———Karra———

  <4: 07 pm>

  “...Has that much happened while we were gone?” I asked, wondering what Wiina is alluding to.

  “You could say that. It’s not all that important in the grand scheme of things.” That… doesn’t sound true in the slightest, but I don’t feel like thinking about anything difficult right now, so let’s not. “Anyway. I think we should go back home, how does that sound?”

  “Sure. Unless you want to talk to the others.” I said, not actually knowing if she ever did use the opportunity.

  “Nah. I’m fine on that front.” She said before raising one of her hands.

  *Snap* *Zoom*

  And we are back in her room. Just move from one state to the next in a fsh.

  “...So what are we doing now?” I asked while tilting my head.

  “No idea.” She ftly said. Great. Guess I’m just gonna ze around and have nothing interesting to do? I don’t really have it in me to come up with anything right now…

  ———Mori———

  <4: 23 pm>

  Small sparks of lightning appeared as the tea was poured down gently into the cup below. The flow of tea was calm and serene, yet the tiny sparks gave away a sense of dread. A gentle waterfall that is actually quite deadly.

  “Here’s your tea.” She politely said, pcing it down in front of me and the boss gently with a small smile. “Well then, excuse me.”

  And so, she left the two of us alone. In a small office where no voice shall leak out. Just two people, sitting and facing each other.

  “...You know, she ought to electrocute us with these beverages at some point, right?” I remarked, just to break the silence as I picked up the cup.

  “Neither of us will die from something like that anyway.” Boss said, keeping his tone somewhat casual. The voice of an elegant dy rang out, yet the tone is oddly friendly for the atmosphere at hand. “So, I believe you have introduced a few more of those to this pce?”

  “Indeed. I don’t think I have done anything out of line this time around.” I said with a small smirk.

  “Of course, you haven’t. It’s all within expectation anyhow.” He said before taking a small sip. Tiny little sip that seems to be more performative than anything else. “Doesn’t look like the result is much better than st time, despite the bigger number.”

  “They are still young and learning. There is never a need to rush. You never expect them to get affiliated with us in the first pce.” I pointed out as I put the cup close to my face, a little bit of steam floated out. Those kids all have potential, some more than others, and having even one at our side would be a boon in the future. Obviously, those people probably don’t see us as the best of influences. Not that they try to stop us from interacting with them. “If we were the only relevant faction in this regard, then we’d swoop in by now, but we aren’t.”

  “Can’t say being scrutinized by the duo that hate each other’s guts is good for my morale, but I have been through worse.” He said as he put the cup back down. Indeed. He isn’t the type to sit around, he does the wetwork as well, just like the rest of us. Obviously he is taking a backseat since he is the leader and all, but he is still the best out of all of us.

  Maybe that woman and I have more raw power than he does, but he is still the one holding the authority over this group.

  “If you were that fragile, we wouldn’t even be here.” I remarked after a small tip of tea, then putting it back down. “What else is on the agenda? Looks like the other operation went smoothly without casualty.”

  “I suppose there is the matter of the story that just leaked. Obviously it has nothing to do with us, but if people find out that we were snooping around as well, they might find us guilty by association.” He recounted. I wasn’t expecting it to blow up so soon as well. Aside from the facility in that small town being dismantled not long after they restarted their operation, there was no signs of them trying anything. Looks like we were caught off-guard by a miscalcution on their part. “Of course, the amount of people knowing this organization even exists is very little, so nothing should happen on that end…”

  “Do you want me to raid the other facilities? Their activities have slowed down considerably in recent months even before the incident.” It would be hard to find and capture anything too incriminating. Sure, underground boratories scattering across the country are massive red fgs, but that alone doesn’t prove anything. I need to catch someone involved in those operations in the act if I want the discovery to be truly eye-opening.

  “That would be ideal. The longer this goes on both the perpetrators and the public at rge will become very restless. We only let it go for as long as we can because we don’t know the full extent of it, what kind of operations they actually do, what comes out of it, so on and so forth.” He expined. Indeed, we don’t even know if the current information is correct. There are a lot of these underground bases, some have been in operation for decades now, and many locations he has been informed about before. “Ideally, we would want to expose the operation without causing a wide-spread panic, itself a near-impossible task due to the expected public outrage. It’s one thing to stop it, but dealing with the consequences ter might be more than it's worth.”

  “...So are we going with a purge kinda deal then? Silently get rid of all locations and stop any progress in its track? While it would stop this particur operation, it would probably be more akin to a temporary setback. We’re talking about all the big shots avaible, and I know you don’t want me to waltz in and salt everyone involved, that’d cause a much greater panic.” It’s all up to him what kind of pns he wants to go with.

  “Hmm… Let’s drop this topic for now. Also, please don’t default to turning people into salt, sometimes we need their corpses as proof.” He said after taking another sip of tea. I guess he needs more info before making any more progress. “What about the floating isnd? It’s an unstable pce with a shaky existence that probably won’t st longer than a year. Do the other factions say anything on the matter?”

