"I-I just looked at him. I c-couldn't do… anything."

Liana voiced, bitting her finger nails as she paced back and forth in a room with Sylvia who was sitting and watching her.

"Liana, calm down," said Sylvia, a profound worry in her tone as she continued to watch Liana.

"I can't," Liana finally broke, her eyes glimmering as she looked Sylvia in the eye. "I had one job. Just one. Be a leader… and I watched my own comrade die without doing anything!" she yelled, tossing her cap on the ground and resting her back on the walking, sliding down to sit. "I'm a terrible person," she managed, voice barely above a whisper as she clenched her red hair tightly.

"No. No you're not." Sylvia sighed, understanding how Liana felt. It was her first time in such a role and she started it with a loss. Liana needed more than comforting to get herself together.

… …

Meanwhile...

Atrium of Founders.

Special Advisor's Office...

A sharp knock came on the door and Elite Loretta raised her head from the stack of papers in front of her. "Come in," she said.

The door opened and Nolan stepped inside, his face still expressionless.

Loretta looked at him as he closed the door. "Oh, Dagmire, you are here—"

"Why didn't you inform them?" Nolan interrupted, sitting on the chair opposite her without needing permission, his voice leveled, yet interrogative.

"Pardon?" Loretta raised a brow.

"How close were the ranked demons when you told me they already made territories in the city?" Nolan fired another question, his tone not losing its rhythm.

"That was—"

"Why did you do this? What was the goal? The gain?"

"Dagmire, would you—"

"An innocent died."

Nolan didn't give her the chance to even finish her statement. Despite his questions, his face was an unreadable mask of practiced calm.

Loretta's eyes finally narrowed, brows furrowing and her expression getting serious. "Are you interrogating me?"

"I'm asking you simple questions that require simple answers. But if this seems like an interrogation to you, then yes. Yes I am," he said, the amount of confidence in his tone sharp and clear.

Loretta remained quiet for a beat, looking at the young man in disbelief before finding her voice again. "It was necessary," she muttered, voice low, but enough for Nolan to hear them.

She knew he had her cornered and had understood what was going on, so trying to divert it or lie was going to be futile.

Nolan tilted his head. "I almost thought you would lie there. It seems you realized that would be useless as well. Good thing you chose to say the truth."

Loretta's brows furrowed even more. "Watch your tongue, Dagmire."

Nolan raised his hands in surrender. "So… what was necessary? Letting someone die?"

She sighed, rubbing her forehead. "Look, Novice Rum was not the only person who died today. Three more people lost their lives from other teams."

"That doesn't answer my question, Elite Loretta. What was necessary?" Nolan leaned forward, locking eyes with her.

For some reason, no matter how she tried, Elite Loretta couldn't straight up lie to him. As if there was something in his gaze that demanded only the truth.

At first she was just intrigued by this new recruit and wanted to use him, but it had slowly started to turn into fear.

It seems he was more terrifying than she thought. He spoke to her like he was her superior and she couldn't object.

"Okay, yes, I never informed Sylvia and Klaus about the ranked demons already being in the city. Yes, I also did not tell you how close they were already. Yes, we lost lives, but I did not plan for things to go this way."

Nolan remained quiet as she admitted.

"Why I did not tell them was because, I needed you all to be prepared for the unforseen. Curse me if I lie, boy, but it was never my intention for people to die. The reports from the front are worse than we are telling anyone. If they can not handle a D-rank in the ruins, they will be slaughtered when the real horde arrives"

"Prepare for the unforseen? When that time comes, they'll deal with it. You let these people who were new to fighting demons, go into the ruins where they all believed had only low-grades," Nolan protested, but his voice didn't rise, nor did it fall.

"Ranked demons are not threats to laugh at like low-grades, and you let them walking into a trap without any information whatsoever, wishing they come out unscathed? What type of fiction is that called?" He added, pushing himself up, eyes narrowing. "I know there is a mysterious figure pulling your strings."

The moment he said that, her brows went up a fraction, but she did well to hide her shock as quickly as possible. She felt insulted, but… he wasn't completely wrong.

But it wasn't enough for Nolan, who spent years of reading expressions, to be fooled. "Tell whoever it is that I know of their existence, and that I'll be coming for them soon."

Without another word, he bowed his head respectfully and walked out of the office, shutting the door with a gentle click.

Elite Loretta remained seated in the now suffocating silence of her office. "How did he know?" she whispered. "Just who are you, Nolan Dagmire?"

Just then, a knock came and the door opened. A Novice-rank walked in and handed her a plain envelope. "A hooded man just… gave me this and said it was for you alone."

Loretta looked from the Novice's face to the envelope, already knowing who it was from. She took it and nodded, "You can go,"

The Novice-rank bowed his head and walked out of the office.

Loretta closed her eyes tightly before opening them and then the envelope.

She pulled out a folded paper and opened it. It was long, but only one sentence was written on it, in bold ink:

Tell him I know as well.

- MA.

Loretta folded it back and slammed her hand on the table, leaning back on her seat. "What have I gotten myself into?"

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.