"This room looks amazing by the way." I said while I looked around the Executive's Meeting Room.
The meeting room had a unique design, all the furniture looked quite luxurious and had an old man attached outside the door.
"Yes, even we are only allowed to enter here when all the Executives give their permissions, also there are no cameras or anything and an Executive can modify this room as they like."
So this is the room where people can show their true self and yet they're supposed to fake it? Sounds Poetic.
"Hey Irina, would you mind telling me your phone's password?"
"Of course, but why exactly?" Irina looked at me with interest.
"I forgot my phone somewhere and being born in my generation, I can't survive without looking at my phone's screen for at least 2 hours."
Irina gave a little smile after hearing my words.
"You think way too fast." Irina said as she handed me her phone to enter my fingerprint.
"By the way, is Cupid the newest guy here?"
"Why would you think that?"
"Hearing Controller's words, he shouldn't have known much about the Pig Guy's place but still sounded confident in his knowledge."
This was the small detail I was concerned about.
"He is not the newest executive, that would be White Mage, but yeah White Mage should have visited Mr. John more times because he mostly calls women to his places."
I have heard that once before but now it just answered so many of my questions, even the things Ice Demon said about Irina.
"If you want to know more you can talk to Mark, he loves to talk about those things with others that you want to know."
She already knows what I want, what a lucky guy I am to have such an understanding girlfriend.
I got up to leave but I was stopped by Irina soon -
"Shade, why did you help me and agree to White Mage's plan?" I was a little surprised to hear her sudden question.
"It was the same reason as you, I think her timing of saying that is suspicious along with the denial of Cupid. Depending on circumstances she or Cupid may be connected to this Invisible Hunter."
I took a breath and continued.
"I know that you know about the possibility of a mastermind operating behind the Invisible Hunter and the possibility of an Executive being that. Also I know that you know that I know about it."
"That's annoying."
I now understood what Irina meant when she said we were almost the same type of person.
I still want to know why she is acting uncooperative to them but I doubt she'll answer anything unnecessary at this stage.
Irina who seemed satisfied with my answer also got up from her chair and put back her mask on.
As we exited the room, Irina handed me something.
"This is?"
"This is the key card to enter the room for Executives. You should have a private chat with Mark there."
With that I separated from Irina and went to the first floor to find Mark.
There were still a few people present on the 1st floor.
Compared to the other floors, this floor just looked sad, not just the absence of luxurious interior or beautiful designs but the atmosphere itself.
Every floor looked like a grand place and this floor was just another slave office.
"Excuse me, this place is only for the staff's use." Somebody came up to me.
"I'm the Assistant guy who was called by Mr. John."
"Mr. Assistant? Yes you wanted something?" He was surprisingly easy to convince.
Also calling him out hurts me for some reason but looks like they only listen to Executives or higher.
"I wanted to search for somebody."
"Yes, please order."
Order? Will they do it for me? I just have to tell Mark's name right? Oh wait, maybe Mane, which is his code name.
"Mane from Healer's faction."
"Yes sir."
I'm not used to the authoritative positions.
Thinking that I tried to straighten my posture and relax my body a bit.
He took out a tablet and started typing something and followed it by scrolling. After a minute he flipped it towards me and said.
"Sir Mane is on the fourth floor, he seems to be talking with a few other Joint Freedom Members."
"I see, and don't tell anybody below my authority where I am."
"Ok sir, please contact us if you need anything else."
Below my authority means, except Irina nobody should be able to find me... Also I feel bad for the staff here who seriously work in this lavish environment and treat me, a person who just came here as a superior.
I reached the fourth floor and used Irina's phone to call Mark.
["Hello?"]
"Hey I'm near the elevator, meet me." I said that and hung up the call.
He separated from the crowd surrounding him and looked around for me. When he came a little closer to the elevator I came from, he started walking towards me.
"You scared me, I was expecting the Leader's voice when I saw who was calling but you answered so suddenly."
