"Whoa."
That was the first word out of Amae's mouth when she arrived at the Dravena Branch.
A woman with chestnut hair styled in a half-updo sat at the long conference table, her arms crossed. She was a classmate Amae knew well.
"Mercedes-san, you were nearby?"
"Why are you in Temcha, for that matter?"
"Helping Filie-chan out together with Bren-kun."
"Helping?"
"Mm... how do I put it? With something that isn't entirely unrelated to all this."
When Amae hedged her words, Mercedes narrowed her eyes. "Hmm."
"Well, whatever. More importantly, you are late."
"Yeah, sorry. I had to explain things to people Filie-chan knows."
She had kept her explanation to Parfure down to the bare minimum, but it had still caused a panic. Well, given the circumstances, it was only natural.
"And so, what is the situation?"
Still crossing her arms, Mercedes asked in a rigid voice.
"What happened to Bren and Filie-san? You know something, do you not, Vandenberg-san?"
"Hold on a second. I'm still sorting out how much I'm allowed to share, or like..."
"You are directly involved, are you not? Why can you not speak?"
"I mean that precisely because I'm involved, I can't just blab. Don't you get it?"
Tension wound tight through the conference room.
"N-Now, now, you two."
The one who stepped in to soothe them was a lively young woman sporting an airy side ponytail. It was Gallondrina Skjalbalte, the third member of the Imperial Archmage Faculty to rush over for the emergency mission.
"Here, I brewed some tea, so drink up. It'll settle your nerves, yeah? We're on a mission right now, so let's hear the full story from the temporary coordinator."
Handed over with practiced ease, the cups she offered were filled with a vibrant, amber liquid. Lured by the rich aroma, the tension melted from both Amae's and Mercedes's shoulders.
"It was Amae-chan and Mercedes-chan, right? I'm Gallondrina. Feel free to just call me Rina."
"Thanks."
"...Thank you."
Drawn in by the warm steam, Amae tilted the cup to her lips first. The words slipped out reflexively.
"...Ah, delicious."
"Right~?"
"Truly... What kind of tea leaves are these?"
"It's a blend, you see~"
Rina gave a mischievous grin in response to Mercedes's question.
Mercedes had sampled countless varieties of black tea in her life, yet she couldn't fathom how this had been brewed to achieve such a flavor, let alone find the words to describe it. She could only marvel at how good it was.
Gallondrina of the Advanced Course.
An authority in magical nutritional science despite still being in her teens.
If memory served, she had published a total of one hundred and four papers, counting co-authored works and short reports.
A genius who had uncovered brand-new possibilities regarding the growth conditions of dragon veins.
Her vast knowledge apparently extended all the way to a single cup of tea.
Frustrating as it was to admit, Mercedes could distinctly feel her thoughts sharpening.
Just then, a sound came from the entrance.
The chime announcing a visitor.
"Ah, looks like someone's here. Must be our coordinator for the op, yeah? I'll go get them."
No sooner had she spoken than Rina jogged out of the conference room.
Left alone with Mercedes, Amae awkwardly began to murmur.
"...Filie-chan was looking for her real parents."
"What?"
"The parents listed in her family registry were most likely fake... We didn't know if they were actually out there, but the three of us were searching for clues..."
"I do not quite follow... But how does that lead to getting entangled in Löwenthal's crimes?"
"That's..."
Amae fell silent.
Honestly, she had already said too much.
"...I understand. I shall ask Filie-san directly later. Thank you for telling me."
The fact that Mercedes yielded first came as a mild surprise to Amae.
She didn't know what Filiestra or Brendan, who had gotten along well with her recently, thought of her, but Amae hadn't harbored a very good impression of this classmate. She had pegged her as someone far more haughty.
"...I wonder who the temporary coordinator is."
"It is a national crisis. Likely a high-ranking military officer... Ah, they are here."
Just as Mercedes predicted, footsteps echoed from the hall.
The door swung open. Rina stepped in first, followed by an extraordinarily suspicious-looking middle-aged woman.
"Heh-heh-heh. I'll teach you little ladies anyyyything you want to know."
"Ugh..."
Faced with such an utterly unexpected character, Amae was the first to furrow her brow in bewilderment.
