“Good, you’re walking already. I need you all in my office now.”

A gruff voice welcomed me not even two steps out of the infirmary, or however this medical wing of the building was called, making Sheeno’s grip tighten on my shoulder possessively.

And I meant that I literally didn’t have the time to finish stepping out of the room I was forced to rest in, for the ‘recommended’ couple of hours after the [Healing], before Rubicon just appeared out of nowhere, a small gust of wind the only sign that he had ‘moved’, and then he was gone again with another small amount of wind kicking up on his tail.

“Who lit up a fire under his ass?” My mate muttered to herself, unaware that she had just genuinely surprised me with her casual use of the figure of speech from Earth.

“Did I use it before? I must have. Although I might just be overthinking this, and the idiom just makes sense across cultures, and the [System] could have just translated something else into something I could more easily understand.”

No, no, she was actually quoting you unironically.

“Oh… then that’s cute!”

Call me biased all you want, but romantic partners adopting expression from their significant other, be it in the form of gestures, habits, or other, is indubitably cute, at least in my opinion, and a clear sign of both progression and stability in a relationship.

I was about to tease her about it, when someone beat me to the punch.

“Are you adopting the weird way he talks now? How absolutely adorable~”, Merga said from behind me, having appeared among the group comprised of Cherry and the Gnomes, making them scamper back from her for a moment. Even Sheeno jolted in fright, only her training as a [Royal] kept her from showing her surprise too much.

While me? I sort of felt something weird happening with the magic in the air, so I was already prepared for something unexpected to happen; when Merga’s emotion got caught by my [Aura] I figured what was going on and just braced for it.

“[D-Depth Witch]! What are you doing here, appearing among us?” The [Tree Elf] stuttered her [Class] and monicker, finally talking to the witch in a surprised moment of carelessness.

But before Merga could answer, it was her time to have the thunder stolen from her.

“She’s taken it upon herself to guide us to [Guild Master] Riverfist’s office, gracing us with her presence in the process”, Undine said, making her way to us from the opposite bend to where Rubicon had disappeared to.

“Indeed I did! Now, follow along, children, and mommy will escort you to your destination”, Merga said as she twirled on her tippy-toes, pirouetting in between us, smacking the hem of her skirt to all those that were near.

“Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it. Don’t think-“

Even though I tried keeping my mind occupied with ‘not thinking about it’, something must have slipped, because, amid one last twirl, she winked my way, before resuming her march.

“Well, it’s your fault for using ‘mommy’ and ‘escort’ in the same phrase.”

During my inner struggles, we all exchanged a quick look, wordlessly communicating that we might as well follow her, especially since Undine had only spared the time to give me a warm smile before doing just that.

And so, us, the ever-dutiful ducklings followed after momma-crow.

“Mhh… no. That mathapore didn’t feel quite right.”

And so, the little hatchlings grouped up in a little murder with the ancient momma-crow, ready to face the song that might come.

“Better… but something is still missing-“

Merga turned around, but continued to keep pace at my side, and waved a hand in front of my face, the look on her face confused and intrigued in equal parts.

“What are you doing?” I asked in an emotionless monotone.

I was kind of tired of people getting all up in business whenever I got caught in some idle thought.

“Just checking something: Where are you talking to someone in your head?” She asked, her right hand trying to poke me in the cheek but I gently swatted it away.

It was my turn to look at her in confusion, “unless we can include talking to myself then no, why?”.

“Mhh, maybe I was mistaken. It was only for a moment after all”, the witch almost muttered to herself, one delicate hand rising to stroke her narrow chin.

“Hey, no. No more cryptical bullshit: What is going on?” I snapped at her. Who goes around acting all weird and mysterious, and then refuses to elaborate?

Villains, that’s who… and me… maybe that should spark some kind of inner reflection, but nobody has time for that.

“Uh, there it was again, for even shorter than last time. What were you thinking about?” Her gaze was now more focused, on me, almost unnervingly so.

“Miss Merga? Could we maybe do this later? Darwin hasn’t healed to full yet, and we’re all kind of preoccupied with having to relive that horrible experience so soon, and…” Sheeno snapped her out of whatever she was about to do, and, seemingly catching herself in the act, she went back to the stirringly amiable [Witch] that liked to mess with people.

