Mage? Magic Engineer!

The Mage accompanying Druao was a veteran from the Tower of Stars’ Alchemy Department, his role essentially that of an engineer responsible for managing and maintaining the "Heavy Cannon Shooters."

It wasn’t supposed to be an interesting assignment. The operation on the Eastern Line was just a feint, and these five units were the weakest of the giant Mechanical Bodies of their generation. This was all to ensure the Empire Army would miscalculate the new weapons’ combat effectiveness.

They had to feign weakness on the Eastern Line first so that the thirteen upgraded models on the Western Line could deliver a sufficient shock when they finally launched a full-scale assault on the Empire.

But what he had expected to be a boring assignment took an unexpectedly amusing turn.

"I never thought Rorschach Mage had a younger brother..." the Mage mused, stroking his chin. He smirked as he followed Druao to the prisoner-of-war camp.

The captured soldiers of the Empire Army had been stripped to their underwear and were being hosed down like livestock by Valois medics. When General Druao arrived, the soldier in charge of the prisoners followed his orders and singled out the brat who kept shouting that he had connections in high places.

"What’s your name? How old?"

"...Franz Mercer, sixteen." He didn’t wait for Druao to ask another question, quickly adding, "I’m Rorschach’s brother! Don’t you touch me! He’s at your Tower of Stars, and he’s a very powerful Mage..."

Druao couldn’t help but laugh, a sound that frightened Franz. "Actually," the general said, "I know Rorschach Mage."

The Mage from the Alchemy Department smiled as well. "I know him too."

Before Franz could manage a smile, Druao’s expression hardened. "But he’s already left the Tower of Stars for the Bayern Kingdom!" he said menacingly. "The Bayern Kingdom is a key State aligned with the Empire, which means your brother is also an enemy of Valois!"

He leaned in close to the boy, who had been sent to the battlefield at just sixteen. "So, having a Caster for a brother won’t get you any special treatment from us. We’re not going to put you on a pedestal. Quite the opposite, in fact. I’ll be giving you my *special* attention. Understand?"

The stench of smoke washed over Franz’s face. The boy, captured on his very first foray onto the battlefield, had never expected this. He didn’t know what to do. All he could do was clench his jaw to keep himself from shaking.

He was trembling not just from fear, but also from shame. The memory of how he had boasted about his brother to his comrades and the other prisoners now felt utterly humiliating.

Seeing that Druao had toyed with the boy enough, the Mage decided it was time to claim this unexpected prize. He used the [Communication Skill] to speak privately to Druao. "I’m heading back to the Tower of Stars soon to debrief. Hand this little pup over to me. He happens to be quite useful."

’"Useful?"’ Druao thought. ’Is he going to be subjected to some twisted experiment?’

"I hear you worked with Rorschach Mage for a time, General. So I don’t mind telling you that Master Rorschach will soon be coming to Valuva in secret for a very important negotiation. We just stumbled upon a free bargaining chip. You’ve rendered a great service, Your Excellency!"

"What?" Druao processed two crucial pieces of information. ’Rorschach is coming to the heart of the Republic in secret, and the kid has already been promoted to Great Mage!’

The brother of a Mage was one thing, but a close relative of a Great Mage... The weight they carried was "slightly" different.

Although he had no love for Empireists, Druao still arranged for Franz’s personal belongings to be returned. He had a clean set of clothes brought for the boy to put on. A piece of close-fitting Soft Armor that someone had pocketed was also recovered. A faint glow pulsed across its surface, outlining barely-visible patterns. Even Druao, who wasn’t a Caster, could see it was no ordinary object.

After all this, Franz was taken away by the Mage from the Alchemy Department.

「...」

"I feel like I’m forgetting something," Rorschach said, a little bewildered.

Rorschach and Caroline chatted as they walked down the hallway of the new school in Bayern-Kempson. They passed one classroom after another, the intermittent sounds of lectures and students’ questions filling the air.

At first, Caroline hadn’t understood why Rorschach insisted on installing glass windows in the classroom doors and walls facing the hallway. Now, she did. The two of them were walking past the back door of a classroom when a sideways glance from Caroline made her stop short.

