“What?!”
Bell Moore received the news while at the club.
—Your car exploded.
“Why? I had it well-maintained.”
He said, swirling his whiskey glass.
-NO… Ah.”
Over the phone, Riley sighed in exasperation.
—It blew up in the Intelligence Agency parking lot. It was a bomb. Your subordinate, Chaser Shion, got caught up in it.
“…”
Bell Moore was momentarily stunned, his eyes blinking rapidly as he gripped his drink.
—Can you hear me?
He flinched suddenly, recalling what Shion had said just moments before.
—The operation was originally ours, Team Leader Bell Moore. So now, the director thinks you deliberately screwed them over—
“Handsome.”
A sultry voice called to Bell Moore from the seat next to him. He turned to look. There sat a woman with the looks of a celebrity.
“Hey handsome, what are you doooing~?”
Her face was all flirtation as she cooed at him—
“Ah, fuck, what the hell is this.”
Suddenly, all the pieces of the situation struck him like lightning.
“…Huh? What’s wrong all of a sudden.”
The woman, who seemed drunk, suddenly asked soberly. Bell Moore quickly stood up.
“I have to go.”
“Ah handsome, where are you going?”
“…Something urgent came up. My subordinate is hurt. Ah, shit.”
Cursing, Bell Moore left the club.
…Of course, there was no life-threatening injury. However, his body was definitely caught in the explosion.
It hurt, but it was bearable. I had lightly encased myself with Grawl’s power.
“…We’re currently conducting an internal investigation.”
In a hospital room at Libra Medical Center, Riley asked while peeling an apple.
“How did you survive?”
Her face was a mix of admiration and surprise.
I looked at her suspiciously. Riley chuckled dryly.
“I have an alibi. Besides, you almost died. It was a high-grade magic bomb.”
Indeed, it was not an ordinary magic bomb. It had a circuit board integrated with pure magic.
Using a cheap bomb would have been too suspicious.
I shrugged.
“I felt something was off when I grabbed the steering wheel. I used my rspectrumj right away.”
“Quick reaction.”
Riley smirked, then handed me a plate with sliced apples. I crunched on a piece.
“Was it an inside job?”
“Well… Team Leader Bell Moore gets around a lot, so it’s hard to say for sure it was an inside job, but for now, it seems like it’s from within”
The door opened. It was Team Leader Bell Moore.
He walked in, fluttering a report in one hand, and sat down on a chair.
“Wow. Hey Shion, you’re still alive? I heard the bomb was pretty intense.”
“l've already explained it to Riley.”
“…Really? Well… Anyway.”
Bell Moore started to say something but then subtly glanced at Riley. He crossed his arms.
“Alright, I’m leaving.”
Riley pouted her lips in disappointment as she left the hospital room. Only then did Bell Moore ask.
“Was this Ged ley's doing?”
“lt’s not certain yet. Jumping to conclusions might just cause more conflict, so act normal for now.”
“…”
Bell Moore’s face hardened. He let out a faint sigh.
“I didn’t think he was that kind of person.”
“People change, you know.”
“…Ah, shit. For now, let’s just assume it wasn’t him and start the investigation. I’ll look into it too. I’m going.”
Bell Moore stood up.
“Team Leader Bell Moore.”
I stopped him. Bell Moore just turned his head to look at me.
“…What.”
“Be careful. They weren’t targeting me, they were targeting you.”
“…”
Bell Moore lost his words for a moment but soon nodded with a grim expression.
“…Got it, you bastard. Just rest up.”
…
In the office of the Director of the Intelligence Agency. Gedley had also received the news about the bomb. It was quite a shock for him too.
If Bell Moore had been taken out, it would have been like picking his nose without lifting a finger, but instead, his subordinate Shion got caught up in it.
“An internal investigation team is being formed as we speak.”
Gedley snorted at his secretary’s words.
“An internal investigation? I'm the Director, who dares to form an investigation team”
“lt’s from the direct line.”
“…”
Direct line.
Ged ley frowned.
