"I would suggest not coming here and unfreezing those two. Unless you want the knife to slice your friend's neck." The person behind Kazu spoke in monotone.
Most of his body was hidden by a robe and a mask on his face.
Gray stiffened. 'Fuck! I can't even judge if Kazu is calm because the situation is under control or he is calm because the situation is fucked up.' Gray made a split-second decision.
He crouched and started unfreezing the two as slowly as he could without arousing the other person's suspicion. He wanted to buy time.
"So, it seems you have already mastered a few spells from that book." Kazu finally broke the silence.
The masked man brought the knife close to Kazu's neck.
"Does your confidence come from being part of a big guild? You seem too smart for that."
Kazu chuckled. "Yeah? Maybe. Though the main reason I haven't made a move is because I have no confidence that I could stop you from escaping."
His words confused the masked man. Just as he was going to ask if it was a bluff, Kazu beat him to it.
"Until now."
'Lock'
It all happened very suddenly. One second, Kazu was a hostage and next, the masked man found his body unable to move, followed by a large impact on his side.
'Darkness magic: Shadow Transfer.'
The man instinctively used the spell to leave. However, to his horror, he didn't feel the familiar feeling of his surroundings changing.
His spell didn't work!
"It's pointless."
That was the last thing he heard before a blue bullet hit him in the head, knocking him out.
Kazu looked at the motionless body for a few seconds.
"That was close." 'I had to use the element of surprise to stop him. Oh well, if worst came to worst, I could have stopped him, but it would have led to meeting that old granny again, which I definitely don't want to do.'
"For a second, I thought it was a fucked up situation. Did you let him come behind you?" Gray appeared beside him.
Kazu shook his head. "Nah. His magic was pretty tricky. He could seemingly move through shadows, perfect for assassination. I had actually sensed his presence since the beginning, but I wasn't able to pinpoint where.
So, I used myself as the bait. It did work, but I almost blew it up when he came behind me. If he had run away, then even I wouldn't have confidence to catch him." Kazu dropped to the ground and searched the man's body.
Luckily, the man had kept the book close.
"It seems the situation worked out for us."
"Indeed."
Soon, the people of the magic council, who were in charge of monitoring the city, came, hearing the big fight happening in the middle.
"I can't believe it, but a random cake shop that we walked into had our targets. Our luck is really good. Luckily, I put on the barrier just in time to prevent the civilians from getting injured."
Gray had a hard time keeping his face straight, hearing Kazu's bullshit. Even the person who was writing the report had a deadpan expression.
"I see. It seems the situation was under control. I would like to thank you for catching these scums. We would mark the mission as finished. The reward would be sent to your guild." The man reached out for the book, but Kazu pulled the book away from him.
"Hmm?"
"I have a feeling that he might have accomplices. The last thing I want is for this mission to be marked incomplete if they stole it from you, no? I would deposit this at the Council's main branch. I hope that is fine." Kazu said with a smile.
A tick mark appeared on that person. "Yes. It's completely fine." The words felt like he was reading a script.
With that, the duo returned to the station.
"We didn't even need to stay at the inn. Also, the next train will come in just 5 minutes. Isn't that convenient?" Gray glanced at Kazu. He was the only one in the guild who knew Kazu's main affinity.
"Bruh. This wasn't me. I wasn't expecting it to be that easy. I am not that good at predicting." Kazu made a dumbfounded expression. 'Last thing I want is people to see me as an all-knowing guy. It's not that easy to predict such things.'
"Really?"
"Really."
Though Gray still had an unconvinced expression, he accepted the answer. It's not like he had a way to prove otherwise.
They soon boarded the train.
"Is that...even legal to do that?" Gray looked at Kazu in astonishment.
The latter was copying the content of the book into a different book.
"It's fine as long as nobody knows about it." Kazu grinned.
Gray shook his head in exasperation. "Who's that book for? It did say forbidden magic. Are you delving into that next? Are you going to make a zombie army or something?" Gray joked.
Kazu chuckled. "That's a pretty good idea. Unfortunately, it's not about how to make zombies, but rather about Darkness magic."
Gray furrowed his eyebrows. "So for Mira? Wait, why does it say forbidden magic in the mission, then?"
