We left the house behind, making sure to close all the windows and doors properly, leaving a separate note at the door that investigations have been conducted and that all evidence found inside. "That should be it." I turned around and head towards where we tied our horses, "Let's try to finish before the third bell rings. Hiyah!"

The fields flew past us as we galloped through the road that connects us to the western gate of the city. After what felt like a trek across an endless field, we could spot a house in the distance and as we got closer, we could see the walls slowing coming into view. "Look's like that's the house up ahead!" I pointed at the house and spurred my horse to go faster.

There were fields close around the house, like a personal field instead of the other long-spanning fields seen in the area around us. As we finished up tying our horses to a nearby tree, we could faintly hear the sounds of bells ringing. We both turned towards the city, "Looks like it's the third bell already." I turned to face Melanie again. "Let's try wrapping this up before the sun fully sets." She gave me an affirmative as she followed me up to the front door.

I looked up at the house, "Looks like it's a lot better than the first one." I nodded a few times before walking up in front of the door. There was also a notice posted on the door. I proceeded to enter the house. Melanie and I swept the ground floor in a counter-clockwise fashion. The rooms we swept was in the order of the living room, dining room, kitchen, living room and then the stairs leading to the second floor. "The house doesn't feel that much smaller than the first one, but you can feel how cramped it is due to how the rooms furniture are spaced."

After returning to the front door, we tackle the second floor next. The second floor layout is smaller with just two adjacent rooms and what looked like an attic door at the ceiling. I pointed it out to Melanie, "Looks like we might find something interesting up in the attic." We both looked up to it and hurried to clear out the two rooms. These rooms were untouched for the most part, as if they weren't inhabited during the timeframe it was rented.

"It would appear that the most suspicious room here would be the attic." Melanie said aloud as we exited the second room. I let out a sigh, "So it would seem." We both turned our attention to the outline of the attic door on the ceiling which was in the middle of the second floor corridor.

When we were under it I asked Melanie, "Where would be the handle for it to open up? Surely there would be a string here to open it up and pull the ladder down." Our necks were craned up towards it as we thought about this peculiarity. "Maybe there's a ladder outside?" I went to one of end of the corridor and looked outside the window to see if there's a ladder placed outside but to no avail. "There's nothing on this end." I said as I tried to think about how one would open an attic without a string or a lever to pull it open.

"I have an idea Captain." Melanie piped up. I urged her to continue when she got my attention. "Can you not use your wind magic to force the door open?".

I understood her reasoning but there's some complicate intricacies in play here. "In theory I could." I continued, "The problem lies in checking to see if there is any wind on the other side of it or if wind can pass through the cracks of the attic door. I'm sure you know how powerful the wind I would need to cast to try to push it open from the inside."

Melanie nodded, "I understand." Then she turned back to me and faced the ceiling, "Then I have my next idea." She held her artifact out to me, "If you approve of destroying a little bit of the door, then you can just use your wind to push us up correct?" She said with a glean in her eyes.

I grunted, "I could but that would also mean that anything precious in the attic will have be taken even if we find it to be bust since we already tampered with the scene of investigation far too much." But I sighed when I saw she wasn't taking no for a answer. "Fine then. We can brush it up as taking into account everything we can think of."

She grinned a little, although most people wouldn't notice it. "Gladly, Captain." She channelled her mana into her artifact and it transformed into the familiar sight of her rifle. She spun around and quickly aimed at the sides of the four corners of the door and shot in quick succession. After her four shots rang out, a fifth sound of the wooden door crashing on the wooden floorboard winced my hearing.

I let out another sigh, "Couldn't you have just let it hang? Or catch it?" She shrugged, ignoring my question, "Look Captain." She pointed, there isn't much dust from forcing it open which might point out it that was it recently accessed. I turned to look at the newly opened attic and she was right. Usually an attic that was sealed for a while would have collected a lot of dust and that you would need to cover your face when you would clean them out but the attic here seemed to have seen regular use. Despite being brushed off like that, I positioned myself under the newly opened attic door and braced for a boost from my wind magic. I propelled myself up in the air just far enough for half of my body to be inside the attic, then I pulled myself up and surveyed the dark room. There wasn't much light coming in except from the door but I could spot streaks of light that flashed a little when i propelled myself up. A curtain, I thought to myself.

