About a week later I was having lunch with my friends in the mess hall, when Valeria approached us.

"Hello Koyuki, do you have a minute?" She asked.

I looked up from my meal. "Sure, what do you need?"

She took this as an invitation and sat down next to us. She had her own tray with food. Fried chicken with rice, a solid choice. "It's about the Iron Beak you have gifted me, it has disappeared."

"What? Did it explode?" Cassie asked.

"Thankfully no. It appears to have been stolen." Valeria replied.

I checked my links to my undead. I had quite a few goblin zombies in addition to the Iron Beaks. With so many links it was hard to keep track of all of them. I could not quite identify where the missing Iron Beak was.

"Who would steal an Iron Beak?" Helena wondered.

"They could try to copy our mechanism to trigger the explosion. It might be worth something." Skadi mused.

"Command it to explode Koyuki, that will show them!" Cassie suggested.

"I have trouble figuring out which one it is and it might be too far away for a remote command." I replied. "And it could harm innocents if I commanded it to explode, we don't know where it is."

"Where did you keep it?" Hatsumi asked.

"I had it with me in the city, I wanted to show it to a friend. I am afraid it was taken from my carriage. Someone broke into it while it was parked outside of a shop. The driver was incapacitated with magic. While other things were stolen too, it is suspicious that they took an undead chicken." Valeria replied.

"Why didn't the Iron Beak fight back?" Helena wondered.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"I ordered it to not act aggressively. I did not want it to explode if a friend, or a maid, picked it up." Valeria explained.

"A reasonable precaution." Kaito mused. "I would also like to add that there has been no evidence of someone coming for your undead inside the academy, Koyuki. Hatsumi and I regularly check the storage room where they reside. Or course, it would be foolish since they would resist any abduction, violently."

"But the Iron Beaks are not high level undead. They are not even properly enhanced, or have an elemental affinity. They are just basic skeletons. I could see someone being interested in Frank, but an Iron Beak? Are you sure they did not simply take everything they could?" I wondered.

"Magic was used in the theft. No mage would simply steal a random undead. They would know better than to abduct a creature that might become hostile, or allow a mage to find them. Also, you said you can't identify the one which has been stolen. They might even shield it from being found. Clearly they were prepared for it." Valeria pointed out.

"They could use it to frame you." Hatsumi suggested. "I hope you reported the theft, Valeria?"

She nodded. "I did. There were no witnesses, sadly. Which is strange, the parking spot was not that secluded. It could mean even more magic was used."

"You think someone will use my Iron Beak to blow something up and blame me? They can't command it." I pointed out.

"They could trigger the explosion and use it for a crime." Hatsumi pointed out.

"If it explodes there would not be much left to identify an Iron Beak." Cassie replied.

"They could pretend to commit a crime, have the guards interrupt them and leave the unexploded Iron Beak behind. They could even use illusions to look like us." Skadi theorised.

I scratched my head. "That would only work if they made sure nobody saw us elsewhere."

"While Hatsumi's suggestion has merit, I would not discount the possibility that they want to simply study your creation, Koyuki." Kaito said. "Your necromancy is an art and any practitioner might be yearning to have a glimpse at it."

I blushed. "Um… or maybe they want Cassie's bomb recipe?"

"Everyone likes explosives! But I do think your undead might be a bit more special than my mixture." Cassie replied. "Well, the old mixture. I have an improved one. Hehehe."

"Why haven't the guards contacted Koyuki? When did this happen anyway?" Helena asked.

"Yesterday evening. I can only assume the guards are pursuing other leads, or maybe they did not think Koyuki could help." Valeria replied.

"So, what are we going to do about it?" Skadi asked.

"I have to figure out which Iron Beak it is. Then see if I can track it, at least releasing it should be possible so they can't use it. If I gather all my undead in front of me it should be easier to check which link belongs to the missing one." I said.

"If you release it, another necromancer could claim it." Kaito pointed out. "Maybe it would be wise to hold onto the Iron Beak, for now."

"We should definitely ask Gronir about a way to track it. If there is a spell masking its position maybe you can break that somehow?" Hatsumi suggested.

"It's worth a try." I replied.

"Do you think they will let us skip afternoon classes to hunt it?" Helena wondered.

"Uh, if we go after them we should bring a lot of Iron Beaks. If they want to study them, we should give them a chance to." Cassie said, with a big grin.

"I think hostages would be preferred for interrogation." Kaito pointed out.

Cassie pouted. "I am sure some would survive…"

Skadi patted her on the head. "I am sure we can find a door to their hideout that you can explode, or something."

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