Chapter 2: Chapter 2 – ‘Ooting’

Sitting in a blank and emotionless room was a small girl with blonde hair done up in a ponytail. Around the girl’s neck was a necklace containing a circular gem with a cross at the top connecting it around her neck. She sat silently, looking down at her hands and clenching them as men dressed in lab coats walked in.

 

“Get up, Tanya, it's time for more training.”

 

“No.”

 

“Hm?”

 

“...”

 

“Tanya, your training is essential and non-negotiable.”

 

The girl, named Tanya, stood up, back still facing the men as she clenched her fists tighter, the gem around her neck beginning to change from a blank red color to a glowing gold.

 

“Good, you’re up, now come on, you need to train to use your powers for the sake of world peace!”

 

“I am not your tool.”

 

Another scientist spoke up, seemingly confused, “It’s not like her to be disobedient. Perhaps the experiments are making her enter a rebellious phase early?”

 

The girl sighed, her jewel now creating small gold sparks around her as she slowly hovered off the ground, various objects around her beginning to hover as well as her eyes emitted a golden glow.

 

“I am not. Your. Tool!”

 

The girl thrusted her arms to her sides quickly, launching all the floating items away from her in a sudden burst of magic, appearing as a glowing wave, knocking all the objects in the room as well as the scientists to the wall. Nearby glass throughout the entire facility shattered as tools utilized to detect magic went haywire. Magical sparks were created all around her body now as she turned to face the scientists, armed guards now entering the room, pointing their guns up at her.

 

“Is her magic destabilizing?!”

 

The other scientist shook their heads, looking up at the girl in a slight terror, “No, she would at worst just explode… She has full control over her magical power.”

 

The guards continued to aim their guns at the child, shouting commandingly, “Stand down Subject 014!”

 

Tanya remained hovering there, unresponsive as she looked down at them.

 

“Just shoot her! We made one mage I’m certain we can just make another!”

 

The guards fired, filling the room with a cloud of smoke with gunshots ringing in the ears of the scientists. As the smoke cleared, Tanya remained hovering there as a glowing barrier seemed to have caused the bullets to ricochet away from her.

 

“S-She’s created a magical barrier! H-How?!”

 

Before he could even comprehend an answer, Tanya launched forwards, slamming her foot directly into the guard’s chest, breaking his armor and slamming him to the ground. With his gun launched from his hands, Tanya quickly grabbed it, turning to the other guard, now firing at her as she fired one bullet, causing a massive explosion which, once subsided, left nothing of the guard and many of the scientists left.

 

The last scientist attempted to crawl back, away from the devil which had just obliterated the others in one blast as Tanya turned towards him, the scientist barely mumbling out, “W-What are you?!”

 

“That doesn’t matter to you. I’ll tell you what I’m not though…”

 

Tanya grabbed a pistol off of the now paralyzed guard on the ground, aiming it at the scientist.

 

“I am not… your… tool.”

 

With one bullet, the scientist was dead, just in time for alarms to come on.

---

This family is… Interesting… Firstly the fact that it doesn’t seem to be a real one at all. Both me and this ‘Anya’ kid are adopted yet are both acting as twins who have lived with Loid, or our ‘father’ for our entire lives. Secondly this small man with an afro named ‘Franky’ has somehow handled all my documentation to match that story as well as supposedly having smuggled the test answers for Eden Academy’s entrance exam.

 

I get that Loid probably wants the connections, but he’s certainly putting a lot of effort into all of this. Next is Anya who somewhat creeps me out while also being very emotionally attached to me already. She also likes to stare at me for periods of time while her strange version of magic sparkles around her head, giving me the feeling that she does it intentionally, though what she’s doing I have no clue. Perhaps she knows I’m a mage? If she does she seems to be keeping quiet about it so for now I’d best keep quiet too.

 

Looking over the questions on the exam, none of them were even the slightest bit difficult. To be fair, I have passed college, twice technically if you count the Military academy in my second life, so what is considered ‘advanced knowledge’ for a 6 year old is common sense to me.

