Magical Academy: Rise of the Supreme Magic Craftsman

"Hello, I'm Diana Humeray." 

Wallace observed the lady who approached their group. Her voice sounded sweet as she smiled at everyone. 

'She looks approachable...'

She's a middle-aged woman with brown hair and dark grey eyes. Her hair was cut short into a bob and styled to the left. She dons her uniform which includes a white shirt, black tie along with a dark blue blazer and pencil skirt, plus a pair of black kitten heels and stockings.

"Hi there, miss. How can we help you?" Clarice said not giving a chance for her mother to speak with the woman. She didn't even provide her name to Diana. 

Elaine trusted her daughter and since she had volunteered herself, she just let her deal with it. She instead took Claire in Wallace's hands to busy herself.

Elaine heard Clarice mentioning about Wallace's usage of Investigative Mana Artifact a while ago since her daughter didn't bother lowering her voice to discuss it with her younger brother. 

The two were already grown up, so Elaine was just planning to observe for the meantime and see how will they deal with the situation.

"Oh... Sorry to intrude on your time. I just wanted to ask whether you've seen anyone stalking one of our artists? As you know, it's prohibited to secretly take recordings during these types of events." Diana said as if she wasn't really aware.

'Oh? So they were doing this approach? Well, there was no evidence so they couldn't just claim that I did it...' Wallace suddenly paused in his thoughts.

'Are they perhaps looking for the investigative or probing Mana artifact I used to serve as a piece of evidence? or maybe, this is her warning?' Wallace was quickly trying to find out what was in Diana's mind.

'Well... if its the former, you wouldn't find any evidence since it's my Divine Sense and not an artifact. Unless I admitted it myself.' Wallace thought while looking at the lady curiously. Of course, he would never admit that he did such a thing. Now that he learned that Celebrity Idols have such sensitive souls, or perhaps it should be called unique traits in their souls, he had to be careful or even try to avoid using Divine Sense near them. 

"I see. We didn't find anyone suspicious. We'll let you know if we noticed one." Clarice answered after acting like she was trying to remember if there were any suspicious people they've met around the place.

"Mhm..." Diana nodded and suddenly glanced at the young man beside Clarice. It was Wallace.

"Why do you look nervous?"

"Eh? No, I'm not." 

"You're sweating."

"It's hot." 

"You're shaking."

"I'm... so hungry." 

"Oh... Good timing, would you like to eat in our office? We have plenty of food there."

"Thanks for the offer but I'll eat with my family."

"We can invite all of you. We've just finished the signing and meeting event so we're about to take a break. We have plenty of space there."

"I see... But why so sudden? I mean, why us? You don't even know us, right?"

"Correct. Actually, we don't know anyone here in this town. So it would be great if we could get to know each other."

"That sounds alright. It's great that you've asked us, we can also introduce you to the local products of our town. But let me first ask mom."

"No worries. I'm fine with it. We have some time before the airship would accept their passengers." Elaine said smilingly.

"It is fine for me~." Clarice said looking amused at his brother getting someone to pay for their lunch. Even acting as a kind tourist guide.

"That's settled then. By the way, I'm Wallace. This is Clarice. My mom, Elaine, and my little sister, Claire."

"Nice meeting all of you. Thank you for accepting my offer.

"No, It's our pleasure. Thank you for inviting us." Wallace answered as their group followed Diana at the building where the Celebrity Idol was. 

"Do you think we'll meet her?" 

"I don't think so." Wallace answered in a low voice after hearing Clarice's whispering voice. 

'You should know that we're invited to be investigated right?' 

Although he was somewhat aware of what was in Diana's mind, he fearlessly went to the building not feeling a bit of guilt. He doesn't have any bad intention when he used his Divine Sense anyway.

***

"Guinevere, how was it? I don't have much time." Diana asked her colleague after she gave an excuse and left Wallace's group. Of course, she made sure that they were busy having some light meals together with their staff.

