Chapter 73: Provoking

As soon as Orel entered, he went to the coffee dispenser and poured himself some coffee.

SLUUUURP… ugh… PTHOO!!

“Beurk! Coffee as tasteless as the decoration,” Orel said, scanning the room, not shying away from the gazes that landed on him.

He walked slowly toward Ryan, coffee cup in hand. Ryan had been standing by one of the pillars in the Main Hall, watching him.

“You made this. 0/20,” Orel said, not as a question but as a statement, then gave a thumbs-down.

Ryan looked down.

He had heard rumors from his superiors that MIO agents were distasteful individuals, but he had not expected it to be this bad.

He did not care how Orel knew he made the coffee, or whether it was good or bad. All he knew was that normal decency forbade acting this way.

Yet if he spoke, that was trouble he would bring upon himself.

“No backbone? Yeah, you’re the type to watch someone destroy another person’s life and stay quiet,” Orel spoke in a matter-of-fact manner.

Ryan gritted his teeth and looked up at him, furious. But deep down, he could not refute what had been said.

When Mark lied about the situation with Makun, Ryan knew it was a lie, but he had done nothing to stop it. If Jorg had not been a logical person, Makun would have ended up dead.

“Tell me, how many lives have you watched get fucked over? Let me guess…by your partner?”

Orel noticed a slight shift in Ryan’s gaze.

“Oh, that guy,” he said, pointing toward Mark. “That makes sense. He stinks of negativity.”

He turned from Ryan and slowly walked toward Mark, who had been observing the scene from a distance. He scanned Mark up and down.

Mark’s teeth were gritted, and his fingers dug into his palms.

Who did this guy think he was? Did he think he had the right to act like this only because he was an agent of the MIO?

It was not as if the MIO was superior to the VEB.

“I see, I see. The emotional type. Yeah, we’re not trusting anything that comes from your mouth,” Orel asserted. “It surely stinks like shit.”

Mark’s fingers dug even deeper into his palms.

“What, wanna beat me? Come try,” Orel continued.

Flash!

Mark’s fist shot forward, grabbing Orel by the collar, his face twisted with rage. “SHUT YOUR MOUTH!”

Until now, no one had really paid attention to what was happening. Mark’s shout alerted everyone.

They turned to see Mark, five-foot-ten, veins bulging on his forehead, short dark hair disheveled…gripping Orel by the collar.

“SAY IT AGAIN!” Mark had lost control.

“Say what? That your mouth stinks like shit?” Orel repeated, a smile on his face.

It seemed he had gotten the reaction he was looking for.

Mark’s eyes widened, shocked that Orel had answered. He sensed Orel’s Ashe and knew he was a higher-tier practitioner, but the fluctuations in the air felt wrong, not the sharp, focused energy of a warrior, but something softer, more diffuse. A scholar.

He had a chance.

He pulled his fist back slowly, under the gaze of the entire crowd…Ryan, Celine, Johnson, Tora, who had noticed too late to intervene.

He wanted to punish this man for disrespecting him.

His fist flew forward.

“Mark!”

Zzt—

His fist stopped inches from Orel’s face, who still wore a smile.

Jorg stepped into the Main Hall, Yime and Amelia behind him.

“Orel, no more trouble,” Yime commanded.

She knew Orel was difficult to manage, but she had leverage if punishment was needed.

“Apologize!” she said. “Now!”

Orel looked around, adjusting his orange-tinted glasses.

“I apologize.”

Anyone with half a brain could tell he was insincere.

Mark was still fuming, but under the gaze of the VEB branch leader, he had no choice but to let it go.

Orel slowly straightened his shirt, patting it as if removing Mark’s prints. He then returned to the coffee dispenser and poured himself another cup. He sipped the coffee quietly, staring into space.

“Let’s go to my office. We have a lot to discuss,” Jorg said. He turned and looked at the angry Mark, then at the quiet Ryan. “Ryan, Celine, Mark…with us.”

Mark, Ryan, and Celine were the lowest-tier practitioners in the VEB. They carried out tasks like writing reports, handling low-level threats, and patrolling.

The quiet Amelia, the calm Yime, and the provocative Orel followed Jorg, Mark, Celine, and Ryan to his office on the fourth floor.

The office layout looked different this time. It was usually empty, with only a single chair behind Jorg’s desk. Today, five more chairs had been added.