“Of course. Where are my manners? I think it’s best that we shelve this discussion for later: After all, next time little Undine just proposed to provide her unique viewpoint on this, being the one most knowledgeable on the subject, beside me of course”, Merga responded very gently, and her voice was so sweet that I could almost taste it.

Ah, no, that’s just bile rising up.

“Wait. Undine? How does she fit in all this?” I asked, once I had fully acknowledged what she had said but while my words might have been directed to the witch, my eyes had already turned to look at the [High Priestess] in question.

She was very clearly debating on how to answer me, when we finally reached Rubicon’s official office, which was different from his usual isolation chamber.

“I swear we’ll talk later about it”, the Nymph finally replied, although with a bit of chagrin on her face.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“I’m sure we will”, Merga replied almost mockingly in my stead.

While I wanted to both reprimand Merga for her tone, and Undine for not answering more swiftly, this wasn’t the time: It was time to face the storm.

Possibly.

I mean, it could just be an annoying breeze, that would be over in a couple of minutes.

Who are you even lying to?

Your [Aura] and [Unavoidable Detection] already spotted the multitude of people waiting inside: This is a full-blown official investigation.

You will be lucky if you will be done today.

…I could only sigh loudly when [Buddy] just rammed the cold hard truth in my face like that.

“Well, here goes”, I said under my breath while Sheeno started pushing the door open.

* * *

“So you do confirm the presence of a [Demon] in the [Wild Area]?” a Troll with glasses asks us.

And while I say “us”, they seemed to be waiting for my response, in particular, the entire time. Actually, it was so obvious that the others had stopped answering by now.

Another time I might have asked why he was wearing glasses, but I knew by this point that only people who got [Transferred] like me are ‘perfected’, and have no need for outside aid to work at our best (although, with all the times that I got fixed and purified, I’m starting to think about how effective the automatic process actually is); also, they are veritably oozing magic, so they most definitely have some extra functions, too bad that I need to keep up the appearance that I still need the goggles, or I would have [Gaze]d them already.

“A [High Demon], to be precise, but yes”, I reply, feeling like the [Scholar] was messing with me.

Because, and for the life of me I still can’t tell why, this is the third man asking me the same series of questions, as if I hadn’t answered them already when Rubicon asked, who was sitting right at his desk with his chin resting atop his steepled hands.

By the way, among the other dudes in the room that I didn’t know, only another one had a monocle, just as [Enchanted] as the glasses, and he kept fidgeting with it as if he couldn’t get it to rest properly in place.

“And what was this [High Demon] doing, to the best of your knowledge?” He kept on his questioning, he and his colleagues furiously scribbling away at their notebooks whenever I dared open my mouth.

“Making powerful [Monsters], purposely [Evolved] in certain ways to be used in specific circumstances. If I were the betting kind, I’d say that it was using the less patrolled parts of the [Wilds] to build an army close enough to smuggle it and use it against the actual [Army]”, I try to reuse the same words I used the previous times, but I was kind of getting past the point I couldn’t be bothered anymore to give an effort.

“What makes you say that? How could you be qualified enough to formulate such a hypothesis?”

This was the moment when, the first time we had gotten to this point, I got such an affronted look on my face that Rubicon’s [Aura] told me that he was extremely close to bursting out laughing at the sight of it; naturally, the stoic [Guild Leader] couldn’t react like that, but his unexpected reaction was one of the few reasons why I did not attack the guy for being such an asshole.

Another couple of those few reasons were Sheeno’s comforting hands on my shoulders, and Undine piping in during the first round of questions to help me through it.

But enough was enough.

“Dude, I won’t go along with this anymore: What the fuck!” I snap at the [Guild Master].

“This is protocol, Dulcet, I already-“, he sat up straighter and tried to simply repeat the previous excuse of this simply being how things are normally done, but I was not having it.

“Protocol, shmrotocol. You have my report, just let me rest!” I whine.

Because yes, I was not beyond deliberately whining when I was tired.

Aw, look at the little baby~

“I will end you!”

