"Send a disposal team to Slur Street and notify the enforcement squad to gather at the Mystir Garden in General Fundamentals. I have an announcement to make."
After giving her orders, Adashino turned back to Angelo. "Lecturer Angelo, please head to the Department of Policies to collect your compensation. I'm afraid I won't be able to accompany you."
"That is quite alright." Angelo departed without a second thought. He had no desire to involve himself any further in the business of the Department of Policies.
"Captain, did you discover something?" Louis asked as soon as Angelo was out of earshot.
Adashino had intentionally waited for the lecturer to leave; she clearly didn't want the information leaking beyond their department.
"Ley lines. The Clock Tower is built upon a massive network of them, and to manage the classrooms is to manage the ley lines themselves. As the largest department, General Fundamentals possesses the most classrooms--and therefore, the most ley lines. Beneath the Mystir Garden lies a vein that connects directly to the Clock Tower's primary ley line."
"Is this person insane?" Louis looked genuinely shocked. Nowadays, any magus daring enough to tamper with the primary ley lines usually ended up as nothing more than a cautionary tale.
"They were extremely cautious," Wayland noted. "If it hadn't been for Flyn, we likely never would have discovered this. The ley line manager for General Fundamentals is Lord Trambelio; under normal circumstances, any disturbance would have been detected immediately. Unless..."
"Wayland!" Adashino cut him off sharply. "Do not be too clever for your own good. I will report this to the Lords myself."
Wayland nodded in silent understanding.
Factional warfare.
The original story had frequently touched upon the brutal power struggles between the three great factions of the Clock Tower. The Trambelio family was one of the three great noble families representing the Democratic faction, opposed by both the Aristocratic and Neutral factions. For two thousand years, these three groups had maintained a veneer of peace through mutual contempt and check-and-balance, while secretly waging a never-ending war of conspiracies.
The El-Melloi family was a perfect example; after the death of Lord Kayneth from the Mineralogy Department, the Neutral faction's Melastios family had immediately moved in, stripping away their assets and influence.
"Starting now, you will take action," Adashino commanded. "Louis, find Elena Fleming. The three of you will form a search team. If you encounter the culprit, notify me immediately."
The Doll Magic Cabal.
Wayland could see the girl from earlier, still glued to her handheld console at her deserted booth.
"She is... Elena Fleming?" Wayland asked in disbelief.
"You know her?" Louis nodded, offering an introduction. "Don't let her looks fool you. She's fifteen years old, a Fes-ranked magus, and a genius in the Archaeology Department."
"Archaeology?" Wayland found it impossible to associate the young girl with the image of dusty, weathered scholars.
Louis chuckled, sensing his confusion. "Archaeology isn't quite what you imagine. You'll understand once you've spent more time with her."
As they approached without disguise, Elena looked up. Her smile instantly vanished, and she let out a heavy sigh as she powered down her game.
"Louis, what is it this time?" she asked.
"Orders from the Captain. You, me, and Wayland are forming a search team. The location is the Mystir Garden."
"Mystir Garden?" Elena's elegant brow furrowed slightly. "What happened to the ley lines?"
Louis gave a thumbs-up in admiration. "Your intuition is as terrifying as ever, Elena. Simply put, someone is tampering with the ley lines."
"To target the ley lines of General Fundamentals and remain undetected by Lord Trambelio... that's impressive."
Elena hopped down from her stool and made a swiping motion in the air. A glowing blue streak, resembling an electronic circuitry pattern, appeared before her. She tossed her console into the rift and then grabbed the dolls from the booth, stuffing them inside as well.
"Imaginary Numbers Magecraft?"
Wayland took a sharp breath. He'd never expected to encounter a magus with the incredibly rare Imaginary Numbers attribute here. In his memory, Sakura Matou was the only one with that attribute, though it had later been forcibly converted to the Water attribute by the Matou family's insect magecraft.
"You're quite knowledgeable, Junior," Elena said, clapping her hands together. "Alright, everything's packed. Let's get to work."
'Mystir' was a common alias for General Fundamentals, and the Mystir Garden was a massive, sprawling area on the eastern side of the Clock Tower.
At its center was an artificial lake shaped like a peanut shell, with a small garden in the middle connected to the eastern and western shores by wooden bridges.
A row of willow trees lined the innermost edge of the lake, followed by a band of Phalaenopsis and tulips. Beyond that, the ground rose into a gentle slope covered in thickets of monthly roses and azaleas.
The three of them sat on the slope, looking out over the panoramic view of the garden.
"According to the time retrogression, Flyn was right here," Wayland said, gesturing to the spot. "He was placed under control the moment he stepped into the thicket."
He pulled at a blade of grass, his expression pensive. "This isn't a good spot. The line of sight is too open; there's a high probability the culprit acted on a whim."
"What's wrong with an open line of sight?" Louis asked. "The culprit is clearly high-ranked. A simple illusion spell would be more than enough to conceal them from mundane eyes, wouldn't it?"
"But such magecraft only fools the eyes," Elena countered. "Under normal circumstances, students are constantly coming and going from this place. Someone would have stumbled into the field eventually. It's only because it's recruitment week that the foot traffic here has dropped to almost zero--especially since most of the freshmen are busy with the cabals."
She rolled up her sleeves, revealing her fair arms. She pointed one finger toward the center of the lake and another toward the main body of the Clock Tower. "The primary ley line of General Fundamentals originates at the Clock Tower and terminates at the center of the lake before branching out into smaller veins. If I were the culprit and I wanted to tamper with the ley lines, I couldn't choose the Clock Tower--it's far too dangerous. The center of the lake is the only viable option, and this week is the only time it would be safe. Junior's theory that it was a spontaneous opportunity is likely correct."
"But ley lines are just natural conduits for prana," Louis noted, taking on the role of the inquisitive student. "What would someone even want with them?"
Wayland's mind immediately went to the Holy Grail War. The Fuyuki ritual was entirely dependent on a massive magical array constructed over the local ley lines. While the ley lines of the Clock Tower could certainly be used for such a ritual, the Mages' Association currently knew very little about the Holy Grail War, which made that possibility unlikely.
If he could only borrow the Pseudo-Environment Model from the Astronomy Department--the precursor to CHALDEAS--he could see exactly what was happening within the ley lines. But that was impossible; even if Astronomy were willing to lend such a prestigious Mystic Code, General Fundamentals would never allow another department to interfere with their ley lines.
"A ritual array," Wayland said, his voice tinged with a mix of dread and excitement. "To utilize the vast amounts of prana within the ley lines, a massive ritual array is an absolute necessity--unless they're using Age of Gods magecraft."
"But Age of Gods magecraft is only used by those from the Wandering Sea," Elena noted. "And since the Wandering Sea views modern magecraft as child's play, they've never been on good terms with the Clock Tower. We can rule them out."
She stood up. "Let's head to the center of the lake and see if there are any remains of a ritual array. Given that Políticas is on the move, the culprit has likely already destroyed any evidence."
"There's also the possibility that they've already finished whatever they were doing," Wayland added. "After all, Flyn's body was only discovered today. A few days would have been more than enough time to complete a ritual."
"True. Either way, it's unlikely we'll find a pristine array, but hopefully we'll find something."
With that, the three of them crossed the wooden bridge and arrived at the garden in the center of the lake.
At first glance, everything seemed normal.
Wayland knelt down to examine the flowerbeds. There was no sign of damage, which in itself was suspicious; a ritual array of that scale would have almost certainly left a mark on the surrounding flora.
Which meant...
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]