"It's too dark up here, but I'll see if I can find a window first!" I yelled back down at Melanie and shuffled my way carefully in the dark room. My only guide to my destination was using my wind magic detection to scout ahead and see if i can flip up any curtain. Though I couldn't see what was stored up here, I can faintly see the outlines of the items stored here. There were different sizes and shapes of objects, probably covered with a cloth to prevent rotting. There were some some tools that I could feel laid down of the floor where I occasionally stepped on them was I progressed. Eventually I reached one end of the room and was able to roll the curtains to the side, there wasn't much light coming out now since the sun's about to set but it was enough sunlight to rummage through the attic before it becomes dark. I made my way back towards the obvious square inside the room that was projecting light upwards and yelled at my partner.

"I've managed to brightened it up! Get ready and I'll lift you up!" I heard a faint voice of agreement from below and positioned myself to pull her up using wind magic. "Ready?!" I saw her nod and pulled her upwards just like how I propelled myself upwards, then instead of letting her rely on her own strength to climb up, I grabbed her hand and pull her the rest of the way up. She landed with a grunt and surveyed the same the room.

"Looks like these things have been here for a while but you're right." She sent another sweeping gaze around the room, slightly alighted by the sole window in the room. I pointed to one end of the room from the left side of the window, "I'll take a look around this side, you go check on the other."

I made my way to the left side of the attic. This was the innermost part of the attic I would assume since the cloth here that was used as covers looked more worn out than the ones near the entrance. I let my finger sweep through the covers, racking up dust and letting them scatter around me. "Looks like there aren't anything removed from here." I continued my way to investigate every covered object that may or may not look suspicious. Eventually after the light that streamed from the sole window dimmed, I concluded there was nothing on my end.

"Got anything on your end Melanie? I turned up nothing but old dusty furniture here!" I turned to look towards her but I couldn't spot her immediately. I guess I have to make my way towards her. "Make your way back to the door, sun's almost down!" I called out to her again but again no reply. I suspect something must've caught her attention. I passed through the middle of the attic and found myself in the right side of the room.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"Come on Melanie! We don't have a light source with us to keep searching in the dark!" I let out a grunt. "Ugh come on! Just say something!" I yelled in irritation but still nothing. I began to feel uneasy and held my artifact in my right hand, ready to act in a moment's notice. I took careful steps, while sending out a wind sensor to detect any anomalies in the room but the only thing that I picked up was just one extra human body, which should be Melanie. Although my sensor was able to confirm that no one here was with us, it didn't lift my unease as to why Melanie didn't answer back.

"Captain." said in a neutral tone out of the blue, startling me to jump to side and bump into a tall covered furniture. "Geez, Melanie!" I complained as I massaged my elbows that I hit from being startled, "I've been calling for you earlier, why couldn't you respond back?"

She dipped her head in bow, "Apologies Captain, I've found a peculiar object here and tried to find more that could be with it to no avail." I was impressed, "I see, I'd like to ask more but let's out of the attic first before it totally gets dark."

Unlike with how we entered the attic, we just jumped from the door down back to the corridor. I turned to look up back at the opening to the attic. "I guess we're juts leaving this open huh." We departed the house with the orange tinge of the setting sun on our backs. It wasn't a long journey back to the city since the gates were already visible when we were at the house. When we were heading towards back to the estate I asked Melanie what she found that made her quiet back at the second house.

"Ah yes." She said before rummaging through her pockets and pulling out a small object that glinted. She placed it atop her open palm. "This insignia or a badge awfully looks like from the Federation." I leaned it for a closer look and it does look like the emblem for their mage corps. I plucked it out of her palm and raised up high to my eye level, scrutinizing it and turning it around. "Seems like a genuine article, though I wonder why it was up there in the attic alone." Melanie agreed and told me that that was why she was trying to look for anything else that could be with it there.

When we arrived back at the estate, we reported our findings and added them to the pile of documents as well. Rona was visibly tired from poring through countless documents day in and day out even with the occasional help from everyone during our periodical return to the estate. "Come take a break first Rona." I asked her as I made my approach. She already looked exhausted than usual. "It's about an hour before dinner, why not lie down for a bit?"

She shook her head, "Thank you Captain, but I'll be finishing up in a bit." She continued to scribble down something for a few more minutes before putting the last stack of documents she was handling to the side. "Is our dinner the same again?" She asked in a tired tone.

"We'll been having something different tonight." I told her. "I asked the chefs earlier for something a bit luxurious considering we've been able to apprehend our main suspect. It all needs now is to get all the information we can from him and then we can head home and pass on our reports to the Director. I flashed her a sincere smile and she appeared to relaxed. She nodded, "I see but,,," She turned to look back at the stacks of document behind her, "Considering the information we need to verify, we'll still be here for a while." I was only able to laugh awkwardly.

