BLACK CLOVER: Through the Looking Glass

*CLANG*

With a clang, Wilhelm dropped his sword in frustration, his shield and helmet too on the ground while the rest of his armor was soaked in blood.

"Damn it. I almost had them." Wilhelm muttered with a tired sigh as sat on his butt on the ground.

"Wilhelm, are you fine?" Mimosa asked worriedly to which he said, "Not me. Fuegoleon." and he lay on the floor on his back as if trying to make a snow angel.

Hearing this, Mimosa looked back to find Fuegoleon and shouted in horror, "What happened?" She said rhetorically as she leaned over to Fuegoleon's still body, sighed in relief that he was breathing, and began healing him.

Still on the ground, and still having the eyes of magic knights on him due to his attack, he asked looking at Klaus from the ground, "Where were you all?"

"We were teleported outside the Kingdom by a large margin. It was only due to our combined efforts that we were able to come back." Klaus replied, answering a question that Wilhelm was about to ask.

"Good for you." Wilhelm muttered as his chest heaved up and down while he closed his eyes. But the peace was short to last.

"Everyone, it is not the time to relax. We have to go around the Capital to check if people are fine or if any enemies are left around the Capital." Charlotte quickly took control and started to assign roles to people when Wilhelm happened.

"Yeah, about that. Yuno and I went around and already dealt with undead and saved civilians that could be saved. But it never hurts to be careful." Wilhelm said in such a relaxed tone that it made Charlotte whose leg was near his crotch want to hit him there, but decided against it.

"No one asked for your opinion, peasant." Solid said sharply at which Wilhelm retorted.

"You know what, I am going to be the bigger person and like a true noble should will not butt heads with a peasant such as yourself." What hurt Solid more than the words themselves was the dismissive tone in which those words were said.

Seeing where this was going, Nozel said, "Solid. Not one more word from you. We were moved away from the capital while he fooled the spatial magic user. You were way more useless than him."

At those words, not only Wilhelm, Solid, and Nebra, but Charlotte, Noelle, and every other magic too looked at Nozel, hearing his words full of disbelief.

'Did he just praise this peasant?'

'Did Nozel just take the side of Wilhelm?'

Such thoughts passed through the mind of people while Charlotte who knew him comparatively better thought, 'Did this kid defeating Nozel effortlessly and him being more useful in the capital create some sort of respect for him in Nozel's heart? Seriously, men are stupid.'

But shaking their head of nonsense, Nozel repeated Charlotte's words, "Go and do your duty if you have any self-respect as magic knight left."

"YES!"

On the other side, Mimosa was diligently healing Fuegoleon while a worrying Leopold stood by her side along with Asta and Noelle who looked at Fueogleon's fallen figure with a complicated look.

After many magic knights left the group to do damage control, Nozel whose eyes drifted to Fuegoleon's figure brimmed with anger, then turned to the people from Eye of Midnight Sun, and an expression promising pain replaced that anger.

'This is not the time to lose control.' He repeated to himself and asked Wilhelm who looked to be sleeping so warmly that it would bring comfort to anyone who saw it, if not for the blood from the undead that drenched his armor.

"Hey, Black Bull boy."

"Yes!" Asta replied with full attention.

"Not you!" Nozel shouted irritably.

"You!"

"…"

"I am talking to you!"

"If someone is talking to me, then they must be educated enough to use my name."

(0_0)

This caused not only Noelle, but Nebra and Charlotte who were the few left behind to look at Wilhelm in surprise.

Nozel himself was too stunned to speak as if he had faced this type of person for the first time.

First to snap herself out of the stupor, Nebra said with a scrunched-up face.

"Who do you think you are for us to use your name, huh?"

Wilhelm opened his eyes with a lazy demeanor and giving a once over at Nebra's face spoke.

"Seeing that ugly face of yours, most certainly NOT your father."

"Pfft.*Cough* Wilhelm, that most certainly is not the correct way to talk to a noble lady." Klaus said trying to stifle his laugh.

