Magician in Type-Moon

Page 309

Is this how they're going to divide up the Animusfia family's inheritance, just like they divided up the El-Melloi family's eight years ago?

The El-Melloi family withstood the pressure, but what about the Animusfia family...?

......

In a corner of London.

A mansion built in a forest on the outskirts of the city.

The gaunt man, Weber Velvet—no, now he should be called Lord El-Melloi II the Marauder—sat in a chair inside the mansion.

He was holding a piece of tattered red cloth, lost in thought.

"Brother, you're not still bothered by the fact that the Heroic Spirit didn't respond to your summons, are you?"

In the office of the house, a young girl holds a letter, sighs with a somewhat troubled expression.

Beautiful blonde hair, azure eyes. She looked about seventeen or eighteen years old, with skin as white as a porcelain doll, and a sadistic expression that seemed incongruous with all of that, leaving a deep impression.

Reines Elmello Archizorti.

The adopted sister of Lord El-Melloi II, and the rightful heir to the throne of the El-Melloi family.

The reason she did not inherit the throne but instead entrusted the duties to the Second Emperor was not because she had no interest in power.

Rather, it's more accurate to say that one of her greatest interests is making others kneel before her and exercising power; that's the kind of person she is.

However, Reines' current age and life experience are not suitable for the responsible position of monarch.

Upon hearing Reines' question, the Second simply shook his head without saying anything more, and then took the letter from Reines' hand.

"Damn it, why are they making so many demands?" The Second Prince stared sharply at the high-quality paper with the watermark.

"And if we continue to act in this way, the El-Melloi family will really become the enemy of all mages. If a loophole is accidentally created, they may even lose their monarchy."

After reading the contents of the letter, the Second Prince held his forehead and grinned in disgust.

Then, a response came from Reines beside her.

"There's nothing we can do about it. After all, in the past few years, our El-Melloi family has not only consolidated its previous position but also risen to become one of the top families, and we can't have done without their help."

She picked up the letter and continued nonchalantly:

"It seems you can't shake off that title of 'Lord of Plunder,' brother, haha."

Plundering the Duke—

It all started with the malicious act of deconstructing other people's magic tricks and then registering them under one's own name.

Furthermore, if a registered magic formula is used, it will be detected in some way.

There is an observatory located beneath the Clock Tower in London, used to observe distant parts of the Earth.

There, through magical artifacts connected to the spiritual veins, signs of the activation of registered magical rituals are reported regularly.

This is tantamount to cutting off the path to advancement for magicians who seek secrecy.

However, recently, this title has taken on a new meaning.

Because of the current policy adopted by the Magicians' Guild—

This means cracking down on unaffiliated families that possess spiritual lands but operate independently of the interests of the Magicians' Association.

They then merged and transformed the sacred sites they possessed into ritual venues for summoning heroic spirits.

The magical assets of the families that are affected will be divided within the association for a so-called profit distribution.

Among the families that currently control this matter, the El-Melloi family is the leader.

In this way, the title of "plundering lord" became a real title of plunder and conquest.

"I've been taking the blame for those guys all along!"

The Second Prince clicked his tongue in resentment and crossed his arms.

"It's always the same. The magical assets they wanted before were manageable, since they were from some independent families and already within the association's reach. But now they're even trying to get their hands on the Clock Tower families. This is really..."

He sighed, slowly put the cigarette in his mouth, tilted his head back and looked up at the ceiling, lost in thought.

"Hmm—"

Reines raised one eyebrow. She hadn't read the letter yet and had no idea that the target this time was actually the family line inside the Clock Tower.

"Ah, so it's this family? Dealing with them is indeed a bit tricky. In that case, the method of breaking through by force has to be rejected."

After reading the contents of the letter, Reines felt an instant urge to surrender.

"That's right, the other side is also a family with quotas for summoning Heroic Spirits, that's the troublesome thing." The Second Prince sighed again:

"Even if we are strong enough to win, it is impossible for a battle of that scale to go unnoticed, so we need a legitimate reason."

Reines nodded.

The most troublesome part is this: after obtaining the method for summoning Heroic Spirits from the Mage's Association, they quickly formulated a plan for allocating the number of Heroic Spirit summoning slots.

This resulted in families that had contributed to the clock tower and were already powerful being able to get a share of the profits.

