Editing Sorcery Hacker:Volume3 Phase00 (section)

==Phase 00: Control Gate – Gorge Passage==

It was still dark out.

Dawn was still a while off and the stillness of the early morning actually brought a sense of peace. This black-haired boy was not always surrounded by cold sorcery devices colored by bright flashing lights. Outlaws generally preferred the darkness and used the cover of night to make their move. Sorcery Hackers were no exception there.

(I can see my breath.)

Ayato Criminaltrophy’s observation was to be expected. He was at an altitude of 800 esoule<ref>Approximately 960 meters.</ref> in a mountain range found at the center of the Static Continent.

Fortunately, the sorcery network made from mist mana was not completely absent out in the middle of nowhere. When he crouched low and focused, he could make out dark shapes slowly moving along the mountain ridge. Those were caterpillar-style sorcery devices that performed transportation and security work. Their size was difficult to judge from a distance, but they were larger than a small mountain cabin. If they detected him, they would launch a largescale magical attack without any warning. In a mountainous region like this, the standard tactic would be to use the thick fog to confuse him and then finish him off with a lightning or freezing magic. They could also use a flash flood or landslide. A human wouldn’t stand much of a chance against either of those on an unstable slope.

Yes, he was already in an off-limits area.

Whatever the reasons for his actions, Ayato was officially known as an illegal Sorcery Hacker. And the powerful in society tended to hide their crimes from the world and use the supposed upholders of the law to protect themselves. They would shamelessly demand to have “their rights” protected. They could not afford to let anything breach the solid defenses they had set up. That was the standard and the most crucial factor.

Ayato was silently facing that problem right now, but the girls accompanying him were facing an entirely different crisis.

“(O-oh, noooo. We really have to change out here? I know it’s dark, but we’re outside. Can’t we search for a cave or set up a tent or something?)”

“(Teleria, do you really think either of those would be an obstacle to Coach’s data gathering skills? Sorcery Hackers are experts at searching out people’s secrets. Covering up our surroundings would only make it harder for us to notice what he’s up to.)”

“(Not to worry, you two. I, Striker Henrietta Split Destrius, shall keep a strict eye on that bastard. Don’t mind me and get changed first.)”

They were acting like Ayato was some kind of criminal, but he couldn’t complain too much when a Sorcery Hacker was technically a type of sorcery criminal. But he had other things to focus on at the moment. He pulled a deck of crystal tarot cards from his blue blazer uniform and held one of the clear cards sideways in front of his eyes.

“Okay, that gives me night vision.”

“Hold it, dangerous individual! Don’t you dare pull back the veil of darkness!!”

The straitlaced woman with a braided ponytail immediately snapped at him, but much to Ayato’s regret, he was not using that night vision to view the bare skin of the bashful girls (who were stripping out in the open). He might catch a glimpse of it out of the corner of his eyes, though.

He switched through a few different modes.

First, he checked the road crossing the river at the bottom of the gorge and the mana-conducting silver drawbridge connecting one mountain to the next, but it didn’t look like they could get through either one. They were crawling with 6-legged and 8-legged military sorcery devices larger than carriages and he could even see some mosquito-or-cicada-like flying ones patrolling slowly at low altitude. One hit from their large-caliber magic would blast a human body to smithereens.

The security level here was higher than the Great Oasis Bank that irregularly moved around a vast desert and contained hidden assets of the world’s wealthiest people. Not even a Sorcery Hacker like Ayato could disguise their passage along a land route.

(Which leaves…)

Ayato turned his gaze elsewhere. This time, he looked up into the sky. He could see a bright light emitted there. That sorcery light was kept at a wavelength invisible to the naked eye. It looked like white regions of light were floating through the dark sky. They were almost like storm clouds rumbling with a great power, but they were actually air-contact sorcery sensors that sent mana through a cloud of artificial fog. Contacting those would immediately set off an emergency alarm.

Each one was about the size of a small pond, but there were a ton of them.

