Volume 17, Chapter 4

Raymond S. Clark. He's currently a high school sophomore located in USNA Berkeley, California. He had been one of Shizuku's classmates during her foreign exchange student program.

The high school he attends differs from a Japanese Magic High School in that it isn't a facility that specializes in Magic Training. In this school, Magic Studies and Magic Practice are optional subjects. However, even the USNA can't escape from the cruel lack of teachers related to Magical courses. Since the number of student applicants vastly outnumber the amount of teachers, each and every school comes up with its own entrance exam to select future students. Objectively speaking, Raymond's school had turned into a 'Magic High School'.

That wasn't implying he was a poor Magician. Among his peers, Raymond was at the top of his class. Still, it wasn't enough talent to enter the STARS or something similar. His value and talent lay in another area.

That's how they're called by the USNA's Intelligence Agency. In reality, they aren't so much an organization as they are a group of unaffiliated individuals with the same special ability.

‘Hlieskjálf’ is the hacking system concealed within the USNA's worldwide communication interceptor ‘Echelon III’. Only seven "operators" have access to it. That's the ability shared between ‘The Seven Sages’, using Hlieskjálf, which greatly surpasses Echelon III's legitimate operators, to gather information from anywhere in the world, earning them this title.

Among the seven operators of Hlieskjálf, there was only one person who actually used the title. This person, on a whim, gave information to the USNA about an anti-government organization and introduced himself as one of 'The Seven Sages'. This was, of course, none other than Raymond.

Today as well, Raymond was swimming in the sea of information brought to him by using Hlieskjálf. He was a person who was zealous about acquiring knowledge. He also liked to investigate about specific things here and there, but amassing information without a specific topic was closer to being a hobby of his. For Raymond, Hlieskjálf was the greatest of his toys.

That being said, in order to actually use Hlieskjálf, one has to define search parameters first. That is because the nature and the function of Hlieskjálf is to answer questions.

Rays of light became characters as the search conditions were being specified. The terminal of Hlieskjálf was operated by the user's brain waves and gestures in a VR (Virtual Reality) like environment made possible by the HMD (Head-mounted Display). The camera caught the movement of his fingertips, rays of light were projected in the virtual environment. The operator inputs the search criteria with characters of light, determining the settings with the assistance of their brain waves.

Right now, Raymond was using the broad ‘Scandal of the USNA Army’ terms for his research. A massive amount of information opened in the sky, being displayed in various ‘windows’. The window in the distance displayed only the titles of articles while the window close-by was displaying their contents. Another window was composed of diagrams with their accompanying text, another contained images, and another was a video. If you directed your eyes on a window, it would come closer, while looking away would send it away. As far as the eye could see, there were innumerable windows in every direction.

Speed reading and memorization were Raymond's forte. Tens of windows queued up as he progressively carved their contents into his head. However, he unexpectedly stopped this operation. A certain window's content attracted Raymond's attention.

(The contents of an old depot for small missiles went missing..?)

It would be no surprise if this fact had made headlines. Sadly, it wasn't unusual to hear that old weapons that were planned to be scrapped had up and disappeared.

The missiles that went missing were using C-20 (cyclotrimethylene trinitramine) as the main explosive ingredient for an infantry-usable anti-aircraft missile. Even though it had been used quite a bit during the war that lasted until 2020, the progress on nanotechnologies allowing explosions to surpass the previous limits had forced these weapons into obsoletion.

(Still, it's a well-tried warfare tool.. I can't think of this affair as just a matter of control negligence.)

Raymond licked his lips at the perspective of having found something suspicious. His forté was his fast reading speed and good memory, but he also had some kind of sixth sense for detecting fishy affairs.

For Raymond, the events occurring in the real world were like the grandest shows. The more substantial and serious the event was, the greater his interest became.

He knew full-well that he was no superman. Even if his magical talent was first-class, it wasn't anywhere near the world's finest. He knew that he would never be an influential Magician. Nor will he ever become a hero travelling the world. ——No matter how much he wished for it.

