Behind the Scenes

Behind the Scenes

 

“WHAT IS THE MEANING of this?!”

Grand Magus Yuri stormed through the main work room in the Royal Magi Assembly’s headquarters, which was currently occupied by most of the assembly’s mages. The way Yuri barged in without knocking and strode through the hall made the other mages stare up at him in surprise.

However, Magus Erhart didn’t look up from the document in his hand even as Yuri slammed his hands on Erhart’s desk. Instead, he asked with an unconcerned expression, “What’s the meaning of what?”

Tension filled the room, and the other mages paled.

“You know exactly what! Why have they already departed?!” Yuri demanded.

Erhart looked up at him, utterly cool. He had predicted this temper tantrum.

After the king decided to send Sei to the countryside, the most complicated part of the endeavor had been sorting out who would accompany her. It went without saying that either the Knights of the Second Order, who worshipped Sei, or the Third Order, who Sei got along with best, would escort her. From the start, Yuri had insisted he should go, too, and he had refused to bend on the matter.

However, it had already been unusual for both a knight commander and the grand magus to participate in an expedition, as had just happened on their mission into Ghoshe Forest. They had concentrated more firepower in that venture than an expedition generally required, and most notably, in so doing they had weakened the palace’s own defenses.

They had nevertheless received permission to do it. Firstly, they had been escorting the Saint, whose safety was of paramount importance. Secondly, in their prior expedition into Ghoshe, their troops had suffered terrible injuries. Lastly, the western forest was close to the capital; if anything had happened at the palace, they would have been able to return at once. With these reasons—and careful logistical planning—Yuri had been allowed to go.

However, this time, Sei was headed into the countryside. If some trouble were to befall the capital, neither Sei nor her escorts would be able to return right away. Therefore, it was inconceivable for two leaders of the armed forces—let alone more—to go with her.

Not to mention, despite Yuri’s desires, given that he was prone to acting on his own and therefore unfit to lead a whole monster-slaying expedition, he had never been in the running.

All the same, once Sei was set to go, Erhart had predicted that Yuri wouldn’t give up or listen to reason—he wanted too fiercely to see Sei in action.

Yuri had missed the exact moment the Saint used her powers in the western forest, since he had been so busy dealing with monsters. Although, when Sei had left the capital, she still hadn’t been able to use her Saintly powers at will, there was a high possibility that another black swamp awaited the expedition somewhere in Klausner’s Domain. That meant a high possibility that Sei would use the Saint’s magic again.

Yuri would never knowingly let this chance slip by. So, Erhart devised a plan. It had been hard to pull off, but in short, he’d moved the date of Sei’s departure without alerting Yuri.

To be exact, he’d just told Yuri the wrong date—specifically a later one. However, expeditions required preparations, and Yuri had been bound to suspect something was up if he noticed this. Therefore, Erhart had asked his little brother Albert to help him disguise those preparations. Albert’s position as knight commander of the Third Order had enabled him to do so. In return, Erhart nominated the Third Order to escort Sei. It went without saying that Albert had happily agreed to these terms.

Albert wasn’t the only one Erhart had recruited in order to pull off this deception. He had also entreated Johan for help, not only because he was the head of the research institute but because Sei worked for him.

The research institute regularly made potions for the Orders, so they were deeply involved with all preparations for expeditions. Also, Sei frequently met with Yuri since she took magic lessons from him. There was a high chance Sei might let the real date of her departure slip, so it had been necessary to ask Johan to either instruct Sei to keep quiet about the actual date or to give Sei a fake departure date.

Thankfully, both Sei and Johan knew Yuri’s personality quite well, so they’d quickly come to an accord. Johan in particular had been all too happy to help; he sympathized with Erhart having to deal with Yuri day in and day out. This might have been because—without naming any names—he also had to work hard to clean up the messes a certain overenthusiastic employee often made.

“Apparently, they decided to move up the date of their departure,” Erhart said to Yuri.

“Did they now? I heard nothing of this.”