 

Not wanting to waste my time studying things I already knew I simply threw off the idea and spent much of my time relaxing or reading. When Loid tried to make me study, I insisted I knew all the answers. When he then tried to quiz me to prove I didn’t know it all, I aced every question he asked. After making the entire test on my own, and I promptly passed that, he finally gave up on making me study, seemingly content with my results.

 

After a while, Loid thought I was mature enough to go to the library a few buildings down on my own, so long as I came right back. He primarily let me do this because Anya was struggling with her own studies, and became increasingly jealous of my own relaxation.

 

In the meantime, however, I simply studied up on the history of this world since I had died. Basically as I had deduced, all mages disappeared some time after the Great War, with none being left by the time the Imperial Unification War occured. If I had to guess it was either some stellar event or Being X himself. I’m not sure why I’m the exception, however considering Being X “blessed” my Jewel with enhanced power, it's likely immune to whatever phenomenon caused mages to disappear.

 

The most concerning thing however is the aftermath of the Imperial Unification War, especially the fact that the Empire didn’t unify. It's still divided, and considering how this world’s cold war ended, with ethnic groups uprising en masse in the Russy Federation after having experienced greater freedoms under Imperial occupation. Honestly I’m proud of myself for coming up with that idea, giving the ethnic groups freedoms so they would stand with us against the Russy Federation. We still lost, but it seems they were too contemptuous with their new freedoms to go back to a Communist dictatorship, making it so I don't have to live under an East German Communist dictatorship.

 

That all of course means the chance of a new war occuring between Westalis and Ostania is highly likely, and personally I’d like to get out of the country before that happens. I’ll get a good education here and either study abroad or get my education here before moving away. I don’t want to be caught in the front lines of whatever large-scale war comes out of this.

 

That of course requires me to actually get into Eden Academy to obtain a high quality education, not that I need it, but the certification will be useful. Luckily the entrance exam was as much of a breeze as I had ‘practiced’, though Anya seemed to have a bit of a harder time. 

 

Now the problem lies in the interview part of entering the school. Primarily the fact that both parents needed to be present. Unfortunately for us, Loid had no wife, meaning we have to get one in effectively two days. Normally I’d be confused on how he would accomplish this, until that ‘Franky’ guy came in with documents on every single unmarried woman in Berlint…

 

How the hell…. Does this psychiatrist… Have connections to someone who can get files on every single unmarried woman in Berlint? At this point I know for a fact there’s something else going on here. Originally I thought maybe he wanted to squirm his way into upper society, now I suspect there's probably some organization involved. So long as I feign the ignorance of a six year old I should be able to get away without trouble either way though.

---

Franky slammed a large stack of papers, easily bigger than his head down onto the table in front of Loid who was sitting on the couch, Anya standing beside it as Tanya read a book in a nearby chair, looking up occasionally to see what was going on. “I copied all the files of unmarried women from city hall.”

 

“Great, thanks.”

 

“You need one who won’t care you’re divorced with two kids, is refined enough for a prestigious school, and is willing to get married within 48 hours? If a goddess like that exists, I’d sure love to meet her. Meanwhile, I’m not picky at all, yet I can’t even get a date.”

 

“How unfortunate.”

 

“Don’t pity me, asshole!”

 

Anya looked up from the side of the couch from where she was standing, looking up at Loid sadly, “Is having a kid bad? Am I in the way?”

 

Loid gently patted Anya’s head while Tanya silently rolled her eyes, “You’re not in the way at all. Don’t worry, just go watch some TV.”

 

“‘Kay.”

 

Anya quickly prodded over and turned on the TV, again watching the same spy television show she always watched, which at this point was making Tanya annoyed, causing her to focus primarily on her book about the political climate of Eastern Europe following the collapse of the Iron Curtain, a book which Anya could not even make an attempt at understanding the concept of.

 

“Actually, why don’t you just use a female agent from your work?”

 

“A lot of them got caught in the recent spy hunts, so I couldn’t find a good match.”

 

“Selling people out is really in right now.”

 

Tanya attempted to listen in on their conversation, but was constantly distracted by Anya’s television show being played at near max volume.

 

“We don’t have enough agents, so I got another mission on top of this. Eliminating a certain smuggling ring.”

