Chapter 27

Dragon-san Becomes a Little Girl Part 6

Despite being overcome with concerns, Kyle returned to his office and threw himself into the fray of work while also listening to his secretary. This helped him to calm down.

Kyle’s most important task was to organize and control the magical skills that all of his fellow magicians possess.

It was a job that involved pushing lots of papers applied by various magicians to approve newly developed tech, asking permissions, to predict natural disasters and prepare to counter them, but also to investigate magical beasts on the behalf of the military and maintaining anti-demonic barrier that was surrounding the whole capital. Long story short, it was an awfully busy kind of job.

Right now, Kyle’s most pressing concern were the disappearances that’s been happening frequently for the past two weeks.

「—- In the end, I was unable to find anything.」

Kyle listened to the report of a young man that stood before him with sour expression. The man was a magician who was sent to the city in order to help maintain peace and order on the streets, but his report was nothing short of a disappointment.

「We managed to get a lead on the house that seemed to be the kidnappers base, but when we stormed the place it turned out to be empty. It must have been one of many of their hideouts.」

「Seriously?」

「I am sorry as well! It was a miscalculation on my part to not consider that our enemy might be a magician as well!」

Kyle watched the young man who was lowering his head in an act of apology.

「It is a case on which even the city guard has no clues, so we must pursue every possible lead that comes our way with everything we have.」

「But……」

「If you have time to whine, you might as well go back there and check any magical tools that you find on the scene. It might give us some clues that will lead us to the enemy whereabouts. You can do that, right?」

「Yes, sir!」

Hearing the expectation in his supervisor’s voice, the young man saluted to him and was off. Kyle sighed and had a glance over the report that was on his desk

「Three kids with high aptitude with magic. You’d think they would be hard to kidnap them.」

Children who can’t control their own powers tend to uncontrollably release it under the influence of their own emotion.

If they were hurt, they would cause magical explosion out of fear, and in worst case scenario the aftershock of such explosion could cause much death in the surrounding area.

Shock waves themselves would continue even if the children fainted, acting for as long as their reserves of magical powers were not depleted.

However, in this case there should be traces of magical power left that would help with the investigation, but no matter how much the children may have resisted their abductors, there were literally no traces left. Like, at all. As if they vanished into thin air.

So apparently there is a magician out there who can abduct children and leave no traces of his villainous activities.

In this country, there was a law that stated that all children with magical potential needed to be registered with the government. That way it was possible for parents to receive a benefit from the government. But it was not until recently that Kyle discovered that it was only unregistered children that were disappearing.

However, some of the people were still prejudiced towards mages and believed registration equaled being drafted into the military, so unregistered children were not that uncommon.

If they take that into consideration, the number of the actual victims could be even larger.

Since becoming the Chief of all magicians, Kyle was no longer directly involved in cases like this one.

Still, children who happen to disappear were possible mage candidates altogether.

Children with vast magical potential tended to have robust growing period, and as such wielding magic was easy for them.

Their bodies were strong, and depending on how they would grow up they would become powerful magicians.

Kyle could easily imagine vagabond magicians, living on the streets just so they could avoid getting drafted into the military.

Even though the appearance of the Black Flame Dragon had helped a whole lot when it comes to the ways of this country, these kind of bad things started resurfacing again after ten years have passed.

We need to save those children as soon as possible and bring them back their futures, so they can choose their own path of free will. Unlike how Kyle’s life had been.

The life of a magician affiliated with Ministry of Magic. The fate that was chosen for him without even asking for his opinion.

That is why Kyle was dead set on improving the lives of magicians in this country. But in order to do that, first they had to properly reform this country’s nobility and those at power.

With this case so far, while he was dealing with the nobles, his subordinates managed to gather some information about the children. Some of the smugglers they managed to catch decided to cooperate with them and the city guard. Thanks to that they had some information about the smugglers.

After successfully catching the smugglers, they discovered the evidence that the children were being kept somewhere, but since there was possibility of some foreign magician being involved in the process, the overall situation went back to a standstill.

「If it’s not for the purpose of human trafficking, than what……?」

The entire capital was filled with barriers that reacted to any kind of foreign magic.

Especially strong barriers were erected at the city’s gates, so that nothing – living or dead – that emitted magical power would be able to enter the city or leave it without them noticing.

It could be said that there was no way for the missing children to be spirited away out of town, but time was of the essence and they needed to do something without delay.

Children with magical potential are priceless thing indeed.

It was wrong for them to be kidnapped. So, that problem must have been dealt with as soon as possible.

Ridden with frustration, Kyle pushes the report away.