A student in the back row had been engrossed in a novel when an invisible hand suddenly snatched it away. The student, caught completely by surprise, let go. Before the eyes of the teacher and the other students, the book floated up into the air. In its place, a note fluttered down onto his desk: *Report to the second-floor dean’s office before school ends today.*

This sort of thing had happened more than once; teachers and students alike were used to it.

Rorschach shivered, reminded of his own school days. ’I originally had the windows put in so I could scare students with a stern look,’ he thought, ’and enjoy the show as they scrambled from slacking off to pretending to pay attention. But with Principal Caroline here, the whole thing has become terrifying.’

The brief pause gave Rorschach the moment he needed to remember what he’d forgotten. "I was supposed to bring the Mercers to Bayern before the school year started. At the very least, I needed to get Angela here in time to enroll. I’ve put it off until now. I’m planning to make the trip when I get back from Valuva."

"The Mercers... Are they your parents, Rorschach?"

’No! Well, maybe...’ Rorschach decided to evade the question. "What about your parents, Teacher Caroline?"

At his question, the light in her beautiful eyes dimmed. "My father was a Courtier to Charles XV, but he was framed during the turmoil of the succession. My mother... when I was young... Anyway, it was Master Kano who discovered my talent and brought me to the Tower of Stars. It was a form of protection, I suppose."

’Crap, I really put my foot in it.’ Rorschach was completely flustered. ’How am I supposed to comfort her? Compliment her on having a classic protagonist’s backstory? Reassure her that Charles XVI is already dead and gone?’

Thankfully, before Rorschach could offer some clueless remark, Caroline lifted her head and smiled. "So that’s why I keep my distance from Valois. It’s not just a difference in ideals, there’s the personal history factor as well...

"But whether it was at the Tower of Stars or in the Empire, I met wonderful people and received a lot of help. I’m content now, being here and doing work I believe is meaningful."

With that, she changed the subject. "If Mr. and Mrs. Mercer do come, you have to let me meet them. I’d love to see what kind of family produces a Great Mage."

"They’re just a farming family, the kind you see everywhere in the Empire..." Rorschach shook his head. "If I do bring them over, it will be enough to let my little sister get a better education than what’s available in her village. No special treatment beyond that. The more attention they draw, the more trouble will find them—and by extension, me."

As for Franz... Rorschach had heard in a letter that he’d been conscripted. According to the draft laws, he, the eldest brother, was the one who should have gone to the front. But of course, the recruitment office couldn’t find *his lordship* all the way over in Bayern, so they took Franz instead.

By the time Rorschach found out, Franz had already been sent to the front lines. His only option was to use his connections with the army’s logistics department to try and find out which unit Franz had been assigned to.

But Rorschach had yet to receive a definitive answer. The little brat hadn’t even sent a single letter home since he was enlisted, so no one had any idea what unit he was in.

Unless you were from one of the Empire’s prestigious Red, White, or Black Banner divisions, with a "von" in your name to guarantee special treatment from the moment you enlisted, finding a single common soldier was difficult. There were simply too many men, and coordinating between various departments and units took time. Just getting a request passed through the bureaucracy was a lengthy process.

Besides, he couldn’t make a big fuss about it and let the entire army know that some Great Mage was calling his little brother home for dinner.

’That brother he’d inherited is sixteen, after all. If he really dies on the battlefield, it’s not like I’ll break down in tears. Even the original Rorschach didn’t have much of a bond with him.’

’But if I have the power to protect him and just let him die at the front, I’ll still feel a pang of moral unease, and a slight sense of guilt toward the body’s original owner.’

"Sigh... I’ll deal with it after the negotiations," Rorschach muttered. "The fighting between the two countries isn’t that intense right now, anyway... I just hope that lieutenant colonel in the Empire Army’s logistics office gets back to me soon."

After Rorschach and Caroline finished their inspection of the school, it was time for him to depart. He was heading to Valuva once again, this time to hash things out with the Alchemy Department over the Transmuting Dust supply.