Magical User Aozaki Aoko Case Files Chapter 008

On the fourth day after the old magus of the Aozaki family’s body cracked, Aozaki Touko, who was preparing to fly to London at the airport, saw news from Misaki City in the newspaper.

“The local prominent family, the Fumizuka family, was attacked by unknown individuals. No one in the family survived, and the cause of death is still under investigation. Fumizuka Eiri, the eldest son of the Fumizuka family who works at the local Goda Church, is missing. Misaki City police suspect he may have a motive for the crime and have dispatched a large number of police officers to search for him.”

Touko read this and managed to fold the newspaper, placing it aside. She felt a headache coming on and gently pinched the bridge of her nose.

She now felt completely out of place in this strange Misaki City. The sooner she could get to London, the sooner she would relax…

Touko opened her shoulder bag, intending to find a painkiller, but unexpectedly discovered a letter. Frowning, she opened the envelope and found that the letter contained only a few sentences. One read, “It’s best to eliminate Cornelius Alba as soon as possible.” The other said, “It’s best to kill Araya Souren too.” The letter was signed, “Your dear sister.”

As soon as she finished reading, the letter spontaneously combusted. Cerulean flames instantly reduced the paper to ashes, leaving nothing behind.

—Separation Line—

Upon arriving at the Clock Tower in London, Aozaki Touko immediately immersed herself in a busy and fulfilling life of study and research. Touko, with her astonishing talent, quickly became a star at the Clock Tower. Through her efforts, the Lord of the Department of Creation, Inorai Barbeleta Atrohom, became Aozaki Touko’s mentor.

After studying for a while, Touko discovered that this elegant and noble old woman, despite her outwardly gentle demeanor, was in fact a cold and ruthless magus at heart.

Seeing through this, Touko couldn’t help but sigh inwardly at her former self. Compared to both her mentor and her sister, whom she had unconsciously looked down upon, the past Aozaki Touko was undoubtedly naive.

No, Aoko and Barbeleta are different, Touko thought. Aoko is freer than Barbeleta; she does whatever she wants.

Thinking about it now, how could Aoko, who possessed an inhuman number of magic circuits and magical energy efficiency, and had even developed many strange spells herself, be an ordinary magus?

But I am different now, Aozaki Touko thought firmly. I will never be weak again.

That being said, Touko, who had been in London for several months, was still unaccustomed to British “cuisine.” This made her greatly miss the delicious food Aoko used to prepare for her. She had unconsciously grown used to that care, and now, having lost it, she was filled with regret.

Although she planned to fight Aoko in the future to determine a winner, Touko no longer had the pathological notion from the original timeline of “having to kill Aoko to seize the magic.” It was more about her obsession with proving to her grandfather that she was no less capable than her sister.

Speaking of which, is grandfather truly a magus? Even without his physical body, he seems unchanged, still “alive” and well…

—Separation Line—

Aside from the various trivial matters during her research at the Clock Tower, Touko was very concerned about the letter Aoko had left her.

Why did she need to pay attention to Cornelius Alba and Araya Souren? Touko had secretly investigated Alba during this time. His research field was similar to Touko’s, involving Runic magic and puppet creation, but Touko considered him merely a mediocre talent, nothing worth noting.

However, during their interactions, his intentional and unintentional overtures made Touko quite disgusted. He was an old man nearing fifty, yet he maintained a twenty-year-old appearance through magic.

It wasn’t that Touko herself opposed using magic to slow aging, but Alba’s methods were too crude… Although his appearance was that of a twenty-year-old youth, his physical functions and magic circuit efficiency had undoubtedly aged to fifty. In other words, he was the type who couldn’t achieve much but still used low-grade illusions to maintain a superficial facade of dignity.

Due to Aoko’s warning, Touko was undoubtedly cautious in her daily interactions with Alba, not showing any contempt. She also vaguely sensed that the majority of Alba’s feelings towards her consisted of the ugly component of “jealousy.”

Touko knew that future sight existed, and she speculated that her sister might be a possessor of this ability, which was why she had learned of Alba’s ill intentions in advance.

Alba, that clown, was one thing, but why would Araya Souren also pose a danger to her? Touko was utterly bewildered by this, because according to her secret investigation, Araya Souren, also a magus from Japan who came to the Clock Tower, was basically an ascetic figure. (He was indeed a monk.) His magical talent was unremarkable, and he usually focused on studying his sole specialty, Boundary Field magic, showing no interest in others.

Touko even admired Araya Souren somewhat, because compared to Alba, Araya Souren was undoubtedly a pure person. He came to the Clock Tower solely to seek answers and knowledge, treating the fame and fortune that Alba cherished as mere trash.

However, due to Aoko’s letter, Aozaki Touko still remained vigilant. She did not attempt to approach or contact Araya Souren, and maintained a polite attitude towards Alba. Covertly, she began preparing specifically for their magical systems, just in case they suddenly went mad and attacked her, as the formidable reputation of future sight was not to be underestimated.

