"I don't think I've ever been so sick of being on the road in my entire life," Gerald grumbled, scratching his beard as he stared up at the sky.
"You've been complaining since we left," Marcos shot back. He was walking beside one of the carriages as its wheels rattled along the dirt road, just a few meters behind Gerald.
"If a man's complaining about the same thing for weeks, then it's probably true," Gerald replied, glancing back at Marcos.
"Or maybe he's just being annoying." That was Mia, leading the way up front, out ahead of everyone else.
The convoy stretched out behind her—a long line of carriages with people walking beside them. It wasn't any kind of formal march; everyone was too tired for that, and there wasn't much point. As long as everyone stayed loosely together and was ready for trouble, Mia and the others let the soldiers do as they liked. It had been over two weeks since they'd left the valley, just a day after Magnus had gone.
If it had only been Mia, Marcos, and Gerald, they could've traveled with Magnus and made it back the same day.
But the carriages at the front carried the wounded—including both badly injured platoon leaders—and the ones in the rear were loaded with supplies. Even after losing people to the Nullfang, there were still too many mouths to feed to travel light. The good news was that Mia and her group had followed Magnus's advice and stopped by the two villages he'd told them about on their way home.
Freyborn Village was still recovering when Mia and her platoons passed through. The villagers had been on edge when they first saw the convoy. It wasn't unusual for bandits to ransack villages after something bad left them defenseless, and with the kingdom in such chaos, sometimes even rogue soldiers did the same.
Fortunately, with Mia handling the diplomacy and the mention of Magnus, Elder Rodgir was more than happy to help. In return, Mia and her soldiers offered to help secure the area and pitch in with rebuilding. It made resupplying easy and gave everyone a much-needed break from the stress of travelling. While they were there, of course, the villagers couldn't stop talking about what Magnus and Seraline had done for them.
Magnus hadn't shared many details, so while the story was surprising, it wasn't hard to believe. Gerald, who had gotten himself thoroughly drunk on Freyborn's specialty wine, spent an entire night drinking and celebrating with some of the soldiers while the twins, Mary and Marilyn, retold everything they knew. Naturally, the sisters had plenty of questions about Magnus, Seraline, and Arlcliff City—questions that Gerald, Mia, and Marcos were more than happy to answer. Gerald especially enjoyed telling the twins—who looked up to Seraline—what she was really like when he taught lessons at Takerth Academy.
All in all, their stop at Freyborn turned out well for everyone, and thanks to that, Mia's convoy had no trouble with supplies by the time they reached the next village and resupplied again.
Now, they were only a few days away from Arlcliff City.
Gerald was in the middle of firing back at Mia's little jab when he suddenly paused, his face twisting into a frown as he glanced at the sky again and then off into the distance, past the treeline on either side of the road.
"How the hell did I not notice that earlier?"
Marcos, picking up on Gerald's sudden change, looked at him.
"Hmm, what are you talking about?"
"Southeast, just above the hills past the edge of the forest," Gerald said, pointing in the direction he was referring to. For most people, seeing through the dense trees to whatever Gerald meant kilometers away would've been impossible. But for a Master-level knight, it was easy to sharpen their vision with aura. Marcos focused his gaze where Gerald was pointing, and after a moment, he spotted it too—his eyes widening slightly.
"That's not good..." he muttered, then turned to Mia and called up to her.
"Mia, there's a storm coming from the southeast—a big one!" His warning was heard by both the soldiers and Mia herself, though without aura, none of the soldiers could see anything past the trees and the seemingly clear blue sky overhead.
"Hm?" Mia scanned the sky, and after a few moments, she managed to spot what Gerald meant.
It was strange to watch. In one area, the sky was clear and blue; in the next, it seemed to darken almost instantly. Clouds started gathering fast, multiplying until they formed a thick blanket overhead. From below, the clouds looked nearly black as they rolled across the land. Inside that darkness, Mia could see flashes of lightning arcing deep within, and even though they were too far away to hear it, she knew thunder was tearing through the sky.
Even with her enhanced vision, Mia couldn't see where the clouds began or ended.
She frowned, staring at the storm for a moment.
"It's not heading for us... It's going in the direction of Arlcliff City." That was bad news, since that's exactly where they were going. The storm wasn't moving all that fast—it was actually a little behind them—but if they wanted to reach the city before it hit, they'd have to speed up.
"Dammit." The word slipped out as she clicked her tongue and turned to the convoy.
"There's a storm coming, heading straight for Arlcliff City! If we don't pick up the pace, we'll get caught in it with nowhere to hide, got it?!" Her voice carried all the way to the front, and the message quickly spread down the line.
