Chapter 437

Mecklenburg looked ready to bark something at me, but then he frowned and asked, “…Why?”

“Well, at least you’re asking why.”

“Damn it!”

Mecklenburg abruptly turned around. I expanded the range of the soundproofing spell and called after him.

“I’ll come over to your side at four.”

“Don’t come.”

“Get back safely.”

I had even been kind enough to say goodbye, but Mecklenburg ignored me and kept walking straight ahead. Since I had expected that much, I didn’t think much of it.

“Hmm…”

As I watched Mecklenburg walk away in a huff, I rubbed my fingertips together inside my pocket. I could still feel the sensation from just now. His hands were rough compared to his wrists, and the end of his sleeve was slightly damp. He probably washed his hands so often because of his germophobia. Combat mages’ hands were never going to stay smooth anyway—calluses formed right where they gripped their wands—but he really ought to stop washing his hands so much.

The last time I saw his boots, there wasn’t a speck of dust or dirt on them.

More mages passed by, greeting me as they went. I smiled and returned their greetings, then lowered my gaze to their boots. Dirt clung to the edges of their soles and the toes. It made sense. We were right beside the Danube, and the area was still undeveloped, so there weren’t many paved roads. Even where I was standing was nothing but grass and dirt. The neighborhood itself wasn’t particularly busy.

I slowly looked around. The Danube was behind me, and the Inn was ahead. The border ran along the Inn. From the train station, it was a twenty-five-minute walk to the Passau-Achleiten border checkpoint beside the river. The checkpoint controlled the highway and small vessels traveling along the river. If I focused solely on crossing the border and took the shortest route, it would take fifteen minutes. Austria was practically right in front of me.

From the perspective of a 21st century Korean, having barbed wire along a national border would have felt perfectly natural. But here, I had to leave both my 21st century mindset and my instincts as a 21st century Korean behind.

This section of the German-Austrian border was marked only by boundary stones—Germany up to here, Austria-Hungary from here onward—with no physical barrier. Magic barriers and other physical barriers were only erected in areas where there was a high risk of military conflict.

Except during times like these, Old Humans were free to cross the border on foot. However, since they had to be prepared for spot checks that could happen at any time, they were, in principle, required to carry documents proving their identity. New Humans could cross the border on foot as well, but if they went wandering around Germany speaking with an Austrian accent and wearing a wand at their waist, they were bound to get picked up by the police. So unless they wanted to end up permanently barred from entering the country, it was better to stop by the checkpoint, get their documents stamped, and enter properly.

Most New Humans were nobles, so they made up a very small portion of the overall population. And as nobles, they couldn’t afford to ignore their social standing, so hardly any of them bothered to break the rules in the first place. Besides, most New Humans possessed so little mana that calling them mages was almost embarrassing. Even if they somehow managed to sneak across the border, it would be difficult for them to commit a magic crime—there were plenty who could use up a day’s worth of mana just by making a single flash of light at their fingertips. Even for a New Human, sneaking across the border to commit financial fraud was far more realistic than doing so to commit a magic crime.

There was another group, though: New Humans who had a decent amount of mana but didn’t work as combat mages, such as civil servants, professors outside of magical studies, and capitalists. They didn’t have the magical skill to conceal their mana perfectly, so other mages could immediately tell, whenever they passed by, ‘Ah, that person’s a mage too.’ That made them relatively easy to arrest and track down.

The ones who would actually pose a problem if they entered illegally were mages like Narke and me—the ones the state had personally selected after evaluating their mana capacity and abilities. In other words, the very small number of combat mages who possessed more mana than almost anyone else while also having the ability to conceal it well enough to appear like Old Humans to the majority of people.

‘Of course, at this point, we should just arrest every New Human, regardless of whether they work in a field related to magic.’

No. We had to arrest Old Humans too. The people capable of bringing Atropos into the country weren’t limited to the top 0.01 percent of Imperial mages. They included every New Human—and even Old Humans beyond them.

