Chapter 5 - Adjudicator Fiona’s Diary
◆ Holy Calendar Year 1010, March 10
As usual, I had been working in the research wing when my demon of a boss suddenly summoned me.
Could it be... they had found out I stole money from the Ministry of Magic?
With a heavy, gloomy feeling, I made my way to her office.
As it turned out, I had apparently been called to Lord Heisenberg’s estate.
It seemed a request had come for me to preside over a Baptism Ceremony.
Wait, what? Why me...?
I had absolutely no connection to the notorious Evil Nobles, the Heisenberg family.
Honestly... I really, really, really hated this.
I didn’t want to go.
I didn’t want to go, didn’t want to go, didn’t want to go—I absolutely didn’t want to go.
I even tried clinging to my boss in tears.
But it was no good.
The Heisenbergs were one of the Four Great Noble Houses.
They held significant influence over the Ministry of Magic, and if we refused their request, there was no telling what kind of harassment we’d suffer—at least, that was the reasoning.
And yet she was sending her cute subordinate into the lair of such a demon?
That boss really was a demon.
No wonder she was still single.
I tried making a scene, hoping to wrangle some concessions, but she only threatened, “If you disobey my orders, I’ll have you charged with embezzlement.”
Breaking into a cold sweat, I feigned ignorance with, “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” only for her to say, “The research budget.”
...Good. At least she hadn’t found out about the safety deposit box yet.
So, in the end, I was being shipped off to the lair of the infamous noble.
Ughhh, no no no no no.
The thing is, I hated nobles to begin with.
Always so arrogant, acting high and mighty for no reason.
And this Hollow von Heisenberg in particular was the worst of them all.
Rumor had it he was the very embodiment of sloth and arrogance—the epitome of a spoiled brat.
Sigh... I really didn’t want to go.
I just wanted to shut myself in my lab and immerse myself in my beloved magic research.
Preferably with a drink in hand, watching horse races on my magic crystal.
As a great person once said, “If you work, you lose.”
◆ Holy Calendar Year 1010, March 20
Today I went to the Heisenberg estate.
Arriving at the absurdly large mansion, I was shown in by a refined elderly gentleman—straight to the private chambers of the heir apparent, Hollow von Heisenberg.
And sure enough, he was exactly the pompous little brat I had expected.
Despite me being older, he didn’t even bother with polite speech.
I was this close to smacking that unnecessarily handsome face with a big-sister chop, but...
If I did, the Heisenbergs would probably have me erased from existence, so I had no choice but to hold it in.
I quickly got to testing the magic capacity and aptitude of this super-sassy rich boy, and... well, I was floored.
Hollow von Heisenberg was a genius.
Overwhelming magical power + affinity for all elements!
And most of all, his unique magic—<Void>!
I later heard from a colleague at the Ministry that Hollow was an incredible thoroughbred.
His father, Daphnes von Heisenberg, was a genius mage wielding the Unique Magic <Affectation>.
His mother, Layla Toa Heisenberg, was the kingdom’s greatest swordmaster.
And from those two had been born Hollow von Heisenberg.
Seriously... what kind of combination was that? This was like “My OC: the strongest human ever”.
Oh, right.
I won’t write too many details here just in case, but Hollow and I entered into a certain contract.
The Ministry of Magic’s oversight was pretty sloppy, so there shouldn’t be any risk of discovery.
And even if it were found out, I could just say, “Oops, my bad” and chalk it up to a misjudgment.
Anyway—today had been the best day of my life!
After all, I’d gained the right to research Void magic!
Time to clear my backlog of work so I could dive right in.
◆ Holy Calendar Year 1010, April 20
While I’d been tangled up in troublesome work, a whole month had passed.
It felt like a bit of a late start, but... no problem!
I had taken a full year of long-term leave, so from now on I could devote myself entirely to researching Void!
First thing in the morning, I headed to the Heisenberg estate to meet the arrogant genius boy, Hollow.