 

“They’re working you to the bone! Let’s just get this over with. The quickest options would be women in bad circumstances who’d cooperate with you. Finding dirt on them might help, too. If they don’t have any, we can always make some up.”

 

“I’d like to avoid anything risky.”

 

“Oh, please. She’s plenty risky. She definitely doesn’t look like any princess from a rich family.”

 

Tanya had gotten fed up with the loud volume and Anya’s constant grunting noises she made while watching her TV show, causing Tanya to aggressively stride over to the television and turn down the volume herself before striding back, Anya looking on in a paralyzed shock as Tanya walked away.

 

“And the new kid you got is… Well she creeps me out, she might be able to play the part but who knows what will happen if she interacts with any other children.”

 

“You have a point. I need to at least do something about their appearance.”

---

[‘Looking like an upper class family is an essential part of passing the interview part of the entrance exams, and currently the children look… Well they look like middle class children, far from the dignified appearance of the upper class which attend Eden Academy. So taking them here to get clothes fitted is necessary, albeit handling them is another matter. Tanya is fine, mostly uncaring it seems, however Anya…’]

 

“I’m being sold off somewhere!”

 

“You won’t be if you behave… Honestly, where does she learn to talk like that?”

 

Loid looks around, noticing a ring on the seamstress’ wedding wing with mild annoyance, [‘The seamstress… is married. The proprietress was listed among the single women, but she’s been arrested once over political activities, so she’s too dangerous. Finding the right person might take longer than–’]

 

Behind loid, a woman with dark black hair and deep red eyes walked up to the counter, startling Loid as he hadn’t noticed her approaching at all, “Pardon me.”

 

Tanya, who up until this point was staring around uninterested, perked her head up, just as startled, albeit for a different reason altogether, [‘Visha?!’] Tanya calmed down again as she saw who actually spoke, shaking her head, [‘Of course it's not Visha, why would it be? Not that she’d even sound like that anymore anyways, it's been at least 30 years. She sounds so similar though, it’s startling.’]

 

One of the old ladies running the shop walked up to the counter to greet her, “Oh I haven’t seen you in a while, Yor.”

 

“Hello. I was hoping I could get my dress fixed up. Could I get it done as quickly as possible?”

 

“But of course. You’re one of our regulars.”

 

[‘She managed to slip behind me so easily. Who is she? Yor… Yor… There we go, Yor Briar, 27 years old. She has no record of being married or divorced. Both of her parents are deceased, and she has one brother who’s much younger than her. They’re both civil servants whose records are pretty clean. Did I just let my guard down? I’m far too relaxed lately.’]

 

“Excuse me. You’ve been staring at me ever since I walked in. May I help you?”

 

“Er, no um, I’m sorry…” [‘Impossible! She could even sense my gaze?’] “I was just admiring how pretty you are.”

 

Yor immediately got excited, beginning to move towards Loid, “Does that mean… You have a favorable impression of my physical appearance?”

 

“Er, well… Yes.”

 

“Um-”

 

Tanya mostly watched as she was able to guess what was going on, whether it was genuine or not, all she cared was that Loid succeeded as it was necessary for her entry into Eden Academy. Unfortunately for Tanya, Anya is not so perceptive. “Papa! I now know how long I am!” Anya happily walked over to Loid, now noticing the woman standing directly in front of him, “Who’s that?”

 

“Another customer.”

 

[‘He has a child. I almost pursued someone’s husband.] Anya, looked up at Yor, now turning away and decided to listen in on her thoughts, curious *[‘I have heard that women have been killed by wives for such things. I mean, if it happened to me, I’d just kill them back…’]*

 

[‘Huh?’]

 

*[‘No, I mustn’t. If I think like this, someone will eventually figure out that I’m an assassin. I must learn to be more normal.’]*

 

[‘A-An assassin?! A spy… An assassin… I’m… so excited!’]

 

*[‘Hmm… I was considering her as a candidate to play my wife, but never mind.’]*

 

[‘Huh?!’]

 

*[I was considering him to act as my boyfriend at the party, but I must avoid these so-called messy lovers’ quarrels.’]*

 

[‘Huh?!’]

