Editing Sorcery Hacker:Volume1 Phase3 (section)

===Part 1===

Earth Castle Town Grouviv was a lot less unique compared to the other towns. It had normal roads, normal houses, and normal shops making up a normal cityscape. It had a lot fewer lights at night, so the glow of the red aurora known as the Demon Lord’s Bite seemed more distinct there.

This was the town for viewing the moon and stars.

It was night there and a conversation was being held in a restaurant that put more focus on alcohol than food.

“You can tell how crazy Celedileka is by the fact that being normal can be a selling point here. But I guess people will sometimes feel homesick while sightseeing. People tend to end up here when they’re sick of the other more unique towns and need a break, so they apparently get a lot of customers.”

Of course, that could also be seen from the buff Executioner collapsed on the table while complaining about his everyday troubles and how a female Paladin and Samurai showed more gentlemanly spirit than any of the men by trying to comfort him.

The restaurant was not illuminated by the mana light of a vacuum crystal container or crystal tube filled with phosphorescent moss spores. The tallow lamps on the tables provided an unsteady but gentle light much like watching a campfire.

Mana light was uniform and simple to use, but it was known to exhaust the eyes during long periods of work. That may have been another way this place welcomed people who were tired of the city. The mood was further established by the lack of the ubiquitous Media Summoners that looked like a crystal snowdome hooked up to a cable.

And when they had hired a beautiful Dancer to alluringly shake her hips instead, no one was going to complain.

Two people were seated at the lamplit counter.

Needless to say, one was Ayato Criminaltrophy.

The problem was the person seated next to him. He used fingers thicker than bananas to flick a royal gold<ref>Approximately 10,000 yen per coin.</ref> and spoke with a cheerful voice. He slammed the bottom of his empty glass against the counter to gather the barkeeper’s attention and the vibration caused some sharply flavored round beans to dance on their plate.

“Hey, barkeep, give me another. This kid’s still too young to drink, so it’s be rude of me not to drink enough for the two of us.”

However, this man had a powerful presence.

It was overwhelming enough to keep anyone from asking the obvious questions that came to mind.

Ayato placed a hand on his forehead while commiserating with the bad luck of the barkeeper who worked here and the customers who happened to be here. Quite a few glasses and mugs of alcohol were served, but not one of those customers was truly drunk. One look at that man’s face was enough to sober them up.

The man supported his unusually large head with a hand and nearly stabbed Ayato with a thick horn as he winked and smiled.

“Oh? What’s this? I know a sexy guy like me draws everyone’s eye regardless of sex or age, but observing me isn’t gonna help improve your own looks.”

“What are you talking about, bull man?”

He was a Minotaur.

The bull-headed giant stood 1.7 esoule<ref>Approximately 204 centimeters.</ref> tall. He wore pants with an absurd number of zippers, but his upper body was entirely bare. And with how muscular his reddish-brown body was, that was about his only option. It was indecent for a person, but it may have made for a lovely sculpture. He claimed his muscles had burst through all the decent clothes and armor he had tried to wear. He had leather holsters at his hips, but instead of twin handguns, he carried two old-style magic swords that were treated like fossils in the current age.

The beautiful but out-of-place voice of a strict woman reached their ears.

“Mgh, mgh…pwah!! Wh-what do you think you’re doing!?”

“I tied you up pretty tightly and stuffed you in a sack, but you escaped already? Not confiscating your sorcery gun was probably a mistake.”

While the boy made a dangerous-sounding comment, something burst out of the cheap sack lying at his feet. It was a battle-obsessed woman with a ponytail-like blonde braid who wore combat armor that increased its magical defenses and her own athletic ability using large monster tendons and leather as well as protectors made of oxidized mana-conducting silver that was given an asphalt color to increase its durability at the cost of general versatility. She had chosen the more popular older style to obtain the people’s cooperation. This was of course the beautiful Striker named Henrietta Split Destrius.

Her flushed face was due to more than just difficulty breathing.

“How dare you take me to some cheap inn, knock me out with a cowardly surprise attack, and then tie me up in order to do who-knows-what to me!?”

