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After graduating from Ingralowe’s Magic Academy, Mathias went to join the ranks of Seperion’s Magic Knights.

Usually new recruits would undergo training for many months before being assigned to a unit, but Mathias was expedited and he was sent to join the royal knights because they were investigating the Platiboros Company.

Back when he was still attending the Academy, his childhood friend Christina had an encounter with the Platiboros Company.

She had been wanting to build a magic automaton, and needed a Sorcery Core as a power source, which the company provided. But that Sorcery Core had been tampered with illegally, so when the magic automaton, Plum, was completed, they took control of her remotely to steal her away. Christina and Natalia were able to recover Plum, and in the process uncovered all the illegal acts the company had been up to, which extended outside of Seperion, and included a smuggling network connected to the Sacred Land Alliance, a group of countries officially recognized as enemies by Seperion.

Christina reported what happened to her father, who then relayed it to Mathias’ father.

The Platiboros Company’s acts were clearly treason against the country, so they were being investigated as thoroughly as possible. Even though usually a group like that would burn all evidence right away.

But there was something more alarming that happened during the encounter.

Natalia had tried to catch a member of the company as he tried to escape by teleporting away, but the portal had closed too soon and severed her arm. She had been able to recreate her missing arm to return to full mobility, but the problem was that the enemy now also had her arm in their possession.

Natalia was the masterpiece created by the best sorceress of the world, Ophelia Eto Gardeland. Just a single arm contained invaluable technology and craftsmanship that no one else had seen before. Even Plum, whose design had been derived from Natalia’s blueprints, was considered the pinnacle of technology in Seperion. But Natalia’s arm was even more advanced.

It was hard to imagine just what the enemy would be able to accomplish if they reverse engineered Natalia’s arm¹.

Though Natalia seemed unaware of just how much trouble her rash action could cause.

That was something that made Mathias incredibly frustrated.

He had been raised together with Christina like they were siblings, and he knew just how desperately Christina had tried to stop that technology from falling in the wrong hands, but then Natalia went and gave them something even better for free, and was oblivious to it².

Then again, Christina’s foray into alchemy and magic devices was something that started because Natalia complimented her abilities, so without her influence it would have remained as an untapped talent for Christina. It was also thanks to Natalia that Plum was retrieved whole.

All of that was why Mathias could not bring himself to fully condemn Natalia’s actions. Not only that, but he had asked his relatives with influence to keep what happened with Natalia’s arm as a secret. It was also to keep that secret that Mathias was assigned to the royal knights so quickly.

He did not mind having to cover for her.

He had been born a noble, and he felt a sense of noblesse oblige to do so without complaining.

But he could hardly stand the fact that she had ruined the efforts of someone he thought of as a sister, and had to keep that a secret. That was only exemplified because he saw Natalia as his rival in love, even if his feelings were one sided.

Revealing any of that to Natalia would also feel like trampling on Christina’s feelings though, so he could not bring himself to do that.

So as frustrated and annoyed as he was, he kept working without complaining.

“Everyone freeze! We’re the royal knights!”

After kicking the door open, the knights stormed into the room.

“Huh, never!” A man quickly unsheathed his sword and tried to slash at the knights, but they moved first.

There was a splash of blood, and he quickly raised his arms to surrender.

But there was another man further in, one who would not give up so easily, and he opened the lid of a wooden box. Then another person…or actually a magic automaton, leapt out of the box.

“Freezing Rock.”

The magic automaton extended its elaborate arms to attack, but before it could strike anything Mathias stepped in and froze it. Then, covering his hands with ice claws, he slashed forward.

The magic automaton was frozen solid and shattered like sand, sending glimmering pieces everywhere.

“I repeat. Don’t move!” Mathias repeated, but there was little use for the warning, as he had already frozen the floor and the enemy’s feet with it.

Unable to resist anymore, the knights arrested the men.

“I’m sorry for destroying such valuable evidence.”
“You didn’t have a choice, I’d actually commend your quick reactions.”