I wanted to start my research immediately, but Unique Magic—and especially Void—was dangerous.
Without at least a basic level of magical skill, there was a real risk of it going out of control.
I couldn’t afford to waste such a rare Void factor I had finally found.
So, I asked Hollow to let me check that he had the necessary foundation in magic and that he met the minimum standard... And once again, he managed to surprise me.
Hollow had managed to acquire incredibly high-level magical skills in just one month.
His spell construction speed was abnormally fast, and his mana control was astonishingly precise.
Seriously, what kind of absorption rate was that...? Even a cotton swab would be jealous.
Still, one thing nagged at me.
Why had Hollow only been learning defensive magic?
Normally, mages—especially those with exceptional talent—tended to gravitate toward offensive spells.
After all, defensive magic was plain and unglamorous, while flashy attack spells were far more exciting to learn.
But Hollow wasn’t normal.
He had ignored offensive magic entirely, dedicating himself solely to defense.
Considering his arrogant personality, I would have expected him to strive for mastery in attack magic, but...
Well, people’s preferences in magic were their own.
After a short round of theory lessons, I had him begin Void training—and was left speechless.
The Unique Magic <Void>... it was terrifying.
A hundred times more terrifying than I’d imagined.
What stunned me most was its offensive capability.
—The mana of Void annihilated all things.
Exactly as the ancient records had stated.
In the face of that magic, no material could be allowed to exist.
Water, earth, air... living or non-living, Void devoured all creation in a power of utter ruin.
A thousand years ago, the Xeno, The Calamity, had wielded this very power, plunging the world into a vortex of chaos.
To think I could study the strongest and most terrible magic up close... I truly was blessed!
◆ Holy Calendar Year 1010, May 20
It had been a month since I began researching Void.
Hollow’s training, to be frank, was incredibly plain.
It was nothing but repetition and review—three steps forward, two steps back.
However, because he went through these cycles at an incredible speed, his progress was, in the end, explosively fast.
This was... nothing like what I’d been told.
My colleagues at the Ministry had said that despite his natural genius, Hollow’s arrogance and laziness had left him living a decadent, aimless life.
Arrogant—yes, I could see that.
Unbelievably haughty, with a mouth like a knife.
But at least when it came to magic—when it came to growing stronger—he was earnest.
Without a hint of conceit, he advanced step by steady step.
If I had to sum him up in one phrase, it would be “humble and steadfast.”
Even today, Hollow was honing the defensive aspect of Void.
And at this point, I really wanted to shout:
No, no, no—come on, you should be working on your offense!
You’ve got overwhelming destructive power—why not build on your strengths?
I’d been stewing over that thought all month...
But today, I finally understood why he focused so much on defense.
“Fiona, if I recall, you can use Unique Magic, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then we’ll now conduct a Void defense test. Attack me with your magic.”
“...Excuse me...?”
“No holding back. Come at me intending to kill.”
“T-that’s absurd...!”
My <Hydra> was a legendary-class Unique Magic.
In range, casting speed, and lethality, it was unmatched.
Frankly speaking, it was ridiculously strong.
Even for a prodigy like Hollow, and even with Void being an Origin-Class Unique Magic, defending against my attack would be nearly impossible.
The truth was, defending against magic with magic was quite difficult.
You needed the ability to discern your opponent’s spell, judge the timing perfectly, and deploy a defensive spell in an instant. For someone who had only studied magic for a month, pulling that off was simply impossible.
I flatly refused.
If I injured Hollow, I’d end up paraded through the streets and executed for it.
When I honestly voiced my concerns, he merely shook his shoulders and laughed.
“Do you truly think a mage of your level could wound me? Your arrogance is laughable. Know your place.”
...And that was it.
That was the moment my famously long, sturdy patience snapped in half.
Fine. If that’s how he wanted it, then bring it on!
