"Uhh…" Jotou gaped, dumbfounded.
"Oh? We're no longer acting?" Asobi's voice squeaked out of the Fumeko that stood beside them.
"What did you two do?" Hotaru ears pricked up.
"Hold on; we can discuss in my office," Azveal paused their little debacle. His eyes pointed to their surroundings, the lit polished walls.
Listening to him, they walked silently back to the elevator. It went up till the penultimate floor. Dizziness was bound for anybody that decided to peer over the railings.
He opened his office doors; not neat, but not a mess. Papers were strewn about tables, his desk had barely any room for elbows and a few chairs were prepared in front of them.
The high ceiling and the well-lit interior made them swivel their heads. Red carpeting and gold inlays upon a set of sofas on either side of the room before glass cases filled with books made up the walls.
He closed the door behind him once they were all in, "We can continue our discussion," he sauntered towards his desk, his shoulders now more relaxed.
The two Fumeko-s blinked at each other before Hotaru and Jotou glared at them. "I told Asobi to be me for a bit so I can sneak around and gather some intel," Fumeko rolled her eyes.
"Well that's obvious, she was nice," Jotou mocked.
"Hey!"
"I think I played a good Fumeko! At least how she described. She asked me to be polite!"
"Right, but maybe key us in the next time?" Jotou crossed her arms.
"I got the idea on the spot; you want me to tell the entire room?" Fumeko argued.
Jotou sighed, "Fair enough, but still."
"Besides, Asobi's a great actor to mimic such unrivalled beauty," Fumeko flaunted her hair, "She maybe good at lying to others but she's so easily lied to."
"Hey," Asobi whined still appearing as Fumeko, "It's not lying, it's acting!" her eyes sparkled as she revealed her wand and smoke apparated from where she stood; Asobi returned, flourishing her hat onto her head.
"I'm so sorry about this Master Azveal, please forgive us and don't report us to the Krialin," Hotaru pleaded, walking up to his desk.
"No, no, it's fine," he excused, "Clearly some intelligent work has been going on within your party. I did not underestimate you, but I should have overestimated; you would have superseded my expectations nonetheless," he sat down.
"You're not mad?" Jotou turned, approaching the table.
He had his fingers intertwined, "Pleasantly surprised in fact," he told. "You don't trust us; which means you don't trust me—that's good.
It means you trust yourselves to be capable. Hence, any information given to you all won't be in vain. Though, you seem to trust me enough to show me your deception."
"Actually, I didn't know how to use the platform; you were the second option. You seemed to be trustworthy enough," Fumeko admitted, walking forward.
"Yeah, there was also some uneasy tension," Jotou noticed during their conversation with Fritz. Hotaru took a seat, as did Jotou whilst Fumeko examined the room and Asobi admired it.
"You said it was for personal reasons?" Hotaru queried.
"And we had to 'endure' the formalities," Jotou added; while Azveal's voice remained the same, his body had relaxed much more.
"Yes," he gave a smug smirk. "Now you know the situation of the Velatos Case from our experts; as do I."
"Huh? Wouldn't you know what they were doing Master Azveal?"
"Kor will do for now," he raised his hand.
"Well, Kor, why would you not know?" Jotou sided with Hotaru.
He exhaled, "What I know is merely on the reports I get from their department. Ever since this case began, I've been sending reports to our actual chief, Legisvia.
As if she had not already gotten information of the case from the Kria Daily or the countless media and news outlets across the countries…
I sent her a report at the end of every week and in one of the letters I got back, I was instructed not to intervene on Kowalski's research department.
Going against my superior's orders would jeopardize my position, however I had many suspicions. Due to that, I couldn't barge in there and conduct an interview.
Using the pretences of formality, I was able to escort you into the department and hear for myself. This was but a wish for myself, so, I do apologize for not keying you in on my selfish desire.
And now, we know the truth of the matter," Kor finished.
"That they have nothing but dead ends?" Jotou stared him in the eyes.
"It appears so… As the highest-ranking Ordinate member in the country, it's my duty to oversee all magical endeavours and troubles within the Maleficos Ordinate."
"But if they have nothing to report, why would they hide it from you?" Hotaru questioned.
"I also have a duty to Kria and its citizens. I suspect Legisvia would rather not give people a loss of hope in the Ordinate and I concur. If no hope is given, panic would ensue. She knows my nature to let the truth to be known.
This truth is only for myself; what I release to any outlet would still be the reports I receive or else my position would be removed for not following orders."
"What's with people and hope; people need to deal with the truth and hope's not mutually exclusive from that," Jotou replied.
"I concur as well. But if the truth is that we have no info; what does that accomplish? It's our goal to gather information; the deception is that we have some," he lowered his hands from near his face.
"How could they not have info? They've been at it for half the year," Fumeko glanced to him.
"You're the one who snooped around; did you gather evidence to the contrary?" he inquired.