The checkpoints would handle the first round. Then, as the second layer, our 101st Unit would catch the New Humans entering the train station. Finally, the Old Human and New Human police deployed throughout the city would handle the third layer, catching the “mediocre and weak” mages I’d mentioned earlier. In other words, the handful of truly powerful New Humans absolutely had to be caught by us.

‘Let’s just hope none of them come here.’

Of all the countless borders they could choose, Passau wasn’t exactly the most likely option. Besides, Austria-Hungary was already making a great deal of noise over the Atropos incident. They might instead come straight from Italy, or enter through France or Russia.

By the time I turned around, Mecklenburg was already out of sight. I looked around at the wetlands, the forest, and the church before slowly turning back.

I had come here prepared for the worst, but the day itself was peaceful.

At the train station, they gave us an empty office to use. It wasn’t spacious enough for seven people, but since no train was due in yet and only two people were out on duty, it wasn’t a bad place for three or four people to rest. I sat at the long table, where an unused typewriter and a letter opener had been left, propped my chin on my hand, and muttered, “That’s really not like him.”

Just as I was about to call, “Ulrike,” Ulrike, who had been standing by the door, whispered to Zähringen as he entered the office.

“…Lukas came back from meeting the representative of the 98th Unit, and now he’s talking to himself…!”

‘I can hear you.’

It had started as me talking to myself, but it wasn’t really talking to myself. I had been about to say it directly to Ulrike anyway. Just as I was about to call him with a dry laugh, Zähringen answered with a smile.

“He wasn’t talking to himself.”

I widened my eyes and looked at Zähringen. He continued, looking at me.

“If he were really talking to himself, he wouldn’t have said ‘senior.’ He would’ve said ‘that bastard.’”

“Wh-What…?”

I was so caught off guard that I laughed and trailed off. Zähringen tilted his head with an amused, isn’t it obvious? expression, so I crossed my arms, rolled my eyes, and eventually admitted it.

“Fine. We’re outside, so I can’t exactly talk however I want… But have I ever talked that harshly in front of you, Julia?”

“You’re easy to read.”

“…You, Leo, Elias. I guess they really do teach Insight training in the ruling houses.”

“Hahaha. Not exactly. But everyone expects us to figure things out quickly.”

In other words, if you wanted to survive the political and aristocratic world from childhood, where everything was as precarious as thin ice, you had to measure people from head to toe, whether you liked it or not, and draw your own conclusions from what you saw. That was the kind of awareness they’d honed over the years. I knew that much.

Ulrike sat down across from me. I pulled out the chair beside me for Zähringen and asked, “If it were you, what would you call someone when you were talking to yourself?”

“That person.”

“Leo would’ve said the same.”

“Of course. Though Elias would probably talk like you, Lukas.”

I thought so too. That bastard. That guy. That jerk. He’d have plenty of options. Ulrike, who had been quietly listening, let out a dry laugh.

“That’s surprising. I thought Lukas would talk exactly like Julia.”

“I thought so at first too, but Lukas has some similarities to Elias, from what I’ve seen.”

Zähringen stroked his chin, lost in thought for a moment, then continued.

“Well, can’t be helped if you think otherwise. I haven’t even known Lukas properly for a full year yet, so I hope I’ll get to know you as well as I’ve known Elias over the years.”

He gave me a natural, faint smile and held out his hand toward me. He hopes we’ll get to know each other that well from now on? I lightly batted his hand away and replied, “We’re going to have to know each other for another hundred years, Julia…”

Unless the monarchy collapsed or the Imperial Family decided to break up our team for political reasons, we had no choice but to spend the rest of our lives together. By the time we were being lowered into our coffins, these would be the people we had spent more of our lives with than even our parents. Aside from me, Narke, and Heike, the other four had been close since their days at the Third Academy, and some had known each other even before that. In a way, we really were going to be together from cradle to grave.

‘Now that I think about it, I finally understand why Ulrike is always worried about my social life…’

Heike was fine because he was always looking after him himself. Narke had fit perfectly into the Second Academy students’ circle from the moment he arrived as an exchange student, and there had never been a shortage of people around him, so there was no reason to worry about him either.

