Saikai Academy, High School Building – Hallway.
When Kaiser caught up to Natsuki Minamiya and was about to call out to her, a lace fan was suddenly flicked in his direction, aimed straight at his head.
"If you dare stick a '-chan' onto your homeroom teacher's name again, I'll make sure your holiday ends before it even starts."
Natsuki stood there with her lace fan raised, pointing it right at his nose, delivering the warning with all the severity of a death sentence.
"Alright, alright, I get it," Kaiser said, raising both hands in mock surrender. "But come on, everyone else calls you that. I'm just going with the flow. Why single me out?"
"I single out every brat who tries it," Natsuki snorted. "But you—coming in to steal my business—being called that by you just makes me feel like you're looking down on me."
"Who in their right mind would look down on the Natsuki Minamiya?" Kaiser muttered, curling his lip. "Even the so-called Three Saints of the Lion King Agency wouldn't dare underestimate the legendary Witch of the Void."
The Three Saints might be the strongest Attack Mages humanity had to offer, but Natsuki was hardly any less formidable.
She might currently be "just" an instructor in the Demon District, but in Europe she'd earned the reputation of a Vampire Slayer and lived to tell the tale. And Europe was the War King Domain's backyard—the very heartland of vampires and most other demonkind. To stir up trouble there, walk away in one piece, and keep living this comfortably and freely? That alone said plenty about how dangerous Natsuki was.
If she weren't content to stay tucked away on Itogami Island, she could easily have vied for the title of humanity's strongest mage.
And let's not forget—this was someone who could casually refer to Vattler, the man closest to being a true ancestor, as "that snake charmer." If it ever came down to an actual fight between them, whether Vattler could even come out ahead would still be in question.
In short, Natsuki Minamiya was no ordinary woman.
It was just that she was arrogant by nature and had no interest in meaningless titles.
"So, you chased me down just to butter me up?" she asked with a sidelong glance. "If you've got something to say, spit it out. I've got work to do."
Kaiser's smile widened slightly, and he spoke a single word.
"LCO."
The moment the acronym reached her ears, the impatience drained from Natsuki's face, her whole body going still.
"…Where did you hear that name?"
Her tone had shifted, her attitude changing completely, and with it, the relaxed air in the corridor turned sharp and heavy.
Kaiser, however, remained just as casual as before.
"Please. I'm an agent of the Lion King Agency. You think I wouldn't know about a world-famous criminal organization?"
LCO—the Library of Criminal Organization, more commonly called simply the Library. As Kaiser said, it was an infamous global syndicate composed solely of high-ranking magi and witches.
In this world, there existed certain books—grimoires—that recorded spell formulae, ritual procedures, and the means of summoning or controlling supernatural beings.
Over centuries of compiling such dangerous knowledge, grimoires themselves had become steeped in mystery and power, turning into artifacts capable of granting their readers abilities far beyond human limits—and of bringing equally great calamities.
Unsurprisingly, every seeker of magical knowledge sought grimoires, hoping to gain wisdom, power, or both. But only a rare few could truly read, master, and harness the enormous magical energies contained within.
History was littered with the ruins of magi who'd failed—destroyed themselves, and often everything around them. A runaway grimoire could wipe out entire cities, polluting the souls of tens or hundreds of thousands.
Thus, many magi and witches banded together to form the LCO—ostensibly to collect grimoires from around the world, classify them, seal them, and only lend them to qualified individuals.
But over time, their purpose warped. No longer seeking to advance magic or protect the world, they began using grimoires to indulge their own curiosity and greed, becoming an insular cabal of magi who did as they pleased.
With thousands of members and countless grimoires in their vaults, the Library had been behind numerous large-scale magical crimes, leaving cities devastated and uncountable victims in their wake.
A national Attack Mage like Natsuki had every reason to know their name.
"But you bringing them up now…" she said coldly. "You're not just trying to make conversation, are you? Out with it. What do you know?"
Kaiser's lips curled into a knowing grin.
"They say that many years ago, Itogami Island had a certain magical crime incident," he began, almost like telling a story to himself. "The one behind it was a Grand Librarian of the LCO—a renowned witch, carrying an incredibly powerful, maybe even terrifying, grimoire."
Natsuki's grip on her fan tightened slightly, though she said nothing.
A witch, in truth, was not simply a human mage. She was a woman who had made a pact with a demon to realize a wish—gaining demonic power rivaling high-class vampires, surpassing even the most skilled magi, and sometimes acquiring unique abilities. The price, however, was always steep—anything from completing certain objectives, to sacrificing loved ones' lives, to living forever in torment.
Bound to a demon's familiar—protector, watcher, and executioner—any witch who broke her contract would be killed without mercy.
The Witch of the Void wasn't just a flattering nickname. It was her title, her truth.
Natsuki Minamiya was, beyond any doubt, a witch.
Which meant she understood perfectly well just how closely Kaiser's little anecdote tied to her.
"What you're really saying," she said flatly, "is that to rescue one of their high-ranking members and retrieve that grimoire, the Library's set its sights on Itogami Island?"
She wasn't wrong. Her intuition had nailed his point in one shot.
"That Grand Librarian," Kaiser replied, "you were the one who caught her, weren't you? And that powerful grimoire—it's in your hands, right?"
The implication was clear enough.
"I see. So their real target isn't the island—it's me."
Her expression didn't change, but the chill radiating from her was unmistakable.
"If they're going to make a move," Kaiser added pointedly, "the Saikai Festival would be a perfect opportunity, wouldn't it?"
Natsuki clicked her tongue softly.
"So that's why you were so helpful as to warn me—you're trying to stick me with the heavy lifting."
Her voice made no attempt to hide her irritation now.
"I'm just saying, I'm not the only one who might cause trouble this holiday," Kaiser said with an innocent shrug. "If you want your students to have a nice, peaceful break… well, you know what to do, right?"
The message was clear—if she didn't want him dragged into some weird incident, she could deal with the problem herself.
Kaiser had originally planned to handle it, but after all her jabs earlier, he had no intention of being free labor.
So he laid his cards on the table—let Natsuki deal with it, give her something else to focus on besides harassing him.
"You…" Natsuki raised her lace fan, looking like she was about to swat him.
But Kaiser had already predicted that and vanished down the hall before she could even take a swing, leaving her with nowhere to vent her temper.
"Library… what a damned nuisance," she muttered, already running through countermeasures in her mind.
It looked like she'd have to make some preparations after all.