NOVPUBHans drifted through an endless expanse of darkness.
It felt like he was submerged underwater—yet also as if he were floating in the sky.
‘Where... is this?’
How long had he been in that place?
When Hans opened his eyes, he realized it wasn’t darkness surrounding him.
It was a beast.
The black things stretching around him weren’t shadows—they were all fur.
‘...!’
He tried to scream in shock, but no voice came out.
At that moment, crimson eyes lit up amid the sea of black fur.
Three massive pairs of eyes stared down at Hans.
The beasts let out deafening roars and charged at him.
“Aaaaagh!” Hans flailed his arms and legs wildly, trying to escape.
Then, something cold and strangely familiar touched his palm.
Desperately grasping at it as if clinging to a lifeline, Hans gripped it tightly.
At the same time, a strong tug yanked at his body—and Hans awoke from the dream.
“Haa! Haa!”
“You’re awake?”
“B-Brother...?”
Hans looked up at Ludger, who was seated beside the bed with one leg crossed over the other.
“What... what the hell happened? Where am I?”
“This is a secret hideout. I brought you here after you passed out. Anything feel off? Are you in pain?”
“No... nothing like that...”
“Good to hear.”
“But still, I... I can’t believe I’m alive.”
Hans recalled what had happened before he lost consciousness.
He’d had the misfortune of running into black mages and had been consumed by their curse.
Right before death, he’d stabbed himself with the tooth of a cryptid that Ludger had given him.
After that, his memories were nothing but scattered fragments—so small and fleeting they barely qualified as memories at all.
“I... turned into a monster, didn’t I?”
“You did.”
“And I still survived...?”
“Lucky, I’d say. Now, Hans, hand it over.”
“W-What do you mean?”
“The thing you promised to give me.”
Oh. 𝘯𝑜𝑣𝑝𝑢𝘣.𝑐𝑜𝑚
Hans finally realized what Ludger was talking about.
The relic fragment. He had said he’d deliver it to Ludger himself.
But—
‘...That thing. The black mage took it.’
The last thing he remembered was seeing it in a black mage’s hand.
He had no idea where it had gone after that. He simply didn’t remember.
‘Shit. I’m screwed.’
Worst case, it might’ve been buried beneath the rubble of the half-collapsed Kunst Auction House.
That thought sent a cold sweat dripping down his back.
“Uh, Brother. S-So... just, hear me out first, alright?”
“Save the excuses. Just hand over what’s in your right hand.”
“My right hand?”
Only then did Hans notice that he was holding something.
That cold sensation from the dream.
When he opened his palm, there it was—the relic fragment he had been searching so desperately for.
“Huh? H-How is this...?”
“You’ve been holding onto it since you passed out.”
“I have?”
“Yes. When you lost consciousness, and even while I was carrying you here—you held it like your life depended on it. So I left it alone.”
Hans stared silently at his right hand.
A faint laugh escaped him.
“Ha... haha.”
It hadn’t been taken.
Even while turning into a monster, some sliver of his sanity had held onto the item.
It was such a small thing, really—but it made Hans’ chest tighten with emotion.
“...Here. I didn’t lose it after all, thank god.”
“You did well, Hans.”
“Forget it. It was my job in the first place.”
Hans handed over the relic fragment with a sheepish grin.
Ludger accepted it and gently ran his fingertips across its surface before standing up.
“Now that you’re back to yourself, get up. We have a lot to discuss—with you and the others.”
“You mean... like what happened after we hit the auction house?”
“That too, of course. But that’s not the real issue anymore.”
“Huh?”
Hans wanted to ask what he meant, but Ludger left the room before he could—so he hurriedly got to his feet and followed.
When they arrived at the meeting room, the others were already gathered.
They widened their eyes slightly at the sight of Hans walking in on his own.
Feeling awkward under their gazes, Hans forced a smile.
“Alright, where should I begin?”
Ludger ignored the reactions and got straight to the point.
“First of all, well done. A lot of unexpected shit happened, but thanks to everyone’s effort, the operation ended in success.”
“Woohoo! We’re rich now!”
Seridan threw her arms up and shouted with joy.
Bellaruna, glancing around nervously, awkwardly raised one hand and gave a half-hearted “Yay~.”
“But don’t celebrate too soon. These stolen goods won’t turn into money overnight. Safely fencing these high-value items will take a lot of time.”
The silver lining was that Kunst was utterly destroyed, which meant no one would be chasing their tails for a while.
“But that’s not the important part.”
Everyone’s expressions shifted—they knew this was coming.
“I’m sure you’ve all realized something while working together for the first time. You’ve seen what your future comrades are capable of.”
Just as Ludger said, the executive members—who still didn’t fully know one another—had imprinted each other’s abilities into memory during the mission.
The first to speak was Alex.
“I mean, yeah, I was shocked. People turning into giant beasts? That’s a first for me.”
“For someone who says that, you...”
Phantos, who had been listening in silence, cut in while looking at Alex.
“You used some pretty unusual sword techniques. Were you a knight?”
“Not a knight. Just a wannabe.”
