Grand Knight Territory, Golden Feather Boulevard.
Weather: Sunny
A black extended Originium car was slowly driving on the wide, bright road.
"I am very sorry, I failed to complete the task you assigned me, Director Collins."
Chiarne sat inside the car, on an expensive leather sofa, his back already soaked with cold sweat, showing none of his previous composure.
He knew that the man sitting opposite him, dressed in a white cassock with a suit underneath, was a Great One who truly held his life and death in his hands.
"Director, Rhine Lab interfered with our recruitment plan. How dare a Columbia corporation extend its reach into Kazimierz? We must appeal to the Commercial Federation. We cannot allow a foreign enterprise—"
Chiarne desperately searched for excuses, but didn't want the process to be too obvious—in Kazimierz, he could freely change jobs, but he couldn't be fired. Otherwise, with the level of information sharing within the Commercial Federation, he wouldn't be able to find a second job at all.
"Alright, that's enough, Mr. Chiarne."
The man opposite extended his hand, and Chiarne immediately stopped his report, bowing his head respectfully, not daring to speak further.
"Mr. Chiarne, you did very well. The Nearl Family is not that easy to recruit. Rather, if the recruitment had succeeded, the Nearl Family would have lost its proper value. Everything is within our expectations."
He picked up a glass of red wine and handed it to Chiarne. The man called Collins nodded. He was also a Kuranta, his smooth black hair meticulously styled.
"I am more concerned about another question. In that house, besides Nona Margaret, who else was there?"
Chiarne feigned composure as he took the wine glass and gulped it down. The red wine was spicier than he expected, but it also gave him enough courage.
"Yes, I never stopped observing the surroundings—there were two Sarkaz, one of whom possessed healing Originium Arts. A man and a woman whose racial features were indistinguishable, I suspect they were Aegir. Yes, that's it."
Relying on a glimpse into the main living room, Chiarne recounted the composition of the people inside the room, and when he spoke of the man in the black trench coat, he couldn't help but grind his teeth.
"That male named Goki is an external specialist from Rhine Lab. It was precisely due to his pressure that I left Nearl's temporary residence—this is an insult to Allens Choice, Mr. Collins, we must retaliate."
Thinking of how Goki, with casual words, shattered his long-held convictions, Chiarne was furious—he had originally convinced himself to believe that this rapidly developing era was perfect, but Goki had easily thrown reality in front of him.
But even so, Chiarne had to keep climbing up until he could trample that bastard under his feet.
"Aegir, interesting… So, is it like this?"
Director Collins didn't pay attention to Chiarne's small actions. Instead, he turned around, pulled out two yellowed papers from his white robe, and handed them to Chiarne.
On the papers were two half-body portraits, with exceptionally sloppy brushstrokes and a wildly chaotic style.
One of the girls had white hair and red eyes; Chiarne had just seen her wolfing down food at the dining table in the house.
However, unlike in reality, she was now wearing a vibrant red dress, her expression not lively, but instead filled with desolation and sorrow. Though beautiful, she exuded a dangerous aura, as if a predator ready to devour her prey at any moment.
And the other, without a doubt, was that bastard Goki.
Similarly, unlike the smiling, worldly office worker he had just seen, he was now wearing a pure white uniform, holding a dim greatsword in his hand.
And on his face, beneath the calm, there was an uncontrollable killing intent, as if he would rush out of the canvas in the next second and take Chiarne's life.
"Hiss————Yes, it's those two, it's them one hundred percent! It's just that their attire is a bit different…"
Although somewhat curious as to why this Director would have portraits of the two when mobile phone photography was so common, Chiarne merely nodded, not daring to ask any superfluous questions.
"You're curious, aren't you, Mr. Chiarne? It's alright, curiosity is humanity's greatest quality! Humans should never stop being curious, just as they cannot stop counting everything in the starry sky—and since you are curious about this, then I must answer."
The Kuranta man in the long robe crossed his legs, opened the sunroof, and let the blazing sunlight stream into the car.
"In this world, there are many unknown forces that we need to revere—look at our sky, even as the sun rises, the stars still hang in the firmament, but she is too dazzling, obscuring our direction of exploration."
The man seemed to be explaining to Chiarne, but in reality, he was merely satisfying his own desire to confide.
"Our warlocks, from countless chaotic futures, painted these two images, just like peeking at the stars in a clear sky. The difficulty is imaginable—however, just as stargazing requires a telescope, we also need better fuel to serve as paintbrushes to exchange for a bit of ingenious insight, but everything has a price, what do you guess it would be?"
Looking at Chiarne, Collins revealed a playful smile, and without waiting for his answer, he began to explain himself.
"People, living people—everyone has their value, and even if they lose all value, they still have their final value."
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