Chapter 92

Carina who was now lying on the floor mentally retraced how things had come to this.

She remembered being kicked in the knee and having her wrist twisted.

My jaw hurts, so I must’ve taken a hit there too. A mage who can also brawl? That’s just cheating!

She’d been completely overwhelmed.

Groaning from the throbbing pain, she began to rise to her knees only to realize her hands were empty.

Looking up, she saw Nice Goodman weighing the sword he’d taken from her in both hands, as if assessing its value.

“The balance is awful. Just for show, like your skills?”

Carina clenched her teeth.

“You’ve got some nerve, hitting where it hurts!”

She suddenly regretted never having properly learned swordsmanship, a result of her tendency to get bored with things quickly.

If only Bray had been here. He would’ve fought way better than me!

Bray was the attendant her family had assigned to support her.

Smart and talented, he picked things up faster than Carina in almost everything.

Naturally, that included swordsmanship.

If Carina had even half of Bray’s skills, she could’ve handled some mere mage in close combat without breaking a sweat.

But Bray wasn’t by her side now.

While Carina was out on a so-called business trip that was really just an excuse to slack off, he was stuck at the Intelligence Department office handling her paperwork.

That too was a consequence of her own choices.

“Want to keep going?”

When Nice Goodman aimed the sword he’d taken from Carina to the side, Conroy who had been standing over there broke into a sweat and quickly waved both hands.

“I-I didn’t say anything!”

Watching Conroy shrink back into a corner with a pitiful posture, Carina ground her teeth.

“We’ll talk when we get back!”

“If we make it back alive, that is…”

Carina braced her legs and stood up.

Nice Goodman warned her.

“If you interfere again, I’ll kill you.”

“Go ahead and try.”

“You’re not afraid to die?”

“Is that even a question?”

Carina spat blood-tinged saliva onto the ground.

She didn’t think she could win. But as a member of the Valpenara Family, her sense of duty was what kept her on her feet.

If only a sense of duty could win a fight. What I really need right now is a weapon.

Carina’s hands were empty.

As if to point that out, Nice Goodman asked:

“What are you going to do with bare hands and no sword?”

“Hell, I don’t need a sword to flatten someone like you. That’s my specialty.”

“Got some guts, huh.”

“Quit yapping and come at me!”

With that, Carina threw a flurry of jabs into the air.

Even she felt a little embarrassed by the display, but it was all to draw attention.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Conroy pulling out a hidden dagger.

A sneak attack from Nice Goodman’s blind spot.

Say what you will. Conroy was still an Intelligence agent, and he always worked well with her.

Bringing him was the right call.

Carina gave Conroy a silent signal.

We strike on three.

Hidden beneath her skirt was a concealed holster.

The plan was simple: Conroy would lunge first to grab their target’s attention, and Carina would draw her pistol to take Nice Goodman down.

It was a prearranged plan.

Conroy gave a subtle nod, and Carina counted with a glance.

One, two, and… three!

“Fire!”

“What?!”

A sudden scream rang out, and Carina, forgetting all about charging at Nice Goodman, instinctively turned around.

The stage was on fire.

More precisely, the blackout curtain installed at the front of the stage had caught fire.

Made of flammable material, the curtain ignited easily, and the flames that started below raced up to the ceiling in an instant.

Whoosh!

In that moment, the five-story-tall blackout curtains began performing the exact opposite of their intended function. Instead of blocking light, it now produced it, casting a fierce glow over the entire theater.

Darkness vanished in an instant.

And from the audience seats, chaos erupted.

As the crowd scattered like ants, fleeing in all directions, Carina remained locked in a standoff with Nice Goodman.

The firelight painted her face in deep crimson,

While her lips, pale with tension, parted to release a voice gone cold.

“This your doing too?”

“No. Theirs.”

“Theirs?”

“They set the fire to cause panic. Planning to escape the theater hidden in the crowd. That’s why I tried to end this with the first shot.”

“Hey, speak clearly. Who are they?”

Instead of answering, Nice Goodman raised both hands into the air.

Carina moved to stop him, suspecting another spell but he was faster.

He cupped his hands as if trapping a small flying insect.

Then something strange happened.

The flames consuming the blackout curtains began to die down.

The fire shrank.

As if someone were gathering loose tufts of wool and compressing them into a ball, the blaze condensed into a glowing orb.

And when Nice Goodman who had seemingly crafted that fiery orb pressed his palms together and ground the imaginary ball between them, the real ball of flame onstage vanished at the exact same moment.

