Rental Magica Volume 1: Chapter 4

Chapter 4 - Taboo of the Magician

1

This is what he saw in his right eye.

There was a basement.

Without even a millimeter of deviation, the walls spread in four directions, making a rectangular room.

It was a dark, quaint magician's workshop.

The air was saturated with the ether of mystery, and there were old magic squares drawn all over the floor. Flasks, beakers, and pentagram goblets were arranged on the shelves. In the nooks and crannies of the room, "innocence" was being dispensed so the ether didn't become contaminated by noxious gas. There were also dolls and picture books that had been scribbled inside of.

Entering the workshop were two people.

A brazen, young girl with golden hair, and an old man wearing his black robe as usual.

"Father, what are you going to evoke today?"

"Hey, father, tell me about the magic you used earlier."

She had a lively voice.

The girl happily followed the old man wherever he went. She jumped with surprise at his familiars, and her eyes sparkled at even the most trifling of divinations. She had memorized the old man's techniques in an instant.

The man narrowed his eyes every time. His daughter only became more adorable as she grew older. The old man delighted in her great genius, and instructed her in all of his own secret techniques without regret.

"Addie, when you evoke Shax, you must use the triangle of Solomon. It's because he likes lies. Regarding the symbolism of the triangle..."

"Addie, before that, place the doll and purify it. If you are not pure in mind and spirit, you will contrarily be used by the demon..."

He had a stern, low voice.

However, it was gentle.

The small basement workshop was filled with a simple happiness befitting of magicians.

Until that day.

......?

Suddenly his vision changed.

It was a night where the moonlight from what was probably a full moon seeped into the mirror-affixed lighting window.

"What's that...?"

The girl tilted her neck.

In the faint light, the old man deformed his hollowed cheeks and made a crude smile.

"It's a seed."

"A seed?"

"It's a seed I've been seeking for a very, very long time."

His eye color was unusual. The girl pretended not to notice, but they were a bleary color, seemingly possessed by something.

In the palm of his wrinkly hand was a tiny, crimson seed.

A pure red... seed?

"A catalyst?"

"Yes, there is a certain magic I want to try. With this, I can finally realize that."

As far as the girl knew, the old man was the greatest magician in the world.

Of course, if there is one type of magic, then there is another that can overcome it, but in the practice of the summoning of Solomon's Seventy-Two Demons, there was surely no one greater than the old man. At the same time, there couldn't be any way for him to improve in the magic arts of Solomon.

Special Magical Ability.

To be good at something is to be lacking in something else. No magic was omnipotent. As long as humans remained human, limits would stand in their way.

However.

Taking a deep breath, the old man made a curt, bizarre statement.

"I--want to become magic."

And time flowed again.

--!

The workshop was stained with the same color as the seed.

Red.

Crimson.

Torn apart, being torn apart, crushed, being crushed, arms, legs, chest, scattered around the workshop.

Blood, and blood, and blood, and blood, and flesh, and blood, and blood, and blood, and bone, and bone and teeth and blood and blood and blood and blood and hair and blood and blood and blood and blood and blood and blood and nails and blood and blood and blood and blood and lips and blood and blood and fingers and blood and blood and blood and blood and intestines and blood and blood and blood and ears and blood and blood and blood--were painted across the four walls of the workshop.

And then.

He saw what tumbled into the bounds of the magic circle.

The old man's freshly severed head.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah--!

The shock only managed to call his conscience back into his paralyzed body.

There was a sound of dragging.

He felt that he was being pulled along by someone.

The floor seemed to be concrete. He felt pleasantly cool, but slightly in pain. It seemed like he was being pulled along by the collar, his ankles occasionally scraping across the ground.

His vision was still dark. He couldn't move his body at all.

Nevertheless, his right eye reflected a complex picture. The pentagram of Solomon he had learned about from Honami, and a ring in the shape of a bay laurel used for warding off demons both flickered before his eye near his collar.

He understood.

These were Adilisia's fetishes.

Huh? Why can I see those sorts of things?

His thoughts were desultory.

He was dragged a little further.

Apparently they had reached their destination. He was breathing heavily, even though he hadn't moved a very great distance. He was definitely lacking exercise. His strength was like a girl's.

A soft hand lightly touched his face.

"... Why."

Adilisia's voice sounded like she was crying.

"Why... do even you enter here?"

Her words seemed to be accusing him of something.

He couldn't understand.

But he was glad that he seemed to be alive.

Once again--this time completely--Iba Itsuki lost consciousness.

*

"President! Addie?"

{I, i, it's no use! If you foolishly approach it and those ripples come out again, you'll be going for wool but coming back shorn!}

The white cat, panicking, restrained the witch rushing at the ocean surface.

"I, I know, but..."

Honami extended her white neck and gritted her teeth regretfully.

She stared at the pure white sea.

Yes, it was white now.

After Itsuki and Adilisia were sucked in, the ocean surface froze all of a sudden. The hundred square meter ocean had turned into white frost.

