Chapter 1 The Brilliance

The night was deep, and the clamor on Blüdhaven's Broadway Central Square gradually subsided.
The opera house's main lighting had been extinguished, leaving only a few soft nighttime lights to coat the magnificent building's contours with a light golden glow.
In front of the theater, the last few audience members were reluctantly leaving.
"Tonight's premiere was wonderful."
"I think they could consider changing the plot when the original work is republished."
"Speaking of which, have you heard of these two actors before? They're so talented. If there wasn't a war, they'd be touring the whole country."
They talked in low voices about the wonderful performance they had just seen, the excitement still lingering on their faces.
Inside the hall, the Blüdhaven Opera House began its routine closing procedures.
Footsteps echoed across the empty floor of the performance hall, and occasionally, the click of seats being folded could be heard in the distance as staff tidied up the auditorium and carefully dismantled the scenery.
In the backstage area, the actors had already removed their makeup and left.
The lights in the dressing rooms were turned off one by one.
Only a few rooms on the first floor had a faint glow.
The second floor of the theater was still as bright as day.
"Miss Abigail, thank you very much for agreeing to see us alone."
Lange and Talia had finally received an invitation to meet Abigail at the opera house.
Through the half-open curtains of the window, they could see the terrace of a rather spacious mansion.
Its interior covered an area roughly equivalent to the entire performance hall of the opera house, a space that combined the style of a Shindai temple with that of a modern library, exclusively owned by Abigail, and now her residence.
"Which of my friends introduced you?"
Abigail covered her forehead, her pure silver-gray hair, cascading like a waterfall, shimmering like metal under the lights.
She wore a black, off-the-shoulder evening gown, the finely tailored fabric clinging to her exquisite figure, and a black gemstone necklace circled her neck, reflecting her fair skin. At this moment, she was leaning against the sofa, seemingly suffering from a terrible migraine.
She couldn't blame these two; after all, they had saved the day. Otherwise, she might have had to perform herself tonight.
But these two…
She asked them to perform, and they actually dared to agree!
Abigail was still shaken, filled with lingering fear.
These were truly two amateurs who had relied entirely on luck, mental fortitude, and their innate compatibility with the characters to somehow muddle through, narrowly avoiding disaster and fooling the audience!
"It was Mr. Barton, Barton Hall of the Mafia, who recommended that we seek you out," Lange replied politely.
Talia nodded silently, sitting to one side without saying a word, focusing her mind on sensing the space around her.
Its complexity far exceeded that of the Silver Palace beneath the Blüdhaven Mafia.
The dome-shaped ceiling was about fifty meters high, decorated in a style similar to the opera house's performance hall, but the surrounding walls were lined with dark brown solid wood bookshelves that stretched all the way to the ceiling, each filled with precious musical and dramatic literature. There wasn't a single book on magical engineering, making it difficult for Talia to imagine how much Abigail despised magical engineering.
In addition to countless antique collections, the area where they were sitting in the center was a set of sofas and a coffee table in the ancient Wensi Free Federation style, with a delicate silver tea set on the coffee table.

