Grace looked over Adah and Iris with curiosity as the pair stepped inside the building that housed the Department of Magic. The girls stopped side by side in front of her. Adah gave a thumbs up, but the gesture probably meant nothing to Grace, who only knew that Iris had joined them today to help apply pressure to Thibault. To be fair, Adah herself still wasn’t sure what how much stake Iris had placed in today’s meeting. Was she only here on the promise of improving Ekki’s recovery, or was she angling to launch her own attack against Thibault?

  For today, it didn’t matter to Adah. The enemy of her enemy was her friend. Any attack Iris had planned could only work in Adah’s favor.

  “I’ll lead the way,” Iris said upon seeing Adah and her manager remain silent. “This place has a conspicuous lack of signs. Probably to deter visitors from making the effort to find someone to complain to.”

  Iris led them across a wide atrium, each of her steps echoing through the mostly empty room. Sunlight flooded in through the many windows set into the building’s facade, but that light soon vanished as the trio passed through a security checkpoint.

  The guard on duty seemed to recognize Iris, even in her casual clothes, and gave her a solemn nod. For the first time since the B-Rank Mission, Adah saw Iris smile. It was small and meek, but she used it to greet the guard along with a quiet hello. Although the social sense to smile even under these circumstances was probably something Iris had drilled into her head through repeated practice, she hadn’t faked the weakness of that smile. That was the best she could do, yet she still forced herself to do it.

  Given Iris was likely a regular guest here, nothing more needed to be said. She passed through a metal detector and into the heart of the building, with Adah and Grace following close behind her. Adah attempted to give the guard the same kind of smile Iris had, but the man inspected her in a much less cordial manner than he had Iris.

  Whether he recognized Adah as Twilight Heartbreak or not, that was probably the appropriate response on his part.

  Leaving the atrium behind, the light in the long halls of the building turned a stale yellow. There were no windows here, and every light in the ceiling was covered by dust-stained translucent panels that should have been replaced a decade ago. The ceiling itself was so low that even someone as short as Adah felt a sense of claustrophobia walking down the hall.

  As Iris had said, this area was almost devoid of any signage. They walked past a dozen doors on each side of the hall, none of them labeled with anything other than a room number. There were exit signs overhead, but the trio didn’t encounter any sign that could actually help a visitor navigate until they reached an elevator. Next to the elevator door (its brown paint was peeled off in spots) was a plaque with a list of floors and which departments were located on which. The Department of Magic was on the sixth and highest floor.

  Iris pressed the call button for the elevator and said, “It’s good for you to see this place, in case you had any delusions about earning the Secretary’s favor being some kind of luxury. Consider yourself lucky for not having spent any time in this prison.”

  “What happened to loving Region 4?” Adah asked.

  “It’s because I love it that I find this state of affairs so disappointing,” she said. “These people deserve something beautiful to believe in. Not a phony exterior that hides the rot.”

  It was an odd statement for Iris of all people to make, but Adah held her tongue. The girl’s words seemed sincere, even if Adah couldn’t understand how someone like Iris believed them. There was something more to her, something that drew Ekki to her side. The boy had his own flaws, but he wasn’t the type to follow Iris simply for her looks.

  The elevator dinged as it arrived, and the trio stepped inside. The trip to the sixth floor took a full minute—their progress was so slow that Adah thought the machinery might fail from exhaustion before they reached the top. Whatever budget the region had available, they certainly weren’t spending it on modernizing this building.

  The sixth floor was as windowless as the first, but thankfully the first’s long and cramped hallway was replaced with a wide-open, circular hub area. There were four smaller doors leading out from the hub like spokes on a wheel, and a large, foreboding set of double doors directly opposite the elevator. Those doors surely led to Thibault’s office.

  The burly man in a black suit standing guard outside the double doors confirmed Adah’s suspicions. Thibault’s nameless bodyguard didn’t take his eyes off her the whole time her trio approached. What did he have to be afraid of? She wasn’t even transformed today!

  Iris stopped in front of the man and looked up at him. He still didn’t look away from Adah.

  All she’d done was stick her tongue out at him! And maybe make a few vague threats on live television…

  “Hurry up!” Iris spat. Apparently she had no niceties to spare for this particular guard.

  Adah hadn’t noticed before, but Iris’s two-tailed cat mascot Iosk hadn’t been present when they first arrived. She made her appearance now though, standing at Iris’s feet with her tails entwined around the girl’s leg. It was a position from which Iris could transform at any moment, Adah noted.

