[360] The Magic Association (6)
Shirone caught a carriage bound for the Magic Association. His head still throbbed from all the smacks he'd taken.
He hugged the iron box to his chest and pouted. Plu snorted.
"What, you upset about getting hit? Who told you to barge into a scene without permission? Do you even know what this is? Using magic without a mage's license is a violation of the kingdom's law."
"I'm sorry. But people almost died."
Plu had no argument against that.
"Hmph. That's one thing, and this is another. You did it knowing you'd take responsibility, didn't you? So quit whining."
It was true, so Shirone clamped his mouth shut. Above all, the terror he'd witnessed today had completely overturned his image of Bashka.
"I've heard of Radom."
Plu, who had been propping her chin and staring out the window, turned to him.
"A classmate used to live there. They said it was awful."
"Mm. Residents of Radom are banned from economic activity."
"Then why does the kingdom just leave a place like that be? Terrorism is bad, sure, but couldn't there be a more peaceful solution?"
Plu was silent for a long moment before replying.
"You… do you know what happens if a house has no trash bin?"
"Huh? A trash bin?"
"Eventually the whole house becomes a trash heap. But because there are bins, it stays clean. Radom's like that—the capital's trash bin. They don't do productive work, but their mere existence has a use. That's why nobles can't just wipe them out."
"But that—"
"I know what you're thinking, but don't say it. You can't force beliefs on people. If you have a conviction, then you're the one who has to make it happen."
Shirone drooped his head. Debating ideals that couldn't be acted on evidently wasn't a concern in the professionals' world.
"But today's incident will make the politicians think differently, a bit."
Shirone looked up.
"Bat mimicry is an inherent vampire trait. But there hasn't been any academic report of it activating in broad daylight. Something's changing inside Radom—species modification, fusion, something like that…"
It was a plausible theory.
Radom was where countless demi-human races who'd fled the continent lived mixed together. If someone wanted a place to run biological experiments, there wouldn't be a better site.
Shirone turned to the window. The capital still looked as lavish as when he'd first come, but now he could see shadows in it.
Light and darkness. Those were laws defined by reference to each other. Which came first, Shirone couldn't say.
* * *
Outside the Magic Association's front gate, Plu turned to Shirone.
"I'll go file the report. Take the goods to the engine room and hand them to maintenance. And don't you dare move—don't run off anywhere!"
He hadn't gone anywhere besides errands. Still, worried the items might be damaged, Shirone walked carefully toward the engine room.
Fortunately, the maintenance team inspected the goods and found nothing wrong.
Shirone breathed out in relief and stepped out of the engine room to find Plu already waiting, her expression colder than before—she'd clearly been scolded by a superior.
"Um, the report went—"
"Oh, for real!"
Plu suddenly grabbed Shirone's head and smacked it.
"Ouch! Why do you keep hitting my head!"
Shirone, having reached his limit, glared and snapped back.
"You're going to be the death of me! Do you know how hard I worked to stop that incident? Stop acting so high-and-mighty when you don't even have a license!"
"It's not showing off—people were going to die. What else was I supposed to do?"
"Shut up! And now word's spread that you came to the Association! This is serious. The Association Head wanted to meet you quietly—but now that won't be possible!"
Shirone felt regret, too.
"It's no use regretting it now."
"Ah? So you just go home and that's the end of it? You're trying to bury me in trouble! Come with me!"
Plu grabbed Shirone's ear and dragged him to the dormitory. She flung the door open, shoved him inside like he was being locked in a cell, jabbed a finger at him and barked.
"Don't leave the room. Not a single step. Stay as quiet as the dead until this blows over."
Shirone rubbed his aching ear and scowled.
"Isn't that a bit much? You were fine making me run errands before."
"Don't you start acting like you did everything right…!"
Just as Plu was about to yell again, a voice came from the corridor.
"Plu, what's all this about?"
Plu turned, looking utterly put-upon.
"Commander Gando, this brat actually—"
Her words cut off. Two people approached behind Commander Gando with worried looks.
The Association's Secretary Chief, Gangnan.
And the man with a black-fur coat slung over his shoulders was Micaea Gaold.
Seeing Gaold made Plu's heart nearly explode.
She knew he was returning today, but she hadn't expected to meet him here. It was rare for the Association Head to come down to the third floor since she'd taken her post.
Why was he here...?
He could've simply ordered someone to take Shirone, but he came straight to the third floor as soon as he returned.
And Shirone's mistake hadn't been cleaned up yet. The rumor that Shirone had come to the Association was an offense no excuse could erase.
Plu forced herself to lift her head and shouted.
"Guards—attention!"
Gando pressed a hand to his forehead and shook it. Gaold, however, raised a corner of his mouth in amusement.
"Heh—am I the only one who can't see them? There's no one to form up."
"Ah… I'm sorry! I got nervous!"
Gangnan pushed her face from behind Gaold and asked,
"Is everything all right? I heard there was an incident on the way here."
Plu, finally realizing the inevitable, widened her eyes and announced loudly.
