“It simply does not add up.” Captain Blake muttered at his desk; mounds of paperwork left unfinished walling him away from the door to his office. A small clock sat on a nearby bookshelf, a wonder of technology that would have beggared the Captain if he was to buy it with his own meager stipend. Each division was given one so as to help keep time independent of the large clock towers in each quadrant of Pecunia. Blake stared hard at its hands, his eyes crossing slightly while he zoned out from fatigue and overwork. He had been pondering this most recent disappearance case for three hours and seventeen minutes straight, and had gotten exactly nowhere. All he knew, was that he wasn’t sure he knew anything at all.

First point of contention… the witness that pointed their finger at the most powerful child in the Kingdom. Sure, the Princes collectively held more authority… but it was also divided between the three of them in not so pleasant ways. Blake knew it wasn’t pleasant as he had been to a few crime scenes, some of which he was specifically told by his higher ups to stay away from. That made this case even stranger, in a way. No one was coming forward and telling Blake to back off like usual. The Forrester brat may have been a little blasé about it all, but he wasn’t wrong. Going after nobility didn’t result in a demotion. It resulted in your entire family being ruined. Yet here Blake was, putting his orphaned, bachelor neck on the line for a case he was fairly confident was more political bullcrap. He couldn’t just bungle the investigation, either. Three separate noble families have shown interest in this case, however, and Blake was fairly confident it wouldn’t end well for him.

Second point of contention… the drunken scion. Several of his classmates were present at the tavern, as well as verified him appearing to be suffering from a severe headache the next morning. All well and good… except how? His knight taste tested his own tea in his own home. How does one not notice a drink with such extreme alcohol content that it resulted in such a spectacular hangover? Particularly when you are expecting a fruit juice. It all seems… unlikely. So what does this mean? Did both his Knight and himself not notice the strong liquor taste from an accident from the kitchen? Or is he just pretending to appear drunk to… what? Commit the perfect crime? Being sober at the tavern and casually dismissing Casey’s rant would have gotten him far less scrutiny. This makes it even more unlikely, as there was no way for him to know that Casey was going to approach him, therefore removing his need to act…

Third point of contention… the complete lack of evidence. Two of his underlings can detect magic and are trained to use those skills for investigations. These skills are proving to be useless for the first time ever, for what appears to be no reason. They were able to follow Casey’s magical signature from his house to a nearby alleyway… and then it just disappears like he never existed to begin with. All his prefects could tell him was that the magic in the air was moving strangely, like the terminus for Casey’s signature was a spherical void where magic didn’t exist. Do the Forrester’s possess a previously unheard-of-aptitude that could completely destroy magical traces? If any House does it would be them of course… but even so, that’s pretty terrifying. But why waste that secret on an unimportant child? It simply does not add up.

Fourth point of contention… Syron Forrester invited Blake into his home, graciously offered him tea, then asked him to attend his birthday party in… four more days? Why? He easily could have told an entire battalion of prefects to piss off, and they would be the ones in trouble for bothering him. But no, there was not even a whisper of complaint. Though… based on that pile of rods laying broken in the courtyard, maybe the Lord Forrester really doesn’t remember some things. Even Blake hurt from seeing that rod break over Syron’s head. Which begs the question… why continue training and show that humiliating defeat at the hands of his Knight? Was it all a show to make the prefects feel a certain way? One of the men that came with him swore there was no illusions at play at the time, so… does that mean the Young Master of the Forrester House is being abused or something?

Nothing Blake could think of made the case make sense. Would this case end his career? Only time would tell.

Tick. Tick. Tick. Blake glared at the clock.

One more hour of work, then I need to get some sleep. Should I go buy a gift? I have to go to the kid’s party, right?

* * * * *

“Young Master… are you sure this is what you want for your birthday? You’re holding it in a huge public square and everyone is invited? Literally… everyone?” Renee was freaking out. The worst part for her was that Marigold was apathetic and Kasumi always agreed with the Young Master. She was alone in trying to convince him out of his insanity.

“Oh, don’t worry. I doubt that literally everyone will actually show up. That’d be crazy. I mean, there are some places in the world too far away to travel here in time… unfortunately. I haven’t met any foreigners. Different cultures are neat.” Syron replied, unsure why no one seemed to be able to accept that ‘neat’ could mean both ‘tidy’ and ‘hella-freakin-wicked-awesome-cool’.

“Young master… it’s going to be a security nightmare. You only have two knights. Kasumi and I will not be able to protect you!”

“I invited a prefect. That’s enough security, right? Then, I’ll change my looks to be someone else. Have I not told you my big plan? I’m paying all of my illusionist employees to come and glamour random people’s appearances. It’s the theme of the night. Anyone can come, and you don’t know who you are actually talking to by appearance alone. It’ll be like a masquerade party… but poor people are allowed to attend too! Then, once that’s gone on for a while, we’ll clear out the center, put on a bit of a light show, then have a ball or something. It’ll be great. I want you to enjoy it too… so you can either spend the whole night trying to figure out which person is me, or you can just have a good time.”

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Renee made a vow to herself at that moment.

Yeah… I’ll let the obsessive one look for him all night.

“Hey Kasumi! Bet you can’t find the Young Master before I do!” Renee called out to the nearby Kasumi, which caused her to pause making goo goo eyes at the Young Master long enough to sneer back at Renee.