I had no idea what he meant since I was still wearing a mask and it should make my and Irina's voice quite similar.
"I'm borrowing her phone for a bit. Let's go to the twelfth floor."
"The Executive's Floor?!"
"Yeah."
After reaching the twelfth floor I looked around and asked Mark.
"Is it weird for you to come here?"
"It is not restricted but nostalgic since I hadn't been here for quite some time."
"Hey Guy 1, which room is… 6th one?"
"Mark, my name is Mark. Also that one."
We entered a corner room on the floor. And took a seat at that place. After all the places I have visited, the luxury doesn't even shock me anymore.
"Tell me about the Relics and scandals of all five Executives, you can even throw Irina's information in there."
"Scandals?! Are you entering my field of expertise my friend?"
"Just continue." Saying that I looked at the ceiling and closed my eyes.
There is a fact I once read, it stated that 80 percent of human conversation is gossip, and that was what I was after.
"My time has come." As he said these words he took a deep breath and continued.
"Let me start in a little detail. First of all is Mr. Cupid, he is a violent guy who has the power to change people's feelings with his Relic. He is also the lover of Ms. White Mage whose Relic allows her to feel invincible for a few seconds. They say he used Relic's power to make her fall in love with him and there's the fact that he also used his position to make her an Executive so her faction is pretty small and unloyal but strong."
He seems to know a lot about the scandals.
"Ms. White Mage is inexperienced as an Executive but since her faction functions differently it hasn't affected her position much."
Also Irina was right, he loves to talk about it.
"Then we also got Ms. Ice Demon, from what I know she has the second most dangerous Relic in all of our region's Freedom after Ms. Irina considering her as a rival, she is also kind of weird, something like bipolar probably, she suddenly gets blood thirsty and even more dangerous than Mr. Cupid and people say she changes her man every now and then."
Hmm... Our region?
I knew from Irina's first objection that there were other groups outside but it seems there are more groups of Freedom? Perhaps the groups of Freedom, Order and Revolution are in every region of our country.
"Lastly about Crystal User and Mr. Controller their powers are Clairvoyance with high focus and Telekinesis upto 3 metres of sight.
Just between you and me, people who looked like Mr. Controller and Ms. White Mage without masks were seen in a hotel room together just a few days ago, there is even a rumour stating that there are nude photos of them together. But please do not spread that because just recently I had a fight with Mr. Cupid because of it. You got all that?"
What's with the weird high school level rumours about the last three?
"Firstly I didn't expect you to talk this much… and what about Ice Demon's Relic powers?"
"Well most of the executives hide their powers so I don't really know, though you can guess something like ice or cold by her name. Mr. Controller and Crystal User are nice people so they tell you as a greeting's courtesy.
"I see."
"Though I know that she hates her name, it's a common courtesy among Relic Users to call each other by our second word of our Username but she forcibly makes people call her by just Ms. Ice."
We can assume names like Ice to be associated with cold but again how about names like Crystal User has clairvoyance?... Crystal ball user?
"And anything about Irina?"
He leaned in towards me and covered his face from the right side, the direction of the door as he started.
"There is a latest rumour that she can be the one who killed the previous Leader, after all she is the only one strong enough to do that. After his death she took most of his members, his position and finally she is dating the new Assistant guy she brought. They say that even the Ice Demon wants a piece of him and has already tried to kiss him when they first meet."
"Who the FUCK is spreading these?!"
"Are they that wrong?".
"All of the rumours are spreading way too fast or you were just eavesdropping."
"Eavesdropping?"
"Nothing, I just want to go home now, I'm tired."
"People can leave as soon as the Leader's speech is over, though you would have to wait because all of us are talking to other members of our faction and sharing info with other faction members."
"So I'll have to wait as well?"
"Yup! Also I'm going to the fifth floor now. Wanna tag along?"
"Sure."
As soon as we reached the fifth floor I retired myself at the corner, which seems to be the most populated for some reason.
The rest of the time I sat there while looking around.
