The familiar ceiling of the Edwards family’s apartment greeted him. Souhait knew he was back in reality as he sat up and stared at his right hand; Nova’s flower mark on the palm was still there. There was no time for him to be idle. He immediately got out of the bed and rushed towards Sophia’s door and knocked on it.

“Sophia? Please open the door. I need to talk to you!”

He was greeted with no response. He started knocking rampantly while repeating his words. There was still no response. Annoyed, he started banging on the door.

“Please open the door!”

Sophia forcefully opened the door, causing Souhait to trip on his feet for a bit before regaining his balance. She looked rather annoyed. “Keep it down. I’ll get evicted if you keep banging on the door.”

“Now that you finally opened the door, I have some questions I need to ask you.”

“I’m not in the mood to talk…”

Souhait smirked. “Well, should I get you evicted, then?”

Sophia became silent before she went to the dining table and sat down. “What questions do you want to ask?”

Souhait smiled as he sat down across from her. “Since you were close to Bellatrix’s family back then, let me ask you this: Did you know a woman named Ri Kuma when you had lived in the city?”

“Ri Kuma? As in that woman Bellatrix picked up off the streets?”

“Are you familiar with her?”

“Well, she did cause some commotion as she was just a stranger. Bellatrix was insistent on ‘keeping her’ as if she was a pet or something. I haven’t spoken to her in person, though.”

“Do you know what sort of person she was?”

Sophia pondered, but drew a blank. “I rarely saw her, but when I did, she was mainly with Bellatrix. She felt sort of like a nanny towards her. Bellatrix’s attachment towards Ri was a bit different than her attachment towards her mother.”

All the new information coming out of Sophia’s lips piqued his interest. It was much different from the information that Murphy gave out. He wondered what he should ask her next.

“Do you know what she looked like?” He hoped she would give him a concrete answer.

Sophia pondered, but her eyebrows furrowed. She hummed in confusion. “What was her hair color? Red? Pink? Orange? Were her eyes blue or green?” She started panicking as she couldn’t recall what she had looked like.

“You cannot recall what she looks like?”

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“I remembered her having pinkish hair when I saw her the first time, but then the second time I saw her, her hair looked orange. Her eyes often change from blue to green too. She had a weird obsession with hair dye and color contacts. There were also instances where she looked a lot taller than her usual height, but instances where she looked a bit shorter than usual. I just thought it was her clothes or shoes that were adjusting her body proportions since clothes have the ability to do so.”

No wonder Murphy could not recall what Ri looked like. She had a tendency to change her appearance. However, she is the Invader, which means the rules of this planet do not apply to her. Is she actually changing her appearance with tools or is she doing it with her own abilities?

“Are those all the questions you wanted to ask?” Sophia inquired.

Souhait shook his head. “I have a few more.”

Since he felt as if he gathered enough information about Ri, he decided to ask a different question. “Can I trust you?”

Sophia raised an eyebrow. “Why would you ask that question when we’ve been sheltering you in our apartment?” She looked genuinely flabbergasted, so he knew she was an honest person; she was most definitely not a spy, so he could trust her.

“Since Nova is technically wanted by the government, you could have easily turned both Arcturus and Nova in and your life would not be at risk. There is a severe punishment for those who protect fugitives, right? Is there a deeper reason other than Constance wanting to cooperate with us for her revenge?”

Sophia’s expression hardened as she looked down at the table and away from Souhait’s gaze. He saw her hands curling into fists. “I’m not sure about the other people here, but for Murphy and I, we want to be liberated from these walls. We want to return to Virgo and apologize to her. But, we can’t. We’re old and are doomed to rot in this secluded prison until our time comes. There are many here who feel the same way. However…there are people here sent by the government to spy on us. They try to prevent us from rebelling. They want us to stay here.”

“I feel like there is a deeper reason other than you all being against the government.”

“There could, but I don’t know what it is.”

“Do you have any idea who could be a spy here?”

“I’m afraid not. It could be anyone. Murphy and I are certainly not, so be rest assured.”

As Souhait thought about possible candidates, his thoughts were interrupted by a sudden news broadcast. The large BREAKING NEWS caught his attention.

“We have reports that the Charlatan is currently in the Outskirts. We will be sending as many soldiers as we can in order to capture him. We will await further news.”

Hearing this abrupt news caught Souahit off guard. He couldn’t believe what he witnessed. His location has been found. When he glanced over at Sophia, she became shocked.

“If they already found you…”

“Sophia?”

She started losing color in her face as she stood up. She rushed into her room and came back out wearing a cardigan over her usual clothes. “I need to find my husband. Stay here, Souhait.” She dashed out of the apartment.

Souhait started thinking about how his location was already found. If there was a spy, they would have to have seen him on the streets, but the furthest he has left the apartment was past the front door before being shoved back in by Arcturus. Since Sophia and Murphy were not spies, that only left two people.

He took the opportunity to stand up from his seat and headed towards the bathroom. In the mirror, he saw a reflection of Nova, but with a left gold eye. Nova looked worried, which was what he was expressing through him. He placed a hand on his neck. A part of Nova’s exhaustion was also trying to heal his wounds from the scuffle with the Monarch Shiftie.

“Healing…”

He wondered if Arcturus had seen the news and if he had figured out who gave out his location like he already did.