Numera might have forced my distaste for woman abuse, but using kids for crime was beyond disgusting. If I was still human, this report might have made me sick and fly into a rage, but as a machine, I remained calm.
"Tonight, I will try to capture as many of them as possible," I said, about to turn to leave the room, but Kilna got up and stopped me.
"Razor. There is nothing left of them. Not even Alizra knows how he does it, but she has experimented on them with magic, and nothing can fix them," She explained, and I turned to her.
"And just how much do you know about magic?" I asked, and then added. "I am not trying to insult you, or Alizra, or anyone for that matter," I said, and then turned and looked at everyone. "Do any of you know all magic?"
The room fell silent.
"I thought as much. I believe that Alizra made a great effort in trying to understand this, but these Mindless are going to be an obvious problem for me going forward. I also don't like that kids are being used in the same way," I explained and then asked a question I had been curious about. "How many Numeriam artifacts are being used currently, and do we have a list? I have seen three mentions about these so far, so I assume you are talking about technology, right?"
"There is no list for that because anyone with one values it almost more than their own lives," Kilna explained, and I turned to her.
"Does Alizra?" I asked, but she gave me a stern look.
"I would prefer not to say, but I will if you order me to," she said with a serious face, and I looked away.
"I understand you must keep information safe, but this is important. I will not ask you for specifics, but I need to know if they are being used. Do we know who has one?" I asked and then turned back to Kilna with an expectant look.
Kilna sighed and then nodded. "Alizra does, as do a few other high-ranking people in various organizations," she said, and then I nodded.
"That will help me immensely," I said, then started leaving the room again.
"Wait!" Fawna called out from her desk, and I paused. The young girl was still using her magic to type furiously on her computer, but she didn't even seem aware of it.
"Yes?" I asked as I turned back to them.
Fawna hesitated for a moment before speaking. "Out of curiosity, why are you trying to capture these Mindless? They have no humanity left, right?" She asked, and I thought about the question before replying.
"I want to know if that is true, and the only way to find that out is to capture some of them and run some tests," I said.
"Is it because you actually care about people?" She asked, and I narrowed my eyes at her. She knew what I was going to say, but she asked anyway.
"What I care about is that my sheep can be sheep. This city is going to be my flock, and there isn't enough room here for more than one pack of wolves. I am either going to defang the others, kill them, or a combination of both. So yeah, I care about the people because when I am in power, everyone will be working for me," I said, and left the room with Miles and the black knight following me.
---
The door closed, and everyone in the room sighed, but Fawna perked up.
"At least he isn't as bad as we thought," She said, but Kilna gave her a sideways look.
"Be careful with your words. Razor might seem like he has noble intentions, but I don't think he is that much different from Alizra," Kilna said, and Kyla nodded.
"Yes, but I think he is worse than her, but I still prefer working in this office," She said and then looked at Kilna. "What would you be doing right now if you were back in the Manta Family?"
"Joining the mission," Kilna said plainly, and Kyla nodded.
"I would be running a mission, just like I was when Razor captured me. My point is that I don't think he is going to ask us to do things like that. For once in my life, I am kind of glad to be a woman," Kyla said, and Rax groaned.
"Does that mean us boys are going to have to do all the dangerous stuff?" he complained, but Coron scowled at his older brother.
"You had the easiest of our jobs, but even when I was in danger, the boss kept me safe the entire time and then rescued me. I don't know a single boss that would do something like that. Isn't that the reason why we didn't infiltrate any of the families or gangs? Or do you all forget what happened to Gray?" Coron asked, a lump forming in his throat.
Gray was the oldest sibling that had infiltrated the Kaido Family. A 28-year-old blonde male and the leader of the once 'Phoenix Five,' Gray had stopped reporting after less than a month, and the group had lost all contact with him. This was 6 months ago, and everyone presumed that he was dead or had become one of the Mindless.
"Is that why you asked Razor about why he was saving them?" Kilna asked, looking at Fawna, but she shook her head no.
"No, I wanted you all to hear that. Caleb is neither a good nor bad guy, but I would say he leans more to the bad side most of the time. My point is that you all need to understand that if he decides something, your thoughts should only be about how we can help him achieve that. The six of us are the first of what is sure to be many more, meaning that in the future, we will hold some of the highest positions, but only if we remain useful. Caleb knows what we are good at, but that means that we need to prove that we can keep up with him and we are valuable, or we will just become sheep. I don't know about you, but I want to be part of this pack, not the flock."