The Knight Commander sighed. Was there no one sane in the Magic Tower?

The sigh also conveyed a sense of helplessness.

To think that such a powerful person was merely an ordinary mage from the Magic Tower.

With just the Tower Master alone, the Imperial Knights had nothing to do except watch from behind and clean up the remains of magical beasts afterward.

Still, now that the number of magical beasts had increased exponentially, it would probably be too much for the Tower Master to handle alone.

Just yesterday, he had firmly instructed the knights that they finally had work to do after a long time.

Then suddenly, this madman appeared out of nowhere and slaughtered dozens of magical beasts.

Before the knights could even draw their swords.

And he didn’t even use magic, but tore them apart with his bare hands, then belatedly came to his senses and made the ridiculous claim that he was a mage from the Tower!

Though he allowed himself to be captured without resistance, suggesting he had no ill intentions toward the knights, there were still procedures to follow.

But in the end, it was proven that he truly was a mage from the Tower.

While the Knight Commander was lost in thought, rubbing his face, Ariel caught sight of more magical beasts appearing from who knows where at the edge of his vision.

Kroooo-!

A roaring sound echoed loudly.

That roar belonged to a high-grade magical beast.

The problem was that the cacophony of continuous roars wasn’t coming from just one or two beasts.

Preparing for the imminent situation, all the knights drew their swords.

Agnes, who had somehow become confident after clearing his name, folded his arms and whispered quietly.

“Ariel.”

“Yeah.”

“It’s finally time to settle this.”

Both of their eyes gleamed with an unusual light.

“Whoever wins gets to name it.”

“Fine.”

Agnes’s mouth corners lifted in excitement at the long-awaited bet, revealing his abnormally long fangs.

Even so, the purpose of the bet was merely childish play—whether to name the highest-grade magical beast Christopher or Cerberus.

The excited Agnes took his stance first, pulling one leg back.

He made a great leap and plunged into the midst of the magical beasts, still far away.

A large cloud of dust rose where he landed.

…Kroo?

The surrounding magical beasts, which had been charging forward fiercely, stopped their howling in confusion when they met the black eyes gleaming with madness.

“Hello?”

A voice that couldn’t contain its excitement echoed in the magical beasts’ ears.

Soon, those nearby were instantly torn to shreds.

Watching from afar, Ariel clicked his tongue.

“If you lied about being a mage, you should at least use magic.”

No wonder the knights were suspicious.

Usually, he seemed to use magic well as taught, but now, perhaps lost in the thrill of battle after so long, he was simply rampaging, tearing apart magical beasts with his fists and body.

The fortunate thing was that this time, more knights were dazed watching his marvelous movements.

The dust rising in the distance was so far away that it was difficult to even see, let alone reach, but Ariel dusted off his clothes as if concerned about himself.

Then, apparently satisfied, he stretched.

“Shall I go?”

Ariel took flight.

As he lightly extended his hand, a thunderous explosion-like sound came from far away.

Dozens of magical beasts were instantly torn apart, transformed into flesh and blood.

“…Haah.”

The Imperial Knights simply lowered their swords.

Today again, all they would do was clean up the magical beast remains scattered everywhere.

***

“So, the name is Christopher Alexander Montgomery Harrison.”

“…Frustrating.”

Agnes muttered dejectedly.

Before the two stood a magical beast with a lion’s head and fangs so large they reached the ground, its head bowed low.

One of the huge wings on the beast’s back was held in Agnes’s hand.

“If I had caught just one more.”

As the chilling voice passed by, the magical beast trembled its massive body.

Behind them were piled the corpses of all kinds of magical beasts, highest-grade and high-grade alike.

Even though the knights had been busily cleaning up for quite some time, anticipating what was to come, the number was still enormous.

They weren’t just thrown around carelessly but stacked neatly, creating a bizarre shape like layers of crepe cake.

“…Anyway, well. At least we found a usable highest-grade beast. Your name is ‘Griffin’.”

Accepting defeat, Agnes pulled the magical beast’s wing and licked his lips.

“Ah, right.”

Then he took out something wrapped in cloth from his chest, untied the string binding the cloth, and thrust the contents toward Ariel.

“These are found inside the bodies of the highest-grade magical beasts. In every single one, without exception.”

The object, emitting an ominous black aura, was clearly radiating a sinister energy of its own will, but it didn’t seem to be a living being.

