When Roy saw the Tokyo refugee camp, he fell into silence.
The refugee camp was exactly what the name suggested.
It wasn't about finding an empty hall in the city hall to accommodate them. Instead, they had taken a street next to the city hall, set up tents on the red bricks, and used them to shelter these homeless refugees.
Visibly, many here were enduring hunger and cold. Countless people dressed only in summer clothes had faces frozen blue, forced to huddle in tents to escape the biting wind. Because food was scarce, nearly everyone sat at the tent openings, moving as little as possible. Even their voices were hushed—whether because they lacked the strength to speak or were conserving energy, or perhaps both.
"Tokyo doesn't have enough supplies to distribute to them."
Inoue led Roy onto this red-brick road. She had a round, oval face that might have belonged to a beautiful girl under different circumstances. But now, covered in dust and perpetually tense, she only evoked the image of a battle-worn soldier.
"They only get one meal a day—just enough to keep them from starving. That's already pushing our limits."
"No magi took them in?"
Roy vaguely remembered that when the refugees first appeared, all four major fortress cities had adopted the same strategy—either taking people in as servants or sending them to farm or mine.
But so many refugees were gathered here—conservatively over a hundred—which didn't seem like a single batch. Many had likely been here for a long time.
"There are too few magi. Taking in one or two doesn't make a difference."
Inoue shook her head bitterly.
It was the same old problem—Tokyo only had a little over ten magi. Even if each took in three to five people, it would barely make a dent in the refugee crisis. It could never be a real solution.
Besides, magi had to make a living too. Their resources weren't necessarily enough to support large households. They couldn't take in too many refugees at once—not everyone was like Roy or Touko, top-tier magi who could sell a single rune or puppet for a fortune.
"Even members of the security team here can take refugees in, but almost no one is willing to."
If even the magi had to struggle to get by, the security team members were even worse off. An extra mouth meant extra expenses—who would willingly support idle people for free?
If even the security team lived like this, the common folk had it even harder.
In this Tokyo, where curse-banishing magi were vanishingly rare, even arable land was terrifyingly scarce. The residents here were lucky if they could eat their fill.
By comparison, Fuyuki City seemed like paradise.
"But it doesn't look like the person you're searching for is here."
Inoue lifted her goggles, her exhausted yet sharp gaze sweeping over the refugees. She didn't spot the twins the previous team member had mentioned.
"Since they were quite beautiful, they might've already been taken in... I'll go call the person in charge."
In this world that resembles the apocalypse, the most sought-after among refugees are skilled workers—plumbers, electricians, doctors, and the like—who are in dire demand.
Next in popularity are likely young women and able-bodied laborers.
If the sisters this person was looking for had indeed been taken away, the situation would become troublesome. Realizing this quickly, Inoue hurried toward the nearby city hall.
Roy's gaze settled on the crowd of over a hundred refugees, his expression growing increasingly grave.
If the sisters mentioned by the guard earlier were indeed two of the five sisters, and they weren't here, then they might have truly been taken away.
Even putting himself in the shoes of whoever took the sisters, Roy could guess what might have happened.
He hoped they hadn't been taken for too long.
Within minutes, Inoue returned with a middle-aged man in tow.
"Those sisters? They looked exactly like the two in the photo!"
The man only needed one glance at the photo Roy showed before nodding with certainty.
"Where are they now?"
Roy immediately understood the sisters were the ones he was searching for and pressed the question.
"They were taken away."
"By whom?"
"Well…"
The middle-aged man hesitated.
"Speak."
Roy narrowed his eyes, unwilling to waste time on coercion. His voice naturally carried a hint of magic, his words slipping into the man's ears like a hypnotic suggestion.
"The mayor took them."
The man's expression went blank, his gaze unfocused.
Clearly, he had been hypnotized.
The girl named Inoue, witnessing this, felt a chill run down her spine and subtly took a few steps back.
The mayor?
The mayor of Tokyo City?
Roy tilted his head, puzzled.
He knew who the mayor of Tokyo City was—could such a person really lack manpower?
"How long ago?"
"Three days."
Roy nodded in understanding and released the hypnosis.
The middle-aged man snapped back to reality, his face paling as he looked at Roy with newfound awe.
If you're a magus, why didn't you say so earlier?
He glanced at Roy's chest, where no rank insignia from the Mage's Association was pinned.
"Perfect timing. I also have business with that mayor in Tokyo City. Might as well pay him a visit!"
Roy waved at Inoue.
"Thanks for leading the way."
With that, he turned and left the refugee camp, vanishing from sight in moments.
"Whew…"
The middle-aged man exhaled heavily, relieved that his mind was still intact after the sudden hypnosis. Otherwise, things could have gone badly.
"By the way, Inoue, the higher-ups said you can take two days off if you returned safely. Go rest—you look exhausted."
"Understood."
Inoue's expression remained tense, but a hint of relief flickered in her tired eyes. After reporting back at city hall, she left.
She had crossed over with her companion.
Luckily, they had landed inside the city. Their combat prowess quickly caught the mayor's attention, earning them spots in the guard force as squad leaders. Their refugee status was revoked, and they were even assigned housing.
Her companion, restless by nature, had ignored Inoue's protests and turned their place into a café.
"I just hope she hasn't been causing trouble there…"
...
Roy followed his memory and arrived in front of a manor.
That's right—in the land-scarce, exorbitantly expensive Neo Tokyo City, the mayor himself shamelessly occupied an entire manor as his private residence.
The manor appeared enormous, sprawling over a hundred acres—larger than a football field. The three-story Western-style mansion at its center was clearly visible even through the perimeter walls, yet it looked utterly deserted, like a haunted house, exuding an eerie, hollow atmosphere.
Rumor had it that this manor had belonged to their family even before the Great Cataclysm, so there wasn't much anyone could say about it.
Ding-dong!
Roy pressed the doorbell at the gate.
Before long, a lively voice called out from inside.
"Yes, yes, coming! Who might our visitor be?"
***
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