“You accepted that the anti-dragon sniper exists and is the greater threat to Sky City Celedileka and you agreed to help us eliminate that threat, but the instant you saw an opening while we were holding a strategy meeting at the inn we were hiding out in, you tried to contact your old buddies in the knights. How many times must you try to have us surrounded and slaughtered?”

“Uh…b-but it is my duty to keep the peace in Celedileka, so I could not ignore the ruffians I saw in front of me.”

“Don’t give me that and stop pouting your lips like some selfish brat! I really was nearly shot to death because of that!!”

“(B-besides, what are we doing in such a seedy restaurant? What are they plotting by taking me to some sketchy bar? No, stay strong. I need to stay strong. I can’t let them scare me. The instant you look away, they will try to have their way with you, Henrietta!!)”

The miniskirt Striker started muttering to herself and behaving oddly, so the blatantly suspicious Minotaur spoke up in exasperation.

“Hold on, boy. That is no way to treat a lady.”

“Oh, don’t worry. I made sure to put one of my shirts in the sack to help that lonely kitten get through the night. Did you have fun rubbing against it and filling your lungs with my scent?”

“You did what!? Now I am killing you!!!!!!”

That woman, who had chosen the old-fashioned protector armor and miniskirt instead of cutting-edge combat equipment, must not have understood how she had ended up in the earth town after losing that battle.

“Well, now that the cat’s out of the bag, you might as well take a seat.”

“Shouldn’t you apologize for your rudeness first!? Do not worry. I am not angry. If you sincerely bow your head, I will make sure to arrest you and tie you up swiftly and painlessly!!”

“You say that, Miss Henrietta, but don’t think I missed that complicated look you gave Miss Mamilis earlier.”

“Hgee!?”

That earnest woman apparently could never bring herself to outright reject what someone else said and instead took it all under consideration. To be blunt, she got the short end of the stick a lot because of that.

“No. As a Striker, I refuse to accept this. I can never accept the concept of a necessary evil…uhh.”

“Strange things happen. Like a completely innocent girl’s SOS going unheard by all those wonderful Knights or Strikers or whatever. Since you left her to be captured by despicable human traffickers, don’t you think you need to reconsider your view of Sorcery Hackers?”

“Stop reading my min-…cough, cough, ahem!! No, you misheard! That is not at all what I was thinking!! Cough, cough! Besides, even if those charges were false, you are still a sorcery criminal, are you not!?”

“Here, you can use my handkerchief. You were in that sack for a while.”

“Ugh, wipe, wipe. I can’t believe a Striker like me must accept the charity of a hacker…”

“Oh, I thought you were just going to wipe the sweat from your brow, but you went for the whole face. I used that to wipe off my mouth earlier, so does this count as an indirect kiss?”

“Bfhhhh!!!???”

She spat out the contents of her mouth.

For being a cutting-edge knight, her table manners were not the best.

“S-s-s-stop messing with me! There is so much I want to say that I’m afraid I won’t remember it all, but for now, you two dangerous individuals need to be tied up!! Yes, the human and the bull head!!”

Just as she shouted and pulled out her bolt-action carbine with axe-like bayonet, a Martial Artist woman hoping for some excitement stood up at a table a short distance away.

The reddish-brown Minotaur drank from his glass and did not even reach for the swords at his hips.

A palm-sized purple butterfly fluttered by in their vision.

This was an unnatural night butterfly decorated with lace and gems. It became a woman whose long hair glowed with a purple radiance and who wore a classic maid uniform. She also had metal arms extending from her hips and back which held a double digit number of small and large sorcery guns. They were all aimed at the various vital points across Henrietta’s body.

“…!?”

The ponytail-style blonde braid Striker gasped and the purple-haired maid spoke coolly.

“Sheathe your rude and impudent blade, insolent woman. You are a mere knight who serves one of the many regional kings left in charge of the continent’s excess land, so did you really think you were an equal of the primary heir to the Selected Kingdoms’ Combined Royal Family?”

“Huh? Wha-?”

“Stop it, stop it. I’m just some bull man now. This is my chance to live my life the way I want and bars are more enjoyable when everyone can relax.”

