Aether!

Aiden admonished himself for not considering this sooner. He truly needed to start viewing things from the point of view of a super.

The ghost must consume some aether to use this power of the domain right? And since it uses aether, we can sense it too!

There’s no way, I, as a super now, will react to some illusion when I can clearly sense aether. Honestly, both reasons make pretty solid points as to why the ghost couldn’t have used its illusion again after the red moon illusion.

Anyway, I need to go have my lunch and meet up with the others at the fourth site. I can ask them about the usage of aether in the domain too.

Aiden got up from the bench and walked over to the nearest restaurant. He didn’t need a bus since he wasn’t going to the Rosanne’s cuisine, which was in the center of the town, it was just one of the random restaurants of the town, not too far from where he was currently. He preferred walking for such short distances.

It was about one and a half hours later that he returned to the fourth site after having his lunch. He asked around and got the information that Lucas was the only left who was yet to arrive from having lunch, the rest were already done and on their job.

Great, I can ask these guys and leave to investigate the houses which were spared. Would’ve been better if Lucas was here, could’ve spent some time with him, but well, can’t have everything.

Aiden greeted aunt Hellen on the way and told her about all the information he had managed to find. She was pleasantly surprised when he recounted to her his process of getting the method and praised him for noticing the small clues.

Aiden didn’t mention that man being a vampire, but simply said he was the same strange man who had met him and Mimi the other day.

Aiden had no idea yet, but Hellen truly valued how Aiden was mostly able to objectively assess things without letting his feelings interfere, causing an error of judgment.

Instead of thinking about their past relationship or about Nessa herself, he was able to adopt an observer’s attitude to go through her conversation, finding a clue and quickly grasping onto it.

Who could have imagined that a conversation with your ex would eventually end up with getting another information about the ghost?

Aiden engaged in a little more small talk and quickly headed towards where aunt Hellen said the Bureau’s team was.

This time, he noticed all of them were together. Without feeling intimidated by their gazes landing on him all at once, Aiden smiled and gave them the information he had found out first.

“I am actually short on time, but you can ask aunt Hellen about how I found out about this information. If you want to know at all that is. What I am here for is, does the domain consume aether to use its power.

You already know what I am talking about, right?”

Cedric and Alastair were the first to catch on it, followed by the rest. Alastair looked at Cedric, acknowledging that he fell short in terms of raw theory knowledge when compared to the middle aged man.

Cedric thought for a bit and replied, “As we have discussed before, we don’t know much about domains. Every information we have is what we have gotten after confronting special ghosts, information which is hidden from us because special ghosts are only dealt with by the core of the Bureau’s teams.

“What I know is what I’ve put together from a number of books, the Bureau couldn’t possibly ban a book when it mentions only a line or paragraph about the special ghosts and domains. And if they do decide to, there will always be some older version which would have slipped through the net. And —”

“Enough boasting old man, we know you work hard. Get to the point.”

Scottus remarked with an annoyed expression. And indeed, all of them were showing signs of impatience. Cedric coughed into his fist and began without a hint of shame.

“Hmm, domains do consume aether to use their powers. But sometimes it’s noticeable and sometimes it’s not. That’s all I know, it’s confusing yes, but that’s all I know. I don’t know any examples either.”

Aiden didn’t reply to the confusing statement but instead simply asked, “What do you think about the Crimson Devil. Can the usage of the power of its domain be noticeable? Just answer based on instincts.”

All of them didn’t know why Aiden wanted such a shady answer but Cedric complied nonetheless.

“I don’t know.” His answer was even more outrageous. The middle aged man quickly put his hands up. “Don’t blame me, my nature wouldn’t allow me to do such an absurd thing. My instincts aren’t ringing in either direction.”

Aiden was disappointed but he nodded nonetheless and left.

He started believing a little in fate and other such things after coming in contact with Mimi. She was simply too lucky to count it as a normal occurrence. Everything went the way she wanted.

After leaving the room, he caught sight of Valeria from the corner of his eyes.

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“Hey, any updates?”

Valeria simply shook her head, indicating no luck with it. Before Aiden could tell her the new information he had found out though, she spoke up first. And by the looks of it, she looked quite in a hurry too.

“Do you know why I came to this town?”

Aiden titled his head, thinking of the few times he had a casual chat with aunt Hellen. She did mention Valeria in their talks.

“Isn’t it to visit your sister?”

Valeria nodded, “Yes, that’s the reason I told my bosses. And that was indeed actually a part of it. But the other part is more important.

“When I was at my home one day, looking out of the window with my binoculars. I spotted something strange. The binoculars they sell aren’t of such a high quality so I couldn’t quite make out the exact details.”

Valeria took a deep breath and continued, “They had an outline of a human. Maybe they were really one? I don't know their gender, but they were walking in the uninhabited lands outside in the wilderness.

