"Festival… around this time."
Leaning back on his seat, Isaac muttered to himself as he stared at the wall ahead of him.
It was dark into the night, around ninth bell in time.
Isaac was at his desk in a relaxed posture. However, his mind was anything but relaxed. If anything, it was alert.
How did Henrick find out the information?
Isaac was certain that the royal family were undergoing investigations regarding the spies even before his involvement. They probably managed to connect the linkage between Donaston Terra and whatever they have been working on.
Is it that they have a counterspy? A skill that gives an upper hand in the war of information, like Lyra's?
His hand was holding onto the wand meant for the wand training—one that was originally meant to be Jax Wason's tool.
Or perhaps, they are more aware than what they show. They have instead chosen to leak false information to Solari Empire through those operating spies.
One thing that he was sure of, however, was that the royal family wasn't aware of Donaston Terra's defect, which was quite evident based on Lyra's reaction.
He supposed that this was the reason why they were acting now. If a Pillar House defected, and they were one of the royal family's contacts that are aware of royal family's awareness regarding the operatives, it means that the Solari Empire actually had the upper hand in the information the whole time.
In this case, Isaac himself was the one that made a crevice in this ideal situation in Solari Empire's favor. The usual operation by Solari Empire's operatives led to Donaston Terra's affiliation with Solari Empire.
Isaac, in addition, showed a capability to fend off against three skill users of higher ranks. Considering how Lyra's skill is meant for support rather than the actual combat, what he proved during the assault before was that his victory against Silas Fulgur wasn't a fluke.
However, even so. To Isaac, it didn't make sense. If they are able to target me, why not target the three S-rank skill owners currently residing in the academy?
He thought a little, and deduced that it wasn't entirely unreasonable.
S-rank skill is, nevertheless, S-rank. Baseline is far above others' reach. I suppose targeting F-rank when guard is down is far easier to accomplish.
Then, a knock.
Isaac's hand—which was busy flipping the wand—stopped. He shifted his eyes at the door.
The knock came again.
He laid the wand down. Stood up from his seat.
"Who's there."
"Isaac! It's me!" Magnus's voice flowed into the room, muffled as the closed door served as the barrier.
Isaac opened the door, a little slower than the usual, ready to accelerate his cognition if needed.
The door opened.
Magnus stood in the corridor with the easy and warm energy he always had in him. He was grinning, completely awake and lively for someone at the ninth bell.
"I figured that you'd be locking yourself in the room. Now, c'mon. Festival's still ongoing," he said. "It's too early to end the day! We only got a week to enjoy."
Isaac looked at him. Blinked. Then, formed a light chuckle.
"Where's Vesper?" Isaac asked.
"Family obligations." Magnus shrugged with the ease of someone who had prepared for this question. "I didn't get to see him the entire day for that reason. I was looking for you, but you were elsewhere the whole time as well… imagine my boredom."
Isaac looked at him for a moment. The teleportation device was still in his pocket.
"Alright," he said.
…
The Free Ground past the ninth bell had the lanterns still casting their colored light, the crowds thinner but present and active, overall filled with the liveliness of people who had decided the night had more to offer than sleep.
"…and I was trying to beg him to let me give it a try as well, but he kept saying no. I mean, I get it, but still—"
Magnus was still Magnus, rambling and talkative as he always has been.
Or, in fact, he was even livelier than the usual. Perhaps, he had it contained in him for the whole day as he roamed around the Free Ground without either of Vesper or him, and now found an opportunity to let it out.
Listening, Isaac walked beside Magnus at his natural pace.
"So, where are we heading now?" Isaac asked.
"I don't know." Magnus shrugged. Then, he lit up as if a thought crossed his mind, "Oh, what about that bar? Hearthstone? It isn't major, but I heard about it a few times by now. Sounds like a place worth visiting to me."
"I already went. Twice so far." Isaac casually replied, hands in his pockets. "It's average. No different from other bars."
"Oh? What did you have?"
"A glass of water. Then, some sort of ham sandwich."
Magnus deadpanned, "you barely had anything, and you call it average?" He then grinned, "alright, it's decided then! Hearthstone it is!"
They walked. The street was getting quieter as the crowd slowly thinned out. Given how it was the night and how Hearthstone wasn't located on the central area, it was natural that they would find lesser people on their way.
Magnus was talking about numerous things. Topics jumped from one to another.
It fascinated Isaac how lively he could be around this time.
Now, they had just went past the fountain junction. The path ahead narrowed toward the Free Ground's edge, where the festival's density thinned and the lighting dropped from the lanterns' colored warmth to the ambient mana-lamp quality of the ordinary streets.
There was no crowd. Magnus, as if having spoke everything he could think of, fell silent at last.