Mathias was telling no lies, though he did not mention that he had done that on purpose. He felt bad for not being fully honest, and being praised for it only made his conscience weigh more heavily on him.

(Instructor Natalia, this is just a favor…one day you’ll have to pay it back.)

“Still, I’m impressed you’re used to close range combat even though you only graduated recently.”
“Yeah, well, I had this one classmate who would run at you and punch you in the face if you tried to use magic from afar, so everyone in my class ended up coming up with ways to fight her.”

But he omitted the fact that she would still punch them in the face even if they planned against it.

“Was there really a student like that at the Academy?”

Mathias felt like sighing, recalling how she was the strongest student as well.

“Anyway, enough talking. We’re done securing this location so we should head to the next.”

And so the knights went on to continue raiding the various bases of the Platiboros Company.

The royal knight’s investigation was fast and thorough, so usually they could crush corrupt merchants and organized crime groups. But this time they were against the Platiboros Company, which had a vast communication network, which moved much faster than the knights had expected.

Their main base in the capital had been destroyed, but all important members with secret knowledge had already evacuated the city, and those left were mere pawns that the company did not mind sacrificing. They did not know they were acting as decoys themselves though.

They all did not have much loyalty for the company, and so they were left behind. But because of that, once they realized they were left as decoys, they had no qualms in deserting their positions.

Most were caught by the guards and knights, but a few carriages managed to fly under the radar, as the defenses were not perfect either.

Not to mention that the capital had been designed in a very open way to focus on the economy and transport, rather than worrying about enemy attacks or spies infiltrating the city, so it was impossible to watch all the roads going out at the same time.

There was also a covered wagon carrying magic automatons that was meant to be smuggled out of the capital in secret.

Then something almost unbelievable happened, two nights before the wagon’s departure, one of the magic automatons went berserk. After the workers captured the magic automaton and brought it back, they realized that the knights had all gone out to investigate the disturbance as well, leaving the gates unprotected and giving them a window to scurry out undetected. It almost sounded like a joke, and it really went to show that reality could be more bizarre than fiction.

“I really can’t tell if we were lucky or unlucky.”
“We definitely got unlucky. I really thought we were working for some big company, but now it turns out they were an organization of traitors. Thanks to them the entire country is hunting for us, and if we get captured we’ll be executed. We can’t even go back to our hometowns now.”

A man and a woman spoke in the driver seat of the covered wagon riding away from the capital. Their names were Lemed and Frasta, and both of them heaved deep sighs.

“Anyway, we’ll just have to bring the cargo to the manager Arrold as we agreed, then we can try to negotiate to get as much money as we can, since we’ll need it to escape somewhere.”

If they tried to sell away the magic automatons in their possession to get that money, it could make it easier for the authorities to track them, so they did not even think about that.

“It would’ve been so much better if we could just open a portal…”
“That’s impossible though, that spell needs a bunch of sorcerers keeping the portals open on both sides to work, and there’s only two of us. Not even the guy who discovered teleportation magic can do it alone.”
“Ahh you mean that Itski person who came to set up the portal in the main store before? But yeah, Seperion might be too…wait, what’s that? A wolf?!”

A large carriage caught up to them, and then passed next to them. It did not look very showy, but there was a maid holding the reins, so it was probably owned by some rich person. But that was not the part that caught their attention the most. That carriage was being pulled by a golden wolf, which was even bigger than a horse.

“Huh, I guess that’s a way to pull a carriage.”

There were many industrial zones dotted around the outskirts of the capital, and the carriage was heading to one of them, which also happened to be the same direction Lemed and Frasta were going.

1. Silvia: Ye, all of the above are what I’m worried about the most since the day Natalia lost an arm. She really undervalue herself too much and this is a big slap in the face to her original creator.
2. Robinxen: Honestly it’s just really frustrating writing from the author, it would be one thing if the the character just never considered it or if it was impossible, but SHE WAS OFFERED A SOLUTION AND REJECTED IT! It’s just annoying.