Raymond looked at his potential that way. That is why, by lending his power to real heroes, he could feel like he shared in their adventures. He could then enjoy watching the events unfold on the stage he had set. That's what he thought, and Hlieskjálf made this a possibility.

It was like Hlieskjálf had been made to allow him to do so.

(Should I start by examining this from the management situation of the depot?)

Even if he finds out where the missing missiles went, he wasn't sure that this whole thing would end there. No matter the affair, it was always a human's hand that caused it. Who could've put those weapons on the black market? Raymond started a search with a now all too familiar procedure.

? ? ?

Before Raymond noticed the disappearance of the old missiles —— two days before in fact —— this matter had become a problem for the USNA Army. This wasn't a matter that could remain within the base's jurisdiction, so the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the USNA's Intelligence Division had begun an internal investigation.

The reason this matter wasn't entrusted to the gendarmerie was because they suspected a terrorist organization was involved. Those missiles could be put on the black market and end up in the hands of terrorists. If that disaster became reality, it would mean that once those missiles had been used and their origin discovered, it would provoke a worldwide scandal. The Department of Defense was ready to do anything to prevent that.

However, the investigation had already started six days ago, but it was now January 27th and things had hardly progressed. Despite the fact that it was a Sunday, the Number 2, Colonel Balance, was present in the office. She had a grim expression as she read the presented report.

There were almost no clues whatsoever that would help in this affair.

She understood from the very beginning that the perpetrators must've received inside help. To begin with, it was practically impossible to steal weapons from the military, as old as those weapons were, without the cooperation from the inside. However, even if they somehow managed to bribe the captain of the unit charged with guarding the warehouse, there was no way they could've taken the weapons without leaving any trace whatsoever.

The comings and goings of weapons are double, if not triple-checked. In addition to an RFID tag, the warehouses are equipped with biometric sensors, and moreover, it is impossible to open or shut the accesses if you are alone because the need for two people cannot be bypassed. They were investigating if there had been any anomalies in those systems, to no avail.

Balance was reminded of a point that was particularly perturbing her: how did they notice that something went missing?

The loss of the missiles was noticed by the people responsible for checking stocks. However, if this theft was performed by an organization capable of completely bypassing the security of the warehouse, why didn't they also falsify the stock records? These were obsolete weapons awaiting disposal. If they had modified the data to make it seem like they had been disposed of, no one would have noticed. It was as if someone had stolen them and allowed them to notice on purpose. Colonel Balance genuinely felt that this was the case.

(But then, who could've done that, and for what purpose? No, to begin with, who even has the capability to pull something like this off?)

The lack of information made it impossible to reach a conclusion. Knowing so, Balance was lost in unnecessary thoughts.

Balance collected herself at the sound of her phone's ringtone, signaling a new email. It wasn't an ordinary email either. It was a communication using a code that only top-level members of the Intelligence Division knew about.

With practiced, machine-like movements of her hands, she transferred the contents of the email to an offline decoder as per procedure. It wouldn't be readable on a device available due to the masses to prevent sharing information in plain text. When she saw the deciphered message and spotted the name of the sender, Balance wore an amazed expression.

‘The Seven Sages’.

Her eyes glistened as she read the contents. Forgetting to breathe as the pored over the contents, it took a few moments for her to compose herself after reading the email.

"Are these kinds of things even permitted?"

The secret information received from ‘The Seven Sages’ stated that the President's Assistant of the Deputy Chief of Staff took part in the matter. And even worse was the motive. If what was written here was true, then all of this was part of a much larger-scale plan that vastly exceeded Balance's expectations.

Balance stretched her hand towards the visiphone when her hand stopped.

She was hesitating about who exactly she should call. No, to be more precise, she had no idea.

To whom she should share this information with, and if she can even trust anyone with this, Balance was at a loss.

? ? ?