A faint sandalwood scent permeated the air, and a wine cabinet along one side of the wall displayed various high-end wines and crystal glasses. The entire space was lit with warm, brass-colored lighting, and the terrace offered a panoramic view of the entire Broadway Central Square.
However, it wasn't as simple as it seemed on the surface.
Every wall was covered with inscriptions of spatial binding spells that she couldn't understand.
Abigail, a seventh-tier spatial magic engineer, wasn't much in terms of combat power.
But in her carefully constructed base, the situation was completely different.
Talia had originally resisted entering such a dangerous and unknown area.
However, after determining that Abigail's invitation was not malicious, she agreed to come with Lange.
"Barton? Are you acquaintances of his?"
Abigail sat up a little, looking at Lange and Talia. She hadn't expected Barton to have saved her life by chance.
"Yes, this is a keepsake from Mr. Barton."
Lange took a silver cross brooch from the pocket of his gray coat, placed it on the glass of the coffee table in front of him, and pushed it toward Abigail.
"It's definitely his."
Abigail picked up the brooch, observed the light reflecting off it, and murmured thoughtfully.
From what she knew of Barton, he wouldn't easily give his personal keepsake to others.
Although she and Barton had a unique communication channel, it wasn't suitable to display or reveal its existence in front of others. Therefore, Barton must have taken their rules into consideration and not contacted her directly.
"What do you want from me?"
Abigail returned the silver brooch, her tone a little more relaxed as she asked.
"You two are definitely not ordinary people. I can tell you're both strong, especially her."
She pointed at Lange, then shifted her gaze to Talia.
These two were definitely not to be trifled with.
She probably hadn't heard of their names.
But no matter who they were, since these two had helped her a lot, she should help them if they needed her assistance.
"It's like this, Miss Abigail."
Lange said, removing his disguise.
"I'm actually Landry, a professor at Saint Cresta Monastery. I encountered some trouble today, so I had to change my appearance to come to the opera house to find you."
He gradually returned to his original appearance with black hair and blue eyes.
When she heard the name "Landry," Abigail's pupils trembled almost imperceptibly, and the rhythm of her breathing subtly changed.
"Landry, professor…?"
Abigail smiled hesitantly and asked him.
"I apologize for concealing my identity, but we were indeed introduced by Mr. Barton."
Lange believed that even if he didn't explain it clearly, Abigail could probably guess his intention—he needed her support on the Imperial military side.
"It's okay, it's okay, why are you apologizing?"
Abigail waved her hand, maintaining a perfect smile.
"...Of course I have to apologize."
Lange didn't think Abigail seemed angry. He continued, "There may have been some miscommunication when we met you. We also wanted to help you as much as we could, so it turned out like that."
He couldn't quite figure out Abigail's attitude.
Abigail seemed to understand somewhat, but didn't completely believe him, with a hint of almost perfectly concealed sarcasm and coldness, or rather, at that moment, she had completely distanced herself from him on some level.

Talia watched Abigail, unable to read her mind.
"Professor Landry, so you hope that I can help you advance your influence in the Empire's magical engineering world and make your person more valued by the Imperial military, is that right?"
Abigail asked directly.
"That's right, yes."
Lange admitted.
"Can I ask a question first?"
Abigail didn't answer whether she could or couldn't, but placed her hand on her chest, bowed slightly, and asked him with great interest.
"Please."
Lange nodded.
"How did you manage to propose a series of principles such as magical fission in recent times, as if you had been enlightened? I would like to ask you for some guidance first..."
Abigail spoke in a calm and unhurried tone.
"..."
Just then.
Talia seemed to keenly sense a subtle change in the air, and a hint of alertness flashed in her golden eyes.
Abigail's smile still hung on her lips, but the depths of her eyes had become cold and sharp.
Her fingers gently stroked the black gemstone necklace, and a dangerous aura permeated the air.
The hands of the antique clock had just passed eleven, and time stood still at that moment. Lange and Talia both felt an invisible pressure that suddenly accelerated their heartbeats.
In an instant, the lights in the banquet hall flickered, and all the candles swayed.
"What are you doing!"
Talia quickly stood in front of Lange, shielding him, and turned to grab Abigail. She knew that Abigail was no longer the friendly conversation partner she had been a moment ago, but a complete enemy!
Suddenly, a low and drawn-out resonance, like the morning bell in an ancient sacrificial ritual, trembled within this confined space.
The sound waves spread in the form of visible ripples, stirring up layers of waves in the air, tearing countless fine cracks in the still space-time.
The treasured opera manuscripts on the bookshelves moved without wind, and the portraits of famous performers in the gilded frames seemed to come to life, watching the sudden change with scrutinizing eyes.
Almost instinctively, Talia tried to block this spatial magic, which had reached the eighth tier, for Lange.
This magic wasn't strong; she would only suffer some injuries from a spell triggered by a high-level magic item, but Lange would definitely not be able to withstand it.
However, the gears in this space turned ruthlessly.
Just as Talia was about to use her mental magic to restrain Abigail and intercept the spell triggered by the black gemstone necklace, the space suddenly twisted and deformed, and a mirror surface about two meters high appeared silently out of thin air.
Talia felt a sense of weightlessness as she grabbed at empty air. Her feet, which had once danced so gracefully on the stage, could not find a point to exert force.
"Lan...!"
Before her voice could reach him, she passed through Lange's gradually transparent silhouette, as if grasping a wisp of dissipating morning mist. When her vision returned, only nothingness remained.
The room was still the same room.
But neither Lange nor Abigail were in front of the sofa.
"Lange, can you hear me?"
Talia looked around.
She suspected that she had been isolated to another channel in this space, unable to return to where Lange and Abigail were until it was解除 (jiechu - dispelled).

