Editing Sorcery Hacker:Volume1 Phase2 (section)

===Part 1===

A look at the clock told them it was nighttime.

Starlight shined on Sky City Celedileka around the clock, but it still looked very different once the sun set.

Mana light orbs transformed mist mana into fire magic inside a vacuum crystal container, and mana light tubes coated the inside of a cylindrical crystal tube with phosphorescent moss spores and then sent mist mana through. The combination of the two conquered the night and made it look like the night sky had descended to the city.

Ayato looked overhead.

“They’re drowning out the starry sky again. The people here must really hate that red aurora.”

“Well, they did decide to call it the Demon Lord’s Bite.”

“Nirvelphany. You’re supposed to attach the start of the name to the end to create a loop, right?”

All cities erected statues of famous people with a connection to the city, but the statues here included famous members of the Forturiana Church, which may have been a result of how much they loathed Demon Lord Nirvelphany. That church had apparently had effective control of the city long before the Temple Moving Ceremony that would soon be officially held.

Ayato and Teleria were surrounded by appetizing smells and the lively noises of partying, but they could not enjoy any of it. They could no longer use the Fire Castle Town Flared inn they had reserved a room at. The flying killer bees had taken photos of their faces, so that room would have been broken into it and their luggage retrieved by Government Security or the knights.

“Ahh, ahh. If they have all our luggage…ahh!?”

Teleria Nereid Aquamarine must have remembered some kind of issue regarding that because she curled up and held her head in the dark.

“We were only renting the place, so we can find somewhere else to spend the night.”

“That’s not the issue! Our luggage! Do you have any idea how many changes of clothes I had in here?”

“You can just buy more clothes.”

“Oh, no! And my underwear was in there too, so who knows who is inspecting that right this very moment!! This is a crisis for my maiden heart!!!!!”

(That’s what this is about? Well, I seriously doubt an outsider could figure out how to break through ''that lock'' I set up. Still, this is pretty funny, so I’ll let her keep thinking that.)

…As you could tell from their petty argument, they had escaped any immediate threat to their lives. They were no longer being chased by those killer bees and scorpions made from mana-conducting silver.

They had Sorcery Hacking to thank for that.

Defeating those devices in a direct fight would have been quite difficult, but if they used the chaos of taking control of one and sending it against the others, they could create enough of an opening to escape.

He had also taken the human trafficking data extracted from the Linkage Plug bowgun and inputted it into a crashed killer bee. When Sky City Celedileka’s government retrieved and repaired it, they would receive the data. Then they would pay the buyers a visit with sorcery guns at the ready and rescue the girls who had disappeared. However…

“Are you kidding me!? Are they trying to steal our thunder!?”

“We’re talking about a Sorcery Hacker, remember? He probably thinks he’s some kind of noble outlaw displaying some twisted form of justice.”

“I’m willing to work through the night for this. Summon the knights and begin the human wave attack!!”

…Even someone as (according to him) cool as Ayato had to cover his face with his hands when he viewed the crystal tarot cards that moved on their own. He was leaning back against a dangerous advertisement poster saying a Curse Master’s services were available for hire.

“Every last one of them is an overzealous meathead. I work so hard to help them out and they still insist on igniting that flame in their heart.”

The mist mana known as Intangible Mist would generally pass through anything not related to magic and it was invisible since it even passed through light. A variety of information services were provided by the spider web of long, thin strings of mist mana spread around the city by all the relay devices installed much like the sprayers built around shelves of grapes or morning glory or like the sprinklers at the golf courses the nobles so enjoyed. That was convenient, but since it was made up of lines between two fixed points, the information could only be accessed from the devices at the starting and ending point. The technology was in a transitionary period where it was wireless but had the same restrictions as a wired technology.

There were exceptions like Ayato’s crystal tarot cards that exchanged information by picking up the spray that left those carefully controlled mist manaflows. Of course, making contact like that was illegal. The connection was also too weak for proper Sorcery Hacking, but when you knew how it worked, actually going to the fixed devices felt like way too much effort.

Mist mana could not be seen since it even passed through light.

That was why Ayato used the estimated the location of the manaflow between a food stall’s register and a relay device that resembled a pool or beach’s outdoor shower made from metal pipes. He calculated out the line it would take and stabbed his Linkage Cable sword into the road at a point in the middle. Since he could not hack a device this way, he could not increase his Level, but it did allow him to steal data.

And all this sneaking around was not happening in Fire Castle Town Flared where all the previous excitement had occurred. They had quickly moved to the lower levels of Wind Castle Town Silphine before they could be surrounded. The entire sky city would of course be on alert, but the intensity would be lower here.

He was not a legendary hero or a savior knight.

He was no more than a dirty and illegal Sorcery Hacker.