“You weren’t going at any rate. They didn’t need to tell you.”

“I’m the leader of the Assembly.”

“But you never do any logistical work, now, do you? Why would they have needed to tell you about a schedule?”

Yuri shut up at that.

Yuri had no interest in his rank or position; he was happy so long as he was able to conduct his research. However, the nobles who had adopted him were particular about status, and he had wound up grand magus partially as a result of their strong backing. Consequently, Erhart—second son of the Hawke family, who oversaw the military of the Kingdom of Salutania—had been appointed magus to serve as Yuri’s assistant. This had been critical not only because Yuri’s commoner background had left him without any military training but because, again, he had no interest in anything other than research.

In any case, it was a well-known fact that Yuri was grand magus in name only. Even Yuri agreed with this and was largely pleased about it. He was happy to be able to devote himself to his work and frequently used it as an excuse to leave all the paperwork to Erhart.

As Erhart regularly had to do both the job of the magus and that of the grand magus, he suffered from a lot more headaches than he should have for one in his position. This time, however, he had used the situation to his advantage, and he had clearly been rewarded for his hard work.

“Paperwork aside, I do go out to help slay monsters. Therefore, shouldn’t I be told everything related to expeditions?” Yuri asked.

“You’re not going to back down, are you? You weren’t possibly planning to secretly slip in with them, were you?” Erhart asked, his questions like daggers.

Although Yuri flinched, he pouted right away—proof that Erhart was spot-on.

Erhart sighed with both relief and exasperation. “I’m pretty sure I explained why you can’t join this time.”

Despite Erhart’s accusatory look, Yuri continued to sulk, which only made Erhart sigh again. However, Erhart was grateful he had stopped Yuri’s recklessness for once. He proceeded to assign some of the paperwork on his desk to his errant grand magus. “Maybe you’ll learn something from doing this once in a while, too.”

After that tiff, the Royal Magi Assembly returned to its normal everyday life, at least for a while. But the situation changed after one of Albert’s periodic reports arrived at the palace.

“It sounds like there are indeed many more monsters now in Klausner’s Domain,” the king said.

“Yes. However, at present, they’re managing the situation without any difficulties,” the prime minister replied.

“They haven’t found the swamp yet?”

“I’m afraid not. But Knight Commander Hawke confirms that he believes there might well be one.”

The day after the report arrived, the prime minister summoned Erhart along with the leaders of the other martial orders. They gathered in a designated room to hear the prime minister’s briefing about the current state of affairs in Klausner’s Domain.

The fact that Erhart was summoned despite Yuri being available meant that the prime minister felt this information should be heard by Erhart specifically. Erhart realized why when the prime minister spoke.

“As for the Saint, Knight Commander Hawke reports that she has discovered how to use her powers at will.”

“That’s heartening news,” said the king.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief—and everyone simultaneously understood exactly why Yuri had not also been called for the meeting.

While Yuri usually projected mild-mannered friendliness in public, he was famous for descending into reckless abandon the second something caught his interest. So strong was his enthusiasm for studying magic that he was widely considered obsessed. He even went monster hunting on his own for the sake of his research—an otherwise unheard of practice. And at present, Yuri’s greatest interest was in the Saint’s unique magic. Now that Sei could use her powers at will, it was only natural for everyone to fear that he might run off to Klausner’s Domain on his own.

The prime minister finished his briefing and looked over the gathered. “Are there any questions?”

Knight Commander Rudolf Aiblinger of the Knights of the Second Order raised his hand. All eyes focused on him. “You said they have yet to find the black swamp. Will they not need more help to aid their search?”

“I don’t believe so. They’re working with the local mercenary company to search the entire domain. It’s only a matter of time before they locate it,” the prime minister said with a hint of exasperation. He sensed Rudolf’s true intentions.

Many members in the Second Order worshiped Sei. Her first public use of Holy Magic had been to heal a hospital full of injured knights. These knights had just returned from an ill-fated expedition into Ghoshe Forest during which the Second and Third Orders had worked together. As such, numerous knights from the Second Order had been among those she healed.