All of my current companions were quite famous and had been busy dealing with people one after the other. In addition to that it was already pretty hard to locate them with the mask and the dim light of this floor.
As I was sitting there looking around, Mark returned and handed me a glass with a random drink.
I wasn't thirsty at all, also I didn't even know if it was alcohol or not. Should I say I'm underage and ask for another thing? Mark surely doesn't know my age neither does anyone else except Irina does in this building.
I took a sip of the drink and it had a much more mature flavour, I won't say I'm a fan but I continued sipping it. Despite my usual grumpy behaviour, I am a man who dislikes strong coffee.
I don't like food with a strong flavour in it and the drink was exactly that. A bitter-sweet combination of flavour which I won't say I hate but it was something I won't call my favourite.
Still sitting there, a group of people chatting without surrounding awareness came near me in the heat of discussion. Without realising one of them bumped into me.
"Sorry, I didn't think someone would be sitting here. Oh! You have an interesting collection of dreams."
"Get lost, I'm busy."
"Sorry sir!" Hearing my reply that person along with his group distanced from me. They didn't know that I was the Assistant called by the Pig Guy but he still called me sir, maybe because of my reply?
Also that rude reply like Irina... I was surely a little drunk. If I was sober I would have definitely just kept silent or said it's nothing to worry about like I owed him money.
When that situation ended, an idiot whom I failed to recognise whether he was Mark or Harry talked about how they are busy dealing with everyone and how if I wanted something I should call them and handed me another glass, a bigger one at that, and left without hearing me.
Sitting there alone and isolated from the crowd, I slowly drank my drink which I was subconsciously sipping without stopping, awkwardly looking for someone whom I at least can ask for a different drink.
While patiently waiting for someone I would recognise, that was when I saw figures of two people approaching me.
"So this is where you were. I was pretty shocked when the staff members rejected me to locate you."
The person who approached me wore a dress which was easily recognisable.
"So what did you want to talk about?"
"I'm glad you agreed to meet."
The owner of those words was Ice Demon, the executive known as the self proclaimed rival of Irina's.
"It wouldn't hurt to hear you."
When we shook hands while introducing each other, she whispered to me to meet her after this. I was confused by her invitation because neither a friend or foe would want to approach me in the current situation.
Though I decided to meet her, I wanted to hear about her from Mark. That's why I went to the twelfth floor while telling the office staff to keep my location a secret.
"Judging how you allowed White Mage to take action, I should assume you are suspicious of the possibility of there being a mastermind controlling the Hunter."
"I'm not sure what you are talking about but are you suspecting an Executive to be behind this?"
"I know I'm right, though I won't say I understand why you are trying to play dumb."
"You are smarter than your flashy clothes make you look. Though I'm not playing dumb, I am just dumb."
"You are barely associated with Freedom but you understand this scenario way better than most Executives… Maybe even better than me. Also Healer won't just bring a random person to our meetings just because the previous Leader told her to, she is a really crafty yet cautious person."
"Then perhaps the rumours about Ms. Healer killing and being responsible for this whole scenario is also true? Then wait! Why are we revealing our information to him? Wasn't he going around with Ms. Healer and her faction members?!" The man standing beside Ice spoke.
"Hmm?" I looked towards the man.
Isn't Ice and also the current me pretty high in authority? Why did that man still talk in between?
"Oh you recognised me? Yeah I was the right hand of Ms. Ice."
Oh! It's that acquaintance of Mark. I did not recognise him at all, that "Hmm" meant don't interrupt. But I just remembered that he liked to intrude on other people's private chats so I didn't bother to correct him.
"It can be true about Healer and there is one thing she said at the meeting hall which literally meant that she and Mr. John knew about the Invisible Hunter's identity." Ice ignored Crow's interruption and answered.
"Then maybe the previous Leader found out that Ms. Healer was the Hunter so he threatened her but Ms. Healer demonstrated her superior strength to overpower him and then his scared faction members were forced into joining her faction!"