I puffed out my chest and shot back:
“I, too, have my pride as a mage. If you insist, I will unleash my full-force attack magic. But I’m still terrified of the Heisenberg family, so I demand that a <Contract> guarantee my safety!”
The Contract was established.
Even if something went wrong, I would not be erased by the family’s shadowy influence.
And now that I thought about it, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Hollow had been insufferably arrogant all this time—
That big-sister chop I hadn’t been able to land on the first day—I was going to dish it out right here, right now!
Riding that momentum, I unleashed the most powerful magic in my arsenal.
And yet—
It was blocked perfectly.
No... erased completely.
“H-Hollow... what in the world was that just now...?!”
“<Void Possession>. For my first try, it wasn’t bad at all.”
<Void Possession>—a top-tier all-direction defensive spell that formed a thin membrane of void around the caster, sending any incoming attack straight into the Void realm.
For now, it still seemed like he had to consciously toggle it on and off...
But according to him, once he refined the harmful/harmless filter settings, he would eventually complete a perfect, fully automatic defense.
If he used it like that, though, his mana would be drained in no time.
Hollow, however, claimed that by mastering mana control and optimizing the Void itself, he could one day maintain it indefinitely.
No, no, no, no—this kid was seriously insane...!
He hadn’t even been studying magic for a year yet!
What even was this?
How could he already wield his Unique Magic so flawlessly?
The strength of Unique Magic was that it didn’t come with a magic tome.
The weakness of a Unique Magic was also that it didn’t come with a magic tome.
No magic tome meant no known countermeasures.
No magic tome also meant it took an enormous amount of time to master.
Strength and weakness, two sides of the same coin... or so it should have been.
For some reason, though, Hollow advanced as if he were reading straight from an instruction manual.
Ignoring all the drawbacks, he was mastering the <Void> with maximum efficiency.
It was almost like he had known this magic from the very beginning.
Maybe... that was just his talent?
◆ Holy Calendar Year 1011, April 20
Time had flown like an arrow.
Before I knew it, a whole year had passed since I’d started researching the Void.
Ever since then, Hollow had kept honing the defensive applications of his Void magic.
It was already rock-solid—so what kept driving him?
Oh—maybe that was it.
Perhaps it was his hobby to erect an impenetrable defense and let his opponents wallow in helplessness?
Hollow, looking down with a smirk at enemies crushed by despair as every one of their attacks failed... yeah, I could totally see him enjoying that.
Unfortunately, I never did manage to gather any “Void attack data.”
But I got mountains of extremely rare “Void defense data.”
This was the kind of thing magic researchers all over the world would shed blood and tears to obtain—something I could never have acquired in a lifetime.
From the bottom of my heart, I was grateful to Hollow.
Oh, and I’d learned something new through this research.
Yes, he could be cheeky, but it seemed he drew a line somewhere.
He would never cross the boundaries of what a person shouldn’t do.
In fact, he even showed moments of consideration toward me now and then.
I’d started wondering if... maybe he was actually a lot kinder than I thought.
Of course, if I ever said something so cheeky to his face, he’d probably string me up, so that stayed my little secret.
Anyway, today was the last day of my long break.
I found myself feeling glum—thinking things like, “Guess the Void research ends here,” and, “Back to work at the Ministry of Magic tomorrow...”
That was when Hollow said, “I’ll show you something interesting,” and took me along.
The carriage brought us to a place where green mountains stretched as far as the eye could see.
Apparently, this entire region belonged to the Heisenberg family.
Seriously, the wealth of the Four Great Noble Houses was just absurd...
At the foot of one mountain, Hollow suddenly extended his right hand—and cast a spell.
In that instant, the mountain vanished.
I couldn’t believe my eyes.
My legs gave out and I collapsed where I stood.
Wha—what was this...?
It was gone.
The entire mountain.
As if it had never existed at all.
A child who had been studying magic for only a year had just changed the landscape with a single spell.
This... this was the “final destination”—the realm where those who had devoted their lives to magic would weep with joy upon arrival.
