"You... you... you—"
As soon as Daniel finished speaking, Davenant's body began to tremble violently. He pointed at Daniel with a trembling left hand, lips quivering, and then suddenly vomited a mouthful of blood before collapsing to the ground, his face pale.
"...Seriously?" Daniel muttered, slightly speechless. "I didn't even do anything..."
Sigh.
El-Melloi II couldn't help but slap his own forehead and let out a long, weary sigh. While Daniel was baffled as to why Davenant would collapse from blood loss, El-Melloi II understood perfectly.
For a magus, having one's workshop dismantled—even forcibly—wasn't the end of the world. After all, it takes strength to breach a mage's workshop. But to have it so effortlessly nullified by cutting the power supply? That was... humiliating. It completely disregarded the pride and aesthetics of a magus.
"Nice work. So there is a way to destroy a workshop like that, huh?" Flatt, on the other hand, looked thrilled. To him, Daniel's move was sheer brilliance. Why hadn't he ever thought of it?
"Flatt. Don't get any ideas. This was a special case."
El-Melloi II immediately shot down his star pupil's daydreams.
Indeed, as he explained, this was a very specific scenario. Normally, mage workshops were built over leylines, drawing magical energy directly from the Earth. Cutting off the energy supply in such a setup would be nearly impossible.
But Davenant? He had chosen to build his workshop in the sewers—not exactly a spiritual hotspot. Instead of leyline energy, he'd powered it with electricity. The reason the café El-Melloi II frequented had closed was because of electrical issues—Davenant had been stealing electricity to power his workshop.
So when Daniel cut the power, the workshop lost all function.
"Got it, Big Ben-sensei!" Flatt said enthusiastically, nodding hard.
"…Svin, go inform the Policies Department."
With a resigned sigh, El-Melloi II ordered the still-transformed Svin to go fetch help. Davenant had broken the rule of secrecy—and the mass of corpses in the sewer also needed to be dealt with.
"Didn't expect that to be the outcome... Magi really are something else."
A few days later, the judgment on Gurdoya Davenant came down. Despite killing numerous civilians, no one at the Clock Tower really cared. To most magi, ordinary human life was meaningless. What mattered was whether secrecy had been breached.
Naturally, Davenant didn't get the death penalty. After paying a hefty sum in wealth and assets, the verdict was merely the loss of his lecturer position and temporary detainment.
As for the recently murdered Zoology lecturer, Caldo Ron—aside from El-Melloi II, no one was particularly interested in finding the killer. Most were only concerned with how his death would shift the balance of power and profits. Davenant's rush to build a workshop in the sewers was, in fact, a power grab. It was very much in line with Clock Tower politics.
"Here's what you asked for. I heard you already have Primordial Runes—why do you want modern ones too? And what about these other things?"
As she spoke, Reines pushed a pile of magical materials toward Daniel.
"For reference. As for the other items—I have my reasons."
Though both were 'Runes,' the Primordial and Modern versions were vastly different. Daniel was particularly interested in Touko Aozaki's modern Runes, a system she'd patented and sold through the Clock Tower.
Now that money wasn't an issue, Daniel bought nearly everything registered under Aozaki's name—including her patented long-distance transportation spell, the so-called Touko Teleportation.
In the Moonlit World, spatial transfer magic did exist, but it was usually short-range. The Touko Teleport was one of the rare spells allowing long-distance travel. Essentially, it fired a person like an arrow toward a preset location—somewhat like a certain famous heroic spirit's Noble Phantasm, or the Paw-Paw Fruit from another world.
It was dangerous for human transport but perfect for cargo. Though Daniel had access to more advanced quantum teleportation tech, Touko's method was far cheaper—a key factor when scaling for nations.
"By the way, my brother has another investigation tomorrow. Want to join?"
"You really don't let him rest, huh. What's it about this time?"
Daniel wasn't complaining, though. He wasn't interested in the cases per se—it was the magi behind them. These incidents gave him chances to observe different forms of magecraft up close.
"This time it's Spirit Evocation, huh? Fascinating."
Previously it was Celestial Bodies and then Zoology. Now Spirit Evocation was on the table.
"Come to think of it… all these cases involving El-Melloi II feel like the beginning of someone's grand conspiracy."
"There are… a lot of people this time, don't you think?"
In a luxury vehicle, El-Melloi II looked around and frowned slightly. Normally it was just him and Gray on these field assignments, sometimes Reines too. But this time, not only were Reines and Gray present—Daniel, Rin, and Luvia had also come along.
Originally, they had planned to take the train. But once Luvia joined, plans changed to her family's private car.
"I didn't want to come either, but this was a request from Bram. It's important to him."
The mention of Bram made El-Melloi fall silent. Bram was the elder brother of Sola, the late fiancée of his old friend, Kayneth. He was also the son of the head of the Spirit Evocation Department—and its future successor.
The recent murder victim was a family head from the department's branch family. If the incident wasn't resolved quickly, it could jeopardize Bram's position as heir.