 

Anya mildly panicked, however quickly made an attempt to fix the problem to make sure the spy and the assassin would get together, “Ah, I am oh so lonely because I do not have a mama.”

Tanya cringed from a distance.

 

“What brought this on?”

 

“I long for a mama.”

 

Yor looked back towards Loid, “Are you not with your wife?”

 

“Oh, er… I actually lost my wife two years ago, so I’m raising her on my own now.”

 

[‘So I won’t be killed for asking him to the party!’]

---

Regardless of how embarrassing it was to just look at it, somehow Anya seemed able to get them to marry, at least artificially for the purpose of getting us into Eden Academy. It’s almost like she knew the exact thing to do. I was able to generally infer what Yor was thinking, however I highly doubt Anya has the skills to be able to assume that she thought Loid was married. This adds onto the fact her weird mind mana was again acting up just before she did it… There may be a correlation there, but there’s not enough evidence to prove that just yet.

 

Regardless of that, Yor seems to be moving in now to act as our ‘Mother.’ Originally I assumed it would just involve her coming to the interview, maybe a few photos, and that’s it, however considering she’s moving in with all her things, it seems this is more long-term. This wouldn’t be much of a difference to me if it weren’t for the fact that I’m being kicked out of my own room and now have to share one with Anya…

 

Either way it doesn’t seem like Yor has all too many boxes, not that tells me much about her from that alone.

 

“Um, Loid… about the sleeping arrangements…”

 

“We’ll be sleeping in separate rooms, of course. We’ll share one for appearances anytime we have guests over.”

 

“R-Right.”

 

Anya happily began holding her hands up proudly, “Welcome to Anya’s house!”

 

I live here too, Anya, not that I really care about what the child says.

 

“Thank you for the lovely welcome, Miss Anya.”

 

“I’m so happy to have a mama now!”

 

“Mama…”

 

“I’m gonna help.”

 

Anya proceeded to pick up the smallest box, which I suppose in the mind of a child is helping, however in reality you could probably stack that on top of another box when you carry it, meaning the difference is miniscule and the additional clogging of the walkways could have one argue that its actually less eff-... Maybe I’m thinking too hard about this. Anya’s probably not even six to be entirely honest, to hold her up to the same standards as myself is impractical considering I’ve lived two lives now.

 

“Oh, right. By the way… I had a friend of mine who’s a judge make it so we got married a year ago.”

 

Mhm, sure you have a friend that's a judge. I’d say there's a 70% chance it was just that afro guy.

 

“We can figure out why we lived separately and what to tell your brother later.”

 

“All right.”

 

“I’m going to show Mama around!”

 

“Once we get settled in, we’ll practice the interview”

 

Anya began to show Yor around effectively every room while I just helped Loid with the boxes. Utilizing body enhancement formulas, I’m easily able to carry just about any weight, so it's not really a problem to me. I followed behind Loid, carrying the rest of the boxes as Anya and Yor were already inside Yor’s new room.

 

“What a lovely room.”

 

“I’m glad you like it. This should be everything. Is the furniture arranged to your liking? I also cleaned a bit.”

 

Anya bounced up, waving her hands, “I helped clean, too!”

 

I don’t recall Anya ever actually contributing…

 

“Really? Thank you so much.”

 

“Am I a good girl?”

 

“All you did was tip over a bucket of water.”

 

Of course it was her who did that…

 

Anya looked shocked and then defeated, she likely was hoping for praise, however you don’t get that without results. Spilling a bucket of water I had to spend 5 minutes cleaning up doesn’t count as results.

 

“This is such a lovely room. I don’t know what to do with myself.”

 

Yeah… Lovely room… I wish I still had it.

 

“What do you mean? Please make yourself at home. Actually, this is your home now, so make yourself comfortable.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

Loid left her room as I left to find something else to do, Anya standing outside her door still watching her.

 

“I’ll come get your boxes once they’re empty.”

 

Before Loid could even get down the hallway, Yor was already done, “Loid, I’ve got everything put away.”

 

“You’re quite efficient.”

 

Whoever Yor is, she seems to be good at putting things away, although to be fair she didn’t seem to have much of anything in the first place. Loid again reentered her room, out of curiosity I followed.