"Old lady...?"
"Heh-heh-heh..."
"No, cut the 'heh-heh-heh.'"
"We meet again, little miss."
"You're the receptionist lady from the Dravena Clinic, aren't you? What are you doing here?"
Just as Amae said, this was the permed woman who had provided them with a tip during their investigation. Mercedes, unable to make sense of the situation, narrowed her eyes in blatant suspicion at the newcomer.
"Why, because I'm the temporary operations coordinator."
"Is it really okay for a permed old lady to run operations for a national crisis...?"
"Heh, I'll smack you. I was hired for cold, hard cash just a bit ago. Seems those folks in the Senate are in an awful hurry. Well, to be fair, I'm probably the only one around here who can actually handle this properly right now."
The middle-aged woman took the head of the table as if she owned the place, dropping a thick stack of documents with a heavy thud. Her frizzy perm, courtesy of who knew which salon, remained fully intact even after shedding her nurse's cap.
"Now then, let's get right into the briefing. The objective of this operation is the retrieval of Filiestra Adinson. First────"
"Hold on, time out. What are you in the first place, lady?"
"An information broker. I slipped into that hospital because I smelled profit. The scoop you girls were chasing, I had my eye on it first."
"Scoop? We were just looking for Filie-chan's parents..."
"And in the process, you went and exposed Löwenthal's dark secrets, didn't you?"
"Exposed, or rather..."
To be precise, they hadn't fully exposed it.
At the very end, they had botched their execution.
Because of that, Filiestra had fallen into enemy hands, and whether Brendan was dead or alive remained unknown.
The moment the dragon vein appraisal came back guilty, they should have stopped. They shouldn't have let their emotions drive them.
As her friend, Amae should have stopped Filiestra.
Mercedes cast a sharp glance in her direction, prompting Amae to drop her gaze as if trying to flee.
"...You are Zoe, are you not?"
At Mercedes's words, the middle-aged woman's eyebrow twitched.
When Amae asked, "You know her?", Mercedes gave a quiet nod.
"She is famous in those circles. I hear she makes a killing selling information to the Senate."
"My business is strictly aboveboard. Don't go making it sound so scandalous. Right now, I'm squarely on Gleefia's side. If you need proof, I can show you my letter of authorization from the Senate."
"No, that will not be necessary. Speak quickly. What are our orders?"
"Like I said, retrieve little miss Filie, who was abducted by the restorationists. But before we get to the plan, I need to give you a quick rundown on the girl first."
Right.
Amae had already considered the possibility that Löwenthal wasn't Filiestra's parent.
The entire investigation had been a trap laid by Löwenthal.
That had been Brendan's final conclusion.
And that conclusion had just been proven true.
Proven all too true.
The real question was: why go through such a convoluted scheme just to get close to Filiestra?
What was Filiestra Adinson, truly?
"It all started seventeen years ago, when Ryuken busted an illegal experimental facility overseas."
As Zoe began her quiet account, the first to react was Rina, who had remained silent until now.
"............Ryu... ken...? Are you referring to Master Ryuken, the War God?"
"That's right. The one who brought Filiestra to the hospital was Ryuken."
"Why does the name of an Archmage suddenly come up...? Just who is Adinson-san...?"
Zoe crossed her arms, her tone hardening slightly as she replied.
"I'll tell you right now, this isn't a pleasant story. You're about to learn things you'd be better off not knowing. But if I don't explain it, we can't carry out this mission. From here on out, it's a state secret. That older girl aside, you two first-years had better realize the gravity of being privy to this kind of intelligence."
Zoe swept her gaze across the three of them.
Mercedes wore the blank, emotionless expression of a Noh mask, Rina listened with solemn focus, and Amae alone looked just a little frightened.
"First, as a premise, Filiestra is not an ordinary human. She is a clone of Grand Duchess Anastasia of Temcha. An artificial human created through a magical process."
◇
June 24th, Dragon King Calendar 2026. The Day of Lilias.
Past 10:00 PM.
Somewhere in the Temcha Region.
Inside the cargo bay of a moving magic beast carriage.
Every time the wheels bit into the gravel, the iron floor bounced with a harsh jolt.
