Saturday mornings were different.
For the first time all week, nobody had to rush out before sunrise.
There were no office reports waiting for John.
No construction site expecting Skinn.
No school for Brei.
Even Karl had managed to postpone helping with the family business until the following day.
The headquarters felt unusually peaceful.
Sunlight filtered through the boarded windows, filling the abandoned building with thin shafts of warm light.
"...Something smells good."
John stepped out of Boss's office after helping organize several folders from the growing collection of district records. The familiar aroma drifting from the kitchen immediately caught his attention.
Skinn poked his head out from the kitchen.
"It only smells good because Karl isn't cooking."
Karl looked up from the dining table.
"I cooked once."
"You almost invented biological warfare."
"I forgot salt."
"You forgot the rice."
"...Details."
John laughed quietly before placing the folders onto a nearby shelf.
The headquarters had slowly begun to feel...
Normal.
Weekdays belonged to ordinary lives.
John worked in recruitment.
Skinn surveyed construction sites.
Karl occasionally helped with his family's businesses.
Brei went to school.
Jaz looked after the headquarters whenever she wasn't accompanying Boss.
But Saturdays were different.
Instead of scattering across the city, everyone naturally found small things to do around the headquarters.
John organized reports.
Skinn cleaned and repaired surveying equipment.
Karl sorted documents Ruth had sent over while occasionally playing with tiny silicate shards that floated lazily around his fingertips.
Jaz prepared lunch while Brei quietly colored beside the dining table.
Noel wandered around the building, gradually familiarizing himself with its many rooms.
Boss, meanwhile, had disappeared since morning.
Nobody questioned it anymore.
By late afternoon, everyone had naturally gathered once again around the dining area.
The headquarters felt less like a hideout...
And more like home.
The front door opened.
Boss stepped inside carrying a notebook filled with handwritten observations.
Without greeting anyone, he placed it on the dining table.
"...Everyone."
The room gradually fell silent.
Jaz set down the plates she had been arranging.
The two newly awakened mages looked toward Boss.
Even Brei paused halfway through coloring another page.
Boss glanced around the room.
"...This evening."
"We're having a meeting."
Karl blinked.
"...A meeting?"
Boss nodded.
"I've answered the same questions six times this week."
Skinn raised a hand.
"...Was one of them mine?"
Boss looked at him.
"Two."
"...Fair."
John smiled awkwardly.
"I've probably contributed."
"You have."
The newer recruit scratched his cheek.
"...Sorry."
"I'm not complaining."
Boss closed the notebook.
"I'm preventing repetition."
Silence settled for a moment before Karl leaned back in his chair.
"...So..."
"...an orientation?"
Boss gave a single nod.
"Something like that."
Jaz smiled knowingly.
"I've been waiting for this."
John looked toward her.
"You knew?"
"I suggested it."
Boss didn't deny it.
Skinn looked between the two of them.
"...So this was your idea?"
Jaz shrugged.
"I got tired of translating Boss."
Karl laughed.
"...That explains a lot."
Boss ignored the comment.
"There will be one more person."
The room quieted again.
John tilted his head.
"...Someone new?"
Boss nodded.
"A recruit."
Ruth's recruit.
Karl immediately understood.
"...Mom's?"
"Yes."
"Are they strong?"
Boss answered without hesitation.
"I don't know."
Karl frowned.
"...You recruited someone without knowing?"
"I recruited someone useful."
Skinn leaned against the kitchen doorway.
"...What's the difference?"
Boss looked directly at him.
"A strong mage can become useless."
"A useful mage rarely does."
Nobody argued.
That sounded exactly like something Boss would believe.
The younger recruit, still unfamiliar with everyone, hesitated before asking,
"...So... this isn't really a clan?"
Boss remained silent for a few moments.
Finally...
"No."
"...Not yet."
John noticed the wording.
Not yet.
He had never once heard Boss refer to them as a clan.
Not even casually.
It was always...
"The headquarters."
"The district."
"The group."
Never a clan.
He filed that observation away.
Before anyone could ask another question, a knock echoed through the building.