And if you triggered one, the flying sorcery devices would leave their low-altitude patrols and the round “weather stations” at the peaks of the mountains would fire largescale curses to shoot you down. With those precise but long-range attacks coming from multiple directions at once, there would be no escape.

Detection meant failure. That was the primary thing to keep in mind.

They would not be reported to the control squad that upheld the law in the city. So in fact, detection meant death out here. That showed just how many mysteries the facility being protected was. 
That independent institute awaited them in the darkness past the mountains.

“Miss Teleria, are you quite done prepping yet?”

“G-g-give me just a bit longer. Please wait. I’m having trouble getting my butt to fit.”

“I will count to fifty and then look your way. With night vision active.”

“Please wait!! If you look now, you’ll see my fishy parts!!”

“?”

He heard some struggling behind him as she hurried to finish her preparations.

Meanwhile, the silver-haired brown-skinned dark elf named Mamilis Coster circled in front of him.

“Coach, I’m ready.”

She was close enough that he didn’t need the night vision to see her. She was generally slender yet had a nice shape that stuck out in all the right places (not just her pointy ears!), but that was especially evident today. For one thing, she wasn’t in her usual outfit. She wore a skintight black material that covered everything from her neck down. The special equipment was known as an aerosuit, but this one in particular was woven with mana-conducting silver threads oxidized to a black that would not reflect he moonlight.

With no ordinary people around, she had removed her Mimic Option earrings, leaving her distinctive long ears visible.

Ayato smiled a little.

“That looks great on you, Miss Mamilis.”

“Heh heh heh. Do I look sexy?”

She put one hand behind her head and smiled proudly.

Someone else, however, groaned in distress.

While Mamilis spread her arms and twisted side to side to show it off with her beautiful silver hair flowing behind her, Teleria was a ball of embarrassment as she approached. The girl with wavy blonde hair was trying to look as small as possible while desperately using both hands to cover her overly emphasized chest and the collection of soft lines that was her hips. Unfortunately, she failed to consider how that behavior would only draw the opposite sex’s attention even more.

Ayato smiled a little.

“That looks great on you, Miss Teleria.”

“Every word was the same, but the nuance was entirely different than with Mamilis, wasn’t it!? It couldn’t be more obvious with that dark half smile and the looseness in the eyes! This is like the opposite kind of sexy attack from a succubus’s lewd leather belt costume. Don’t think I can’t read between the lines here!!”

Teleria Nereid Aquamarine shouted tearfully at him, but Mamilis Coster also puffed her cheeks out like a child. She too must have taken issue with his reaction.

Henrietta put a hand on her hip while wearing her special armor made of dull, asphalt-colored oxidized mana-conducting silver and physical-boosting monster tendons.

“I don’t see how this is fair. Why do we have to wear these formfitting costumes and you don’t?”

“Why are you asking me? Do you really want me to explain in detail why the female body causes more air resistance than the male body? Ah ha ha. You have a pair of excellent examples right here, Miss Henrietta.”

“!?”

“Or are you just disappointed you don’t get to see me in something so formfitting? It must be true what they say about a wealthy upbringing leading to some unique fetishes. But if you are that interested in viewing the bulge found between my legs, you need only ask.”

“S-silence!! Not another word!! Must you spew harmful information every time you open your mouth, dangerous individual!?”

“A lack of interest is fine too, but you still need to change, Miss Henrietta. We are pressed for time, so it would help a lot if you changed into your aerosuit now.”

Straitlaced Striker Henrietta groaned as she grabbed the skintight suit in both hands. The technology wasn’t all that different from the armor she wore, but the appearance must have meant a lot to her.

“Don’t look. Don’t you dare turn around!”

“Yes, yes. I know.”

“Don’t do it no matter what happens!!”

“What was that, Miss Henrietta? Did you say something?”

“Dbklfgh!? I repeatedly said not to turn around!!”

If she didn’t want him to look, he would have preferred she not keep speaking to him. Then he wouldn’t have gotten such a clear view of those curves that shined so bright even in the early morning gloom.

Teleria and Mamilis were already changed, so they emotionally expressed their opinions.

“Pervert.”