"Lady?! Where? Where is a noble lady!? I want to see one!" Wilhelm said looking with a face of genuine surprise.

"*Sigh* Seeing that you have enough energy to jest, you must also have enough energy to assist in the investigation." Nozel said with a sharp look, ignoring the intensity of which, Wilhelm said with a smile that slowly crept on his face, "So…you are saying you need my help?"

"I said no such thi-"

"Okay, I am going to help you if you are requesting me."

"I did not requ-"

"Don't. Don't play into his shenanigans. Ignore him and just tell him what to do. Only Yami can have any semblance of control over… 'this thing'." Charlotte whispered stopping Nozel from speaking and letting this thing drag on any further.

Nodding bregundinly at her advice, Nozel decided to focus on somebody else.

"Hey, you 4-leaf grimoire kid from Golden Dawn. You were here too. Fill us in on what happened when we were teleported away."

With his same impassive face, Yuno replied, "After you were teleported away, there was a woman whose magic was able to make her young in exchange for making somebody old in her stead. We defeated her and she is lying unconscious where the Decoration Ceremony was held."

"What about the mages who are responsible for the anti-spatial magic barrier?" Nebra asked instantly but was silenced by a look from Nozel.

"They would not know of that." Nozel said as if it was the most obvious thing but then Wilhelm added.

"Oh, there was nobody operating the anti-spatial magic barrier. No signs of struggle inside the room too. Either they were knocked out way too quickly, someone led them away from the job at the same time, or were paid to do so.

Personally, I think the first and third conjecture to be true. The first one is a tad bit more than the other keeping in mind the credibility of magic knights…you know what. The third one is more likely." He ended as he stretched his body on the ground while his armor colored the floor red with blood.

'All of them must have been defeated. Not all of them could be bought. Their identity is kept hidden for safety. Not even they themselves know each other so in the case even if somehow one of them is bought out, the identity of the rest will remain hidden.

But if this annoying peasant's words are to be believed, this means they were taken by surprise. This means the person who attacked them already knew of their location and was hidden there and caught them by surprise, and something tells me that I already know the culprits.' Nozel ended his thought as he stared at the members of Eye of Midnight Sun.

Then Mimosa's voice resounded with more intensity in it.

"I have done what I can and stopped the bleeding, but for any further healing, it would be best to send him to hospital."

"Very well then. Yuno and Mimosa, take Fuegoleon, Leopold, Asta, Noelle, and Wilhelm to the hospital."

"I am fine!" Asta shouted back flexing his muscle in return to Charlotte's words.

"Acting strong does not make you strong. Yuno, take them away." Charlotte chided Asta, which made Noelle smile smugly and Yuno nodded at Charlotte's command.

He again created a flying platform made of wind, where everyone in question got into except Wilhelm, who said one thing at his urging look.

"You go. I have something to talk about here. I already healed myself with my fire."

At this request, Yuno looked at the captains present here, who giving Wilhelm a side eye nodded.

"See you later Wilhelm."

"Take care."

"Please rest. You seem tired."

Asta, Noelle, and Mimosa said in unison as they departed with howling of the wind.

Finally, those who were left behind were Nozel, Charlotte, Klaus, Nebra, and Wilhelm, the latter of whom dispersed his bloody armor and appeared in his 'normal' attire. Straightening his cuffs, Wilhelm cracked his back when Nozel asked without any tone of amusement in his tone, "Speak and don't dilly-dally."

"Ok*crack*kay~ Mr. Fuegoleon's necklace. What significance does it have?"

"Why do you ask that?" Nozel asked trying to figure out the undertone in Wilhelm's question.

"Mr. Fuegoleon was the only magic knight captain who was left. If the intention of the enemy was to thoroughly attack the Clover Kingdom, they should have sent him away from the kingdom with you instead of other magic knights.

He was also teleported away, but not sent away like you all so this does not pose any question to the spatial magic user's capabilities.