"Yes, Captain!" The soldiers moved to get the horses and carriages ready to go faster, with Marcos and Gerald taking charge of the preparations.
As everything was getting set, Mia glanced back at the storm, a question nagging at her.
Where did a storm that big even come from? Did it roll in off the eastern sea? Whatever the case, we'll have to hope it passes quickly. Otherwise, there's a real risk of flooding.
=====================================•=====================================
Year 348 of the Great Sundering Era, 2nd Month, 17th Day of the Mistveil Cycle.
"Alright, let's go over this one more time..." Celia's voice wasn't energetic, but it didn't sound depressed either—just tired. She and Magnus were both on the main platform of the Research Station. Celia lay on her back across the table where she usually worked, her legs dangling off the edge. One hand rested at her side, idly flicking a plastic, ink-filled pen back and forth across the desk. The pen was a gift from Magnus, who'd gotten fed up with the quills and the sorry excuses for pens this world had to offer.
Magnus, on the other hand, was rocking back and forth in a chair he'd popped into existence. He was in better shape, mentally and energy-wise, than Celia—though that didn't say much about his motivation.
"Okay, so the puppets can usually log about ten thousand predictions a month, but we're sitting at almost twenty thousand now. So far, we haven't had any predictions close enough to overlap, and nine thousand of them have already happened." He sounded like he was reading off a prompt, which, technically, he was. With complete control over his mind, it wasn't hard to organize information into a sort of hallucinated screen. It was like how the Command Console could float in front of him without being visible to anyone else, just a bit less real.
Celia nodded, picking up where he left off.
"Right, and the closest two predictions have ever been are about three minutes apart. Most predictions only show about a minute of the future, so that's a one-minute blank spot. So, at best, with our current data, we could get a prediction every two minutes, and maybe even narrow that down to one per minute unless something proves otherwise."
Magnus let out a groan and stopped rocking in his chair.
"Which means, if you wanted to see the future for a whole month straight, you'd have to use the Knockout Brick on a teacup twenty to forty thousand times. Puppet Space can't even reach that number in a month, and by the time they do, the predictions wouldn't even be for that month anymore." In other words, unless they figured out a way to use the Knockout Brick faster or had Eveline boost the number of puppets, it was impossible. That was what had both of them stumped. For Magnus, the ability was too useful to give up on, and for Celia, it was a matter of principle—she had experimented with the Knockout Brick more than anyone.
Celia thought for a moment, then sat up a little.
"Oh, I know. What if you made another Knockout Brick? You can create things now, right? If we had two bricks, we could double the speed. Maybe even triple or quadruple it if we made more."
It wasn't a bad idea, but Magnus shook his head.
"Sadly, it doesn't work that way. If I try to make another Knockout Brick just by copying what it looks like, it'll just be a regular brick. My ability works by modifying or editing something that already exists; it needs a real target. It can create and destroy things, but at the end of the day, it's just changing the source code. The glitch behind the Knockout Brick doesn't need to visualize anything, though. Whatever script is running, it is tied straight to the original Knockout Brick at the source code level. The brick's appearance doesn't matter." That was why the Knockout Brick kept its powers even if it was cut, crushed, or melted.
The only way to break the link between the Knockout Brick and its effect was probably to erase the brick from reality altogether. But even then, the script would still exist—it just wouldn't have anything to work through.
"Oh, I see... I thought I'd come up with something good there." Celia sighed and let herself flop back down on the table.
They'd been stuck on this problem for days, and after a few more hours of brainstorming, or more like banging their heads against the wall without any luck.
"Alright, we should probably just call it for today. I'm coming up blank," Magnus announced, stopping his rocking and getting up from his chair. Celia looked stubborn, like someone who didn't want to quit fighting a game boss even though she was too tired and frustrated to play well. But after a little coaxing from Magnus, which may or may not have included conjuring up some Earth snacks, she finally gave in, and the two of them headed back to Magnus's dorm.
"Ugh... I feel grimy after being at the Research Station so long. I'm going to take a shower," Celia muttered, slipping into the bathroom as Magnus gave her a quick nod of acknowledgment.
Soon, the sound of running water drifted through the walls, but Magnus's focus was drawn away by a distant rumble. He walked over to the dorm window and looked out, noticing the sky was completely covered by dark clouds. Takerth Academy's barrier did more than just hide its inner workings and act as a security system—it also kept out bad weather. Sunlight and breezes could pass through sometimes, but when it got too cold or too hot, the barrier filtered it out.
Naturally, that meant storms and their heavy rain were also kept at bay.
It was strange—almost like living inside a bubble—watching rain pour down against something invisible in the air.
