so quickly.
But for Yotsuba Mahiro, whose innate skill let him bypass calculations and directly read the activation sequence… it was just irritating background noise.
"Yare yare… dealing with them one by one is too troublesome." His lips curved slightly. "Guess I'll clear them all at once."
Retracting his perception, Mahiro dismissed the thought of using Scattering Mist. Instead, psions surged from his body like a tidal wave. A dazzling magical light burst forth, instantly enveloping the first floor.
The temperature plummeted.
A rolling mist poured from Mahiro's position, thick and white, conjured from condensed nitrogen gas. It billowed outward, swallowing the floor in seconds.
The air itself froze solid. Pillars and carpet alike glazed over in frost as though liquid nitrogen had been spilled everywhere at once.
"W-what is this?!" one of the intruders screamed, but the sound was cut short.
The mist slithered up their bodies, locking their feet in place, then creeping higher. The cold gnawed at their flesh, reaching deep into bone and marrow. Even their souls seemed paralyzed beneath the suffocating chill.
And then—silence.
In the span of a breath, every one of them had been transformed into grotesque, glittering ice sculptures. The entire first floor looked like a frozen hell, a lifeless gallery of crimson-tinted frost.
"Uwahhh… seriously, Mahiro-kun, that's insane!" A voice gasped from behind.
Erika peeked out from behind the counter, her cheeks puffing out puffs of white mist with every breath. "That wasn't just any ordinary spell! Wasn't that the vibration-deceleration wide-area magic—'Ice Mist Divine Realm'? You pulled off something that takes entire units of magicians to deploy!"
She pressed a hand to her forehead. "Baka… is there even a single type of magic you don't know how to use?"
"Erika-chan," Miyuki answered with a smile, stepping lightly to Mahiro's side, "this is only the smallest glimpse of what Mahiro-oniisama can do."
As a fellow member of the Yotsuba Family, Miyuki knew better than anyone. Her brother was absurdly talented—able to replicate any spell he witnessed, even strategic-class magic. He had already mastered over a hundred types across every known system: the Four Major Systems, the Eight Major Categories, even so-called 'system-outside' and 'no-system' techniques.
For him, this much really was "the tip of the iceberg."
"Alright, let's save the chatter for later," Mahiro cut in with a calm voice.
The reason the girls were here at all was because they had followed him. On the way, Mahiro had run into Erika locked in a skirmish and pulled her free. Then, just as he reached the library's main entrance, he encountered the Shiba siblings as well.
"There are still enemies upstairs in the special reading room," Mahiro continued. "I'll handle them myself."
"Eh?! Mahiro-oniisama is going alone?" Miyuki gasped, clutching his sleeve. "Please, at least let Miyuki come with you! Even if I can't fight like you, it's better than you facing danger alone!"
"Miyuki." Mahiro reached out and gently stroked her silky black hair, a gesture that instantly silenced her. "You and Tatsuya guard the main entrance. That will be the greatest help to me."
Although his words carried a hint of perfunctoriness, Miyuki could only nod obediently, cheeks faintly red.
"Then, Erika," Mahiro turned his gaze on her, "if any ambush spills down from above, I'll leave it to you."
"Ambush, huh?" Erika grinned slyly and nudged him with her elbow. "Could it be you mean Mibu-senpai? Ara ara~ Mahiro-kun, you're actually so gentle when it comes to girls!"
"…Not gentle," Mahiro replied flatly. "I'm just fulfilling a commission."
He hadn't forgotten Mayumi-senpai's personal request earlier, nor the suspicious "request" from that shameless teacher who had been tailing a student.
"Commission, huh? So physical persuasion is on the table?" Erika asked, eyes gleaming.
"Of course."
"Heh, then I'll take the job! Leave it to me, Mahiro-kun~" she sang out happily.
While Erika hummed happily, Yotsuba Mahiro had already slipped into the shadows, moving up the staircase without a sound.
Perhaps because the defenders on the first floor had been dispatched too swiftly—without even a chance to cry out—the Kendo Club member stationed as lookout on the second-floor corridor remained oblivious. Mahiro struck quickly, the boy crumpling silently before being dragged aside like discarded luggage.
At the far end of the corridor stood a massive, tightly sealed door. Beyond it was First High School's most guarded place: the Special Reading Room.
Inside were preserved countless rare documents: experimental data, spell composition sequences, and highly restricted magical theory. Though not as vast as the Magic University's archives, nor as authoritative as the Magic Association's headquarters, for a weak terrorist group like Blanche, this treasure trove was priceless.
Mahiro glanced at the reinforced steel door, its frame resembling the vaults of national banks. "Opening it properly is too troublesome," he muttered. "Guess I'll just decompose it directly."
He calmly raised his hand.
....
Meanwhile, inside the Special Reading Room.
Mibu Sayaka stood stiffly, watching the operation unfold with conflicted eyes.
This was the only terminal in the entire school capable of accessing classified research materials related to the most advanced forms of magic in Japan. Her so-called comrades—members of Blanche—were frantically working at the console, attempting to hack into the database.
But Sayaka's heart wavered.
'What am I doing here?'
Stealing the key… helping these people hack forbidden research… Was this really what she had wanted?
Her original goal had been clear: abolish the discrimination between magicians and ordinary people. She understood well enough that such prejudice wasn't something that could be erased just within school walls.
But then why steal cutting-edge research data?
Publishing magic theories to the world might sound noble, but what meaning would such knowledge have for people incapable of using magic?
It was like her thoughts were split in two—one side whispered it was pointless, while the other insisted some hidden discovery here could help ordinary humans.
That fragile reasoning… she realized, was nothing more than a justification she had forced herself to believe.
Still, even knowing that, she couldn't fully deny it.
Countless questions churned inside her heart like an endless storm. And yet, every answer circled back to the bitter truth Yotsuba Mahiro had told her:
The world has never been fair.
Her resolve wavered once more.
Until the moment the reinforced steel door was violently broken apart—blasted open from the outside.