“As if I would not immediately recognize the Young Master! How could I possibly face myself if I could not determine the difference between him and the common rabble?”

“No magic. Yes yes… you could cheat with your Cloud, but I wonder if you could realize it was me from conversation alone? Alright! During the party, I will find and speak to both of you at least once. At the end of the night, whoever correctly guesses first wins a prize!” Syron announced to a scandalized Kasumi and rather pleased Renee. After all, this meant that Syron would do all work for her. No searching would be necessary.

“What prize?” Kasumi asked, unsure how he could reward her any more than he already does.

“Well… if Renee wins, I’ll spend a whole day locked up in my room so she can have a stress-free day off. If Kasumi wins, I will change both our appearances and we can go incognito out into the town for an afternoon, doing only crap she wants. I meant stuff. We’ll only do ‘stuff’ she wants. Is that good enough?” Syron asked, gauging the Knight’s response.

“So Young Master… let me get this straight. If I win, you’ll ignore me for a day… and if Kasumi wins, you’ll go on a date with her?” Renee asked with one eye brow arched comically high.

“Yep.” Kasumi’s face lit up with a smile.

“Sounds wonderful. I’m gonna kick your butt Kasumi. Nothing personal.” Both girls seemed aggressively satisfied with the proposed rewards. Marigold just shook her head and continued standing at attention in the corner of the room. When Syron noticed her, he winked grandly at her.

“Marigold, my darlingest favorite-est maid, I’ll go ahead and reward you right now, despite not competing. You don’t have to attend the party at all if you don’t want to.” Marigold’s face split into a wide smile like Kasumi’s, but she seemed mortified by it and quickly returned to impassivity.

“Do you like it?” Syron asked, goading her. Her response was monotone, as well as completely expected.

“It is not a maid’s place to question the decisions of her master.”

* * * * *

“Sir, the Fifth Prefect’s Division has received a formal request from House Forrester to utilize the festival plaza. Included with the request is an itinerary for this ‘event’ as the letter calls it. I have only glanced over it for a moment… but sir, you are going to want to take a look.” Second Lieutenant Briggs handed a sleep deprived Captain Blake the crisp and clean stationary marked with the Forrester’s seal. Blake looked at the note, his eyes crossing a few times as he sunk a few inches further into his seat. By the end, he looked like he had aged a few more years.

“Well… I have to hand it to the kid. At least he bothered to notify us. Haa…. How willful. Alright, since he plans to do this event in… thirty-four hours or so… we need to get help from the other divisions. Notify the Fourth and Sixth that we need some help tomorrow. If this is as big as the brat seems to hope for, we’ll need all the help we can get. Call up our own division and pull everyone on furlough back for some unplanned overtime tomorrow. When you are finished, make sure to notify the Forrester House that their request is approved.” Blake said between heavy sighs. Briggs smiled at his rather pathetic looking Captain.

“I will get the word out. Furthermore, the Forrester’s delivery boy is still waiting for a response downstairs, so I shall go ahead and notify them right now. I am sure they are rushing since the party is planned for tomorrow. How do you think they are going to invite everyone? Paper fliers would be rather pointlessly expensive, right?”

Blake shook his head while he rested his eyes.

“No idea. Alright… dismissed, Second Lieutenant.”

Briggs left the office and head downstairs to the entrance of the precinct. There, a rather well dressed boy sat patiently while he waited for the news.

“Hey kid, you’re the one from the Forrester House, right?” Briggs asked while his eyes searched the nearby faces for a useful runner.

“That’s right.” The child looked Briggs directly in the eyes and nodded slightly while he spoke.

“Well, go tell the Lord Forrester that his request has been approved.” Briggs told the boy, who just smiled in response. Then a second, identical copy of the boy appeared next to him. Briggs jumped back in surprise and nearly unsheathed his weapon.

“Well this is awkward, but okay. Not the weirdest thing I’ve ever done. Hey me, I got the news back from the prefects!” The first boy told his clone.

“Oh? What did they say, me?” The clone responded with mock gusto.

“They said the request to use the festival plaza was approved, me!”

“Well I better go send out the invite, me!”

“I agree, me!”

Briggs eyes twitched while the boys laughed and stepped outside the building. One vanished like a mist in the wind while the other tilted his head back to look into the sky.

That’s… the Lord Forrester huh? Seems like he’s a few slices short of a loaf.

Briggs stepped outside to see what the boy was looking at and he nearly peed himself. In the sky, a humongous Syron head was looking down at the city like a moon ready to crash into a clock tower. From the head, a booming voice started speaking.

“Pardon the intrusion into your busy schedules. I’m Syron Forrester’s giant illusionary head. I cordially invite everyone to my thirteenth birthday party at the Festival Plaza near Avia Academy, held tomorrow at six o’clock. Some food and drink will be provided, so I suggest you leave any valuables locked away and hidden at home to prevent any illusion themed shenanigans from resulting in theft. Brings masks too, if you have them. Any illusionists looking for a party they are welcomed at should consider attending as well, because I could probably use your help. We’ve got some fun times planned, and I look forward to meeting everyone there!”

The colossal head vanished as though it was never there to begin with while a female Knight appeared at the Lord Forrester’s side, catching him as he collapsed from magical strain.