TL/Editor: raei

Status: 5/week mon-fri

Illustrations: none

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"What?"

The head of the Golden Rule Society, Regent Antios, was taken aback by the sudden report.

"Walter was taken out?"

"Yes, Regent."

Demon wizard Walter was a black wizard tasked with mining amber under Antios' orders. It was a simple enough mission, so Antios had only been receiving periodic reports, but one day, Walter's communications suddenly stopped.

Antios sent people to search for Walter's whereabouts, resulting in this bizarre report.

"After interrogating the remnants of the escaped kobolds..." the black wizard spoke with an uncertain voice, as if he couldn't make sense of it. "A black-haired wizard attacked Walter..."

"A black-haired wizard?"

The reporting wizard was baffled, but Antios was equally confused. If it was a black-haired wizard, wasn't that one of the Golden Rule Society's black wizards?

There were many black-haired wizards in the Golden Rule Society. They actively recruited those with pure Golden Imperial blood, ostensibly to carry on the legacy of the old Golden Empire. The fact that black hair was unwelcome in the Empire also played a role. The oppressed always wanted for power, after all.

"What's more, he even raided our warehouse, stealing the stored amber and tapestries..."

"What an insufferable bastard!" Antios couldn't hide his anger as he heard about the damage inflicted on the Golden Rule Society. The Golden Rule Society was a secret organization. It was already difficult enough to recruit new members, and now their external activities were being hindered!

"I understand. Be cautious of the Pope's knights and lie low to observe the situation."

"I will follow your orders."

After ending the communication, Antios fell into thought for a moment. He felt like he had experienced a situation like this before.

'Come to think of it.'

Celestial Wizard Bertholdt. According to the necromancer's report, his activities were thwarted by Sir Leshach and the wizard Ian.

'Wizard Ian?'

'Yes! He was a black-haired Golden Imperial!'

He remembered now. Wizard Ian. The wizard who created a lightning spear with his bare hands and defeated Bertholdt.

Antios brought out a map and began marking the locations where the incidents occurred. It traced a path from the center of the Empire towards the southwest.

"...?"

As he stared at the map, Antios felt something odd. The place at the end of the path seemed strangely familiar.

"Trap Operation?"

Antios' gaze stopped on Baron Vincents' domain. That was where the transmuter Karenne was carrying out 'Trap Operation'.

Just then, a woman's face appeared in the demon's mirror.

"Regent!"

"...Karenne."

It was the transmuter Karenne. Having lost her body, she was parasitizing some young man's body.

"What's the matter? How's the operation going?"

"Look at the state I'm in! It's f*cked! sh*t!"

Antios momentarily blanked out at Karenne's coarse cursing... True to her words, the operation was undoubtedly ruined.

"Pentagon got beaten like a dog and driven off! F*ck! One of those wizards knew how to use barbarian magic!"

Antios rubbed his aching head for a while. Blood Lord Pentagon was beaten like a dog? And they even exorcised demons with barbarian magic? What nonsense...!

"Are you sure, Karenne? This is the Holy Empire, not the northern colonies..."

"F*ck! Can't you see me? We're ruined! Totally f*cked!"

The agitated Karenne spoke rapidly. "Ian! Some bastard called Wizard Ian came with northern magic!"

"...Karenne. Did you just say Ian..."

"Yeah! Ian! The guy who walks around with a crow, and has a head as black as a crow!"

Black-haired wizard, Ian.

Antios glanced at the map on his desk. Demon wizard Walter. Celestial Wizard Bertholdt. And transmuter Karenne. All the Society's plans had been thwarted by this Ian fellow.

'...No way.'

Antios swallowed hard. This wizard Ian... Was he going around destroying the Golden Rule Society's grand plans?!

Thinking about it that way, it made sense. Ian was a wizard who, for some reason, bore a grudge against the Golden Rule Society. Burning with vengeance against black wizards, he'd been destroying every place where the name of the Golden Rule Society was heard!

But Antios quickly shook his head. That was just a convenient conclusion, a hasty judgment.

'No, that's not it...'

Recalling the faces of the people he had killed, he even imagined if perhaps a surviving baby had grown up and started seeking revenge, like the introduction of a web novel. But no matter how he thought about it, that wasn't it.

If wizard Ian really wanted to hunt black wizards, he should have pursued Bertholdt along with Sir Leshach. Despite having a good opportunity right in front of him, Ian moved to Baron Vincents' domain instead.

'Ian was drawn to Trap Operation.'

'The ones behind this are probably... those damn space-time wizards.'

'If I get the chance someday, I should try to make contact with wizard Ian.'

Antios came to that conclusion. For now, at least.

"Karenne. That body?"

"Ah! I forgot to introduce him! This is my husband! The son of Count Gremlin!"

"Eek...!" Karenne's body made a dying sound.

It was absurd, but Antios felt curious. "Count Gremlin's son? Isn't he the heir to the title?"

"Ah... well. I guess so?"

'This is better than expected.'

Antios' mood improved slightly at this unexpected report. While the failure of Trap Operation was infuriating, kidnapping the count's son was a very positive development for the Golden Rule Society. They could negotiate for ransom, or use evil magic to brainwash him and aim for title succession.