Oh, he's definitely the kind that likes drama the most. But the hole in his theory was she would just stay quiet about it but since she was the one that leaked it that idea was flawed.
"What I definitely know is they all knew about Hunter's identity and still refused to act."
"Then Boss-"
"No, even if I know that I won't be making any moves or rather I can't carelessly move now, because if I did, I would end up being hunted down."
"What there is no way you can be-"
"Yo! Playing with our new boss while leaving us alone, how selfish of you Ms. Ice." Their conversation was interrupted by a fourth person now.
"Mane! Why are you here?!" Crow exclaimed.
"Nothing, I was just here thinking Mr. Assistant may have been getting bored right?"
"This place is rather pleasant than the main focus. The only flaw is the dim light, I can't even see which person is coming here." I said in a sarcastic tone.
I got up from my seat, leaving the drink that I could not stop sipping and started to walk away when Ice Demon slowly said -
"I hope what I did was the right move." Saying that she saw me walk away from her.
I could not understand what she meant by that and I continued to leave.
And finally this hellish meeting ended.
Even after the meeting was over it still took us a good amount of time to return home.
It was still around 3 p.m. and the heat felt unreal. After leaving all the buildings with air-conditioning I could feel like I would melt.
Harry, our designated driver, was suddenly occupied by some emergency work and we were forced to return like this from the Faction's building.
It was a weird yet nostalgic feeling, it had been years since the temperature went so record breaking high in our city. And there was no recent memory of me, being under this temperature while walking outside.
The heat took away my energy to move, making me sluggish and wanting to stand still while I also wanted to return and leave this harmful embrace of sun.
"Why are you walking so slow? Do you want to sunbathe here?"
While drenched in sweat, I was struggling to move even a step, Irina walked perfectly fine under her parasol.
"Why didn't you bring another one for me?"
"Didn't you say you don't want to carry any unnecessary things."
"Yeah but you could have carried another parasol for me."
"Then why are you refusing to share it now?"
That action was out of options. I didn't only reeked of sweat but I also didn't want to be seen with Irina by anyone when I'm too tired to deal with it.
The parasol itself was annoyingly small, we obviously would have to be almost hugging each other in this heat in order to perfectly share it.
The meeting lasted for around 3 hours but the walk to home that took around 15 to 20 minutes was way more intense.
After that we finally reached home. It may be because in my previous adventure I was barely conscious when I returned or maybe because today's temperature was greater but the feeling now felt ten times harsher.
In my 16 years of life I never wanted to shower this badly. It may be because I never left home often but I had a very low tolerance to heat.
After a good shower and cooling down myself, I felt much relieved.
"I like cold and ice a thousand times more than heat and sweat."
That reminds me, I finally figured out what the Executive Ice meant back then -
Irina knows Invisible Hunter's identity but she still told me she is burdening me with this case. That would mean that she can't or more likely she won't be catching him rather than being just uncooperative.
But if she knows who he is then what is the problem?
The current situation of mine could be summed up as "There is a problem which I have to solve but I don't know what it is".
If I think about it that way then maybe she wants me to figure out what she knows while she can remain in the shadows... But why?
I laid down on my bed thinking about it. I closed my eyes and wondered what Irina's main goal was and what was her relation with Chandler.
*Beep* It was the sound of a chat notification in Irina's phone. I had placed her phone on my bed.
Thinking back I never returned her phone.
Her phone... Maybe I'll find some sort of clues in here. Irina did say she has all the contact information of the people I would be needing but about other things like a secret she is hiding, a clue of the key or her connection with Chandler... Or maybe something about Irina.
Staring at the phone some dark thoughts also entered my mind.
Irina is currently taking a shower, even if she returns she won't be entering my locked room directly. On the other hand Irina can unlock my room's door in a split second and I cannot predict Irina's exact course of actions.
In my hand was Irina's phone with her password, there are always forbidden images of a person on their phones. Which can range from silly selfies to a weird interest to finally their daring pictures which they can never show to anyone else.
