Read after book Alicia Chapter 15
Manegia
Year 1417
“Haah…” Haruto sighed. “Master Pierre is not here. He must’ve been out doing his performance.”
Going over the white desk, Haruto said to himself once again. “Guess I’ll do myself some self-service.”
KNOCK KNOCK
But then, there was a knocking in the door. “I’ll open the door!” Haruto shouted, deciding to drop his self-reporting and went to answer the door.
CREEK
“Good afternoon, Haruto.”
In the front door was an albino girl with a mature body in a white dress. Haruto noticed her fangs marking her a vampire (or sharp-teethed human in Otherworldly Court-ian) as she greeted.
“Good afternoon, Rose.” Haruto greeted back. Turning his head up, “mister Crosdar.”
“Hello,” James Crosdar waved his hand. Unlike with him, Rose insisted that she will be referred to by her nickname, and it would be rude for Haruto to refuse that.
“Is Master Pierre here?” Rose asked.
“No, he’s off performing again.” Haruto shrugged. “So do come in.”
“Then excuse us.”
James pushed the wheelchair Rose was bound to across the corridor with her passing reflection in the loose mirror lying around the wall in front of the flight of stairs.
Wait, why does she have a reflection? Right, Manegian Fantasy Law doesn’t have the concept of vampires not having reflections.
And another thing that was different was the wheelchair. It was only a while ago that Haruto has seen the vampire standing on two feet.
Haruto hasn’t heard much about what happened. But basically, Rose and James’ faction went to war and Rose got her legs crippled with some new type of holy water. And then James saved her which was enough reason to keep her legs crippled.
Afterwards, both of them became permanent residents in Manegia meaning they can be seen here just about every day.
A lot has happened this year, huh?
The feeling of melancholy washed Haruto that even James could point it put.
“You seemed down, Haruto,” Rose spoke with James nodding after, grabbing the Light Court Wizard’s attention. “Did something happened?”
Should I tell her? Haruto thought to himself. Hmm… Might as well – she’s not gonna let me go off easily if I don’t.
“Well, you see… It’s about the mission I just completed.”
“And I just made my promise to Rin and I can’t even keep it now.” Haruto finished.
He ended up telling them about the promise he made with his sister, Rin, which was ‘save people so that others wouldn’t grieve’ in the aftermath of the terrorist attack which killed his parents.
The Otherworldly Court by this point knew about it if his new family name ‘Fujiwara’ has anything to do with it.
“Why can’t we just be more open? We can do much more if we work together with them.”
“I am also interested to know as to why as well, Rose,” James added.
“Well…” And by Rose’s demeanor, even she doesn’t know. “There were records as to why, but it was lost in the 1246 Incident – and you know that even to this day we still have yet to recover them all and I can attest to that.”
“So we will never know?”
“I am afraid-”
“I believe I have an answer for that!”
Cutting the flow, a feminine voice came from the stairs. Then, a head popped out; it was the resident scientist cooped up on the second floor of the light chamber who had since then turned it into her personal laboratory, Amelia Rickens.
Now that I think about it, why didn’t I call her down for the report? And Haruto shuddered. That’s right, Master Pierre’s little sister is much worse than him.
“It’s only working theory,” Amelia continued as she rolled a whiteboard, also lying around the chamber, to the front of the desk. “But it’s accurate enough, so sit tight and listen carefully.”
James raised his hand for a question but only got a hiss from the scientist. “Only I get to give you pop quizzes and there will be no questions asked until the end of this lecture. Got it?”
The rest simply nodded silently, knowing that there was no stopping Amelia now.
Taking off the marker cap, Amelia reached for the top left corner and wrote three big words.
Eleven-Century War
“Not sure why it’s not ‘Centuries’ plural but this where we start.” And Amelia pointed the pink tip to Haruto. “Now then, Haruto. In five words or less, what did our… predecessors do during those times?” she quizzed.
“Uuh… Mistreating people from other worlds?” Haruto answered with two hands above his neck.
“That’s six words,” Amelia snarked. “And ‘mistreating’ is an understatement. But you are correct.”
SHRAK
SHRAK SHRAK
SHRAK
Drawing a circle around the words, Amelia continued, “As according to its name, this mistreatment had been going on for almost eleven centuries.
“So obviously, people ain’t gonna forget that easily.”
“So in other words,” Haruto deduced. “We had to hide our actions from plain view because the people in worlds affected by the Eleven-Century War would be hostile towards us.”
“Absolutely correct.” Amelia nodded with a smile.
“But why wouldn’t they accept us?” Haruto complained. “Even the First Guardians change the names of the terms that we used today to show that we are different.”
“Haruto.” James rolled his eyes. “A near-eleven centuries worth of suffering could not be so easily forgotten by a sudden turn of a new leaf nor simple name change nor .”
“And the renames are also pretty lame.” Amelia deadpanned, catching everyone’s interest. “Like seriously, the ‘Otherworldly Court’ has some nice ring to it but calling ourselves ‘Court Wizards’ is way too generic.
“I mean, court wizards are those old long-bearded grandpa’s cooped up in a tower of some king’s palace doing weird magic experiments! People could get the wrong idea without hearing our way too long full title!”
Hearing Amelia’s rant about actual court wizards reminded Haruto of grandpa Daisuke, he has a long beard but he was not sure if he was the Order inventing type.
“And also,” the raving scientist continued, “‘maneg.’ I get it that it was supposed to be an abbreviation of ‘mana’ and ‘energy’ and it’s totally accurate and differentiable enough.