“Are you a peeping tom, Coach?”

The world was a cruel place. He didn’t want to make any more enemies, so he focused on his work again.

“You misunderstand. I enjoy far more than just peeping.”

“Don’t you understand that just makes you ''more'' of a pervert?”

Ayato sighed and stabbed his sword blade into the ground at his feet.

Technically speaking, that sword was a Linkage Plug and he was stabbing int into one of the seismographs smaller than a beer mug installed all over the mountains.

It was Level 1.

That was the weakest kind of device, but all sorcery hacking started there. He released the blade from the grip and pulled out a replacement blade longer than the grip itself. He next stabbed a Level 1 rain gauge to reach Level 2 and a Level 2 birdhouse to reach Level 4.

By increasing his Level like that, he could ultimately hack an entire fortress or warship.

A single Sorcery Hacker could theoretically control an entire city-state that way. They could steal or destroy data and abuse the transportation system, a dam, or any other public infrastructure to do anything from assassinating an individual to flooding the city to commit mass murder. That was why those intellectual sorcery criminals were the most hated of all outlaws.

Dark elf Mamilis’s eyes widened.

“You can do sorcery hacking outside of a big city?”

“It’s hard to find an area so remote it doesn’t have some kind of modern tech around.”

This was only for insurance purposes.

Much like loading a bullet in a sorcery gun, it was an action he did whenever he had some spare time.

The real star of the show was the (formfitting) aerosuit that he had asked the lovely girls to change into.

That said, the aerosuits were fairly meaningless on their own. They were support equipment for another gadget. Sorcery fabric had been made by filling a container with mist mana, heating it, and then stretching it out into a large, thin sheet. Four layers of that were shaped with a frame of mana-conducting silver to create a wide isosceles triangle.

The four wings combined to create a double V-shape. When Ayato spread out the gadgets folded up like a parasol sticking into the beach, grandma’s girl Mamilis voiced her surprise.

“Wow. Are those the wing gliders I’ve heard so much about?”

“Correct, Miss Mamilis.”

Those toys were not powered and thus had to glide like a paper airplane, but the four wings could be moved separately and thus could be flapped to gain altitude. Thus, if you caught the wind and moved in gentle ups and downs, you could fly indefinitely just like a bird. They were a popular product with a variety of uses including leisure, sports, and covert infiltrations.

“They come in different grades, from amateur ones for beginners to pro sports ones for experts, but the secret is there isn’t all that much of a difference between them.”

The professional tools were so expensive because they included some “play” in the controls allowing the individual athletes to finetune them to their liking, because the safety features that linked movement of the wings were removed to allow for more precise control, and to preserve the brand image of them being special models with low production numbers. The basic specs like max speed and minimum turning radius were exactly the same as the beginner models that a child could save up their allowance to buy. The athletes focused on how precisely they could switch between different forms of control to fill the miniscule gaps between them and their opponents. In other words, ordinary people had no use for the luxury models.

“Okay, I’m ready, dangerous individual. Wait, why are you focused on that junk?”

“Oh? You sound awfully lonely, Miss Henrietta. Disappointed you put on a strip tease for me and I didn’t even bother watching?”

The axe bayonet of her heavy bolt-action carbine nearly slammed down into his head, so Ayato was forced to catch it between his hands. Having her change had been the right call. If she was still boosted by her armor and magic, he would have been bisected right down the middle.

At any rate, they were ready to go now.

It was time to enter the most strictly guarded territory he knew of.

Ayato explained each component in turn, using exaggerated movements so the others could see them in the dark.

“You hold the control bar like this. The levers bend down the center. When holding them, think of your index and middle fingers as one set and your ring and little fingers as another set that each control one of the wings on either side. If you find that too confusing, you can focus only on your index and little fingers. Support your weight with her hips and legs, not with your arms. Once in the air, place your feet in the belt behind you. In other words, do it the way I taught you before and you will be fine. Now, let’s enjoy this pleasant and luxurious journey through the sky.”

