Savant City Public Security Bureau
The director of the Public Security Bureau in Savant City had just received a rather strange order.
A disciplinary squad from the Mechanical Academy—about a hundred transcendents in total—had arrived carrying a directive from one of Savant's elder council members.
They demanded that the Bureau dispatch personnel to Heim Industrial Park, located outside Savant City, and seal off the entire area.
The reason they provided sounded reasonable enough.
According to them, the park's manager, Tina, was suspected of manipulating the free market economy, thereby destabilizing Savant's order.
The elder's written order even suggested that Tina might be a spy from the Orc Empire.
However, after reading the order brought to him, Count Corbin, the current director of the Savant City Public Security Bureau, couldn't help recalling something else—
The large chest of gold coins sitting inside his safe.
The chest Tina had quietly sent to him through intermediaries.
It contained enough money to equal more than ten years of his salary.
Suddenly, the matter no longer seemed so simple to handle.
So Count Corbin looked at the young professor leading the team and said in a rather troubled tone:
"This is… a bit difficult for us to handle.
As everyone knows, Miss Tina works for the Seventh Princess, and our bureau's guiding principle is absolute neutrality in the royal succession.
However, you have come here with an elder's official order, and we certainly can't simply ignore that either.
How about this—I'll personally arrange for Miss Tina to come here so both sides can sit down and talk it through and clear up any misunderstanding?"
The disciplinary squad from the Mechanical Academy was led by a young-looking female instructor.
She wore a crisp uniform, her long ponytail tied high behind her head. Combined with the staff she never let leave her hand, she gave off a strikingly heroic presence.
But Director Corbin knew very well that the woman before him was not someone to provoke lightly.
As one of the twelve squad captains of the Mechanical Academy's disciplinary corps, Captain Esme was an extraordinarily powerful spellcaster.
Even among fourth-rank transcendents, her strength ranked near the top.
Therefore, even though Corbin himself had also reached the peak of the fourth rank, he had no confidence he could defeat her.
But to nobles of the Ymir Empire, integrity was extremely important.
He had taken Tina's money.
That meant he was obligated to help her smooth over this matter.
Even if he could not stop the disciplinary squad, he certainly could not allow them to drag away the people under his jurisdiction.
And more importantly—he had no intention of tying himself to the Fourth Princess's sinking ship.
Yes, accepting Tina's gold was only part of the reason he refused to act.
The real reason was that he could see the Fourth Princess's faction was already collapsing.
The turmoil within the Mechanical Academy had been so intense that it had even reached the Public Security Bureau a few days earlier.
He could hardly believe that the academy still had the energy to send people out to cause trouble.
What exactly their headmaster was thinking, he truly could not understand.
However, Corbin's attitude clearly failed to satisfy Captain Esme.
She simply cast him a cold glance.
Then she said flatly:
"You're very good."
Without another word, she turned and slammed the door behind her as she left.
Director Corbin remained standing there, his expression dark, watching her departing back with clenched teeth.
They were both fourth-rank powerhouses.
In terms of official rank, he—a royal government official—actually held a higher position than she did as a minor noble.
How dare she treat him with such disrespect?
But after recalling the terrifying headmaster backing her, Corbin took several deep breaths and forcibly suppressed his anger.
Meanwhile, after suffering this setback at the Public Security Bureau, Captain Esme decided not to waste any more time within the city.
Her top priority now was to capture the female swindler named Tina.
And then shut down her factory.
Thus, she led her hundred or so subordinates out of the city in force.
Fortunately, Heim Industrial Park was not far from Savant City.
Leaving through the south gate and heading west for about ten kilometers, one could already see the park's continuous stretch of tall walls.
Behind those walls stood rows of towering buildings and smokestacks.
From the chimneys rose pure white smoke.
This was the exhaust produced by alchemical machinery in operation—mainly water vapor mixed with small amounts of chaotic elemental residue.
Seeing this, Captain Esme—who was familiar with alchemical mechanical factories—knew she had found the right place.
She lightly raised a hand.
Dozens of transcendents stepped forward from behind her.
"Squads Five and Six—circle around to the back of the factory and block their escape route.
Squads Seven and Eight—seal the southern wall.
Squads Nine and Ten—block the north wall.
The rest of you, follow me. We'll breach through the front gate."
With a wave of her hand, the squad leaders silently led their teams forward, slipping into position.
Moments later, a fireball suddenly shot into the sky, exploding midair and releasing a brilliant flash of light.
At the signal, the ambushing squad members burst from their hiding places.
Captain Esme charged at the front, raising her staff and unleashing a massive fire dragon, which roared toward the industrial park's main gate.
In her view, someone like Duke Hel, a down-on-his-luck noble from some remote region, probably couldn't even gather a single squad of transcendents even if he had emptied his entire family fortune.
As long as they breached the park quickly, once the outer walls were gone, everyone inside would become lambs awaiting slaughter, ready to be dealt with as they pleased.
However—
Just as the fire dragon was about to slam into the gate, the tightly shut doors of the park were suddenly pulled open from inside.
A hand wearing a white glove calmly reached out in front of the fire dragon.
The instant the blazing creature was about to touch that hand—
It abruptly dissolved into a swirl of elemental energy and scattered into the air.
The gloved hand remained completely unharmed.
Then the gates slowly opened.
A refined, gentle-looking man stepped out from within.
Behind him stood a squad of fully armed knights.
"Captain Esme of the Mechanical Academy, is it? I thought you would send more people.
But it seems I overestimated you. Your Mechanical Academy can barely protect itself now—sending you here must already be your limit."
"Witt of Skoll? Why are you here?!"
Captain Esme raised her staff and pointed it directly at him, demanding sharply.
In her memory, this prodigy from Skoll Academy had disappeared more than a year ago.
Why would he suddenly appear here now?
Could it be that this outsider, Duke Hel, also had connections with Skoll Academy?
However, Esme never received an answer.
Witt merely raised a hand and waved it casually.
Behind him, the fully armed puppet knights had already begun charging toward her forces.