Chapter 12

In the spacious office full of bookshelves, two extremely different individuals were sitting busy with their daily activities. A tall and slim man with long black hair was sitting on his table doing paperwork while an 11 years old boy was sitting on the sofa lifting a dumbbell with one hand and holding a book in the other.

Waver: Shinji bring me papers from the little table and please stop this nonsense and concentrate on your studies.

Shinji: Give me a minute. And professor you know that exercising does not distract me. "A week already has passed since my deal with Reines, and since then not much happened. My new boss Waver has already tested the ritual on himself and even though he did not tell me about the results of the ritual from his happy face after it I could easily deduce that everything worked out. I can understand his positive attitude and look like he owes me his life, after all, he had terrible magic talent and the maximum that he could have reached is to become 3rd rate magus. But it irritates me and that is the reason why I am working out in order to get rid of it, even though such a small weight that I publicly use is too small to have any effects on my beyonder physique. After all, according to the fan wiki Waver hates physical strength and for some odd reason, I find it to be very entertaining to annoy him. Plus, his younger sister Reines likes it too so by annoying Waver even though slightly I am improving her opinion about me and considering little witch's talent and position it can be considered as establishing important connections."

And after that short conversation, I followed my boss's order.

Waver: Hm, more work. Please remind me of my schedule for today.

Shinji: Well, you are teaching classes from 10.00 a.m. to 2.00 p.m. then lunch break until 3.00 p.m. then at 4.30 p.m. you have a meeting with miss Addington in her residence in Earlsfield. The previous head of Addington household was found dead in her workshop recently and they have promised generous financial reward for a person that will be able to find the killer and today is your turn.

Waver: Okay, that means I have to give a class in 30 minutes and if I remember correctly, you're are the part of that class so finish all your work in the next 20 minutes.

Shinji: Ok

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Shinji: "Hm today's topic is the generalized overview of occultic rituals that emerged in the last quarter of the 19th century due to widespread use of electricity, nothing that I don't know but Waver is a good teacher so it would be a great revision. Unfortunately, there is no one from the Nasuverse characters that I know."

Waver: The cone of power is a method of raising energy in ritual magic, especially in Wicca. The cone of power is visualized as a cone of energy that encompasses the circumference of the circle above the group of people performing it. As a group, the cone is formed by the humans standing in a circle, sometimes holding hands, and focusing on a single point above the group and in the center of the circle. They then use the prana in order to raise the energy and extend it upwards. When the amount of energy used in the ritual reaches the peak, the ritual leader will release that energy upwards and the cone is "sent" towards the goal. This is called "Raising the Cone of Power".

Waver: The said ritual can be performed in weakened form by one person substituting the other people necessary for the ritual by lighting the light bulbs in a circular formation around the magic circle.

???: But professor how could a simple light bulb replace people powering it by prana?

Waver: Good question Abigale. As I said the ritual is weakened mainly due to only one person providing the necessary prana for the rituals. The light bulbs on another hand as a source of light symbolizes the souls of other humans supposed to participate in the ritual creating an illusion of it being performed by a group of people.

---- about 4 hours later in the taxi-----

Shinji's pov

Shinji: "My first detective mission. I can't wait after all that is the main reason why I become the assistant of Lord El-Melloi II who will become the popular detective in the magus world after all I need it in order to digest my potion the sequence 7 detective due to detective games having no noticeable effect."

Waver: Shinji don't doze off we will reach our destination in 5 minutes. And don't forget your cat.

Shinji: OK.

And with this simple word I lifted the Bast that was peacefully sleeping in the middle of the seat between me and the professor.

So in after 5 minutes we were standing in front of Addington residence it was a Victorian terraced house with two stories that did not differentiate from other houses in Earlsfield and if not for the boundary field enveloping it you wouldn't even think that it is the residence of magus linage that goes 7 generations back. If I remember correctly in every generation the Addington's have 3 children and at least two of them always female one of each is always nominated as an heir thus for 7 generation family had only been female heads. The head of the family never marries for some reason.

They specialize in evocation, in other words, they call for the power of one of the celestial bodies focusing on Venus. In other words, they call for the fraction of outer deities' power, and according to the information given to me by the Lord of the Mysteries, Venus is currently under the control of the Mother Tree of Desire the outer deity with authority over the prisoner and criminal pathways, in other words, she can be regarded as the god of an abyss, demons, and monsters. But my enhanced intuition doesn't alarm me so I suppose that is fine. And under such thoughts, I did not notice as my grip becomes too strong for little fellow in my hands.

Bast: Meow!!!

Shinji: Sorry partner I am just overthinking.

And with these words, we rang the bell on the entrance of the Addington's residence.