Amane looked at the letter in her hand. The handwriting looked familiar to her even after thousands of years had passed. Chen had a particular way of writing his letters.
To receive a hand-written letter after such a long ti was an honor for Amane. But her curiosity got better, and she opened the letter.
[Miss Tsurugi,
I hope you rember the offer I made to you regarding your cousin's health and well-being. If you don't mind, I would like to invite you to my residence. I hope you will make so ti for this visit.
Please reply to this letter as soon as you can. The sooner you schedule this visit, the better it will be for both of us.]
The letter was straightforward. It differed from Chen's usual ways of twisting his words and causing trouble. He must be in a bind to send a ssage like this.
"Ugh, I don't want to oblige Chen right now. Sakura is sick, and Charlie is not here to take care of Sakura. It would be irresponsible of to leave her alone."
Amane wanted to refrain from obliging the letter she received. She paused when she was about to type out a reply that refused Chen's invitation.
'Am I able to decline this offer? Maybe Chen can help out? He did say he has been experinting with beasts and their powers. Maybe he will be able to help out?'
It was dangerous for Amane to think these thoughts. Nothing good would co out of hopeless dreaming. And yet, Amane wanted to believe in Chen and her decision.
"Looks like I will be taking the bait after all. You better make it worth my while, Chen. I don't like to take losing gambles."
Amane confird her attendance and put the phone down.
'I better take care of my other affairs until then. Chen did say that it would be a one-day affair, but who knows what can happen.'
...…..
"I checked this place twice, and the core has been safely transferred back to Chen. My work is done here. Now, I need to do a general clean-up."
Sean shook off the extra energy that clung to his clothes. The rift was emitting contaminated energy, so it needed to be closed. Without a core to hold it stable, it would explode soon.
But before Sean could seal the rift, an unexpected person arrived at the scene, causing Sean to curse. He could barely hold his surprise in check and straighten his back.
"Did you check everything inside the rift properly? Is there anything we should be worried about? What about the core? Did you retrieve it?"
Charlie Suzuki had arrived at the scene and taken hold of the situation. This was the worst thing that could have happened to Sean. But he was not about to panic.
"Mother? What are you doing here? I assure you that I will take care of everything here. There is no need for you to be worried. You should head back and rest now."
Sean tried to get Charlie to leave. He feared what would happen to him if his mother learned about this ddling.
'There is no way mother would ever forgive . Mother has a strict policy about traitors. I will be thrown out of our family and imprisoned at worst.'
Both options sucked. But this was different from what worried Sean the most. He could endure anything but being found out by Helios. He did not want to lose the most important person in his life.
"Sean, you did not answer my question. Did you check everything in the rift properly? I want the core. Don't close the rift if you have not found the core yet. I will go and retrieve the core myself."
This made Sean panic. Mother would know the core was not there if she went inside the rift. As the only person who went in and out of the rifts, Sean was the only one who could have removed the core.
All the suspicions would fall on him, and he would be in trouble.
'No, I need to stop mother from heading into the rift. Can I make an excuse? What kind of excuse can I make? Could you hurry up and think about it? I am sure that there is sothing I can do…'
"Sean, there is no need to think that hard about what you can do. You might think that you are more intelligent than anyone, but I have a lifeti of experience compared to you. Did you think I would not notice what you were up to?"
Sean's brain stopped thinking that very second, and he froze. He had not expected such words to co from Charlie Suzuki's mouth.
Sean knew that Charlie Suzuki was not oblivious to his actions, but he was never sure how close she was to discovering the truth. She had never indicated she knew what Sean was planning.
"Mother now is not the ti to be joking around. I cannot allow you to enter the rift because it is unstable. What would happen if the rift closed behind you once you entered it? We cannot risk it."
Sean tried to bargain and change the flow of the conversation. For a minute, he was sure that he succeeded. Charlie Suzuki did not say anything to him.
But then she let out a heartfelt laugh and looked at Sean with pitiful eyes.
"Sean, it's ti for you to give up now. The more you try to play ignorant, the more you convince that you have done sothing wrong. Now, where did you send the core that was in the rift?"
Sean cursed once he noticed his defeat. He had tried to play Charlie's tactic on her. It had not worked, and now he was in trouble.
But he could still make everything work. He was not out of it yet…
"If you do not reply to my questions, then I will have no choice but to involve Helios in our troubles. Would you like that?"
Charlie asked, and Sean finally gave in. He did not want Charlie to be thrown into this situation as well. It was Sean's fault, and he was the one who needed to own up to his mistakes.
"The core has been transported back to 'The HIVE'. Chen asked to deliver the core to him once I retrieved it. I don't know when or how he knew about it, but he is incredible perspective."
Sean admitted, leaving nothing back. Now that the truth had been revealed, there was no point in holding his words back. He was going to tell as much as he could without getting punished.
"I see. Let's co back to that point later. For starters, how long have you been helping the HIVE? Our records must be a ss because of your interference."
Charlie admitted, but Sean had nothing to say to her regarding this. He did not want to realise how much damage he had done.
"Well, I can answer that question for you instead of Sean. Our financial records have been a ss for the past few years. However, I maintained a separate checklist for everything I found wrong. I am sure that the checklist would help us check our records."
Both Charlie and Sean were surprised when Helios walked into the room. Helios held a record book in his hand and grinned at the pair.
"Helios, what are you doing here? Are you well enough to be standing here? Hey, you should be in bed. What if you get sick because you are here?"
Sean sounded worried for Helios. Helios had been a sickly child since birth and did not like being involved in conflict. That was why he usually avoided a lot of interactions and preferred internal work.
"I am alright. Sean, it has been years since I was last sick. My immune system might be a little weak, but I have not had any problem with it for years now. You worry too much about ."
Helios assured Sean and continued to walk into the room. He stopped once he was right in the middle and looked at the rift.
"Mother, I have all the case files you asked to collect. I am afraid that most of them have a few inconsistencies, but I did my best to fill them up. And before you ask, I was not covering for Sean." Enjoy exclusive chapters from My Virtual Library Empire
"And Sean, I promised you that you could lean on . I am not as dumb or unreliable as I look. You could have given a chance, you know."
Sean looked shocked to see Helios talking back to him. The young child he had protected once upon a ti was no more.
"I…this is too much to take in right now. Can you give a second to digest it all? Since when did Helios begin to work in the internal section? I thought you were in internal affairs."
"It's the sa thing."
"Never mind, it's all just a little too much right now. I think I need to lie down. Do you think you can give a second here?"
Sean asked, but Charlie only had a little ti. Since the core was not here, she needed to tell Yoko and then go after the core.
She quickly ssaged Yoko, but her ssage did not go through. The hospital also assured Charlie that Yoko had already left the premises. There was no way to track Yoko now, and Charlie had to wait for her to return.
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