The spell Sei used at that moment had been so powerful that multiple knights had regrown arms and legs they had lost in battle—an astounding triumph of magical power. Many of the knights who worshiped Sei now were the ones who had on that day recovered missing parts of their bodies.

First on the list of worshippers was Rudolf’s second-in-command. It was now well-known that, when the man learned the Third Order had been selected to escort the Saint, he had fallen to his knees in despair, heedless of who might be watching.

To wit, Rudolf was trying to fix a morale problem. His second-in-command and some of his knights had taken to cursing his name when he wasn’t around, and he hoped this would be an opportunity to send some of his men to the Saint’s side, thereby alleviating some of their frustration. No one wanted their subordinates cursing them.

The prime minister knew very well what Rudolf was angling for, and he understood the situation.

“But don’t we need to find the swamp as soon as possible though?” Rudolf asked.

“There are fewer monsters in Klausner’s Domain now, thanks to the Saint’s arrival. There’s no need to rush in with more manpower than they already have,” the prime minister said.

“But I understand there will be far more fiends in the vicinity of a black swamp. Should we not send more men ahead of time?”

“The Third Order has experience dealing with a swamp from their prior expedition in Ghoshe Forest. It is of course dangerous, but I’m sure they will put their previous experience to use and deal with it efficiently enough at their current numbers.”

Rudolf frowned at this prompt rejection.

However, the prime minister didn’t want to send any more troops than necessary to Klausner’s Domain. Dispatching more people meant reallocating supplies and various other costly necessities.

Ultimately, the meeting came to an end with a decision to continue monitoring the situation.

Several days after that meeting, Erhart got a bad feeling. He hadn’t seen Yuri since that morning. Normally, he just assumed Yuri was slacking off on the practice grounds, but he had a sneaking feeling that this wasn’t the case.

He asked one of the mages to run to the practice grounds and look for Yuri while he himself set off for the grand work hall where the rest of the mages usually gathered. When he reached it, he scanned the crowd and confirmed that Yuri was not in evidence. When he started questioning the mages, he got a surprising response.

“So, he went monster hunting?” Erhart asked.

“Y-yes, that’s right.”

“By himself?”

“No, he took some others with him.”

At this, Erhart frowned. Yuri headed into the nearby forest in order to hone his magical prowess relatively often. However, he rarely—if ever—brought anyone along with him.

When Erhart asked who exactly Yuri had brought, the answer made his frown deepen. One of the people Yuri had taken was Aira.

While Yuri denied this, some secretly thought that Aira, who had been summoned together with Sei, might be another Saint. These same people thought Aira had been accepted into the Royal Magi Assembly specifically to nurture her Saintly abilities. Whatever the reason, Aira received somewhat unusual treatment from time to time.

This being the case, anyone who thought Yuri was acting strangely brushed it off once he took Aira with him. They figured whatever he was up to had to do with her, so they hadn’t tried to stop him.

Erhart dragged his hand down his face.

At that moment, Knight Commander Rudolf of the Second Order rushed into the room, looking panicked. All the mages’ eyes turned to him. Rudolf took a moment to catch his breath, a grim expression on his face. He then strode over to Erhart.

Erhart frowned at Rudolf; his bad feeling had only intensified. “Has something happened?”

“Some of my knights have gone on an expedition with some mages.”

“An expedition, you say?”

“Yes. Apparently, they told everyone that they intended to pursue a giant monster in the western forest. But I have reports to suggest this is false.”

“Then where did they go?”

“In the direction of Klausner’s Domain.”

A vein in Erhart’s temple throbbed. The mages standing close to him quietly backed away.

In Erhart’s opinion, this was all Yuri’s doing, but Rudolf had another hypothesis. All the knights who had disappeared were the ones who had most fervently yearned to escort Sei to Klausner’s Domain. Rudolf suspected that his knights had planned this and brought Erhart’s mages along to make it look like they were going on a routine expedition.