Yet Hollow looked anything but satisfied.
Muttering things like, “The construction’s sloppy,” and, “The range designation’s still loose,” he seemed completely unfazed.
No, no, no—it was already more than enough!
What was he planning to do by getting even stronger? Destroy the world?
Come to think of it... A thousand years ago, the Archmage Xeno ‘The Calamity’ had supposedly tried to destroy the world using the power of the Void.
Maybe those two were kindred spirits—both brilliant, both terrifying psychopaths.
Anyway, I had been moved.
I had seen it with my own eyes—the offensive application of Void, and just how devastating its destructive power truly was.
Even after parting ways with Hollow, that sight had been burned into my mind and refused to fade.
A spell both beautiful and grand... yet utterly terrifying.
Ahh... I had wanted to study it more.
I had wanted to touch the void more, more, and more.
Void, void, void, void, void, void, void, void, void, void, void, void, void, void, void, void, void, void—
Void, void, void, void, void, void, void, void, void, void, void, void, void, void, void, void, void, void—
Void, void, void, void, void, void, void, void, void, void, void, void, void, void, void, void, void, void—
My head has been filled to the brim with nothing but the Void.
Wasn’t there some way I could stay by Hollow’s side?
If I begged Lord Heisenberg, the head of the family, could I get him to hire me as a tutor or something?
I had been entertaining such thoughts when I got home... only to find a group of men in black suits standing in front of my apartment.
They had turned out to be officials from the Kingdom of Klein.
Apparently, my embezzlement—specifically the matter of the safe deposit box—had been discovered.
They hauled me off to the Ministry of Magic, where my demon of a boss tore into me.
The total sum I had quietly “borrowed” came to—unbelievably—fifty million gold.
I had been shocked.
Even I hadn’t realized I had taken that much.
But I supposed if you skimmed a little here and there over three years... it would snowball into something ridiculous.
So this was what they meant by, “Dust amassed becomes a mountain”?
Ha... ha ha... not funny.
The higher-ups at the Ministry of Magic demanded immediate repayment—within one week.
There was no possible way I could pay back a fortune like fifty million gold.
I thought.
I thought until my brain hurt.
And then—like a lightning bolt—my genius Fiona brain was struck with inspiration.
If it came to this... I would just have to borrow a mountain of cash from a loan shark and bet it all on the horses!
By some strange twist of fate, the Klein Kingdom Cup was to be held exactly one week later.
God Himself was telling me—if you don’t wager now, when will you?
◆ Holy Calendar Year 1011, April 30
...It was over.
Over, over, over, over, over, over.
Finished, finished, finished, finished, finished.
My entire fortune had vanished like foam on the waves, leaving me with nothing but worthless betting slips.
While I wallowed in the depths of despair, drowning myself in cheap booze, there came a knock—three sharp raps—at my door.
When I opened it, my face a mess of tears, there stood—Hollow.
He was completely unlike his usual self.
He quietly listened to my story.
He comforted me with a gentle voice.
And then—unbelievably—he offered to lend me an amount equal to my debt, interest-free, to be repaid when I achieved success.
What’s more, he would employ me at the Heisenberg estate as both his tutor and a magic researcher.
Wait... was Hollow actually God?
Oh, God, Buddha, Lord Hollow... thank you, truly.
I was so sorry for writing in my diary that you were a pompous brat, a super-sassy idiot of a noble son.
Your unworthy servant Fiona hereby pledges eternal loyalty to Great Hollow.
I even resolved to swear off horse betting—for at least the next week.
I expressed my heartfelt gratitude and saw Hollow to the door.
On his way out, just for the briefest instant—less than the blink of an eye—I thought I saw an incredibly evil look on his face... but surely, that was just my imagination.
...Still, I did wonder—how exactly had my embezzlement come to light?
They’d said there had been “an anonymous tip.”
But surely... there’s no way, right?
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