Midnight.

  It is the time when most people are resting. Even Aleph chose to sleep for a few hours. Only Mobius remained awake as she fihe final details needed for the secutive surgeries tomorrow.

  ‘...It’s strange.’

  She suddenly felt a disturbiion. Shesha, the third herrscher’s apanying emperor-css beast, had several abilities that made it hard to kill. Notably, one of them was its ability tee right after dying. MOTH was fortu that time as it arrived te, with the herrscher being dispatched by Elysia’s arrow.

  However, it seems to have vaguely affected Mobius’ senses—rather, intuition.

  Ultimately, she failed to see what happened.

  Uhe cover of the night, a white figure slowly nded he window. Her feet were stu the wall due to a certain teology i.

  The white triangur glider swiftly folded on its own. It only stopped when it was the size of two palms—enough to be pced inside a coat’s pocket.

  “Hehe… …”

  The girl took out a hand-sized phone.

  Ding-!

  With a brief s, the data beyond this wall was revealed to her. Although these statistics were much higher than what she knew, she was already certain that the person she’s looking for was here.

  Just as she rying the window open with a small circur vacuum, it opened on its own.

  Vill-V’s eyes met Aleph’s slightly sleepy look.

  “I’m not even surprised right now.”

  “...As expected of my partner!”

  “Since when did I teach you these things?!”

  Aleph helplessly allowed her inside his room.

  “I have a lot of questions to ask, but first… why do this?”

  What he didn’t expect was to receive Vill-V’s wronged look. It further added to the question marks in his eyes, to the point he had to pit a reinfort.

  ‘Great Sage. Find out why she’s ag like this.’

  {Result: Prior analysis of situational texts and microexpressions suggest the sense of being ed.}

  ‘...It’s that?’

  It has been more than two weeks sihe fourth Herrscher was killed. Aleph was too preoccupied with Great Sage at that time. Add to that the five days he spent in Mobius’ research b, it does seem like his tact with Vill-V decreased sharply.

  It was pletely unlike Mei or Hua whom he talks to every night.

  His e with Vill-V stemmed from professional matters more than anything else.

  Aleph stared at Vill-V who sat in his bed. This time, she was wearing a short white skirt instead of the pants from before.

  “You told me about the story of the phantom thief before.”

  “I regret that part.” He interrupted. “If I knew what it’ll do…”

  “It’s a cool story! I have a feeling you’re keeping a few more things from me…”

  “...No.”

  Such a perfunctory reply suggested otherwise. Vill-V’s eyes twinkled iement as she reaffirmed herself:

  ‘I’m doing things right!’

  Seeing her enthusiasm, Aleph regretted what he said a few seds prior.

  “The phantom thief liked to notify everyone of his target. It leads to the creation of a cool performance.”

  He immediately felt something was wrong when she suddenly said these words.

  “By now… they should have been notified.” She said.

  ‘This smell… alcohol? What is this girl pnning?’

  Aleph didn’t need Great Sage to make his own inferehe reason behind Vill-V’s reckless as were due to the influence of alcohol.

  Under his surprised gaze, she stood up from the bed. Her body slowly came close to his until he ushed back to a wall. Her huge chest ressed on him. Due to the height difference, however, she could only reach up to his shoulders at best.

  His curre was at 175cm, a far cry from his previous one.

  Aleph’s mind was in the midst of processing everything. His parallel minds briefly froze, turning his accelerated thoughts into a momentary halt. Fortunately, everything passed by in a blur. He regained his posure.

  ‘Notifying… to steal… to whom did she send that letter?’

  Aleph soon found the answer.

  Bam-!

  The room’s door had its entire body pushed back. It swiftly detached to its screws ected to the door frame.

  Thud-!

  The person behind it all was revealed to be a familiar acquaintance. Her snake-like eyes emitted a chilling cold enough to freeze the entire room.

  Despite all of this, Vill-V was seemingly ued by such a pressure.

  “So this is what it was.”

  Mobius’ cold toartled Aleph. He wasn’t feeling any danger of sorts, yet it still gave him a creepy feeling.

  This familiar sensation made him recall his past memories.

  ‘Not only Mei, but also Kurumi… Now, there’s Mobius…’

  Vill-V used her arms to embrace him tightly. Her face was stuck close to his chest. It was also at this time did he notice a shog ge.

  ‘She fell asleep..?!’

  Ring-!

  Just as the phone on his desk vibrated crazily, he faced an additional predit.

  "Care to expin?"

  Hearing Mobius' voice, Aleph sighed helplessly.

  ‘I won’t be able to sleep tonight.’

  *****

  [I will steal your most precious treasure tonight! If you are ied to watch, e to this pce. Don’t be too te~!]

  Upon reading this message, Aleph felt a pang of imaginary headache.

  “You tartly at fault with this one. Beiedly provoked… and it’s Vill-V. I’m not too surprised she erupted like a volo. This i should be a good lesson for her.”

  At this moment, there are only three people ihe feren: Aleph, Mobius, and Mei's proje.

  Mei, as the designated director of all five institutes, brutally cut down Vill-V’s funds while she was making useless things as well as the frequent explosions in her b. Mobius doubled it down by suggesting more things to Mei. The reason behind it remains to be unknown, however.

  Although Vill-V wasn’t on the right either, this series of events caused her to erupt. Of course, its target happeo be Aleph.

  “This ends here. I admit I decided on this matter impulsively.”

  “...”

  Hearing Mei’s words and Mobius’ silence, Aleph took that as them agreeing to it.

  “That’s it. Let’s go to sleep this time. As for Vill-V’s punishment… maybe we ask her to work with us.”

  “...I will sider it.”

  Mei ceded this time. She wore a straight look during the entire call, making it difficult for Aleph to know what she’s thinking inside. Even her microexpressions were managed extremely well.

  Beep.

  “Um, are you fine?”

  “...What made you think I wasn’t?” Mobius replied with sarcasm-ced words.

  “You went into a slight daze several times. That’s not something I’d see that often.”

  “I’m thinking how to dish out my own punishments.”

  “...”

  Aleph knew about Mobius’ and Vill-V’s retionship. The former was urged by Elysia to redeem Vill-V in the isnd, much to her reluce. Even when Mobius ‘picked’ her up, the two’s retionship didn’t improve by much. Rather, Vill-V became the sed person to push Mobius’ buttons. Elysia was the first… and Aleph was the third.

  Sensing Aleph’s look, she expined:

  “It’s not about being an experimental subject. I wao fully focus her efforts on the Herrscher Cores.”

  “Well… that sounds much better than I thought.”

  Mobius' thought process this time surprised him.

  “Am I that vicious in your eyes?”

  “Quite.”

  Aleph proved once again why he was the third on Mobius’ list.