The events during night was more or less the same except for the actually menu which was an extravagant array of a multitude of dishes using various ingredients that were locally sourced and that everyone was in a merry mood since we're at the final leg of our original objective. The additional investigation for how and why the Federation sneaked in would be handled by a different team altogether. I was able to sleep with a satisfied stomach and an optimistic feeling of being able to return in a few weeks.

The days that followed was like a blur. During the day from morning to just past lunch, we would be spending time listening and reviewing the information Lucian would be giving us. Those included physical characteristics of persons of interest that interacted with him during the course of his protest, the subtle differences they possessed compared to other non-locals such as clothing, accessory. mannerisms, and the like, and lastly, any possible locations of interest either by location description, direction, or names. It was a lot of information to both record and process but we were grateful with the local police in their assistance with us. They were glad to be able of help to the Empire's bigger operations rather than local security and law enforcement but of course they didn't neglect their responsibilities.

Around five days had passed and we were able to collect and collate a substantial amount of information we could use for our investigation and hunt for the Federation mages. However, there was an unknown anomaly that no matter where or what we did during our raids, there was always no trace of any of them. There were only signs of habitation, minimal signs of struggle, and barely any clues to figure out what happened to them or where they wound up next. It was like they were spirited away and had left no trace for others to follow except for some of the personal belongings like that journal we found earlier.

Then once another new week had arrived, we had finally expended all of our last pretty quickly just because of the fact that all the locations we raided in, either houses or clearings were empty of any living being, save for of course wild animals if the location was outside the city, but nothing noteworthy enough or tangible evidence to connect these locations to the intruders. Thus that closed a whole week, and that since we are surely extending our stay until we finish up the remaining leads, however, there was an unexpected news the following morning.

"Lucian is dead." The Police Commander said gravely with a serious expression. During our breakfast that day, a police trainee had rushed to our estate and that the commander was requesting our presence immediately and so we hurried breakfast and made our way. We were ushered into his office when he broke the news. After his opening statement, he explained.

"Night watch was all quiet as usual, but we became too complacent and never realized it was too quiet." He looked towards a couple of badges on his desk. "The two assigned to night watch duty were found dead the following morning when the others arrived. They didn't have any visible wounds but they were visibly pale and cold. He expelled a tired sigh, "Afterwards, they check each cell and saw that everyone was in the same state as well. All laid down cold and pale, no visible wounds or whatsoever. It was eerily similar to the cases of abandoned houses we raided but this time, the bodies were left their instead of straight up disappearing.

Melanie mumbled, "Intriguing, it's like a ghost haunting might explain the anomalies we found from earlier investigations." Rona visibly paled and while everyone else couldn't believe it. There was physical evidence of the dead bodies but no sign of the culprit which further enforced that it was all a ghost's work.

"Thus, we would like to you all to care as well and ask for the case to be closed, lest there more victims." Everyone was stuck processing this. Sure magic existed in this world that manipulated the mana around to create artificial occurrences but an actual malevolent ghost? That seemed too far fetched for even the most ultimate of magic practitioners. Since I was technically the highest-ranking Imperial Officer here, the decision to whether continue or not would depend solely on me.

I nodded, "I understand Commander. Close the remaining investigations for your team but pass on all the documents you have to us. We'll be sending them onwards to the Bureau's higher ups and let them deal with this themselves."

He was visibly relieved and his shoulders relaxed, "Thank you, my men are rather shaken from these events, which are a far cry from what usually happens in our humble home."

We took our leave shortly after and we walked slowly back towards our estate.

"A ghost huh." Rona mumbled quietly but I was pretty sure everyone heard it. "Do you think it's even real?" She asked with fear and uncertainty in her eyes.

Melanie shook her head, "There should be an explanation for this, an assassin perhaps or some sort of delayed activation magic, or an altogether unknown weapon from the Federation." Her reply only furthered rattled Rona.

"Don't think about it too much now." I said as I placed my hand on her shoulders to ease her anxiety. "We'll just collect our data and pass on to our Superiors. Just bear with staying here for a few more days and we'll be heading back before you know it!"

"Yeah! For know let's take a well-deserved rest!". Victo chimed in. Cameron and Ian also nodded with his decision.

"Well, now take some time off team. Tomorrow, we'll plan for our journey back."