“W-w-wait! That’s all we get? We only have your verbal instructions and that Media Summoner video you showed us in the inn at the foot of the mountain. We’ve never actually flown one of these, so I’m not ready.”

“I believe it was you who threw a fit and refused to practice during the day when everyone on the ground could look up and see you in that skintight suit, Miss Teleria. Also, the wings are already fully open, so an errant gust could carry you away if we wait too long. Now, time to take off!”

“Eh? Wait, no! Ahhhh!?”

Ayato and Mamilis became eye witnesses of a legend. It felt like watching someone holding an umbrella being carried into the sky on a stormy day. Just as the scared blonde girl tried to protest further, she was pulled forward by her wing glider and sent off the mountain slope without even a running start.

The black-haired boy sighed.

“This is a steep slope, so you don’t need to rely on a miracle like that. Just run 10 steps down the slope and you will reach takeoff speed and begin to float up all on your own. Now, Miss Mamilis and Miss Henrietta. Show me your courage. ''I am counting on you.''”

Unlike terrified Teleria, Mamilis and Henrietta didn’t seem at all frightened as they made the ideal running start and took off. They had just as little practice as Teleria, but they may have had less fear of heights since they came from a sky city.

Ayato took the rear to make sure the three girls were flying properly. After confirming that, he used the control bar levers to adjust the position of his four wings and circled around to the front.

Yes, only he could detect the air-contact sorcery sensors made of mana-filled artificial fog since they couldn’t be seen with the naked eye.

He focused as if gathering strength between his eyes and used his voice to vibrate the clear card floating in front of his face.

“Flying too high would be suicidal since that would expose us to the artificial winds. We will be gradually descending, but the mountainous terrain creates very complex natural winds. They aren’t as bad as the artificial ones higher up, but make sure a sudden crosswind does not flip you over.”

They could only communicate via magic – and using a portable device not available to the general public – because plenty of thin mist mana lines were running between the mountains. The harsh terrain had been used to create a natural fortress, but the interior had been thoroughly artificially remade. The network here had to be even more well developed than a major city-state’s castle town.

And any Sorcery Hacker worth their salt could hack into and use a network like that with the administrator none the wiser.

Ayato guided them into the gorge.

It was V-shaped, so it narrowed the lower they were, giving them less lateral range of movement. If they descended too far, the wing gliders wouldn’t be able to keep up with the complex winding turns of the river and they might even crash into the gorge wall. Ideally, they would maintain a decent altitude while still flying below the mana sensors of invisible fog that floated in the air like barrage balloons.

Far below them, something large moved silently along the surface of the flowing river. Henrietta gave a disbelieving look down at the catfish-style military submarine sorcery device larger than a train station platform.

“Why are the defenses here so tight? Not even our knights had equipment this nice.”

“That just shows the importance of what they are defending.”

This was a secret so valuable it was worth killing someone to protect it.

Sorcery Hacker Ayato’s group was after something connected to that institute.

“The next stage should be beginning soon.”

“Umm, Ayato? That was an awfully ominous thing to say. You never said anything to us about a ‘next stage’.”

“If I had told you my Media Summoner simulation said our odds of arriving undetected were less than 30%, you would have angrily protested this plan, wouldn’t you have? That argument never would have gotten anywhere.”

“Bfff!? 30%!? P-please tell me I misheard that, you deceitful little shit!!”

“Too late to turn back now, I’m afraid.”

The sound of something slicing through the air approached them from behind. It sounded like a shrill whistle or like an endlessly swinging blade.

A reptile larger than the average carriage had its bat-like wings spread wide. And this was a real creature, not a sorcery device.

And there were several of them.

But they did not appear to be wild animals. Large lights were strapped to them with leather belts, rocket launcher and machinegun sorcery guns were attached to their thin wings, and people rode on their backs with reins and saddles. The decorations likely boosted the monsters’ abilities, but it looked awfully unwieldy.

The range of their magic was the audible range of the gunshots.

At such a large caliber, they might be able to score a direct hit from the other side of the mountain. Louder cannon blasts tended to be lacking in precision, but that didn’t matter with a volley that filled the entire space like a meteor shower.