It was magic, plain and simple.

Carina asked,

“You… put out the fire?”

“I did.”

“What the hell? Weren’t you some psychopathic killer who gets off on slaughtering civilians?”

“Unbelievable. I’m chasing Caraphine.”

“Caraphine?”

Carina’s mind began working fast.

The Third Intelligence Division was also tracking Caraphine.

Where had Conroy first encountered Nice Goodman again?

The Royal Academy.

Conroy had been gathering intel there, investigating Caraphine’s illegal production. That’s where he’d run into Nice Goodman.

Nice Goodman had claimed to be an agent from the Empire, saying he was in contact with the criminal group the “Heptagram Society” in an attempt to obtain Caraphine manufacturing techniques.

It sounded plausible but there was no way to verify any of it.

That’s why Carina had made up her mind to find Nice Goodman herself—

To confirm whether any of it was true.

Carina took a deep breath, calming her nerves.

She needed to focus on the reason she’d come here in the first place.

“Alright. Sorry for mistaking you for a crazy psychopath. Still, I can’t just let you go. Instead, I’ll invite you to our Intelligence interrogation room. Let’s have an honest talk over a steaming bowl of offal stew.”

“I don’t have time to play with you anymore. They escaped the theater.”

“I told you. This isn’t an invitation; it’s a notification.”

Carina finally drew her trump card from her thigh.

Nice Goodman groaned when he saw it.

“A pistol, is it.”

The gleaming silver muzzle was aimed at Nice Goodman’s white mask.

Carina gave a wry smile.

“Checkmate. This one’ll sting a bit more than before.”

***

Nice Goodman had gleefully beaten Carina when she charged with a sword, but he was weak in front of a pistol.

He muttered, clearly uncomfortable.

“You carry rarer things than I thought.”

“Rare, huh? You’d be even more surprised if you knew what’s loaded in this. Blessed lead rounds forged for the Holy Epe. One shot of this and even scum like you go straight to heaven.”

Divine power and arcane power were opposing forces.

The bullets, procured at great expense from the Holy Epe, were imbued with divine energy personally by a high priest of the order.

That meant a magically created shield could be torn apart without trouble.

“And even as I’m dying I’ll still pull the trigger, so however clever your magic is, it won’t matter. It’s literally checkmate. Damn, even I have to admit I’m too smart. What should I do?”

Carina felt a small rush of victory.

Today, for the first time, a sigh had escaped Nice Goodman’s lips.

After a moment he said,

“Longsoniere.”

“What?”

“It’s the name of the men who are running off right now with the Caraphine. You’d have heard that name.”

“I know they’re the Libron Republic’s external operations unit. But why would they have Caraphine? Weren’t the ones manufacturing Caraphine at the Academy last time… the Heptagram Society?”

“They’re Heptagram Society members too.”

“This is getting complicated.”

“It’s not that complicated. The Heptagram Society is basically just a group that gathers to pursue shared interests.”

“Shared interests?”

“The destabilization of the Kingdom of Laurencia.”

This time Carina made a low, astonished sound.

Nice Goodman continued, “I am an enemy of the Heptagram Society and an enemy of Longsoniere. So obstructing me won’t do you any favors.”

“That’s for me to decide.”

“Then use that clever head of yours and think. Tell me what choice is best for your kingdom. As long as Caraphine is in Longsoniere’s hands, Laurencia carries a deadly potential threat. Isn’t that so?”

“And Your Excellency Nice Goodman, the Empire’s spy, is nobly leading the charge to hunt down terrorists for our kingdom?”

“I will take Caraphine from them. That much is true.”

“Ha! We shall see.”

“Decide. What will you do?”

The hand gripping the pistol trembled.

The stakes tied to her choice were larger than she’d expected.

After a deep breath, Carina said,

“How about we hunt Longsoniere together?”

“An offer of cooperation?”

“Call it cooperation or an alliance. Whatever you prefer.”

In truth, the Third Intelligence Division had sought Nice Goodman only to start the process of recovering the Caraphine that had fallen into the criminals’ hands.

So long as they could recover the Caraphine, Nice Goodman himself didn’t much matter.

Of course, this meant Carina would have to overlook the humiliation and indignity he’d inflicted on her…which was a mercy she was willing to grant.

Nice Goodman asked,

“And the Caraphine you recover?”

“Of course it’s all ours. Don’t even think about touching it.”

“So you were looking not for an ally but a slave.”

Nice Goodman’s mouth twisted with displeasure.

Cold sweat ran down Carina’s back.