“At the time, I was still a trainee priest, and I got assigned to a Bureau of Order operation alongside Priest Jeremy, who was my mentor. You never know when someone might fall under a Black Magician’s spell, after all.”
“Only two priests were sent? Seriously? I guess the Bureau of Order wanted all the credit for themselves,” Rita scoffed, clicking her tongue and shaking her head. Edward gave an awkward chuckle and continued.
“The Black Magician was housing several children who had nowhere else to go. It was under the guise of a school. In Cloverland, he was actually known as an eccentric magician and philanthropist.”
“Don’t tell me he lured them in saying he’d teach them, just to use them for his experiments?”
“That’s our working theory. According to the children who survived, a few had gone missing before, but since no bodies were found, there was no way to confirm it.”
“Makes sense. The ones still alive wouldn’t know what had happened to the others if nothing was done to them yet.”
To Satin, Edward’s story felt unfamiliar. The period in Dark Age when the protagonist Cain was captured by the Black Magician was never described in detail—just briefly mentioned through inner monologue at the start. There weren’t even any flashbacks.
Walking quietly behind them, listening all the while, Satin stepped forward and asked, “What happened to the kids who survived?”
“We’re not sure. Most of them were street kids to begin with, so there wasn’t really anywhere to send them back to.”
Satin frowned. Beside him, Rita snorted in disbelief. “Cloverland’s child welfare system is a total mess.”
It was a distinctly modern-sounding remark, but Satin didn’t call her out on it.
Edward picked up the thread again. “There was one kid who gave particularly detailed testimony. About how the Black Magician recruited and managed the children. Apparently, he created a sense of rivalry among them by saying he’d teach them magic.”
At the mention of “one kid who gave particularly detailed testimony,” Satin immediately thought of Cain. In the original story, Cain had been deeply moved by the Temple Knights who rescued him and aspired to become a Holy Knight himself. He never actually achieved it, but he continued to hold deep admiration for them.
“I still remember his name.”
It has to be Cain.
“It was Rogers.”
Satin couldn’t hide the shock on his face. Much of Dark Age was hazy in his memory, but he was sure there had never been a character named Rogers.
Edward noticed Satin’s expression and tilted his head. “Why do you look like that?”
Edward looked exactly as he was described in the novel: short, light brown hair, a slightly angular jawline, a strong impression, and a massive build. If they’d met at the temple, one could easily mistake him for a Temple Knight.
Both Edward and Rita practically screamed “main characters” just by existing—so where on earth was Cain?
Trying not to appear too suspicious, Satin asked, “Wasn’t there another kid? Someone… unusual, maybe?”
“Ah, there was one more. The last kid to leave the school. He came to his senses after everything was over and made a scene, insisting someone needed to be saved. I think his name was Dane?”
That’s Cain, for sure!
Just as Satin was about to ask what happened to that kid, Rita cut in first. “What do you mean ‘after everything was over’? After you caught the Black Magician?”
“We didn’t catch him.”
“What?!”
Rita’s eyes went wide in disbelief. Edward let out a somewhat bitter smile.
“The Bureau of Order’s methods were… extreme. They set the place on fire before they even rescued the kids.”
“Are you serious right now?”
Rita had said exactly what Satin was thinking. Edward quickly clarified, saying he hadn’t had any authority in the matter, then continued.
“Luckily, most of the kids managed to escape on their own. Dane almost didn’t make it out, but fortunately he was collapsed near the door, so we were able to rescue him in time.”
Relieved to hear that Cain—Dane—had made it out safely, Satin exhaled. But then a troubling phrase from earlier replayed in his mind.
“Most of the kids?”
“Right… One kid didn’t make it. Actually, two.”
Edward, who had been staring off into the distance while recalling the past, suddenly turned and looked directly at Satin.
“The Black Magician and a child named Satin died in the fire.”
“…Same name as me.”
Satin pretended not to notice, even though he was certain that the Satin they were talking about was, in fact, him. Edward showed no sign of suspecting anything. He seemed to believe it was simply a coincidence that they shared the same name.
Edward gave a slight shrug. “They say the child was the Black Magician’s disciple, so in a way, it was a relief. At least he wasn’t an innocent victim.”
The Black Magician and his disciple, burned to death in the fire.
Satin’s thoughts immediately turned to his recently deceased grandfather. The old man he remembered always stared blankly into space, drooling at times and unable to control his bowels.
