Something felt off, he couldn't prove it but this feeling was strong since the last few days, first he had had to take out some sort of undead assassin and after that, the air around his office felt like a looming presence.
As a constant danger was present, he felt different, he kept messing up tasks he had repeated perfectly thousands of times, he kept making puddles of ink on his papers and bumping into stuff for no apparent reason.
It was certainly abnormal and he was aware enough of his own state to know that it wasn't due to stress or fatigue.
'The only logical conclusion is that-'
Mylhart seemed to have been daydreaming, he suddenly opened his eyes, unsure of what he had been doing.
He went back to working on the papers in front of him, his mind wandering off for a little while.
Sitting not so far away, right in front of the general of the interior, a dusty and cracked jar was sitting on a commode, completely sticking out next to the well kept rest of the office.
Giving off a constant malicious aura but it remained unnoticed as it focused its powers on the man sitting in front of itself.
It seemed like the general was quick to suspect that something was off despite Lukewarmness having yet to cause him any major failure but as bright as he might be, it wouldn't help him.
'My power isn't simple misfortune and failure, bit by bit, I will remodel your very thread of fate and once that is completely done... You will act as I have dictated and fail at everything you will attempt!' the lesser sin would have been grinning if it was even remotely capable of such.
But he couldn't even slightly budge his skull or ashes, he had no ability for movement in the slightest but that severe drawback only strengthened his powers!
As he was patting himself on the back, someone else entered the room, it always took him a few moments to realise what or who it was that was close to him and he couldn't blast people with his aura of failure as he wished, for one simple reason.
'That's the traitor...'
Indeed, Willia was an ally of theirs and affecting her with his powers would be more than problematic, this sort of thing could even end up in his powers coming back in his face.
He didn't know if his own powers could possibly work in himself but it didn't hurt to be careful.
He had only gotten a description of her and even if he couldn't see her in the sense of vision, he could clearly feel peoples shapes and somewhat imagine the colors.
'Incredibly thin indeed, I was fatter than that while they were cremating me...' he thought, only helf listening to what was being said, though he got the most important.
An aspect of his powers was to make people do completely stupid things, that was counted in the definition of failure and mistakes, so he could influence someone to think aloud.
He couldn't read minds and doing it with more than one person present might just make the general even more suspicious, he had already almost came to the conclusion that something was happening to him about twenty times since the start.
If Lukewarmness didn't pay attention, Mylhart might just finish his thought and decide to straight up change the location of his office, to follow him, the sin would either have to try and influence him to take him along or require assistance.
He couldn't communicate in any way so the second option only depended of his allies and the first one would necessisate to make himself noticeable to a certain degree and with how suspicious and on guard this guy always was, this wasn't a great idea, he would be quick to launch him out of the window for sure.
Pushing aside these thoughts, the sin heard him doubting the thinnest person the sin had ever encountered, he swiftly made these thoughts disappear, it was even easier than the others since the general had trouble doubting his fellow Laparadisians and especially someone as high ranked as the head scientist.
He believed that someone as talented as her wouldn't betray her country, the only ones he managed to truly doubt were the ones in their position due to nepotism and even then, he was always optimistic.
That was perhaps one of his greatest weaknesses, Lukewarmness had seen him absolutely demolishing that undead assassin with just kick, he was a capable fighter and his spirit was always strong but so was his trust and clearly, since the head scientist was, in fact, a traitor.
It was a weakness.
'If only I could communicate my findings...'
'If I could speak, I would ask them to clean this damn jar, why do they just leave me looking like that? Do they think it is necessary for my abilities to work? Should I add that as an enhancer?'
'The aura of failure is strengthened when my jar is absolutely unwashed and so dusty that it increases in volume?'
'I feel like that could backfire...'
'...'
No matter what, Lukewarmness was always quite bored.
'I can't believe I get to be a piece of furniture for messing up something while the guy that literally corrupted believers get to be a floating head, the gods have no idea how to punish people do they? They just do whatever they think of at the moment...'
'...'
'I wonder... If I said that being dirty strenghtened by powers, would Envy just dirty herself or clean me?'
'Mmh, definitely the second option'
'Would Greed manage to open the jar if there was a coin in it? Even Pride didn't managed to pry it open... Could Greed manipulate the dust in there, to make me fly in the air? That would be fun'
'I wish I could at least roll around...'
'Maybe I could be put inside of a golem and control it that way? Good lord, that is genius! I am a genius! Too bad I can't tell anybody...'
'What is this guy doing now? He is going somewhere? Discouraging him from even leaving his office would be suspicious, I'll just leave some of my aura as a sigil on him, he won't notice the sudden difference and not suspect something inside of his office that way...'
'I am alone now, I am starting to even miss that guy'
'...'
'Why are all the cardinal sins women? And all the lesser sins men? Wasn't the last generation of main sins all men? What about the lesser sins? Were they even any lesser sins back then?'
'Wait, am I a new concept? Am I one of the first of my kind? Oh my... I am the first of something?'
The discussion with himself went on for a long time, a very long time for it never stopped, Lukewarmness developed the habit of thinking in that way to not get too bored, it gives him the illusion that he was having a conversation.