I arrive on a lawn. My surroundings are completely dark, but I can see the ground below me thanks to the faint light leaking from the windows. I hurry from Harré’s backyard to the director’s office.
My clothing had already changed back to my uniform by the time I arrived at the duke’s mansion. Must be another part of the Time Keeper’s magic. He may be a rude geezer, but he’s definitely powerful.
“Nanalie?”
“Hey, Hel.”
I run into a few coworkers who are surprised to see me back all of a sudden. It’s no doubt pretty weird, considering how I got dragged away from work like that and didn’t show myself for the rest of the day.
“I’m sorry for all the trouble,” I humbly apologize.
As I go around bowing to everyone and hearing what they have to say, I learn that, apparently, the director has treated my absence as “outside work.” Which is why my coworkers ask me if I was okay going on such a sudden assignment and thank me for my efforts. They seem to all be thinking I was sent on an unforeseen errand related to the director’s visit to Duke Rockmann’s mansion.
Well, we did catch that demon and all, but this kind of treatment makes me want to get out of here as soon as I can. Embarrassing as it is to admit, I acted purely in my own interests at first. Though it’s not like I can just up and say the truth here, so all I can do is force a smile and keep my mouth shut.
I get to the front of Director Locktiss’s office and knock on the door.
“Come in,” I hear from inside.
The moment I enter, I bow with vigor.
“I’m back, ma’am! I’m so, so sorry! I’ll go back to do whatever odd duties you give me, so please let me keep working here!”
I keep bowing over and over, wondering whether my head might come off.
“Oh, stop that, Nanalie! Hush, hush! You’re being too loud! And you don’t have to apologize! Oh, what shall I do with you...? Quiet, I said! Be quiet!”
The director looks flustered as she presses a thumb to my lips and quickly rubs it on them horizontally—she cast Silence on me! My lips are literally sealed!
Watching me struggle to eke out the faintest syllable in my defense, the director wipes her forehead.
“It’s alright, okay? I’ve heard about the doll, and you’ve caught a dream demon, haven’t you? It’s just outside work.” She then swells her cheeks and folds her arms as she adds, “Who would fire you for something like this? You make me sound like some kind of monster.”
Frankly, I can’t shrug off the feeling that she’s indulging me, between my quarrels with Rockmann inside the guild and now this. The only time she’s ever gotten angry at me was when Zozo and I ran around Harré. She’ll make a bum out of me at this rate.
“Why aren’t you angry with me?” I ask as Silence comes off, which takes but a few moments.
“I would get angry if you didn’t get anything done, of course.” She laughs mockingly.
That’s unexpectedly calculating of her.
The director’s desk is littered with papers and books. I’m a little amazed at the sight, considering how she normally keeps things orderly.
The covers of the books read Black Creatures, Fruits of the Devil, and Evolution and History. There’s also the book of recorded demon sightings, the last month’s updates to which we copy and give to the knight order every month.
“The captain told me that demon was after your ice powers. They really don’t know when to give up... I dug up whatever I could get my hands on and did some research, and only a dream demon fit the description.” She brings a hand to her cheek, a grim look in her eye.
Oh yeah, Rockmann did say he had the director look into this.
“Hold on, I’m going to contact the order using the Morgue Mirror.”
With that, she extends her hand towards a wardrobe standing beside a bookshelf and speaks an incantation. The wardrobe’s double doors open, and an elliptical mirror comes into view. Its silver rim is finely decorated and engraved with writing.
This is my first time seeing the real thing. It floats up and turns on its axis three times before slowly landing on the floor. After the director extends her hand again and speaks another incantation, its surface sways like ripples on water, then shows the knight commander.
Morgue Mirrors are special mirrors serving as a means of remote communication, created in ancient times. The other party can be anywhere in the world, so long as they have another such mirror. They’re extraordinarily rare and extremely valuable.
At present, there’re five in the kingdom: one in Shuzelk, the king’s castle; one in the knight order; one at Harré; and the remaining two held by House Bunachiel and House Mozfalt each—two of the Three Great Houses.
“So she’s back at Harré. The rest got here a short while earlier,” says the knight commander.
Behind him stand my friends. Benjamine and Nikeh do a little wave at me, and I wave back. There’s Prince Zenon and Satanás too.
