As I observed the two officials in front of me, I couldn't help but slightly berate myself. With all the things that had happened, my mind had temporarily forgotten about the question of where souls go. Which, in turn, had ended up with me having the default belief of there are no major supernatural powers on Earth.

It was a reasonable conclusion to make, but one that was clearly wrong.

So this hadn't been something I had expected at all.

I had thought they were regular government officials who had managed to catch up to a recent murder. An event that was more common these days due to technological advancement, but they were entirely different. Their objectives were unknown to me, so were their motives and their methods. Caution was needed here.

My little train of thought hadn't been long, but they hadn't spoken in that time.

They seemed to be waiting for me to speak.

Their stances were rigid, and they looked professional, but they seemed to be entirely at ease. Even with the constant stares and the dominating demeanor, they exuded a confident and relaxed attitude.

When it became clear to me that they weren't going to start talking anytime soon, I began to speak. I couldn't keep up my pretending for long. Usually, I would wait in silence, but I didn't have the luxury of time.

"Ummm, undead code 112? Is that some kind of a joke because I have no idea what that means." My voice was steady I spoke.

"Being in violation of the Undead code 112 means that you have tampered with your soul by removing it from within your body." It was the woman who spoke her voice clear and curt.

"I don't think I understand."

It was apparent to me that my revival via the concept fragment had somehow alerted these people. They would find out eventually that I knew what was going on. But for now, I would play clueless in order to get information.

"We would be delighted to explain to you inside." Her voice clearly said otherwise. I barely noticed the eye roll that her partner gave, but I managed to catch it at the last second.

They knew I was bullshitting them.

I once again turned my attention to all the other agents that were currently hidden. They hadn't changed positions in the slightest.

I wasn't comfortable with letting these two in.

If they were okay moving out of the line of sight of their allies, then they either overconfident or they had good reason to feel that way.

There were, of course, technologies that would allow them to see through walls, but those weren't always the most accurate. Plus, that just seemed to be an unnecessary risk to take.

My mind wanted me to say no, but I knew that she wasn't exactly asking. Nobody comes to another person's house armed to the teeth and just leaves when that person says no.

I would rather delay conflict until I knew what exactly was happening. I couldn't stall for too long, but I needed info.

By the looks of it, these people were part of an organization with a lot of resources. They also were a supernatural organization. I didn't want to go around making unnecessary enemies. Even if the first meeting wasn't on the best terms, exacerbating the situation would be foolish.

I wasn't God over here.

"Please do come in."

I opened the rest of the door before stepping aside to let them in.

"Take a seat." I pointed towards the kitchen table before taking a seat at the head of the table.

They sat opposite each other.

The woman kept observing my house and would occasionally pull out a writing pad. I could see what the letters were, but unfortunately, whatever language she was writing it in was unknown to me.

I turned my attention to the man who seemed content to wait for his partner to finish whatever it was that she was doing.

"So what exactly is going on?" I asked. I was still tense about the whole situation. I had no idea what to expects from these people.

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The man took a second to contemplate his words before he spoke. "My superior is just taking some notes. We will begin the process once she is done." His Chinese accent was so thick that it took me quite a bit of effort to decipher what he said, but I managed to.

Was this some sort of power move?

Moving things at their pace and making me wait?

If it was, then their execution was horrendous.

I glanced at the woman who was just sitting and looking around. It wasn't as if she was walking around and inspecting everything. Just sitting there. That didn't seem to be that effective for getting good notes, but what did I know.

Maybe she had an ability that meant that she didn't need to walk around to see shit.

It was only after several minutes of silence that the woman seemed to finish whatever she was doing and turned her attention to me.

She took out what seemed to be some sort of weird recording device before pressing on a button.

"This is the interview of Benjamin Francis on the incident of a possible code 112 violation. We may now begin."

She took a pause as she brought out some papers from one of her pockets.

"Are you Benjamin Francis?"

"Yes, that's me."

Okay, Benjamin. Yesterday at 3:32 in the morning, you were recorded to have died. Only to somehow recover miraculously in the following 30 minutes. Is that true?" She looked up from her paper as she finished the question.