The Minotaur said that while draining his drink and munched on a handful of salty beans and small fish cooked in oil, but that was all. He did not give any kind of explanation. Henrietta blinked in confusion while still holding her sorcery gun at the ready and she glanced over at Ayato who was supposedly her enemy.

The boy simply shrugged.

Only the maid who he had called his client kept speaking.

“The man before you is His Excellency Liberca Bran Zorca Totalinus. His Excellency himself has forgiven you your previous insolence, but since you are aware of your inferior position now, any further rudeness will be swiftly punished.”

“D-do you want me to cut you down on charges of disloyalty and impersonating royalty!? No, do not give up on people’s lives just because they are a dangerous individual, Henrietta. As a Striker borrowing the king’s authority, I must show them the proper way and urge them to reform. Listen, some things are not appropriate to joke about!”

“Your Excellency,” smoothly said the maid. “Please kindly enlighten this foolish servant.”

“Oh, gods!”

There was a heavy thud as the muscular Minotaur drew one of his two swords from its holster and placed it heavily on the counter.

Henrietta’s forehead tensed more than necessary when she saw the symbol engraved at the base.

[[Image:SorceryHacker_v01_BW05.png|thumb]]

“The Royal Sword – Butterfly Effector.”

“So even a lowly knight like you knows a bit about heraldry. The combination of the family crest and the individual name is all the proof you could need that he is a member of the Selected Kingdoms’ Combined Royal Family. If you continue to question his royalty, I will punish ''you'' for disloyalty.”

“Ah, ahhh, wah, wah, ahhh!!”

There was no sign of the powerful foe Henrietta had been earlier.

The ultimate vertical society had its pros and cons. She was so confused she dropped her carbine with axe-like bayonet, her face paled, her eyes spun in her head, and she dropped to one knee in the pose of absolute obedience.

“Can I put this away? I don’t like flaunting my authority to solve problems. That makes me one of those awful rulers that looks down on everyone else. I just hate it. Every time I do it, it makes me feel like less of a man.” The reddish-brown Minotaur looked like he could not stand it. “And we call it the Combined Royal Family, but it’s unclear how ‘combined’ we really are. It might look like everyone in the Static Continent gets along, but it’s not unusual for regional royal families to make plantations overseas to secretly build up money and soldiers. We’re one secret agreement away from a set of kingdoms saying they’ll sink any ships not in their little group that try to head out to sea. Not everything is nicely in view. Like this sky city for example.”

“There are four continents in all, right? But the other continents are supposed to have their hands full with small kingdoms fighting each other for supremacy. Is there really room there for all this?”

“And who told you that nice story? Was it those Media Summoners you love so much? It’s not like you’ve actually gone overseas and seen it for yourself.”

Henrietta was seriously having trouble keeping up with all this now, so she could not even shout like a child and her mouth simply flapped wordlessly. But unlike that earnest Striker, the outlaw Sorcery Hacker had considered another possibility.

“Why did you believe him so readily? Even if that Butterfly Effector is real, he could just be some talking Minotaur that stole it from the corpse of a prince who kicked the bucket on a trip.”

“Huh!? That is truly despicable, bull head! No more mercy! It is time I began the Henrietta Education Camp where I will teach you the difference between right and wrong until your eyes are shining mirrors of purity!!”

“By the way, I am Micha Angelos, a prototype humanoid sorcery device whose organs are made from biological gems. I function as a succession manager who protects the Butterfly Effector’s seal. If any unauthorized individual were to touch the that royal blade or its wielder, I possess the defense capabilities to cut them down.”

“Wah, wah, wahhhhhhh!!”

Henrietta was truly at her limit after so much back and forth. Her position kept changing and her eyes were spinning dizzily as she tried to figure out whether she was pointed in the direction of good or evil.

Meanwhile, Ayato gave a snort of laughter while seated next to the Minotaur.

“So you’re enjoying a trip across the continent with a servant who does everything you ask? Not only are modern Minotaurs compulsive liars, but they apparently get their diapers changed too.”

“Say what you like, but I really don’t want to hear that from some gloomy geek who drags around a tearful busty blonde roommate wherever he goes.”

