With the last rays of the sun disappearing from the sky, a woman with a large hat could be seen standing at a dead end. Pressing her hand on the wall, the wall began to retreat as a hidden stairway was revealed. Entering the stairway and then making her way through the locked door at the bottom, the girl was greeted by a brightly lit storage room as a man dressed in all black immediately kneeled after seeing her and said:

“Miss Logan, like always, it is a pleasure to see you once more.”

“Hello there Ventome, any news?”

“Yes Miss Logan, we have ascertained that the Golden Hand is indeed present in this city, and that their executive Love Machine has arrived. It appears that they are here in order to carry out a transaction with an unknown group. Although we do not know the group they are set to deal with or the particular details of the transaction, we believe it to be related to the artifact the group had recently discovered in the ruins of Bharata. This information should also be on the letter given to the princess with instructions on it from his majesty for your group to investigate the matter.”

“Hmmm, I see. How troublesome, seems like there’s going to be more work for me to do. Really, doesn’t his majesty think that babysitting his daughter and watching over the Forell’s brat to see if he’s behaving is more than enough work for me already?”

Not answering Charlotte’s complaints, as a complicated expression appeared on his face, Ventome simply ignored her statement as he stood up and said:

“Miss Logan, there is also another matter you should know.”

“Haaaa, go on. Tell me what other trouble has appeared.”

“We have heard rumors that Aria Rondestar has passed away in the elven forest. Although the reasons as to why are not yet certain, we do believe that the reason for her death was directly related to her family. And that she was executed publicly by them.”

“And what the hell are those idiots thinking! That girl had built quite the rapport with many a powerful person during her campaign, not to mention her bloody monster of a husband! Are they trying to spark an incident? I doubt even his majesty will stay silent about this. Ventome, does his majesty know about this yet?”

“No, not yet. This news just reached me earlier today and is now making its way up to his majesty.”

“Well, I guess the future is going to be filled with problem after problem. And we still have to worry about those two stupid kids. Haaaa”

“You seem more tired than usual Miss Logan. Did something troublesome happen?”

“Troublesome? Everyday is troublesome, but hmm… yeah, I guess something more troublesome did occur. You know, that Zilva proved herself a bit useful today. From what I gathered from her after interrogating her about her chat with Aretea, It appears that Krato was the one responsible for the demon summoning that occurred earlier. And it does seem like the reason was to summon suitable vessel for his revival. Other than that, it doesn’t seem like Aretea knows anything else about the summoning.”

“Is that so, I’m sure his majesty will be glad at that information and the confirmation of some of our ideas on the matter. Did you find anything else, such as what Aretea has been doing here?”

“Nope, it really doesn’t seem like Aretea trusts Zilva with any meaningful information, although I don’t blame her for doing so. Seems Zilva really is just being used simple spy to keep a watch on us, although she’s absolute shit at her job. Really, the poor girl, at this rate she’s simply going to be used by two sides without getting anything meaningful out of it, how pitiful~”

Hearing the rather mean remarks Charlotte was saying about one of her companions, Ventome couldn’t help but adopt a wry smile as he asked:

“I guess you haven’t had any luck in learning anything about dark magic from her?”

“None! I know it’s only an excuse I used so she didn’t suspect anything, but I still had some expectations that she would gather SOMETHING that would elucidate me on the secrets of dark magic. Yet after all this she’s gathered me nothing. NOTHING! I hope his majesty understands how troublesome it is to constantly keep an eye on her, especially when I’m also supposed to babysit the other two idiots.”

At Charlotte’s insulting of royalty, Ventome simply released a sigh as he reached his hand inside his coat and took out two letters, hoping that it would calm Charlotte down as he said:

“Charlotte, you know his majesty has always been keeping your hard work in mind. Look, here’s a letter from his majesty as well as a letter from Prince George detailing some of his findings during his trip in the theocracy, findings that were gathered at the request of our King. He hopes you are pleased with the information gathered by his son.”

“A letter from Prince George! Man, he really is the only competent one in that family.”

“You’re not including his majesty the King in that statement, are you?”

“…”

At Charlotte’s now lèse-majesté, Ventome decided that it would be for the best to simply forget about her statements as he tried to move the conversation away from this topic and asked:

“Did you see anything else that caught your attention today?”

Hearing Ventome’s question, Charlotte stopped admiring the letter in her hands and put on a pensive expression for a second before answering:

“Not really.”

Following her remark, the two began chatting about nothing in particular before Charlotte decided to make her departure in order to not be late to her group’s nightly meeting. With Charlotte making her way out, Vetome called out to her and said:

“Take care on your way back Miss Logan, and thank you very much for all you’ve done for our organization and the King. Truly, without you, we wouldn't have made so much progress these last few years.”

“Like I’ve said before, there’s no need to thank me. It’s not like I was really ever given a choice on whether to help you or not. The King just decided to throw all these troublesome matters on me, never really asking for my opinion on the matter. Well, I’ll be leaving now Ventome, you take care as well~”

With that, Charlotte waved her hand and made her way out of the storage room as she began to make her way back to ‘The Red Swan’. All the while, thinking about the information she had just received, as well as the very suspicious and intriguing pair she had left back in the hotel…