At this stage, Touko had no plans to eliminate these two, even though Aoko’s letter had instructed her to do so. The most important reason for this decision was that her foundation at the Clock Tower was not yet stable. Eliminating Araya Souren would be fine, but eliminating Cornelius Alba would likely provoke retaliation from the Schopenheim Monastery organization.

Touko was quite confident in her future. Once her research achievements reached the appropriate level, she would be free as a bird. Neither the foolish Japanese monk nor that old man pretending to be young would be a threat anymore.

—Separation Line—

Aoko leaving Touko a letter warning her to eliminate those two in advance was merely a precaution, to prevent her sister from admiring their talents and befriending them, and then getting killed due to over-exposing her information.

But she didn’t think Touko was the type to be very obedient, so she didn’t expect Touko to immediately find an opportunity to kill them upon arriving in London.

The Fumizuka family was silently eliminated by Aoko using a combination of mechanical devices and arcane magic. Fumizuka Eiri inexplicably went mad and destroyed his grandfather’s body. This incident completely crossed her bottom line, so her retaliation was merciless.

Her grandfather was no different from before, except that after inheriting the magic, he no longer taught her, but instead arranged other magical learning channels for her.

Aoko and her grandfather made an agreement: when she could partially activate the Fifth Magic, the old magus would open that cave to her.

After graduating from Asagami Girls’ Academy, Aoko chose to attend a high school very close to her home, Misaki Town’s most famous private high school, Misaki Private High School. In this regard, Aoko’s choice was consistent with the original timeline.

Upon entering high school, her exceptionally beautiful figure and stunning appearance attracted countless boys and girls, which genuinely annoyed Aoko for a while.

For the girls, Aoko adopted a strategy of friendly treatment, but no romantic involvement. For the boys, Aoko took strong action. At an opportune moment, she publicly beat the son of a local business owner, sending him to the hospital with serious injuries. Then, using the Aozaki family’s influence in Misaki, she forcibly suppressed the incident’s publicity. This action deterred many ill-intentioned individuals, and from then on, boys kept their distance from Aozaki Aoko.

The school had initially wanted to use this incident to curb Aoko’s arrogance, but her continuous full marks in all subjects left the principal with no grounds to do so. He had to grit his teeth and let Aoko do as she pleased.

Regarding her daily life, Aoko, leveraging her understanding of “world trends,” used the excuse of being the “heiress of magic” to reveal some information to her father, who was the Aozaki family’s public head, allowing him to make some preparations in terms of investments.

Several months passed, and the Aozaki family’s companies in the mundane world indeed earned a good deal of money. Even Aoko’s usual family dividends increased significantly. However, it was only that much, as her father was just an ordinary person and couldn’t pull off the kind of “Dragon King” operations where getting information early would allow him to dominate everything.

Aoko currently spends most of her time residing at the Kuonji Residence on the mountain, which is Kuonji Alice’s home.

As the local administrators of the distorted spiritual脉, the Aozaki family has always maintained a good relationship with Kuonji Alice, a descendant of the First Magician. Aozaki Touko and Kuonji Alice have also been friends for many years. Aoko’s grandfather wrote a letter to the fairy tale witch Kuonji Alice, entrusting her to continue teaching Aoko in magic, which is why Aoko has been living at Alice’s home since starting high school.

Kuonji Alice herself is a considerably powerful individual on the level of a magus. The mystery of her fairy tale magic system far surpasses that of most magi, meaning that even at the Clock Tower, it would be impossible to defeat her solely through magic.

This might be partly due to the “Fragment of One,” but no one can deny Kuonji Alice’s talent and magical prowess.

Compared to her skills in the occult, Alice is much worse in daily life.

Due to her magic research, Alice’s financial expenditures are quite substantial. Coupled with her fondness for expensive black tea, her disposable income is often tight, sometimes requiring careful planning even for meal money.

Her father was the eldest son of the renowned Japanese conglomerate “Kuonji Group” of this generation, but he met Alice’s mother in England and thus renounced his inheritance to marry her. However, because Alice’s mother was the “Witch of Witches,” she passed away after Alice’s birth due to the transmission of power.

After her mother’s death, Alice’s father brought her back to Japan, but due to her mother, the relationship between Alice and her father was very strained.

Later, Alice’s father also passed away, so she has always lived alone in this huge Western-style mansion on the mountain. She couldn’t make it to the hospital to see him one last time before his death, which has always been a knot in Kuonji Alice’s heart.

Incidentally, Alice’s lineage of witches is the only one among all witch families that maintains a beautiful human form. This fact makes outsiders suspect that the Yumina lineage of witches is fundamentally different from other witch traditions. For example, the infamous werewolf Beryl was actually a descendant of a witch family whose origin was a fairy. His mother was once a hundred percent ugly and evil fairy, who only later transformed into a human and gave birth to Beryl.