Angelina Sirius, High Commander in direct command of the USNA Army's Magician Force, STARS, was enjoying a rare shopping break. Of course, she currently wasn't walking around as the "Strategic-Class Magician Angie Sirius" but as the 17-year-old, Lina.

Instead of going to the nearest town Roswell, Silvia Mercury First, nicknamed Silvie, who was accompanying Lina, strongly recommended that they extend their travel to Albuquerque.

Since their mission last year in Japan, these two have been spending quite a lot of time together. Despite their age difference, Silvie treated Lina as if she was her younger sister. Lina's utter lack of what could be called a normal girl's common sense provoked a swirl of emotions inside of her, and she simply could not leave Lina alone.

Today, like prior ones, was Silvie playing dress-up using Lina as the doll. However, Lina was also enjoying herself. Even though her fashion sense was on the questionable side, she like dressing up. To be fair, if the subject's tastes were fine, there wasn't much need to improve them. In this case, Lina didn't have someone to look pretty for in comparison to Miyuki, which lead to a huge gap.

But putting all of that aside, Lina was going back to the base's lodging house in a very good mood, carrying her spoils of war. You could say that those were very fulfilling holidays. Even though she didn't receive any mobilization orders as Sirius, a harsh session of training was waiting for her tomorrow. Today had been pretty refreshing, Lina was quite satisfied.

However, her cheerful mood was immediately blown away by the mail she received on her room's terminal.

"An encrypted mail!?"

It wasn't that unusual for her to receive an encrypted mail containing secret orders. However, that a mail using the special encryption code only known of the High Commander, the Chiefs of Staff and the Captains of the STARS, arriving directly on her room's terminal was a first.

Could it be an emergency? In a mix of impatience and nervousness, Lina was waiting for the decoder to transcribe the contents of the mail. Shocked feelings surfaced in her expression as she started to read.

"The Seven Sages..?"

The name of the sender was ‘The Seven Sages’.

“A joke?” was Lina's first reaction but she dismissed that thought as quickly as it came. There is no way a mere hacker could access the STARS special encryption code. To begin with, the title of 'The Seven Sages" wasn't known by those outside the direct control of the Joint Chiefs of Staff HQ.

Lina hurriedly resumed her reading. A few events without seemingly any relation to her duties were recorded.

"Eh!? The mastermind behind the Parasite event!?"

However, as she reached the end of the mail, information that was strongly connected to Lina started to appear.

Lina had been sent to Japan due to the event that occurred on October

31st, 2095 A.D. She had been sent to uncover the identity of the user of the Strategic-Class Magic that ravaged the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula, the ‘Great Bomb’ (this was the name given to Material Burst by the USNA). However, once the STARS Members possessed by the Parasites started to desert and flee to Japan, as a part of her High Commander's duties she ordered their ‘Disposal’.

Lina was told that the Parasite outbreak was the result of an accident. Due to that fact, it was supposed to end with the deaths of the affected people. However, if this source was to be trusted, then the Parasite Affair had been purposely started and the perpetrator was responsible for the comrades that Lina was forced to kill. The added despair from her assassination duty would also be the instigator’s fault.

This was definitely something that couldn’t be forgiven.

"..The Mastermind of the Parasites is going to try to perform acts of terrorism in Japan by using old missiles he stole? This can’t be real!?"

After she finished her reading of the mail, Lina found herself instinctively shouting about.

This was information coming from a dubious source. There was no guarantee that it held any truth.

A profiler working for the USNA Army had analyzed ‘The Seven Sages’ and came to the conclusion that they most likely enjoyed the reactions provoked by their whimsical acts. Even if that mail truly came from ‘The Seven Sages’, Lina couldn't shrug off the possibility that this was all part of an elaborate plan to play some kind of trick on her.

Despite that, Lina believed this information.

During the last stages of the Parasite Affair of last year, just like today, Lina had received information from someone using the name ‘The Seven Sages’. At that time, she didn't have any reason to believe the information given either. But even still, she had believed it was the truth.

This time was the same. Her believing it had no basis. There was no real reason for her to believe it.