Needless to say, these defenses were different from the previous ones. Striker Henrietta’s eyes widened when the powerful lights tore through the darkness behind them.

“Wait just a second. Trained miniature wyverns? Those are official control squad equipment to prevent interference by Sorcery Hackers!! This territory belongs to an institute separate from any one nation, so what are ordinary wyvern troops doing here!?”

“Probably because I’m a wanted criminal. I had thought wyvern troops were just for show these days, but they must have brought them back. Thanks to your effectiveness pursuing me in the sky city, the related agencies must have discovered a variety of hints on how to deal with me. I can see why they would grab their whips and pour a lot more effort into training their wyverns.”

“In other words, the rest of us can escape without issue if we shoot you down for them?”

Do that and Henrietta wouldn’t know where the air-contact sorcery sensors were anymore, but there was no point in continuing such a pointless argument.

Meanwhile…

“(Eek! How can they talk about training and whipping like that? Unbelievable. Is that what they do to demons when they catch them? Simply unbelievable!)”

“(This isn’t news, Teleria. We already knew humans aren’t right in the head.)”

The other two were whispering to each other, but the wind was too strong for it to reach the boy’s ears.

Ayato adjusted his grip on the control bar while soaring through the chilly early morning air.

“We are going to speed up some now, but that won’t change what we need to do. Think of it like gliding in a slow wavelike pattern. You only have to repeat the same actions over and over, so do not make a mistake by rushing things.”

“Coach, I think you’re asking an awful lot of us.”

“Also, if you let them shine their lights on us from directly behind, the control squad’s recorders will make sure every soft curve and tight line of those skintight suits is forever saved in a public agency’s records, so do be careful.”

“Don’t think you can slip that past us by whispering it out real fast!” protested Teleria. “If I find out you knew this would happen in advance, you are getting much more than just a slap!!”

Ayato dropped his altitude a fair bit to guide the others. He skimmed just above the river winding through the V-shaped gorge. Their high speed widened their turns, which made this much more dangerous, but they wouldn’t crash as long as they remembered to slow down just before a sharper turn.

Teleria, Mamilis, and Henrietta followed the boy around an S-shaped curve and then heard a loud explosion and saw a bright light behind them.

They had not been magically attacked.

One of the pursuing miniature wyverns had failed to make the turn and crashed into the gorge wall. The explosive flames tearing apart the shadows had to be an explosion triggered by the lights, rocket launcher, and other sorcery equipment slamming into the rock. When the compressed liquid mana contacted the air and instantly vaporized, it would run wild and not even the person it belonged to could control what kind of magic it formed. Teleria shrieked like she was worried about the enemy.

“Eek!? The poor miniature wyvern!”

“The reins, saddle, and other artificial things are pretty fragile, but the miniature wyvern itself is a type of dragon. They’re tough enough to survive crashing into a cliff face. So the kind of pet lover who cares more about kittens than delinquents can rest easy here. And with the controls removed, they might even return to the wild.”

As long as the human was thrown off of the wyvern, they didn’t have to worry about it pursuing them any longer. The miniature wyverns didn’t care about human law and had no personal beef with Ayato’s group.

The bigger problem was the sleeping lions who had been shaken awake by the explosion. A deep siren blared from the dark mountains, echoing over and over. The 6-legged sorcery devices guarding the drawbridges and roads opened their maws and formed artillery shells within. The 8-legged ones used their silk to weave cannons more than twice their own size. The flying ones that resembled moths and cicadas flew straight up.

Thin wings spread wide and automatically produced giant magic circles and light brighter than lightning was concentrated inside their powerful jaws. Those were plasma beam cannons that shot out lines of metal vaporized with ultra-high temperatures.

A warlike mood had set in.

“A-A-A-A-Ayato, Ayatoooo!!”

“I accounted for all of this, so worry not. Everything is going according to plan.”

“Tell us about this kind of plan ''beforehand'' next time!!!!!”

As long as they remained deep enough within the gorge, they would be safe.

There were times when speed alone was enough to lose pursuit.