“Whom from thre direct line? Is it Derek?”
“I can’t say that much…”
But it didn't matter.
It wasn't Gedley’s own doing anyway.
“…lt could have been the team leader’s doing.”
It wasn't just Gedley and Derek who had squandered money on this operation. Team leaders had also secretly invested.
“Men who lose their senses sometimes commit ridiculous accidents.”
If they had just waited, he would have handled it himself, but being blinded by rage made things worse.
“Check the accounts of the team leaders and find out who suffered the biggest loss.”
If a direct line forms an investigation team, Gedley himself needs a tail to cut off. It's also a chance to tighten the slackened discipline of the Intelligence Agency.
“No matter how much they lost their senses, internal bombing is an unforgivable act. Make sure to catch them.”
“Yes, understood.”
The secretary bowed and left the room.
Meanwhile, Sheron was staring up at a sign that read [Castrology], her hands full of offerings wrapped tightly.
“…IS this the right place?”
Despite her doubts, she trudged inside.
She cautiously pulled back the tent flap. A round table where people sat facing each other was the first thing she saw, and on it, oddly enough, lay a tablet PC.
“What’s this?”
—Welcome.
A voice flowed from the tablet PC.
“…7”
Sheron blinked. On the screen, a man wearing a hat that resembled a hijab was sitting.
It was a trick by Shion to avoid detection of her frequency.
“…ls this how it’s always done here?”
Sheron asked incredulously.
—It's for the sake of identity protection.
“Ah… Well, I guess that makes sense.”
Famous fortune tellers, after all. Anything could happen.
—State your inquiry.
She took a seat.
“Fortune… Well, is something like inheritance fortune possible? Like power factions?”
Snap—!
“Jesus.”
The man on the screen immediately drew a card. It was blue.
—Is it a matter of people?
Sheron was startled.
“…Yes. It seems like internal information keeps leaking.”
They say he’s skilled, and he guessed it right away.
Snap-
He drew another card. This time it was gray.
—I see old faces.
At that moment, goosebumps erupted all over Sheron’s body, a chill ran down her spine, and her cheeks trembled.
Old faces.
Sheron was also suspecting the 'Elders’!
“Ma, ah, uh. Yes. 0, old faces. Among the old faces, who should I suspect?”
Among the elders of Aventagher, there was definitely someone trying to sabotage her business.
“I brought some files just in case.”
Sheron handed over the family’s top-secret information to the fortune teller. The fortune teller didn’t even glance at it before drawing another card.
—Hmm.
Then he suddenly paused.
Sheron swallowed hard. She perked up her ears.
And then…
—Start by suspecting the closest person to you.
“…Excuse me?”
—An old face who has been with you for a long time. He is deceiving you.
The closest person who had been with her for a long time.
Sheron mulled over the fortune teller’s words and her mood turned icy cold.
Still, at Libra Medical Center.
I remotely passed on the necessary advice to Sheron, pointing out the elder who would later betray her.
Now, the future would not repeat itself.
The reason I informed her was simple: if Aventagher grows, it benefits me. If Eric becomes the head, he’ll be manipulated by the elders.
But it’s not just Eric’s problem alone. It’s a trick of Libra itself. Libra is weakening its competitors by spreading money among various roundtable families.
Among the various missions of the Intelligence Agency, many are just like this.
Once my access to information increases, I’ll be able to see who the Intelligence Agency has been feeding money to.
“… H m m?”
Suddenly, I looked towards the door of the hospital room.
I sensed someone’s presence. Someone was standing there.
I couldn't tell who it was.
“Who's there?”
I said as I got up.
Swoosh—
With a slightly startled breath, the presence disappeared. I strode forward and opened the door. No one was there, but I could tell from the faint scent lingering in the air.
Johanna.
She had been here.
“…….”
I smiled slightly.
Johanna of the regression wasn’t someone who would come for a hospital visit.
Somehow, my strategy must have worked.
“Shion Ascal.”
Then someone called me.
It was Professor Yu Hains.