“Doesn’t look like any wannabe I’ve seen.”
Alex had gone toe-to-toe with a Nightcrawler Knight.
He called himself a wannabe, but in terms of raw skill, he was on par with a high-ranking knight.
It was hard to believe someone that young had such refined technique. The fact that someone like that was living as a conman suggested there was a story he hadn’t shared yet.
Feeling the conversation veer in a direction he didn’t like, Alex quickly changed the subject.
“Anyway, boss. What was up with that lady?”
It was a clumsy deflection, but everyone perked up at the mention.
If there was one thing they were all curious about, it was the blue-haired mage who had been at the scene.
A mage who wielded water magic.
Even someone like Alex, who wasn’t well-versed in spellcraft, could tell she was no ordinary person.
“I’m curious too.”
Phantos, normally reserved, admitted his interest.
Given that Phantos only cared about strong opponents, Casey Selmore clearly made the cut.
Even if the others didn’t say it, they were all thinking the same thing.
That’s how intrigued everyone was by Casey Selmore’s relationship with Ludger.
As all eyes turned to him, Ludger shook his head.
“She’s just a bad memory from my past.”
“Judging by that reaction, I’d guess you ran into her back when you were going by James Moriarty. Am I right?”
“I was.”
What had happened in the Kingdom of Delica was one of the most unforgettable episodes of Ludger’s life.
No point in hiding it now—Ludger began to explain.
“Her name is Casey Selmore. As you all know, that Selmore family.”
“Selmore? Wait. You mean the Selmore family? The famous magic bloodline?”
“There’s only one Selmore name. So yeah, it’s that one.”
Hans, well-connected as always, understood exactly how weighty that name was.
“The Selmores have produced countless great mages throughout history. They’ve even had two mages recently who earned the color titles.”
And one of those color-title holders was none other than Casey Selmore, who had a direct connection to Ludger.
A mage and a detective.
A prodigy whose achievements as a detective alone were already legendary.
“I first met Casey Selmore in the Kingdom of Delica.”
“Was it just a coincidence?”
“Not at all. She came looking for me.”
Thinking back to that time, Ludger frowned slightly, as if he still found it bothersome.
* * *
“I was traveling through the Kingdom of Delica at the time.”
“Traveling?”
Erendir looked puzzled that this story about meeting Betty suddenly turned into a tale of travel.
“It was a trip, sure. But... it had a purpose.”
“What kind of purpose?”
“Back then, I was a fairly well-known detective. I had built up a reputation—and I was full of myself.”
Casey had been overflowing with pride, inflated by everyone calling her a genius. She’d even begun to enjoy the praise and admiration.
Then, during a casual visit to the Kingdom of Delica, she heard rumors of a certain man.
“They said there was a young professor—brilliant, sharp-minded. He’d established numerous mathematical theories and was especially gifted in geometry.”
“A professor? Don’t tell me...”
“That’s right. It was Professor James Moriarty.”
“Huh? But wasn’t he a notorious criminal?”
“People only started calling him that afterward. At first, that man gained his reputation as a brilliant mathematician. He didn’t get the title ‘Professor’ for no reason.”
Of course, that same title would later become synonymous with “a man who incites crime.”
“I went to the Kingdom of Delica specifically to meet this highly esteemed figure. And I did meet him.”
Recalling that first encounter, Casey visibly scowled with irritation.
Still, she had no intention of denying the man’s achievements.
No matter what else could be said, the geometric formulas he’d devised had caused a massive upheaval in the field of mathematics.
“What kind of person was he?”
“A pompous bastard.”
“...Excuse me?”
Erendir looked utterly flustered. She hadn’t expected that to come out of Casey’s mouth.
Normally, people would say things like, “He didn’t seem ordinary from the first moment,” or “There was something suspicious about him,” right?
“Anyway, he was seriously annoying. One of those people who live for their own self-satisfaction, you know? Every single word he said just oozed arrogance.”
“B-But how did you find out someone like that was a criminal?”
“Not long after I arrived in Delica, a string of disappearances began. People started vanishing without a trace—every single day. Especially children.”
“Disappearing children...”
“I ran all over the place trying to track them down. Eventually, I got a lead. It led me to an abandoned mine. No one went there anymore, but I found suspicious individuals coming and going.”
Casey had ventured into the depths of that mine—and what she discovered shocked her.
It wasn’t just a collapsed mine—it was a hidden lab, a secret facility where something sinister had been underway.
A space filled with all sorts of machinery.
Steel, pipes, mechanical gears—a factory built underground.
And within it stood—
“James Moriarty. That man.”
Not the famed mathematician James Moriarty.
It was the moment she first encountered the criminal James Moriarty.
Casey clenched her fists at the memory.
At first, she’d wanted to believe it was just a misunderstanding—that she had misjudged the man.
But it wasn’t.
Corpses of Delica’s police officers were scattered around Moriarty.
And worst of all, the body of a missing child lay collapsed right at his feet.
The pristine white gloves on Professor Moriarty’s hands were {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} stained with the child’s blood.
Without thinking, purely by instinct, Casey had raised her wand and fired magic at him.