Also, no Sorcery Hacker was going to get scared and keep away from strict security. The more powerful the enemy’s equipment, the more it made the hacker drool: ''I can use this.''

Their top priority was the control squad approaching from behind.

The gorge’s L and S-shaped turns reduced their pursuit’s numbers to an extent and Ayato rapidly ascended after the enemy had gotten used to flying in the gorge. He stopped just as he was approaching the mountain peak and the miniature wyverns who carelessly overshot him were swallowed up in an explosion. This one was purple, so it clearly wasn’t natural. You had no chance if that targeted you. Once the winds caught them and they froze up for a moment, the spherical “weather station” on the mountain peak shot them with a curse that sent the wyvern spiraling down with the human still on its back.

The curse didn’t fly in a straight line or home in on its target.

Instead of being hit by something, it was more like they spontaneously blew up.

Invisible curses that couldn’t be dodged really were the most dangerous thing.

But as difficult as they were to avoid, most people thought of formless curses as being fairly weak. However, these defensive weather stations had boosted their power to combat-ready levels by stacking several gemboards, each of which was larger than a door and was covered in a complex pattern built at hair-thin precision.

(I can’t just deceive the enemy. I must also restrict myself to actions that beginners like Miss Teleria and the others can follow. Catching the appropriate winds and keeping our wavelike motion going with so many midair obstacles and pursuers is no easy task.)

They were being rocked by powerful explosions from the miniature wyverns.

Mamilis seemed unbothered by the destruction around them as she matched Ayato’s speed. Maybe because they weren’t the sorcery devices her (weapon designer) grandmother had made.

The humans on the miniature wyverns’ backs might not fare so well, but the cruelly-whipped dragons themselves were tough enough to survive crashing into the cliff or their equipment exploding. They might be temporarily injured by their defeat here, but it gave them a chance to escape captivity and return to the wild.

It was likely that advance information that let the dark elf girl say what she did.

“Is it wrong that I find this to be kind of beautiful?”

“Yikes, yikes, yikes! All these bright explosions are removing the veil of darkness!! Nothing is hiding our skintight suits anymore!!”

More giant bugs flew sharply up from between the mountains. Those were sorcery devices, but they belonged to the independent institute’s defenses. Ayato stayed calm, operating his crystal tarot card to throw off their aim while rapidly descending. Instead of making an attack, he passed right by one and stabbed his sword blade out to the side.

“Kh.”

The powerful wind pressure threatened to throw him off balance, but he skillfully operated the four wings to compensate.

There was a good reason to risk stalling out like that.

If they got through here, the pursuing control squad’s miniature wyverns would be flying straight into the independent institute’s military sorcery devices. A few high-speed collisions turned the cutting-edge flying machines modeled after moths and cicadas into balls of fire and the dizzy miniature wyverns could not respond to the humans’ commands and crashed down to the ground or the gorge’s river. Both sides appeared to interpret this as an attack instead of an accident, so they began a dogfight disconnected from the path Ayato’s group was taking. They were both trying to pursue the dangerous Sorcery Hacker, but they ended up fighting each other.

Ayato glanced back at the spear squid aerial explosives launched vertically from the back of the catfish submarine. Their translucent shells were filled with concentrated balls of plasma that shined bluish-white with intense heat, but they were aimed at the control squad’s miniature wyverns. As long as his group wasn’t caught in the explosion that obliterated the darkness of the early morning sky, they would be fine.

“Now’s our chance.”

“Stop acting like this was the result of your brilliant plan. If our odds of success were only 30%, then this was basically just dumb luck.”

“What are you talking about, Miss Teleria? 30% was the odds of reaching our destination entirely undetected. You can rest assured that I repeated the simulation until I knew it was 100% safe.”

“…”

“If it was just me, 30% would have been fine. But I refuse to compromise on safety when the three of you are assisting me. If there was any room for concern, I threw out the plan. Even if it had 99.9% odds of success.”

Sirens blared and magic was flying from all directions, but for some reason, Ayato’s group managed to escape notice as they flew through the early morning sky. It was like a bright light deepening the shadows and giving them a safe route to take.

