Chapter 2
Part 4
-At the same time.
The wind blowing off the lake had a soft humidity to it. As if the darkness of the night were itself wet, the nearby forest and plain were gripped by a white fog. Perhaps because of the high humidity and extreme changes in temperature, this place had become famous for the thick fogs that it created. Thanks to that, starting with Muncaster Castle, stories of haunted houses became plentiful.
There was no need to mention the obvious fact that the English loved their ghosts. Nevermind the fan circles and the ghost spotting tours, any house rumored to have ghost sightings in it would sell for a high price as a haunted mansion.
Thus.
The voice laughing boisterously by the tower may have been one such phantom.
"Yes, my thanks for this night, Lord Byron!" the bespectacled woman said.
The scarlet-haired Touko Aozaki chatted amicably at the entrance of the Tower of the Moon.
Her company was Lord Byron. The father of the Princesses of Gold and Silver, and the head of the Iselma family.
Of course, the pharmacist Maio was also standing alongside them.
"Please allow me to escort you, Miss Aozaki."
"No thank you, Maio. You've had quite a bit to drink, after all, haven't you?" Gracefully turning down Maio's offer, Touko turned around. Outside the tower, a melancholic fog hung in the air.
As with the other guests, Touko's room was in the Tower of the Sun. The reason Maio was staying in the Tower of the Moon, reserved for the Iselma family themselves, was because from the start he had been hired on as their personal pharmacist.
As if she was wandering lost in the fog, she let herself enjoy the sensation of stepping into the flowers.
As she did, she suddenly narrowed her eyes behind her glasses.
The appearance of a sudden movement in the sand under her feet brough her to a halt. It was a strange sensation, like a compass trying to determine her location.
In short order, a vague silhouette appeared before her.
"So this is where my idiot student has run off to," her wrinkled face twisting, the white-haired old woman spoke as she appeared out of the night fog.
"...ah, Lady Inorai." Lowering her voice, Touko gave a slight bow. She then motioned to the device in the old woman's ears. "Music?"
"iPods are nice, aren't they?" she replied with a wink, removing the earphones. The gadget she pulled out from her dress was the latest model of music playback devices. While many modern magi spurned the advances of modern science, to the point where many didn't even have electricity in their own homes, on the opposite end stood the head of the Faculty of Creation, always riding the cutting edge of modern science for her own enjoyment.
"What are you listening to?"
"Rock, of course." As if in a good mood, she traced the rhythm of the song with a hand.
With a face like she was biting back a smile, Touko grumbled. "You haven't changed a bit...you weren't by any chance waiting for me, were you?"
"Of course. I had to get out of that Social Assembly, after all."
"So it was a coincidence," Touko deftly answered her teacher's words. How many years had it been since the two of them had met like this?
The sound of leaves rustling filled the silence between them.
Wrapped in mist, it brought back memories from the long ago days when she studied at the Clock Tower. It was a time that rarely surfaced back into her thoughts, but even so it remained like a deep scar somewhere in her brain. The Tendai monk, who pursued his studies with a hellish determination, and the red-coated, painfully talkative magus. Images of the two of them coiled around her like shadows.
While their areas of study didn't intersect, for the time she was studying Rune magecraft, they were her study partners.
At the same time, they were both shadows attempting to conquer death.
Taking a few seconds to drive out the rising sentiments, she spoke again to her teacher.
"Seems you've been doing well for yourself, reaching the position of Lord."
"Oh, give up with the flattery," the old woman replied, flashing her teeth. "I heard that your Sealing Designation had been revoked, but I never imagined I'd see you at Iselma's demonstration," she said with a chuckle. "Weren't you planning on living out your life as a hermit?"
"I'm not sure you are one to talk," Touko said, one eye closed. "I've been doing that up until now. Unfortunately, due to a lack of talent, I've been unable to separate myself from this earthly life."
"In the far east, they've lumped together the talent and destiny of being a sage into the phrase having a sage's bones or something, right?"
"Yes."
"Well, it looks like both of us are lacking in talent. I had no desire to get such a strict, formal position like Lord. I'd rather have become a painter, making art pieces that couldn't even be sold on the street." As Inorai mimed the motion of a paintbrush in the empty air, Touko's face took on a colourful expression.
"Please, if nothing else, spare me your pictures." Saying that, she reached into the inside pocket of her coat.
Before she could find what she was looking for, a box of cheap looking cigarettes was thrust before her. The crumpled box had the picture of a Yin Yang on it.
"If you're going to smoke, go for it."
