Through a hall of paintings, Kazuko walked upon. Looking and admiring past headmasters, whose legacies and wills were etched upon the brushstrokes and colors within, slowly changing over time. The hall soon led Kazuko to a single door ahead, where above was a portrait of the current headmaster, whose visage made known beyond the door sitting on her crimson throne.

“Kazuko-san. Nice to see you,” a woman with green hair flowing as wild as the forest greeted her. The great headmaster of Magikku Academy, Sayaka Roofujin, was well-known for her eccentricities, a peculiar small physique, and a curiously very youthful appearance despite being in her forties. Granted this was real life, but after reading dozens of manga of various genres, Kazuko couldn’t think of any word to describe her other than a ‘loli baba’.

“Oi, you’re definitely thinking about it, aren’t you,” Roofujin’s violet eyes gazed at her.

“I am,” Kazuko replied truthfully, which seemed to have surprised her. A strange expression knowing what kind of person she was. “Excuse me for my intrusion.”

“Unnecessary wordings. No need to be too polite with me. My doors are always open.”

I wasn’t talking to you, she thought. Certainly, Sayaka Roofujin was a woman who needed not politeness in her life, but the rare and precious items around her should.

Artifacts from a bygone era displayed on golden stands and frames, a giant moving orrery on the ceiling with the chandelier as the sun and bronze balls as planets and moons as well as stars, literal silvergrass carpets trimmed to a fine surface, and deep crimson drapes covering the tall office windows, leaving only a crevice so that the sun shined only at the small headmaster who sat on her ringed crimson lotus-shaped throne, the insignia of Magikku Academy.

“Quite a pleasant sight, don’t you think?” Roofujin said. “Look at all the new collectibles I’ve acquired. Rare precious artifacts which I gathered from the KAISEI auction. Like this necklace which could shoot laser beams.”

Roofujin tilted one of the beads and a ray beam shot itself to a mirror, which then bounced into another mirror and another and another, turning the entire office into a death room, as Kazuko ducked for cover. The beam kept bouncing off the mirror until it broke off its path and headed toward the headmaster.

Kazuko hurried to conjure an ice wall, when a dagger suddenly darted across the room, intercepting and absorbing the beam into its wavy blade. The dagger stopped an inch from the wall before flying back to the lean brown-skinned man near the door, with light blue hair tied to a ponytail.

“Seriously. Can’t you be a bit more careful?” he spoke in a deep voice.

“But I’ve got you always protecting my back,” Roofujin smiled delightfully.

“Adit-sama,” Kazuko stood up and greeted the newly appointed Head Security of Magikku Academy, Dadang Adit Saktiawan.

“Sorry about my wife’s careless actions,” his deep brown eyes glanced over to the headmaster. “Her antics are quite the headache to deal with.”

“You and me both,” she said.

“Now, now. What’s with all the defamation going on? And to say it in front of my face. Do you guys have no shame?” Roofujin tapped her fingers on the table, to which the two simply nodded. “Peas of the same pods, I see.” Roofujin hopped off her chair and vanished. The next moment, she was standing between the two as if to separate them. “That’s better. Get those watermelons out of his gaze.”

“You’re being overly worried. Also, I didn’t ask to have them this big. If anything, I’d rather have them smaller. At least then my back wouldn’t be hurting as much.”

“I’ve got a patch that’ll relieve back pain,” and from his pouch, he gave Kazuko a patch labeled ‘Oyok’, which she presumed to be brand. But before she could take it, Roofujin swiped it off his hand and vanished, reappearing on top of her shoulders with Roofujin’s stomach blocking her face, and stamping the patch on her backside, before vanishing and reappearing to where she was. Her constant teleportation irritated Kazuko.

“Roofujin-sama,” she bellowed. “you do realize that I’m married and have a child and would never intend to steal your husband? I’m not my brother’s ex-wife.”

“No, no, Kazuko-san. I’m not wary of you. I’m wary of him!” Roofujin pointed to her husband, who casually shrugged it off.

Is today’s phenomenon ‘love drama’ or something? Kazuko wondered.

“Look, Kazuko-san. What we know is the norm here is far different than what it’s like out there. Inducting him as a Hoshikuni is one of my lifetime goals.”

Kazuko turned to Adit for an answer.

“Sayaka’s referring to the Irdjaya Archipelago’s tolerance toward polyamorous unions. However, she’s misunderstanding the difference between tolerating and advocating,” Adit lifted Roofujin and the two came face-to-face. “No need to fret about us, Sayaka. As the Silver King once said to his Warrior Queen, ‘From day to night, from beginning to end, I am yours as you are mine’. So long as you desire so, our relationship will continue on for each other.”