“…”

“…”

Invisible sparks flew between them, but the maid broke that silence.

“If necessary, I am willing to equip some thin plastic gloves, a mask, and goggles to change your diapers or eliminate your pent-up desires.”

“You might think that’s a kind offer, but you’re really not helping, maid! I never asked you to grab my you-know-what and I definitely don’t want to hear you need all that equipment before you can stand to do it!!”

The (self-proclaimed) Prince Charming gave a roar and the cool, purple-haired maid transformed back into an unnatural night butterfly made of bewitching lace and gems before flying off somewhere.

The reddish-brown Minotaur clicked his tongue and returned the sword to the holster.

“A-anyway, um…”

The elderly barkeeper was left dumbfounded by this exchange, but he finally seemed to have found someone to speak to.

While being very careful not to drop the glass he was polishing with both hands, he asked a hesitant question of the well-known Striker who was tasked with keeping the peace in the sky city.

“How am I supposed to respond to these people?”

“Hm, good question. They are dangerous individuals, but I am monitoring them for the time being. Let them do as they wish.”

She finally said it once someone came to her for help. That seemed to help loosen up the tense atmosphere in the restaurant. Having the “seal of approval” from the knights meant a lot.

“(So which is it? Is he real or a fake!? Am I facing an insolent traitor, or acting rudely to the Combined Royal Family? Please tell me where I stand here, so I can figure out what to do. Nothing bothers me more than this kind of gray zone. I need a clear division between right and wrong!)”

“I don’t know either, you earnest and straitlaced moron,” said Ayato. “How am I supposed to prove it one way or the other?”

“Oh? What, so you’re sitting next to Ayato!?” protested the Minotaur. “Makes me sad to have a guy sitting between me and such a pretty lady!!”

It was said that man had received divine punishment after performing repeated sorcery experiments.

Not even Ayato had been told what those experiments were meant to accomplish, but the man claimed they were meant to help people.

And Ayato honestly did not particularly care whether or not he really was the First Prince of the Combined Royal Family that bound together the many regional kings.

The man would spew nonsense when he was drunk, but he had far more information than Ayato could imagine and he was a good client that freely spent royal gold<ref>Approximately 10,000 yen per coin.</ref> taken from some personal fortune he had hidden away somewhere.

“As your client, could I ask for a report on what happened?”

“There’s not much to report. Funny Snatch’s human trafficking group was successfully destroyed in the fire town and that completed the job you hired us for. Although if you’re interested in the overtime we put in for free, the villain pulling the strings decided to pick a fight with us and we were stuck being chased all over the wind town by those ignorant knights who were lagging several steps behind. We didn’t earn anything and we had to pay our own way through it all!!”

“We were ignorant and lagging several steps behind!? I demand you take that back!!”

“You were perfectly happy attacking me when I was working to stop the villain. That’s one step behind. Some straitlaced woman was shouting nonsense without even knowing what the real threat to the sky city was. That’s two steps! You still don’t seem to understand any of this. That’s three steps!!”

Henrietta’s head was full of question marks (and her eyes had some tears welling up in them), but the reddish-brown Minotaur ignored her to speak to Ayato again.

“Run out of tricks?”

“Right now, I can only wait.” Ayato licked the surface of the magically-created ice floating in his water. “Someone went out of their way to acquire that monstrous Critical Disaster and they disappeared beyond that nasty barrier with a ridiculous name like Free Audience Restriction. I am worried about what they are trying to accomplish, but we have no way of breaking through that barrier.”

“Hm. A Sorcery Hacker is saying he can’t do something?”

“Are you trying to provoke me? But luckily, the Free Audience Restriction is brought down to allow the normal citizens and sightseers into the royal castle on certain days. We’ll have to use one of those days to get in. And I believe the one coming up is for that Temple Moving Ceremony.”

“Are you aware what kind of event that really is?”

“A public execution. Fun for the whole family, I’m sure.”

Ayato spat out the words in disgust.

The Temple Moving Ceremony was used to invite in a specific religion as the new state religion, but Sky City Celedileka was a military government run by the king and knights. If this was to defend the divine right of their rule, they could not afford any mistakes here. In other words, the Forturiana Church had to defeat some great evil to be accepted by the king. (Officially, anyway. Any previously established connections were a different matter.)

