Re: Love & Magic

Tarto went into the bush and dug out the storage ring before returning to Zevien.

“Hehe, I got their storage ring,” Tarto snickered as he broke the ring’s lock and opened it before taking out the X-Door crystal.

“So this is it, huh?” Zevien curiously looked at the glass container that contained the crystal.

“Let me observe it properly and see what’s it about,” Tarto said before observing the crystal with focus, his eyes gleaming with a starry-black hue.

*Ding…*

Suddenly someone rang a bell.

“Put it inside and hide it with you,” Zevien quickly said in a low voice. Tarto put the container inside the ring and disappeared with it.

Zevien opened the door and saw the manager and two people, a man and a woman, wearing a magic guild enforcer uniform.

“Mr. Alucard. First of all, I would like to apologize for the inconvenience,” Martin solemnly said as he bowed.

Zevien nodded before he asked calmly, “did you question them? I want to know why they targeted me.”

“We will do that soon. But before that, we wanted to know if you know anything about them,” the woman said.

“Nothing,” Zevien shook his head, “It’s my first time coming here, and nobody knows me. All I can think of is that they targeted me to remove me from the contest.”

“Haha, that could be possible,” the male enforcer laughed and nodded, “after all, you did perform flashily in the first round.”

“How did you discover the poison?” the woman enforcer asked.

“I am a cautious man,” Zevien smiled, “I used a poison detection spell before eating and found an anomaly in the soup.”

Martin looked at the enforcers and said, “I believe this is enough of questioning for the victim. Now would you please question those three men?”

The enforcers nodded and left.

Martin stayed and looked at Zevien with a polite smile before saying, “for this trouble, we would like to compensate you with this special guest card. You can use the card five times. With this card, you will get a 50% discount on your total spending whenever you use the card. On top of that, we will refund all the money that you have paid today.”

Zevien casually took the card and nodded, “thanks. Now I would like to rest because I have to participate in the contest tomorrow. Tell me tomorrow morning if you can find out why they attempted to poison me.”

“Alright,” Martin nodded with a smile, “I hope this poison attempt information will stay inside and not get out from here.”

“What poison attempt?”

“Have a good night, Mr. Alucard,” Martin said with a smile and left.

…

On the other hand, a new guest arrived at the resort. He wore a black gabardine with gray designs, a detective hat, and black round glasses.

Arriving at the reception desk, he said with a charming smile, “I would like to stay here for the night. Highest package for 3rd class magician but remove the food cost as I have already eaten.”

The reception lady awkwardly smiled, “sorry, sir. We can’t remove the food cost since it is 55% of the bill. Our resort is known for the food prepared by our excellent mystic chefs that can benefit your mind and body. For 3rd class magician package, all food is prepared with at least 2 to 3 tier-3 ingredients in each dish.”

“Oh well, then I guess I have to taste it,” Black Hawk smiled and gave her the card to pay the bill.

Suddenly, he looked to his left and saw two magic guild enforcers. Raising his eyebrows, he asked, “what are the magic guild enforcers doing here?”

“I don’t know,” the reception lady answered with a polite smile, “here, please take your credit card and this card key. A maid will shortly arrive and lead you to your room.”

After a while, Black Hawk entered his room and started his operation. He put a microphone inside his ear and double-tapped the frame of his round glasses as they flashed a display in front of his eyes.

Afterward, he took out a tiny metal insect that flew out in his garden and started digging in a corner.

He was also receiving support from the headquarter through his glasses and a microphone inside his ears as he started searching for the storage ring.

Alas, that storage ring was already in someone’s hands.

“Wow…,” Tarto muttered while observing the crystal. A second later, he disappeared while the glass container fell onto the bed.

“Tarto? Where are you?” Zevien questioned but got no response from Tarto. “What’s going on?” He frowned.

A few seconds later, Tarto returned.

“What did you find out?” Zevien asked, his eyes blinking with curiosity and caution. Just what were they planning to do inside Starlight City with this crystal?

Tarto looked at Zevien with an intrigued expression before saying, “I sent my consciousness through the space magic dimensional ripples while staying in my fairy realm to make it possible and succeeded in reaching the other side of the connection.”

“What did you see?” Zevien asked as his eyebrows creased.

“This crystal will open a portal connected to a certain spot of a certain magic labyrinth. A lot of magic beasts were in that spot. There were even three grade-1 magic beasts and tens of grade-2 magic beasts,” pausing for a bit, Tarto’s expression turned a bit grave, “if they activated this crystal in Starlight City, a lot of people would die.”

“Fuck!” Zevien cursed as his expression turned furious, and clenched his fist in anger. “Why would they do that? Who are these people in the first place? An enemy nation or a certain organization?”

Tarto adopted a thoughtful expression while caressing its whiskers. As if he remembered something, he asked, “did something like this happen before the time rewind?”

“No,” Zevien shook his head, but the next second, his face changed. “Wait…actually, it happened. But not in Starlight City or Lopax country. I remember the breaking news that something similar to a magic eruption spot appeared in Falano city of Pernol country, resulting in a tragedy that killed tens of thousands of people.”

“Well, then. This crystal is a doom bringer for normal people living in the cities,” Tarto said as he looked at the crystal.