"They don't have any mana artifacts at all." Guinevere answered looking a bit unsure of her own report. 

"Impossible. That girl was definitely a military officer. She should always have an artifact in case of emergencies."

"Oh is she? Did you see some 'marks'? Anyway, there are only three possible reasons if ever I'm unable to detect Mana Artifacts using my array. They may not be wearing one of the Mana Artifacts ratings was higher than A or perhaps they have something that blocks the ability of my array."

"I don't think they have something higher than graded A, they should not be living in this town if they possessed one. Haah... Its also quite impossible for your array to fail, your detector has never failed and it was even acknowledged by Sir Hayden. Did they hide the artifact outside?"

"We've monitored them after Miya gave us an alarm. Our agents never left their eyes on this group. Maybe they weren't the one we're looking for or perhaps, a false alarm?"

"Tell that to Miya. Hmph."

"Sigh... Just tell her my findings then."

Diana clicked her tongue remembering the frustrated Miya after feeling that her body was being looked at a while ago.

"I felt that some guy tried to see my whole body using some kind of magic. Disgusting... Make sure you catch him!" Miya said alarming Diana of her experience. She then described to her how Wallace looked like. She clearly saw his image after her soul connected to his Divine Sense. His prominent feature aside from being good looking was his grey hair.

Diana immediately instructed their secret agents to observe the man since they easily found him in this small town.

As their agent's Mana Artifact detector didn't detect any Mana Artifacts being carried by Wallace, they couldn't just apprehend him.

Obviously, these types of problems didn't just happen once as they seemed prepared to handle the situation. They even have this mobile detector ready. Unfortunately, the unique traits of Wallace's Divine Sense were it is an ability that does not require a device or mana artifact to activate. 

So Diana had to take action and bring him here in an attempt to find evidence that it was Wallace who tried to peek on their artist.

She trusted Guinevere to find it for her using the Decoder Mana Array that they placed within the whole building. Unfortunately, they meet another dead end. 

Diana didn't really want to report bad news to Miya so she was still trying to find a way. 

"What's taking you so long?"

The door opened as Miya entered the room. She saw her manager, Diana, and her assistant, Guinevere, discussing the possible culprit as the Guinevere holds the key component of her Decoder Mana Array.

"Miya, you should be taking a rest. Anyway, we don't have evidence that he was the one who tried to peek on you but rests assured that we'll find him."

"You don't have to find him. He's already here. That's him and I'm sure of it. Just make him admit to it... Wait, I don't really want to cause a scene in this town. It should be enough to make him apologize and make him promise not to do it again." 

Miya said as she has already calmed down. She was merely surprised at the probing skill she felt a while ago since she hadn't felt something like that in a while due to arrays and protection that her team was providing to her. 

Diana was surprised but she suddenly smiled upon hearing it. It would be easier for her if that's their only goal. The three then checked the surveillance video of Wallace's group. They saw them happily having a meal with some of their staff. 

Wallace was actually thankful as Diana seems to have treated them really well. She didn't even discuss her suspicions about him. 

'We're done eating. Are we just gonna leave here and that's it?' He actually didn't feel better if he wasn't thoroughly asked since he was sure that Miya had recognized him. It is better to try clearing his name now than to wait for them to secretly investigate their family.

After waiting a few more minutes, Diana arrived with a smile. Beside her was the Celebrity Idol that was currently topping the charts with her beautiful songs that touches the heart of both magicians and non-magicians. 

"Hello, everyone. I mentioned to her that I've met some amazing people here, so she joined me here as she wanted to see you. Haha..." Diana dryly laughs as she introduced Miya Linus.

The lady was surely a beauty even off-screen. Wallace even felt a slight attraction. It wasn't significant but it was enough to view her in a positive way.

'Urgh... Is this also the power of the soul? Isn't that too strong?' Wallace thought after sensing the abnormal attraction he felt.