Eventually, the tip of Ayato’s wing glider crossed an invisible line.

He had just crossed the mountain range surrounding the giant institute and arrived at the “center”. It was like crossing the outer ring and reaching the vast, crater-like bowl within.

There was an extra tall point at the edge of the crater with a radius of 9000 esoule<ref>Approximately 10.8 kilometers.</ref> and a red light scattered there as if to expression some kind of message.

And.

It was like they could hear the wyvern troops clicking their tongues.

All of the control squads’ miniature wyverns turned around and left at the same time.

In other words, Ayato’s group had entered a sanctuary. That airspace was off limits for ordinary law enforcement like the control squad no matter how pressing their reason. The place had been called an independent institute several times now, but it possessed enough power to protect its territory and maintain control.

This was more strictly upheld than any other continent’s embassy or consulate.

Ayato’s group would be officially treated as temporary refugees. Or at least being reviewed as such.

No matter what crime someone had committed, they could not be pursued and made to answer for their crimes as long as they had entered independent territory and were granted permission to stay there. This organization was willing to go to those lengths to gather socially-maladjusted geniuses in one place and make use of their advanced technology and knowledge.

In the worst case, the people there would not be punished even if someone died.

Ayato Criminaltrophy knew that all too well.

''Because this was his old stomping grounds.

He brought his wing glider in for a landing. The predawn darkness made finding a flat, open space a challenge. Since his crystal tarot card gave him night vision, he had to lead the way or else the other three would be unable to land safely.

Unsurprisingly, landing was more difficult than flying.

Ayato pulled out a vial of noctilucent moss spores and drew out a line on the ground to mark his course, creating a makeshift glowing runway. That sounded simple, but it was difficult when done freehand over such a long distance with no measuring equipment to work with.

He waved the bottle with some noctilucent moss spores still in the bottom to accurately guide in the girls, but he kept the corner of his eye on a different point of the dark, predawn sky.

He could see his soft sigh.

With his tension released, his forgotten senses returned to him.

His ears were aching from the cold.

Unlike the girls in their aerosuits, he only wore his usual blue blazer and he could feel the mountain chill piercing right through its fabric.

The crater was surrounded by mountains, but its elevation was still that of partway up a mountain slope.

In that biting chill, he could see several giant shapes looming high in the darkness. Multiple towers were irregular connected by walkways at several different levels. The very top towered well above the mountain range that acted as a natural fortress protecting the institute.

That was the sorcery educational institute run by the Static Continent’s Combined Royal Family.

“So I’m finally back.”

A purple light fluttered into view.

That butterfly made of gems and lace could not be found anywhere in nature.

In the blink of an eye, the palm-sized sparkle silently transformed into an alluring long-haired maid. Micha Angelos, their client, stood courteously straight and spoke without batting an eye.

“Finally bothered to show up, Sorcery Hacker? You certainly took your time.”

“Hold on. How did you get in here? I’m not aware of a quicker method than my own.”

“My body has been customized to the point that the likes of you could never get ahead of me.” She pulled a small bag of gold<ref>Approximately 200,000 yen.</ref> from behind her white apron. “Your arrival here qualifies as accepting the job. This is your initial payment. Thanks to its research and development of sorcery technology, this institute is a crucial classified base for my master’s Combined Royal Family. You are to root out all internal corruption and personally eliminate all dangerous elements.”

“…”

“Although in this case, I imagine you would do so without the money or justification.”

That reminded Ayato of a past event.

This place brought him back to when he had still been the strongest Forward and had been operating under the legendary name of the Hexajinx. But more than that, it was a bitter reminder of the horrific incident when an innocent person had died and Ayato had retired that name.

Because Ayato Criminaltrophy had shot him.

He had thought he was resolving a dangerous hostage situation. He had thought it was worthy of drawing his devil’s revolver that granted great power but required the wielder killed their target within 6 shots or they would lose their own soul.

At the very least, he had been told the situation warranted it.