When he was teleported, he was severely harmed but not killed, something the person who confronted him could easily do. This means that killing him was the goal of the person who attacked him.

Other than his lost arm, the rest of his body remained physically fine which signals that points to the fact that the attacker was far too much stronger than him. To the point that the rest of his body remained unruffled."

Hearing this part, Nozel's face began to show signs of anger. Clearly not like the notion that Fuegoleon was overwhelmed.

"The only thing that seems more fishy is the fact that only his necklace was lost."

"But does this whole ordeal seems way too much to get a necklace? The person who stole it here could have done so out of the Royal Capital when nobody was here?" Klaus questioned Wilhelm which Charlotte supported as well.

"He asks the right question. While what you said sounds good in pieces, when all of it is put together it sounds far too overblown."

"You overlook one thing.

For you this attacking Capital for a necklace is not worth it.

But for the attacker, it might be worth a whole lot more, if that necklace, was not just a necklace." Wilhelm added at which all 4 people had their eyes wide.

'This…could make sense.'

"And this is why you wish to know the true value of that necklace." Nozel said as he stroked his chin.

Nodding at him, Wilhelm said, "Precisely. If we know what the necklace is used for, we can uncover the intentions of the attacker, or possibly the attacker itself."

"Your word sounds reasonable but we have a more pressing matter to attend to." Charlotte said.

"Traitor." Wilhelm guessed.

"Traitor?" Both Nebra and Klaus shouted in surprise as the tension increased.

Disappointed by his sister's lack of critical thinking against a peasant's, Nozel said with an emotionless tone which somehow showed all emotions, "If what this…Wilhelm says is true, this means that these people were led to the place where the barrier of the Capital was. This place is not known to just anybody. Only people who are high up in the ranks even know where is it at, and getting access to it is another matter entirely."

"Also, this attack happened when the shift of guards who are supposed to protect changed, and the attack was led from the direction where the security was least.

The person was also privy to the security formation and layout of the Capital, something that the soul corpse magic user who was a former magic knight would not know. And those plans change from time to time to keep the enemies on their toes. This suggests the person also had access to those plans as they were in motion."

"Don't cut me when I speak." Nozel hissed.

"Whatever you say Nosehole."

'He did not just say that.' Nebra and Charlotte thought while Klaus became a statue. 

"I think I have a very good idea who the traitor is." Wilhelm spoke ignoring what he said to Nozel.

"And who do you suspect?" Charlotte asked not allowing any more fight between men to ensue.

"Captain of Purple Orca, Gueldre Poizot."

{Another place where members who escaped the attack teleported to.}

Charred.

The spacious stone monument with pillars on each side that at some point might have been a sight of wonder became a sight of horror.

In the center of the room were 3 bodies that were indistinguishable from each other because all of them were charred black, with the smell of burning flesh covering the air.

The only thing that could be used to identify them would be the grimoire that was flickering as if about to disperse, which seeing the condition of their body, was not far off.

"Hmm…it seems that you three are about to die. My magic knights really did quite a number on you, but worry not, you are more useful to me alive than dead." Julius who walked in said glancing at their charred corpse, and the faces that were devoid of any skin and lying on the floor in a very horrid posture.

Saying this, Julius snapped his fingers when the three bodies were covered in a giant translucent sphere with a band having Roman numbers till 12. This caused their grimoires that were flickering away to halt.

But just then, Julius sensed a change in mana in the air.

"Ho…You finally arrived. The preparator of it all." Julius said as his gaze settled upon a man floating in the air with his large clothes bellowing, a thin face with braided hair and red markings on his face.

Even so, the person in question did not reply but merely glanced at the floating spheres in the air, then his neutral look showed a dark expression when…

"Ah, he escaped with them, huh?"

…light fell all around that Julius dodged, but found that everyone that he had captured had been whisked away.

"Well, this visit was rather unfruitful." Julius shrugged it off with a neutral expression as he teleported from there, to deal with other matters in the Capital.

***