However, if she ignored this information and something happened afterwards she would deeply regret it.

Being tricked, being manipulated and becoming a laughingstock wouldn't compare to that.

If the conspiracy recorded in the mail was the truth and became reality, then the USNA would have a great debt towards Japan. Considering Japan’s current state of tension, if USNA-made weapons were used in terrorist acts.. then it wouldn't be surprising if Japan accused them of instigating terrorism on their territory.

If you think about the difference in power between the two countries, the possibility of a war happening was rather small. However, that is if we're only taking conventional war potential in account, and not something like the Strategic-Class Magic responsible for ‘Scorched Halloween’. If the range of that magic can extend even further than the Pacific Ocean —— as another user of Strategic-Class Magic, Lina's common sense denies the possibility of.. the worst could happen.

That is why she believes the information.

Lina was convinced she had to stop this plan from reaching fruition. Not just obstructing, but actually killing the mastermind behind it as well.

However, according to the information provided by ‘The Seven Sages’, the Mastermind ‘Jiedo Heigu’ had already left the USNA for Japan. Indeed, it would be difficult for Lina to act outside of her country, let alone in Japan.

Lina decided to consult about this entire scenario with the only person she thought could help.

? ? ?

Balance extended her hand towards the ringing visiphone.

Her posture crumbled for a moment. She quickly recovered and pressed the button to accept the call.

"Colonel, forgive me for calling unannounced."

Lina appeared on the screen, saluting in her purple-black STARS uniform.

Seeing Lina's appearance, as if she had just changed in her fresh, tight uniform, Balance felt slightly nostalgic.

"Major Sirius. Weren't you on leave today?"

Lina's expression betrayed her surprise. She struggled to understand why Balance was aware of her schedule despite the fact that she is not even under her direct command. From Balance's point of view, it was part of the course for her to know everything about the movements of a Strategic-Class Magician, one of the ‘Twelve Apostles’, the strongest magician of the USNA and High Commander of the STARS, Angie Sirius.

"Don't pay attention to what I just said. So, do you have any business with me?"

Sincerely apologizing for the idle talk, Balance enquired about the reason of her call.

"Yes. Being blunt I require assistance from the Colonel about a report I received."

Being urged on by Balance, Lina began exposing the matter.

"Go on."

"Understood. To tell you the truth, in the period of time ranging from 0900 hours to 1632 hours when I was out, I received an encrypted message from someone who claimed to be a member of ‘The Seven Sages’."

"When you say the Seven Sages, are you talking about "those" ‘Seven Sages’?"

Hiding the shock, she received behind a poker face, Balance responded so.

"It was indeed the sender's name. Although, I have no way of knowing whether it is the truth or not."

"Hmm."

Balance nodded and urged Lina to continue through the camera.

"Assuming that the source of information is indeed ‘The Seven Sages’, the report stated that weapons stolen from our army are going to be used in a terrorist attack. The target would be Japan."

"What kind of weapon?"

"Infantry-carried Anti-Aircraft Missiles."

"..Major, do you think such a case of theft actually occurred?"

"I don't have a definite answer. However, there are indeed rumors about weapons awaiting disposal being stolen from us."

Balance uttered a sigh. If someone like Lina who was pretty much isolated from the regular military troops..

If the information leaked so far that even a ‘Sheltered Official’ such as her was aware of this matter, then that means it wasn't just the staff in- charge of the weapons' surveillance whose discipline was lacking.

"Colonel?"

A worried expression started to appear on Lina's face. Knowing her, she might be thinking that she offended Balance in some way.

Balance herself interpreted it so anyway. For her, this was rather vexing. "No, it's nothing. Please go on."

"Understood. Even though there was no mention of a specific target, there were references concerning a Mastermind. The name was Jiedo Heigu. He became a political refugee following Dahan's ruin, his Chinese name is Gu Jie. His estimated age would be between 60 and 90 years old. Black eyes and white hair, it appears that despite his Eastern Asian lineage, he possesses dark skin. There was a special note mentioning that he might be a survivor of the Kunlunfang Institute."

