Nightfall

-3-

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A/N: I suck at writing fight scenes. 

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The Aylan-Aldirian Magic Police was a very peculiar thing to have in a place as anti-magic as Seremyr; when the Seremeese government asked Aylah, a magical nation in the Northern continent, for magical assistance in a top-secret matter, everyone assumed it was some sort of joke. It was one of the few things people from both countries shared, and Tanya would be a hypocrite not to admit she was extremely tempted to refuse the work offer at A.A.M.P. when the Magister asked her to look into the mess. More like demanded, but that's beside the point.

As a witch, it was very hard to believe in the supposedly good intentions of a nation that still took great pride in its witch-slaying past, yet there she was, working the hardest she ever had to find a way to fix a problem that wasn't even hers nor had the slim chance to affect the Aylan community any time soon. Some even theorized that the strange magical occurrences were the country's karma for its cruelty both against the magic folk and whatever happened in Remnania (the Northern continent's information regarding the Remnan issue wasn't the most conclusive, yet it loosely covered the important aspects); Tanya herself had her doubts about how the Seremeese will react once they set foot on Southern land, but the Seremeese officials handled everything with the grace and precision of a boulder during an archery contest.

Namely, they were there to "encourage" the diplomatic ties between the nations. Nothing more, nothing less. The Aylans were horrified when it became clear the population had zero clues about the nocturnal magical monsters roaming its territories and learned they have to keep silent about the issue not to terrify the poor common folk, which resulted in A.A.M.P.'s inability to give a good enough reason for the imposed curfew and the military police's endorsement of it despite their absolute dislike of the Aylan institution.

As far as everyone who didn't know anything about the situation was concerned, both Tanya and Saverio were tyrants abusing their power to make normal people's lives more miserable just because they can. The officials were kind enough to ignore the problem they created with their obsession for secrecy, so for the most part the two chiefs had free reign on how to approach the issue.

That, however, didn't mean that Tanya was fine with the military police's shameless expansion in territories under her jurisdiction. Something which, according to her assistant's report, was happening just now with Roberto Conti's successful infiltration in 'Candido Bellezza'.

Or it could just be the blond officer's greed and self-preservation overpowering his non-existing loyalty to the military police and them looking too deep into it. It was plausible, given everyone's nonstop complaints about the payment, but for someone as close to the commander to break the rules so openly... no, Saverio must be at least aware of his subordinate's scheme, if not the one pushing him to do it. Not that Conti needed much of a push to be convinced to get involved, but it clearly helped Amarante if he tried to be nosy.

Gods forbid Saverio tries to become the new Rafael Bellini in terms of networking, because the man won't hesitate to eliminate the competition. With how bad the two already interact, that might happen regardless of Saverio's intentions.

Why was everything so damn messy in this part of the world? Why were the authorities so useless and the population so out of touch with the dangers within? If they were in Aylah...

Gods, she's never taking her homeland for granted ever again. Yes, their system wasn't flawless either, but at least it did its job decently. Here... it was a wonder that the Seremeese kingdom had not collapsed yet with how poorly thought some of its laws were.

But that was beside the point, as many things started to be the more time she spent in this truly blessed land of ignorance. Her mission was not progressing at all, despite all the hard work she put in it over the six years she was here. She still didn't find the so-called Shadow Nest, the source of those monstrous atrocities, nor the person aggravating the situation. From what her institution researchers' have gathered, both the Shadows and Obscuri (commonly grouped together under the umbrella term of Obscurians) were primarily made of dark magical residue among other stuff that was not yet properly analyzed by the savants due to its unstable nature and tendency to destroy itself. In other words, someone was using the Nest for illegal magic practice and releasing the byproducts in highly populated areas to watch the chaos unfold. Now that they knew that information, there was no way A.A.M.P. could back off from the matter even if they desired; a magical problem like that needs a magical solution.