So how could he explain what happened? He had known someone would lose their life whether he was successful or not. If he had questioned the information and made an effort to confirm what he had been told, none if it would have happened. He knew exactly who had been at fault.

He had hoped to save the hostage, Teleria Nereid Aquamarine, but he had instead shot her stepbrother with his large revolver-style sorcery gun. And he had done it while she watched. He had only learned after the fact that the brother had already been persuaded by his sister to surrender.

Something had happened.

That hadn’t been an accident. Something sinister continued to permeate those giant towers.

And it was awaiting Ayato’s arrival.

Micha Angelos looked to the side before the girls could make their landing. Ayato and Micha shared an icy mood not found in the girls who did not know the full story.

That mood was unique to those who had bloodied their hands to preserve world peace and social order. It was a special feeling only understood by those who had taken another’s life for ''no other reason than that'' – with no injustice or oppression to use as an excuse.

Just think about it.

Ayato had fought while bound by a contract that demanded he either kill his target within 6 shots or he would have his soul taken in punishment. The very fact that he was standing here now proved what kind of deeds he had performed in the past.

His targets were meant to only be those worthy of that fate.

So he could not ignore the one who had not been.

He could not count the death of an innocent as nothing more than another notch in his belt. The lost life could never return, but he had to restore that brother’s honor.

“This is in your hands now.”

“Got it.”

“To be clear, this is a job for Sorcery Hacker Ayato Criminaltrophy – not for the Hexajinx. Do not forget that.”

Was that exasperation, sympathy, or caution in her voice? Her emotions did not carry a simple flavor like curry rice or chocolate that even a child’s palate could grasp. The mature maid left behind that delicate mixture of several emotions and then flew away as a purple butterfly.

Ayato was left all alone.

He now had to face the greatest and most inexcusable mistake of his life.

It was an unforgivable sin.

With a rusty look to his eyes, he used a simple statement to let out the feelings hidden within him.

He knew he had to get this out before the girls landed.

“''I’m back, Academy Towers.''”

It was once more time for him to face the great darkness lurking in this land.

But this time it would be the last time.

===Option 01: A Hound’s Scrawlings, Notes on the Pursuit of a Dangerous Criminal===

*Sky City Celedileka

High Priest Belbath should not have had any expert combat skills, so who taught him the specialized attack magic needed for those bombs and bazookas with only military purposes?

––He used the earth magic Quaternary Press, the same magic used by Miss Teleria’s brother when he occupied the Gem Science Gemboard Processing Tower. Could they both have learned it from the same person?


*Laguntreat

Student Council Advisor Jennifer Evening.

She managed to sorcery hack Fleurelisia, one of the Four Lords, and used that as a jumping off point to hack Fermiliquidio, the sword of whoever is 5th in line to the throne. Where did she gain the cutting-edge undisclosed technology necessary for that?

––Could the Student Council have provided their advisor with magical technology?

––I left her with Micha Angelos, but have received no report on her since.


I was hoping for further clues from the frozen boy who someone lent the devil revolver, but he did not have much information. The devil revolver was sent to his dorm room in a box and he was contacted over a Media Summoner. He never actually saw who it was, so he says he is no longer confident it really was the Student Council.

––I can’t just let him go free.

I will take away his ID and use sorcery cosmetic surgery to thoroughly alter his face, hands, blood, and any other identifying traits.

No one will ever believe him no matter what he tries to say about us.

He seems to be doubting his own testimony now, but given both incidents that occurred here, it seems safe to assume the problem is centered on the Academy Towers and the Student Council that rules it.

Perhaps not everything was directly ordered by the Council, but they must have information on it.

My next target should be the Student Council Office.

––The stronghold of the world’s greatest Sorcery Hacker is bound to have some means of hiding secrets.


(Should I hide these notes in plain sight? No, I will hide them on the very person most likely to be searching for them. I will slip a hidden folder with a 4th-generation multilock into the empty space on Miss Henrietta’s sorcery push-up bra. Ah ha ha. How greedy of that knight to enhance their apparent size when they are already that massive.)

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