Something’s... awfully chaotic.

As she crossed the Academy grounds, Rosetta Zebbert thought to herself.

In one hand, she held an acceleration magic tool she had quietly borrowed from Balrok’s luggage the other day.

Watching the house isn’t even one percent as important as Ruby’s presentation!

Obviously. Obviously.

She had always wanted to be the sort of person who was like a surprise box.

She liked being that sudden burst of joy that came after a heart-thumping moment of suspense.

For a long time, that had been a pleasure she wanted to give only to Leviathan...

But lately, she wanted to make her daughter juuust a little happier instead.

“Hmm, Father seems to be somewhere near the lakeside... and where could our Ruby be? Hehe. If I pop up out of nowhere, her eyes are going to go so round.”

She had just turned, almost skipping with excitement, when a familiar back came into view.

Gasp, secondary target acquired!

Her eyes curved playfully as she started creeping closer, planning to startle him—

Ding, ding, ding, ding.

A bell rang out, one whose meaning should not have been possible to mistake.

The emergency bell? Why—

Her soft face hardened at once.

“Leviathan!”

In the end, Rosetta caught Leviathan by the «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» arm and spun him around.

“...Rose?”

“You...”

She went cold.

Leviathan’s face was pale—so pale he looked like a corpse. Looking closer, she realized he was breathing hard.

As if he had been tearing through the grounds in a frenzy, searching somewhere.

Rosetta’s heart dropped.

“What happened?”

“Ruby...”

The man whose voice was always low and steady spoke in a rough, broken rasp.

“I have to find Rubian.”

“...”

“She... magic...”

Haa. A shaking breath spilled from him. Leviathan buried his head in one massive hand.

Clenched between his fingers was one pitiful ribbon.

“She was... the mage... the Magic Kingdom has been searching for.”

“...”

Rosetta went rigid. The meaning struck her mind a beat late.

“...What? What are you—”

“I’m sorry. We need to find Ruby first. I’ll explain later. Right now...”

“...”

Rosetta’s face turned cold and still. She fell silent for a moment.

Then she gave a crisp nod.

“All right.”

Because hearing the explanation was not the important thing right now.

Right now, they needed to move.

“Let’s go.”

She snatched a bow and arrows from the knights nearby.

The two of them searched everywhere around the area where the children had been hunting for treasure.

Rubian was nowhere.

It felt wrong. Badly wrong.

Then a familiar face entered Rosetta’s line of sight.

“Your Highness, the Fourth Prince?”

Licht, who had been running somewhere at full speed, stopped and turned, breathing hard.

“Duchess of Zebbert.”

“What is going on?”

Leviathan stepped forward without hesitation.

“A suspicious person has infiltrated the Academy.”

“A suspicious person?”

“It seems... likely they’re a mage. We need rein—”

“......!”

The couple’s eyes met.

BOOOOM!

At that instant, a deafening crash came from the distant library.

Along with a sinister presence, the cry of a creature that should never, ever have been heard in a place like this ripped across the sky.

“A magical beast...?”

Leviathan’s mind went white.

His body moved before his thoughts could catch up, already sprinting like a gale.

I can’t lose her again.

Not again.

He wanted no more nightmares like that.

*****

“Haah, haah.”

I was running for my life.

The second is seriously insane.

She’s out of her mind!

How could she even think of bringing a magical beast sealing stone around so carelessly?!

No matter how important her own safety was, that was too much!

If it broke, the high-rank magical beasts sealed inside would wake up! Didn’t she know the whole area would be reduced to rubble?

“Gah!”

My foot slipped out from under me on the ground. But I popped right back up like a tumbler doll and ran again.

I was cutting across the low hill behind the Central Library, where hazel trees and ginkgo trees stood scattered without any order.

The Mage King’s magic...

The Mage King had taken over the second’s body.

So in the end, he had found out.

That the second had come to Babilon on her own.

I’d managed to wrench myself free from the second’s grip by moving my magic, but he had still ended up shattering the magical beast sealing stone she had been carrying.

“Iglius!”

Two high-rank magical beasts burst up through the library roof, smashing it to pieces.

While that happened, I escaped out the back path behind the library.

First... I need to get farther away from here.

At least it was a relief that the existence of the Rare Books Archive hadn’t been exposed.

That place’s strange reservoir of magic aside, Professor Yuliope... and all the records Babilon’s scholars had protected with their lives were there.

KRAAAASH!

“Eek!”

The sound of a building collapsing somewhere in the distance tangled my steps. It was almost more like the strength had gone out of my legs.

At this rate the whole Academy is going to be wrecked!

I crawled behind an enormous tree and curled in on myself.

From earlier, there had been a constant hiss of static.

I knew it was Khalid, but I was using every bit of strength I had to block the circuit.

The Mage King is nearby.

I clapped both hands over my ears. My whole body trembled.

If I call Khalid, they’ll find out he’s a mage!

I hated that more than death.

I really, really didn’t want to see that horrible mark carved into his body too.

“......!”

That was when it happened.

I heard a disgusting, low growl and felt a chill crawl over me.

It’s a magical beast!

I folded myself even smaller behind the tree.

Iglius is sensitive to sound... if I just stay quiet...

Thankfully, in a place where the ambient magic was this thin, even a high-rank magical beast couldn’t easily spread its power.

Its senses had probably dulled too.

Go away.

Rustle.

With a prickling current in the air came the sound of something beastly drawing closer.

My heart pounded. My breath came hard and fast.

Rustle.

The magical beast let out a loud cry and swung its claws. The tree standing right beside me snapped with a cracking groan.

“I’m sca— ngh.”

I clapped a hand over my own mouth.

Don’t.

Don’t say you’re scared.

It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s okay.

I had dealt with an Iglius that used flames before. Of course, the back of my hair had burned off that time, but...

The battlefield...

Was this a battlefield?

No way, don’t tell me...

Was the war not over?

For a moment, that thought flashed through me.

Don’t be ridiculous!

I shook my head hard and rummaged through my pocket. A few acorns came out.

I gripped them tight, intending to throw them.

To lure it away with sound.

I peeked my head out just a little and started to move my arm—

“There you are.”

“......!”

A hand snatched the back of my neck.

“My seventh. My precious child.”

I had been so focused on the magical beast that I hadn’t sensed the second’s presence approaching from the other side.

I struggled wildly, twisting away from the hand trying to hoist me up.

“Let... go!”

“This little outing has gone on long enough.”

That magic was enough to make my skin crawl.

I squeezed my eyes shut. The outside was clearly still the second, but the grip, the presence—none of it felt the same.

This isn’t the Mage King himself. It’s only a fragment of his magic. Don’t be scared. Don’t be scared!

I kept repeating it, but I couldn’t stop the cold sweat pouring down me.

“No!”

My watch spun wildly, and I was just about to hurl out an attack spell with all my strength—

BOOOOOOM!

A tremendous crash shook the earth.

A pale cloud of dust shot upward in an instant. Through it, a huge hand lunged straight for the second’s throat.

“What—!”

The second sprang back with animal-like reflexes.

Step. Step.

A long shadow emerged through the smoke.

“Rubian.”

“......!”

A familiar voice, low and sunken.

“...You ran off treasure hunting, and it turns out Dad was the one who had to find you?”

My vision shook as if it were a lie. My father was looking at me, smiling faintly.

“Took me long enough to find our family’s treasure.”