Fumeko grumbled, "Not too much. The dead velatos were kept in containers of some yellow juice, or jelly or something. I tried reading the notes, but all of them were out of context and I couldn't get too close to flip the pages.
Other than that, the place was spotless. Asobi probably got more information than me. She stole my detective skills when she stole my looks obviously," Fumeko crossed her arms.
"I can do that!?" Asobi giddied.
"Did you get anything?" Jotou doubted, but still asked Asobi.
"Hm," she poked her wand into her chin, "I did read some words, they were pretty much garble to me. Though there was one weird one, 'trans-mu-ta-tee-on'? With a question mark next to it."
"You mean transmutation?" Hotaru corrected.
Jotou peered at them, "What's that?"
"It's a type of magic that changes one thing into another. Perhaps one of the theories our dear department had that also met a dead end.
I would assume, at one point they thought the velatos was being changed into those by such magic. If it was scribbled onto notes, I doubt it was a viable theory," Kor hypothesized.
"We came out with nothing," Fumeko sighed.
"We did come out with something; that something's just nothing," Jotou replied. "That's a clue in and of itself."
"She's right," Kor sided, "I think that's also the reason they've come up with nothing. We're dealing with a constantly changing enemy. Yesterday is a proof of this statement.
Moren Mataya personally told me all about what you encountered. It's lucky that we had you on our side," he gave a narrowed glance.
Jotou faced down, before meeting his eyes. Will she ever find these answers? "Are you sure you're not a velatos?" Kor stared her down while he inquired.
"Positive," Jotou said without a second's thought. Kor took the reply by no surprise, accepting that as fact; his eyes relaxed in response.
"Jotou's never exhibited any velatos-like properties. They're monsters that wreck and kill with shadowed forms and red eyes. I will not accept otherwise," Hotaru defended, her tail spiking behind her.
Kor simply watched. "He's not wrong about them changing, but I don't think Jotou's one either. All evidence points it to be a coincidence. The last time was the first time the velatos talked," Fumeko stepped closer to Jotou.
Kor's eyes jolted open, "I'm sorry?"
Jotou's brows knitted together, "How is this information not reached you? The velatos from yesterday spoke to me. It said…" Jotou relayed the conversation she had with the creature before she was left unconscious.
_
"So, even it doesn't know what you are or where you're from," Kor spoke.
"Seems so," Jotou replied.
"That's what it said? That's super creepy!" Asobi shivered.
Hotaru held Jotou's hand from the side, "Tear the city?"
"We were so preoccupied with everything, but I was gonna ask you about it later," Fumeko pondered as she looked around.
Jotou then glanced to Kor, "I didn't forget, we were just exhausted and had our schedules full. However, more importantly," the glance turned into a glare.
"You said Moren Mataya personally told you everything; then how the hell wouldn't you know that? Jotou said it to Moren and I don't think that's a forgettable fact," Fumeko slammed her hands on his desk.
"What are you hiding Azveal!?" Fumeko grew closer to his face in a scowl.
Kor blinked a few times before his hands came up and a drift of wind came in between him and Fumeko, like a wall of light blue bricks that subtly howled.
He remained calm, "I assure you, out of the information he provided, that was left out," he slowly pushed her off his table using the force of wind shaped like a wall.
His confused gaze returned to normal as Jotou slowly pulled Fumeko back.
"That wasn't the conclusion I was jumping to… I thought it was a bit suspicious, but we were all a little shocked in the moment," Jotou pouted.
"Come on Meko, he doesn't look a liar, does he?" Asobi asked.
Fumeko peered into his light blue eyes. Her brows furrowed and furrowed, "…No," she muttered in defeat, like a child, "Dammit!"
"It's possible he just forgot. The man was shovelling out snow since daybreak," Hotaru defended.
Kor sat up, "I'll personally ask him about it, it does seem- No, it is valuable information. Thanks for telling me. I'll tell our department and try to avoid telling this to the public," he responded.
"Responsible enough," Jotou agreed.
"You have received some information and we did say it was an exchange. It seems I got most of the answers I wanted, except one... Where do you come from?" Kor never lost sight of Jotou's eyes.
Jotou looked back, "Another world. It had no magic or velatos or anything like that. To be completely honest, it was a boring dystopia…" Jotou couldn't really put all that she knew of her old world into a few words.
"Anyway, the only theory I've got going so far is that magic brought me here. Why like this? Why at this time? I don't know," Jotou shrugged, "You can believe me or not. Doesn't change the truth."
Kor kept his gaze on her, "I believe you," his eyes softened as he looked into hers, "Your eyes aren't blue any longer," he said, catching Jotou by surprise.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Hotaru looked back and forth.
Asobi ducked in between Jotou and Hotaru to examine Jotou's eyes, "They're not blue, I guess?" Asobi confirmed.
"Wait a minute, I remember someone else saying that," Fumeko glanced to Kor.
He sighed and his eyes grew heavy "I had to confirm for myself… you're not Anastasia."