Idle Mage: Humanity's Strongest Backer-Novel

• Year 5, 2nd Month, 4th day.

: An accident occurred today. We started the day as usual. We woke up, did our Morning Worship, had a meal, and prepared to spar with the demons to keep up pretenses.

: Things were going out great at first, nothing seems fine or weird, we didn't sense anything amiss and the spar went on as intended. However, something terrible happened at the end of it.

: A mysterious variable appeared and spilled the blood of our comrades, sending them back to Paradiso. Even demons weren't spared.

: This has never happened before so we were greatly disturbed. We don't know who's responsible for all of this. We want to think that it's the Demons but it is very unlikely that it is them, after all, we are somewhat working with them to keep this pretense up. They wouldn't dare to mess up like this since they will face severe consequences.

: We have already reported this incident to our Comrades back at Laguna. Right now, we're in a state of alert. We are waiting for orders on how we should proceed.

— Seraph Neon

***

• Year 5, 4th Month, 5th Day.

: We decided to call him (we thought the culprit is a 'he') White-Cloaked Reaper.

: He's very mysterious. Nobody knows when he appears nor when he leaves. He just lets us find out once he's done with the deed. He'd 'graciously' leave us strewn corpses of our men behind as proof.

: This is troublesome. None of us knows when or where he is. We couldn't tell from which side he'll come in. He comes and goes as he pleases and we could do nothing to stop him. Whoever he is, his methods are extremely mysterious.

: The elders are chewing us out. Even though we said that we've tried all kinds of ways to track the culprit down only to be met with failure, they're still pressuring us to find a way. What can we do?

: And they dare to tell us that we're slacking off. If they're so capable, then why not come here and display that 'superiority' then? Why don't they try to track him down instead of forcing us?

: At this point, I think that they're trying to make this more difficult for us.

— Seraph Neon.

***

• Year 6, 2nd Month, 9th Day

: Those old fogeys are seriously messing with me. I swear to god once I return I will yank their beards down so hard!

: Like, if you want us to stop the White Cloaked Reaper from sending our comrades back to Paradiso, then freaking help us! Send us something! Anything! To help us track him down! Don't just sit there and get mad at us. Seriously, even if you old people die from anger, nothing will change if you don't help us track him down since we don't have the right equipment here!

: Damn! I swear, scold us one more time and I kill all of you the moment I return to Laguna.

— Seraph Neon.

***

'...ah, so this is his diary I think." Ashton mused as he placed the booklet back to where he took it. Making sure that he returned it the exact way he picked it up.

With his new gear worn, Ashton didn't need to be afraid of being discovered. Since the materials he procured and got Aria to use came from the Commanders themselves, the formation covering the entire camp wasn't triggered when he appeared.

Right now, he's rummaging through the documents and any other thing that would help him discover what's going on. And since he's wearing gloves made out of Angelic Feathers, he wouldn't leave any of his aura behind.

So far though, no luck for him...

As it turns out, the documents on Neon's office table were just permits. It came from the angels who were proposing some additional things to be added to the camp to make their stay a bit more 'homey'.

Some asked for a pool, some asks for fighting rings, and the brave ones downright asked for a whole-ass brothel to be made.

Neon, as the Head Seraph, was the one who handles these things. That, on top of overseeing the entire operations as well.

Still, this isn't what Ashton was looking for...

Frankly, he didn't care about what the angels decided to have for breakfast or what their current needs are. They can all go to hell for all he cares. All he wanted to know, is more information about what exactly is the meaning of them being here.

Why was there a need for them to pretend as if they were going to war against demons every single waking moment? What do they mean by suppressing the Providence of this place?

These are what Ashton wants-no, needs to know.

He had spent a lot of time in Neon's room to no avail. He didn't find anything strange or interesting there. Since that's the case, he could only move on.

Next, he chose Bea's room since it's right next to Neons.

When he didn't find anything there either, he went to Ulver's room...

To his absolute dismay, he didn't find what he wanted. In the end, he could only return to the library with a clouded expression.

'That can't be right?' Ashton mused to himself, looking quite upset. 'There has to be a lead somewhere. But why didn't I find any? Surely I must be missing something important here.'

He didn't believe that there was no lead here. That just doesn't make sense. For these people to devote their time and effort to do this as best as they could, there's no way they'd do it without knowing what exactly is going on behind the scenes.

He refused to believe that these Commanders were just mindless beings who just follow orders. Their personalities are too colorful to be like that.

In his distressed state, Ashton controlled the Library in each room once more. He didn't go out anymore since the angels are bound to return anytime soon.

He scanned each room, trying to find out if he missed some clues leading to a secret or something. He did to every single room but in the end, he didn't find any. Which made him even more upset.

He was about to leave when all of a sudden, he felt someone coming toward this room. He immediately parked the library and stayed still. He minimized his perception to make sure he won't get caught.

Not long after that, Angel comes into his view. It was Neon.

He actually didn't notice that he came back here once more. Now, he's kind of trapped here.

"Errgghhh!"

Neon made a strangled sound as he stretched. He walked towards his table and slumped into his chair, looking dead as he stared at the neat stack of documents in there.

"...I'm being overworked. I demand a raise. Except wait, I'm not actually being paid to do this. Oh, how sad. I wanna go home." Neon whined as he slammed his face on his desk.

Ashton would laugh, to be honest. Except, he couldn't since he's not really in the mood.

He watched as Neon gradually mustered the courage to pick his documents back up. He went through them like a possessed man, eyes glowing red as he madly stamped the papers.

When he's done, he looked like a corpse. Ashton actually pitied the guy a bit. He somewhat finds it ironic that not even Angels could escape the terror of paperwork.

He then watched as the Seraph stood up and pushed his table away. His body suddenly emitted a strong golden brilliance as his lips uttered strings of prayers.

Under Ashton's astonished gaze, a compartment suddenly opened up on the floor. His mind whirred and suddenly, everything started making sense.

There's indeed a secret, he didn't manage to find it since he's not an angel and it was hidden by foreign mechanisms.

Neon unceremoniously went down with stacks of documents in hand. Ashton made a decisive decision to follow him since who knows when he'll get another chance.

He wasn't met with any obstructions nor he triggered any sorts of alarms. He already scanned the place before he went in so he was sure that he wouldn't be found out.

What he saw down there was an underground bunker that had a lot of foreign trinkets. He didn't know what their purpose is but looking at them makes him feel horrible.

Ashton watched as Neon unceremoniously threw the stacks of paper into the large trash bin before leaving the place. Before he left, Ashton heard him say:

"Time for a good nap."

And just like that, the entrance was sealed and Ashton was trapped inside of here.

But, he didn't mind that. Now that he came across a secret room, he was ready to make yet another round of investigation.

Ashton felt sure about it. Sure that this room holds the thing which will tell him the secrets of their operation here. He didn't mind that he was trapped here for now since he had ways of getting out if push comes to shove.

Once he stepped out of the library, he began his investigation anew.