Once they were found out, the people who had planned this would doubtless be punished. If they had gone forward with it anyway, they truly did care more about Sei than any retaliation. Their adoration of her was indeed something to be feared.

Notably, Rudolf’s second-in-command had been left behind. It was possible the knights had feared this infraction would become more serious if they included him.

“I’m very sorry your people got dragged into this,” Rudolf said.

Erhart sighed. “No, it was probably our people doing the dragging.”

“What do you mean?”

“The whereabouts of the grand magus are currently unknown.”

For a moment, Rudolf gaped at Erhart, but he swiftly recovered himself and suggested they both seek out the prime minister. Things being as they were, Rudolf recommended they do so with all speed. Erhart weakly nodded.

In the end, the two of them left the Assembly’s headquarters at very near a run.

 

***

 

A bit earlier, Aira had found herself standing in the square that served as the rendezvous point for troops before they departed on expeditions. She watched as knights from the Second Order busily piled supplies in wagons.

Normally, Aira would have spent the day doing clerical work in the Royal Magi Assembly’s barracks. Yet here she was in this square on Grand Magus Yuri’s orders. She had been doing her work as usual when he’d casually announced to the hall that he was going on an expedition and then swept her up along with him.

Aira wasn’t the only one who’d been whisked off in that moment. Honestly, it felt a bit like Yuri had randomly recruited the mages nearest to him when he made his declaration, and Aira had just happened to be included.

In truth, Aira was right to think that. Yuri hadn’t been thinking about anything like “team fit” when he selected his handful of mages.

Aira felt uneasy as she stood in the midst of everyone making their preparations to go. It wasn’t the expedition itself she worried about. She usually looked forward to them, in fact. After her graduation from the Royal Academy, she’d joined the Royal Magi Assembly, and she had gone on several expeditions as part of her new job. She was quite used to them now, especially compared to the very first time she had faced a monster. She still got nervous, but monster hunting just didn’t make her anxious anymore.

Plus, they were heading into the western forest, known as Ghoshe Forest. Ghoshe had once been famous for being rife with monsters, but ever since Sei had gone into it, hardly any had appeared there. And if there were new monsters, there was no way they’d be nearly as numerous as they had been when Sei and the Third Order went to face them.

However, since a large monster had been spotted on the edge of the forest, everyone was in a hurry to slay it, and the grand magus was with them. He had zero interest in anything but magic, and partially because of that, he was terribly powerful. No matter if it was one big monster or many, Aira couldn’t imagine they would be in danger if Yuri was going to be with them—especially not since he was so well known for loving the heat of battle.

Then why did she feel so uneasy? Aira really wasn’t sure. But as she stood there watching everyone, she felt, somehow, like they were bringing more supplies than they needed.

A little while later, everything was packed, and they departed. It would take some time to get to the western forest, so most people rode in covered wagons as they went. All the mages were piled into one of the wagons together.

The wagon had a canopy, and benches lined both sides. Seats weren’t assigned, so they all just sat in the order they came into the wagon. Aira’s seat happened to be right in the middle of one of the benches.

Along the way, Aira discussed the monster they thought they were going after with her peers. When they were done talking strategy, they shifted to just chatting.

Suddenly curious, Aira looked in Yuri’s direction. He was seated directly across from her, and he hadn’t really said much the whole time. He looked lost in thought.

I wonder what he’s thinking about?

The first time Aira had met him, she had been astonished by his good looks—a face so perfectly lovely that it almost seemed fake. She hadn’t been able to take her eyes off of him. Now she was quite used to being around him since they worked together. If she had only ever seen Yuri from afar, she probably would have continued to be entirely charmed, but seeing his exchanges with Erhart every day had fixed that.

In other words, the exquisite illusion had swiftly been destroyed. At least he was still nice to look at.

Basically, Aira wasn’t peering at him because she was captivated by his face. However, while she was studying him, their eyes met.

