"I can say with absolute certainty—of everyone I've encountered, no one has visited here as frequently as you."
"Yeah, yeah, maybe so... I don't really want to come either, but I keep getting asked, so..."
"And on your second visit you became a noble, and now on this third visit you're serving as Princess Nora's personal envoy... Your rise through the ranks has been quite something. Not to mention you've even brought the Thunder Emperor along this time... Yet even after all of this, you still don't come across as someone important to me."
The prison staff member guided me through the interior while delivering their usual brand of bluntness.
The prison building was, as always, virtually deserted—utterly, profoundly quiet.
The last time I'd visited, a fierce confrontation between the prison security forces and Krai had taken place, but there were no traces of any damage remaining.
"Does anyone actually visit this place?"
"Not many. Some come for release purposes, like yourself. Others come to be imprisoned. There haven't been any of the latter recently, though—the last person we put in was the Thunder Emperor, and the one before that was your target today. Both were assessed as maximum danger. Normally, the city system tends toward leniency in its prisoner assessments—"
"I wasn't dangerous or anything. Well, if I'd managed to break out, I probably would have destroyed the prison to rescue Cool and the others..."
The staff member shot me a look of utter shock. My childhood friends would have done exactly the same thing in that situation, so I couldn't really fault them...
It seemed we were being led somewhere different from last time.
Following the staff member down a clean—if nothing else—corridor, the atmosphere grew increasingly ominous. Mechanized soldiers began lining the hallway, cannon barrels protruded from the walls in neat rows, and they swiveled to track us as we passed. The floor where Krai had been held hadn't been anything near this heavily guarded.
What on earth were they keeping in here?
We arrived before a massive black door. The staff member explained.
"This particular containment designation is for a special prisoner. When we imprisoned the Thunder Emperor, we prepared a dedicated room—but for this prisoner alone, we allocated an entire floor."
The door opened soundlessly before my widening eyes.
It was an enormous room—easily several hundred meters on each side. Near the entrance, a partition wall divided the space, with glass panels that allowed us to see the area beyond.
In other words, this was a prison cell like the one Krai had been confined in. Except the sheer scale was beyond anything normal.
In the center of the vast, empty space, a man was floating.
A man enclosed within what looked like a rhombus-shaped crystal. It was, in a word, an unsettling sight.
"That is the recent addition—codename 'Sky.' He is the worst mage in existence."
Unlike Krai, he wasn't bound by chains. He wasn't covered in wounds, either. I couldn't tell what the diamond-shaped substance imprisoning him was made of, but it was immediately obvious that this was no ordinary prison.
"At first glance, the security might look lenient, yes? The crystal containing 'Sky' is extraordinarily hard, both physically and magically. On top of that, the entire room is subjected to intense gravitational force, so even if Sky awakens, he can do nothing. And even if the gravity were somehow neutralized, we've configured the room for immediate sniper response. These precautions exist because everything in Sky's vicinity is enveloped by an unknown power."
I see... I didn't really understand most of that, but the prison in Code was truly a terrifying place.
I approached the glass wall and tried to get a better look at codename "Sky" from a distance.
Sky looked, at first glance, like an ordinary man. Average build, and perhaps it was because his eyes were closed, but he didn't look like a powerful mage at all.
Then I noticed that Krai, standing beside me, was furrowing his brow.
"That presence—that can't be... But why would he be here of all places? He should be under international arrest, on the run. Well, there are plenty of organizations that deal with Codes, so their involvement is entirely plausible, but..."
"Hm? Something wrong?"
He'd been muttering under his breath, so I called out to him. Krai shook his head and answered with his usual expression.
"...No, it's nothing. I'm just here as an escort today. But you should be careful—I don't know how much power that mage actually wields. I've trained considerably since the Martial Emperor Festival, and... I can understand why they'd maintain this level of security."
Even by Krai's assessment, this guy was seriously dangerous. It seemed like once again, I had no sense for these things at all.
Cool and the others, who'd come along, were also staring at Sky with stunned expressions.
"We can relay our voices to the other side. Mind you, Sky has never once shown any reaction, so it's questionable whether he can even hear us... Given that he repels the city system's magical interference entirely."
They'd really managed to capture someone like that. But trying to win over someone when you weren't even sure they could hear you? Nora was really pushing it this time.
I understood now why the knights around me had protested this plan as impossible. Was this person even safe to have walking around outside?
"Well, could you at least relay our appearance and voice to his side? I'll give it a try."
Nora probably didn't think this would work either.
I'd just try casually, and if it didn't work out, I'd deal with it then.
§ § § The secret organization known as the Nine-Tailed Shadow Fox—commonly called "Fox." Its former boss, once known as Sky-Tail, was now trapped in a hopeless situation.
It had all started with the incident at the Martial Emperor Festival. After that, Sky-Tail had been hunted as a traitor to the organization. He'd fought off his pursuers with everything he had, only to finally be cornered and defeated by an equal-ranking boss—Sword-Tail.
He'd barely managed to erect an absolute barrier at the last second, but in this state, even Sky-Tail couldn't launch any attack. If he loosened the barrier for even an instant, that crazy woman who'd devoted everything to her blade would seize the opening without hesitation.
But Sword-Tail, being a boss, was a busy person. She couldn't keep watch over Sky-Tail forever. There had been a window of opportunity—but Sword-Tail's subsequent move had exceeded anything Sky-Tail had anticipated.
She'd thrown him into the prison of Code, the High-Mobility Fortress City.
"Heh heh heh... Even you can't break out of this prison, I'm sure. Once we've analyzed that barrier, I'll take my time dismantling you."
Sky-Tail hadn't had jurisdiction over Code, so he didn't know the details—but just as Sword-Tail had said, Code's capabilities were immensely troublesome.