"...I'm impressed that you'd have something like this."
The reason Touko spoke with such reservation was because the box of cigarettes Inorai offered her was exactly the brand she preferred. They were made in Taiwan by a guy who did it for fun, making only one box at a time, making them rare enough that Touko had all but given up on finding them ever again.
"They're some that you left behind in the lab. I put a bit of a spell on them to protect them from the humidity, so feel free to thank me."
"Is that so?"
As Touko reached to take the box, Inorai snapped it back with a laugh.
"One cigarette finder's fee."
"...for you, I guess I can handle that." Nodding, she took the box from Inorai and pulled a zippo from her coat pocket. Lighting a cigarette and taking a puff, her eyebrows knit faintly.
"That's a nostalgic flavour."
"Don't mind if I do, then," Inorai said as she retrieved a cigarette from the box, putting it in her mouth and drawing her face closer to Touko. Touching the end of her cigarette to Touko's, she held it there until the flame took, then slowly pulled away. After taking a deep drag on the cigarette, she spat the smoke out. "What the hell, these are disgusting. What is this, torture?"
"I think I mentioned that."
"I thought that was just modesty, or you trying to keep your favourite things to yourself." Despite her complaints, Inorai continued pulling on the cigarette, eyes following the smoke that came off it.
A sight never seen in the city, the scenery around them was as dark as if someone had painted over it. Yet for the two women, a trivial level of Strengthening in the eyes was all it took to see clearly in the blackness. For that reason, magi had taken a liking to the night since ages long past.
After spending some time just enjoying the tobacco, the older woman spoke up.
"I have to say, I'm a little bit curious. Why did you end up coming out here?"
"Oh, no reason, really."
"Don't try and hide it, Touko."
"Please, stop with the old names," Touko replied with a shy laugh. Contemplating the meaning of her smile, any person would shudder. Even more so for one who knew her during her Clock Tower days.
Those who knew her "Colour."
"Besides that, it's been done a little strange, hasn't it? This kind of lakefront property is rare enough as it is in this country. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"...yes. If something were to go wrong here, there's a good chance it might be connected."
'Connected to what?' The question didn't even need to be asked.
There was only one thing that all magi spent their lives striving for. No matter how diluted the wish may become, centuries, millenia of time were dedicated to the pursuit of that goal. Especially since the end of the Age of Gods, besides a vanishingly small number of exceptions, all magi pursued that goal fruitlessly. Even so, not one of them gave up on their path.
Raising an eyebrow, Inorai shrugged. "Sounds almost like you have a problem with that."
"Not especially. However..." Leaving a small pause, Touko continued. "If the possibility exists, it wouldn't be strange if some undesirable was targeting the Princess of Gold, don't you think?"
"...as always, you like to talk about the disturbing stuff, huh?" Inorai exhaled a large cloud of smoke before pressing the remainder of her cigarette into the portable ash tray Touko offered her. "I thought for sure you'd be here after that rumoured treasure."
"What treasure would that be?" Touko asked, as if her curiosity had been piqued by that statement.
"Oh? I'm surprised you don't already know. Not too long ago, something interesting popped up in a black market auction. The story making the rounds is that the Iselma family bought it up. Something holding traces of the blood of a certain Phantasmal Species."
"...I see. That's quite high grade." Listening to Inorai's words, Touko nodded.
"I thought you'd be a lot more into it than that. You must have changed a lot since the last time we met."
"Oh not really. I just thought it might be best to hold myself back for now. If necessary I can always just pull out some money from the Clock Tower in my sister's name. It's just this time it doesn't happen to strike my curiosity all that hard."
Inorai snorted. "Well, I guess that's artists for you."
Offering only a shrug in reply, Touko turned a question back on her teacher.
"It seems Lord Byron has called you out with this Social Assembly."
"...so you noticed too, huh?" Inorai said, clicking her tongue. The way she did it made her look like a young girl. As mysterious as it was, it seemed fitting that the passing of months and years didn't seem to reflect in her nature at all. "It's nothing much. That aside, there's one other big fish I was hoping to see at the Assembly, but it looks like that's not going to happen."
"And who would that be?"
"The Lord of the Faculty of Modern Magecraft." With that, she waved a hand. With that, she disappeared into the night fog.
"...well then," Touko spoke to herself. Taking off her glasses, she massaged her temples. "What does that mean? As expected, this won't be easy to get into."
After that, she added one last thing to herself.
"...I'm not forgetting anything, am I?"
Originally Posted by TwilightsCall
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