Unexpectedly, the scene unfolding inside the underground workshop was not as brutal as one might imagine.
In fact—there was nothing brutal about it at all.
On the contrary, it was almost… decadent.
More than a dozen men and women had gathered there, and the indescribable spectacle filling the screen left no doubt as to what was happening.
This…A wild party?
That bastard Atram—really knows how to enjoy himself!
Roy's eyes widened as he scanned the images, darting across the screen.
Among the men, there were only three: Atram himself, a burly man, and a pale, fragile-looking youth. All the rest were women.
That pale, delicate youth—was Aki Tomoya.
The muscular one beside him was another refugee, the very man Roy had seen Atram take back from the shelter that day.
No—looking closer, Atram wasn't actually participating. He was just seated comfortably, watching with a look of avid amusement plastered across his face.
Tomoya's face was ashen, twisted with resistance and fear. He tried to crawl away, flailing desperately, only to be dragged back almost immediately.
The burly man still had some strength left in him, but his expression was equally worn and exhausted.
Atram, meanwhile, sat at ease, looking every bit the man savoring a show for his own entertainment.
What on earth is this?
Roy stared intently at the screen, sinking into thought.
Was Atram really this idle? This… generous?
Judging from the women, none of them looked like the "transmigrators" Roy was familiar with.
If he remembered correctly, the sudden appearance of refugee-transmigrators had only begun at the start of this month.
By now—the month's end—Fuyuki's refugee shelter had already received three separate groups.
The first batch appeared in early January. The second in the middle. The third, just recently.
As a member of the city's guard detail, Roy had been present each time.
The first batch had contained no familiar faces at all. In the second, he had assumed the same—until he later learned that Tōsaka Rin had secretly taken Hayasaka Ai into her custody. The third group had included Kasumigaoka Utaha and Aki Tomoya. Other than them, the rest had been strangers.
Which meant that, as of now, the only refugees Roy actually recognized were Hayasaka Ai, Kasumigaoka Utaha, and Aki Tomoya.
So why was Atram staging some twisted party with two random refugee men?
Magicians never wasted effort without purpose. Their methods might be cruel, but their goals were always sharp and clear.
And magicians were busy—constantly buried in tasks and assignments. Roy himself had had to save up an entire year's worth of leave to finally earn these few days of freedom, though even now, emergency dispatches occasionally called him back. Atram was just as busy, yet here he was—sitting to watch two helpless refugees in this humiliating scene.
What was his aim?
Don't tell me…
"…Lord Roy, that's enough. Please—call back your familiar."
The voice at his side was tight with suppressed anger.
Roy blinked back from his thoughts and turned to look at Kasumigaoka Utaha. Her face was pale, her expression dark and stormy.
Didn't she constantly act like she was living in hell?
Didn't this look like "enjoyment" to her?
She had the gall to beg for her master's help—when the reality on the screen was searing enough to burn her eyes.
"Utaha," Roy said evenly, noting her trembling lips and tightly clenched fists, "this isn't as simple as you think."
He pointed toward the scene. "Look closely. One side are refugees, the other are locals. This isn't just some hedonistic gathering. It's an experiment."
"…An experiment?"
Utaha bit down hard, her teeth grinding. That was what he dared to call this?
"Magicians don't waste their time."
With a wave of his hand, Roy dismissed the projection. The brass bird familiar turned mid-air, wings beating as it returned home.
"Magic isn't some divine gift—it's built through research, through trial and progress. Any concept born from human history, even something as simple as reproduction, can be dissected, analyzed, and manipulated until it becomes a working ritual, a magic."
"Atram's actions seem to be heading exactly in that direction. I suspect what you just witnessed is a reproductive experiment. Specifically… he's testing what happens when refugees like you—transmigrators from other worlds—are bred with local humans."
There had already been three batches of refugees. From the first wave, some had openly declared themselves transmigrators.
The groups were large enough that the truth couldn't be hidden.
Most magicians, however, were not particularly concerned.
After all, parallel worlds were real here. So what if people had crossed over from another world? Most assumed it was just another branch reality bleeding into this one.
Besides—every last refugee so far had been ordinary. Not one of them had shown supernatural power.
Yes, it was shocking. But in Fuyuki? Hardly unimaginable. Ten years ago, the wielder of the Second Magic, Zelretch himself, had appeared in this very city. If strange occurrences cropped up here, the first guess was always his doing.
But everyone also knew one thing: magicians had no moral bottom line. Even with Tōsaka Rin enforcing her restrictions, it was no surprise that some would inevitably target the transmigrators to run their own experiments.
Atram was clearly one of those.
"Reproductive… experiments?"
Utaha's face twisted, as though she'd swallowed poison.
Roy nodded slightly. "Judging by their condition, this has been going on for days. Forced, no doubt. Maybe it began with a sense of pleasure, but after endless repetition… any man would be left drained, scarred, and terrified of women."
It was a grim but reasonable deduction.
Tomoya's silence, his refusal to speak no matter how he was questioned, suddenly made sense.
Roy thought about it honestly: if it had been him trapped in such a situation, could he ever admit it? If anyone found out—especially someone he knew—he would die of shame.
Utaha's expression shifted rapidly, her chest heaving with uneven breaths.
Her mind leapt not to Tomoya, but to her own first day in this world—when she had been thrown into the refugee shelter.
"Well, what do we have here? Some fine goods among this lot. That woman, and that man over there. I'll be taking those two with me."
That was exactly what that dark-skinned bastard had said.
And his goal? Refugees—for reproductive experiments.
If she really had been taken away that day… what would she be now?
Would she be in Tomoya's place—pinned beneath strangers, violated again and again, forced to endure until she conceived? And all of it under the crushing power of a magician, with no means of resistance. Even if she fought, they could hypnotize her, erase her will, strip away her sense of self until nothing remained.
The thought made her want to scream.
Utaha shuddered violently, clutching her arms tight against her chest as if trying to block out the grotesque images forming in her mind.
For the first time, she truly understood what it meant to face a magician.
For the first time, she felt nothing but raw, unshakable fear.
Her knees gave way. She crouched low, hugging herself, trembling as terror seeped through every fiber of her being.
"It's okay. Don't be afraid. I'm here."
The boy's hand patted her gently on the back, steady and warm, pulling her mind back from the brink.
It took a long while before her breathing slowed, before her trembling subsided.
And in that moment, Kasumigaoka Utaha realized—never had she been so grateful to Roy, the one who had pulled her away from that fate.