Chapter 14

Downtown Minamo glows in a gentle purple twilight, skyscrapers adorned with floating glyph signs and mana-threaded bridges. The Central University District bustles—students, UG members, and travelers alike passing through under the enormous glass arch of the Nexus.

Astera steps through the crowd, cloak pulled up, Chrysanthemum and Empire sealed at his side.

Astera:
(under his breath)
Kalt XVIII… if you're here, you're either hiding really well, or watching everything from somewhere close.

He pauses in front of a mana café, scanning the patrons. His phone buzzes.

Text from Lily:
“Where ARE you?? Sanguinella thinks she saw someone that looked like a ‘royal blonde dork’ skulking around HQ.”

Astera:
(quietly chuckling)
That could be literally any noble dropout in this city...

He pockets his phone and walks into the nearby Grand Archives Annex, where mana resonance data for the whole city is stored.

Clerk:
Ah—Captain Astera! What brings you to the Archive?

Astera:
I need raw mana signature logs from the last two weeks. Specifically looking for someone with a passive mana field that spikes at royal-class ice affinity. Should register somewhere between -138.3°C and -147.2°C degrees even while at rest.

Clerk:
...That's very specific.
Give me a moment.

Astera moves to a table and flips open his notepad. On it, several possible identities and sighting reports are sketched out—underlined names, timelines, a circled phrase: “Snow without a storm.”

The clerk returns with a crystal drive.

Clerk:
Only one match came through—
A spike like that happened exactly four days ago, right across from the southern promenade, close to where the old observatory used to be.

Astera:
The one under demolition?

Clerk:
Yeah, but before that, it was owned by a historian. Specialized in Northern Royal Dynastic Arts. The building was sealed up ten years ago. Just recently got approved for teardown.

Astera:
That’s too perfect.

He exits the annex, calls up a projection map of Minamo, and marks the old observatory. The lights of the city flicker behind him.

Astera: (whispering to himself) 

You’re not a ghost, Kalt XVIII. You’re just someone who’s gotten very good at hiding. But I’ve grown up in a family that doesn’t know how to lie for long.