As for me, I probably looked like some guy with no real connections or long-standing friendships, who spent every other day squaring off with the future King of Bavaria, the most beloved student in the entire school…

Zähringen nodded with a satisfied look.

“That’s true. I’m just glad I got the chance.”

“Me too! I was in the same classes as Julia and some of the others a few times back at the Third Academy. I’m glad I get to work with friends I first met at the Second Academy, like you and Heike.”

“Even though we have to keep working together for another hundred years?”

“Ahem…”

Ulrike cleared his throat and glanced away before changing the subject.

“So what’s not like himself? What did that senior say to you?”

“Hmm, it wasn’t exactly that…”

I thought about it for a moment before shaking my head.

“He was just too honest.”

“Honest? In what way?”

“He admitted he was in the wrong.”

At that, Ulrike’s mouth fell open. Apparently, he was even more shocked because he had never imagined that senior having any personal faults to begin with. Zähringen asked with an expressionless face, “Would he really be the sort of person who wouldn’t admit it? Unless his standards for what counts as a mistake were different enough that he didn’t even recognize his own wrongdoing.”

“Yeah, if he thinks he’s done something wrong, he admits it. Still, how should I put it? I could understand him admitting it, but… what came after was strangely warm.”

“Warm?! That’s seriously weird. He’s the kind of senior who acts nice but somehow isn’t warm at all. Aren’t you just misreading it?”

Ulrike answered with a frown. Apparently, he had also figured out that, beneath the pretense of being nice, that guy was actually difficult and a pain to deal with. In my case, though, it had been a long time since he even bothered pretending to be nice to me, so it felt unfamiliar. I rested my chin on my hand, furrowing my brow as I shook my head.

“It wasn’t all that different from usual, but… no. The more I think about it, the more different it was. Am I losing my mind…?”

“…Did he just say something weird…?”

At Ulrike’s question, I narrowed my eyes.

“Not exactly. It wasn’t particularly strange coming from him.”

“But when you put everything together, it was strange?”

“Something like that. Why was he being so nice?”

Maybe it was because of how serious I looked that Ulrike and Zähringen answered immediately.

“I wonder what he’d say if he heard this.”

“So, what you’re saying is that what happened just now was within the range of what he normally considers acceptable, but you’re not used to seeing him show the maximum amount of kindness he can within that range…?”

“Exactly.”

“Was it really that shocking?”

“Not shocking, exactly.”

I wasn’t bothered enough by it to be shocked. I was simply curious.

Was that strange kindness sympathy for my situation, or because of his relationship with my brother? I couldn’t sense any sympathy from him anymore. Probably because I wasn’t really in a position that called for sympathy.

Was it a sense of kinship? Maybe. His friend had barged in, after all.

Or was he starting to open up to me honestly, as a friend?

Who knew. The eighteen-year-old Albert Mecklenburg might have considered me a friend, but the twenty-five-year-old Albert Mecklenburg wouldn’t. Depending on how I looked or what situation I was in, he would see me as either his friend’s younger brother or Nikolaus Ernst.

Or maybe he had started to accept me as a colleague at the Headquarters, too.

That was possible. The joint operation at the Headquarters was one thing, but the two of us from the 101st Unit had beaten our seniors and successfully completed a secret operation in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. From the perspective of someone as meritocratic as him, perhaps that was enough to accept me as an equal.

But it wasn’t as if my successes had started only yesterday. And hadn’t he known from the beginning that I was Nikolaus Ernst?

Whatever the reason, he had wanted to accept me as an equal. I wanted to know what had driven him to do that.

I checked the time, stood up, and said, “It’s time to switch shifts, Luise, Julia. Let’s go.”

“What do you think Heike is thinking right now?”

While Narke was neatly organizing the cargo compartment of the small freight train, Ulrike cast a soundproofing spell and asked me. I was still deciding how to answer when he continued on his own.

“He must be hungry. He’s eating through an IV, after all.”

“…….”

I nodded. When I didn’t say anything, Ulrike spoke up brightly.

“When our Heike gets discharged, let’s go to Italy together and do a food tour.”

“We’re going all the way there?”

