"...!"
Blended into the crowd of rush hour, a girl looked back in the direction of the apartments. She grimaced.
"That wasn't a familiar signature. There's someone else chasing after me too. Great."
The girl sighed.
"That must suck, but don't worry, we're chasing after you too!"
A woman said, standing 10 metres in front of the girl. The girl put her hood on and started to walk backwards.
"Janet. You look high, as usual."
She told the woman. The woman had an annoying smile on her face.
"Let's go back together."
She laid her hand out.
The girl got a wand out of the bag at her waist. She drew a circle, pointing the wand toward the ground.
"Sorry, but I'm not going back. Not with you three inhumane monsters."
"A curse, in the middle of this crowd? What? Do you want to kill people now?"
A nervous grin appeared on her lips.
"A curse? That's what I may have used when I was with you, but now I'm proficient in magic too. Fumo."
From the tip of her wand, smoke expanded outward, covering an area of a 50-metre radius. Janet covered her mouth and eyes. Civilians also saw this smoke.
The woman coughed.
"Tricky. What was that? It wasn't an ordinary spell. Plus, the range and density of this smoke..."
She couldn't see through it. Even as she tried swatting at the smoke, it didn't dissipate. However, there was no major panic despite the civilians here.
"Oi, oi... We knew you levelled up, but not this much. Now we need your help even more."
The girl had specialised the smoke. She set a condition on it. Something that not many would think of.
·———·
"—!"
While they were walking, Ayato felt a spike in mana. It felt different. It wasn't only mana he felt. He also felt an unfamiliar energy. It must've been the feeling of a curse.
"Akari, let's go!"
He sprinted off.
"Huh? Where?!"
"Just follow me!"
Akari followed behind him despite not knowing what he meant. After running for around two minutes, they reached Oxford Circus train station.
Although it was faint, there was smoke surrounding the area.
"What happened?"
Ayato muttered aloud, wanting an explanation. Akari called Ayato over to her. They entered the nearest store.
"Welcome to Harry's—!"
"Sorry, but we're not exactly interested."
Akari showed the shopkeeper her ID. It had the identification of a Councilwoman on it. Being a Councilwoman, no matter in what country, was no small feat.
"Ah, it's such an honour to meet an elder!"
"Tch, I'm not that old."
"You have a child who's over 20 years old."
Akari slapped the back of Ayato's head and cleared her throat.
"We want to know about the smoke outside. It's not always there, is it?"
The shopkeeper frowned, staring outside.
"Nah, it suddenly appeared around 5 minutes ago. I saw a girl with a wand out. Since she had a wand, I was guessing she was a witch. After that, the smoke just appeared."
"Then why is no one making a fuss? You would've thought that it would cause people to panic."
Ayato asked him.
Scratching his beard, the shopkeeper answered.
"Well, because most of them could see through it. Even when the smoke first appeared, I could see through it."
"That's strange but..."
Akari's voice faded away. She couldn't see through the remnants of the smoke. If it was like that for her, it must've been the same for Ayato.
"Say, Harry, are you a magician?"
"My name is Nick, and I'm not a magician."
Ayato was disgruntled.
"Why is your shop's name Harry's whatever, then?"
"It's not whatever, it's—!"
"Well, all that matters is that you're not a magician. It's probably something that only affects magicians. Don't worry about it. Just asking, do you know where the girl went?"
"Well, she ran away from the station."
With that, Ayato and Akari left the store. There were too many unknowns about the girl.
"If she used a smoke spe... curse, then that means she was being followed."
Ayato told the woman. The boy stopped suddenly. He had finally realised that he'd done something wrong.
'How did I overlook something so simple?'
He mentally cursed at himself.
"Akari, who is the girl that we're trying to protect? I don't even know what she looks like."
"Oh right. I'll explain it to you. I already memorised the information given to me by the Queen."
She said.
"The witch that we're chasing after is a 19-year-old girl named Ashley Renthral. She's a so-called prodigy and was in a group with the three escapees. They used to be good until the three of them committed a mass murder. Ashley left them and worked as an enforcer for the Queen for 1 and a half years. Then, that leads us to now. The escapees probably want them to be in a group together once more. Here's a picture of her."
Akari handed over a photo to Ayato. It was a group photo. There were four people in the photo.
"She's the one in the back. The other three are the escapees."
"She doesn't look very happy."
"She's an introvert. This was around when their group was first formed."
The girl in the back looked away from the camera. She had mid-length brown hair and hazel eyes. She looked fairly young. She would've been 16 years old at the time but she looked 3 years younger.
"Remember, this is a photo from 3 years ago. She'll look slightly older."
"A more recent photo would be better."
He complained.
·———·
Ashley Renthral ran. She looked behind her to make sure that no one else was following her. There wasn't a single soul.
"I got away from her."
"But not from me."
In the dark alleyway, at the dead end, a man was standing there. It was one of the escaped prisoners. Ashley winced.
"Marinus..."
"Let's go home, Ashley."
"No! I'm not going with you."
She pointed her wand at him. The man sighed.
"I'll have to take you by force."