This meant it wasn’t something like the heart or core of a magical beast.

“After coming here today and checking, I’m certain. This is a medium that controls the highest-grade magical beasts. …No, wait!”

Ariel suddenly grabbed the object.

“Don’t touch it with your bare hands!”

Agnes belatedly reached out, but Ariel had already placed the object in his hand and was examining it.

“Why not?”

“…When I held it, it disappeared like smoke.”

For some reason, nothing happened.

It only emitted a more intense black aura in Ariel’s hand.

Agnes scratched the back of his head awkwardly and continued.

“Anyway, this is evidence that there’s a higher grade of magical beast. Or it could be an even more terrifying being, not a magical beast at all.”

“How do you know that?”

“It’s giving instructions.”

He pointed at the black object as if it were obvious, but Ariel just stared at him with a look that said, “What are you talking about?”

Agnes froze for a moment. Then he asked slowly.

“……You can’t hear it?”

“Explain properly what you’re talking about.”

“It’s giving instructions to go somewhere.”

Silence fell.

Ariel took a step away from Agnes.

“You… You’re not really related to these magical beasts, are you?”

His voice was full of suspicion.

He took another step back.

“I told you I’m not!”

Finally, after receiving a suspicious glance, Agnes shouted.

But his voice was too loud.

He received the full attention of the knights who had been clearing away the magical beast corpses, his face gloomy.

“He really must be out of his mind.”

“First, he catches magical beasts while laughing like a madman, now he’s shouting at the Tower Master.”

“Sure, he’s strong. But we still have to clean up all these corpses…”

Their complaints and irritated voices were directed at Agnes.

In truth, he hadn’t done anything particularly wrong, but he had drawn attention to himself by shouting.

Of course, they were whispering among themselves so as not to be heard, but the problem was that Agnes could hear them as clearly as if they were whispering right next to him.

Agnes quickly fell silent. He cleared his throat and turned his head.

“…Anyway, I’m really not.”

“I know.”

This crazy bastard… Agnes was about to shout again at the response that seemed to have been waiting for him, but he held it back.

The suppressed laughter was clearly meant to tease him.

There was no point in getting angry and making himself look even stranger.

In fact, his first impression here had already been bad, but Agnes refused to acknowledge that fact.

He forcibly swallowed the anger that was boiling up to the top of his head.

Then he snatched the black object, wrapped in cloth to avoid touching bare skin, showing his bad mood to anyone who looked.

He carefully tied the neatly wrapped object with a string and preciously tucked it into his chest.

“Anyway, judging by how the words are intermittently cut off, whoever is giving the instructions doesn’t seem to use perfect language. It’s also difficult to understand exactly what it’s saying.”

“Good. Research it more, mage. Ah, though it’s hard to accept someone who just mindlessly throws punches.”

Augh. Agnes messed up his own hair wildly instead of reaching out to Ariel.

He decided to just ignore him, knowing that if he said anything more, he might fall for the provocation and do something regrettable.

Soon, he firmly grabbed the wing of the highest-grade magical beast that had been trying to escape. He didn’t even look at the beast.

With a light tug, the massive body made a thudding sound as it buried its head before Agnes.

“From today, I’ll be researching you. I’m counting on you, Griffin.”

He had found a target for his frustration right in front of him.

“……Keeeing.”

Research, spelled as torture.

Hearing the evil voice, the magical beast swallowed its tears, imagining its bleak future.

“This isn’t much after all. Why did the Emperor make such a fuss?”

So Agnes prepared to head to his nest with Griffin in tow.

Ariel agreed with that opinion.

More magical beasts had swarmed than in a typical “magical beast subjugation.”

Still, it wasn’t at a level where the Emperor needed to urgently send a letter asking for immediate resolution.

But there were other, more important matters right now, so it didn’t really matter.

Ariel’s mind was already churning with salacious thoughts.

He licked his lips, recalling his promise with Merrien. What he had in mind was completely different from what Merrien was thinking.

However, just as Ariel raised his hand.

Kroooooo-!!!

The roar of magical beasts began to be heard from afar again.

“…More?”

Ariel froze with his hand raised, like a wind-up doll whose spring had broken. It was no lie that magical beasts were continuously swarming.

The two looked at each other simultaneously.

“Surely we don’t have to catch them all day?”

Their gazes contained various emotions mixed together—annoyance, anger, and more.