The city's military forces and armaments were formidable enough, but what was particularly dangerous for a mage was the unique anti-magic field that dissipated any constructed spells.
The only reason Sky-Tail had been able to maintain his barrier was that he'd set it up outside the city. The barrier reflected Code's anti-magic field back at it. If he released it, he would never be able to erect a barrier of this caliber within the city again.
If this had been an ordinary prison, he could have escaped despite the anti-magic measures—but his plan had failed.
That woman, infuriatingly, had clearly not underestimated Sky-Tail in the slightest. If she established a solid foothold within Code and secured the city's full cooperation, it was only a matter of time before his barrier was analyzed.
Before that happened, he absolutely had to exact revenge on that woman—the one who'd used Thousand Transformations at the Martial Emperor Festival to frame him, branding him a traitor. But first, he had to get out of this cell. Nothing would begin without that.
It wasn't entirely impossible. Code was not a monolithic entity. Within the city, a succession war between the royal houses was brewing, and factions were scrambling for military strength. There were royals beyond the one Sword-Tail had aligned with.
He'd been placed in a special cell and waited for the right opportunity—but no faction worthy of the name had shown up.
Visitors had come to his cell from time to time, but they were all far too weak.
For an organization alliance, the factions that Sword-Tail had partnered with were likely the largest bloc—or at minimum, equivalent to it. Anyone below that threshold wasn't worth forming an alliance with.
Sealed within the crystal along with his barrier, he'd lost track of how many days had passed.
As the succession war drew nearer, fewer and fewer people came to check on him.
The first communication to reach Sky-Tail in ages came when he was on the verge of complete resignation.
"Hello, hello? Can you hear me, Sky? Well, if you can't, that's fine too..."
It was a shock on par with the time he'd been struck by lightning out of nowhere at the Martial Emperor Festival.
His consciousness, kept at minimum levels to sustain the barrier, jolted awake in an instant.
He raised his head and glared through the glass. His agitation disrupted the spell formula, and the crystal trembled violently.
This was a voice that could shake the iron will of Sky-Tail—a man who'd maintained an unbroken barrier for over a month through sheer mental fortitude alone.
It was a voice that still haunted his nightmares.
Why are you—Thousand Transformations—here?
This was the man who'd framed Sky-Tail with that absurd scheme, who'd pinned on him the false accusation of activating the Treasure Weapon "Key of the Earth." Given the importance of the mission, he was undoubtedly one of Sword-Tail's direct subordinates—and therefore one of Sky-Tail's most bitter enemies.
Sky-Tail opened his eyes. Gritting his teeth, he glared through the glass. His heart gave a powerful, heavy beat.
On the other end of the communication, he sensed someone catching their breath.
But Thousand Transformations' voice was, as always, utterly relaxed—to put it bluntly, the voice of someone who wasn't thinking about anything at all—and he said something incomprehensible.
"If you'd like, I could release you. In exchange, would you be willing to help me out?"
...What? What was this man saying?
For an instant, Sky-Tail forgot his anger. The words were so meaningless that they'd made him forget his rage.
It went without saying that Sky-Tail would never cooperate with one of Sword-Tail's subordinates who had framed him. For a former boss like Sky-Tail to submit to Sword-Tail was unthinkable, even on the verge of death.
But it was equally obvious that Thousand Transformations, known for his cunning stratagems, would know that much.
Sky-Tail suppressed his fury and considered the true meaning behind those words.
Thousand Transformations had framed Sky-Tail on Sword-Tail's orders, bringing about his downfall. Sword-Tail had captured Sky-Tail and thrown him into the Code prison. And now Thousand Transformations was asking for that very same Sky-Tail's cooperation.
This meant— Sky-Tail parted his lips and spoke for the first time in ages.
"Cooperation... you say? Your backer is... 'Sword-Tail'?"
"!? .............Wait... Sword-Tail? Who's that?"
His voice sounded genuinely as though he had no idea. At that absurd performance, Sky-Tail became certain.
This man—this time, he was planning to betray Sword-Tail.
Truth be told, Thousand Transformations' actions at the Martial Emperor Festival had been completely unhinged from the very start. If Sky-Tail hadn't stopped him with everything he had, the "Key of the Earth" that Thousand Transformations had activated would have needlessly razed several nations.
Sword-Tail was strong, certainly, but she was fundamentally a pure combatant—she shouldn't have possessed the ability to devise a strategy that accounted for every one of Sky-Tail's thoughts.
In fact, Thousand Transformations' actions back then had been far too smooth, too without hesitation. Only the person who'd conceived that absurd plan would have been able to execute it without a shred of doubt.
So that was it... Sword-Tail hadn't been able to properly control Thousand Transformations?
Perhaps the reward hadn't been sufficient—or perhaps there was some other reason.
Even setting aside the orders, the act of framing a boss was the kind of thing that, if exposed within the organization, would lead to certain punishment. Sky-Tail could understand now why Sword-Tail hadn't provided adequate compensation.
And—if a man capable of pulling off such a scheme was willing to betray his superior, it should be easy enough.
"If you don't want to cooperate, that's fine too. Either way, if you're against it, the release request won't go through."
This was—an opportunity. If he wasn't released now, there would be no chance before the succession war.
Thousand Transformations was certainly an enemy, but the one who deserved priority in dealing with was Sword-Tail. Besides, while Thousand Transformations' machinations were terrifying enough that even Sky-Tail couldn't fully comprehend them, having him as an ally would make for a powerful weapon.
The decision took mere seconds. Suppressing his anger, Sky-Tail glared through the glass.
"...Fine. Release me. I'll lend you my power."
Sword-Tail... I'll teach you what true despair is.
I'll make you regret using that lunatic Thousand Transformations to frame me and encroach upon my territory.