I awoke to a familiar ceiling, with a tiny feeling of grogginess and soreness across my body. It felt that I was floating endless somewhere, but a voice that called out brought me out of my reverie.

"Lady Tessanya are you alright?" A concerned voice kept asking. I turned to look at her. She was one of the maids loaned to us here. I nodded at her, although a bit unsure myself.

She breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank goodness. I will now inform the others of your awakening." She stood up and bowed before she left to fetch the others. I felt a pounding headache as I tried to sit up. I can't remember what happened. I only have fragments of memories from what recently happened. There was fire and smoke, injured civilians and some sort of terrorist attack, but I can't recall the specific details and whenever I try to, my headache gets increasingly painful.

I exhausted myself trying to remember and slump back down to lie on the bed. I stared up at the ceiling while my headache subsides. Eventually sounds coming from outside the door become more audible until door swung open. Standing at the threshold was Cameron, with a slightly tensed expression on his face as he approached me. He sat himself on the chair by the bed.

"Are you okay Captain?" He asked. I scrunched up my brows as I tried to remember the events that I can clearly recall. He nodded at those recollections.

"What happened after? Do you remember?" He continued. When I try to recall the events that led to me blacking out, my headache beings to throb again. Cameron stood up in alarm and asked,

"Are you okay?" I nodded, and explained my predicament.

"I can only recall the events leading up to the blinding flash and passing out. Whenever I try to recall them, I get this nerve-wracking headache and eventually it subsides as I try to not think about what happened."

Cameron looked down in thought, before levelling his gaze back at me and declaring, "This might be another magic attack. We'll have to confirm if there is any related magic attack with Blue." He gave a nod as he left the room. After he left, the rest of the team entered, offering their concern and updating me about what happened afterwards.

It turns out, after the blinding light that occurred, nobody can see exactly what was happening but eventually the wailing the terrorist was doing came to a silence and the light just dissipated. When they checked over his body, they found him bleeding out. For the meantime, they assumed he died of internal wounds due to the mana overload in his body and finish the rescue operations for the immediate vicinity first.

There were a few casualties that stemmed from being buried under rubble or where caught in the initial crossfire. There were numerous injured people but the first aid responders were able to stabilize their conditions and they have already submitted a request from the Healer's Guild for mages to finish up. After that Commander Blue said that she'll be the one handling the report to the Imperial Government, leaving us to continue investigating the terrorist motive and other leads we can follow to flush out the Federation Spies.

It has been two days after the incident and after being treated by Rona, she estimated for me to be mostly back in full condition in another day or two so I was confined to being in bed for the meantime. The rest of them would continue to investigate the leads we have and if they can find some other tips and leads from their list of suspects.

For the first day, I just slept and sat down when eating. It was a mundane experience and was an uneventful one. There were no other new leads or major discoveries that happened on that day. On the second day, I asked to be able to peruse some of the documents they've already sorted out in case there might be something that I could notice. With some assistance from the house servants, I was able to get set up with reading the documents at bed while recovering. It was a useful exercise for my mind since being idle for too long can make me lax in some areas. There were a lot developments from the investigations like an accurate number of suspected Federation spies, and a narrowed list of where they booked an inn or rented a house. I was informed after dinner that I would be joining again in the fields with the old assignment. This time, Melanie and I will be investigating the last known location of our intended target, Lucian.

After the fiasco by the slums, there were eyewitnesses that saw him in the next few days trying to scurry away with whatever belongings he had and left his house the morning earlier. Tomorrow, we would be going to one of the houses that is suspected to be rented by the spies and where Lucian would be likely awaiting transportation to escape the city.

We departed from the estate after breakfast. Cameron, Victor, and Blue would continue to investigate other leads on their own, while Ian, Rona, and Joran would sort out their reports and to double check any inconsistencies from previous reports. Our target destination for the day would be one of the larger farm houses outside the city walls. It was owned by one of the richer farm owners and they opted to have it rented by those interested to live outside the walls or for events for the farming community. Imagine their surprise when Cameron told them that their latest occupants were suspected Federation Spies, the farmer paled like a ghost while his wife fainted entirely. Luckily, Blue assured them that as long as they cooperate they will not be charged for potential coercion with an hostile entity.

The farm house which looked like to be a small mansion, was about half an hour ride away from the city walls, making it quite out in the scenery and away from prying eyes. I looked on ahead but I sometimes caught Melanie glancing around us, when I asked her why she told me,

"Checking for recent disturbances in the soil or footprints and the like."

