I left on an emergency extermination order this morning. Usually, we only get requests for monster extermination, even for emergencies. It was not compulsory to accept these requests. That was why Natasha could skip out each time and not get penalized for it.

However, this time, we got an order. Orders came directly from the Headmaster, and we could not refuse them. This time, the order addressed 'all available mages'. Which was why I was presently in the middle of tracking down exactly what we were ordered to exterminate, alongside Natasha.

Natasha was a brilliant scout. Give her a tiny bit of information to go off of, and she'd have a report ready on the entire nest, its size, a diagram of their residence, their strongest members, and practically anything else you would need by the next morning. She could track down any monster in the city within half an hour.

And yet, we were playing tag with a monster that Natasha just couldn't find for some reason. This had been going on for an hour. The monster was so perfect at hiding its presence that we could only guess where it ran off to. Almost as if there weren't a monster in the first place...

Well, no point in doubting the validity of an order. There were some quite strict conditions on issuing an order, confirming the existence of the target being one of them.

Suddenly, in the middle of our chase, Natasha stopped. She looked at me with eyes of urgency, and said, "Roma's in danger." But how did she know that? "I'll tell you later. Order or not, Roma doesn't even have a wand to defend himself with. I can always track down that monster later."

Shortly after, we teleported, only to find ourselves at a bus stand. We were lucky that nobody saw us teleporting. Besides, where was Roma at? Did he get kidnapped? "He seems alright for now, but he shouldn't be outside the University at all, unless something went down."

We should probably track him down, then. "I can only track him when he's in danger. We can try looking for marks of violence near this place."

We looked about the area, behind the bushes, on the other side of the road, in the alleyways, but found nothing. Was Natasha sure about Roma being in danger? Her actions felt a little suspicious. Maybe she was under the influence of a curse.

Suddenly, Natasha began panicking. "Roma's in great danger! I know where he is right now. We need to hurry!" We teleported outside a strange hospital amidst a jungle of apartment blocks. This place reeked of mana. There was likely a mage here. Lena? Natasha seemed to come to a similar conclusion.

"Hey Alexei, this place seems strange, so I'm going to use 'that'." The 'that' Natasha spoke of was her ability to entirely hide her presence. It earned her the title of a mage, but due to the plethora of secretive uses it could be put to, knowledge of it was restricted to the Headmaster and me.

After a chant, Natasha completely disappeared. She now made no sound and leaked no mana. Even though I was aware of her ability, I could not detect her presence. Of course, she could also not communicate with me, so I was on my own. She could be walking right next to me, or she could have already been inside, scouting.

I walked inside the building, trying to steer clear of traps. Having explored monster lairs for years, I could sneak into a place trapped to the last centimeter with lethal weapons if I had to. That experience did not extend to traps set by other mages. Or the lairs of mages in the first place.

I heard a thud come from a floor above me, as if someone crashed onto the floor. I scanned the surroundings for a staircase, and bolted there as fast as I could. The noise could have been Roma too.

I found a room which seemed to be lit by an incandescent bulb in the distance. I approached slowly, making sure not to make much noise. I stood right next to the doorsill, with my back to the wall. I could hear a hushed voice, which sounded suspiciously similar to Lena's. It was likely that she was behind this incident.

There was a little bit of glass in a doorway right opposite. I used it to get a view of what was inside the room I was going to enter. I saw Roma laying down on the ground, and a girl with some cloth in her mouth hanging on a bed behind him. Roma was facing the other direction, so he could not see me. For some odd reason, the previously quiet girl suddenly started screaming.

Lena entered the reflection too, and flipped Roma onto his stomach. She held his hands and leisurely tied him up. All this while, the girl tied to the bed was screaming her lungs out, which helped mask my footsteps. She was facing the doorway, so she happened to notice me in the reflection, upon which she started screaming even more loudly.

"Shut up already, would you!" said Lena in a loud voice. The girl obliged for one second, then continued screaming.

I felt a pat on my shoulder. It was likely Natasha. There were a few times when we had to work like this to help rescue people; her patting me meant she was ready for an assault on our target. Our target here was Lena. I nodded and silently counted to three.

One. I readied my wand. I thought about what spells she could use against a surprise attack. Three spells came to mind.

Two. I recollected the countermeasures to each spell. I picked a spell to use in the attack myself.

Three. I quickly turned around the sill and fired off an Unbind spell. I had realized that attacking her would be a bad move if she ended up dodging the attack, so I decided to fire an Unbind hoping she would decide to dodge.

And dodge the spell she did. It hit Roma and the ropes she was casually tying came off. His belt, too, came off as a consequence of the spell.

"How the fuck are you already here?" she shrieked. "Weren't you supposed to be exterminating another monster?"

"So that was your doing too," I concluded. There was no point in talking much. Besides, there was an arrest order for Lena. It was unlikely that I could detain her in the current situation, but I could try.

"We represent the mage corps of Moscow," I began. "Yield your-"

"I won't yield shit to you!" yelled Lena, interrupting me. She then dived at Roma to make contact with him, probably to attempt a Teleport. She started her shortened chant in midair. I assumed it would be the usual, slow variant, but she sped it up midway for some reason, and I could not stop her in time.

The spell was cast. I looked at Roma, expecting him to have teleported... only to find that he was still laying on the floor. Did Lena teleport alone?

"Natasha, if you're here, tap me on the shoulder." I waited for five seconds. I was not tapped on my shoulder.