  The burly man looked down at Iris, then knocked on the doors. After a short pause, he opened them and stepped aside to allow the magical girls and Grace through.

  Thibault’s office wouldn’t count as luxurious either, but it was a far cry from the rest of the building. He sat at an ornate mahogany desk, with three portraits of serious-looking men behind him—presumably some significant politicians from the region’s past, though Adah wouldn’t know their names. His office still had no windows, but was well-lit by a chandelier that hung above the middle of the room.

  He had three leather chairs arranged in front of his desk. His adviser, Elise, had been sitting in one of them before the trio arrived, and she now stood up to greet them.

  Thibault had a smile plastered across his face that immediately crumbled upon seeing Iris.

  “Iris,” he said, unable to hide his discomfort. “How is Ekki doing? I’m horribly sorry about what happened.”

  Iris looked as though she was about to spit on the floor.

  “Not sorry enough to visit him,” she said. “But actually, you made the right call staying away. He’s already fighting one parasite.”

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  While Thibault frowned, Adah smiled. Bringing Iris along had been the right decision beyond a doubt.

  “What brings you here today?” Thibault said, hoping to move past Iris’s venomous attack. “I have some important matters to discuss with Heartbreak and her manager, but I would be happy to meet with you after. My office is prepared to assist with Ekki’s recovery however possible.”

  Iris walked up to his desk and took a seat in the chair Elise had been sitting in before now. Iosk hopped into her lap, and she began petting her absentmindedly.

  “Oh, I’m sure you will,” Iris said. “Heartbreak asked me to come today and—for some reason—I agreed. Whatever you need to say to her, she has no problem with me hearing. Isn’t that right?”

  Adah took that as her cue to step up and claim the center chair for herself. She crossed her legs as she sat down and leaned against the side of the chair, propping her head up with a fist.

  “Actually, I want you to hear it,” Adah said. “Our teams are the vanguard of this region, aren’t we? We should know what’s going on with each other. Maybe if we had been better informed, we could have avoided that tragedy with the hydra.”

  Adah wanted to make her first moves against Thibault, but also to test the waters with Iris. How much would she allow Adah to play Ekki’s injury against Thibault before she crossed a line? Judging by the girl’s lack of reaction, this much was fair game.

  “I really feel it would be more appropriate to keep this particular conversation private,” Thibault said. “Don’t you agree… ah…?”

  While the Secretary fished for Grace’s name, she took a seat in the third chair.

  “Grace,” she said. “And this is fine by us. It’s a long trip back from the capital, so we’d like to wrap this up as quickly as possible. Of course, there is work waiting for Adah at home.”

  Elise, stuck standing beside Thibault’s desk now, finally spoke up.

  “That is what we wanted to discuss today,” she said. “Heartbreak’s recent conduct has violated numerous regulations on magic users, not to mention making false accusations against the Department and Secretary of Magic. This conduct is completely unacceptable and poses a danger to the region. We don’t think Heartbreak will continue working as a magical girl at all.”

  “You should think again,” Adah said.

  A new expression popped onto Thibault’s face. For once, unfiltered rage gripped his features.

  “You would be lucky if we leave it at that!” he shouted. “Saying I sent that boy to his death? Are you out of your mind? I could find a dozen judges who would be giddy to convict you for slander and fine you and your whole agency out of existence! Both you and DreamRise were nothing before I helped you, and this is how you repay me?”

  “I don’t know how much you had to do with it,” Adah said with a shrug, “but now we’re much more than nothing. Some people would say we’re too big to fail. You’ve been rushing DreamRise to take a B-Rank mission, but I couldn’t help but notice that the other half of your plan has been progressing slower. How many teams does the region have that are capable of handling a C-Rank now? Even an easy one?”

  Thibault and Elise said nothing.

  “Based on the number of missions my team has had to take,” Adah continued, “it seems like there aren’t many. Either that or they’re all slacking off and leaving us with all the work! That’s probably not it, though, is it?”

  Still nothing from the Secretary or his adviser. Then they really wouldn’t like this next bit.

  “In fact, with DreamRise down a member, I can only imagine my team will get even busier! We’re just about ready to tackle a B-Rank on our own, too. This would be such an inconvenient time for someone to get in our way.”

  “You aren't in the position you think you are,” Thibault finally erupted. “Despite you and your team playing pretend, this is not some game. You’re going to learn that your actions have consequences.”