 

“Ah, this must be your younger brother.”

 

There's a lot of differences, but they both vaguely look like… Nevermind I’m thinking too much about this.

 

“Oh, yes.”

 

“You said he’s also a civil servant?”

 

“Yes. He seems quite busy lately, so I’ve only spoken to him on the phone.”

 

“It seems you two are quite similar. I should properly introduce myself once the kids’ entrance exams are over.”

 

“Um, Loid. About that… I don’t have anything suitable to wear to this interview…”

 

“Then let’s go to the tailor today.”

 

“Thank you very much.”

 

I looked a bit around her room, but there was nothing of interest. She did seem to have a minor interest in cats considering she both had a picture of one hanging up as well as two black and white mini cat statues on her drawers, but I’d take it’s just an aesthetic choice.

 

I went back to the livingroom to read again. Reading has been my main way of both passing the time and learning more about all aspects of this era. Again it seems to be reminiscent of the 1950s in my world, and it seems in this world the Great War truly was the war to end all wars as we entered the age of Nuclear Weapons without a second world war. With Nuclear Weapons, no world war will occur, at least not without ending the entire world in the process, so that means being drafted into such a massive war isn’t a threat. Since there’s no mages, even if I do somehow get dragged into a war with no feasible way of avoiding it, I could probably take down an entire army uncontested.

 

I also found out that without mages, it is impossible for anyone to look beyond my illusion magic. The only way to realize an illusion is an illusion is through mana and being pretty good at it too. Even if some people still have trace amounts of mana within them, it won't be nearly enough to even consider the possibility that my illusions aren’t real. This means I have a powerful tool, though I’ve yet to decide how to use it.

 

“Can I get you something, Loid?”

 

“Some coffee, please. Black.”

 

I could really go for some coffee right now. I’m not sure they’d allow me as a child, but I might as well ask. “Can I have some coffee too?”

 

“You want coffee, Tanya?” Yor asked, reasonably confused why a child wants coffee.

 

Loid shook his head, “I’m not even surprised.”

 

Anya raised her hand, “I want hot cocoa!”

 

“With sugar and milk?”

 

“That's the stuff!”

 

Finally, it’s been so many years, I can finally have coffee…

 

After a while Loid had finished his cookies and I finally got another chance to have coffee. After drinking it, it was… alright. Nothing special. I suppose I’m just used to Visha’s old coffee.

 

“They look amazing. Are those cookies homemade?”

 

“It’s actually my first time making cookies. I just followed a recipe from a cookbook, so they should be decent. I hope you like them.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

Anya and Yor both took a cookie, I shrugged and took one as well, considering that I might as well. I do like sweets every once in a while, though I certainly prefer chocolate. The cookies were good, better than the coffee, definitely better than anything on the front line though.

 

“They’re wonderful! You really are an amazing cook!”

 

“It's not that impressive, really.”

You are reading story Mage×Family at novel35.com

 

Anya raised her hand, “I helped with the cookies, too!”

 

“Oh, I see.”

 

“After you got covered in flour and got in my way, you just snacked on some peanuts.”

 

Don’t trust Anya with my food, noted.

 

“Once we’re settled in, let’s begin.”

---

“Eden College is one of the most prestigious schools in the country. During the interview, not only will the child be evaluated, but so will the parents. They will be evaluated on their social standing as well as how cultured they are. Understood? Now let's start with the questions. First, please state your name and address.”

 

“Anya Fo…Fo…Horger. Address?”

 

“The place we’re at right now.”

 

“This is Anya’s House!”

 

“That’s not what I meant. We, so, Miss Anya… How do you spend your days off?”

 

“Papa orders me to stay home, so I have to watch TV all alone.”

 

Tanya seems to faceplant from the other end of the couch.

 

“Now, wait a second. That makes a terrible impression. Now to the other young lady, can you tell me your name and address?”

 

“Tanya Forger… You’ve never told me our address.”

 

“You go to the library every other day, don’t you see the address?”

 

“I never thought it important enough to memorize.”

 

I suppose this is my fault, at least Tanya seems to know what an address is.

 

“Now, Madam?”

 

“Yes?”