“We played board games with Narke and Elias before, and they said there’s lots of good food in Italy.”

‘…Elias played board games with them? And what does Italian food have to do with board games…?’

I could more or less figure out how the conversation had gotten there, but the whole progression was so ridiculous that it made me smile. I smiled and watched Ulrike’s expression. Unlike a few days ago, when he had been visibly down, he had returned to his usual complexion. I couldn’t tell if he felt the same way inside, though. I forced the corners of my mouth back up as they started to droop and said, “But why do you guys always have fun without me?”

“Huh? You weren’t there! If you wanted to hang out, you should’ve made time for it!”

“Of course it turns out that way…”

“You’re always the only one missing from our board games. Even Julia plays along sometimes these days, but you’re never there~!”

“Fine. Keep having fun without me.”

“We already are~!”

“…….”

I laughed and shrugged. Ulrike playfully rubbed my shoulder before moving on to the next compartment. After stepping down onto the brightly lit platform and climbing back into the dim cargo compartment, my eyes hurt from the sudden change in light. Ulrike asked me as I followed him.

“Isn’t there anyone on our team you want to get closer to?”

“Hmm. You.”

“Me?!”

Ulrike stopped dead in his tracks, raised his eyebrows, and grabbed my shoulders.

“Aren’t we already close…?”

“We are. I just want to get even closer than we are now—”

“Is that all we mean to each other?!”

“…….”

How long had it been since I’d last heard this kind of nonsense from him? Still, I caught a glimpse of the same Ulrike I’d seen during the Magical Medicine Experiment Competition over winter break. I had no idea what to say to this high schooler, so I simply smiled, pushed past him, and kept walking. Ulrike caught me before I could get away and said, “I was joking~ Someone other than me!”

“There’s no one. I’m already pretty close with everyone.”

“No! If you had to pick someone, who would it be? Just one more person.”

Heike’s name rose all the way to the back of my throat, but I swallowed it immediately. I had to. Unless I wanted to slowly shut Ulrike’s mouth for him.

“Maybe Julia? I train with Julia sometimes, too… and we talk about politics at the quarters, so I’m pretty comfortable with him.”

“What about Leo?”

So that was what he wanted to ask. I knew it. I smiled and answered.

“I’m already close with Leo.”

“Come on~”

“…….”

Couldn’t he just believe me…? First Mecklenburg, and now another person who refused to believe anything I said. What was going on?

I took Ulrike’s hand and said solemnly, “I’m serious, Luise. I really mean it. I’m close with Leo.”

“Yeah, I’m sure you are.”

Ulrike still didn’t believe me. The disbelief was written all over his face…

I had no intention of deliberately lying to Ulrike these days, so whenever he subtly asked me things like this, I answered honestly. Yet he never accepted my answers even once. What he was really saying was that no matter how many times I claimed we were close, he couldn’t believe it because of what he had seen for himself.

Apparently, Leo’s usual expressionless face had left quite an impression on Ulrike. Leo smiled often at school—his social smile—so whenever he wasn’t smiling, his classmates would sometimes watch him carefully and try to read his mood. That was how rare it was for him to show up at school with a completely blank expression.

I waved my wand to check the flow of mana, then covered my body with protective magic as I walked between rows of pitch-black drums. Ulrike continued questioning me without giving up.

“Is there anyone you’re uncomfortable with? Like you said, we’re going to be working together for the next hundred years, so maybe now…”

“No one. What about you and Elias? How are things between you two?”

“Ghk….”

Apparently, Ulrike hadn’t expected me to turn the question back on him. He made a strange noise before answering stiffly, “I like Elias.”

“You certainly seem to.”

Elias probably didn’t care much for Ulrike. Not in the sense that he seriously disliked him, but more in the sense that he simply didn’t think much about him. Conversely, Elias didn’t dislike Ulrike nearly as much as Ulrike seemed to think. If Elias truly hated him, the two of them would have fought badly enough by now that one of them would’ve had to submit his resignation. Elias was that kind of person, as far as I knew him.

While I was considering Elias’s interpersonal temperament, Ulrike seemed to be thinking about something for a while before speaking.