“Adit …,” Sayaka’s face blushed, as she became more smitten with her husband.

On the other hand, Kazuko noticed the specific wording Adit used. Does that mean if he she wishes to, you’ll be open to it? The question stayed for two seconds before being buried beneath all the plethora of questions Kazuko had toward Magikku Academy’s headmaster.

“Anyway … Roofujin-sama, why did you call for me here?” Kazuko asked, to which Roofujin teleported back to her seat and brought out several snippets from Starlight News on the table.

“You know the missing children that’s been going on and about in Takamichi? Well, there’s been the same reports happening in Umikaze, Lanting, Mizumitsuru, Jincao, Chiyuhara, Changhua … All the major ten and minor ten districts have had children gone missing. No eyewitnesses whatsoever,” Roofujin spoke in an urgent manner. “Dadang, have you acquired the thing I’ve asked you for?”

And Adit brought out a seemingly hundred-year-old scroll, yet upon unrolling it, letters danced into view and formed names upon names of Magikku Academy students, specifically first years and second years in the middle school level. He then uttered a foreign phrase and the letters danced once more to form a new list of twelve students.

Kazuko recognized none of them except one. A first-year by the name of Chihiro Mujitsu, who always frequented the library whenever she was on break. Kazuko got acquainted with her from their love for shoujo manga and, despite being very shy, had a great sense of enthusiasm for the series she read. After some good advice, the next time Kazuko met her, her visits to the library became livelier thanks to the friends she made.

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But now, knowing the context of their conversation, seeing her name on the list only brought her dread. “All of them are missing, aren’t they?”

“Indeed,” Adit replied. “After doing some research, the children who went missing, or should I say kidnapped, were around the age range of eleven to fourteen. The thirty-four were reported to have gone missing in broad daylight without a trace. And despite my efforts and resources, I've yet to discover any other connection between them.”

“Maybe a bunch went to an event with a specific sponsor or host?” Roofujin suggested.

“Events, workshops, meet-ups, none have I found to be linked to the other.”

“What about their parents?”

“Mostly common folk. The ex-nobles listed weren’t from any major clans,” his brown eyes then turned to Kazuko. “and I assume the same for their branches?”

“I’m afraid I’m a stranger to the Ryuugen Clan’s inner circle, or whatever is left of it,” she answered. “Also, while understanding the gravity of the situation, shouldn’t this manner be handled by the Third Division? I could ask my brother if he or his colleagues found anything.”

“Actually, this news did come from the Third Division. Signed by the Vice Captain Xiaodan Zhu,” said Roofujin.

Kazuko had met Xiaodan a few times. Very friendly, though he could use some work with his expressions.

“Considering that no announcements have been made, it appears that the case is being tightly under-wrapped with only a few in the know. Magikku Academy, being the hallmark of international learning, must know about Hoshikuni’s situation in order to nurture a top-class working force.”

Still, there was something off about this whole thing. Kazuko would understand if her brother told her about this for caution. Fortunately, Mihiro should be excluded from the kidnapper’s target age, but she could never be too careful. Back to the topic, the fact that Kazuya had yet to inform her about it meant three possibilities.

One, his vice-captain kept it a secret from him. Perhaps not the case itself, but more so on the scale and the connections made with the other missing children’s case. This was quite unlikely considering their positions, and Xiaodan didn’t look like the selfish-achiever type aiming for Kazuya’s position.

Two, he was currently working on another case on the same scale as missing children, which would certainly shift his focus solely to solve it. Kazuko would know since he missed Keika’s twelfth birthday in order to apprehend the Hydra Arsonists.

Three, he couldn’t due to being overwhelmed by work from the capital. Certainly not his first convo of having fallen ill, yet pushing on to continue work regardless of his health. He always bounced back eventually, but not for a few days at the least.

Best to wait for now, Kazuko thought. “Have all the teacher’s been informed?”

“A few,” told Roofujin. “The ones that are very dependable when it comes to secrets. We certainly don’t want any information leakage. That is why, Kazuko, I shall give you an important task regarding his matter.”

“I doubt I can do much on my own,” she said.

“We’re not going to investigate the case, if you’re wondering. That’s the Murikami Order’s job. No, no. Our job is to simply take preventive measures in order to safeguard our students’ lives and to assure the worries of our student’s parents and investors. Thus, I have proposed that the Founding Day Festival will be held here in Maginaku Island and the minister of national events has approved it.

“Founding Day is the grandest day for this nation being the anniversary of when the Swordsmaster and Great Scholar rebuilt the land from the ashes of war and established a new city in the name of their fallen comrade, the First Archmage. Their tales of sacrifices are told to children as stories of legends and myths, which would soon give rise to hearts devoted to serving the nation and—”

“I’m sorry, but,” Kazuko interrupted. “what does having the festival here have to do with protecting our students?”