Is there anything they have missed? Was there something they weren’t understanding properly?

He cast a glance over the list of items that were seized from the workshop of the illegal magician that they raided just the other day.

「A beaded bracelet, supposedly a jewelry or element of decoration?」

It seems that the illegal magician was making powerful or prohibited magical object and was smuggling them around the whole country, selling them under the cover of cheap accessories or home necessities to the general public.

Noticing that part of the inventory in the report, Kyle got up and went of the room, writing some message on a piece of paper and leaving it on his desk.

Kyle marched without hesitation into one of the laboratories in the research tower where Nectar was dwelling.

As Kyle entered the room, Nectar raised his head from over the table that he was at with a bunch of his assistants.

「Ah, Kyle, nice of you to swing by.」

It seems that Nectar was in the middle of conducting a survey of the various magical tools they have come across. It was a good thing, for he wanted to talk to Nectar about the bracelet.

「Nectar, let me see the notes on the bracelet composition you were writing earlier.」

When Nectar handed a bunch of papers to Kyle, he glanced over them in silence, and then shifted his gaze towards the small bracelet on the table.

Despite its low quality, it only took Nectar a few seconds to recognize the handiwork and patterns that were engraved on the bracelet stones. At the same time, Kyle finished reading through the documents.

「No mistake about it.」

「Yeah, this version here is pretty inferior, but it is definitely the very same item as the bracelet on Lava’s hand.」

「What about it’s capacity?」

「It will most probably break upon activation, but if a child without proper training would be exposed to its effects, I’m not really sure what would actually happen.」

「Damn it, but all the materials used to build it are rather expensive. What’s up with that?」

Kyle groaned while shaking his head, while Nectar picked up the papers with all of the data he managed to gather up to this point.

「The reason probably lies here. It is the journal of the illegal magician we found the other day.」

「…… Was it encrypted?」

「It was, but I managed to decode it. It was based on old Hellalic language, but since its grammar is based on the ancient language, I managed to learn it in few hours.」

「Wow, usually it wouldn’t go so well.」

Kyle smiled hearing his friend’s story, then proceeded to read the encrypted document. Watching him were Nectar’s assistants, who already knew about its contents.

Having finished reading the text, Kyle’s voice shook and trembled from all the emotions he was trying to contain.

「Although the entries stop a few months ago……」

「It is almost certain that there is a list of items, spells, and formulas of various sorts.」

Contrary to Nectar’s cool answer, Kyle spoke up with a voice full of emotion.

「What are those old geezers thinking!? Hiring a rogue magician who can summon demons to do something like that!?」

「Those at power tend to want even more, feel like they can get away with everything and want to eliminate those who stand in their way. You were in this business longer than me, so you surely must know what I’m talking about, right?」

Nectar answered in a cool voice. Kyle noticed that his face suddenly become expressionless, just like a mask.

There was no emotions to him whatsoever right now, as if he reverted to how he used to be in the past, so Kyle didn’t really know how he should react to that or what to say.

Then, one of Nectar’s assistants who was up until now looking carefully at his Boss and Kyle, suddenly began to fidget like crazy in place, pointing his finger to Nectar’s chest.

「What’s the matter with you, huh?」

「Sir, I… your chest… glowing……」

「Huuh?」

While the assistants were stunned, Nectar and Kyle quickly went to the other room and then Nectar took out the jet-black scale with rainbow-like luster that was as big as baby’s hand from his robe.

Both men concentrated their thoughts in absolute silence, and then they could hear the voice of the scale’s owner resonating within their minds.

Even though her body became small like a child, her voice remained as usual, making you feel relieved in an instant.

「Oh, good, I managed to connect! Hello there, Nectar, my friend, I hope I’m not interrupting you in your work?」

「No, no, it’s okay! We can talk no problem.」

「Well, if you say so, then I guess that’s fine.」

As soon as Kyle received that thought, he could imagine the expression of the person on the other side of the connection –– an expression of sighing deeply, as if being overwhelmed by something.

Then another emotion got transmitted over, an emotion similar to that of feeling sorry about that previous thought.

「Well, there was something that I wanted to ask you, but if now is not the right time, it can very well wait.」

「No, it was just some minor issue, but it turned out just fine, so no worries. As long as it’s something quick, you can ask away.」

「Okay then, quick it is: do you remember someone –– anyone –– who might hold a grudge against you?」

「…… Say what?」

You could almost see question marks appearing over Kyle and Nectar’s heads.

「Umm, Lava, could you explain that a little bit more?」

「Well, this is –– Hey, Chrome! Don’t just stand there and move! Ah, sorry about that.」

Nectar asked for some clarification, but suddenly Lava’s thoughts became disturbed and some other voices got mixed in them.

