บท 62: Aozaki Aoko Case File [60]

Since Aoko had just taken down Lord Valualeta, one of the three major aristocratic lords, and expended considerable spell slots, there was no immediate reason for her to remain within the Clock Tower's territory.

After suffering such a severe blow, Aoko speculated that the magi of the Clock Tower might react in one of two ways.

The first possibility was a complete lockdown of London, refusing to rest until Aoko and Touko were found. This would be an extreme response, and considering the current level of combat power stationed at the Clock Tower, fully antagonizing a Magician capable of wreaking havoc within its walls would hardly be a rational decision.

The second, more likely scenario involved maintaining a facade of calm while secretly tracking down the Aozaki sisters and attempting to contact them discreetly. This possibility, which Aoko and Touko agreed was most probable, stemmed from the magi's foremost principle of secrecy. Aoko's seamless clean-up combo left no trace, an advantage that could hardly be ignored.

The smartest move for the Clock Tower now would be to rescind the Sealing Designation bounty on Touko and send envoys to negotiate with Aoko. This would please everyone except the ruined Valualeta family, whose head and estate were both wiped out.

After all, magi are inherently selfish, ruthless, and cunning. In this era of declining mystery, the fall of a great aristocratic house meant more cake for the rest to divide.

Moreover, the Valualeta family, despite being one of the three great aristocratic houses, aligned themselves with the democratic faction. Thus, with this aristocratic traitor eliminated, the ones who stood to benefit the most were undoubtedly the aristocratic faction led by Lord Barthomeloi. As the faction holding the most resources, they would seize the opportunity presented by the democratic faction's loss to strike and expand their influence. Reaching out to Aoko would undoubtedly be part of their strategy.

However, the Aozaki family, as a Japanese magical lineage, had long been deliberately overlooked by the Clock Tower's aristocrats—out of a mix of envy, contempt, and self-satisfaction regarding their glorious past.

...

After teleporting away, the sisters returned to their luxury suite at the Brown Hotel and stayed put. For magi, spending long periods indoors conducting research was standard practice, so neither felt the least bit bored.

While Aoko and Touko were fine, her magical pet, Stark, grew restless from being cooped up. Thus, Aoko's first task every morning was to open the window and let Stark out for a walk.

Defeating Lord Valualeta and destroying the Sword of Retrograde had provided Aoko with a substantial amount of experience points. Although she wasn't entirely sure how the experience decay mechanism worked, defeating an opponent with a light application of the Fifth Magic appeared to have netted her rewards equivalent to overcoming an evenly matched foe.

Through meditation at the hotel, Aoko regained some spells and used her progress to learn new arcane magic, steadily accumulating experience points. She barely managed to gather enough to level up, allocating all her gains to her Archmage class. This brought her Archmage level to 2, raising her total caster level to 12.

With the class upgrade, Aoko gained her first exclusive ability, Banishment (Ex). This ability gave Archmages an edge in dealing damage to, repelling, and dispelling spells against outsiders. Essentially, any being marked as "foreign" faced severe penalties against an Archmage's powers.

While it had limited use against ordinary magi, Aoko understood that in the Type-Moon world, filled with monsters and entities, "outsiders" were everywhere—including herself, in a strict sense. This made the passive ability highly versatile.

In addition, her spellcasting level-up granted her an extra 5th- and 6th-level spell slot, which was a cause for celebration. Although the boost in health from leveling up felt negligible given Aoko's already robust vitality, every little bit helped.

While Aoko studied new spells, Touko kept herself busy. With her body reverted to youth and her creation of adult clones blocked by Aoko, she focused her efforts on crafting familiars.

Inspired by a film projector, Touko finally completed a cat-shaped familiar she had been developing since her Clock Tower days. Though cat-shaped, the familiar's core was a heavily modified artifact—a film projector.

The projector projected a feline image, which acted as an untouchable summon. As long as the projector remained intact, the cat could attack at incredible speed indefinitely, making it highly unfair in combat. However, the cat had no independent will. Its actions and reactions were entirely pre-programmed by Touko, making it a mimicry rather than a true being.

The sisters sparred a few rounds in their suite using this creation, but fearing damage to the hotel property, they couldn't push it to its limits.

...

Meanwhile, the Clock Tower, previously stagnant, was now a hive of activity as factions scrambled to claim the power vacuum left by the Valualeta family's downfall.

Lorelei Barthomeloi, the de facto leader of the Clock Tower, found herself with mixed feelings. On the one hand, she was delighted to see her old rivals, the Valualeta, suffer. On the other, Aozaki's raid felt like a stinging slap to the Clock Tower's face.

This was an unprecedented experience for her, as Magicians rarely clashed openly with the Association. Even the likes of the Jewels Marshal Zelretch recognized the aristocracy's authority.

The bloodline inheritor of the First Magic was essentially part of the Clock Tower's inner circle. Yet the Aozaki sisters, who had stumbled upon the Root through sheer luck, disregarded the aristocracy's rules and launched the fiercest of counterattacks.

What offered Lorelei some consolation was that the new Magician, Aoko, seemed to be targeting specific enemies—primarily Lord Valualeta and the Department of Creation—rather than lashing out indiscriminately at other departments within the Clock Tower.

This, at least, was a small mercy amidst the chaos.