Lan Yi went silent and didn’t raise any objections to Anna’s opinion.
Even though conflicts inside the upper echelons of the Moon Knights weren’t exactly done out of scheming and fighting with each other, they definitely weren’t carried out in a calm and tranquil manner either. As the leader of a Chivalric Order — especially one with the sensitive identity of being vampire royalty — every word and action of hers would be subject to scrutiny and pressure from the respective parties.
Ji Bai was unrelated to her anyway, nothing more than a stranger she had met once. Naturally, she would have no incentive to go out of her way to help himself.
By bringing an outsider into the magical dimension without authorization on one’s own initiative, he had already violated the Moon Knight’s biggest taboo.
It had already been very fair of her to not add in her own opinion along with the tides of public criticism and hit him while he was down.
“Boom!!” Just as Lan Yi was about to say something, a booming explosion shook up the entire place. The long table was overturned, and documents, now torn into paper residues, drifted and swirled through the air.
“W-What happened?!…” For a moment, the scene was one of extreme disorder.
“Wahhh!” The unbridled, arrogant, and sharp-tongued man was currently cowering underneath his chair shivering.
“Has something happened to the magical dimension??” The man with horns made use of his chair’s armrest to steady his body and gazed in the direction where the disturbance had arrived from.
“What happened inside the magical dimension, discipline branch?” Lan Yi immediately contacted the discipline branch, who was responsible for problems relating to law and order regarding the magical dimension.
“Is this headquarters?… About a few minutes back, a hole had been torn open in the skies and a purplish-black monster with wings had charged its way into here!” The words in the call were clear enough that everyone present understood them.
“What?!”
“How is that possible?? Just what type of creature can break into an independent space forged by magic??” The scene became chaotic in an instant.
“Where is that creature right now?”
“It has already left. It appeared for an extremely brief period of time and slipped away before anyone could even react to it… While sucking dozens of residents into its stomach! Their whereabouts are currently unknown…”
“Tch… How ridiculous.” Lan Yi’s face went so gloomy that it resembled a sea of clouds before a thunderstorm.
“Don’t you see!? I already said there were some issues with the new guy that got in through unofficial means! I swear that this issue must have something to do with that dubious person!” Once he heard that the enemy had left, the sharp-tongued man immediately crawled out from under his chair and began to launch a tirade of resentful accusations.
“Headquarters… Do you need us to pursue that monster?”
“…Do you know where it escaped to?”
“Reporting to headquarters. No, I don’t.”
“Tell me how you would chase after it then??” Lan Yi was currently in a very bad mood, so her tone and attitude were naturally no better.
“Are there students among the captured residents? Can you give me a list of names?”
“It… happened too suddenly, so…”
“Alright, I got it. You guys just focus on cleaning up the aftermath.”
Lan Yi hung up and inhaled deeply.
It was unknown when Anna, who was sitting in the corner, had put away her Ipad and begun to silently stare at the sky created by magic.
“This isn’t exactly a place where anyone can casually force their way in” No one managed to hear her soft murmurings.
“Tssss…” Not long after she had hung up the call, the identification token that Lan Yi had tucked into her bosom began to turn hot.
She fished it out in puzzlement.
It was a [Magic Voice Transmission].
A student identification token was a magically-created object in and of itself. Apart from its most rudimentary function as a [Magical Dimension Key], it could also bypass space and planes of existence to transmit one’s voice once per day.
And the person currently calling her was none other than the hotshot they had been debating about earlier.
“Hello? Brat, how dare you actually call me?? Don’t you know that the terrible mess you’ve left behind has put me in a terrible state? Doing things with utter disregard to their consequences… Hurry up and apologize!”
“…Sorry.” That emotionless voice in the call sounded somewhat gloomy.
“So, what do you contact me for?” Lan Yi’s anger had subsided somewhat.
“The order in the city has degenerated into a complete mess.”
“It’s a mess on our side as well!” Said Lan Yi in an impolite manner.
“What’s wrong?”
“You still dare to ask??” Lan Yi held her forehead as she felt a headache coming on.
“You magic plebeian, do you really think that the only use of that token was merely as simple as that of a [key]? Magic is just like a string of messy code floating in the air — You never know whether there is some scrying or surveillance magic around… The other use of the token is to [ignore] scrying magic and prevent the coordinates of a magical dimension from being deciphered… When you bring another person without a key in here, its functionality will change drastically!”
“Sorry…”
“Practical actions are far more useful than a mere apology… Earlier, an unknown creature has barged into the magical dimension and seized a few residents. I think it is related to this incident…”
“Do you know its exact location?”
“If I knew where it went to, why would I bother to tell you this much?”
“…I seem to know where it went.” On the other end of the call, Ji Bai’s tone turned meaningful.
“What’re you saying?? …Forget it. Tell me its position, I will dispatch…”
“When saving hostages, it’s not the number of soldiers that matters but their skill.”
Lan Yi was just about to say something before she noticed that the magical transmission had already been forcefully disconnected by the other party.
“This guy…”
“Assistant Lan! We cannot keep this brat! He must be expelled…”
“We can discuss this matter later, Mr. Hou. Chivalric Leader…?? Where’s the Chivalric Leader?” Lan Yi stared at the empty executive chair in a daze.
“Eh? Wasn’t she there just now?”
…………
A few minutes ago, in the downtown district of the Moon Knight’s magical dimension.
“Ehe~ Welcome back! Ke’er-chan, how did it go? Did you manage to procure all the goods?” Blue’s eyes lightened up as she squatted before the door. Like a puppy that had caught sight of a bone, she pounced towards Ke’er in an instant.
“Ehe… S-So itchy! Stop licking my face, Blue-chan… It tickles~” Hauling some small bags, Ke’er narrowed her eyes and incessantly pushed Blue away.
“Oh my, it must’ve been hard on you, Pink-chan~” A grinning Green and an expressionless Black welcomed Ke’er from the entrance of the store.
“It’s only been 2 days since they’ve known each other, but Blue-chan seems to be inseparable from Pink already~ Don’t you agree, Lil’ Black?” Seeing a cat and dog being boisterous with each other nearby, Green said while covering her smile.
The emotionless Black nodded.
“Sure enough, it’s easy for these small animals to befriend each other and cause a commotion… Alright, alright. It’s almost time for dinner. The store is almost about to close, so if the two of you want to cause a ruckus, you can do so inside.” Green shot a glance at the sun that had already sunk halfway down the horizon.
It was at this time that a sinister crack suddenly appeared on the sun that hung high up on the horizon.
“Boom!” In a split second, lightning flashed and thunder rolled; A stark contrast to the peaceful evening sunset earlier.
“Zzzaaa!…” A series of distorted noises intolerable to the ear resounded.
“W-What’s going on?!” This abrupt event caught the residents, who had acclimatized to a serene lifestyle, off-guard.
A pair of massive black wings covered the entire sky as a purplish-black monster with sharp black horns floated in the sky. Its long black hairs covering its entire body were like thorns.
Its two copper bell sized eyes were incessantly scanning the ground as if searching for targets.
“Pink, Blue, hurry up and come in!” Being the first to recover, Green shouted towards the pair standing close by who were still in a state of shock.