In the center stood a round table with files spread across it.

“Take a seat,” Jorg said, gesturing toward the chairs.

Yime, Amelia, and Orel took seats around the table, while Mark, Ryan, and Celine stood behind Jorg.

He sat down calmly and picked up a file from the table, handing it to Yime.

“Two and a half days ago, my agents discovered residue of spiritual energy at apartment 3B on Osapa Street, indicating that mystics fought there,” Jorg said, his voice measured. “The residue was of Adept level. After investigating, we caught one party but have no idea who the others are.”

Yime slowly read through the file in her hands.

INCIDENT REPORT – VEB NAIJA CITY

Location: 47 Osapa Street, Apartment 3B, Naija City

Incident Type: Unauthorized Mystic Combat / Spiritual Energy Residue

Primary Findings:

Residual Ashe detected at Tier 3 Adept level

Multiple combatants confirmed (minimum 2-3 individuals)

Phase distortion charm residue detected

Structural damage: cracked walls, corroded surfaces, localized reality warping

Resident Information:

Name: Zuri, Tier: Second-grade Apprentice, Route: Seer, Status:

Detained, awaiting MIO interrogation

Detained Parties:

Zorak – Third-grade Adept Warrior (Golden Brass Knuckle wielder, Pact bound Warrior…)…..

Yime’s eyes scanned the document methodically, her expression unreadable behind her veil. She passed the document to Orel.

“Oh, I see,” Orel said, quickly scanning the documents. “So at first, the mission was to investigate the incident. But, scared of retribution, you did some legwork yourselves. Fair enough.” He paused on a page mentioning unidentified parties. “Now you want us to investigate who they are. I see.”

Orel understood the situation. He now knew how to proceed.

Jorg had no reaction. He did not even blink

It was normal for Orel as a Scholar to figure things like that from almost nothing.

Scholars were not warriors who imposed their will onto reality through brute force, nor seers who perceived hidden truths through spiritual sight. Scholars restructured their minds. When a Scholar initiated and their Route Core formed, Ashe flooded specific regions of their brain.

That results in an increase in the brain’s processive speed.

Where a normal person might need seconds to notice a pattern, a Scholar noticed it in milliseconds. Where a normal person might connect two pieces of information consciously, a Scholar’s mind connected dozens unconsciously, in parallel, like a machine running multiple calculations at once.

They did not just observe, they analyzed, constantly, automatically, without effort. The higher the tier, the more extreme the transformation.

For someone like Orel, a third-grade Scholar Adept, the world was a book written in a language only he could read. When he read the VEB incident report, he saw more than just facts, he saw motivations.

Jorg had detained Zorak and Zuri not because protocol demanded it, but because he needed to look competent when MIO arrived. In fact, It had gone against his Jurisdiction. He should have reported the events and wait for the MIO arrival nothing else.

But he went out of his way to figure out what happened. So Orel had deduced that, Jorg wanted to make sure nothing extreme happened while he was not active in Naija city.

It was a political move, A PR move. And Orel was used to seeing these things.

Earlier, when Orel tasted the coffee and saw Ryan flinch, his brain processed dozens of micro-cues ,body language, spatial positioning, behavioral context and concluded Ryan had made it.

When Ryan’s gaze shifted toward Mark after Orel mentioned “your partner,” Orel knew instantly: Mark was the dominant personality, the one who exaggerated and twisted facts, while Ryan was the passive enabler who let it happen.

These were not guesses. They were deductions. Patterns his Scholar-enhanced brain synthesized from fragments of information in seconds.

That was the power of the Scholar route. And that was why Orel was one of the most valuable investigators the MIO had.

Orel slowly finished Reading the papers and Passed it to Amelia.

Amelia read and placed it back on the Table.

“As Orel said, the main task right now is to figure out who attacked Zuri at apartment 3B and what their goal are. ” Jorg said calmly after having brushed Orel earlier remark.

“My elements and me are gonna provide the most help available. Let us know If there is anything you need.” He said offering his support

By this point Orel had been deep in thought, his brain was turning. He already had an Idea of what had transpired, true he lacked some key info, but from the report he could tell certain things.

But he needed the captives, He had to interrogate them personally to understand certain things the report could not mention.

“Can we speak to the captives?” Orel asked.

Jorg nodded once. He turned to the side and pressed a button on his desk intercom.

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