“Once we’ve run a complete medical checkup on Count Drenman’s daughter, we’ll thoroughly investigate her. Some of my men are already interrogating the demon. We’ll figure out what to do with Alois afterwards. It’s a debacle, with the court magician laid up like that...”
“You’re right about that,” replies the director with a humorless smile.
Having a powerful magician in your country is a strong deterrent to the neighboring states. Take Bolizree from Vestanu, for example. If, for example, word got out that he’d collapsed, there’d be no end of rival nations and individual schemers who’d jump on the opportunity. If, on the other hand, he was known to be well, nobody would dare try anything.
In Doran we have the director, who was chosen as one of the top one hundred magicians, but it’s not so much about her magical powers as it is about her skillful management of a sorcerers’ guild at a young age. That talent of hers is what people give her credit for, not really her skill as a mage. Plus, I hear she played a part in stopping the Black Pegasi Slayer, and people recognize her intelligence as a result.
Still, if we’re talking powerful magicians, the director doesn’t fit that mold. In fact, for ten years we didn’t have anyone in Doran who could become such a deterrent for evildoers, which was why, until recently, Orcinus kept meddling in our affairs and we were a little shorthanded in defending our borders.
As incredibly vexing as it is to admit, it was none other than Alois Rockmann who showed sufficient prowess. I’ll keep saying it as many times as I have to: it frustrates me to no end that it’s him, of all people.
Soon after he became court magician, he got attacked by agents of Orcinus. It left him badly wounded for a time, but the incident ended up demonstrating his powers to foreign nations (according to Nikeh), and it earned him a killer rep. So if people were to find out he’s currently out of commission, some might try to take advantage of it.
At this point it doesn’t matter how much his success frustrates me or how “he’s all the way up there and I’m stuck down here.” Also, it’s not like I want to be a powerful magician. At the end of the day, I just want to be a wonderful receptionist like the director. I’d be barking up the wrong tree if I tried to compete with Rockmann in magical prowess.
Anyway, point is, we’re in a tight spot.
“As for the Time Keeper, we’ll decide what to do with him later. Zenon tells me that doll’s made of demonite, however. I hear these stones are the source of demons. Would you happen to know anything about this?”
“Demonite...?” replies the director. “That’s the first I’ve heard of it. Is it true?”
“Yes. According to the Time Keeper, the black gemstone embedded in this dagger is another specimen.”
On the other side of the mirror, the knight commander shows us the dagger we got from the duchess. It’s a beautiful weapon with seven differently colored gemstones in its haft.
The director and I fix our gazes on the black gemstone. So that’s demonite... It just looks like a gorgeous, lustrous, jet-black gemstone. Its deep blackness, however, reminds me of something—Rockmann’s new hair color.
It’s always been a mystery how demons appear around the world. Dr. Aristo tried to research it, and he got consumed by a demon instead. He’s currently in prison.
A conviction forms in my mind. Uncertain and vague as it is, I decide to tell the director and knight commander about it.
“Hey, um...”
“Nanalie?” asks the director.
“What is it?” adds the knight commander.
I recall the fight with Städal.
“I’ve spoken with an ice mage from the distant past inside my mind, probably the one known as the Ice Ancient. That was during our fight with Städal.”
“You spoke with the Ice Ancient?” asks the knight commander.
He and everyone else on the other side of the mirror sound highly surprised. I had my doubts at the time, but I’m confident it was the Ice Ancient talking to me.
“You did?” adds the director, blinking and wrinkling up her eyebrows. “Though I suppose it’s not so surprising, given your powers.” She looks ready to hear me out.
“She told me a story that bears a strong resemblance to the account in Genesis. In it, Städal was frozen and shattered into fragments that scattered across the land and germinated into demons. I think this demonite is none other than Städal’s scattered fragments. And the fragments of the Städal I froze and shattered, they should similarly be...”
The room goes silent for a moment as everyone has their breath taken away.
“Städal, demons, demonite...” mumbles the knight commander, turning to the Time Keeper in Benjamine’s arms.
Everyone here probably had the same thought.
This is all wholly new information. Where do we even start if we want to figure out a way to exorcise demons before they’re born?
The thought we’re all presumably entertaining is that this demonite stuff is a massive opportunity lying beneath all of our feet.
A few days later, an official notice of “demonite gathering” is sent out across Doran and the whole continent. Thus, the age of demon slaying comes to the cusp of an age of demonite excavation.