One could feel the cold air across the bridge of the nose to the cheeks, causing the walls of the nostrils to become paralyzed.

It was a change that was difficult to believe, but that was the scene of the reality they now faced.

{I don't know what this means, but I have a feeling it's turning into an excessively large-scale ceremonial magic art. Since it devoured <Goetia>'s demons, they can't have done this...}

Byakko-kun narrowed his eye. The cold air had reached the broom, and it made the white cat shiver, blowing through his long hairs.

{For the time being, let's pull back and regroup. Other <Goetia> members are probably also here, so if we can get to them, we might be able to go over the situation with them.}

"..."

{Er, Honami-san?}

"..."

{Honami onee-chan!}

Mikan's voice came through.

"... I understand. I can't just jump in recklessly."

She stayed quiet for a long time, and then placed her hand on the brim of her pointed hat.

"Since I can't jump in, it'll be alright. ... Rather, if we don't look into this further, we won't be able to get the president back," she said in a low voice, her face hidden by her large hat.

Byakko-kun nodded, and directed Honami away, standing on the end of the broom.

Following him, Honami ran her finger across the broom.

"... I'm sorry, Icchan."

With that, Honami gave a small sigh.

Mikan and Nekoyashiki were waiting in the middle of the frozen ocean.

At the tip of the frozen ocean that gave off the impression of a polar ice cap, a hole of about eight meters in diameter was open. It was the remains of Mikan's spirit barrier. Honami took Mikan and Nekoyashiki out separately on her broom.

First, they got out of the cold--from a thicket on Mt. Nyuu that the <Night> didn't reach, they looked down at the frozen ocean.

"Yeesh, it was cold down there. It's like a refrigerator, isn't it? I thought I was going to freeze to death."

Inside the thicket, Nekoyashiki, wrapped in his four cats, breathed into his hands and rubbed them together.

Honami's eyes glinted at his words.

"He'll be alright in there, right...?' she asked.

"Hmm. It depends on the style of spell, but I don't think the coldness would reach the inside of the ocean."

"Why?"

"To have frozen right as both <Goetia>'s leader and our president fell in, it's like it was carefully aiming and then froze at that moment, right?" Nekoyashiki answered, pointing at the frozen ocean. "That is to say, can it not be considered that the magician who spread this <Night> was waiting specially for those two?"

"You mean he was expecting president onii-chan to fall in?" Mikan interjected, looking up at Nekoyashiki.

"No, our president probably had nothing to do with it. He was a completely normal person until just recently, after all. --However--and I mentioned this a bit earlier--<Goetia> tried to obstruct us from doing this offer a little too obsessively, didn't they?"

"..."

Honami closed her mouth at Nekoyashiki's words.

She remembered what happened in the park a week earlier.

"Fighting us normally at full power, <Goetia> probably wouldn't lose. That makes the fact that they tried to obstruct us even stranger. For all that, their reason was... because they didn't want this to be seen?"

That wasn't logical reasoning.

If you thought about it even a little, that was common sense. At the end of the day, the question of "What could this be?" didn't lead to a single answer.

"What are you thinking of, Nekoyashiki-san?"

"<Goetia>'s leader wanted to hide this situation. However, before we get to that..."

The sleeves of Nekoyashiki's haori fluttered as if they were dancing.

As he turned around, a single white paper flew out from that sleeve.

It was a seal.

He affixed it to a tree behind the group, and in an instant it exploded from the inside. It was as if the trunk had hollowed out and filled with blasting powder.

"... Do you plan on coming out now?"

"My goodness. That's quite a greeting."

A relaxed voice flowed through the air.

From the other side of the scorched tree, a man gave an exaggerated bow. Seeing his usual unreadable, expressionless face, Mikan clung to Honami's waist.

"... Kagezaki oji-chan."

"It's been about half a day, hasn't it?"

Kagezaki lightly patted his dirtied suit.

His horribly average appearance didn't fit the surroundings.

He was an employee of the <Organization>.

Honami didn't know any more than that. He was in contact with various organizations, and Honami had seen him several times since she was in the institute in England, but she had no idea what kind of magical arts Kagezaki specialized in.

Because he was so average, he contrarily got carried away in his normalcy--you could say that he was an uncanny existence beyond atypicality.

"Were you watching us?" Honami asked, menacing.

In contrast to her, Kagezaki gave a thin smile, handling his words gently.

"Not at all, I have to be here too to assess the 'job.' Moreover... there are rumors floating about that <Goetia> has violated a taboo, so I've come to confirm or deny that."

That simple, carefully aimed word carried a special meaning.

More than Honami or Mikan, Nekoyashiki's conscience was focused on Kagezaki. Perhaps startled by the change, even the cats wrapped around Nekoyashiki turned toward Kagezaki.

"... A taboo, you say?"

"Yes." On his bleach-white face, another surface-only smile floated as Kagezaki slowly continued his words. "Oswald ・ lenn ・ Mathers--the original leader of <Goetia> and the father of Adilisia ・ lenn ・ Mathers--is believed to have, during his lifetime, attempted to become magic."