Filiestra Adinson felt the tremors as if they were happening to someone else entirely.
Magical restraints bound both of her wrists.
With her dragon vein sealed, a deep chill seeped all the way to her fingertips.
There were no windows in the back; only the low growls of the magic beast and the rumble of the wheels told her she was being transported somewhere.
None of that mattered anymore. Filiestra only wished she could vanish from the face of the earth.
"............"
In the end, everything up to this point had been a lie.
And the boy she had dragged into unraveling that lie—she didn't even know if he was still breathing.
She should have turned back quietly.
He had tried to stop her from going down into that basement in the first place. Regret wouldn't turn back the clock.
Everything, every single bit of it, was the fault of a foolish girl named Filiestra.
She had no idea what they planned to do to her now.
She didn't care about anything anymore.
"U-Ugh, sniff... w-wah... waaaah-wah-wah-wah!"
A sudden burst of sniffling and wailing came from beside her.
"I-It's over... We're all gonna dieee~..."
Bound in identical fashion, her upperclassman from the Advanced Course────if she remembered correctly, Niko Bright────was weeping miserably right next to her.
Her magical communication device had already been confiscated, and she had been subjected to even heavier sealing measures than Filiestra.
"U-Ugh... I-I'm so sorry, Adinson-san... E-Even though I'm the older one, I'm completely useless..."
Normally, Filiestra would have offered comfort, but today, she lacked even the will to try.
"I-I've always been like this...! People always tell me I'm so clumsy...! Whenever it counts, I always mess up, and even this time, back then────ah, th-that's right!"
Niko, who had been wracked with sobs until a moment ago, suddenly froze as realization struck her.
"I-I came... to return something you dropped, Adinson-san...!"
Only then did Filiestra turn toward Niko.
Bound tightly with chains, the older girl lay on the floor like a rolled-up straw mat.
After Niko writhed violently several times, something tumbled out from the inner pocket of her jacket with a soft thud.
An old, bound diary.
A memento of her foster mother, Magnolia.
The very diary where everything had begun.
At the sight of it, Filiestra finally snapped back to reality.
"Why do you have this...?"
"S-See... Back then during the day, I forgot to hand just this over..."
Her memories suddenly clicked into place.
If that was the case, it went a little way toward explaining why Niko, completely uninvolved, was here.
"B-But... Your m-mother is an amazing mage, isn't she, Adinson-san?"
"...How did you know this belonged to the person who raised me?"
"I-I can see residual thoughts on mementos, you see... That diary was wrapped in such strong thoughts. It seems like the contents are hidden behind a dragon vein authentication, but maybe she didn't consider her lingering thoughts..."
"...Dragon vein... authentication...?"
The sheer shock of those words caused Filiestra's thoughts to grind to a halt.
"Huh? You didn't know~?"
"...That can't be. It's just a diary..."
Even as she said it, Filiestra found herself recalling words she had spoken in the past.
Important papers or research you don't want others to read are locked so that they can only be opened by a specific person's dragon vein. It can't be copied or forged, making it the most secure form of information protection.
Indeed, only this had been left behind in such an unnatural way.
Only this diary, for some reason.
"I-It's probably set to open with your dragon vein, Adinson-san. Ah, this part is... just a hunch, but... it feels like the lingering thoughts want it that way, I guess?"
Taking in Niko's words, Filiestra flipped through the diary's pages.
No, not here; she had checked this part countless times.
That left, as cliché as it might be, the diary's cover.
Even when she peeled away the black protective layer, however, nothing appeared.
Yet this was undeniably a spot she had never touched before.
Timidly, she brushed her fingertips against the exposed surface of the cover.
Click.
The sound of something unlocking resonated softly.
"............"
It opened.
Effortlessly, without resistance.
Once again, she turned the pages.
What was written there were not mundane, daily occurrences, but contents entirely unknown to Filiestra, penned in a handwriting she recognized at a glance as Magnolia's.
◇
To Filie.
Since it seems you have found this, I will lay everything bare.
You may choose to read what lies ahead, or you may choose to close it.
I will respect your decision either way.
What I am about to write is everything concerning you.
And, on the part of my foolish self,
A trivial excuse.