 

“Why did you choose Eden College, and how do you plan to pass this exam?”

 

“How do people usually pass? Uhm, pass, passing… Perhaps because of cardiac arrest, or excessive bleeding? OR compound fractures throughout the body? Oh! Maybe their skull was caved in.”

 

Anya was shocked and Tanya was just deeply confused, both just staring at Yor.

 

“Kill me now. Next question. Could you describe your parenting methods?”

 

“Huh? U-Um… Strike first to be victorious?”

 

I’m amazed her brother turned out to be a decent human being. I’ve been a spy for over a decade. I’ve completed countless missions, yet only now do I find myself losing heart.

 

“This is pointless. There’s no way we’ll survive the interview at this rate. Lets give up on getting them into that school.”

 

“Loid! Please remember your late wife’s wishes!”

 

Clearly, we weren’t ready for this mock interview yet.

 

“All right, let’s go out for a bit. Let's broaden our horizons, become versed in what's normal for an upper-class family, and make sure that we’re all on the same page.”

 

After about five minutes of being outside, Anya is already singing.

 

“We’re on an ooting, an ooting, la, la, la, lah!”

 

“You mean “outing.””

 

Tanya just looks both annoyed and miserable. Me too, kid.

 

“Wanna hold hands, Mama?”

 

“I-If you don’t mind.”

 

Thank goodness at least Anya’s taken a liking to her. The plan is set. After today, we’ll seem like a normal… no. We’ll be seen as an upper-crust family.

 

As if to just prove me wrong, Anya rushes away from Yor and hides behind a bush, Tanya looking on with disinterest and Yor disappointed.

 

“B-by the way, where are we headed?”

 

“I’ve acquired a variety of tickets through my connections at work.”

 

Tradition and status are everything at Eden College. We’ll have to get accustomed to the best that life has to offer, and make sure we don’t slip up if we let our guard down. Anya, who is sleeping through the entirety of the opera, disagrees. Tanya just looks bored. I don’t know what Yor’s doing.

 

All right, next, the art museum.

 

“Anya, no yelling while we’re here.”

 

“Hey! Why only me!”

 

“That’s exactly why. Stop yelling.”

 

We’ve experienced first-class music, so now for some first-class art… And you know the rest.

 

“Papa! I can see her boobies!”

 

Tanya face-palmed.

 

“Head’s been choppy-chopped! Body’s been choppy-chopped!”

 

“What did I just say about yelling?”

 

Tanya face-palmed again.

 

Yor moaned at a painting of a guillotine.

 

Eventually at the kid’s section Anya found something she was actually interested in… Drawing on a marker board. Maybe she has some artistic talent, that could be something. My instincts doubt it though.

 

“I wanna do that!”

 

“Drawing? Sure.”

 

“Yor, why don’t we sit down for a bit?”

 

“All right.”

 

“Tanya, don’t you want to draw or something?”

 

“No, but I’m going over here.”

 

Tanya begins to walk towards… the military exhibit? That's a bit strange, but if I recall correctly there is a mage portion of it, if her mother or grandmother was a mage, she could be curious. 

 

After a few minutes of sitting around and relaxing while Anya draws and Tanya does… whatever she wanted to do, it was probably about time to move on.

 

“We should probably get going.”

 

“Yes.”

 

Now walking up to Anya who had seemingly spent the last 5 minutes drawing what is little more than scribbles, doing away with any hope that I had of their artistic talent.

 

“All done!”

 

“Anya, we’re going to our next stop.”

 

Anya seemed distraught at having to leave, doing something to try and protect her art or something, not that I had any intention of erasing it now. If I compliment it, maybe she’ll be willing to leave without resistance.

 

“Wow, that’s quite a masterpiece. There seems to be a pig in a forest.”

 

“That’s Mr.Chimera, and he lives in a castle!”

 

“I see. I definitely see Bondman there, though. I’m right, aren’t I?”

 

“Yep…”

 

“It’s that spy cartoon you were watching last week. So this witch-looking one must be the princess. That part seems rather graphic. Oh but that cat is cute.”

 

“That’s a doggy!”

 

“I see. Then I apologize.”