Where could have Natasha disappeared? Or maybe, while blocking Roma, Natasha ended up getting whisked away herself? This was bad. If Lena realized that Natasha was with her, she could be in danger.

However, it was also a great chance to infiltrate their base and investigate their plans more thoroughly. Natasha knew how to get out of a prickly situation nine times out of ten, so I wasn't panicking too much. As long as she was not noticed, she would get out without any issues. Some part of me, however, could not help but worry.

I turned my attention to Roma. I chanted a recovery spell. "「May the Spirits free you of your ailments, for you were wrongly cursed. Ailment Nullify!」"

Roma immediately sprang up to untie the girl. "Lana, are you all right?" he kept asking her. The girl herself, apparently called Lana, nodded her head, with watery eyes devolving into full-blown tears.

Roma pulled out the sock from her mouth and she started coughing. Despite that, having just been freed of her restraints, she crashed onto Roma in a hug, her face a mess of tears and snot. "I was worried..." she managed to say amidst the coughs and her crying.

"It's all good now," said Roma, while patting her on the back. Finally acknowledging my presence, Roma asked if I could cast her some water. I gladly obliged. This girl was probably going to have her memories wiped soon, so a little more magic wouldn't be too harmful.

Having finally calmed down, she looked at me with a serious face, and asked, "Are you stronger than the lady who was here just now?" It was hard to say, so I said, "We're about the same, but we have our own strengths."

She looked down, as if to process that information, and then looked at me with pleading eyes. "Could you please help my brother? He tried to protect me, but that lady did something, and..." Lana started crying, unable to hold back.

"S-She says they'll d-deal with him... at their hideout," she said in between sobs.

She started crying again, hugging Roma even tighter. He patted her back and told her, "Don't worry, we'll get your brother back to safety." She seemed to try saying something in response but the sobbing made her words unintelligible.

Her second bout of tears was a lot more short-lived, and so I began to inquire about what else she was told.

Lena had told her the location of their hideout, and how to get there. It didn't sit well with me that they would give away that location so easily. It may have been a trap. I decided to wait for contact from Natasha before heading there.

Once the girl started talking, she would keep going on and on. She went on talking about this and that and every little detail, until finally absentmindedly saying, "Oh wait, she said something about a 'magic revolution' too. She said that they'd unleash 'monsters' on the city and expose magic or something. I don't understand what these 'monsters' are but she said it like it was serious trouble."

I immediately asked, "Did she tell you anything specific?" She replied, "Not really. If anything, she was doing it just to boast."

I spent a little while composing my thoughts. For some reason, Lena blabbed about their hideout's location and their monster plan to some stranger unrelated to magic. Exactly what was she trying to achieve?

"Well, I guess we should head towards the University for now. You're Lana, right? I'm sorry, but everything you've seen so far is confidential."

"I understand," she replied.

"So I'm going to have to wipe your memories of this incident," I continued.

Silence.

"Huh? But why?"

"Those are the rules of the world of magic."

"Wait, but wouldn't it be bad if I forgot about the magic revolution or whatever? What if I stumble upon one of those monsters? I don't want to die!" She banged her fists on the floor.

"Don't worry, we are working on thwarting their plans. You won't be running into any monsters."

"Didn't you say you're both equally strong? She said she has a lot of allies. You couldn't possibly deal with everyone!"

"It is not only me who will be facing them. We have reliable allies too."

"But what if you're too late?"

"...We will do everything in our efforts to make sure we are not."

"And if that's still not enough? If you can't stop them, would you leave the city to burn?"

I faltered in my response. I hadn't considered what we would do if we failed to stop Apophis. Sure, we could try to fight the horde... but would that mean that the death of many would be unavoidable?

No, it just meant that we had to ensure that we do not leave even a single gap in our counter strategy.

However... maybe it would not be so bad to have this girl know about an incoming crisis. An idea popped into my head.

"Fine, I will leave your memories of this information intact, for the time being," I started. "However, there are conditions."

"I'm listening," the girl said.

"I will have you swear on a blood oath that you shall not speak of the crisis itself, or of magic, but only use this information to help protect yourself and your family."

"Second, if... when the crisis is averted, I will wipe your memories of the entire incident."

It allowed her to protect her family if she needed to, but also ensured that she would keep her mouth zipped about magic.

"F-fine. As long as I can protect my family," she replied.

"Then it's settled. Let us now perform the blood oath." I made a small cut in the palm of my hand, and did the same on her palm. She winced with pain, but looked determined. I held her hand in mine and stated the terms once more.

"Do you swear that you shall only use the information regarding magic and the incoming crisis solely to protect yourself and your close ones, and not to make mention of either of those to any third party not witnessing this oath?"

She looked at me with determined eyes, and said, "I swear."

I chanted the spell. "「O Spirits, may you bear witness to the terms of this oath, and may you punish those who do not abide by it. Blood Oath!」"

A pale blue light shone from our hands, and soon faded. I released her hand. "With this, you are bound by a blood oath. Should you breach it, your blood will boil away and you will die."

"What the fuck did you just bind me with?" she said, with a look of disgust on her face. "I suggest you don't try it out yourself," I replied.

In reality, blood oaths weren't very common. They were only performed for keeping top secrets or when you really couldn't trust a person. This case involved both of these, so it was the way to go.

"Very well. For now, we must head back to the University to wait for contact from Natasha," I said. "Let's hope she brings us some good news."