"Uhh..." Jotou gaped, dumbfounded.
"Oh? We're no longer acting?" Asobi's voice squeaked out of the Fuko that stood beside them.
"What did you two do?" Hotaru ears pricked up.
"Hold on; we can discuss in my office," Azveal paused their little debacle. His eyes pointed to their surroundings, the lit polished walls.
Listening to him, they walked silently back to the elevator. It went up till the penultimate floor. Dizziness was bound for anybody that decided to peer over the railings.
He opened his office doors; not neat, but not a ss. Papers were strewn about tables, his desk had barely any room for elbows and a few chairs were prepared in front of them.
The high ceiling and the well-lit interior made them swivel their heads. Red carpeting and gold inlays upon a set of sofas on either side of the room before glass cases filled with books made up the walls.
He closed the door behind him once they were all in, "We can continue our discussion," he sauntered towards his desk, his shoulders now more relaxed.
The two Fuko-s blinked at each other before Hotaru and Jotou glared at them. "I told Asobi to be for a bit so I can sneak around and gather so intel," Fuko rolled her eyes.
"Well that's obvious, she was nice," Jotou mocked.
"Hey!"
"I think I played a good Fuko! At least how she described. She asked to be polite!"
"Right, but maybe key us in the next ti?" Jotou crossed her arms.
"I got the idea on the spot; you want to tell the entire room?" Fuko argued.
Jotou sighed, "Fair enough, but still."
"Besides, Asobi's a great actor to mimic such unrivalled beauty," Fuko flaunted her hair, "She maybe good at lying to others but she's so easily lied to."
"Hey," Asobi whined still appearing as Fuko, "It's not lying, it's acting!" her eyes sparkled as she revealed her wand and smoke apparated from where she stood; Asobi returned, flourishing her hat onto her head.
"I'm so sorry about this Master Azveal, please forgive us and don't report us to the Krialin," Hotaru pleaded, walking up to his desk.
"No, no, it's fine," he excused, "Clearly so intelligent work has been going on within your party. I did not underestimate you, but I should have overestimated; you would have superseded my expectations nonetheless," he sat down.
"You're not mad?" Jotou turned, approaching the table.
He had his fingers intertwined, "Pleasantly surprised in fact," he told. "You don't trust us; which ans you don't trust —that's good.
It ans you trust yourselves to be capable. Hence, any information given to you all won't be in vain. Though, you seem to trust enough to show your deception."
"Actually, I didn't know how to use the platform; you were the second option. You seed to be trustworthy enough," Fuko admitted, walking forward.
"Yeah, there was also so uneasy tension," Jotou noticed during their conversation with Fritz. Hotaru took a seat, as did Jotou whilst Fuko examined the room and Asobi admired it.
"You said it was for personal reasons?" Hotaru queried.
"And we had to 'endure' the formalities," Jotou added; while Azveal's voice remained the sa, his body had relaxed much more.
"Yes," he gave a smug smirk. "Now you know the situation of the Velatos Case from our experts; as do I."
"Huh? Wouldn't you know what they were doing Master Azveal?"
"Kor will do for now," he raised his hand.
"Well, Kor, why would you not know?" Jotou sided with Hotaru.
He exhaled, "What I know is rely on the reports I get from their departnt. Ever since this case began, I've been sending reports to our actual chief, Legisvia.
As if she had not already gotten information of the case from the Kria Daily or the countless dia and news outlets across the countries...
I sent her a report at the end of every week and in one of the letters I got back, I was instructed not to intervene on Kowalski's research departnt.
Going against my superior's orders would jeopardize my position, however I had many suspicions. Due to that, I couldn't barge in there and conduct an interview.
Using the pretences of formality, I was able to escort you into the departnt and hear for myself. This was but a wish for myself, so, I do apologize for not keying you in on my selfish desire.
And now, we know the truth of the matter," Kor finished.
"That they have nothing but dead ends?" Jotou stared him in the eyes.
"It appears so... As the highest-ranking Ordinate mber in the country, it's my duty to oversee all magical endeavours and troubles within the Maleficos Ordinate."
"But if they have nothing to report, why would they hide it from you?" Hotaru questioned.
"I also have a duty to Kria and its citizens. I suspect Legisvia would rather not give people a loss of hope in the Ordinate and I concur. If no hope is given, panic would ensue. She knows my nature to let the truth to be known.
This truth is only for myself; what I release to any outlet would still be the reports I receive or else my position would be removed for not following orders."
"What's with people and hope; people need to deal with the truth and hope's not mutually exclusive from that," Jotou replied.
"I concur as well. But if the truth is that we have no info; what does that accomplish? It's our goal to gather information; the deception is that we have so," he lowered his hands from near his face.
"How could they not have info? They've been at it for half the year," Fuko glanced to him.
"You're the one who snooped around; did you gather evidence to the contrary?" he inquired.