  “As do yours,” Iris said.

  “Iris,” Thibault said, “you and I discussed our options thoroughly. We both agreed that proceeding to the next phase of the plan was appropriate considering—”

  “Heartbreak is dancing around the issue,” Iris interrupted him. “Let me make this clear. Today is the last day I set foot in this office. DreamRise is not interested in any further ‘assistance’ from you or your Department. There is no longer any benefit in working with you.”

  “I don’t understand,” Thibault said.

  Adah raised her hand and said, “That’s my fault. For some reason, I always play with my food when I should just end things quick, like slaughtering a pig. Anyway, Iris and I spoke earlier about the state of affairs in our region. We came to the conclusion that we need each other more than we need you. Our teams are the only ones that can handle the top end of work in the region. Plus, having a good rival makes the job so much more fun.”

  Adah turned to look at Iris, who returned her look with a narrow glare.

  “We decided that—if it came down to it—we’d side with each other over you,” Adah finished.

  “‘Side?’” Elise repeated.

  “There are no sides!” Thibault shouted. “There is the Department of Magic and there are magical girls. And magical girls report to the Department. That is the end of it.”

  “I don’t think it is,” Adah said. “You’ve forgotten about the people. The fans. We both report to them. It might be easy to forget when you’re stuck inside this dingy building all the time, but it’s an everyday reality for us magical girls. When you’ve spent as long in the gutter as I have, without any fans, you get a good sense for how cruel that reality can be. Maybe it’s not fair, but let me tell you—having no one on your side will make you understand just how weak you really are.”

  Thibault tapped his fingers against his desk and smiled.

  “You are forgetting that the Secretary’s power isn’t dependent on the whims of the people,” he said. “I don't need to be liked in order to do my job. I can remove you all from this industry, unilaterally. Permanently. I can order your connection to your mascot be severed, and no matter how much your fans wish for it, you’ll never be able to cast a spell again.”

  “Can you?” Adah asked.

  “Of course!” he said.

  “I know you’re allowed to,” Adah continued, “but can you?”

  “The moment Heartbreak’s magic is revoked, DreamRise will cease operations,” Iris said.

  “The same goes for my teammates, naturally,” Adah said. “With that in mind, can you really afford to lose the two teams that form your region’s vanguard? Can you afford to upset the fans who you convinced we were the future of the region? Can you actually do it? Because we can absolutely stop working any time we like.”

  Thibault stared at Adah, but truly he was staring through her. Most likely, he was staring at a future without his two top performing teams. He was searching for some escape, some alternative. A backup plan or a counterattack. But Adah was certain that none existed.

  After all, she didn’t have one either.

  Soon, the Secretary’s eyes focused on Adah’s again. In those eyes, Adah saw that he had already come to a realization. It was time to let him sit with it.

  “Oh, shoot,” she suddenly said. “What time is it, Grace?”

  “Just past three o’clock,” her manager answered.

  “I really need to get home,” Adah said. “You might have heard I have a music video releasing tonight, and I’ll need to be online to respond to my fans. They’re really passionate about Heartbreak, you know? If you’re looking for something to occupy your mind tonight, I’d recommend giving it a listen!”

  Adah stood up, and Iris practically shot out of her seat at the same time. She moved toward the doors faster than Adah did. Of course, she had somewhere even more important to be.

  “We’re all set here, right?” Adah said, turning around halfway to the doors. “I’m really too busy to bother with all this political stuff. If you wanted me to apologize about that interview, I don't think I can do that. But I'll do you a favor and forget about the bonus fee you owe our team. We’re going to be taking on B-Ranks regularly soon, so money won’t be an issue!”

  Thibault simply stared at her.

  Behind that desk was a man who understood he could do nothing more today.

  Adah had shown him the limits of his power. For now, he would have to stand down. But in time, he’d surely look for a way to seize the advantage once more. Roland Thibault was nothing if not a petulant egoist.

  As for Adah, she didn't have the support she needed to deliver the killing blow just yet. Even if her accusations held weight, she didn't have enough evidence to overwhelm the forces working in Thibault's favor. He had allies behind the scenes, she was sure of it. Whether they were in government or outside it, those people had put him in this position for a reason, and they might fight to keep him there. So far, they hadn't deemed him enough of a problem to get rid of him.

  Adah was well aware this was only the first battle of their war.

  She'd tossed aside her own collar. Now it was time to put the shackles on Thibault.