"If it is, then I don't remember. All I was doing at that time was having a late dinner/ breakfast. I'm afraid I'm not sure what you're talking about."

She looked me over, a look of slight disbelief on her face. "Are you saying that if we were to check right now for necrotic or spiritual energy, we wouldn't find any disturbance?"

I wasn't exactly sure what those two energies entailed. However, given how the fragment worked and the nature of qi, I took a gamble.

"I'm sure."

She looked at me for a second before shaking her head. She turned to face her partner. "Jin, please bring out the N.S.E recorder."

The man nodded before pulling out multiple different components from his pockets and assembling them. After a few minutes, he seemed to be finished and turned it on. It looked like an electronic flower.

When it turned on, it glowed blue and stayed that color. We waited for a couple minutes until the color turned red. They shared a glance.

"Do it again."

It seemed as if my gamble had paid off. The second attempt ended up with the same result.

She sighed in frustration before turning to face me."Well, it looks like you didn't use Necrotic or Spiritual energy, so we cannot arrest you."

"Okay, so then this is over?" That had been quick.

"Yes, once we wipe your memory."

Wipe my memory?

"Yep. You can see souls, which means you aren't a regular person since you wouldn't be able to see us. However, for now, it seems that you haven't violated any rules, so we can't take you in. The only options are that you work for us, or we wipe your memory and keep tabs on you."

That came out of the blue. What was even going on?

I didn't want to forget what had happened here, so my only option was... "Can you at least get some more information on what that would entail? This is all rather sudden."

"Well, we can give you more information at the headquearters otherwise..." she nodded towards her partner, who now held some sort of pen in his hand.

"Y'all aren't really giving me much of an option. Well, I don't want you going through my memories so, I guess I'll be going with you."

"Perfect, let's get moving then. There's more to be done."

"Well, there's no point in keeping up this disguise."

She looked at me inquisitively, her eyebrows raised as she saw my headless state.

"You're a Dullahan? Why didn't you just say so?"

"There's more of me?"

"Of course. Where's your head? Why didn't you just put in on?"

"I lost it."

"You lost your head."

"Yep."

"That's bullshit."

"It is."

.....

No cuffs were put on me, but they made me walk in front of them.

They couldn't technically detain me, but I wouldn't put it past them to do so regardless, if I acted up. My trust in an organization like this was not high.

I had wanted to disagree and take my chances with the mind wipe. But given that I didn't know the mechanism of how it worked, I decided that it was better to just work with them.

At least for now.

It was an entirely new avenue that was available to me.

As we walked down the mountain pathway, I noticed that their backup was no longer there.

One moment they were there, and the next, they weren't.

Even when I focused and utilized my maximum range, I couldn't find them anywhere.

"So, where did your backup go?" To her credit, the woman remained calm at my question. The man not so much, the surprise was clear on his face.

"That is not relevant information that you need."

"Well, can I get your name?"

She didn't reply

The rest of the walk was a silent one, but my mind was not.

I was contemplating the various implications of what the existence of such a group could mean for reality. I had made the assumption that low universes couldn't have supernatural beings, but I was clearly wrong. Stricter rules don't mean that nobody broke them.

It just meant that there were more and harsher consequences if you were caught.

This was both a good and a bad thing.

I had many more potential options available, but that meant that there were others with powers, and I was willing to bet that they weren't all good.

Damn, these past couple of days had really been jam-packed with things.

Finally, we arrived at a clearing where several other agents were waiting. These ones were clearly not souls. When they walked around, they affected reality. The snow crunched under their feet, and when they breathed out, a cloud appeared.

That had been something that I had noticed didn't happen for the other two.

They seemed to be able to selectively affect reality.

"Enter"

The woman pointed to what seemed to be a customized police truck.

I did so with little hesitation. I wasn't worried about escaping. The great pretender might be exhausting, but I was sure I could pull something out when I needed to.

Jin jumped in the back with me before the doors were slammed shut.

Outside of the truck, I saw the redhead walk further away as she received a call. I pulled my qi to my ears to enhance my sense of hearing.

"Captain suspect 02 has escaped. We have multiple casualties."