“What?” Yuri asked.

“Uh, nothing…” Aira trailed off.

Now it was Yuri’s turn to study her closely as she shifted her gaze away. She managed to ignore him for a time, but she soon became all too aware that he was still looking at her. Unable to endure it any longer, she slowly returned her gaze to him.

Although they were both part of the Royal Magi Assembly, Yuri was the grand magus and Aira was just a regular mage—they barely came into actual contact with one another. Also, although Aira had been summoned with Sei during the Saint Summoning Ritual, because she couldn’t use the Saint’s powers, Yuri had zero interest in her. They had never even talked. Moreover, Aira wasn’t the type to talk to her superiors without a good reason to, so she hadn’t really tried to change that. As a result, Aira was hesitant to ask Yuri idle questions, but she couldn’t come up with a good answer, so she wound up just being honest.

“You looked like you were lost in thought about something, so I was wondering what it was.”

“Ah. I was thinking about magic.”

Aira and Yuri’s voices were the only sounds in the wagon. Everyone else had gone silent. The other mages had all stopped chatting to listen to what interesting new thing this rare exchange might provide.

However, Yuri’s answer was pretty typical for him. Aira could see why everyone said he was fixated.

“What about magic?” she asked, nevertheless.

“The Saint’s, in particular.”

“You mean Sei’s?” Aira asked.

Yuri’s eyes widened slightly in surprise to hear Aira address Sei by name. “You know her? That must mean…” Yuri stopped as something seemed to occur to him. He peered closely at her face.

Aira had known a number of attractive people back at the Academy, but to have someone so pretty—who was also her boss—stare at her like that made her a bit uncomfortable. But that unpleasantness didn’t last long.

A moment later, Yuri touched his chin and nodded, having come to a conclusion: “You’re the girl who came from her world.”

Hadn’t he known that? “Th-that’s right.”

“Hmm, I see.” He sank into thought again.

Aira tilted her head, confused, but then Yuri asked her another question. “Do you talk to Sei often?”

“Huh? No? Maybe? Maybe more than some other people. We have tea once in a while.”

“I see. That sounds like often to me.”

From an objective point of view, Aira wasn’t sure she had that many opportunities to converse with Sei. Realistically, compared to Sei’s coworkers at the Research Institute of Medicinal Flora, she didn’t get to see Sei all that much. However, if you took everyone in the palace into consideration, she was probably more in the “often” group.

At any rate, besides the institute, Sei only ever went to the Order and Assembly barracks and the palace library. Her circle of friends was naturally quite small. The fact that Aira was close enough to have tea with Sei meant she was actually rather close to her. At the very least, Sei didn’t have any other friends in the Royal Magi Assembly aside from Yuri and Erhart.

Although to be clear, Yuri concluded Aira and Sei were close mostly because they had come from the same world.

“What do you two talk about when you’re together?” he asked.

“Oh, hm. I guess we talk about things happening in our day to day lives. And about Japan, the country we came from.”

“If you talk about your daily lives, does that mean you talk about magic, too?”

“A bit. We run into one another at the practice grounds sometimes, so it’s mostly there.”

“Has she ever talked to you about the Saint’s magic?”

“A little. She was rather frustrated that she couldn’t figure out how to get it to work.”

“So she still doesn’t know. I wondered.”

Other people would probably have been more interested to hear more about the other world they’d come from, but Yuri remained true to his nature.

Yuri had realized Sei was trying to hide her Sainthood from the moment he tried to Appraise her stats. At that point, he had considered it possible that Sei was claiming she couldn’t use her Saintly powers at will even though she actually could. However, from his interactions with Sei, he had decided it was likely she was telling the truth. He asked Aira anyway just to make sure. He figured that if Aira was a friend from the same world, Sei might have divulged information to her that she would have kept from him.