“Ah, Professor.”
“Come in.”
He was my attending doctor at Libra Medical Center.
“Yes.”
I welcomed him in.
I sat on the hospital bed, and Yu Hains looked at the chart and said,
“You shouldn't keep pushing yourself like this.”
“…I know. But it wasn’t that I was pushing myself; it just happened suddenly.”
I raised my eyebrows.
Shush- Shush-
I watched quietly as Yu Hains checked something on the chart and then asked,
“Professor, could you possibly get me a pen and paper… oh, never mind.”
I noticed Yu Hains’s chart and pen.
“Could I borrow some unused chart paper and a pen?”
I was thinking of drawing something.
As a way to repay Johanna for bothering to visit.
……
Johanna herself was also flustered.
Upon hearing the news about him, she found herself at the hospital without realizing it. When she opened her eyes, she was at Libra Medical Center, in front of the VIP room where he was admitted.
She almost got caught by him.
“…IS this Gedley's doing?”
Quickly, Johanna retreated to the chairman’s office on the top floor of the medical center and asked Vitro.
“l’m not entirely sure yet, but it seems the target was not Shion Ascal but Bell Moore.”
Upon hearing the news, Johanna was furious. She almost reverted to her old self.
But she knew Shion wouldn’t appreciate her stepping in.
“We’re also planning to form an internal investigation team on our side.”
“…Good. Find them and punish them.”
Johanna sank into her chair, glaring at the chairman’s exclusive monitor before squinting her eyes slightly.
“By the way, have you found any records on Dale Ascal?”
“Ah.”
Vitro, who was about to leave, stopped.
“There are no detailed records, but we've secured a 'witness account’ that he participated in some experiment.”
“A witness account?”
“Yes. About 17 years ago, he was involved in a Libra project. It’s unclear whether he was a knight or a test subject.”
“…”
Test subject. It was an odd term.
Vitro asked again.
“Should I continue to look into this?”
“Yes. Keep investigating.”
“ U n d e rstoo d .”
With that, Vitro left, and Johanna monitored the hospital room situation using the chairman's computer.
“What the”
Her eyes suddenly turned sharp.
“This crazy bastard has already been discharged?”
VIP room 303, the very place where Shion Ascal had been hospitalized, was now empty.
He had been discharged.
“…Psychotic bastard.”
Johanna suddenly felt enraged, as much as when she had first heard he was caught in an explosion.
“Just… he should rest.”
Muttering to herself, Johanna left the chairman’s office. She took the elevator down and arrived in front of room 303.
Initially, she thought about smashing something, but she hesitated.
Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump—
Suddenly, her heart pounded wildly. The sound of drums echoed. Just the thought that he might still be inside made her nervous, causing her to break out in a cold sweat.
“…”
Silently, Johanna gripped the doorknob of the hospital room.
With a forceful push—she flung the door open.
“…Ha.”
A hollow laugh escaped her lips.
The bed was neatly made, and there was a single sheet of chart paper beside the pillow, but the most important thing—him—was absent.
Only a faint scent of him lingered.
“That crazy bastard.”
She gritted her teeth and opened the window of the hospital room. Just then, she saw the back of Shion’s head as he was leaving the hospital.
That guy never rests.
A man in poor health, with not much life left, what on earth does he desire so much that he grinds down his own life…
Whoooosh—
Suddenly, a small breeze blew in, toppling the chart paper beside the pillow.
Rustle—
What seemed like an ordinary piece of chart paper flipped over on the floor.
Johanna quietly turned around and picked it up.
—Her heart sank.
Her fingertips trembled as she held the paper, and she let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding.
It was a drawing.
On the back of the chart paper was a drawing.
The image of her, by the one who haunts her every thought.
A portrait containing herself.
“…”
Johanna bowed her head sorrowfully, staring only at her toes while biting her lip hard.
“…You too.”
Just as she thinks of him, he also lives his lives thinking of her.
Broken by him…
With a sad smile, she tucked her own portrait into her embrace.