If we're talking about Irina, even one of them may have a great reward because Irina is mature, flawless and obviously an unrivalled beauty. Though being a Lawyer's son I wonder if it is legal to go through a phone which was given to you.
The problem was permission.
Also I wonder what sort of reaction she will have when I find one. Will she be angry? embarrassed! disgusted… or perhaps she will confidently say she doesn't mind if it's me.
There is a two second long gap between when she will unlock the door and enter. I can switch apps and give an excuse that I was searching for something on the internet.
There was little to no risk and heavy return of perhaps seeing Irina's model-like figure! I tapped on her Images but it was… a sheer disappointment!
Her app was locked, not any of her social media apps or any general or tools apps, just her Images… "Perhaps I was an Idiot".
I tried to do something that was absolutely wrong if not simply illegal by listening to the thoughts of my impulses.
Why would I even want to see her images? Why does the female body entertain and excites a male's mind? Also why would Irina keep such pictures on her phone when I don't.
I felt like a sage who just achieved enlightenment after attempting a wrongdoing, I just felt it was an uncontrollable urge of my youthful male mind and moved on.
I took her phone to return it to her.
I wasted around 10 minutes fighting my urges with rationality, Irina may have been out of the shower by now. Which concludes in a massive loss for my rationality.
I knocked on Irina's door but there was no answer. Soon I realised the door was unlocked and slowly opened it.
"If you are not properly clothed it's your fault." I said while opening the door mocking my somewhat dead desires.
As the door opened, Irina's body was on sight, it was lying on the ground covered by the pool of fresh blood.
"IRINA?!"
I rushed to check her condition, her head was bleeding out. Her wound was deep but not lethal if treated quickly. It didn't look like a skull fracture so I tried to stop the blood with her towel placed nearby and rushed to get the bandages.
I cleaned her wound with cotton after I called and informed Mark and others while I wrapped bandages around her head.
There were no signs of swelling so I was confused whether or not to apply the ice pack, that was the moment I realised how shallow my practical knowledge was.
The three from Irina's faction along with another member came to help as quickly as they could, considering it was a sudden call. They checked on Irina's condition, she had lost too much blood but she was still safe from anything fatal.
The fourth member checked on Irina's wounds and conditions.
"She is a doctor from our faction whom I had contacted on our way here, despite being a little new I guess we can trust her with your identity." Mark said.
"You guys are really fast though."
"It can't be compared to how you swiftly handled this scenario." Mark replied, looking somewhat impressed by me.
I do think there are a few steps that I did wrong and probably missed a few but that is somewhat better than doing nothing but panic.
"It wasn't really that big of a deal. What really is important is that you know who is the culprit."
Hearing my words, all of their expressions tensed.
I didn't have to spell it out for them to know but this was a direct attack from Invisible Hunter.
Standing in the same room, I closed my eyes and imagined the place.
The window of the room was wide open while the door was unlocked but shut.
Irina was lying on the ground straight ahead of the door but her distance to the bed or anything was too much.
The wound was from a blunt force injury using a vase at the back of the head and of course no signs of blood except on the floor.
As I opened my eyes the four members of Irina's faction were busy discussing something, I never opened the door for them when I went to the entrance the door was already unlocked.
It was completely obvious that Irina was straight up inviting the hunter in.
Even if I tried to play dumb it was too obvious that I had almost captured the killer.
"Sir, since the Leader is out of action, we the members of Freedom will act on your direct orders." Robert said that while looking at me.
All the four of them were facing me waiting for my response.
At this moment I couldn't help but remember Chandler's letters. He designed a test of puzzles as a game. The prize was the revelation of his true secret.
Yes, this was indeed just a game. No need for me to panic or stress about it, I just had to solve it like any other.
"I have a plan."
I looked through her phone trying to find that person's contact info.
[5th Executive]
And it was there I didn't hesitate and quickly called on that number.
["What do you want now?"]
"She was targeted by Invisible Hunter, if you listen to me now you can catch him."