Three slow knocks.
Boss looked toward Karl.
"...Open it."
Karl walked over and unlocked the heavy front door.
Standing outside was Ruth.
She wore the same composed expression as always, though today she wasn't alone.
Beside her stood a young woman in her mid-twenties, dressed plainly in jeans and a light jacket. She carried a backpack over one shoulder and looked noticeably uncomfortable beneath everyone's attention.
Ruth stepped aside.
"...As promised."
Boss looked toward the newcomer.
"...Welcome."
The young woman gave a polite bow.
"My name is Elise."
"I apologize for arriving during dinner."
"You aren't interrupting," Jaz replied warmly.
"We were just about to eat."
Elise smiled faintly.
"...Thank you."
Ruth handed Boss another folder.
"Everything's inside."
Boss opened it only briefly before closing it again.
"...You trust her."
"I do."
"That's enough."
John couldn't help noticing something.
Boss hadn't asked about her mana.
Her grimoire.
Her magic.
Nothing.
Instead...
He trusted Ruth's judgment.
Ruth looked toward Elise.
"I'll leave you here."
The young woman nodded.
"...Thank you."
Before leaving, Ruth looked once toward Karl.
"Don't forget Sunday."
Karl sighed.
"...I know."
"No excuses."
"...Yes, Mom."
Only after the sedan disappeared did Skinn quietly whisper,
"...She really has you under control."
Karl didn't even try denying it.
"Baaah...I've accepted my fate."
A few quiet laughs spread around the room.
The tension disappeared almost instantly.
Boss finally looked toward the empty seat at the dining table.
"Sit."
Elise hesitated.
"...Really?"
"You're joining us."
"...Right."
She carefully sat down.
For a moment, nobody spoke.
Then Jaz placed another plate in front of her.
"Eat first."
"We'll save the explanations for tonight."
Elise looked around the table.
A child quietly coloring.
A surveyor joking with an office worker.
A businessman arguing about seasoning.
A calm young woman serving food.
A leader who barely spoke.
It didn't feel like the headquarters of mages.
It felt...
Like a family that had slowly formed without realizing it.
Boss picked up his chopsticks.
"...Tomorrow."
He looked once around the table.
"I'll explain everything."
Nobody objected.
For once...
Everyone was looking forward to asking their questions together instead of one at a time.
As evening settled over the abandoned district, everyone gathered earlier than usual.
Unlike the previous nights, nobody drifted naturally into conversation.
Instead, everyone gathered in the meeting room before Boss had even arrived.
John sat quietly near one end of the long wooden table, a notebook resting open before him.
Old habit.
Skinn leaned back in his chair, balancing dangerously on two legs despite Karl repeatedly telling him to stop.
"I'm perfectly balanced."
"...You're about to fall."
"I believe in physics."
"You shouldn't."
Across from them, the new recruit sat silently, his black grimoire resting on the table before him. Beside him, Elise looked equally uncertain, occasionally glancing around the room as though still trying to convince herself all of this was real.
She then looks at the other new recruit.
"A-are you new here as well?"
"Yeah. You just awakened? Like... you got those grimoires and stuff?"
"Yeah. I was invited to work near here as well. Your name?"
"Noel."
"Elise. I hope we get along."
They both then stare at the arguing Karl and Skinn, with John asking Karl to remove the silicate shards he had been playing with since morning.
Jaz smiled reassuringly.
"You'll get used to it."
"...How long did it take you?" Elise asked.
Jaz thought for a moment.
"...A few years."
Elise blinked.
"...Years?"
"...You'll understand."
Before she could ask another question, the meeting room door opened.
Boss entered carrying nothing more than a small notebook and a piece of chalk.
Karl looked around.
"...Where's the blackboard?"
Boss walked to the empty wall.
"There isn't one."
He drew a single horizontal line across the plaster instead.
Skinn frowned.
"...That's it?"
Boss ignored him.
He turned toward everyone.
"For the past several weeks..."
"...you've each been asking different questions."
His gaze moved around the room.
"Some of you ask practical questions."
He looked at John.