"To make it seem like it was such a book, and we don't look at the contents."
"Ehh...But, isn't that a bad method to hide the content of the book?"
Kazu shrugged. "They didn't expect me to take the book. They probably will try to keep an eye on me during our journey."
"Wait. Then, aren't you like pretty openly writing it?" Gray looked left and right.
Though their cabin was private due to a special ticket, anybody could see that Kazu was copying if they entered it.
"We aren't going directly to the Magic headquarters. We will be taking a detour, which will take us 2 days to reach there. They don't know that."
"Oh..." Gray hadn't seen the map in detail, so he neither knew where the headquarters was nor where he was currently. He had just followed Kazu directly.
"Why are they even trying to hide the book in the first place?"
"Because, Council wants a monopoly on some things. Without it, the council won't have any significance. You might not know this, but guilds and people within the Council exchange things to get their hands on such information."
Gray stroked his chin. He hadn't thought that just the knowledge about various techniques would be that valuable. He had just referred to whatever was present in the guild's library.
"I never considered that the knowledge could be that valuable."
Kazu smirked. "Do you want to guess how much this book costs?"
"Yeah. Let's see... The mission reward is 9 million. If they are willing to pay that much, then maybe... 50 million?" The amount was enough to buy a house in Magnolia.
"Nope. Do you want to try again?" Kazu grinned. He was already looking forward to Gray's reaction.
"Nah. Just tell me."
"3 Billion."
Gray blinked. He blinked again.
"3 BILLION!?" His eyes widened to the size of saucers.
Luckily, Kazu had already put a sound-blocking barrier in the cabin, expecting this.
"How many houses is even that? One costs 60 million," Gray looked at his fingers before starting to count that.
Kazu deadpanned.
'Right. I forgot, but education is pretty bare minimum here. Only the rich go to schools, that also for status. Well, this world is based on a medieval time period.'
"Isn't that 47 houses?"
"Close. It's 50. How did you even get 47?"
"I counted." Gray's answer left Kazu speechless.
"Do you know what division is?"
"I do. Though I didn't bother learning it. Where is it even going to be used?"
"You know... to count money, like in this case. You aren't going to always carry a calculator, will you?"
Gray looked unconvinced by the answer.
"Anyway, you definitely need to learn Mathematics if you want to reach Absolute Zero in temperature."
Gray's expression turned ashen at that.
"What!?"
---
2 Days later.
Gray and Kazu stood outside the headquarters.
"Wow! It's so huge." Gray looked at the structure in awe.
"Yeah." 'That's the only thing good about it.' Kazu stopped himself from saying that out loud.
They entered the base and were soon escorted by a lady in blue.
"Please wait here. Somebody would come here to retrieve the book. I will bring some refreshments."
With that, she left the room.
Gray quickly turned to Kazu as he whispered. "Did you see that?"
Kazu nodded. "Yeah. That onee-chan was so... pretty. I have seen her before, too. She wore something more revealing last time." 'That's another good thing about this headquarters.'
"Damn." Gray was rendered speechless by Kazu's last comment.
The door opened, and a tall and bulky man entered the room. One distinguishing feature was that his head was bald.
"Hey, kids! I am here to check the book."
Both Kazu and Gray got up. The man in front of them was a recognisable figure on Ishgar.
Jura Neekis.
One of the Wizard Saints.
"I didn't expect you to come personally. Here is the book." 'The pressure is insane. He's stronger than Eris.' Kazu handed him the book.
"Haha. Aren't you the boy who planned that guy's murder in front of all the Saints? You really have big balls." The man laughed loudly.
Kazu made a wry smile, but he didn't say anything. The 'man' Jura referred to was none other than Veyren.
Gray glanced at Kazu with a confused expression.
Jura flipped through the book.
"Thank you for bringing this safely. It's one of the important tombs."
Kazu rubbed his head. "I just completed the mission. Nothing more."
Jura then looked Kazu right in the eye. "Normally, I would have left it at here, but knowing the stunt you pulled last time, I just want to confirm something." He glanced at Kazu's waist bag.
Gray did his best not to show his reaction outwardly.
He felt his heartbeat rising as Jura reached out his hand towards Kazu's bag.
***
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