But some unknown person had picked a fight with him while advancing some kind of plan that would affect the city around him and the many people who lived there.

That left him with just one option.

He would reveal that enemy’s identity and destroy everything they were trying to do.

He was not interested in the line between good and evil. A fight between evil and evil was fine with him. But once he decided someone was his enemy, he would show no mercy or restraint. Whether they worked alone or as a group, he would utterly crush them.

“Wh-what do we do now?”

“We need to think carefully.”

After that short answer, Ayato realized that was not enough to put his partner girl at ease.

“So let’s see. The primary problem is that the mystery sniper used the human traffickers to abduct Jorbe Alphoverin, the urban design manager for Sky City Celedileka. He will almost certainly be tortured until he reveals all of his secrets. Simply put, the villain will know all of this city’s vulnerabilities. And I doubt this ends there. They have some big job in mind.”

“H-hyehh…”

“The next biggest issue is how that villain has forced us to take the blame for them silencing the human traffickers. If they do end up doing something big here, they might shove the blame for that onto us too. I will own up to the crimes I have committed, but I’m not going to sit here and take the blame for someone else’s crimes.”

He breathed in and out.

Ayato Criminaltrophy explained his style of Sorcery Hacking.

“''So we need to strike before that happens. I don’t know who it is, but let’s show them just who they’ve picked a fight with.'' That is our plan here. Do you understand now, Miss Teleria?”

“I-I can tell this isn’t going to have a peaceful resolution.”

“Good enough.”

In other words, they were both on the run and preparing for a fight. And in either case, the laxer security outside the fire town worked in their favor.

The flow of people was necessary to keep tourists happy and to keep the various industries running. If they set up strict checkpoints everywhere and stalled that flow, it would be a lot like Sky City Celedileka strangling itself.

And the loss of money was not just an issue for individuals. It affected cities and states as well.

But aside from that…

“So about that Dark Elf girl…um, who was she? I think they mentioned her name.”

“Mam…Mami…um, Mamilis? Yes, that was it. Mamilis Coster! She is from some craftsman family, right?”

“How is she doing?”

“Um, I did pull the trigger and shoot her with recovery magic, so she should be fine. Specifically, I used Secondary Ex Aid and Secondary Ex Icing. The manaflow circulating in her body has stabilized, so it would be best to let her sleep somewhere quiet for now.”

It was said the human body was 60% water. (Although they had not wrung a human out like a rag, so how exactly had they proven that figure?) Just like the Intangible Mist circulating through every part of the city as a web-like piece of city infrastructure, mana also circulated efficiently through living creatures.

That was Teleria Nereid Aquamarine’s specialty.

“About that. Her house was reduced to rubble and our inn is off limits to us.”

“Eh? Oh, come to think of it, what about her family!?”

“They’re probably fine. If she didn’t live alone, she would have been worried about her family first and foremost when those human traffickers pulled her from the wreckage. Her family is almost certainly doing just fine in some other part of this city.”

Ayato laid out all that speculation before continuing.

“We could always leave her with the knights, but given how badly they want results, they might ignore how it looks and interrogate her through the night. It would probably be best to keep her with us until the heat dies down.”

“Uheh. Won’t that add kidnapping to our list of crimes?”

“Leave her behind and it will be abandoning something-or-other instead. Which would you prefer?”

“…”

“Real incidents aren’t like some great war between the Hero and the Demon Lord. We aren’t some warriors with the official protection of the state; we do illegal jobs for money. If we don’t clean up after ourselves, it will only add more crimes to the list.”

Teleria massaged her temples with her fingers and fell silent. She had probably stopped trying to think about it. Of course, there were some problems without a simple answer.

That meant they had one urgent task.

“Let’s find somewhere to spend the night. That said, we’re wanted criminals, so they’re sure to be distributing posters bearing our image. We can’t use a normal inn.”

“Are you familiar with any underground inns that will accept wanted criminals? This is our first time in this city.”

“Searching the traveler blogs isn’t the only way. You can look for certain signs.”

Ayato said that and then breathed a heavy sigh.

Fortunately, they had plenty of money thanks to receiving their payment from their client woman, that purple butterfly who had a way of mysteriously appearing and disappearing. A classy resort would be one thing, but they could easily afford an underground inn.

Ayato glanced over at a Moneylender walking through the city night with several bodyguards in black and at a seedy-looking Flower Seller girl as he walked past.

“Not all of the runaways searching for a shady hideout have much funding on hand, so there will always be a pawnshop near those sketchy inns. And those pawnshops will specialize in buying stolen goods. If we look for signs like that, we’re sure to find one in a city as large as this.”

“Uhehh. Are you sure it will work that well?”

“Well, we could look for a brothel instead of a pawnshop, but I really shouldn’t tell that to a lovely teenage girl, should I?”

“You just did! I can’t believe you!!!!!”