"There's something to report. At the scene of the terrorism earlier, Shirone acted impulsively—"
"Doesn't matter."
Gaold cut her off, bored, and walked past. Plu froze, her face hard as stone.
Shirone swallowed as he looked up at Gaold.
He was taller than Shirone had imagined. The kingdom's strongest mage—someone Shirone had only heard about in rumors and whose presence had stoked his curiosity since arriving—weighed on the air even more in person. Maybe it was an illusion, but Gaold's frame seemed as if it could reach the ceiling.
Gaold lifted a corner of his mouth. "You're Shirone?"
3. The Strongest Mage
Shirone finally boarded the Magic Association elevator he'd been waiting for. The atmosphere, however, was strange enough that he couldn't be openly happy. The buttons would take them somewhere, yet no one moved.
Gaold stood with his hands behind his back, watching the floor display. Gangnan sat meditative in a corner, and Gando, awkward beside Gaold, couldn't hide his unease.
"Lord Gaold…"
Plu's bowed head betrayed equal parts disappointment and sadness.
She'd done her utmost so the Gaold Guard's name wouldn't be sullied. But all her efforts were rendered meaningless by the name Shirone.
News that Shirone had come to the Association would reach the ears of mages watching Gaold. More than anything, this project was the culmination of twenty years of Gaold's work.
And yet Gaold had said simply, "Doesn't matter."
She felt utterly diminished.
She'd admired him since school and had worked for him two years after joining the Association, but to be judged as less valuable than an unlicensed person like Shirone was humiliating.
Gangnan opened her eyes and walked to the panel.
"Then, we'll go down."
Shirone looked puzzled.
"Go down?"
They were on the third floor; if they went down, it could only be to the first. They wouldn't take the elevator just to go to the second floor.
Gangnan took out a key, opened the casing, and pressed her fingerprint to the glass. A thin light scanned it, inner components slid out, revealing a panel—six by six, thirty-six buttons.
She took a breath and input twenty-four patterns.
When approval was granted, a female voice announced from the ceiling,
- Moving to Basement Level 10. This is a Level 1 security area.
Gando and Plu glanced at Gaold. They were in the elevator together for now, but how far they could accompany him was entirely Gaold's decision.
"Hmm."
Gaold paid no mind to that and appraised Shirone. Noticing Shirone staring fixedly at the panel, he chuckled.
"Fascinated?"
"Huh? Ah, yes. It's my first time riding an elevator. I didn't realize there was a password."
"Heh. You must've memorized it slyly."
"No, it's not like that!"
Shirone waved his hands frantically, then blushed and admitted after a moment.
"Yes. Actually—"
"Ha! Thorough to the core. Well, a mage should be like that. But it won't help you. The code changes every day. And the real point is, no one in the Association actually knows the code."
Shirone tilted his head.
"No one knows? But just now Gangnan—"
"Yes, she entered a pattern exactly. But Gangnan doesn't know what she pressed."
Is that possible? Shirone wondered.
"How can that be?"
"The pattern is stored in the unconscious, not in memory. Think of an instrument: if you practice the same piece every day, your hands move before you think. Same principle. Gangnan goes to a random code-generation device and studies the pattern for about an hour each day. It's important to empty your mind. Then you just press whatever your hand goes to."
Gaold pantomimed pressing random buttons in the air.
"Of course it's different from playing music and requires training, but once you master the technique it's more secure than any code system. The more you try to consciously remember it, the harder it becomes."
Shirone clicked his tongue at a security system beyond common sense. That the Association already used an encryption method he'd never read about spoke volumes about their technical prowess.
Plu, overhearing, glared at Shirone with thin envy.
Even she had hardly exchanged more than a few words with Gaold. Yet Shirone was not only being brought into a Level 1 security area—he was being kindly explained the secret of the code system.
The elevator dove past the first floor into absolute darkness. Thinking of Basement Level 10 as merely ten floors down was a mistake; the descent took almost a minute. Finally, the doors opened.
Plu—and even Gando—had never been here before and tensed automatically. Gaold and Gangnan stepped out; Plu, eyes bright with excitement, looked around.
"This place is…?"
A vast great hall. The ceiling soared like the sky; there were no pillars, and the interior expanded beyond the Association building's footprint.
Even Shirone, who'd seen extraordinary sites like the temple in the Labyrinth and heavenlike structures in other wonders, was taken aback by the scale of this underground space. The void pressed on him in a different way.
Why bring him here?
Gangnan pushed up her glasses and explained.
"This is the Association's largest space. It's an open area but built as a bunker—its durability is beyond imagination. It's also one of the few places free from mana-control devices. It was built multipurpose, but when there's no exhibition it's mainly used to demonstrate highly classified magic."
"I see."
The Association analyzes all the kingdom's magic, so a space like this was necessary.
Realizing that, Shirone turned to Gaold in surprise.
"You said you'd demonstrate magic?"
Gaold smiled and turned back, and Shirone visibly flinched.
His fighting aura heated the bunker's air. He was a completely different person from the one Shirone had seen in the elevator.