I nodded at her skill of perception, I know I couldn't do that so I left her to her own device. What I occupied myself with was the actual dialogue and possible confrontation with Lucian and his collaborators. If he was alone, we can easily invoke the name of Her Majesty, the Empress, and he has no choice but to accept or risk being declared being a criminal of the Empire. But, if his collaborators are there, the Federation agents might put up a fight to buy time for others to escape. I doubt they were careless to not prepare escape plan knowing the incident the other day.

The small mansion stood at the center of a levelled ground, with a small circle of stone walls surrounding it. There were no guards or any lookouts posted at the entrance to the grounds and all the curtains visible at this distance were drawn. Suspicion aroused as I glanced at Melanie and we spurred our horses to reach the front door. Once there, we knocked on the solid door soundly and declared for the occupants.

"This is Official Imperial Business. Please open the door and cooperate with us." We waited for a minute but no one responded. Although there were faint sounds of footsteps inside and some sort of commotion. I knocked harder and louder again.

"I repeat! This is Official Imperial Business. Open the door and cooperate with us voluntarily. We know there are occupants here!" But again no one came to the door. With a terrible premonition coming up, I signalled to Melanie that we might be switching to storming the house. We already planned a formation for this. Since we're both suited for a rear guard position, we opted for one of the fast breach manuevers the academy has taught. It required to enter swiftly through an entry point wherein the breach initiator gets the attention of the defenders and sowing confusion, their other members would rain long range but precise magic from afar which would theoretically hit the defenders inside amidst the confusion. Thus, I readied myself in crouching position, ready to dive in and make myself the center of attention.

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Melanie stood a few paces back from the door and manifested her rifle, ready to fire. I gave her a nod before I announced one last time to the occupants of the house.

"By the name of Her Imperial Majesty, The Empress Shina Astrium, I request your cooperation with the Imperial Bureau. Refusal or lack of answer will brand all of you as criminals!" I went back to a proper crouch and waited for a response that we but knew wouldn't come. I gave Melanie a glance again, and when she nodded back I braced myself for entry.

I launched a Wind Bullet at the door, causing it to swing open inside, as the spell was mid-air, I launched myself with a Burst Leap to follow up immediately when the doors were open. We didn't know the interior layout so we devised that once I've breached the door, I would keep casting Burst Leap to parkour from wall to wall to get their attention while Melanie would start picking them off from past the door.

There were three people waiting for us when the door was forced. They were caught off-guard at first when I appeared as soon the door was flung open, but like professional mages, they were able to refocus and cast their counter-attack at me. They launched basic projectile spells of the earth, and water elements but I was moving too fast for them to hit, then with Melanie's magic, she was able to snipe them from afar, incapacitating them as her magic bullets hit them square in the chest.

I scanned my surroundings, before deciding to head into the next room. Our plan was to breach the entryway, head towards the living room, and then the stairs and clean-up the second floor.

"Clear!" I called out before I moved to the living room. I trusted that Melanie would follow suit so it would be up to me to clear the path for her to line up her shots. When I arrived at the living room, there were a couple more people inside who looked to be panicking as I entered.

"Hands above your heads! Now!" I ordered them, just in case they willing to not fight but alas, they casted their spells at me. I dodged by leaping towards the sofa, ducking behind it and then kicking it towards them with a little help from Wind Bullet to propel it. They scrambled to dodge in time. When they were able to stand up again, they were shot down by Melanie who was at the door now. One of her techniques was imbuing her shots with magic that dealt special attributes to those she hits. This time, she imbues them with enough heat to knock them unconscious.

I gave a nod before starting towards the stairs again. Melanie would be keeping her distance a bit since we won't know what would be awaiting us upstairs. They surely heard the commotions by now.

When I arrived at the base of the stairs, there were two mages there, one of them ran up quickly while the other stood their ground.

"Die Imperial Scum!" he shouted at me as he casted an advanced water projectile, icicle spears. I executed the same technique I did at the entryway, dodging around him and his spells and waiting for Melanie to knock him out. Once he was knocked out, I dashed up the stairs and did a somersault to get a view of the second floor. The mage who ran away was nowhere to be found, and there were three rooms upstairs. I perched at the handrail and signalled Melanie, who was waiting below with a gentle breeze. She walked up fast and then cautiously readied her rifle in case any of the doors open up.

"Nearest to Furthest." I called out to her. Hopefully she can watch the hallway while I try to breach the rooms one by one.

The first room that was nearest was a room a that was directly at my right where i was perched on. I turned to face it and prepared to breach it like how I did at the entrance. The rooms might be a bit cramped so bouncing around might be less viable but I have some ideas I could throw in instead. I glanced at Melanie and nodded at her before breaching the first room.