This was not the suppression of the great Demon Lord spoken of in legend or the slaying of a dragon from a picture book.

It would take the form of a test, but the regional king and the church did not want it to fail. That was why they had chosen a convenient villain for themselves. They would offer up a human prisoner who had been sentenced to death and the event would continue as planned.

“Hey, Ayato. I’ve got a fundamental question for you here.”

“Yeah?”

Henrietta tugged on his sleeve and begged him to explain what was going on, but the muscular bull man cut in before he could reply.

“You seem to be doing your best to ''not'' see a certain possibility here. So do you mind if I point it out for you?”

“Quit beating around the bush. What are you talking about?”

“The Zodiac Bright Eater.”

Henrietta clearly had no idea what the reddish-brown Minotaur meant. Ayato did know what that term referred to, but he still did not understand what the man was getting at.

“The ancient Demon Lord Nirvelphany? That’s one of the nicknames listed in the sightseeing pamphlet while explaining that people here call the aurora the Demon Lord’s Bite, but why bring that up now?”

“Because that’s who you’re pursuing here. She’s a ruler of surprises and she can be the trigger of doom or the key to salvation. Write her name in a circle to link the end back to the start and you create an eternal incantation that provides unlimited power.”

This was all far too sudden.

But the Minotaur did not seem to be joking.

“C’mon now. You have a Dark Elf like Mamilis with you and you’re speaking with a guy who abandoned his humanity after too many sorcery experiments, so how can you be so certain the Demon Lord isn’t still alive?” The bull man drank down the rest of the amber liquid in his glass and slammed the glass against the counter, sending the round beans and small fish dancing along their plates with the vibration. “You did figure it out on your own, didn’t you? You knew the answer, but your common sense got in the way and refused to let you accept the answer right in front of your eyes.”

“It can’t be…”

“You remember now, don’t you? It’s about that sniper’s Expansion Armor. Shops selling demon wings and horns are pretty common in that wind town, but those are different. Demon Lord Nirvelphany remade her own right wing into Expansion Armor. She used her own body part that was cut off long ago and sealed in that shrine along with her.”

“It is true she seemed to have ''much greater control'' over that one compared to the horns, the left wing, or the tail. It seemed like an excessive amount of processing space for a mere decoration.”

“She only saw it as reattaching the body part taken from her, but as Expansion Armor, she can’t hide it inside herself anymore. Being a sniper or Sorcery Hacker is all about hiding and sneaking around and she would stand out quite a bit walking around with just the one wing sticking out, so she probably felt the need to match the rest as well.”

The Minotaur chuckled and tapped at his empty glass a few more times. Earnest Henrietta still could not decide who was an enemy and who was an ally, but she still called over the frightened barkeeper like the organizer of a drinking party.

“Demon Lord Nirvelphany definitely did exist in the distant past, but how she vanished from the center stage of history is much less clear. Some say the holy light of Forturiana purified the demon and others say she destroyed herself in some kind of sorcery experiment, but none of it is very credible. It’s all a bunch of rumors.”

“?”

“ ‘It was a golden horse carrying death and a holy follower adorned with glittering gems.’ Those words apparently describe her fate, but all the scholars have different interpretations of what it means. Although maybe it means there’s someone else out there ''like my maid''.”

“What are you even talking about? I’ll admit the right wing of that Expansion Armor wasn’t normal, but I seriously doubt Nirvelphany is still alive and active to this day. Didn’t you see that dragon rampaging in the fire town? Without a leader, the demons have been fighting sadly meaningless individual battles. Yet if they had rationally banded together again and formed a single cohesive force, they could have started a war large enough to divide the continent in two. If that charismatic leader was still around, it never would have ended up like this.”

“You’re right about that. But a history book gathering dust on the Combined Royal Family’s bookshelves says the Forturiana Church opted not to wait for the arrival of the Hero and instead sealed Nirvelphany in a small shrine somewhere.” The giant bull man accepted a newly filled glass and waved it around a bit to spin the ice. “But not even the official records of the Combined Royal Family say where that shrine is located. No one can tell you where on that vast, vast continent it is.”