Aira realized what Yuri was angling for when he bullishly steered the conversation toward the topic. She was aware that Sei didn’t really like how she had been thrust into the vaunted position of Saint, so Aira tried to put what she knew in a way so it wouldn’t upset her friend. After all, Yuri already knew a lot about what Aira mentioned.

In short, Sei couldn’t use her powers at will—no inconsistencies there.

(Notably, Aira didn’t mention that Sei often complained about Yuri’s grueling special training.)

There was nothing new for Yuri to learn from this conversation, but since they were already on his favorite subject, he easily came up with new topics to entertain himself. He was especially interested in channeling.

Aira mentioned that Sei had talked about the usefulness of magical manipulation when making potions, and Yuri nodded, saying she was probably onto something. Meanwhile, the other mages murmured to each other. This was the first time they were hearing of such things.

Soon, they were all congenially bantering away, so it took a while for anyone to speak up about a certain other matter. One mage sitting near the back of the wagon was the first to do so, and he looked somewhat perturbed as he said, “Hey, aren’t we going the wrong way?”

“What do you mean?”

“Huh?”

The other mages sitting near the opening looked out of the canopy, and as they did, their expressions changed. They had all been to the western forest several times before, but outside the canopy, they saw an unfamiliar landscape. However, the coachman of the wagon behind them didn’t seem the least bit concerned.

The wagon filled with voices wondering what was going on. Their panic revived the unease Aira had felt when they departed. Her expression darkened as she realized that bad feeling had been accurate all along.

You’re supposed to look to your boss in times like these, right? Aira thought as she turned to Yuri.

Hand on his chin, Yuri wore the hint of a smile on his lips. How odd.

“Grand Magus?” Aira asked suspiciously.

The other mages turned to Yuri as well. The clamor quieted as they took in Yuri’s serenity.

“Do you know where we are now?” Yuri quietly asked.

“I cannot say for certain, but we appear to be heading much farther west than Ghoshe Forest,” the mage by the back said, making Yuri smile all the more.

The mages all exchanged a look.

“Do you know where we’re headed, Grand Magus?” one asked.

“No, I don’t. But I think I can guess.”

“Where, then?”

“Klausner’s Domain, most likely.”

The mages looked shaken. Several of them clearly remembered Yuri saying they were going to go take on a monster in Ghoshe Forest—and they could confirm this with each other. Yet it didn’t seem like Yuri had lied to them either.

“The request was to accompany the Second Order to the western forest, right?” one of the mages asked.

“That’s right,” said Yuri.

“Then why would you think we’re heading somewhere else?”

“Because of how many supplies they packed into the wagons. And also, the fact that this request came from the Second Order.”

I knew it, Aira thought.

“Supplies aside, what does the Second Order have to do with it?” one mage asked.

Yuri chuckled. “Well, you see, there are just so many knights in the Second Order who simply adore the Lady Saint. And they must have been grief-stricken that they weren’t selected to escort her to Klausner’s Domain.”

The mages exchanged another look. Their faces paled as they grasped the gravity of their situation.

“I decided to join this expedition on a whim, and I’m so glad I did.” Yuri smiled brightly.

Now the mages were just perplexed—how were they going to deal with this?

Although they couldn’t confirm exactly where they were going, Yuri’s mood suggested they definitely weren’t headed back to the capital any time soon, at least. They couldn’t imagine he would agree to turn around. He wanted to go to Klausner’s Domain as much as these Second Order knights. And though he claimed he hadn’t known where the knights were going, the mages couldn’t rule out the idea that he might have been in cahoots with the knights from the beginning.

At any rate, they were presently stuck going to Klausner’s Domain whether they liked it or not. No matter how they might protest, the only person who could actually stop Yuri—Erhart—wasn’t there.

At least, even if they did get in trouble later, their carefree boss was sure to take the brunt of the punishment. And even if they didn’t send up some sort of emergency signal, their brilliant magus was sure to figure out what had happened sooner or later.

The mages all realized this as they looked helplessly at each other and sighed simultaneously, giving up on the idea of reining Yuri in—let alone the rest of this new expedition.