"Don't let anything happen to you! She can't hold me for too long!"
She shouted anxiously. No matter how she tried to destroy it, the world seemed to be only her, and she could only shake it gently, unable to find the core coordinates to tear the spatial node.
The fact proved her guess: she was clearly within reach of Lange, but could not get a response from him.
…
Inside the original room.
The spatial magic fluctuations gradually subsided, and the vortex disappeared without a trace.
The second floor of the Blüdhaven Opera House fell silent again. Everything that had just happened seemed like a hallucination.
Lange sat alone in the center of this magnificent mansion.
The floral fragrance that often accompanied Talia seemed to linger in the air, surrounded by a faint magical afterglow, reminding Lange that everything that had just happened was not an illusion.
"Miss Abigail? What are you doing?"
Lange asked Abigail, who had suddenly turned against him.
The other party seemed to have no further intention of attacking him for the time being.
Or perhaps she felt that after eliminating Talia, he had lost most of his threat accordingly.
"You really have a good attitude…"
Abigail sneered, crossing her legs, "Who exactly are you?"
She narrowed her eyes, observing Lange as she asked.
"I'm Landry."
Lange said firmly.
Just like when Nikolai, the head of the Empire's Special Operations Department, Crimson Falcon, had asked him, he couldn't give a second answer.
"Still lying, that's no fun."
Abigail seemed to find it absurd, raising her head.
"What do you mean by that?"
Lange asked her, puzzled.
His gaze swept across the room.
The clock on the wall ticked, each sound like a merciless mockery of him.
Although he didn't admit it, he had a faint premonition in his heart that Abigail might not be fishing; her decisive attack on the stronger Talia meant that she must have evidence.
"Landry is my junior brother. Do you think I wouldn't recognize him?"
Abigail's eyes gradually sharpened, and she had no patience to listen to this impostor's lies any longer. "I always felt that it was unlikely for Landry to achieve this level of achievement, or rather, even if he had ten years, no, even a hundred years, he wouldn't be able to derive such a thorough overview of fire and sealing. Now I'm very sure that he was indeed killed and his identity stolen."
Her words grew more and more hateful, and her fingertips dug into her palm.
"Wait, Landry's death has nothing to do with me."
Lange quickly explained.
He now realized the seriousness of the problem.
Putting aside why Abigail was Landry's senior sister, if he pieced these things together, it seemed that in Abigail's eyes, he had become the real killer who murdered Landry!
The keepsake from Barton must have been obtained by him using Landry's identity, and Barton's favor was no longer useful.
Perhaps because he and Talia had been too comical in the theater earlier, making them seem like they weren't bad people, Abigail had still given him one last chance, not directly attacking him.
"Then tell me, what's happened to my junior brother Landry now?"
Abigail stood up, placing one foot on the coffee table and looking down at him as she asked.

"He... probably won't be coming back."
Lange choked.
"Good, since you admit that he was killed, and you know that he was killed, and you say that you're not the murderer, then tell me who the murderer is?"
Abigail no longer had the temperament of an opera director, but had turned into a fierce interrogator.
"It's... that..."
Lange was speechless again.
He couldn't sell out the Allied Forces, could he?
If Abigail tracked down the Allied spy, Miss Unity, and handed her over to the Empire, then he, Lange, would truly become an honorary Imperial citizen.
"Heh."
Abigail snorted and removed her foot from the coffee table.
She was too lazy to waste any more words with this clown.
Giving him to the right people would naturally elicit his information.
Abigail took out a magic card that glowed with a pink light, touched it lightly, and placed it next to her ear.
Lange looked at the communication card in Abigail's hand in surprise.
It was exactly the same as the one in Landry's hand.
"You are... number what?"
Lange sat on the sofa and asked, looking at Abigail.
Abigail glanced at him, didn't reply, and only focused on the communication next to her ear, waiting for it to connect.
After a few seconds, a pink, semi-transparent communication magic transmitted a noisy sound.
"Teacher, come to the opera house. I've caught a big fish. Your guess was right, there's something wrong with Landry."
Abigail said quickly to the other end.
"But I'm investigating something very important, and transmitting over there takes a lot of mana."
The communication magic card lit up intermittently, and a faint male voice could be heard.
"I told you to come, so come! Why are you talking so much nonsense!!"
Abigail shouted at the communication magic.
"..."
The other party didn't dare to speak,
"Okay."
He said.
Immediately, Abigail hung up the communication.
(End of this chapter)