"The Kunlunfang Institute? Isn't that the Magic Research Laboratory of Dahan that was exterminated by the Yotsuba?"

"I think that is indeed the case."

They couldn't possibly be thinking of taking revenge on the Yotsuba by using the missiles, could they? Balance thought, but she immediately dismissed that hypothesis as nonsensical. If the Yotsuba could be dealt with as simply as that, they wouldn't be feared as ‘Untouchable’ throughout the world.

"Furthermore."

While Balance was lost in her thoughts, Lina continued her report.

"It appears that Jiedo Heigu was the Mastermind behind the Parasite Affair."

Balance had a look of understanding.

"I see, so this was the main reason of your call."

Even if her intention was discovered, Lina didn't cower.

"Colonel. Even if the information about Jiedo Heigu's relation to the Parasite Affair is the truth, I would like to know his degree of involvement. The deserters might have had no relation to the Parasite

Outbreak, and could have been mere pawns. However, if this Jiedo Heigu has even the slightest link to this affair, I cannot overlook it. If I don't pay him back with my very own hands, I won't be able to get over it."

"Major Sirius. Are you telling me you want to go to Japan once more?"

"Affirmative, Colonel."

Balance frowned as if taken by a sudden headache.

Allowing Lina to leave the country was a difficult matter. Even under the best circumstances, dispatching magicians to other countries should be done carefully. The degree of difficulty increases by several orders of magnitude if they were talking about the Strategic-Class Magician ‘Sirius’. One of the Strategic-Class Magicians of the USNA, Roland Bart, had been placed in the British territory of Gibraltar, but even then, there was almost no record of him going out of that base. To the extent that he is purposely called back to the USNA during his vacations. Having sent Lina in Japan last year was an exception among exceptions.

Lina herself probably understood all of this very well. That is why Balance also understood what this was about when Lina decided to call her. Moreover, Balance fully understood Lina's desire to take revenge on Heigu with her own hands.

"..At this time I cannot give you an answer. Major, you will have to give me some time."

Lina couldn't hide her surprise in front of the camera. For her, who thought that she would be immediately rejected, Balance's response was going in a surprisingly good direction.

"Yes, I'm counting on you, Colonel."

The call ended with Lina's appearance saluting on the screen.

? ? ?

Meanwhile, Jiedo Heigu, or Gu Jie, was at sea.

Even though up until a few days ago he had lived on the USNA's West Coast, he didn't possess USNA citizenship.

Gu Jie's homeland was Dahan, a country that had already disappeared. He used to belong to the Magician Development Institute of Kunlunfang. In the eventuality that Dahan would collapse, the USNA's government would grant him refugee status, and as such, his social status was currently that of a normal refugee.

However, at the time Gu Jie arrived on the North American continent in 2054, the country's name was still the USA. Dahan's collapse occurred in February of the year 2064 A.D., merely a single year after the destruction of the Kunlunfang Institute.

After the collapse of Dahan, rather, the destruction of the Kunlunfang Institute, Gu Jie didn't seek asylum from North America. He ran away from Dahan.

The Kunlunfang Institute predated the division between the Great Asian Alliance and Dahan, and one could think of it as the main Modern Magic's research laboratory of the old Eastern Asian region.

However, that wasn't the entire truth.

The Kunlunfang Institute had earned quite the renown as a laboratory developing Modern Magic. But that wasn't the only thing they had been working on.

Both Ancient Magic and Modern Magic were being researched.

However, just like the other countries, those two 'factions', so to speak, were at odds.

Originally, the Ninth Institute in Japan was supposed to use the know- how of Ancient Magic to develop Modern Magic. That being said, it wasn't researching both Ancient Magic and Modern Magic simultaneously. In the end, the Ancient Magic Users revolted, and the rebels also took over the Ninth Institute after the lockdown.

Both groups turned into something similar to organizations, competing for leadership. Ancient Magic and Modern Magic users argued about each and every policy for the Research Laboratories, including objectives, budgets, and human resources.