“But Elias probably doesn’t want to get any closer to me. I understand.”

“Why do you understand?”

“The kids at school don’t like Elias, right? And I’m friends with those people… so it’s only natural that he’d see me as one of them.”

“…….”

“Actually, I guess it’s the same with you, Lukas! Leo’s friends with people who don’t like you. Now that I think about it, I was being a little thoughtless.”

“No, it’s fine.”

He still didn’t seem to realize that Leo didn’t consider those guys his real friends. Then again, they’d spent far more time together at school, and on the surface, Leo seemed to get along with everyone, so I couldn’t blame him for thinking that.

We finished our inspection and stepped outside, then I gestured toward Narke. Narke smiled and climbed into the train.

Ulrike stayed behind with Narke while I headed toward the station entrance. When I reached the entrance, I saw Elias standing there, yawning.

I quietly walked up beside him, the air blower in his hands, and said, “Luise wants to get closer to you.”

“I know.”

“You know? Then why are you acting like that?”

At my cold tone, Elias rolled his eyes around with a confused expression.

“…Huh? That’s weird~ I didn’t do anything!”

“That’s true. Do you dislike Luise?”

“Nah. ID, please.”

Elias held out his hand to a visitor. I took the air blower from him and started blowing the dirt and bits of grass off the visitor’s shoes, then brushed the dust from his clothes.

Elias searched the visitor’s pockets and handed me his bag. I sensed the mana inside it before searching through it myself. A hip flask caught my eye. I confiscated it and returned the bag to the visitor.

“The government has issued an emergency order prohibiting liquids from being brought into the station. Is it medicine?”

“No, it’s not… If I pour out the alcohol inside, can I at least take the flask with me?”

“No.”

The visitor nodded with a confused expression. Once I let them inside, Elias cast a soundproofing spell and continued what he had been saying.

“He doesn’t say what he actually wants to say! If he doesn’t want to do something, he should just say he doesn’t want to! Listen. If some senior you don’t like comes over and starts talking to you, you can just answer rudely or flip him off and send him away! Right? But instead, he listens to everything, gets completely drained, and comes trudging out like this.”

“Flip what?”

Elias raised his middle finger at me. Dumbfounded, I smacked his hand down. Elias made a strange noise and clung to my shoulder. A chill ran down the back of my neck, and I felt utterly helpless as I muttered, “Luise really knows how to handle himself socially…”

“Anyway, having to keep an eye on him and take care of every little thing afterward just isn’t my thing.”

So he did look after me, then…. He’s not the type to just stand by and watch, so I suppose he did what he could.

Anyway, I understood now. The aftereffects of what Elias had done earlier were still lingering in my head, leaving my brain feeling numb. I stood there blankly, focusing on the work I had to do, until at some point the number of people coming in and out noticeably decreased. Elias cast a soundproofing spell and said, “Shift’s over, Luka.”

“Looks like it.”

“Can I go to the bathroom?”

He was asking because I had already told everyone on our team not to use the train station’s bathrooms. If they needed to go, they were supposed to return to the Headquarters or go to the Bavarian royal palace. I firmly shook my head.

“No. Is it really urgent?”

“Nah, not really. I just thought I’d ask, just in case.”

Elias muttered something incomprehensible, then handed the air blower to Leo and Zähringen, who had just come over, and said excitedly, “Wanna go over toward the border?! I saw a dog running around earlier.”

“Do we really have to go out…”

Elias apparently didn’t care what my answer was. He whistled and dragged me outside. There was a small church about fifteen minutes away on foot. As Elias walked toward it, he said, “I can’t believe it. The weather’s this nice, everything’s so peaceful, and yet there might be a deadly magic potion going around.”

“Tell me about it.”

“And if an Old Human drinks it, it’s just water… So it’s a poison meant entirely for New Humans. It takes advantage of the fact that mana circulates through New Human bodies.”

Elias muttered that in a serious tone, then suddenly turned toward me and rattled off his thoughts.

“Isn’t this kind of like that thing? You know, shoving an allergen in front of someone with an allergy. Or isn’t it basically like giving grapes to dogs?”