…So that’s what happened to him.
It must not have been dementia after all. It had to be brain damage from the accident.
The villagers used to say his grandfather was lucky. That he’d lived a blessed life, being cared for so diligently by his family until the very end. They even praised Satin for it. But now, it was clear that wasn’t the truth.
He was just unlucky.
He’d made it out of the flames, only to end up like that. If the real Satin had stayed by his grandfather’s side, would things have been different? Maybe he would’ve known a spell that could heal his condition.
Is that where everything started going wrong?
Cain’s whereabouts were still a mystery, and Satin—tasked with summoning the Demon King to avenge his master—was now stuck in the wrong place. Meanwhile, Rita had tracked down traces of the Black Magician… but whose traces were they, exactly?
***
Eventually, the three of them arrived at a wide, peculiar clearing—about the size of a school field.
There was a single pit in the clearing, with several spots nearby showing signs of being filled back in. It looked as though pits had been dug and then buried again, over and over. But for what purpose? Satin had no clue.
A waste disposal site?
If so, it didn’t smell like one. The weather had been quite muggy for the past few days—there should’ve been a stench if that were the case.
“This is Cloverland’s cremation site.”
At Rita’s words, Satin instinctively frowned. Even the small village he had stayed in had a proper crematory. People would gather around the furnace where the bodies were burned, offering prayers in a space that was both clean and solemn.
Compared to that, this place felt utterly desolate.
No… even calling it desolate feels too generous.
It was just an empty field. Nothing more. Wouldn’t it feel wrong to burn a loved one’s body in a place like this?
As Satin looked around with a grimace, Edward provided further explanation. “Technically speaking, this isn’t the official crematory. There’s a separate one for the public. This place is for cremating unclaimed bodies. It’s often a group cremation, and since there’s no one to pay the costs…”
Perhaps because it was about his own region, or maybe because the topic was unseemly for a priest, Edward looked slightly embarrassed.
Still, now that he understood the context, Satin nodded and followed Rita’s lead.
Walking among the traces of dug-up earth, Rita spoke. “I’ve been researching magic related to tracking.”
“Tracking? Tracking what, exactly?” Edward asked.
Rita straightened up proudly. “Tracking other people’s magic.”
Satin and Edward exchanged glances, both looking equally clueless. It was the kind of reaction only those completely ignorant of magic would give.
Since she was walking a few steps ahead, Rita didn’t notice their reaction and kept talking. “If there were a way to find magicians hiding among the general population, so many things would change.”
“Like what, for example?” Edward asked.
“Like catching bad magicians.”
The phrase “bad magicians” sounded childish, almost like something out of a fairy tale. Satin didn’t know what exactly separated Rita’s “bad magicians” from Black Magicians. Thankfully, Rita didn’t wait for the question.
“There are crimes that leave no trace. We know a magician did it, but there’s no evidence—so there’s no way to catch them.”
It was still fantasy, but it felt like the subgenre had shifted. Still, Satin remained quiet and listened.
Edward, on the other hand, looked slightly surprised. From the look on his face, it seemed he hadn’t expected Rita to be the type to research such socially meaningful magic.
Rita glanced over her shoulder with a sly grin. “It was actually my master’s research. With the formulas we’ve discovered so far, we can only trace the magic residue. But the goal is to identify the actual person who used it.”
“I’ve heard most magicians prefer to keep their research secret, but you—” Edward began, then abruptly stopped. It seemed he’d caught himself about to say something inappropriate.
Fortunately, Rita either didn’t notice or didn’t care. “I’m not sharing the formulas themselves, so it doesn’t matter. You have to say what kind of help you need before anyone can help you, right?”
Rita came to a stop.
She was standing at the border between the clearing and the forest, right in front of one of the filled-in pits. Scorch marks dotted the dry, cracked soil, and sparse weeds had begun to sprout in the area.
Kneeling down, Rita placed her hand on the ground. She whispered something—too soft to make out clearly.
She’s casting magic.
It wasn’t the first time, so Satin recognized the moment instantly. Edward gestured for him to step back.
That familiar glow—just like the one they’d seen in front of the temple—appeared again before Satin’s eyes. According to Rita, it was magical energy. It spread out smoothly across the rough, uneven ground.
Feels like watching an anime.