Even in the Kunlunfang Institute, both Ancient Magic users and Modern Magic users fiercely competed for control.

Despite the fact that the Kunlunfang Institute was the main laboratory of Dahan, the internal dispute continued. No, rather, it intensified and this escalation would bring about a catastrophe before long. The Modern Magic side ended up winning the power struggle and banished the Ancient Magic users from the Institute. This happened in the year 2054.

It was at that time that Gu Jie, as an Ancient Magic User, fled to North America along with his apprentice Zhou Gongjin. That's why, under normal circumstances, Gu Jie shouldn't have any grudge towards the Yotsuba nor Japan's Magicians. The Yotsuba were the ones who crushed the Modern Magician sect, the ones who had taken over the Kunlunfang Institute. They should have been something similar to a ‘the enemy of my enemy is my ally’ existence to Gu Jie.

However, after Dahan's collapse, Gu Jie decided that the Yotsuba and the Japanese Magic Community were targets for revenge. Exactly what kind of mental thought process led him to that conclusion, no one really knew.

Was it patriotism?

Did he feel like his own revenge of Dahan had been taken away from him?

Was an enemy simply needed to maintain his subordinate's cohesion?

The only thing that was certain was that Gu Jie constructed a criminal network made up of Dahan's deserters, that he exerts a powerful control over them and that his only known objective so far is revenge. As for the person in question, nothing else is known.

When he was still alive, Zhou Gongjin had apparently compared his obsession to that of a ‘vengeful spirit’.

Due to the lack of apparent reason behind his acts, it was impossible to convince him to stop. Having lost his last apprentice, Zhou Gongjin, he decided take matters into his own hands.

However, Gu Jie's direct, immediate fighting potential was low. Even though he was also a user of Ancient Continental Magic, the Magic that he possessed wasn't suited for direct confrontation. If we're talking strictly about duels, Zhou Gongjin was his superior. This was something Gu Jie himself was willing to admit.

Gu Jie was proficient in techniques that used human organs or parts to create magic devices, like with the case of ‘Sorcery Boosters’, that is, to turn a human into a tool functioning similarly to a ‘Generator’, and magic for controlling corpses.

He was the practitioner of the side of Magic that concentrated all of its vilest aspects, but ethical questions aside, he really wasn't the type to fight head on. Actually, he had kept himself to just being a manipulator until now.

For Gu Jie himself to come to Japan was proof that he had been cornered, and had no other choice.

The international Anti-Magic Political Organization that he had been supporting, ‘Blanche’, had been considerably weakened by the pressure and measures taken by the governments of several nations. As the leader of the criminal syndicate ‘No Head Dragon’, he had also tried to spread rumors in both Japan and the USNA (with the cooperation of the Great Asian Alliance) but his plan ended in failure as well.

Finally, he lost his envoy in Japan, Zhou Gongjin. Zhou Gongjin had been under Gu Jie's command for more than 40 years, the last remaining person who had fled Dahan with him. With this loss, Gu Jie was forced to act by himself.

Zhou Gongjin had been killed in October of last year.

It was slightly past mid-January when Gu Jie left from the Los Angeles' port.

It wasn't because he was mourning the death of his apprentice, nor because his plan had failed that Gu Jie took more than two months to make his move. It was the result of him waiting for the most appropriate time. Truth be told, he wanted to leave for Japan immediately and retaliate, however, if he failed to, then things would be over once and for all. He was conscious of that fact.

With his magical skills, being too aggressive was impossible. That isn't to say that his magical skills are non-existent, but against a first-rate Magician, it was nowhere near sufficient. That was why he first needed weapons.

If Blanche and No Head Dragon had been in a better state, a simple word of his would have done the deal, and a single month would've been more than enough to gather the materials.

That would include the arrangements required for a ship that would cross the Pacific Ocean. As things are, he had to set up all of that himself. To be more precise, he found a random punk that -->>

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