Isaac looked around. The buildings on left and right were of closed stores of many kinds. Given how it wasn't the residence area, there was no one but them within the site.
Isaac's pace fell a step behind Magnus.
…Four. Five in total.
His hands were still in his pockets. His right hand was grasping onto the teleportation device.
He pressed it.
"So, Magnus," Isaac then called, forcing Magnus to stop and turn to face him, "where did the real Magnus go?"
The eyes of Magnus widened. "Hm? What do you mean—"
The violet portal suddenly sprang into the existence without announcement.
Henrick, fully armored, shot through it at the momentum of someone who had been ready to move and had moved the instant the device triggered. Upon arrival, his hands were already raised.
B-rank: [Barrier] activated instantly under Henrick's will. The dome formed around Isaac and Henrick in the fraction of a second before the attacks arrived.
A second after, four mana discharges of varying types simultaneously struck the barrier dome from four directions at once, but didn't manage to find their ways to the target.
The barrier, although cracked after the blows, held. Henrick's skillful use of it successfully blocked all the skills.
The face of fake Magnus was wrinkled as the situation didn't go in their favor.
Four projectiles. Isaac marked their locations the moment they discharged their skills.
Henrick dissipated the damaged barrier.
The fake Magnus cursed as he was about to take a motion, "Damn it—"
Isaac found the window of opportunity.
He raised his right hand.
The world around him slowed down.
In the space of the pause—the fraction of a second between the first wave of attacks being absorbed and the attackers deciding to commit a second—Isaac calculated.
The fake Magnus right ahead.
Four others high above, at the roofs of buildings that surrounded them. Right, left, up, and down.
From the start, [The Prism] saw it all.
[Condensation].
A dense rotating waterdrop—calibrated for maximum kinetic impact at minimum tissue damage, heavy and dull rather than sharp—manifested at Isaac's fingertip.
When the pace of the world returned to normal in Isaac's perspective, the blunt projectile, meant to knock enemy out rather than kill, was fired.
It struck the fake Magnus in the forehead. The dense waterdrop splashed into a surprising volume of water upon contact as he fell to the ground, unconscious.
Before anyone could react to this sudden development of the scene, Isaac accelerated his cognition for the second time, ignoring the blood that escaped from his nose.
[Condensation].
By reusing the splash of water that filled his proximity, Isaac generated four dense and rotating waterdrops simultaneously, in the air.
By applying partial pressure, their trajectory paths have been set toward the four remaining enemies.
Time returned to its original pace. Isaac fired the four waterdrops.
Four waterdrops instantly struck four enemies simultaneously, without an exception, at a terrifying accuracy.
The sounds were brief. The specific impact of blunt force against human bodies at the velocity required to produce unconsciousness rather than injury. Four of them, before they got to properly register the fall of the fake Magnus, were subjected to the same attack.
Then, silence.
The five figures were down. All of them unconscious. None of them dead.
Henrick appeared confused. Then dumbfounded. He, with the carefulness of a veteran, reasserted the barrier dome and held it for three seconds. Just to be sure. Then, he let it dissolve.
Slowly, his gaze swept over the unconscious individuals, one by one. After, he turned and looked at Isaac.
Isaac took out a handkerchief and was in the process of wiping the blood from his nose with that of familiarity.
Henrick was looking at him with the expression of someone who had encountered a scenario that he never imagined, not even in his dreams.
"…Five of them," At last, Henrick said, with the flat delivery of someone stating a fact while his mind was somewhere else.
"Unconscious, for now," Isaac said. "Will I be expecting any further assassination attempt within this week?"
Henrick was still staring at him. His mind seemed to be elsewhere, such that he didn't hear what Isaac just said.
"I told the princess that your F-rank was a liability," he said.
Isaac raised an eyebrow.
"I was wrong." He looked at the five figures again. "I understand now why they want you dead." He paused. "It isn't your awareness. It isn't your intellect." He looked at Isaac in disbelief. "It's this. Whatever this is." He gestured at the unconscious figures. "They can't account for it. It doesn't fit any model they have."
Isaac wiped the nosebleed again.
"[Condensation]," he said.
"F-rank," Henrick said.
"It is versatile," Isaac said.
"Versatile—" Henrick was about to retort, then sighed, "only to you."
Henrick was quiet for a moment. Then he looked at the street, and at the five unconscious figures, once again.
"Leave for tonight," he said. "I handle the aftermath. Meet me at the same time tomorrow, in the same location. Keep the device with you."
The night ended up being deadly—to the lurking operatives of the Solari Empire.
Isaac turned and left the street, with his blood-stained handkerchief folded and kept back in the chest pocket of his shirt.