Oh wow, this baby got hands!

:)

“Can’t do that, I’m afraid: This situation is simply too serious to demand to ignore protocol; a protocol, which I might add, while redundant exists for the sole reason of avoiding misunderstandings, misrememberings, and other problems that could result in a waste of resources on our part.

If all it takes to avoid it is a bit of lost time on your part, you’ll just have to endure it.

Now, shut up and keep talking”, the [Guild Master] must have been stewing in that not-empty head of his on that answer for a long time, because it came way too quickly for him not having prepared it in advance.

“How does that even make- no, never mind”, I thought better than to point out the obvious contradiction, recognizing bait when I see it, and instead just went along with it and kept on answering the damned questions.

Of course, not without grumbling and bitching about it the entire way through.

“I’ve got a serious set of [Abilities], [Traits], and [Titles] that greatly make up for my lack of experience, and make me one of the best ‘observers’ of [Magic] in [Nexu], outside of [Demi-Gods]”, no humble whatsoever, but making them think that I was overconfident, instead of unreasonably stacked with benefit, was better in the long run, and I had no doubt that Rubicon knew better and would still get them to accept it as a point, and get the ‘ball rolling’, so to speak.

“Can you be more specific, or back your claims in any tangible way?’ The Trolls repeatedly tapped his notebook with his pen in annoyance.

I don’t know what he was acting being all annoyed about, since I was the one that had to deal with three of him, while he only had to with only one of moi.

I went ahead and demonstrated how I could recognize magical qualities when close enough, indifferently what the object of an entity was, and that I could understand what a [Spell] or [Skill] could do from the brief moment a [Matrix] was evoked to use it alone.

After I had finished answering the questions from the third [Scholar] I was made to wait while deliberated their findings in a huddle, then I was randomly asked some more pointed questions, this time every single one unique and pertinent

When finally we were done with what had been the fifth round of questions, I was practically kicked out of the office and told that I would be summoned later on, but not before they were done extrapolating what they could from the interview.

So, I was finally left to my own devices, and I decided to say my goodbyes with Cherry’s, while me and my [Party] went to have our deserved rest.

* * *

“Fucking hell!”

The only other noises beyond my shout are my rump hitting the sofa and Sheeno closing the door to our little mansion behind Undine.

I was so fucking done, and all I wanted to do was crawl into my bed and cuddle with my pale amazon, but life, unfortunately, often found annoying ways to not let me have what I wanted.

Merga deposited herself right across me, on the other side of the coffee table, but she seemed mostly interested in watching how we had arranged our home instead of talking to me.

Which should have been the major reason why she was here in the first place.

“Lovely place, but it still somewhat lacks that ‘something’ that would transform it from a house into a home”, she commented, finally meeting my gaze.

She either was actually interested in the house, or she had read my surface-level thoughts once more.

The witch raised an eyebrow, as if to ask if I believed she would ever answer that.

“We’re all adults here-“ Undine tried breaking the ice.

“I’d beg to differ”, the Syren joked with a mocking smile directed my way.

“Then beg!” While I knew she wasn’t being serious or hostile, that still didn’t save her from more innocuous verbal retaliations.

“… never mind that then. We all know why we are here, and that is to talk. Talk about what? Something that is going to greatly affect Darwin’s future. Right, miss- I mean, Merga?” The [High Priestess] metaphorically handed over an olive branch to the [Depth Witch], giving her the opportunity to be the first to be honest.

A weird power-play, in my opinion: Me and Undine were already close, and since this seemed big, coming from her should have been easier to accept… whatever this was.

If I were being honest, I was slightly hurt that they both kept dancing around the subject, playing a game of hot potato where they were both wearing asbestos gloves, but I was not.

Before I could punch the awful metaphor I pulled out of my ass any more full of holes, Merga finally decided to relent, sending an unimpressed gaze to the [Water Nymph], in a rare occasion of her aloof mask slipping, revealing the wise and aged expert underneath.

“Darwin… what does the [System] provide you with when I tell you that you’re a [Fulcrum]?”, she said in a resigned voice.

But her tone of voice didn’t really matter when my vision got swarmed with pop-ups.