Magic Life in the Empire

The sun was still high in the sky by the time they reached the right part of the city.

Exiting the manarail, they were greeted with a sea of similar-looking grey houses; it was a residential district.

Morpho got up from Cyril's shoulder and started leading the way again; the place they are looking for should be one of the houses.

On the way, they met many tired people who looked like they could fall asleep while walking.

They didn't walk for long; after only about 10 minutes, Morpho stopped in front of the wall of one of the buildings.

The house didn't look any different from all the others around it, but it was undoubtedly the correct place.

"What should we do? It's not legal to break into houses; what if we get caught?" Anna was slightly nervous about the location of the bracelet.

"It's not legal to break into cafes either, but you are standing here." Cyril didn't think this was an issue.

He doubted that the thugs here would go to the guards later to report. Coupled with the fact that this was not a well-off district, their chances of being caught were quite low.

"Don't worry about it, Anna. It'll go smoothly, I can feel it," Cedric reassured her.

Now they needed to find out how to get inside, but no one was worried about it; they had already seen the relevant magic in action.

Cyril first waited until there was no one on the street who could see them, then he quietly used a spell and opened the doors of the house.

The group quickly came into a living room; it was too dark to see anything; the windows were closed.

Cyril found a light switch and turned it on. The place looked like an ordinary living space.

There was a kitchen attached to the living room; in the sink lay dirty dishes. Looking inside the fridge, it was full.

On the wall hung various pictures of some long-haired woman.

Overall the place looked quite lived in.

Everyone in the group, Cyril included, felt that this place must be only a hideout for some bandits, but this seems to be false.

Over the course of their investigations, they raised a bit of a commotion, but the owners of the house still were not seen.

"Is no one home?" This thought appeared in the heads of everyone present.

It shouldn't matter much, since their objective was only a bracelet, so Cyril encouraged Morpho to show where exactly it is located.

The butterfly took them to the bedroom of the house.

It wasn't big; the whole room only fit a single bed, a wardrobe, and a cupboard. Cyril's dorm was way bigger than this whole house.

The bed was untucked and messy; one of the pillows was lying on the floor along with half of the quilt.

The surviving pillow on the bed supported a stuffed animal in the form of a rabbit. "It's cute."

There were clothes lying everywhere on the ground and on the bed.

"Are we not the first ones to break into this house tonight?" Indeed, it looked like the place was ransacked by robbers.

"This just looks like someone's normal house. Did they sell the bracelet to someone innocent?" Cedric himself now got a bit tense. He was fine with robbing bandits, but the thought of going through a random civilian's house was unpleasant.

Morpho guided Cyril to open the lowest drawer of the cupboard by the bed.

Inside was someone's underwear, which Cyril calmly pulled out and dropped on the bed, but nothing else was seen.

He got confused for a moment, but, seeing how Morpho still flapped her wings in confidence, tried to touch the bottom.

He discovered the drawer had a false bottom; under it lay a small black box.

"Not so innocent, maybe," Rhamn lay on the bed, propping her head up with her arms as she looked at Cyril with anticipation.

He wasn't in a hurry to open the box; for some reason, it gave him a bad feeling.

Not being alone in that feeling, Cyril could hear Cedric warning him, "Don't open that!" His face was serious.

Cedric came close and crouched down nearby, getting a better look. "I told you before, I have a special constitution. Right now I can distinctly feel that there is magic working on this box." His black eyes closely monitored the box.

"Perhaps if you open it, some kind of spell will be triggered." It was only right to be careful, who knew what kind of things mages were capable of.

Soon Anna joined them; now three people sat nearby, unsure of how to proceed. None of them knew any spells that could deal with traps.

At this moment Cyril missed Myra a little, she would have definitely known a helpful spell for this situation.

"We can wait until the owner comes home and ask about this directly, or we can return to the academy and get help." It was no use sitting here; they couldn't figure out a way to open it.

"Do you know someone who can help? Does Rose know a useful spell?" Cedric misunderstood. Since Myra doesn't usually reveal that she knows a great deal of spells, few people are aware of her qualities as a mage.

"I think the second option is the best; let's get out of here before they arrive." Anna didn't want to trespass more than necessary.

They ultimately decided to leave, but before that, Anna tried to quickly arrange everything that they touched to its original state, though Cyril wasn't sure what that would accomplish, aside from wasting time. "It will make her feel better, I guess.".

Thanks to that, however, Cedric managed to discern a certain thing he almost missed.

He was standing before the wall in the living room, scrutinizing the pictures on the wall "Anna, Cyril, I think I recognize this woman".

When the two came closer to look, he continued, "She strongly reminds me of one of the members of 'Lapis' I met back on the day of the entrance ceremony. She carried a mask with only her eyes visible at the time, but it slipped for a few seconds. I am fairly confident it's her.".

The woman in the picture had long chestnut hair and green eyes. She was somewhat thin overall, but appeared confident, and her head was held high.

With this revelation, Cedric started feeling better about trespassing here; the owner of the house definitely wasn't innocent now.

Almost every citizen of the Empire has heard about the crimes of that group. Two out of three people here were late to the entrance ceremony because of them.