As I landed past the threshold, I immediately leapt towards the ceiling, and felt a hot wave pass through where I was earlier.

"Damn!" a voice spat. I turned to look at them and saw their jaws open wide as they stared at me glued to the ceiling. Then I let myself fall and Burst Leaped forward mid-air to tackle one of the mages who casted that fire spell. As I straddled him I casted a wind bullet point blank at his face. He wouldn't have died from that, maybe some brain damage but he'll live. I twisted around to face the other person in the room, another mage from the looks of it looking quite surprised by my manuever. He pointed at me with his wand but before he could cast his spell, a faint explosion sound went off and he fell down with a thud. Melanie was at the door, side-eyeing me.

"Hurry up before they can fly the nest." She said coolly before returning her focus to the second floor hallway. I stood up and ran towards the windows and opened it out. A gentle breeze came at me. I inhaled a bit of fresh air before executing my next move. The conventional approach would be to breach the door one by one. But as we saw from this first room, they were prepared to to launch spells at me. Thus, I came up with an ingenious plan. I ran towards the now open window and jumped outside, then at mid-air I twisted around and did the breach combo spell at the next room's window.

The sound of shattering glass and the dozens of its broken pieces, shining against the light. I softened my entrance by ducking and rolling and launching myself towards the room's door. My unexpected breach brought their attention towards the window, and then covering their eyes from both the shards of glass and its reflection, allowing me to sneak pass them and buy a couple of seconds. Now I stood at the door and they were turned back towards me. I pointed my pointer finger at each of them who looked like mages, casting a Wind Bullet to stagger them.

As soon as I launched it, I Burst Leapt towards the one my left tackling him and colliding him with the furniture. Then when he was down, I launched another Wind Bullet at the back of his head for good measure. But the time I was done, the other person was already on his feet, surprise on his face when he saw me take out his comrade. He looked familiar though but I can't quite put it.

But before I could cast another Wind Bullet to stagger him he shouted,

"Please stop! I'm surrendering!" He put his hands up above his head in a panic. I stopped for moment but still casted my spell, making him stagger back and hit the wall. He slumped down beside it. I then opened the door and called out to Melanie,

"Clear!" then launched another Wind Bullet at the last room. However, when the door was blasted open, there were no spells flying at me. I cautiously walk outside of this room back to the hallway where Melanie was waiting.

"One of them surrendered." I whispered to Melanie. "He should be the one on the right side when you enter the room. She nodded and we exchanged places. She positioned herself inside the room I just exited and from the sound I just heard, she shot the guy I mentioned.

With careful steps, I approached the opposite room slowly, and then entered inside like a bouncing ball with Burst Leaps. However, the room was empty of life. It only had a plain table and some boxes and documents inside it. I approached and examined some of them. Their labels were vague for me or maybe they were all encrypted before they were brought here. I walked back to the other room and called for Melanie.

":Let's wrap them up and call the city police." We rounded up all the people we fought inside. They totalled to ten people, all but one casted spells at me. They were still unconscious so that left us a bit more time to return to the city and call the police over. Melanie offered to stay behind and watch them while I rode my horse and galloped back to the city. I then returned with a squadron and two carriages as quickly as I could. The police cuffed them with magic-sealing cuffs and hurled them inside of the one carriages while we loaded the suspicious items we found on the last room on the second floor. We asked the authorities to help quarantine the house until we've completed our investigations.

We all manage to accomplish all this before lunch. I worked up quite an sweat with how we took down ten mages inside a small mansion and I was truly famished. I looked forward to what kind of lunch the house servants would serve up for us. I hope it would be quite filling.

Back at home base, Cameron returned when he heard of our capture and went to the City Police Office to interrogate the prisoners. That left us with a little bit over an hour before lunch would be served. I asked the staff for some snacks since I felt quite hungry already but didn't want to miss out on lunch entirely. They gave me some white bread and jam to stave until lunch was ready.

"You truly couldn't wait until lunch huh Captain?" Rona said exasperatedly as she sat opposite of me at the living room, reading a book.

"Weren't you suppose to double check the records?" I asked her while I was spreading the jam on my bread.

"With the new evidences you brought, double-checking the previous items became less of a priority. Since it was hauled along with the prisoners, we'll be able to analyse them once Cameron returns with whatever he finds with his interrogation." She said as a matter-of-fact.

I let out a sigh and took a bite of my sandwich. I hope we can end this already, I think we're already behind schedule because of that slum incident.