A leaf languidly fell down from the tall birch tree as the few ants that were unfortunate enough to have been on the leaf scrambled for their lives.
"CAW!"
A burst of piercing Magical Energy tore through the air and completely pulverized the leaf with pure force.
"...You're wasting too much Magical Energy, this is like watching a painter use a really wide brush to refine small details." Noah complained as he tossed an apple slice into the depths of his mouth.
"Wasteful! Wasteful!" Amon repeated like a parrot as the crow gave her the stink eye.
"Ugh..." Ayaka groaned as she rubbed her hand, feeling how distinctly hot it was. "Alright... too much... this time, I'll try again."
"...Ragh!" Amon shrieked as its master plucked a dark feather from its tail and expertly threw it in Ayaka's direction.
"Come on." Noah said, swallowing the juicy slice of apple. "We have all day."
He sat on a toppled tree, one that had its log hollowed out, with one leg over the other and a half-eaten apple in his grasp.
A wizard's hat, the kind that a Ravenclaw student from Hogwarts would wear, was placed neatly beside his thigh, and on the other side of the log, was a seemingly ordinary crow, albeit one that had an abnormally larger right eye.
The clothes that Noah wore were all extremely stylish, with every article of clothing having been custom tailored. Yet it wasn't a fancy suit like his brother, but more akin to what an urban magician would wear, with robes and the accompanying undershirt.
A silver monocle clung to his right eye, a monocle that radiated ominous vibes, most likely a Mystic Code. His choice of footwear was sleek black boots, practical for climbing.
Unlike Johan, Noah's eyes were much paler, with a grayish undertone. He shared the black hair, but it was curlier than Johan's relatively straight hair.
"...Yeah, yeah." Ayaka nodded in response as she caught the falling feather.
In contrast to Noah's clearly opulent choice in fashion, hers was much more simplistic.
She wore a purplish-blue jacket and a white blouse, with a skirt and stockings underneath. Her loafers perfectly matched the fake footprints and a pair of unappealing glasses somewhat covered her azure blue eyes, her medium-length brown hair reached down onto her neck.
She glanced at the inky black feather with a complicated expression.
Ayaka practiced Witchcraft.
...But she wasn't a Witch.
After all, those mythological creatures weren't actually human, but more akin to Fairies.
However, that didn't mean Witchcraft was a field of Magecraft exclusively studied by true Witches.
It was a derivative of Black Magic, specializing in the practical use of dark rituals and blood sacrifices...
Unfortunately, Ayaka was a mediocre Witchcraft practitioner.
Perhaps, it was just because of a lack of natural talent, or maybe it was due to her innability and unwillingness to kill innocent animals.
Because of that, Spells like this that did not require actual killing were what she favoured the most.
It was a 'Sacrificial' Spell, but instead of sacrificing a whole living creature, it only required the sacrifice of body parts...
Particularly, a raven's feathers.
Amon wasn't a raven, but crows belonged in the same family of Corvid, so its feathers could be used as substitute materials without much issue.
Using the feather as a catalyst, she could shoot out what was essentially a 'Magic Bullet' in the form of pressurized kinetic force.
In other terms, the feathers were bullets, and her hand was a gun.
Lifting up her hand, she pointed her 'gun' towards a nearby boulder, it was not that big and had a bush right next to it.
She surged her Magical Energy into her hands and—
"Hm...?" The bush right next to the targeted boulder trembled with rapid movement. Subconsciously, she pointed her hand in that direction and...
Stepping out of the bush—it was a person. Unfortunately, for the person in question...
"Caw!"
Noah had arranged for his Familiar to caw at the best precise moment as a signal for Ayaka to shoot.
"...Gray!?" Ayaka shouted in confusion and shock.
—BAAM~★!
The sound was very much like a dramatic gunshot, it was the kind that could damage one's eardrums if not contained, yet there was no physical recoil in her hands.
The concentrated kinetic force shot through the air and immediately closed the distance.
However, instead of piercing into the girl's flesh and creating a mess of blood and gore, it simply crashed against the bush and completely pulverized the branches, kicking up some dust and minor rubble in the process.
"...!" Gray had dodged at the last second, jumping to the right at inhuman speeds.
"Gray!" Ayaka called out with concern written in every minute feature of her face. "...Are you okay!? I didn't hit you, right?
"...Ha..." Gray exhaled as she stared at the crushed branches. "I-I'm fine..."
"Oh my God..." Ayaka muttered as she ran closer to take a look. "Sorry, I'm really sorry! I, uh... my hand, it just wandered over when I heard you and I think I put in way too much Mana this time..."
"Holy shit..." Noah muttered before laughing. "No way, hahaha! Why did it suddenly get stronger when you were about to hit her...?"
For some reason, he seemed to find it really funny.
"...H-Hey!" But his laughter was forcibly interrupted as Amon flew over and clawed at his exposed hairs.
"Lord! Lord!" It screeched repeatedly.
"Lord...?" Noah's eyes widened as his expression showed visible nervousness. "J-Johan? Where is he..."
"Right here, little brother." A voice suddenly came from behind.
"Ah!" Noah yelped like a little girl as Johan's shadow fell over the younger brother. With a thud, he even fell dramatically to the ground.
At this pitiful reaction, Johan could only sneer. "What on earth are you screaming over?"
"You scared me!" Noah groaned back as he got up and dusted his clothes, quickly retrieving his hat before neatly placing it atop his head.
He glanced to the side, noticing Luvia who was preoccupied with looking the crow.
