Meeting Zora

I will be writing Secre / Nero as love interest in the future .

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Midnight

The light from the moon fell upon a person who was walking in the empty streets of a town . He wore a robe of the Coral Peacock squad with a headband to keep his blue hair in place , he was James , a 1st class Junior magic knight . He was tasked with patrolling this town 3 months ago . As he walked through the central roads his eyes scanned through every corner of the street and buildings .

A little far from him, Zora was watching his every movement .

'He should be the prime suspect in this case but thrashing him wouldn't solve the case , I have to find his hideout .'

" Oh you have already began the investigation , good ~good "

A voice rang in the ear of Zora that sent a chill down his spine .He turned to activate his magic but his gaze met with two red menacing eyes that petrified his movements . ' I can't move my body …what did he do ! ' . A drop of sweat ran down his forehead .

Julian looked towards panicked Zora and said " Don't think too much , I just paralyzed you because I felt like you might attack me. I am Julian who was tasked with investigating this matter . You must be Dennis who is supposed to be my partner in this mission. "

Zora realized that there was a misunderstanding about his identity which was in his favor .

"Yes , I am Dennis from the Praying Mantis , nice to meet you " . Although he appeared calm his emotions were in turmoil . He looked towards the appearance of Julian . Red eyes , pitch black hair and most importantly wearing the Black Bulls robe .

' How did this brat approach me so quietly , how did he dodge my detection traps . Moreover what's up with his insane amount of mana ! . He should be from that man's squad . I can use that robe if things go downhill . If he can approach me without being detected, he has some skills . It wouldn't be bad to have him though I have to be careful . '

Julian knew what Zora was thinking but didn't comment anything . Tomoe in his sharingan rotated, canceling the paralysis magic he casted on Zora .

"Let's follow his movements for now " said Zora pointing towards the wandering magic knight .

" I think this guy most probably has a magic that lets him become invisible or pass through things " said Julian .

Zora didn't say anything and followed the man while using silencing seals in the tip of his feet made of Ash magic . Julian was amazed by the level of development Zora had with his magic , with sharingan he could clearly see large no of magic circles that were drawn all over his body and around him . If he had mana equivalent to a noble , wonder the level of power he could have shown .

The magic knight they trailed didn't do anything suspicious throughout the night and just patrolled normally .As this town was fairly big there were a lot of magic knights that randomly patrolled the streets so finding the exact one was difficult .

For the next 2 days Zora and Julian trailed some magic knights and to find out if anything was suspicious , Julian tried holding a conversation with Zora but he was ignored most of the time . Julian had connected some dots so he paid a person and asked him to spread a rumor that he had acquired a lot of wealth from somewhere .Julian got to know that Zora can create illusions with his Ash magic too , he made Zora made a lot of fake jewelry and hand it to the man to show it openly to make the rumor more credible . Julian could put all the magic knights into genjutsu and ask them about the robbery but he wanted to test Zora more as he was always an interesting person to Julian .

As expected a day later the magic knight James started a friendly conversation with the man they paid .The man repeated the lines Julian had crafted to make the story believable . The man he chose was not a random person of the town , he was well known for his greedy nature so the chances of the story being fake was reduced even more .

Julian had asked Zora to lay traps in and outside the house they selected as center of the rumor and patrol the town . In the evening when Julian was keeping an eye on James who was suspected to be the main culprit , he handed a small piece of paper to a bird . Julian found it suspicious and followed the bird using sharingan to control the bird and took the letter . As expected the location they selected and more details . From the way it was written it was clear that the robbers were already informed about the rumor and just needed confirmation. The magic knight knew that there were other magic knights that had come to investigate so he would create a distraction tonight . The time of the robbery was today midnight as the term of James was ending in a few days and he would be shifted to a new town to patrol .

' Hmm interesting . It's better that I let Zora handle the magic knight which I take care of the thieves .'

Julian returned back the control to the bird and let it do what it came for . He found that the bird dropped the letter onto a tree that felt different from others . Although it looked the same as others , the tree was dead . The bird sat on a branch that activated a mechanism , a part of the tree opened and the letter was dropped inside .

' So there is a base underneath the tree ' though Julian as he approached the tree . He sent mana below the tree and sensed that there was a passage underneath the tree .

' Let's wait and see what they do ,I will get rid of them once they come out .'

Midnight

Julian was hiding among the branches of a tree completely hiding his presence and mana signature .

The ground near the fake tree rippled apart and 5 people became visible .

"Are you sure boss this is not a trap ? " asked one of them

"Even if it's fake, do you think someone has the ability to stop us from running if we want? " said the one with the largest mana signature among them .

All of them wore a black cloak and a mask to cover their entire face . One of them clapped his hands and a tree grew out of the ground and formed a bird , all of them climbed onto the bird as it started flying towards the town . Smoke was released from the body of one which dimmed their presence , one casted a spell which made them invisible and finally the leader casted a spell that made them pass through trees without touching them .

Julian saw everything and determined that it was really difficult for a normal magic knight to catch them .

'It's a nice combo they got there . Presence diminishing , tree manipulation , invisibility and permeability . Most probably the last should be related to stunning the target or similar . Now they are here , time to work

Wings emerged behind Julian as he reached near the gang in a few seconds . Without giving them a chance to react he released mana pressure except the leader making them drop on the ground clutching their head .

The strongest one of them who had magic somehow balanced himself and tried activating his magic but his eyes met with two red menacing eyes paralyzing him .

' Time for some interrogation ' The sharingan in Julian's eyes rotated along with mana pressure which was solely focused on the man made the thief lose all resistance and took him to a semi conscious state .

Julian : "What is your name ? "

" John "

Julian : " Are you the leader ? "

" Yes "

Julian : " Is your magic permeability ? "

" Yes "

Julian : " Are you responsible for the recent robbery ? "

"Yes "

Julian : " How many of you are in your group "

" Around 30 "

Julian : "Who are your accomplices in the robbery among the magic knights ? "

" James the coral peacock.

Jessie ..of Praying Mantis .

….. "

'The same guy huh. If I guess correctly James patrols different towns and makes a good impression for himself , using his fame he sniffs out who is rich in the town and makes the plan for robbery while these people do the work. He said a few more names but none of them work in the town I was tasked with . '

Julian : " Take me to your base " commanded Julian

" Yes "

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Julian dropped the 4 of them near the dead tree and used a strong restraining magic on them . He also set some explosives near them if by chance they woke up . Due to sharingan and boost from the 4 leaf clover grimoire his speed and ability of deduction and spell creation was upgraded to a new level . The spell to create explosives similar to land mines was created after taking inspiration from Zora .

Julian controlled Jack and made them both enter the underground area without making much noise .After walking for a while in the dark underground passage they came across a junction which opened to 5 paths .

'It was good that I brought this guy or else I had to try each passage '