Mage×Family

Mission 1: Backup Plan

XXXXXX XXX, 1963

Berlint, Ostania

Operation Strix; an operation planned out by the heads of the Westalian spy agency W.I.S.E.. Designed as a plan to infiltrate the upper echelons of Ostanian society, the plan focused around establishing close contact or relationships to the target Donovan Desmond. To do this, the agent would need to make contact with the target during one of his few official, public outings; an official gathering at Eden Academy.

Getting into that gathering was the main hurdle of Operation Strix. Infiltration wasn't an option given the scrutiny of those who were allowed entry, and assassination wasn't yet planned. The agent needed to get close to Desmond, and for the most part that party was the only way to do so. The problem? The only people with access to the party were Imperial Scholars of Eden Academy and their parents.

This meant planting a child into Eden Academy, raising them up to be an Imperial Scholar - which was difficult in and of itself thanks to the high standards to even count as one -, and praying that they would manage to pull it off. Even then, there was no guarantee that just getting access to the gathering would be enough to get close to Desmond, as Desmond could always be busy with other figures more influential than Parent X.

Desmond himself was a powerful and influential figure in Ostania, being the former Prime Minister and current Chairman of the National Unity Party that held much political clout. As one would expect when dealing with a renowned politician, WISE's agents would have to fight an uphill battle to make their way into his sphere.

It was for this reason that WISE chose their best; Agent Twilight. Having enacted several successful missions in a wide array of different jobs and tasks, there were few better for the job. With him on the job, it would have a better chance of success than any of their other agents.

As for Twilight himself, he was exhausted.

The first step of Strix was finding a child to enlist in Eden Academy. That seemed hard enough on its own, given the standards, but he did find success in finding a child named 'Anya.' Despite their apparent intelligence when they filled out a crossword puzzle in front of him, he was beginning to consider the possibility that it was merely a fluke.

While he was willing to bite the bullet and see how she fared, he wasn't confident in her alone. He was already stressed enough having to rely on a random child for his mission, so the least he could do was improve his chances by getting another one if the first failed.

For this, he needed to find yet another shady run-down orphanage that likely carried few papers on their children. This was essential to his disguise, as it would allow him to make it appear as if the child had always been biologically his since the orphanage would conveniently lose all of its records shortly after. Currently, he was under the identity of Loid Forger, a completely made-up identity and thus one that they could more easily shift around and alter as needed. Rich? Sure. Handsome? Done.

The orphanage he was currently standing before was one of the last on his list. Any other orphanages anywhere near Berlint would be of too high quality; their documents would be too reliable and difficult to modify.

He had gone to several equally run-down orphanages before arriving at this one, and he had found some children he considered choosing, but he wasn't going to take his chances. He wanted to be thorough, no more possible flukes like Anya. He wanted to clearly know the level of intellect the child he was adopting had.

Even he could recognize how unrealistic this was, his standards were quite high, and without studying the children he would never reach them, but his goal wasn't to find someone who could. His goal was to find whoever got closest. The smartest child he could possibly find was what he was looking for, and he would use every method he had to properly test for it. He would just have to raise them afterwards to become as intelligent as possible.