 

“We’re going to the tailor next, but first let's find your sister.”

 

It didn’t take long to find Tanya, and as expected she was in the Mage exhibit. The thing about mages is that they could actually take high quality photos, so they have the most detailed exhibit, many of the pictures being in color which is uncommon for documentation of the Great War.

 

Tanya was seemingly looking up at a picture taken during the raid on Moskva. Maybe she’s taken inspiration from it. Probably from the only girl in the photo who themselves looks like a teenager, probably about 10 years older than Tanya still though.

 

“Come on, Tanya, we’re heading out.”

 

Tanya nodded and followed us silently to the tailor where we need to get Yor clothes for the interview, though I suppose general clothes shopping isn’t a bad idea.

 

“Sorry to have you do this on your day off.” 

 

“It’s quite alright. This is something we need to do.”

 

Regardless, Anya seemed satisfied. Tanya on the other hand, seems harder to impress.

 

“My going-out clothes are so cute! They fit perfectly! This shop is great! I love it!”

 

“Why, thank you.”

 

“This is my first ooting in my going-out clothes.”

 

“Then it must be a day of celebration.”

 

“A day to celebrate this ooting!”

 

Tanya seems to be getting more mentally distraught each time Anya says ‘ooting’ instead of ‘outing.’

 

“In that case, we can stop by a photography studio next.”

---

Today has been… Relatively boring, if not slightly irritating with Anya. I understand she’s maybe five years old, but could she at least learn to pronounce things correctly. Normally I’m not one to care, but I’m with her all day, so it starts to irritate me slightly.

 

The mage exhibit at the museum was interesting but nothing really of note. Bit weird to see a picture I took during the Moskva raid there. I wasn’t in the picture, but much of my battalion was including Viktoria and Weiss. I wonder what they’re doing? I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve died from old age by now, though it hasn’t been that long, has it?

 

After a family photo Loid made an attempt to take us to a political rally. This supposed ‘Nationalist Party’ wants peace but frankly that’s gotta be a joke. Nobody puts ‘nationalist’ in the name and expects peace. Considering this is a Germany after World War I, there’s a solid chance they’re nazis.

 

Now standing on the ledge in some sort of park, we got nice front-row seats of the mugging of an old lady… great. It wouldn’t have been my problem if the entire family didn’t decide to chase him down. Following Loid we reached a main street with at least a hundred or so people. Under normal circumstances he would be impossible to find, however…

 

Mages as well as a section of people have a specific blood type, type ‘M.’ This represents the blood type that allows mana to flow throughout the body, it ranges from M--, the weakest form in which the mana that flows through the body is so weak that magic is unusable, to M+, in which mana flow through the body is strong and the person has a high aptitude for magic. When mages seemingly disappeared, the blood type didn’t disappear, nor did magic. Rather, everyone’s blood type reverted strangely and suddenly to M--. While people with M-- can’t use magic, the miniscule amount of mana that flows through their body is enough to leave a magical signature. For most mages the signature is too weak for them to even notice, however for me, tracking it is easy.

 

Luckily for the old lady, her mugger has a blood type of M-- and due to the fact that every magical signature is like a fingerprint and each is unique, I’m able to track him quite easily. Meanwhile Anya’s head was doing its sparkling thing, making me again believe that she’s doing it intentionally but I’m still unsure of what she is actually doing.

 

“There!” I pointed my hand forward towards the man, his mana signature matching that of the mugger, though his clothes were different.

 

Anya looked down distraught at me, as if she wanted to do it, not that I’m even sure how she would’ve.

 

“Hm?”

 

“Loid!”

 

“Mama’s here.”

 

“Yor, look after them for me.”

 

After jumping all the way from the top of a bridge, Loid succeeded in completely tackling the thief, which I think is a bit excessive but who am I to care? We spent basically the rest of the day helping the old lady to the hospital.

 

“Thank you for escorting me all the way here. I had money to get my grandchild a gift in my purse. Thank you so much. You were a big help.”

 

“Oh, actually… The one who got it back was my, um, husband.”

 

“No, if you weren’t there, Yor, I wouldn’t have even gone after him.”

 

“Thank you so much. What a fine gentleman you are.”

