~Chapter 36~
A red alert blared in my head.
The Crown Prince had just clearly declared it—he was going to use me until there was nothing left.
‘Why does it feel like he’s even more dangerous than before…?’
I clenched my hands in tension.
Just then, a knock at the door cut through the silence.
“Your Highness, it’s Sabin. Sorry to interrupt, but this is urgent.”
“Come in.”
As the aide entered the room, a signal suddenly popped into my communication channel.
[Rel, can you hear me?]
“Gasp—!”
I nearly jumped in place, clutching my chest.
That voice came out of nowhere—and the person we were just talking about made a surprise appearance himself.
“Aska? I’m still at the palace…”
[Ah, sorry.]
I glanced at Reyester—luckily, his attention was fully on the aide. I might be able to get away with a quick message.
“What’s up?”
[Well—]
Right then, Aska’s voice overlapped perfectly with Sabin’s.
“There’s been a crack. In the eastern region.”
[Another crack just appeared. In the east.]
***
In the eastern region of the Edelheim Kingdom, not far from the capital, lay the city of Para.
Known fondly as the origin of the arts, Para had just experienced a theft.
“The painting is gone!”
The director of the gallery, Miss Blair, was nearly ripping her silk handkerchief with her teeth. At least she had strong teeth.
“Could you explain a little more?”
“Sigh… of course.”
Miss Blair let out a long breath before explaining.
“As you probably know, our gallery holds some of the greatest masterpieces of the century. Bonapolli’s The Six Paths, Berna’s The Dancer, and Shirley Evans’ Morning Star are all in our collection.”
“Ah… yes…”
“But the most famous piece—that one—was stolen. The Angel’s Nap!”
It was a life’s masterpiece by the painter Addis, depicting a baby angel sleeping in a sunlit meadow.
Miss Blair described the piece like she were talking about a lost lover.
Unfortunately, I’m completely clueless when it comes to art, so most of it went over my head.
“Look at this!”
Suddenly, her eyes went wide.
Angrily, she pulled the covering off a frame.
“The angel in that masterpiece—!”
Under soft lighting, the large canvas was fully revealed.
“The baby angel, it’s gone! Completely! As if someone erased it with chemicals!”
Just as she said, the baby angel that should have been in the center of the painting was nowhere to be seen.
The gallery hadn’t lost the painting itself—but the subject of the painting.
Someone had stolen the figure inside the artwork. Unless it was erased, that should’ve been impossible.
‘If this is caused by the crack, it makes perfect sense.’
That’s right. The crack Aska mentioned had appeared right here in this gallery.
“The restorers gave up, too. They said, If there’s no trace left, there’s no way to recreate it from nothing.”
“…”
“Can something like this be fixed, Mage…?”
“We’ll do our best…”
My head already hurts.
There were three main reasons why I took charge of this rift (crack) case.
First, both the Magic Association and the Dawn Tower had formally requested my help. I was the one who filed the first rift report, after all.
Aska, strangely enough, just delivered the news and stepped back.
I had my suspicions, so I contacted Lord Anshif to confirm…
***
“Let’s use this chance to knock the Tower Master down a peg!”
***
…That was his reply.
So she intentionally blocked Aska from getting involved and pushed me forward instead.
Honestly, that worked out well for me—I needed to track the rifts anyway.
Second, my boss—the crown prince—had approved it.
***
“Have a safe trip. I’ll adjust the regular meeting schedule.”
***
He smiled sweetly as he sent me off to the east. It made me suspicious.
He was probably up to something.
Still, the third reason was the most important.
‘I need to find the diary.’
If my theory were correct, just like in the well before, there would be parts of my diary hidden inside this rift.
And I had to be the one to recover them—before anyone else.
“May I take a look around?”
“Yes, of course! As long as you can find the painting! Shall we start with Exhibition Room 1?”
Finally, Miss Blair stopped chewing her handkerchief and led me inside.
The gallery was massive and grand. Even with my poor taste, I could tell the artworks were high quality.
‘If this incident gets worse, the damage costs will be enormous…’
Sweat ran down my back. The curse of money problems followed me everywhere.
And since rifts tend to grow over time, we had to act quickly.
‘Maybe I should’ve brought Shiz? If we could just locate the rift’s core, this wouldn’t be so hard…’
I shook my head. Never again. After Reyester caught us once, it was too risky to bring her.
Just as Miss Blair and I neared Exhibition Room 1, a group of people appeared from the other side of the hall.
Among them, one head of bright red hair immediately stood out.
‘Oh no.’
I let out a deep sigh. So that’s why Reyester was acting weird.
Even Miss Blair stopped walking when she recognized the person.
“Those people…”
The tall man leading the group instantly noticed me—and scowled.
“…Look who’s here.”
I gave a reluctant greeting, and his face only darkened. Like a predator spotting prey.
“Why are you here?”
His deep, scratchy voice was filled with hostility.
Red hair that covered his neck, sharp golden eyes like a beast, and a scar running straight through his right eye.
A handsome man with a dangerous aura strode straight toward us.
Every step he took was intimidating—even Miss Blair, who had been loud before, shrank back.
“I-Is he the theft suspect…?”
“No. That’s…”
I sighed.
“That’s the investigator sent from the capital.”
“Eh?”
Miss Blair blinked like she couldn’t believe it.
Given the scar and threatening vibe, he looked more like a criminal than a law officer.
“Shouldn’t someone like you be scribbling in a lab somewhere? What are you doing at the scene?”
He sneered, revealing sharp canines.
This foul-tempered investigator was Felix Guifero.
More infamous than his title—Captain of the Royal Third Investigation Unit—he was best known by his nickname: The Mad Dog of the Investigation Bureau.
He had a reputation for tracking criminals with terrifying accuracy.
Excessive force was standard. He’d been punished dozens of times for going too far.
Oddly enough, people loved him for that. His no-mercy attitude was strangely popular.
But I couldn’t stand him.
‘Because he’s the reason I got put on probation.’
Anger flared in my chest.
Ever since I became the Royal Magic Division’s chief, Felix has made my life miserable.
He hated mages. For reasons unknown.
Because of him, everyone in the Magic Division constantly walked on eggshells.
Even getting formal approval for cooperation was nearly impossible.
And he was especially cruel to me.
He’d glare at me like I was a criminal, and no matter how hard I tried to avoid him, I’d still run into him.
Our major clash happened because of that.
‘He kept requesting assessments…’
At a time when I was already stressed with research prep, he made things worse—and I snapped.
If the crown prince tormented me with subtlety and elegance, this guy did it with brutal shamelessness.
In some ways, Felix was even harder to deal with than Reyester.
At least I could have a conversation with Reyester. Not with this guy.
“Came to admire the art, huh? You must have way too much free time.”