And Moriarty had blocked it—just as naturally.
It was the first clash between the so-called genius detective and the criminal of the century—just like the rumors said.
“Everything after that went as you’ve heard. The fight that day ended without a clear winner—he escaped, and I kept chasing him.”
In the process of chasing James Moriarty’s trail, she’d uncovered countless hidden incidents buried deep within the Kingdom of Delica.
What began as a few missing people eventually revealed a conspiracy that threatened the nation’s survival.
A monopoly over the arms industry to prepare for war. Secret weapon development. Plots to assassinate key figures from other kingdoms. Human experimentation in hidden labs.
Casey had uncovered it all. She arrested everyone involved and exposed their entire network.
The newspapers in Delica were filled with new revelations every day.
And then, three days before the final showdown—
She encountered James Moriarty again at one of the factories.
“It was a secret base manufacturing automatons. I don’t even know how he prepared something like that without anyone noticing. Honestly, I was impressed—even if he was the enemy.”
When Casey arrived, Moriarty made no attempt to hide his plans. He spilled everything.
He openly admitted he’d bribed high-ranking officials to start a war and rake in massive profits.
And just as the final stages of that plan were coming together—
An explosion engulfed the entire facility in flames.
“An explosion? Wait, don’t tell me—you caused that?”
Casey shot a glare at Erendir.
“Excuse me, Princess. I’m a water mage, not a bomber.”
At the time, she hadn’t yet earned her Color Title. She’d only been capable of wielding elemental water magic.
“...Well, I did sabotage some parts of the facility to prevent it from functioning properly. But I never meant for it to explode.”
She gave a small, defensive protest—because the truth was, even she wasn’t sure what had triggered that explosion.
Maybe she had unknowingly damaged something critical and caused it herself.
But that wasn’t the point.
Her top priority had been to arrest James Moriarty—the mastermind behind it all.
But with the flames raging around them, she hadn’t been able to fight properly, and Moriarty escaped.
Frustrated, Casey began combing through the burning factory for evidence.
And that’s when she found Betty.
The girl had been stored in a partially collapsed room, like she was asleep.
On the capsule she was lying in, there was a label: Beta (β).
“Betty is a special automaton created in that factory. In other words, her very existence is proof of what happened there.”
Casey had taken Betty from that place and escaped.
And just moments after she fled, the entire facility was reduced to ashes.
“So that’s what happened...”
Having heard the whole story, Erendir was filled with awe. Enya, too, was speechless.
The tale was famous, of course—but hearing it directly from Casey gave it an entirely different weight.
Still, there was one thing Casey hadn’t told either of them.
‘Back then... all I saw in that half-destroyed room was Betty.’
To be precise, she had found the successful product of the project: codename Beta.
Which raised an obvious question.
If Beta existed, didn’t that mean something had come before it?
Something that would have been labeled Alpha.
‘So then... where is Project Alpha?’
* * *
Ludger’s story naturally led to the topic of Arfa.
“As I’m sure you’ve all noticed by now—Arfa isn’t human. He’s an automaton, made of gears and steel.”
“...Holy shit.”
Hans let out a whistle, stunned.
“He’s a machine? But he looks completely human!”
“Because Arfa is special.”
“Special? That’s beyond special. How the hell can a machine look that human? If you hadn’t told me, I’d have thought he was just some weirdo.”
“...”
Everyone turned their eyes on Hans.
As if to say, You’re one to talk.
Still, knowing he was an automaton, all of Arfa’s ridiculous abilities finally made sense.
“Then the girl who clashed with Arfa at the scene...”
“She’s basically my little sister.”
The moment Arfa laid eyes on Betty, he immediately understood.
She was like him. Created for the same purpose.
“I was surprised. I never imagined I’d meet someone like me in a place like that.”
“I felt the same. I had no idea an automaton from that factory had survived.”
Who would’ve guessed that Casey Selmore’s assistant was actually an automaton everyone thought had been destroyed?
Still smiling faintly, Arfa spoke again.
“I’m just glad to know I wasn’t the only one who made it out of that project alive.”
That’s when Violetta, who had been silently listening, finally spoke.
“So Arfa, you’re one of only two automatons remaining from Delica?”
“That’s right.”
“Then what was Delica trying to achieve with creations like you?”
Arfa clearly wasn’t an ordinary automaton.
His terrifying physical power and output, his exceptional intellect—and even, strangely, what seemed like real emotion.
Ludger folded his arms and closed his eyes.
“There’s only one reason to mass-produce soldiers who don’t need knights or mages—and can be discarded without remorse.”
The Kingdom of Delica, a military and steel-producing powerhouse, had set one goal:
Not to create tanks or anti-air cannons—but to forge iron soldiers in the image of men. Soldiers who could think, move independently, and be produced in unlimited quantities.
They aimed to overturn the tide of war with machines made of steel and gears.
That project was called Stählern Kapelle—The Choir of Steel.
“War. That was the goal.”
The first automaton produced by the Choir of Steel—and its successful prototype.
That was codename Alpha: Arfa.