"It's still raining? I swear it hasn't stopped in days," Magnus murmured to himself. His window offered a good view of the dorms and the academy grounds beyond. He noticed there weren't many students outside. That made sense when it came to the dorm area outside the dorm building, considering the weather, but it struck him as odd that he didn't see anyone walking along the paths either.
Classes should be over by now, right? Where is everyone?
His thoughts were interrupted by a sudden knock. It caught him off guard—aside from Vira, the receptionist who seemed to have an endless supply of identical twins, nobody usually knocked on his door. Curious, Magnus headed over and opened the door, his interest turning to mild surprise when he saw who it was.
"Luden?"
Luden, looking as cheerful as ever in his usual Mage Division uniform, nodded.
"Hello, Magnus. Sorry for dropping by unannounced, but you've been hard to reach lately. I thought it'd be best to bring you this news in person."
"News? News about what?" Magnus asked, prompting Luden to tilt his head toward the hallway.
"Before I say anything, do you mind if I come in?"
Realizing what Luden meant, Magnus nodded and stepped aside.
"Sure, come on in."
He closed the door as Luden walked into the room, glancing around before letting out a small chuckle.
"You haven't changed a thing from the standard rooms. I should've guessed as much—though it looks like you're keeping busy with your reading." Luden's eyes had landed on Magnus's desk, which was still piled high with books and papers that he and Celia had either finished or were still working through.
Magnus just shrugged.
"Honestly, I couldn't think of a reason to change anything. This place is already nicer than... I don't know, more than half the places I've ever slept."
"Fair enough," Luden agreed, moving to sit on the couch. He paused for a moment, picking up on the sound of running water.
"Oh, someone else is here?"
Magnus glanced toward the bathroom.
"Yeah, it's just Celia. She's taking a shower."
"Your maid? I see..." Luden didn't seem too interested beyond that, and Magnus took a seat across from him. Both of them turned their attention back to the reason for Luden's visit.
"So, what's going on?" Magnus asked, getting straight to the point.
Luden didn't beat around the bush either as he started talking.
"I have an update for you about our mercenary guild problem. The people I've had watching Vostus finally found out where the group's base is. It was surprisingly well-hidden—or maybe not that surprising, considering the syndicate they're working under. Either way, Vostus has visited this place several times incognito, and my people have spotted members of the guild nearby. If there's anywhere you'll find the proof you need—evidence that they're working with Nightshade, as well as Vostus and the nobles backing him—it'll be there." Magnus immediately sat up a bit straighter; this was the news he'd been waiting for.
"Seriously?"
Luden nodded.
"My people haven't been able to get too close. The guild members on guard are sharp, but we've narrowed it down to a specific building."
As Luden spoke, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper, sliding it across the table to Magnus. Magnus picked it up and unfolded it, revealing a map of Arlcliff City with a spot clearly marked. Instantly, he compared it to his own mental map of the city. Within seconds, he knew exactly where it was—he'd even walked past the place a few times before, but never noticed anything out of the ordinary.
That just showed how secretive they were.
"So, what's your plan?" Luden asked, leaning back on the couch and crossing his arms.
Magnus folded the map back up—he'd already memorized it—and set it on the table.
"Well, I can't wait around too long. I'll probably move tonight. But... if I do end up finding Nightshade's main headquarters, I'm going to need backup." He met Luden's eyes as he spoke, and Luden's expression turned sharp.
"You want our faction involved?" Luden asked.
Magnus nodded.
"I'd rather not drag you guys into this, trust me. But this is too much for me to handle alone. Otherwise, I'll end up leaving a trail of loose ends, and that'll be a problem for everyone. Also, just to be clear, your help would be for Cain, not Magnus." That was the basis of their arrangement, after all.
Even so, Luden didn't agree right away. He let out a slow sigh.
"Hm. Even if that's the case, this isn't the usual situation. For one, you're asking me to involve our faction—within Takerth Academy—in something happening outside of it. Plus, most of the members are heirs to their own families. I don't have to tell you, going around tearing down underground syndicates isn't exactly what their families want them known for. And even with the evidence you bring, we'd have no legal ground to stand on, which could turn into all sorts of problems—maybe even a trial if other nobles get involved." It was bad publicity, and not something any family wanted tied to their name. Their arrangement was just between Luden and Cain, not the rest of the group.
Magnus thought about this for a second, rubbing his chin.
"What if... legality isn't an issue? What if everything we do is authorized by the city? And on top of that, I give you a shot at building good ties with the Batis Military."
Luden paused at that, eyes narrowing a little.
"You have enough pull to make that happen?"
Magnus smiled slightly.
"I wouldn't say it if I couldn't."