  “Admittedly, any of us could’ve anchored it to this time period for as long as we wanted to, so there is no real time limit to that.” I said, just so we’re clear that there is no real need to rush. “The owner won’t get mad, they’re the one who messed up their time magic and let one of their experiments fall into a time rift anyway. With how the mechanic of time works, they wouldn’t notice that we keep the pce anchored anyway.”

  “...You said it came from a time period roughly over ten thousand years in the future, correct? How did someone even mess it up so badly they sent their items way back here?” He asked, obviously curious why such an odd mistake happened in the first pce.

  “Beats me. We have to wait that long and confront the owner to know the truth, and do you think you’ll care for that long anyway?” At least we know some details of the pce already, and if there is one thing everyone wants out of it… “I think whoever they are, they won’t be pissed that we took a few pieces of tech out of that pce anyway. Probably just a bunch of junk they accidentally left in there and wasn’t meant to be a part of this man-made dungeon.”

  “Right…” He probably doesn’t think that kind of tone is the best, considering whoever made this pce is obviously very powerful. The kick here is that whoever created this pce is far into the future, and I doubt they’ll come here to get it back when they could simply reverse the flow of the spell and bring it back. The moment this dungeon is no longer anchored to this time, it will go back to where they perform the reversion. Honestly the dungeon itself might try to do the reversion automatically. It should automatically try to link back up to its creator by any means necessary, even an absurd feat like time travel. Of course, if its core were to shatter in the process of doing that itself then it wouldn’t really matter, so doing the reversion manually is the better choice. “It is over a hundred levels, correct?”

  “More like over thousands. One of my bodies is still inside, clearing through the floors. It’s kinda dull.” I answered. “A lot of robotic beings and undead. There are also weird doll creatures and more typical stuff in there. Also crows, lots of crows. I think those advanced junks are all in the earlier floors. It’s unlikely we will find anything else.”

  “Then we don’t really have any use for it, is there? It’s not like the monsters generated there are actually that special. Some of them dissipate without giving up any materials anyway.” He pointed out. Indeed, for us, it’s not a very useful pce to have. “It looks like those two want this pce as a training ground, and the devil’s bride wants some as novel pets to have. The tter shouldn’t come in conflict with the former, correct?”

  “I believe she had already tamed more than enough. She and that person shouldn’t come into conflict, yes.” I answered. Now as for the others, they are just here to calcute any possible threats, and since there are a few parties who choose to stick around and do something on the isnd, they decided it is not something that needs to be dealt with immediately. “As it stands. That pce won’t cause any trouble.”

  “That’s good to hear.” He said before taking another sip. “So. Any suspicious movement I’m not aware of?”

  “None that I could recall.” I answered, his long wavy silver hair and dy-like face tilt forward a bit, as if finding that unlikely. “I think I even cover the movement of small fries as well, like those three that ambush the vain dy and cause a scene.”

  “...Alright then. If you insist.” He said, probably still a bit skeptical. Whatever is the case, it’s not as if I am actually hiding anything.

  *Gulp*

  I drank down the st of the tea…

  “By the way, how has Princess been anyway? It’s been a long while since you had me monitoring her.” Since we are more or less done with the debriefing, we could talk a bit more about the personal stuff.

  “She’s fine. Opening up a shop that sells rice-based sweets and cheese, committing to the theme.” He answered. Right. I kinda forgot that she does have a bit of aspiration and doesn't think about coasting off her uncle’s wealth alone.

  “I see.” I said, reminiscing on that little bit of drama she had with her destined partner. What kind of love confession happened in a burning building? “Guess you didn’t actually exploit her for anything? Make her earn her keep?”

  “Please. I’m not that heartless. What is one more kid anyway?” He said somewhat bitterly. He certainly has a fucked up guardianship. Niece is one thing, but also the child of the man you killed. Of course, the man in question has come back, which makes things a bit too awkward for my liking, to be honest. As if everything isn’t convoluted enough already. “Having a lot of money in reserve for operations is one thing, but we already accumute a lot. It’s not like I gave her an allowance bigger than your saries.”

  “But you did, I checked.” I ftly stated.

  “Don’t nitpick now. That was just one time.” He said with a small amused smile. “...A lot sure has happened, in less than a year…”

  He took the st sip, and both of our cups are empty.

  “Indeed. I doubt we truly have all the information at our feet. Even in such a small yet cozy room like this one. There is a lingering sense of dread, isn’t there?” I remarked. “Of course, you have very capable people in your care. That maid and I provide enough firepower to deter pretty much anything, and you yourself are not shabby in the slightest, as the higher form of vampire.”

  “Even still, we cannot be compcent.” He reminded me. Of course such a mantra doesn’t slip away from me.

  “Of course. That is only natural.” I said with a small smirk. We didn’t come this far just to fumble, and certainly not the one in crisis, compared to the others.