Cyril felt that something was weird. "But how did the item robbed by someone presumably from the Arken family end up in the hands of one of these terrorists?" That would imply a connection between the two.

The Arkens were a prestigious family in the Empire; they worked at the Tower after all. What benefit is there to consorting with a dangerous group like that?

"Should we wait until she comes home and arrest her on our own? Maybe we will get a reward." This brave idea came from Anna. With moral superiority now added to the mix, she also had a change of mentality.

"Let's just leave while we still have the chance, no need for violence today" Cedric was against the idea, they wasted way too much time already.

Some part of Cyril wanted to stay here and confront the Lapis member, but another thought about all sorts of trouble that would follow.

There will be an investigation done by the Empire about this incident, and his family will probably get involved somehow.

He didn't want to get involved with authorities

"That would've been fun at least, but I get it. Do what you think is right." Rhamn, of course, wanted to stay, but she won't insist on it. There were plenty of other interesting things in the world; no need to bother Cyril because of one.

Having finished with his internal decision-making, he faced the rest and agreed with Cedric's idea of retreat. "We still have classes tomorrow; I don't want to miss them. Let's get moving"

Seeing how two of her companions had the same opinion, Anna had to relent and cease any fantasies of getting a medal.

Even though they wasted this much time, no one came in the end. The road back was smooth, and the group didn't meet anyone suspicious on the way.

In no time at all they were already seated in the manarail on the route home.

"Do you think the Lapis had a mission tonight? Is that why we didn't meet anyone?" A somewhat disappointed Anna made a guess.

By now the sun was almost down; most of the people were already back home from work. Unless that woman's job is quite exploitative and keeps its employees overtime.

"We'll check the newspapers later. The important thing is we got the box." Cedric mused as well.

In the end, they simply took the box back with them to the academy. Myra will definitely be able to crack it open with no issues.

Cyril was reminded today of the fact that Cedric fought Lapis at some point. He'd heard many impressive stories about them and wanted to use this opportunity to find out the truth.

"After fighting them, what do you think of Lapis? Are they strong?" Holding the box in his hands, Cyril asked.

Cedric's face became slightly awkward; he made a short laugh before speaking, "About that... Don't tell anyone, ok?" He once again made sure no one else was nearby to listen.

"I wasn't actually the one to defeat the group; someone else did most of the fighting. I can't say more; I've made a promise." Judging by his reluctant face, Cedric only revealed this because he was in Cyril's debt.

"Anna seems to have known about it from the very beginning, though." Rhamn also started listening with interest.

"And their strength. Let's just say I would've never been able to last more than a few exchanges on my own. One of the reasons I wanted to leave is because I sincerely believe we would've lost." Those were challenging words.

"I know you are stronger than me, Cyril, but I didn't want to take any chances." Cedric's voice turned apologetic.

While Cyril indeed took pleasure in fighting strong people, he wasn't obsessed with it. Hearing this may have wounded his pride, but not too much.

Seeing Cyril's face still keep the same calm expression as always, Cedric scratched his hair, made a wry smile, and returned to waiting.

After some time, they finally reached the academy station and alighted with no issue.

They would've gone straight to find Myra, only it was nighttime already, Anna lived in a different dorm, and it was unlikely for her to slip in and find Myra at this hour.

So they decided to postpone the box opening for tomorrow; it's not like it can run anywhere from them.

"I'll keep it for now; tomorrow, before the lessons begin, I'll find Myra and meet you at the park." Cyril wanted to keep the thing with him for now.

The others didn't say anything in objection. It didn't really matter where the box would spend this night.

Since her dorm was in a different direction, Anna said her goodbyes and wanted to leave first. It looked like she was a bit more used to seeing Cyril now.

Her voice was no longer as quiet, and she now could look in his general direction.

Seeing this, Cedric decided to see her off. The academy grounds were quite safe usually, but with the precedent of someone breaking into his friend's room, he decided to be cautious.

Anna also waved her goodbyes to Morpho, who flapped her wings in response, still sitting on Cyril's shoulder. She was already a bit tired.

Before leaving, Cedric had one last thing to say: "This is already twice you've helped me. I will most definitely pay you back in the future; you can count on it." As he was saying this, he gave a thumbs up, and only after this did he start walking away.

"I guess we don't have any time left today to study." Rhamn lamented, walking side by side with Cyril.

Can't be helped. They talked until reaching the familiar dormitory.

Inside of his home, he put the mysterious black box inside his own drawer. He was curious what they would find tomorrow.

Then, since they happened to skip dinner, Cyril went towards the fridge to get something to eat.

He ate some of the snacks still left inside. Rhamn clamoured to buy them in the past, wanting to find out how they tasted "Good thing I did that, right?"

After getting rid of his hunger to some extent, he took a quick shower and changed; now he was ready for sleep.

Morpho was already trying to fall asleep inside of her terrarium, looking peaceful.

In the past, he brought some spell books from the library. Before saying goodbye to today, he decided to check them for anything that might help him with the box.

Unfortunately, there was nothing of the sort. He could go to the library to find something, but it was easier to ask Myra at this point. He didn't believe she was from Lapis.

He turned off the reading light above his bed and started to drift off to sleep.

Goodnight, Rhamn "Goodnight, Cyril."