"...What's this, a search party?" He remarked, adjusting his monocle.
"It is." Johan said bluntly. "I had to carry 49 kilograms of social death just to get a whiff of where you were loitering at."
"...Excuse me?" Luvia said, her eyebrows furrowing in an offended manner.
"Seems tough." Noah said as he gazed to the side.
Ayaka was still busy with an ambush of apologies directed to Gray, who rightfully seemed a bit flustered.
"...That's Ayaka Sajyou, from Botany." He introduced gently. "We met just a week ago, and..."
"And...?" Johan repeated with a raised brow.
Noah glanced at Gray and Luvia before shaking his hand in a relatively mundane manner.
But Johan knew what this meant—we can't talk about this openly...
"Hm." Johan grunted in acknowledgement. He then walked up to the pair of underaged girls and promptly introduced himself.
"Hello."
It was basic courtesy.
"Ah?" Ayaka looked over, her attention now on him. "...Uh, who are you?"
"Sajyou, he's my brother." Noah responded as Amon repeated the words 'Lord!', 'Lord', 'Lord!'.
"...Brother?" Ayaka blinked as she glanced at Noah. "You have a brother? I thought you said you were an orphan?"
What the hell did this guy tell her...? Johan couldn't help but lampoon.
"Yeah, so? My parents are still dead." Noah remarked back with a blank look.
Johan elbowed him lightly. "...So you're Ayaka Sajyou?"
"Yes." Ayaka quickly nodded.
"If you don't mind me asking, but what's your relationship with my brother?" Johan asked casually.
"Oh..." She glanced at the younger brother. "We're... friends, he's been a ton of help with my Witchcraft!"
...Friends?
For some reason, when Johan glanced over to his brother, he couldn't help but feel some miniscule amount of sympathy.
"Um, yes. We're friends..." Noah nodded calmly as he gazed back at Johan.
He seemed to be choking on intangible bitterness.
"...Greetings." Luvia called out as she took this opportunity to walk closer and reached out a hand. "...I am Luviagelita Edelfelt, it's good to meet you, Sajo."
"...Eh?" Ayaka visibly widened her eyes. "Edelfelt...? You—you're the Lady Edelfelt?"
Would you look at that, maybe being an infamous nuisance has its pros... Johan chuckled inwardly. "Yes, and she's—"
"I-I'm a big fan!" Ayaka said with genuine stars in her eyes.
...Huh?
"Wow, really...?" Luvia gave a flattered smile, but not the genuinely surprised kind and more like 'Yeah, I'm famous' kind.
"Of course! It's very considerate of you to support the commoners... most of the Nobles tend to disregard New Age Magi even if they're really talented." Ayaka explained with a distant look as she shook Luvia's warm hand.
"Wait a second..." Johan interjected. "Sajyou? I think I've heard of your family before, you're not a New Age Magi, aren't you?"
She shouldn't be, the Sajyou family should have existed for quite some time now. At least, they must have been formed during the Middle Ages or so...
"Well, that's true but..." Ayaka shook her head as her expression somewhat fell from its previous joy. "I'm not much different now."
"How so—" Johan stopped his line of questioning as Luvia glared at him. "What?"
"Don't be so rude to Sajo." She reprimanded with her arms crossed.
He sighed before shaking his head. "Well, I'm Johan—and as that guy introduced me as, I'm Noah's older brother by a good 2 years."
Noah and Luvia were the same age, both being 17, though he was younger by a few months.
"...It's Sajyou." Noah whispered to Luvia to correct her mispronounciation before facing Ayaka and his brother. "Wait..."
"Who's this?" He said, gazing at Gray, who had been mostly left out of the conversation this whole time.
"Uh..." The Welsh girl in question struggled to introduce herself.
"She's Gray! No last name, I don't think..." Ayaka did so for her before she glanced back at Gray. "She's a friend here in Modern Magecraft, really nice and..."
"Hey, now that I think about it, why are you here, Gray?"
"...Um..." Gray opened her mouth.
"She's with us." Luvia explained before Gray even got a chance to talk. "She saw where you were heading, Noah. And so we got her to be our guide of sorts... don't worry, I paid. Unlike... a certain someone."
Johan chuckled slightly at the jab, not taking offense. "Sure, sure..."
He gazed at the girls before speaking up.
"I'm sorry, ladies. Could you all give us some space? I wanted to have a talk with this guy..." He placed his hand on Noah's shoulder.
"Fine by me."
"...Okay."
"Sure, I'll catch up with Gray!"
Noah rose his brow but nodded as the pair of siblings (and Amon) retreated to a more private section of the park—not that far away from the rest, but far enough that they wouldn't overhear.
Of course, just in case, Johan created a small temporary Bounded Field to isolate the sound waves.
"What's the problem?" Noah asked with a glint in his eyes.
"...See my hand?" Johan lifted up his right hand, the one that was covered with Luvia's white glove.
"Yeah... why are you wearing..." Noah didn't finish his sentence as Johan promptly removed the glove, revealing the golden glow of the Gobbler Ring.
Immediately, Noah reached up with a hand and tried to touch—
"Don't." Johan simply said as he grabbed Noah's wrist with his left hand and Reinforced it with Magical Energy.
"...Huh?" Noah blinked. "But isn't that...?"
"Read the inscriptions." Johan instructed.
Noah did, he read the Ancient Hermes words and after doing so, his eyes couldn't help but widen.
"No... you did it?"
"I did, brother."