The mystique of Heroic Spirits is no longer exclusive to any one family.

However, some warlike families, after seizing the heroic spirits, attempted to go even further.

This led to infighting among the magic families within the association.

Therefore, the association is extremely vigilant in dealing with conflicts of this scale.

"Lenes, didn't they send any help over here?"

The Second Prince suddenly asked his nominal sister beside him.

"Yes, I have."

Interrupted from her train of thought, Reines gave a rather perfunctory reply.

"Who is it? Please, please don't let it be that murderer."

The deep wrinkles between the brows of the second prince twisted slightly, as if he were recalling some unpleasant experience.

Seeing the look of disgust on her sworn brother's face, Reines giggled, then replied in a nonchalant tone:

"No, it's not that. The one who came is Miss Aozaki Touko, the Grand Puppeteer. She should be your ideal collaborator, right, brother?"

Although Reines said that, the Second Prince immediately felt considerable pressure upon hearing the name.

He vividly remembered the mess this guy had made during the competition for the Minister of Mineral Science position...

"...Where is she?"

"It seems she went to see her friend at the Clock Tower, and it appears she will wait until after this Grand Order decision to prepare for this matter."

Reines recalled for a moment and continued:

“‘First, I’ll ask your detective monarch to investigate the intelligence and put some pressure on those ungrateful fools. I’ll make my appearance when the time is right.’ That was her exact words.”

The Second Prince sighed again, and in this short period of time, he had lost count of how many times he had sighed.

He then turned his head to look at the girl behind him who had been standing still and had been silent since the beginning, wearing a gray hood.

The figure, resembling a gray fairy, kept observing the three bright red lines etched on the back of its left hand.

"Grey, let's go."

"Yes, Master!"

The girl's shoulders trembled slightly beneath her hood, and her gaze quickly swept over the several figures in the room.

He then grabbed the birdcage-like cage beside him, nodded quickly in acknowledgment under Reines's rather mocking gaze, and followed the Second Prince out of the room.

As Reines watched the two figures gradually disappear into the distance, she spoke to the empty air beside her:

"Hey Lancer, what do you think my brother is thinking? Even his disciple has taken that step, so why does he himself keep choosing to stay where he is?"

"I think it's because that memory was too beautiful, so beautiful that his life has become completely immersed in it."

"Is that so? I'd really like to see that..."

......

Chocolates shaped like various flowers are arranged pitifully in the box, their surfaces carefully decorated with sugar-preserved real flower petals, making them quite interesting in appearance.

Orange picked up the chocolate next to her and put it in her mouth.

The sweetness and a hint of bitterness melted on the tongue.

The sweetness of that petal was layered and complex, making one unable to resist reaching out to pick up a second and a third.

"Damn it, are you trying to challenge me with calories?"

"This doesn't sound like something you would say. You seem to have changed a lot, Orange."

A man wearing a green morning suit and a purple bow tie, with somewhat messy hair, handed Orange a cup of freshly brewed coffee.

“You’ve changed quite a bit too. I thought you’d kick over a chair violently when you saw me, Lenor.”

"In your eyes, am I that kind of person...? Well, that's not entirely wrong..." Lenor looked at Miss Aozaki pouting as if she were being difficult.

"Okay, seriously, what kind of mischief are you plotting? Are you bored and planning a surprise party to pierce my heart? Is your goal my savings?"

"That's not quite it. After all, since we established connections with the Clock Tower's monarchical family, we have more than enough money to get by." Orange took a sip of her coffee; it was really bitter...

She continued:

“I came here entirely because of you, Lenore.”

"For me? What's so special about me that I'm worth the attention of the Grand Magician who's currently at the height of his fame at the Clock Tower?"

Lenore tilted his head in confusion and saw Orange take off his glasses.

"Who knows? I'm helpless too, after all, my partner asked me to do this... By the way, Lenore, is it still ongoing? I remember it's research on measuring the future, right?"

Lenore is considered one of the very few magicians who possesses the property of imaginary numbers.

To put it simply and bluntly, they are stalkers who can insert their hands into dimensional rifts.

The imaginary space, which does not exist but is considered to exist, is like a dimensional pocket; anything that falls into it becomes something that is not bound by space or time.

Regarding Miss Aozaki's question, Lenor felt a strange, indescribable roughness, but he quickly let it go.

“...I’ve already given up,” he replied slowly.