Chapter 31 – In which Crow makes the entrance!

Vern stepped out of the teleportation circle and looked around.

He found himself in a small, but richly decorated drawing room.

There was no one around and no alarms went off about his intrusion.

‘It's as Crimo said.’

Vern planned to sneak into Magic Exchange’s venue in a different way, but Crimo insisted he used a ‘safe method’.

That method was using Crimo’s private magic circle.

Apparently only Crimo had access to it, and no one would know if Vern used it, as it wasn’t monitored.

It was a circle perfect for secret visits to the Magic Exchange’s venue.

‘They have a really good relationship.’

Vern thought so, as he checked and confirmed that there were really no bugs attached to the magic circle.

Normally it would be a pretty big security oversight.

If someone, like Vern right now, was to gain access to the circle activation sequence, they would be able to easily infiltrate the building without alerting the guards or the owner.

So letting Crimo do something like that was equal to saying ‘I trust you’ by the Magic Exchange’s manager.

‘Magic Exchange’s manager…’

The information about all known mages that would be participating in this exchange, which Crimo provided to him, also included the Magic Exchange’s manager – Scarlen.

Usually Crimo’s evaluations and personal thoughts were nothing but precise and insightful, but in Scarlen’s case…

… Vern felt embarrassed just thinking about it.

Even Sangria, who was surprised when Vern suddenly hit his head against the desk and read over his arms to find out the reason, said:

— … I’m pretty sure Grandmaster’s Scarlen’s obsidian eyes don’t have a hypnosis spell engraved in them… but I don’t know if I want to bring it up to Our Lord.

In short, Vern had very little information about Scarlen’s actual abilities, but was well-informed about his newly obtained older brother’s love life.

Or rather lack of it, as both men seemed to keep hesitating to cross that line for some reason.

Well, Vern wasn’t going to dig into it, especially not when one of the pair was a person he didn’t trust.

Maybe ‘that incident’ that led to his death made him paranoid about everyone.

Or maybe not? He trusted Sangria very quickly, and though it was awkward, he did feel he could trust Crimo.

Was there something special about those two, or the problem was Scarlen?

Or perhaps, it was both?

Vern shook his head to clear his head and then took out something he prepared beforehand.

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In his hands was a crow-like bird made out of straw.

Though it looked far from graceful, it was the main component of today’s show.

Vern reached inside of the bird, towards the metal cube hidden inside, engraved with numerous and complicated magic circles.

The bird’s beady eyes lit up with small purple flames that seemed to burn on some other plane of existence, as even when they touched the straws around, there was no sign of them catching on fire.

Spiritual messenger.

That was the name of this spell.

Though Vern made a few modifications, it was basically a spell that made an inanimate object turn into a puppet controllable by the spiritual connection with the user.

It would be a very useful spell, if not the downside of the fact that it used an inanimate object as a component.

Inanimate objects don’t have senses.

No sight, hearing or smell.

So if the user didn’t know themselves what was happening around the messenger, there was no way they could perceive it through the messenger.

That could lead to awkward situations where a bird-like messenger flew into a wall, but its user didn’t have the slightest idea about it and continued to fly it ‘forward’.

To compensate for that, Vern modified his spiritual messenger to always give him its coordinates.

After confirming that the messenger activated correctly, Vern opened the window and let the messenger fly off.

It would make its grand entrance later.

Done with that, he left the room and headed somewhere where he would be able to see the entire Magic Exchange’s hall.

*-*-*

Following the building plans he had memorized, Vern soon arrived at his destination.

The hall’s ceiling, a small compartment above the main light apparatus, which illuminated the entire hall and stage.

In the past that light apparatus had to be operated manually, but with technological development, the lights could be turned on and off from a distance and didn’t need anyone to manually operate them.

Therefore this place existed solely for maintenance of light apparatus…

And it was also the perfect spot to watch the entire exchange hall.

Vern planned to do exactly that, but…

There was a problem.

A problem in the form of another person already being there.

For a second Vern was about to instinctively retreat, as it was only polite to leave a fellow attic explorer with the seat they found first, without disturbing them.

But then he realized he couldn't do that!

It was the only spot where he could have a full view of the hall.

Suddenly Vern found himself torn by a difficult decision of what argument he should present to the fellow attic explorer.

One side of his brain, which suspiciously sounded like Saf, was saying that he should present a valid concern about fellow attic explorer’s safety and therefore suggest changing the spot.

The other, which sounded like Am, said that he should try to convince the fellow attic explorer that sitting here alone is meaningless and reason with that fellow why would they want to hide in that dark, dusty compartment when they could do so much stuff if they just came out, and also here is a god that will happily listen to your complaints and smack people with lightning.

Some part of his brain said that both options were ridiculous, but it sounded like him, so he didn’t listen to it.

But just then, Vern, who was observing the fellow attic explorer, recognized who it was.

It was that kid he scared off on the last Magic Exchange! The one who was checking the identity papers!

Oh thank goodness, he looked fine, Vern was actually a bit worried if his stunt didn’t cost that kid a position or he wasn’t beaten up…

Led by his profound apologetic feelings, Vern walked up to that kid and said:

“Hi! We meet again!”

The kid jumped in fright.

It was quite expected as Vern sneaked up to him, without alerting him about his presence at all.

“You…! Crow…!”

The kid opened his eyes wide.

“Yes, yes. Stay still or you're gonna fall.”

Vern grabbed him by the shoulder and led him away from the edge of the opening above the hall, which the kid was peeking through before.

The kid still was staring at him, opening and closing his mouth.

Finally the kid said:

“What are you doing here, Sir?”

“I’m attending the Magic Exchange, what else?”

“... Are you going to jump down from here?”

“No? I don’t plan to turn into red jam, thanks.”

“Then…”

“I just planned to watch everything from here. By the way, are you okay? They didn’t fire you? Or deducted your pay?”

“Uh? Yeah?”

“No one beat you up or held you responsible for what happened on the previous Magic Exchange?”

“No…?”

The kid blinked in confusion at the sudden downpour of questions.

“No cursing, no harassment?”

“Oh… There was a lot of cursing…”

“So work harassment?”

“The cursing wasn’t on me, it was on you, Sir. My… work colleagues swore to beat you up when they find you.”

“Oh… Excellent decision. Tell them I’ll cheer for them on their road to find justice.”

Maybe because Vern said it with such a sincere expression, the kid gave him a truly weird look.

But Vern truly meant it. He would also do that, if the person who did that wasn’t him.

Self-harm was out of question as it would make Sangria and Crimo extremely worried, and his true siblings……. if they ever find out about it, he would be in serious trouble!

“Sir…?”

“Ah! Yes, sorry. Can you just sit here quietly for a moment? I need to give those guys below a good show.”

“Sir, do you mean to…”

But the kid never got to finish this sentence.

Because just then, into the hall that was already full of nervous and excited mages,

Punctually, just when the Magic Exchange was to start,

A straw bird broke the window like a yellow comet and landed on the stage, bursting into purple flames.

The purple flames formed into a figure in a snake mask, with a snarky smile on his lips.

The figure opened his mouth and said:

“Ladies, gentlemen and neither of those! Good evening to you. The Crow is here to make an exchange.”