Fuko grumbled, "Not too much. The dead velatos were kept in containers of so yellow juice, or jelly or sothing. I tried reading the notes, but all of them were out of context and I couldn't get too close to flip the pages.
Other than that, the place was spotless. Asobi probably got more information than . She stole my detective skills when she stole my looks obviously," Fuko crossed her arms.
"I can do that!?" Asobi giddied.
"Did you get anything?" Jotou doubted, but still asked Asobi.
"Hm," she poked her wand into her chin, "I did read so words, they were pretty much garble to . Though there was one weird one, 'trans-mu-ta-tee-on'? With a question mark next to it."
"You an transmutation?" Hotaru corrected.
Jotou peered at them, "What's that?"
"It's a type of magic that changes one thing into another. Perhaps one of the theories our dear departnt had that also t a dead end.
I would assu, at one point they thought the velatos was being changed into those by such magic. If it was scribbled onto notes, I doubt it was a viable theory," Kor hypothesized.
"We ca out with nothing," Fuko sighed.
"We did co out with sothing; that sothing's just nothing," Jotou replied. "That's a clue in and of itself."
"She's right," Kor sided, "I think that's also the reason they've co up with nothing. We're dealing with a constantly changing enemy. Yesterday is a proof of this statent.
Moren Mataya personally told all about what you encountered. It's lucky that we had you on our side," he gave a narrowed glance.
Jotou faced down, before eting his eyes. Will she ever find these answers? "Are you sure you're not a velatos?" Kor stared her down while he inquired.
"Positive," Jotou said without a second's thought. Kor took the reply by no surprise, accepting that as fact; his eyes relaxed in response.
"Jotou's never exhibited any velatos-like properties. They're monsters that wreck and kill with shadowed forms and red eyes. I will not accept otherwise," Hotaru defended, her tail spiking behind her.
Kor simply watched. "He's not wrong about them changing, but I don't think Jotou's one either. All evidence points it to be a coincidence. The last ti was the first ti the velatos talked," Fuko stepped closer to Jotou.
Kor's eyes jolted open, "I'm sorry?"
Jotou's brows knitted together, "How is this information not reached you? The velatos from yesterday spoke to . It said..." Jotou relayed the conversation she had with the creature before she was left unconscious.
_
"So, even it doesn't know what you are or where you're from," Kor spoke.
"Seems so," Jotou replied.
"That's what it said? That's super creepy!" Asobi shivered.
Hotaru held Jotou's hand from the side, "Tear the city?"
"We were so preoccupied with everything, but I was gonna ask you about it later," Fuko pondered as she looked around.
Jotou then glanced to Kor, "I didn't forget, we were just exhausted and had our schedules full. However, more importantly," the glance turned into a glare.
"You said Moren Mataya personally told you everything; then how the hell wouldn't you know that? Jotou said it to Moren and I don't think that's a forgettable fact," Fuko slamd her hands on his desk.
"What are you hiding Azveal!?" Fuko grew closer to his face in a scowl.
Kor blinked a few tis before his hands ca up and a drift of wind ca in between him and Fuko, like a wall of light blue bricks that subtly howled.
He remained calm, "I assure you, out of the information he provided, that was left out," he slowly pushed her off his table using the force of wind shaped like a wall.
His confused gaze returned to normal as Jotou slowly pulled Fuko back.
"That wasn't the conclusion I was jumping to... I thought it was a bit suspicious, but we were all a little shocked in the mont," Jotou pouted.
"Co on ko, he doesn't look a liar, does he?" Asobi asked.
Fuko peered into his light blue eyes. Her brows furrowed and furrowed, "...No," she muttered in defeat, like a child, "Dammit!"
"It's possible he just forgot. The man was shovelling out snow since daybreak," Hotaru defended.
Kor sat up, "I'll personally ask him about it, it does seem- No, it is valuable information. Thanks for telling . I'll tell our departnt and try to avoid telling this to the public," he responded.
"Responsible enough," Jotou agreed.
"You have received so information and we did say it was an exchange. It seems I got most of the answers I wanted, except one... Where do you co from?" Kor never lost sight of Jotou's eyes.
Jotou looked back, "Another world. It had no magic or velatos or anything like that. To be completely honest, it was a boring dystopia..." Jotou couldn't really put all that she knew of her old world into a few words.
"Anyway, the only theory I've got going so far is that magic brought here. Why like this? Why at this ti? I don't know," Jotou shrugged, "You can believe or not. Doesn't change the truth."
Kor kept his gaze on her, "I believe you," his eyes softened as he looked into hers, "Your eyes aren't blue any longer," he said, catching Jotou by surprise.
"What's that supposed to an?" Hotaru looked back and forth.
Asobi ducked in between Jotou and Hotaru to examine Jotou's eyes, "They're not blue, I guess?" Asobi confird.
"Wait a minute, I rember soone else saying that," Fuko glanced to Kor.
He sighed and his eyes grew heavy "I had to confirm for myself... you're not Anastasia."
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