"I'll prepare means for you to recover your body, so be careful of pursuit and return."

"Got it. But about that wizard Ian..."

"We'll talk about that later. I have somewhere to go."

"Huh? Regent, where are you going?"

Antios nodded. "I'm thinking of dropping by Araz."

"Araz? Why there..."

"I'm going to give the wizards some homework."

The Golden Rule Society. And what Antios desired was massive chaos. All change is born from chaos. To achieve the change the Golden Rule Society wanted, they needed chaos so enormous that it couldn't be handled by individual power.

As the number of black wizards increased and the number of wizards decreased... The Empire's nobles would have no choice but to rely on black magic, whether they liked it or not. Even more so if a storm of chaos, like war, swept through.

"It should have started by now."

Snap!

As Antios snapped his fingers, a wizard walked into the hideout.

"Is the conversation over?"

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Larabel."

Space-time wizard Larabel nodded expressionlessly and took Antios to a pre-prepared magic circle. It was a spatial movement magic circle.

"I hope this plan succeeds," Larabel muttered as she activated the spatial movement magic circle.

"Of course."

Antios closed his eyes. Until now, they had failed due to bad luck, but this operation was different. It probably wouldn't happen, but even if Ian, that bastard, really was a black wizard hunter and chased Antios all the way to Araz to interfere with his plans, it would be fine. This wasn't something that could be stopped by a mere wizard getting in the way.

Antios opened his eyes.

A terrifying monster's roar that froze the blood in his veins shook his entire body.

"I've arrived, Predius."

"You're late! Wizard! You'll have to pay for wasting my time with treasures!"

The Black Calamity spread its wings and growled in a thunderous voice. Antios climbed onto the black dragon's back and soared into the pitch-black night sky.

---

---

Somehow, Ian was given a period of rest.

Inglan, maintaining the solidarity between wizards and nobles, helped with some of the domain's administrative work.

"Ian, my boy! If you're bored, why don't you join me in some paperwork..."

"No thanks. I'm not doing it."

While Inglan might be busy with administrative work, Ian had plenty of free time. But Ian didn't want to spend his time on administrative tasks.

Ian had been a science student in his previous life. And now he was supposed to handle the work of a medieval administrative center? If Ian had been a 9th-grade civil servant, he might have helped Inglan out of boredom. But as a former science student, Ian didn't know the first thing about administration.

What? Since he was a science student, shouldn't he be good at calculations?

How dare you equate dirty arithmetic with beautiful mathematics! Such blasphemy!

Anyway, Ian judged that it would be better to practice magic than wrestle with paperwork. So he occasionally climbed the hill to level up his earth magic. It was perfect for earth magic training, being a place full of earth energy.

[Lv UP!]

[Skill: Earth Magic – Lv 3]

[You're quite a decent earth wizard.]

'Oho.'

Ian nodded as he looked over his improved earth magic level.

[Your [Bouncing Pebble (Lv2)] has been replaced with [Rock Fragment (Lv3)]!]

In the previous battle, Ian had clearly felt it. The more diverse the magic, the better, and the higher the skill level, the better. Especially since skill levels were directly related to the power of skill card magic, he had to pay attention to them.

While practicing magic, Ian also looked over his fellow wizards' studies in his spare time.

"Kira, how's your study going these days?"

"So-so."

"How about you, Maria? Are the ghosts not bothering you?"

"No. The ghosts are afraid of the [Arcana Card] you gave me earlier."

"That's good."

"Hehe. You're so kind."

"..."

Belenka and Jubal were going out every day to maintain public order. Since the knight who used to handle trials had died, Belenka was even doubling as a temporary judge.

In the midst of this, a letter arrived for Ian. It was on his desk when he woke up. It was an extremely suspicious letter. When he opened it, sure enough, it was from a devious person.

[Listen to the traveler's opinion, and good things will happen – Gerard]

"What the hell."

It was a letter from the space-time wizard Gerard. The content was so sparse it was almost laughable. Listen to what the traveler has to say?

'Now I understand why my master hated space-time wizards.'

His master, Eredith, would grimace whenever Gerard was mentioned. He didn't understand then, but now that he'd experienced it, he got it. Space-time wizards were all sly bastards.

"What is this, really."

Fortunately(?), Ian's curiosity was soon satisfied. Belenka reported that a guest had arrived.

"Ian. A guest has come, but..."

"Hm?"

Now that's a fresh reaction. Belenka spoke in a voice that didn't know what to do, twisting her body. Like that... She looked just like a young girl! A completely different image from her usual self, swinging heads around left and right.

"What. Did the Emperor come?"

"No. I don't care about that bastard."

"..."

Belenka dismissed the Holy Empire's Emperor as 'that bastard'. There was someone else who made Belenka act girlish.

"Master..."

"?"

"The Sword Master is here!"

"???"

Ian rushed out to the street. There stood familiar warriors in a line.

"Salvador?"

"Oh! Ian, my boy!"

The guests visiting Baron Vincents' domain were none other than Sword Master Salvador and the Knights of Saint Santiago.

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