"Eh? Someone is in the building?" asked Linden.
He hastily walks toward the computer that Lyra operated. Looking at the screen, two teenage boys are standing around the magic circle.
"Those two, huh?" muttered Linden.
"Yup. But hearing what they said, it looks like they are not the ones that built the summoning circle," said Lyra. "They only found the magic circle and play in that place."
"Senior, what should we do?"
"I prefer to observe for a bit more. What do you think?"
"I will follow what senior says," said Linden. He still doesn't know the procedure for this kind of thing. "Usually, what should be done for this kind of situation?"
"There is no answer. Everyone has their method. I prefer to wait for concrete evidence before moving to the next step. Some others might prefer to do that 'next step' first. Maybe to prevent accidents, or they find working that way easier?" replied Lyra.
"I see," said Linden. "By the way, what is the 'next step' you just said?"
"Ah- That…," Lyra paused. She tried to construct the sentence before explaining. It is so Linden can process the information without any confusion.
"So, what is our hypothesis in this incident?" asked Lyra.
"Hypothesis? Someone built a magic circle in a basement room?" said Linden.
"Well… That is true… Sorry, I should have worded it better.
"Let's say. We have five people that we suspect to have built the magic circle. Now, we need to find out how they were able to build the magic circle." asked Lyra.
"We will go with Trakk's assumption. We have assumed that someone spread the information regarding the summoning magic circle, right?"
"Yes," nodded Linden.
Traek said that the magic circles he found lately pointed to the same dimension and all of them have the same characteristics. He assumed someone spread the instruction on how to build the summoning circle.
"Going by that conjecture, how did the knowledge reach our suspect? That is what we search for at the 'next stage.'"
Linden only nods to the explanation. As usual, his arm held his chin whenever he was in deep thinking.
"But, what is the method to get that from our suspect? Do we need to investigate them?" asked Linden.
"Investigate?" Lyra laughed. "There is no need to investigate. We can copy the memory inside their brain and then analyze it. It is faster that way."
"Eh— Me-Memory!?"
"Yes, memory," said Lyra. Her grin always widens when Linden shows a surprise about the weird technology. "Do you want to try? I bring one of the tools with me."
"N-No, thanks. Senior, I still need to configure the other birds. I will sit there, okay?" said Linden as he moved away from where Lyra sat.
…
A few minutes later.
"Looks like they are not the builder of the summoning magic circle," muttered Lyra. She has said that sentence a few times since she started observing the two teenagers.
"Senior, what is the situation right now?" asked Linden.
He has finished configuring the rest of the watch birds. All six of them are now active, following their respective target, including the two teenagers that are still displayed on the computer.
"They have decided to move from the building. I think they want to go back home."
Just as Lyra said, they are going back to their own house. The watch birds also show the same scene of the boys walking home.
"Well, back to idle again. Want to eat something while we wait?" said Lyra. Her hand has opened the menu of the hotel service, ready to pick something.
This hotel offers special 24-hour service for the suite room occupant. Of course, with a high fee, that obviously doesn't matter at all for Lyra.
***
*ping*
A notification ring could be heard from Linden's PDA. It was the 'watch bird' that sent the notification.
"Oh, did someone make a move?" asked Lyra. In her right hand is a fork with a piece of steak stabbed. She hastily put it into her mouth and then walked toward Linden.
"Yes. The old man called Gerard has come out of his house," said Linden. "But the direction he is walking…."
"Hmm… He is going to the beach. False alarm. Now go back to eating~" said Lyra. She skipped a little when going back to the table with a steak on top of it.
But before she reached the table, Linden's PDA rang once again.
"Ah, the businessman Owen also comes out of his house," said Linden.
Lyra has no choice but to walk back toward Linden. She stood behind Linden's chair and looked at the PDA screen together.
On the screen, it is shown that Owen closed the door to his house. He wears a hat and a mask. He also brought a sling bag and a plastic bag with him.
His eyes darted from the neighboring house to the other. He was making sure no one was observing him. He only moved after he was sure no one was looking at him.
Owen walked briskly while maintaining a high level of caution. His eyes scanned all things on his way. Not a single item is spared from his scanning.
Sometimes he glanced over his shoulder, looking to his back. To make sure that no one else was in this place.
When he reached a corner, he paused a bit and did the same scanning again. He did this every time he got to another corner.
…
"Hmm… You know, it is not good to judge a book from its cover. But his move is too suspicious. And he walks toward the abandoned building," said Lyra.
"Yeah, his move is… I think he will go toward the building. What should we do, senior? Should we go to the building now?" asked Linden.
"We will wait and observe from here. If something is about to happen, we can go to that room in a blink. This place is not that far," said Lyra.