Kyle, having finally caught up with the conversation, was overcome with a huge bad feeling.

「Umm, Lava-dono, I’m sorry to ask, but what exactly are you doing right now……?」

「Oh, right now I’m playing soccer in front of the school building together with your children and their friends.」

To such a carefree and relaxed reply, Kyle couldn’t help it but to collapse on the spot.

Instead, Nectar’s eyes shone brightly upon hearing unfamiliar words.

「What’s that? From the name itself I can imagine that it is some kind of a game for children.」

「Oh, it’s not only for children. Simply put, you kick the ball and try to put it in the enemy’s goal, while they are trying to do the same to your goal. Depending on the rules even adults can enjoy it greatly. Children also seem to love it, so maybe you’d like to join us next time?」

「Yes, gladly!」

「That’s the spirit, Nectar-kun! Right now we have a fairly large group of children playing here at the schoolyard, but all this time I could feel some adults or even spirits keeping a close eye on us. Even when I met your kids in town I could feel as though we’ve been followed, so perhaps someone is targeting them. Still, for why would they actually do that, I have no idea. Maybe you have someone who holds a grudge against you?」

While Kyle was astonished upon hearing that, Nectar’s eyes opened wide.

「I’m going there to help you! Please wait for me!」

「Now hold on, Nectar!」

「Don’t try to stop me, Kyle! The current Lava is but a little child! If something happens, it will be far too late to act!」

「But it’s a great opportunity to catch the culprit behind the kidnappings! You think I’m not worried with my son being a potential target? That I don’t want to fly out of here and go to him right now!?」

Kyle yells, ultimately stopping Nectar, who was about ready to run off with his staff in hands, and pulls him back.

Still, the thing that stopped Nectar from leaving was the sight of his friend, father of two children, looking so desperate.

「Hey, what’s wrong? I could not hear you guys all too well.」

「…… It’s nothing. Nothing you need to concern yourself with.」

「Somehow I don’t think it way a simple ‘nothing’ but oh well……」

Kyle walked up to Nectar, ready to get the dragon involved in this whole situation.

Now that he knew that his son was in danger, he couldn’t afford to be picky as to his means.

However, before talking about the situation with Lava, he took a few deep breaths as to calm himself down. He smiled bitterly.

「Your timing couldn’t have been better. In fact, it’s WAY too convenient for us.」

「You can think of it as a mean of apologizing for this whole commotion with the bracelet.」

Although the thought of the black dragon that came back was pleasant, one could feel the emotion behind it.

「So, my friends, I guess you want to ask me to do something, but could you please tell me what it is exactly?」

Kyle smiled wryly as she cut to the chase. He then makes a request to the black dragon.

「My son is being targeted. There’s no time to lose. I want to end this tonight, if possible. Please lend me a hand to do just that.」

「Sure thing. If we can stop the children from getting into harm’s way like that.」

Lava’s thoughts were full of gentleness, as well as overwhelming fighting spirit.

Nectar and Kyle entered the room full of strange fighting spirit, which threw back everyone else who were present in the room.

Kyle immediately spoke to his secretary.

「Stand by so that you can immediately contact the authorities. I’m going out to catch the masterminds behind those kidnappings.」

「Umm, excuse me!?」

Nectar quickly passed through the secretary, whose eyes were big as saucers right about now for a sudden order. He made his way to the table and took both paper and pen in his hand and started writing.

When the ink dried, he infused the letters with magic and handed the paper to one of his assistants.

「We are most probably going to infiltrate their headquarters tonight. Here you have the rough structure of the deteriorated version of the sealing bracelet and its method of operating. I want you to try to look for a method of dispelling its magic in the meantime.」

「T, this is……!」

「That’s right, now hurry it up and do it!」

The assistants that understood what was written on the paper began to discuss about various possibilities amongst themselves, but their Boss’s command snapped them out of it and they went back to do what they were ordered to do.

In the meantime, Nectar and Kyle both procured their staffs and opened the window in the room, causing Kyle’s secretary to have a panic attack.

「What do you think you’re doing!?」

「I have some other matters I need to attend to!」

His boss said something as unbelievable as that while grabbing his staff together with his friend, as they got ready to fly away to supposedly stop some evil magicians and their plans.

「What am I supposed to say to anyone who comes to meet you!?」

「That I went out to help someone who’s important to me!」

「I’m going to save my precious sons! I’ll talk to you later!」

Then the two men hopped onto their staffs and flew away with almost unbelievable speed.