“Sure, I guess. Anyway, what they intended was for the same substance to cause a different chemical reaction in certain people’s bodies. Assuming we can consider magic a form of chemistry.”

“Oh~ That’s it. Then I was right.”

Elias put his characteristic stubbornness to full use, insisting on his point even when there was no reason to, and grinned. How long had we been walking like that?

“There’s a university here too~ Ah, right. So where’s the dog? I saw it earlier…”

Apparently dissatisfied that the dog was nowhere to be seen, Elias pouted. Not long after he finished speaking, Elias suddenly went, “Gasp,” and took off running like a madman, staring straight ahead. When the white dog in the distance spotted Elias, it immediately started running in the opposite direction.

“Puppy~”

“Do you really think you’re going to catch it like that?!”

“I’m just playing with it!”

And so we spent more than ten minutes chasing the dog around—though, to be completely honest, I was chasing Elias. Eventually, the dog crossed the Austrian border and ran into a house right in front of us, leaving us with no choice but to turn back. Elias said regretfully, “So it was an Austrian dog…”

“Hoo…”

I wiped the sweat from my forehead and said flatly, “We really came a long way, didn’t we?”

“Yeah. Now let’s find another dog!”

“No! Leave the dogs alone.”

“Then a cat.”

“…….”

At my cold stare, repeated yet again, Elias pouted and buried his face against my shoulder. I continued catching my breath as I looked around. There was an Austrian farmstead up ahead. Fields, farmland, and a barn. I could hear cows mooing. No, they weren’t just making noise from inside—the cows were actually out in the distance. Every now and then, I could hear chickens, too. It was somewhat noisy because of the nearby train station, but the farm was still about a twenty-minute walk away from it. With so much grass around here, including along the border, it seemed like a suitable environment.

“Cat…”

I heard a strange sound right beside my ear, but pretended not to notice. Elias clasped his hands together and spoke like a hypnotist.

“You’re starting to want to find a cat…”

“I am?”

“Yeah. I wonder which is faster—a cat, a dog, or a human? Luka. Don’t you want to find out?”

Was he suggesting we chase a cat this time? Unlike a dog, a cat would just climb a tree if we kept chasing it. There was no way Elias hadn’t thought of something that obvious, so I even began to suspect that he was developing new ways to play around with me.

Just then, perhaps because we’d been standing in front of the farm for so long, an elderly woman came outside. She approached us and called out loudly, “Good evening. Is there something you need?”

“No, ma’am. We were just looking around for a moment.”

I pointed toward the open barn and continued, “You raise cattle?”

“Yes, we do. There are ranches everywhere.”

The old woman chuckled as she replied, then looked us over and said, “A moment ago, I saw some people in similar clothes going back and forth. Are you from Prussia?”

“That’s right.”

“It’s certainly been a chaotic day.”

The old woman clicked her tongue, then smiled at us encouragingly.

“You’re doing difficult work.”

“Not at all.”

I wonder if she even knows what we’re actually doing. There were plenty of things I wanted to ask—who exactly she had seen earlier, what time they had passed by—but just like Ulrike and Zähringen earlier, Elias would probably wonder why I was so curious if he heard me asking all that. So I simply smiled, gave her a short answer, and left. Before I did, I memorized the address posted on the fence.

“I really don’t know what you’re thinking, Luka. Did something happen?”

“I didn’t say anything.”

Elias shrugged, pointing at the address sign on the farmhouse. I could only marvel at how perceptive he was and kept walking without a word. As we got closer to the train station, I asked the trudging Elias, “What time is it?”

“…3:40.”

Hm.

It was time. It was time to go see Mecklenburg. I would head straight to the checkpoint from here. I turned around. Elias, who had been looking confused when I didn’t stopped, looked at me.

“Elias.”

“Yeah?”

“I changed my mind. Let’s go look for a cat later.”

“…! When?!”

“Around five.”

“Oh~ Nice. But, wait.”

Elias nodded with a grin, then looked at me suspiciously.

“Why do you want to look for a cat?”