“Wait, hold on…”

“This isn’t too unusual. For example, the Combined Royal Family’s treasure house isn’t open to public tours, but that’s because we can’t let the commoners know it’s actually empty. And the Resurrector Cathedral that preserves the royal tombs is pretty much the same. All the generations of kings are supposed to be sleeping there, but if you open up the tombs, the numbers don’t add up. If it was just one body missing, you could make up some story about the mysterious vanishing king, but when there are that many missing, you can’t smooth it over with legends.”

“…”

“(Heh heh heh. This is fine. I am using invisible chains to keep these dangerous individuals here. This is an important job, so I haven’t given in. I will never lose to these ruffians. Eh heh heh heh.)”

Henrietta had tried to figure out from the conversation if this Minotaur was telling the truth about his identity, but the information must have overloaded her mind at some point. She had been listening in without interrupting for a while, but now she was childishly muttering to herself while slumped down on the counter despite not having had a drop to drink. Ayato lightly rubbed her head with a hand while listening to the reddish-brown bull man.

“A lot is lost in the long span of history. Records that everyone just assumed would always be around will one day not be there. Now, a question. You believe the commonly-accepted fact that Demon Lord Nirvelphany disappeared and was no more, but does that really have any historical basis? Or is it a false theory some idiot made up to hide the fact that the official records were lost due to some combination of coincidence and malice? Yes, that’s the real question here.”

It was true the right wing that red leather woman had worn was not your average device. If it really did belong to the Demon Lord, then not many people would be able to get their hands on it.

But Ayato still shook his head.

“I still don’t get it. That isn’t a logical conclusion. All you’ve said is ‘well, it could be’. If the Demon Lord was sealed in some musty old shrine several thousand Combo-Years ago, why would she be showing up again now? And why would she bring down the Free Audience Restriction to make an attack on the light castle in the center of Celedileka?”

“That just means she has a reason to do it now.”

“???”

“Listen, you’ve already given the answer yourself. You just haven’t noticed because you’re being led astray by the preconceptions made up by some idiot to hide the missing records.”

“Just tell me what you’re getting at here.”

“Try thinking for yourself.” The man with the ridiculously-large bull head sighed. “Nirvelphany went on ahead. And you can’t reach her because the Free Audience Restriction reactivated. That’s a problem, but luckily, the central light castle is bringing down that aurora-like barrier to invite in the normal citizens and sightseers for their fixed game of a Temple Moving Ceremony. And that means you can sneak in then to get a second chance at fighting Nirvelphany.”

The newspaper had mentioned an old man named Thomas. Losing his head for some silly event was tragic, but he had been given a death sentence already. He must have done something bad enough to warrant it, so that fellow resident of the underworld calmly urged the man to continue.

“And?”

“Really? That wasn’t enough?”

The reddish-brown Minotaur took a jocular tone as he pressed the cold glass against his forehead.

And then he said it.

“''Then why did Nirvelphany go to all the trouble to bring down the Free Audience Restriction?'' Couldn’t she have just snuck in with the crowds during the public execution of that old man named Thomas Robergin?''”

“Ah.”

That point should have been obvious, so Ayato’s mind went blank.

“That means she must have some reason for it,” said the bull man. “Nirvelphany has some business she wants to take care of before Thomas is killed for that religious event. Surely that’s enough for you to figure it out, Ayato.”

“You mean it’s related to that old man they’re calling a brutal criminal?”

“Incidentally, despite being part of this fancy event at the castle, the actual charges against him haven’t been released. All they’ve said is that he is a ‘brutal criminal’. So I wonder what this Thomas actually did?”

“…”

“Zodiac Bright Eater Nirvelphany hasn’t appeared on the center stage of history for several thousand Combo-Years. Not since this sky city was still a piece of the continent below. Yet now she appears to be active again. So how do you think that great Demon Lord managed to come crawling out of the shrine that’s location has been lost? Of course, the door can’t be opened from within, so I’m really asking ''who came along to open the door from the outside''? Once you look at it that way, it all clicks into place, doesn’t it?”