“But why the hell did First Guardians also rename this world into ‘Manegia!’ That’s like the stupidest world name I’ve ever heard! Couldn’t they think of something better than putting -ia at the end of-”
“Ahem,” Rose coughed. “Perhaps we should resume our main topic at hand?”
“Right, sorry about that,” Amelia apologized, catching her breath. “I just needed to let some steam.”
Going back to the drawing board, Amelia wrote another word.
Kaomagi
Hmm, what does this world remind me of something…?
“Now then.” Amelia circled the word. “I’m pretty sure you are wondering, ‘What of other worlds that were not touched by the Eleven-Century War?'”
“True,” James said. “I would imagine that the First Guardians would not think to also be secretive to those worlds.”
“Of course, and this happened.” Amelia wrote more words beneath Kaomagi.
End of the Great Persecution
“Ah…” James realized.
“Huh?” Haruto tilted his head.
“This was the first time the First Guardians conduct an open intervention in the world of Kaomagi two hundred and ninety-five years ago,” Amelia began. “Essentially, the first generation of Court Wizards ended up getting one of the three deities dead and another being the Lord of Vengeance resurrecting every other century to ravage the land.
“Now, the people of Kaomagi knew that the Court Wizards did it and it made them scared sh*tless of us.”
“Amelia, mind your tongue.” Rose scolded. “But it is true that the Kaomagians have grown to fear us to the point where even the shrewdest would not dare to plot against us, even for self-preservation, and uphold the non-discriminatory teachings seriously.”
“The same trend happens to other worlds as well. And because of it, the First Guardians decided to extend the secrecy to those worlds as well unless it is necessary to reveal themselves.”
“Anyway,” Amelia continued, drawing a huge circle surrounding all the words on the whiteboard. “I believe all of these factors led to the conclusion that is the ten Rules of Engagement.” And Amelia finished it off by writing it below the large circle.
“True,” Rose agreed. “Although I would call them guidelines, they are the product from experience that the First Guardians went through after the founding of the Otherworldly Court designed to uphold our goals and for self-preservation.”
“I see.” James held his chin. “I have always thought that the Rules were a bit… unorthodox. But hearing the reasoning made it more sensible.
“Yes.” Haruto agreed. “But
“Which is why even today we still adapt and change,” Amelia said. “Like the Bell Branches for example.”
“True,” Rose said. “And I suppose you two have already known this.”
“Well, yeah.” After all, being a secret intel group under the guise of a merchant group was the only explanation of the numerous said merchants in different worlds Haruto encountered bearing the exact name, crest, and building architecture. “Is there anything else, Amelia?”
“…Nope, it’s already the end of my script,” Amelia said. “Welp, this is the end of this session, and thank you all for listening.” And thus Amelia concluded her thesis with a bow. “Anyway, what brings you here to the light chamber, Rose, James?”
“…Oh yeah.” Haruto pounded his hand with his other hand curled into a fist. “Now that you mentioned it, Amelia, I do wonder why?”
“Well.” Rose rolled her eyes. “Amelia, I believe you have taken something important from me without my permission. I would like to have it back.”
Suddenly, the air became tense. The vampire no longer projected the kind aura like that of an elder sibling but of the bloodlust of those of her kind.
“…” And all Amelia did was sweat bullets.
“I see.” Rose narrowed her eyes. “You have lost it. Is there anything you have to say?”
“…For science!”
The scientist dashed to the balcony and…
TZANG
[Eject]ed away.“Now you get back here this instant, little girl!” Rose shouted and enveloped her broken legs with her loyal maneg, a trick she developed to make up for keeping her injuries and chased after Amelia.
TZANG
With that, two boys remained in the light chamber.
James spoke up first, “I will be going then…”
“Right, see ya.”
With that, James took Rose’s wheelchair and pushed it out of the chamber.
SHUT
Thus Haruto was truly alone to contemplate for himself.
And well, there was only one thing stuck in his mind.
“…I believe all of these factors led to the conclusion that is the ten Rules of Engagement.”
Ever since the promise Haruto made with his sister, he has seen the Rules of Engagement as a hindrance to it. But, after hearing the reasoning, albeit speculative but convincing nonetheless, he was little more accepting to them but…
“It’s still a hindrance.”
And then his mind came to the other things said.
“…although I would call them guidelines…”
Guidelines, not rules. And it came from the oldest active Court Wizard herself.
And…
“…even today we still adapt and change…”
“Then it’s fine right?” he said to himself with a grin. “I’ll just have to be the first one.”
And so that day, Haruto Fujiwara the Light Court Wizard made his resolve. One that will surely uphold his promise to Rin, to save those so others wouldn’t grieve.
And he could imagine just how many colleagues will be pissed. Especially Hanz Huber, the guy really hates heroic types.
KETINK KETINK KETINK
And it seems his Maneg Soul shared his thought as his loyal maneg involuntarily came out of his soul and pulled out his family katana off the belt, enveloping it in its light.
Azhure: By the way, I’m retconning the part in Alicia Chapter 15 where little Rin asked Haruto how he recalled his katana CA to how he made the pre-CA glow.
Name: Haruto Fujiwara Age: 14 Sex: Male Species: Human World: Rakarok-Earth Merge World Element: Light Element Color: White Cherished Armament: Promised Resolve (katana) Rank: Wizard
Voice: Hey Azhure, what does Evil Mad Scientist Lady look like!?
Azhure: Hmm? Do you want to know?
Voice: *Puffs cheek and turned around* Pfft! As if I wanna know what that ugly b*tch looks like!
Azhure: K.
