After meeting them by chance in a shop in the Ashes, Arlos led Mage Epherene of the Mage Tower and Prosecutor Rose from the Supreme Magic Prosecutors' Office to the base of her adventurer team. It looked no different from an ordinary office. There, Epherene and Rose removed their robes—only to be stunned in surprise as their eyes met.0

“Are you the Professor’s protégé?” Rose asked.0

“Oh, you’re Professor's bodyguard,” Epherene said.0

"I'm not a bodyguard. I'm a prosecutor—assigned to the Supreme Magic Prosecutors' Office of Yuren," Rose replied, her brows drawing together ever so slightly.0

“Oh~”0

Epherene, of course, had no idea what a prosecutor from the Supreme Magic Prosecutors’ Office even was.0

“Anyway,” Epherene said as she turned toward Arlos, or more precisely, toward her puppet. “Do you know who it was that stole the transformation formula?"0

“I cannot say for sure,” Arlos replied, shaking her head. “But it’s obvious—it’ll be one of the names on this wanted list.”0

Several wanted posters were pinned to the corkboard on the wall of the adventure team’s base.0

“Carla the Authority? Carla’s here?” Epherene said, peering at the array of faces on the corkboard, then flinching as her eyes landed on a name she hadn’t expected.0

Carla, the Authority, was once a prodigy and the leading candidate to become the next Archmage. But at some point—whether she fell to corruption or had grown tired of the Floating Island and its politics—she disappeared from the magical world, erased her record, left her legacy behind, and in the end, became a criminal, wandering the Ashes.0

“Yes, she’s here,” Rose replied, her...0