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The next day after Uzume gained a lot of information from an unexpected source, Mira summoned Pegasus after breakfast, heading back to Roseline, where she arrived at noon.

「Hmm, it still looks the same.」

High above Irene, the capital city of Roseline, Mira looked around, not seeing any major differences in the city-scape. Piisuke was still sitting on her head, and hearing Mira’s muttering he replied with a chirp.

It still had not been too long since Johann had been taken away, so it would probably take a few more days before they gathered everything needed for Johann to resume his duties. Because of that, Mira was still unable to see the black waves.

(Hmm, there’s six days left before the mission. It’s such a bother that I have to sit waiting for who knows how long until I see them.)

But she had no other ideas of how to search for him. Sasori and Hebi, expert spies, were investigating what they could too. If she tried to do things her way, she might end up encumbering those two too.

So, all she could do was to keep watch. As Mira kept thinking that, Johann’s mansion standing near the outer border of the city came into view.

「…Hmm, everything is already there.」

She realized something. It was a lot of work to gather all the tools and ingredients from scratch, but it was far easier if they just carried away everything he had been using before.

Johann’s abduction had been really hurried, and all his alchemy tools were still in the mansion. If he had access to them again, he would be able to resume working right away.

Having thought all that, Mira headed straight towards the mansion. If she landed on the actual mansion, it would stand out a lot, so instead she ordered Pegasus to land a certain distance away, and then sent him away to summon Worthramble. He was the spirit of stillness she had met, and who she had been working with a lot recently.
His optical camouflage would be more than enough for this job, so as soon as it was cast, she ran towards Johann’s mansion and snuck into it.

If her theory was right, men would come to pick up Johann’s things, so she just had to wait for them, and then tail them. That should take her straight to Johann, and if things went well, she might even be able to rescue him straight away.

Though there was always the possibility no one would come. But if she had to wait a day or two doing nothing regardless, this was a better option.

「Oh no…」

She went to the room where she first met Johann. Opening the door, she stared in shock at the interior. She remembered the room being filled with tools to fabricate black mist stones. But now it was completely empty.

She had been too late, but her emotions quickly took a turn for the better. If the tools had been taken, then the process would start soon enough. In other words, it would not take as long for her to see the black waves.

(Well, fine. I’ll just fall back to the original plan.)

Either way, she should be able to see them eventually. Slightly disappointed, Mira left the mansion and flew up with Pegasus, returning to Irene. There she landed atop the tallest building, the church of the Three Gods, and began surveying the surroundings. She did not forget to use Worthramble’s camouflage to not stand out too.

The sight from above the church was not as impressive as the one when riding Pegasus, but it was still a breathtaking scenery, the entire city visible and brimming with life.

She remained keeping watch for the entire day, until the sun set and the city was illuminated with man-made lights.

「Hmm, I guess it won’t happen today. Let’s go back for now.」

It would be too difficult to see the black waves at night anyway. Deciding that, Mira stood up with a yawn, thanked Worthramble and sent him away. The next thing she noticed was her empty stomach, so she began eyeing the colorful shopping district.

(There’s no luxury like walking on the streets and trying out the food from the stalls.)

Irene’s main street greatly changed between day and night. It was lined with countless carts and stalls of food open along it now, and the hungry Mira very cheerfully ordered some mixed fruits au lait from one of them.

Every place had different ingredients and proportions for that drink, and comparing them all had become one of Mira’s recent hobbies.

(Hm, this one has stronger acid and sweet tones. Milk is a perfect complement for it. I approve of it.)

Evaluating it on her own arbitrary criteria as she drank it, Mira headed to the main store of Eabates. Though she did not approach the front gate, instead going around and entering through the King’s Hidden Palace entrance.

She wanted to report everything that happened in Sentopolly to Sasori and Hebi who should be there. With Hebi’s notes on hand, she manipulated the hidden door and entered the long corridor. Then at the end of the corridor, she consulted the notes again to open the second door. And then past it…

「Ohh, Lady Mira! Thank you so much for rescuing my wife and daughter! I’ll never forget what you’ve done for us.」

A man turned around and gave his heartily thanks with a wide smile. It was Johann.

「Ah, huh?」
「Lady Mira? Is something wrong?」
「Err, no…I’m glad to see you safe.」

Mira was utterly befuddled. She had spent the entire day keeping watch trying to find clues about him, so now she was confused seeing him in their hideout. But someone greeted Mira with a wide and proud smile.

「I knew you’d be surprised. But as you can see, we successfully rescued Johann!」

It was Sasori. After relishing on Mira’s shocked face for a while, she proudly puffed her chest and said that. Mira had shocked her many times in the past, so she was elated being the one doing the surprising for once.

「I can only say it was a splendid job done, seeing you accomplish it in such a short time.」

Somehow, her main worry, which was Johann’s safety, had already been taken care of. Those were really good news, but they came so suddenly that Mira struggled to comprehend what happened, but when her brain finally caught up, she could only praise the excellence of Uzume’s underlings.

After the unexpected reunion, Mira’s group convened to talk. Angelique and Anne were resting in a separate room.

First one to speak was Sasori, who looked like she could not wait to talk. She spoke of how Johann’s rescue came to be.

As expected of her skills, she evaded multiple defense and monitoring systems, successfully infiltrating into the Ollflat Workshop.

There she found the documents they had suspected existed in the workshop. Plans showing the locations of magic sensing devices, their scheduled maintenance dates, and around twenty five places where they had been deployed. The only thing missing were the names of any person implicated.

Then Sasori paused for a moment to mention that the following was all Hebi’s work, before resuming.

Hebi’s mission had been to find any Melville establishment nearby that had no spiritual presence whatsoever. Her search singled out five places that met the criteria. Three on the outskirts of Irene, and one on each side of the Lucion river.

When they joined their results, there was only one establishment on the outskirts that appeared on both their searches.

Vigilance was especially tight compared to other Melville establishments, and there were no spirit arms or tools anywhere nearby, making it perfect to work on black mist stones there. Which meant it was the ideal place to confine Johann in as well.