Originally, Reines had no reason to help. The engagement between Kayneth and Sola died with them. But this was business. She helped Bram settle this incident, and in return, he would help El-Melloi II secure a slot in the upcoming Holy Grail War.
Although the two slots seemed taken, nothing was final until the War began.
Reines might not want her brother to participate, but she knew it was his obsession. If he missed this chance, he would regret it forever. Neither she nor El-Melloi knew yet that, in the end, he would give up on entering the war himself.
"Wells Pelham Codrington—Clock Tower's most popular lecturer. And the victim was his father, murdered in his own workshop. But aren't they not part of Spirit Evocation? Why get the Department Head involved?"
The thing about Spirit Evocation was that its practitioners were masters of necromancy. Summoning a dead person's spirit should've been a trivial matter. If someone died, they could just ask them who did it.
"Someone already tried. But no spirit showed up," Reines replied quietly.
"So someone interfered with the summoning ritual. Sounds like an internal power struggle."
"Could be. That's for my brother to figure out."
As she spoke, Reines suddenly winced. Her sapphire-blue eyes turned fiery red. She quickly took out eye drops from her pocket and applied them, returning her gaze to normal.
"This much magical interference?"
Seeing this, El-Melloi glanced out the window. Reines's eyes were naturally gifted with magical sight—but she couldn't control it well yet. Excess magical energy caused it to activate involuntarily.
"Looks like we've arrived."
They had reached their destination. Outside loomed a lavish castle—standard for wealthy magi.
"Wells Pelham Codrington—you are under arrest for the murder of Trevor Pelham Codrington!"
The moment they entered the estate's grand hall, two massive white serpents slithered out and tightly bound a startled Wells. The serpents then transformed into white ribbons.
"Akano Ruri? What are you doing here?"
El-Melloi was stunned to see the infamous enforcer from the Policies Department. Her sudden appearance was unexpected—and worrisome.
"This is a mistake!"
Wells ripped the ribbon from his mouth and shouted. As a lecturer, he was no weakling—he had only been caught off guard.
"Shut up! You're clearly the killer!"
A dark-skinned woman with chestnut hair stepped out from behind Ruri.
"Valetta, this is a mistake!" Wells cried again.
"Shut up! I used Spirit Evocation and couldn't summon my uncle's soul—or any of the lightning victims'. And you were in your workshop every time someone died!"
This time, Wells had no rebuttal. It was all true.
"Ma'am, a storm is brewing outside. Leaving now would be dangerous. While we wait, may I investigate?"
El-Melloi gestured toward the rapidly darkening skies. A flash of lightning split the horizon, followed by rumbling thunder and pouring rain.
This wasn't normal weather—it was magical.
"Fine." Akano Ruri nodded after a moment's thought and released Wells from his bindings.
"Miss Akano—" Valetta began to protest, but shut up under Ruri's cold glare.
"Relax. He's not going anywhere."
With that, Ruri turned and walked away. Valetta shot Wells a hateful look and followed. She dared not show El-Melloi the same contempt. He was a Lord, after all.
"Why's she after you?"
Back in a large study filled with books, the group regrouped.
"I turned down her marriage proposal. And if I go down, she inherits this workshop."
Wells explained his history with Valetta. His reputation as the most popular male lecturer wasn't exaggerated. Many female magi had confessed to him.
"I see. Everyone, get some rest. Wells, come with me."
The castle was vast, with plenty of rooms—unfortunately, no servants. Most of them had died in the lightning strikes.
"Another death... again."
Before the investigation could progress, another person died—Valetta herself. Killed by lightning. Once again, the Spirit Evocation ritual failed.
Ruri accused Wells of murder again, claiming he'd eliminated another rival. El-Melloi countered: if Wells were the killer, why invite a Lord to investigate?
The two sides agreed: El-Melloi would have until the storm ended. Once it did, Ruri would take Wells to the Policies Department.
"So it really was… the Wild Hunt of King Arthur."
Thanks to El-Melloi's investigation—and assistance from Kairi Shishigou—the real culprit was found. It wasn't Wells. It was the workshop itself—a built-in killing machine.
Wells's father had constructed it to exploit Wells's magical eyes—his Fairy Eyes—to create artificial spirits and reach the Root.
How fatherly.
But the artificial spirit his father created fell in love with Wells. And Wells loved her back. That's why he had never shown interest in anyone else.
And when his father and Valetta threatened that love, they were killed.
After his father's death, the workshop spiraled out of control. The storm outside was caused by the destabilizing system. And thanks to an earlier ritual El-Melloi had conducted, the workshop was now in full meltdown.
The Wild Hunt of Arthur appeared.
"I wonder what Artoria would think if she saw this…"
Daniel looked up at the massive shadowy hounds swarming the skies. The legends of the Wild Hunt were many—but seeing them like this? It made you wonder how they were ever connected to King Arthur at all.
______
(≧◡≦) ♡ Support me and read 20 chapters ahead – patreon.com/Mutter
• Every 100 Power Stones = 1 extra chapter on Saturday.• Every 5 reviews = 1 extra chapter on Saturday.