Sorcery Hacker:Volume1 Phase2

Status: Incomplete

3/17 parts completed

   

Phase 02: Wind Castle Town Silphine

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!!!!!”

Part 2

Back in Fire Castle Town Flared, the knights who maintained order in the city were walking through the night. They wore dark gray armor that was a combination of monster tendon and leather to increase various athletic abilities plus protectors of oxidized mana-conducting silver that were tempered to make it harder even if that reduced versatility. The area around their vitals was packed with soundproofing material since the range of magic was determined by the range of its gunshot noise. The armor was then colored to match the environmentally-destructive material known as asphalt that had been banned from use during the initial experiments at the Academy Towers, which had been erected by the combined royal families of the Selected Kingdoms that ruled an entire continent. That coloration was meant to symbolize their ability to slay the natural threat of demons along with the very scenery around them. Even without the large sorcery guns at their hips or backs, their very presence symbolized enough military might to overwhelm the ordinary people.

One person among them, Henrietta Split Destrius, stepped into an empty inn room. Her colleagues stopped searching the room to exchange a greeting with her.

She alone was different from the others. She had the same asphalt color, but her protector-based armor was not the latest version available. She intentionally wore an older model. That was less practical, but the design was popular with the people. Her head was exposed since she did not wear a helmet, her curved breastplate showed off her feminine bodylines, and she wore a short tight skirt around her hips. It may have been a modification of a ponytail, but her beautiful blonde hair was braided down to her hips. Combined with the armor she had chosen, she had the perfected beauty of a sculpture decorating a royal palace.

Below the moonlit starry sky, a young male colleague approached and spoke to her.

“Thank you for working so late, Striker Destrius.”

“Same to you, Soldier Shadelose.”

Their fixation on specific titles may have been a sign of the emphasis on social status and honor in their lives.

Sky City Celedileka currently had 160 heads of families given the title of knight, but since that was not enough for law enforcement or military action, Celedileka Government Security hired a set number of ordinary guards to bolster their numbers. Those guards could be promoted to knight if they performed well enough, so there was a path to that status beyond family inheritance.

Those adherents of chivalry stepped into the inn and arrived at the room in question.

“We have searched the room, but we did not find anything. The room was rented out using the suspect’s name, but a messenger was apparently used to check in and deliver the luggage. There is no sign that they ever touched the Media Summoner over there.”

The young man pointed his thumb toward the wall once they stepped in.

The clear sphere there remained silent. That sorcery tool was filled with a special liquid and thin metal leaf. By contacting the mist mana lines running through the city like a spider web, the metal leaf in the liquid would reflect the mana to produce light and the leaf itself would vibrate to produce sound. The combination of the two would produce the desired video or music. It functioned like existing televisions and radios and it could also perform simple data searches. Simply put, it was the bane of newspaper companies. There were also thin models meant for use as outdoor signs and boxy aquarium-like models, but the spherical ones were most popular. The cables and tubes connected to the sphere made it look like some kind of odd lab equipment, but rumors had it the size of your Media Summoner was a sign of your family’s wealth.

“The suspects are supposed to be a teenage boy and girl, so there is no way they wouldn’t have touched that even once if they were staying here.”

“I see.”

They had already checked the records, but Henrietta still reached out a hand to start up the crystal container and confirmed that there was nothing in the usage history. As she watched a religious ad (“Gain a healthy life through coexistence with magic – The Forturiana Church”), the young man said more.

“That is unfortunate. If we could have retrieved even a single hair, we could have used some kind of curse. Even if it didn’t affect them, we might have been able to detect their location through the path it took or where it was deflected. Have you heard the rumors of the Curse Master living on the lower levels of Silphine? She’s apparently some gloomy girl wearing nothing but a cape, but they say her power is the real deal.”

“Soldier Shadelose.”

“My apologies. That was a very unchivalrous thing to say, wasn’t it?”

“The Temple Moving Ceremony will take the form of a trial given to the Forturiana Church by the king. So I have heard there are Priests from other sects watching in secret and plotting to trip them up just before they become the official state church. So be careful about what you say.”

“Again, my apologies. How were things at the house collapse site?”

“Exactly as the initial reports said. Not a trace of them remained. The Zootoxin Mk. IIIs and the trained tracker dogs will likely find nothing. This fire town makes these things difficult.”

“Do you think they have already moved to a different town?”

“With the increased alert level, I doubt they would be stupid enough to try to board one of the flights leading out of the sky city. That means their most likely plan will be to cross the increased security lines of the fire town to move elsewhere and wait for the heat to die down before boarding one of those flights out of the city.”