“Er, again…”

 

“Thank you.”

 

“Thank you, Yor. Today was a nice change of pace. Now I’ll be able to work hard again.”

 

Weren’t you the one who planned all of today’s plans?

 

“Papa and Mama are flirting.”

 

I mean I wasn’t gonna say it.

 

“We are not!”

 

“What a lovely family you are.”

---

An older lady with a stale brown hair with long streaks of aging silver sits down at a table, wearing a professional dress with a red gem placed on a necklace around her neck. Her right eye was blinded, a massive scar across it, with a number of other smaller scars across her face and arms. Across from her is another woman dressed just as professionally, though looking more middle-aged with sleek orange hair which grew curvy towards the bottom.

 

The orange-haired lady spoke first, “You know, I got curious and I did some digging into your files, Mrs.Briar.”

 

The older woman rolled her eyes as the younger one placed an added emphasis on her last name, “Maybe I should do some digging into yours then, Sylvia.”

 

“Go ahead, you won’t find anything. Interesting that you left a husband and two kids though, I didn’t know you had a family.”

 

“If you went looking into my files you know why I had to leave them.”

 

“Yes, yes, you faked your own death for their safety, I could guess that much. How’s the Department of Magical Affairs coming? Any progress on your operations?”

 

“If you’re talking about Operation Mithril and Operation Hourglass, no, we haven’t. We have made advancements however in retrieving data from Computation Jewels.”

 

“What do you mean by that?”

 

“Computation Jewels can store data from audio recordings to videos and photos. When mages lost their mana, these became inaccessible, and due to the high quality of them, we’ve worked hard to devise a way to retrieve them without mana. Unfortunately while we can now extract them, it doesn’t mean we’re any closer to actually using the Computation Jewels again.”

 

“How did you get it out without mana then?”

 

“It’s a tad bit complicated, and frankly I don’t fully understand it, I let the scientists and engineers do the work.”

 

“Okay… What are you here to show off then?”

 

“How rude! Assuming I’m here to show off.”

 

“...”

 

“Okay fine, maybe I am. Technically speaking the government isn’t publicly releasing these photos, but we do have photos of the ‘Eleventh Goddess’ now if you want to see them.”

 

“Why isn’t the government releasing them? The Eleventh Goddess is basically a mysterious war hero is she not?”

 

“I think you’ll understand when you see the photos, though to be fair I knew this would happen regardless, there’s a reason the Empire tried to hide most documentation of them.”

 

The older woman hands Sylvia a file, opening it she looks at numerous pictures of what is basically a child mage with a circular computation orb, blonde hair in a ponytail and often with a sadistic and victorious smile.

 

“They’re a child?!”

 

“Now you see why the government doesn’t want to reveal the truth.”

 

“Yeah I’d imagine. How the hell is the supposed ‘strongest mage in history’ a child?!”

 

The old woman shrugs, “I’ve asked myself that for a long time, you learn to stop questioning it.”

 

Sylvia keeps staring at the files, growing more and more confused.

 

“Hm? What’s up? You’re not that shocked about it, are you?”

 

“No it's just… They look… Give me a moment.”

 

Sylvia leaves for a few minutes, coming back with another file, handing it to the older woman who looks down on it.

 

“Operation Strix?”

 

“It’s one of Twilight’s missions, establishing connections and finding out about the National Unity Party’s actions. I want you to open that file and tell me if you see it.”

 

The older woman opened the file, in it were a few papers, but the noteworthy detail was the family photo put inside of it. At first glance it was a normal photo with nothing of note, but after a few moments the older woman saw the detail Sylvia was talking about. The woman closed the file slowly, staring at the file itself now.

 

“I’ll launch an investigation and-”

 

“Don’t.”

 

“Hm?”

 

“This falls under my department.”

 

“Are you sure? I mean I can ha-”

 

“I’m certain.”

 

Sylvia sighs as the older woman gets up, taking the file on the Eleventh Goddess with her.

 

“Wait.”

 

“Hm?”

 

Sylvia sighs again, “Good luck, Viktoria.”

 

The woman nods and leaves, leaving Sylvia to contemplate in silence.

---