“When my binoculars landed on them, the figure inexplicably looked my way and titled its head. I got the feeling that they were smiling, then they also lifted their hand. Something told me that they were beckoning to me. But without doing anything else, it went in the direction of this town, the Bluris town.

“I know I shouldn’t have followed, but I felt restless all the time after that incident. So I finally decided to come here with the excuse of seeing my sister. But after staying here for so long and looking at all the people here, I can finally recall who it resembled the most.”

She halted, heaved a sigh, and took a breath before continuing in an extremely low but serious voice. She had been paying close attention to all residents of the town, trying to recall who it could be and she finally had a definite answer after thinking about it over and over.

“Mimi very closely resembles that figure.”

Aiden’s expression scrunched up as he glanced at the room where the Bureau’s team was residing.

The doors were closed, and from his experience of having the same type of house, he knew that the walls were extremely well sound-insulated. There was also the fact that Valeria had spoken everything in a low voice, the last sentence even more so.

He still didn’t want to take a risk though, taking a glance around, he led her to one of the empty rooms with no white circle outlines.

“Why do you think it is Mimi?”

Aiden asked as soon as he locked the door. To be honest, earlier, he already had an inkling where the talk was heading as soon as Valeria spoke about how she spotted a humanoid figure in the wilderness.

He still calmly asked her though. Valeria gave her long line of reasoning, along with the shape of Mimi’s physique, her style of walking and moving. She gave several reasons to back up her already well founded points, convincing Aiden that she had indeed seen Mimi.

He had a frown on his face as he looked at Valeria. “Look, I know you think it’s Mimi but you need to know it can’t possibly be her. The government talks about monsters in the wilderness, you can guess it might be ghosts.

“Do you really think she can survive all of that? Or do you think she is a ghost? Have you seen a ghost talk? Or even form a coherent thought? Mimi is as human as anyone could be.

“I am not taking her side, but look at it objectively. Mimi is what, a 5 year old girl? You think she can survive outside in the wilderness? The government has banned the common people from getting vehicles and no public vehicles like buses are authorized to leave the town and cities. You think they’ll let a little girl out when they don’t even allow adults?”

Aiden exaggerated his frustration in his actions, like throwing up hands, rolling his eyes or even palming his face while he was talking.

If he didn’t know about Mimi’s luck, her recent display of danger foresight, or even how she had pointed out in the direction of the gate of the town that day when he asked her where she came from, he would have almost believed himself.

He continued without giving her the chance to talk.

“Look, think of it like this. I know you first thought of the answer, which is Mimi, then tried to make a method to get the answer, which is matching Mimi’s actions with the figure.

“But think about it from another perspective, think logically while looking at the entire picture and not just Mimi. Think of everything I said before. Don’t you find it inconsistent with what you said?

“Ghosts can’t even form a coherent thought, mimi can talk. And since she is a human, she wouldn’t even be allowed outside of the walls of human settlement. Please, how do you explain that?”

Valeria fell deep into thought as she reconsidered everything Aiden said. She didn’t know as much about Mimi as Aiden did. So when she looked at it from the point of view of what Aiden told her about, it really did clear up her mind.

She put a hand on her head, shaking it slightly as she let out a light breath and said. “You’re right, I must be going crazy with the stress. I’ll figure this out sooner or later, if I am lucky that figure might have arrived in this town.”

She left the room after unlocking the door, leaving Aiden alone to think by himself.

As soon as she left, Aiden relaxed, releasing the tension in his body he had been subconsciously holding.

Do I have to use the memory ability on Valeria too now? I can’t have her go around telling people that Mimi was seen alone in the wilderness.

And what’s up with Mimi really? Sooner or later people are going to ask me where I found her. Should I tell them I found her in a park and decided to keep her after realizing she wasn’t leaving me? That’s one dangerous act.

I might need aunt Hellen’s help in these legal matters. She even has the authority for a while, maybe it’ll be easier with her around.

The next few hours, Aiden contacted aunt Hellen who readily agreed to forge fake documents for Mimi and register her under his household. It was a tiring but worthwhile investment.

When he finally remembered how he had to check out the house, he took their addresses from aunt Hellen and headed towards the exit. They had returned to the fourth site since there wasn’t much of anything else they could do.

Just then, Alastair burst open the door to his room and came out.

The noise attracted Aiden’s attention, who had an expression of helplessness.

Something popped up again?! Will I ever be able to investigate these houses?

He groaned inwardly but stopped nonetheless, Alastair was already shouting for everyone to gather. Sensing the situation, and by subtle gestures from Valeria and Hellen, every worker left the house.

Alastair looked around, specifically at Aiden, Hellen and Valeria with visible distrust and wariness in his eyes.

“The Bureau just notified me.” He glanced at the three of them, making sure to note each and every small detail of their expressions as he continued.

“A super died here.”