“From here, that would mean wind or earth.”

“If we had found a dogeared guidebook or pamphlet, we would have had more to go on in our search, but I suppose it won’t be that easy.”

Henrietta lightly swung her long blonde braid as she looked to one corner of the room where some tightly locked travel bags sat. Four or five knights in armor colored like forbidden asphalt were crouched around them, but it was obvious at a glance they had yet to successfully unlock any of them.

“If it is absolutely necessary, we could always break the bags open.”

“No, those are important pieces of evidence, so treat them with care. Not everything is permissible in the name of law enforcement. When wielding our authority, we must never forget we are only borrowing it from the king.”

That beautiful Striker, who chose to wear the older style of armor that was more popular with the people, must not have expected much from anything other than the travel bags. As soon as she realized that too would turn up nothing, she turned around and left the room. She gave a light wave to the harmless lodgers who were opening the doors to their rooms to see what was going on, and Soldier Shadelose unnecessarily followed after her.

“Do you have an idea where the suspects have gone? Already?”

“There are no absolute right answers when tracking someone because the answer is affected by so many factors, such as their personality, their mood, their current funds on hand, and whether or not they have any help. Even the weather can change the answer, so your best bet is to try to put yourself in their shoes in the circumstances at hand.”

“I-I see.”

“This is an unchivalrous thought experiment, Soldier Shadelose, but if you were on the run from the law, where would you want to go to feel safe?”

“U-um, do you promise not to laugh at me for being a coward? In my case, I would probably head deep in the mountains far removed from human society or maybe a remote island nowhere near any major cities.”

“That would be an option, of course, but did you see the suspects’ travel bags? They have very urban tastes. Also, there was a focus on design without any real waterproofing. They are not the outdoorsy type, so they would likely find it safest to blend into the crowds of the city.”

“I see…”

Shadelose said that almost on reflex, but the look on his face said he did not actually see. He must have had trouble deciding whether that was a logical analysis or an example of “searcher’s instincts” that were borderline groundless assumptions.

After descending the stairs to the small reception lobby, Henrietta’s showy, old-style armor drew people’s eye and put them at ease in a way the armor covered in ugly, dark-gray protectors did not. The inn’s owner was worried about having the inn searched so suddenly, but their face lit up just like the other lodgers such as a Maid Trainee and a Bard.

She lightly clapped her hands to gather everyone’s attention and then spoke in a clear voice.

“Attention, everyone! If you recognize the boy on this poster, please contact us. The reward for arresting him is no higher than the reward for simply providing information, and he is an extremely dangerous individual who belongs to the evil side of the Light-Dark Duality, so please do not consider doing this yourself. Please allow us knights to keep the peace here in Fire Castle Town Flared and Sky City Celedileka as a whole!”

The people excitedly gathered around.

People handing out fliers on the street corner were despised, but things were different when she did it. Shadelose quickly pulled out the wanted posters and they were snatched away so quickly you would think they were blank checks.

“Nhh.”

Henrietta left the inn first since her role was complete and stretched her arms up over her head.

Finally, a frazzled-looking Shadelose stepped out.

“H-handing out wanted posters isn’t going to help at this point. I mean, the suspects never even set foot in this inn, right?”

“That is not what matters. We must ensure the people see the knights as a reliable presence, Soldier Shadelose. Have you heard of Liquid Flora, which is commonly known as the Holy Spring City?”

“Yes, that crime-ridden city-state that rapidly transformed into a slum recently.”

“There were a number of reasons for that, but the largest factor was how their management force was so talkative it became known that the criminal organizations would immediately learn of anyone who reported a crime to the authorities. If we are to keep the peace in this city, we need the people’s cooperation above all else. We must create an environment where everyone knows they can rest easy as long as the knights are on the case. Thus, it does not hurt to make unnecessary demonstrations of our work.”

Henrietta let out a slow breath and lightly traced her fingers across the large sorcery gun at her hip.

“In every age, the people are the greatest warning system. I will narrow my search to Wind Castle Town Silphine. How about you make similar performances and increase the entire area’s alert level to get the people on our side and rob the suspects of their freedom of movement?”

Just then, someone interrupted them.

They must have been tourists to be awake and out of the home at this hour, but a small boy and girl who appeared to be siblings waved her way.

“Miss Knight!” said the brother.

“No, she’s working,” warned the sister.

Henrietta made a point of choosing the older style but more popular armor that set her apart from the others, so she gave a gentle smile and waved back at the children before muttering something under her breath.

