It was a new day, but she continued keeping tabs on the possible suspects. She was watching four, currently. The eleven-star mystic, the eight-star mentalist, and the duo that went missing on the outing.

Her new routine was easier than the ones before, as all her targets were gathered on the same campus, meaning she didn’t have to overreach with her shadows. Doing so tended to give her headaches and lose information because of unwanted interferences.

The shadow had mostly discarded the mentalist as a suspect by now. The man was far too incompetent to be able to eliminate her fellow agent. Unless he was faking it, which she doubted once she looked at the man’s mana readings, there was no chance he was the perpetrator.

Instead of wasting her time on an eight-star mage, she switched objectives to the eleven-star mentalist. She had no clues whatsoever that framed the healer, but the Kirielle woman was still a powerful mage. Keeping an eye on such a high-profile target wouldn’t hurt her.

Her summoned shadows focused on the previously missing students and the mystic.

The arcanist and the aeromancer attended classes as expected and the mystic Decourse remained in her office. She was focused on her investigation, so much so that it enabled the shadow to manifest more constructs than usual without arising suspicion.

The healer was writing on colossal sheets of paper with methodical and slow traces. The ink was overloaded with mana, and an eerie sensation filled the air.

With careful steps, the shadow decided to inspect the contents of the writing.

Is that... She gasped and put her hand before her mouth. A useless endeavor, as the shadows wouldn’t transmit the sound, but it still felt appropriate. Her eyes glittered as she truly realized what she had before her.

An eleven-star spell...

It was a bewitching sight. Eleven-star spells were highly coveted and restricted secrets. Many ellari were capable of reaching the eleventh star but never did so in their lives because it meant selling oneself to a master. Becoming a disciple. And that was one of the greatest shame of all.

But the alternative... the alternative was one of the greatest glories. To make your eleven-star spell.

That was what the mystic was doing. Creating new levels of magic on a very obscure affinity. The shadow was captivated by the complexity. To a point, such mathematical operations and obtuse power were arousing.

If ellari craved something, that was superiority.

And the eleventh star was just the previous to last step to the highest point of all.

Suddenly, the mystic’s head turned.

In a panic, she retreated her shadows.

That was close.

She had gotten too excited while on duty and that had almost revealed her presence, she needed to be more careful. To decrease the alert and suspicion of the mystic, she switched her consciousness to the shadows watching the student duo.

Her shadows moved quickly, as one of the students ran across the campus.

The other student, the arcanist, took a few seconds but quickly pursued the aeromancer.

The aeromancer had delicate control of the wind, even when distressed. She slightly hovered beyond the ground, moving with quick and long strides. It gave her shadows quite the trouble. The agent relocated herself to have a better connection with the moving objectives.

The shadow had never challenged anyone in a movement competition, but she knew it was foolish trying to catch up to an aeromancer. Her metaphysical constructs were having a bad time catching the fleeting mage, but thankfully, she stopped after two minutes.

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Though in these two minutes the aeromancer had traversed half the campus and was now laying below a white-canopy tree in the middle of a forestall section. The mage cried and grabbed her heart as if she was having an attack.

Switching her viewpoint to the arcanist, she found a curious movement. The male student weaved together three different affinities to increase his movement. He decreased his weight with arcane magic, propelled himself with controlled force bursts, and she also detected abnormal wind currents that were attributed to wind magic. It was curious, to say the least. The man compensated for the lacking movement capabilities of Arcane affinity with others.

But what truly interested her was how the arcanist knew the aeromancer’s exact position, even when he clearly had no direct line of sight.

Divination magic, perhaps? The shadow pondered. But Arcane affinity doesn’t possess divination alternatives...

Soon enough, the male student found the female one hiding spot. He stood looking at her without any apparent signs of fatigue or short breath. It was remarkable as he had sprinted across the academy’s campus with his own body, unlike the aeromancer who had moved with flying magic.

The couple began talking, the girl continued crying, and the man comforted her. He talked in a one-directional conversation, giving very specific words, as if he knew what the girl was thinking.

And then.

The girl kissed him.

Instead of blushing, the shadow reacted with repulsion.

Oh, great a lover’s quarrel. I have been losing my time with these two.

But then, she noticed something. Or more accurately, she felt something.

She wanted to leave. Stop watching them. Go away.

Normally she would keep some shadows on the targets after she discarded them, just in case. But her first instinct was to dispel them all.

Something told her to leave.

As the aeromancer continued assaulting the arcanist, becoming more libidinous by the second, the effect became stronger.

It urged her to leave.

What... She gasped, doubtful of she how could be affected behind her shadows. It’s field-type magic. But such magic can only be used by ten-star mages and above...

A solid clue.

One of them had to be a ten-star mage. A ten-star mage with compulsion field-type magic.

I got you.

One of the two students was the perpetrator.

As she recovered from the strong compulsion, she realized she had lost the contents of the students' conversation. They got up and left the place.

It didn’t matter. The shadow just had to keep watching the duo until one of them revealed their true identity.

**********

A problem.

The pair of students had separated. The aeromancer had stayed in the academy, but the arcanist had done his bags and become a soldier in Lan’el. The worst part was that the man was now a member of the Vanguard Order, the military squadron of the very Ceaseless Storm.

This already raised a lot of flags. The arcanist was once more back in Lan’el. But maintaining vigilance in a place where tens of ten-star mages gathered was difficult.

She also needed to keep an eye on the aeromancer, as she didn’t have definitive clues. But the long distances between Lan’el and Sin’fal made the task complicated.

Against her better intentions, she lay a watch nest on Lan’el and sent feeble shadow drones to look out on the aeromancer. She could only have faith that she wasn’t making the wrong decision.

But that wasn’t the end of her problems.

The Minister of Defense, who was a confidant of the High Arcanist and her superior, was pushing her for results. She was an investigator, not a killer, but if she indeed didn’t get decisive evidence then... she may be forced to kill the perpetrator and an innocent civilian.

The shadow shook her head, dispelling those negative thoughts. The plan was too great to fail, but if it reached that point, she would have to do it. No further discussion.

Her current task was none other than watching over the arcanist Nightfallen. The man wore a heavily enchanted teal uniform, outlining him as a full-on soldier.

She had had a full view of the man until he met with the entirety of the Vanguard Order. A room filled with twenty ten-star mages was too dangerous to spy on.

Why would the Ceaseless Storm, the second most powerful mage in Ferilyn, want a nine-star arcanist? The shadow stopped to think during the downtime. I lack critical information.

Fortunately, the meeting was short, so she hoped nothing had happened.

The Nightfallen Arcanist then was led around by a Sergeant called Tir’ne Shyz, according to the records she had on the military.

The two arcanists were having a menial conversation about duties when the young one, previously a student, stopped and closed his eyes.

Then, suddenly, a wave of power.

It was subtle, it was incredibly difficult to detect as if didn’t even exist in this world. But she noticed.

Divination magic.

The shadow tensed up, expecting an attack at any moment now, but none came. She didn’t drop her guard, ready to run away at any moment, but the arcanist didn’t pay any attention to her.

As an expert on divination magic, she was able to comprehend that the arcanist’s spell didn’t have a target in mind. It was a simple pulse to detect people. Just that. The reasons for such usage of divination magic were beyond her, but she was thankful her position hadn’t been compromised.

But that arose a new question.

What was that magic? She thought as the arcanist had gone on top of the observation pole, mindlessly watching the horizon like another guard. That wasn’t Arcane affinity at all. This Edrie Nightfallen has more than one affinity, and the Ceaseless Storm has taken an interest in it.

Her resolve recasted as she finally had solid proof of the perpetrator.