"Some ask theoretical ones."
Toward Karl.
"Some ask questions before thinking."
Skinn raised a hand.
"...That's me."
Boss nodded.
"It is."
A few chuckles circled the room.
Boss continued.
"So today..."
"...ask."
Silence.
Nobody spoke.
Boss waited.
Finally...
John raised his hand.
"...What exactly is mana?"
Boss answered immediately.
"...Reason."
Silence.
Karl rubbed his forehead.
"...Boss."
"...We're already doing this?"
Boss looked toward Jaz.
"...Translate."
Jaz couldn't help smiling.
"I told you this would happen."
She stood and walked beside the line Boss had drawn.
"The simplest way to think about mana..."
"...is as fuel."
She paused.
"But that's also wrong."
Skinn frowned.
"...That's comforting."
"It's closer to permission."
Everyone looked at her.
Jaz continued.
"Mana doesn't perform magic."
"It allows magic to happen."
Boss gave a small approving nod.
John quietly wrote that sentence down.
Elise hesitated before speaking.
"...Then... what actually performs the magic?"
Boss answered.
"...You."
She looked confused.
"...Me?"
"More specifically..."
He pointed toward the black grimoire resting beside Noel.
"...your subjective parascience."
Noel slowly looked down at his book.
"My... what?"
"Every mage possesses a unique way of interacting with logic."
Boss folded his arms.
"That interaction becomes your magic."
Karl crossed his own arms.
"So..."
"...there aren't really fire mages?"
"No."
"...Lightning mages?"
"No."
"...Water mages?"
"No."
Skinn blinked.
"...Wait."
"...Then how does everyone categorize each other?"
Boss answered.
"Convenience."
Jaz nodded.
"Exactly."
"If someone's subjective parascience mostly produces fire..."
"...people call them a fire mage."
"It doesn't mean fire is their actual magic."
John suddenly remembered something.
"The three classifications... S, P, F."
Boss nodded.
"Their tendencies."
"...Not rules."
John underlined that sentence.
That explained far more than he had expected.
Elise looked thoughtful.
"So..."
Skinn raised a finger.
"More like ultraviolet protecti—"
He stopped himself.
"...Never mind."
Karl sighed.
"You almost had one serious meeting."
"I tried."
Elise continued.
"So...two people could both look like they're using fire..."
"...but their magic works completely differently?"
Boss answered immediately.
"Usually."
Silence followed.
Then Karl slowly smiled.
"...That's actually kind of terrifying."
"It is."
For several moments, nobody asked another question.
The room felt strangely different now.
Less mysterious.
Yet somehow...
Much larger.
Skinn finally broke the silence.
"...Boss."
"Hm."
"...What's the point of all this?"
Boss looked toward him.
"This?"
He gestured around the room.
"The headquarters."
"The district."
"The reflectors."
"The recruits."
"...Everything."
For the first time that evening...
Boss didn't answer immediately.
He walked toward the window overlooking the abandoned district.
The last light of sunset stretched across empty buildings and forgotten streets.
"When people build..."
"...they usually build for themselves."
He rested one hand against the windowsill.
"I'm building for people who aren't here yet."
Nobody interrupted.
"Someday..."
"...someone will awaken."
"They'll be afraid."
"They won't understand what's happening."
"They'll need somewhere to go."
He looked back toward everyone.
"I want that place to exist before they arrive."
Silence filled the room.
John slowly closed his notebook.
He finally understood.
Boss wasn't gathering followers.
He wasn't building a clan.
He wasn't preparing for war.
He was preparing...
For strangers he hadn't even met.
A soft knock echoed through the room.
Boss glanced toward the door.
"...Come in."
The door opened just enough for Brei to peek inside.
"...Um..."
Jaz smiled.
"What is it?"
"...Dinner's ready."
The room remained silent for another second.
Then Skinn stood.
"...Perfect timing."
Karl laughed.
"I was starting to think orientation came with starvation."
Even Boss allowed the faintest smile.
"...We'll continue tonight."
No one complained.
Because somehow...
They had all left the meeting with more questions than when they entered.