“There are no real knights anymore.”

Part 3

They had found their lodging for the night.

“Phew.”

Teleria, the blonde girl whose chest had grown quite a lot while her height had not, breathed a soft sigh.

There were not many rooms that fit their needs, so when they finally found the kind of underground inn they wanted, they were stuck with just the one room despite being a mixture of a young boy and two young girls. Plus, the room had just the one single bed. What had that inn’s owner, an old man who looked like he had killed at least three people before, thought as he handed them the key? If they all tried to use the bed, it would be more than just cramped; the slightest movement would probably send someone else tumbling off.

In the narrow, rundown hallway to their room, they had passed by a Bunny Girl practically overflowing with sex appeal and a Bounty Hunter who looked more criminal than any of his targets could possibly be. It pained Teleria to be in the same category as people like that.

Also, this inn was one of the ones next to a brothel rather than a pawnshop.

Everything felt so shady despite being so near the spherical theatre that floated in the air as Wind Castle Town Silphine’s primary landmark. That theatre felt like a perfect match for the moonlit starry sky above. On the other hand, this area of town seemed to be fine with anyone as long as they paid.

But her partner had had this to say with a completely straight face:

“Yes, well, I happen to like brothels more than pawnshops.”

That unbelievable response had earned him a slap, but they had no other choice at the moment. They had escaped the stricter security of Fire Castle Town Flared, but their wanted posters had to be all over the city. Defenselessly wandering the city at night would be a bad idea. Even buying a simple meal of bread made with cheap, third-rate wheat and fish of an unfamiliar species had been a risky endeavor.

Teleria jumped and looked back when she heard a deafening “thud!” and she found Ayato collapsed on the floor. It had happened the instant he had very thoroughly confirmed the room was safe. Today must have been full of far too many surprises even for that Sorcery Hacker.

“Ayato, please don’t fall asleep on the floor! You only just ate, so it’s bad for your health!!”

“Ugh, gweh…”

He must have been under a lot of tension while running around those dangerous areas with no direct weapons and working his mind and body so hard. Still face-down, he moved like an inchworm and pointed in a certain direction. The still-unconscious Dark Elf was sleeping on the one small bed. Even in his exhausted state, he apparently still had the bare minimum of a ladies first mentality.

The blonde girl just about tried to shake him awake, but then something occurred to her.

(Wait, if I let him sleep like this, then I know he won’t try to peep on me in the bath.)

She had never caught him doing that before, but he was a Sorcery Hacker who specialized in clandestine operations. Just because she had never caught him doing it did not mean he did not have some way of doing it that she could not detect. The difference between a spy and a stalker and the difference between a sniper and a peeping tom were paper thin.

Either way, there was a young boy and two young girls in this one small room. There was no privacy for a maiden like her, but fortunately, even this cheap inn had a bathroom for each room. That meant she could secure some alone time. Ayato and Mamilis were not at fault here, but she did not think it was wrong of her to want some space to herself.

(In all seriousness, though, how are the sleeping arrangements going to work tonight?)

She looked down at Ayato on the floor.

At times like this, he generally let Teleria have the bed while he slept on the couch, but now there were three of them in the one room. Plus, this was a cheap inn with almost no furniture. It only seemed to matter that it had walls to keep people from seeing inside. That was not enough. There was not even a couch, so where was she supposed to sleep?

Plus, the space was far too small for a young boy and two young girls. Unlike the balloon bungalow, there were not even any walls and doors to divide things up. If this was a lab rat cage with the sexes improperly separated, there would have been a lot of reproduction going on.

What was she supposed to do?

Seriously, what was she supposed to do?

(Well, it makes sense to let Mamilis have the bed since she’s injured, but that doesn’t tell me what to do. I can’t just wait and see what happens. I have to actively secure the best possible option for myself!)

For one thing, Ayato was a Sorcery Hacker whose sleep schedule was way out of whack. And he had a bad habit of losing himself in his Self-Maintenance work when he had any spare time, which would only cause trouble for everyone else nearby. The worst part was how he saw it as mental work entirely cut off from the outside world. But his mind and his body were much more connected than he thought!! When he was lying there in a daze was the most dangerous time. She had trouble telling whether he was asleep or at work. After what had happened in the balloon bungalow, she knew she could not let her guard down tonight. Whether it was a bed, a sofa, a table, or a desk, she had to find a surface up off the floor to sleep on.

However, her thoughts came to a stop when she started coming up with a concrete plan.

“Uh…”

That was when she heard a groan from the bed.

Option 03: Academic Thesis on the Ecosystem

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