A young, gold-haired knight in an enchanted armor was lowering his head apologetically while shivering from the intense cold emanating from a slightly shorter pale-blue-haired man glaring at him as the pale-blue light of the ice enchantments was emanating from his hands,

No one warned the young knight about this man!

The Epsine manor was supposed to have many knights both those wielding magic and those magicless but in the report that the young man received none of them was deemed as a potential threat.

But that was obviously wrong!

There was an ice magician right there in front of him!

Ice magicians literally couldn’t be weak as the ice spells consumed an obscene amount of mana!

The poor knight shivered, feeling his mana flowing slower and slower through his numbed body.

”So you say, boy, but yet you are here demanding the access to the private rooms of the Espine castle with the attitude more fitting of the king himself and not someone borrowing the authority of somebody else.”

”I…! I didn’t mean to…!”

The commander of the guards of the Espine castle, Mizoe Auequas, tilted his head, glaring up at the utterly terrified face of the young light magician, and took a step forward, making the young man move back so fast that he almost tripped over his own legs while letting out a pitiful cry.

*thump*

”…huh…? Oh…! Ah! L-lord Lazaram…! Lord Victureo…!”

But before the light magician actually fell down, two people behind him placed their hands on his back supporting him, causing him to let out a relieved gasp.

”Sir Mizoe – this young member of the Light Order might have been too forward with his choice of words, but he is in fact representing the crown and… and…”

A scholarly-looking man, who was in fact the royal magician, breathed out and looked up at the Mizoe’s face but flinched and his eyes started darting away once he met the cold gaze of the pale blue eyes of the Espine’s knight.

”…lord Victureo, please back me up here…”

Royal magician leaned toward the other man who was none other than the head of the Victureo family and the general of the Bellcephora Kingdom’s army, Telorius Graxul Victureo.

”…I am afraid that whatever I will say will have the opposite effect… you surely know what happened between my son and his son when they were young…”

The kingdom’s general whispered back also trying not to make eye contact with Mizoe.

This… was certainly not a common situation.

If someone would hear about two variant magicians and a light magician, all of the high social positions were completely stopped by a single magician who despite wielding ice attribute had less mana than an average earth magician, they would surely not believe it, or dismiss the information thinking it was an intro to some sort of a joke.

|…I wish I was able to show this to teacher Rokiana, dad is so cool right now…|

Zoemi who was watching the entire scene from the shadow behind paintings – behind all paintings – in the hallway the four men were standing, thought to himself feeling extremely proud.

”Lord Lazaram – you do say that this boy has the right, but he never shoved lord Espine or anyone else any proof of that being the case.”

Mizoe turned to the scholarly man and spoke coldly while raising his brow in contempt.

”…isn’t that because lord Espine didn’t arrive yet…?”

The royal magician muttered while making a sour expression.

”Yes, he did not – that is another reason why the search cannot proceed. If my information is correct, both lord Derizno and lord Moyena were present during the search for their private rooms. Why would things be different for lord Espine?”

”…!”

Mizoe nodded and agreed with the statement only to turn it into an argument backing him up, which made lord Lazaram flinch and gritted his teeth.

”We shall wait for lord Doregon, or lady Misena. There’s no need to be on your guard so much…”

The kingdom’s general added, trying to mediate between the two parties and ease up the tension in the hallway…

”Your cooperation is appreciated, lord Victureo – but being on guard is exactly what I should and will do as the head of security of this estate.”

…but it was easier said than done as Mizoe in his current state wasn’t even considering giving in a little bit as an option…

It seemed like the four men were at a stalemate, but luckily for the three, one of the only two people who could order around Mizoe did show up.

”Good work there, Mizoe, I will take it from here though – we do not have anything to hide so this should be over quick anyway.”

The burly red-haired man with an impressive beard walked to the four and raised his hand while nodding benevolently at the pale-blue-haired knight.

”As you wish, my lord.”

Mizoe nodded his head at duke Espine and moved to the side allowing the free pass for the group of investigators…

…but he did not deactivate his enchantments nor did he stop glaring down at all three of them…

”Now then, gentlemen, I hope you do understand that there are some things in there that I am not willing to show you – especially not to one of you…”

Lord Espine nodded with satisfaction and said while sending an unfriendly glare at lord Victureo.

”…but since you are working under the order of his majesty, I will cooperate to the utmost of my ability.”

He added, preemptively answering the question that lord Lazaram was already opening his mouth to ask.

”I expected nothing less from the great lord Espine – and to show you the same amount of respect that we received, I prepared a device that will help us make it clear that the modern artifact has never been in this estate, to begin with.”

Still, the scholarly man spoke up anyway, reaching to a large bad he always carried with him, pulling out a mall box that was shaped in such a particular way that it made others think about a large beetle when they looked at it – especially the two protrusions at one end that were very similar to mandibles.

”You surely have not heard about this device because I just finished working on it a day before this visit, but when I press it from both sides this thing will emit a frequency that will cause the modern artifact to produce a high-pitched noise, revealing its location.”

Lord Lazaram revealed with pride waving the beetle-shaped device back and forth, causing all the others to look at him in surprise.

”A device like that… with the modern artifact missing, how can you be sure that it will work properly…?”

Lord Espine raised his brow and asked, looking doubtfully at the device in the hand of the royal magician.

”My memory has always been my pride – although I lack the materials to produce another modern artifact with the same capabilities as the one missing, remember everything about it.”

|He talks like that because he most likely completed the localization device before shipping the artifact to Vicureos.|

The royal magician declared, but Zoemi watching from the shadow had a rather different idea about what must have happened.