“Our participants,” she said. “Preparations for the festival will start in two days and it’ll have many competitions, and we all know how very serious Hoshikunians can be when it comes to competitions. With it now being held here, Magikku Academy has been given plenty of autonomy to plan the festival. And so, the theme of this year’s Founding Day Festival, happening in just a month from now, is ‘Tales of Youthful Endeavors’.

“All the events shall be education-themed and the participants of the competitions shall be composed solely of children and teens from age ten to fifteen. Seeing as with last year’s festival, roughly eighty percent of children enrolled in competitions were sent to tutoring and small schools in order to win, should the parents know the contents of the current festival …”

“They’ll try to have them train here,” Kazuko guessed correctly. The idea would leave the perpetrators with fewer options.

Should they attempt to continue as they have done, with the number of children in the target age being lower across districts, they’d have to take more risks in order to kidnap them. Knowing her brother, he’d swiftly take advantage of the mistakes they made and capture them.

Another would be for them to go public in order to sow discord amongst the people, causing civil unrest. However, that would only lead to an invitation of the Ten Councils. The most powerful mage of this century, the former Third Seat a.k.a the Disintegrator might have fallen in the Great Rebellion, but that didn’t mean the others were to be underestimated. The First Seat, the Second Seat, and the current Third Seat—the latter being Kazuya’s master—have since reached the peak of magic. Their intervention would only lead to total demise.

Then there would be the option of infiltrating Maginaku Island and kidnapping them from there by boat. Perhaps they won’t even go by boat and instead would travel by sea dragons or submarines. In addition …

“If the children of Hoshikuni were to gather here as one giant group, should just one among hundreds go missing, it’d be difficult to ascertain which student we lose.”

Adit then said, “Hoshikuni’s security is well prepared for such an occasion.”

“I certainly don’t doubt your abilities, Adit-sama,” Kazuko spoke apologetically. “But you’ve only been the Head of Security since last year and, sorry, you’re also a foreigner. How the criminals of Hoshikuni think might not be the same as how Irdjayan criminals are.”

“Then I’ll have you know that the same applies for those up top as well as the military,” he replied, calmly. “If anything, I worry about this nation’s Murikami Order. Based on my experience, the officers are being far too lax when it comes to dealing with insurgents and inner conflicts.”

“Too lax?” Kazuko raised her brows. “What kind of training method do Irdjayans go through?”

“The God-King Nagasakti once said, ‘For soldiers to be forever loyal to the kingdom, they must first be broken and be rebuilt from the inside out’,” Adit’s words caused shivers down her spine. “Of course, I wouldn’t employ the same exact methods on Hoshikunians. You guys are far too fragile, and after some rounds, I’ve surmised that only thirty percent was the limit a person here could handle. This extends to mages as well.”

Does that mean the Irdjayan military is full of supersoldiers? Kazuko couldn’t get rid of the thought of giant muscular soldiers devoid of fear rushing to battle and kamikazee-ing toward their deaths.

“Also no need to worry. The art of war is something I’m very familiar with. So, do leave Magikku’s defenses to me.”

“Art of war?” Kazuko sounded baffled. “Who are—Were you a military general before you came here?”

“Not at all. I am simply a humble servant of the crown prince of the Rayabadi Empire.”

“The crown prince, eh …,” Kazuko did not expect that at all, and as bit as curious as she was, her brain remained in the middle of processing the information Adit gave. It was all too much for her. “Then I guess Magikku is in safe hands. But what about me, Roofujin-sama? What’s my role in ensuring the children’s safety?”

“Quite simple,” she replied. “You’ll be the Managing Head of the entire festival. The events, competitions, sponsors, everything will be yours to handle.”

Seemed like quite a hassle, as Kazuko had never organized an event of this scale. Heck, if something went wrong, she could instead be held responsible for it. Her family’s future, Mihiro, Hikari, Keika, and even Kazuya’s future might face a great storm if things didn’t go as planned and the preventive measures went in vain.

“Do I have a choice?”

“I’m afraid not.”

Sighing, Kazuko then said, “Then I’ll give it my all.”

The dice was rolled and the turn was set. With her turn in session, Kazuko vowed to make the Founding Day Festival not only the greatest festival of the decade, but also to protect those in it, who were just trying to have fun and celebrate the nation’s anniversary. The road ahead might be filled with thorns and spikes, but Kazuko had a pair of garden scissors to cut them and open up a path. A strange idiom, yet very much a needed one.

Kazuko only hoped that the perpetrators were caught and the missing children were found safe and sound before the day of the festival. At least that way, no one would need to worry anymore and could then spend their precious time with their treasured families.