It was hard to accept. It was truly uncomfortable and disgusting to say, but…

Alaric was a good teacher. His suggestions were surprisingly spot on.

“I indeed am. But instead of praising me, let’s move on to the other authority you possess.”

…

“Mind Confusion is, ironically, a more… complex authority for most people. What you need to do is gather your emotions and thoughts intensely, then use caora to transmit this confusion into your target’s mind.”

I’m starting to understand a little, I think.

Authorities use caora more as a tool than as fuel. They enable the manipulation of negative emotions and thoughts, reflecting them into reality. As a result, they make them usable as if they were skills.

But for this, they also require very clear imaginary inputs.

For example… how can someone ‘combine’ their emotions and thoughts?

At first, imagining it seems absurd. That’s probably why most people find using this authority complicated. Imagining emotions as separate dishes or weapons is one thing; ‘mixing’ them, so to speak, is another.

But… is it really that difficult?

Haven’t I experienced many emotions at once before? Sadness, anger, confusion, regret, hatred, more…

I know how someone experiencing all of these at once feels, what kind of confusion they experience. I just need to draw from that example, that’s all.

I can’t try Mind Confusion right now because I don’t have a target… but I feel like I can do it when I want to use it.

“You’re thinking correctly. You understand the basics.”

I didn’t react, I remained silent.

Authorities, huh…

Having more varied abilities at my disposal always comes in handy.

“You’ll gain them as you continue to use caora and improve yourself. The Chains of Sin most likely come from my soul, and you gained Mind Confusion in Caleuche. Your authorities will increase as you overcome difficult situations, but that’s all for today’s lesson.”

Alaric broadened his smile, then raised his hand and simply waved.

“See you in the next less-“

“Hey, wait.”

Alaric paused, tilting his head slightly to the left.

“What?”

Hmm, so he can read my mind, but he doesn’t know what I see in my dreams?

“What did you see in your dream?”

“That darkness that seemed endless.”

Alaric didn’t change his expression in the slightest, as if it were the most insignificant thing he’d ever heard.

“It’s nothing to worry about. If you think about why you keep going there, you can probably guess quite accurately.”

“What I want to ask is what the hands there are about. They weren’t in Aiden’s memories, only in the darkness where I was.”

Alaric paused for a moment, as if he had heard something unexpected. Though, he still dismissed it.

“They’re not something you need to worry about for now either, at least as long as they keep their distance instead of approaching you.”

…

“So you won’t tell me.”

“Not until the time comes.”

He said nothing else, not even that unsettling smile on his face. Just…

“As I said before, see you in the next lesson.”

He simply vanished.

For several seconds, I could do nothing but stare at the spot where he had been.

Finally, when the Absolute Mind regained control of my thoughts, I let out a deep sigh.

I was… expecting this. That he wouldn’t answer me, that is.

But it still feels bad not to have any information about the things I keep wondering about.

In the silence of the office, my eyes glanced for a moment at the pile of documents on the desk.

…

Right, there’s still this.

Best get back to work…

*******

The hours flew by.

There was no end to the documents that needed processing.

Countless rejections.

Countless requests for review.

Countless approvals.

Countless signatures given and to be given.

New agreements, financial revisions.

Dozens of topics with the Alliance and the Bluelet Family that hadn’t been discussed before but needed to be reviewed.

I was on my feet all night, not a single second free.

When the sun rose, I was still working as it climbed to its zenith in the sky.

Then, a bell symbol appeared on one of the screens hovering above my desk.

“?”

I paused when I opened the notification.

“Ah…”

Right, all this time, what I had been doing was waiting for Alex.

Now… the notification was from him.

I stretched, yawned long and hard as I closed my eyes. The cracking sounds of my spine echoed in my ears, but it only brought a pleasant relief.

My body had gone quite numb from staying in the same position for hours.

Still, my work wasn’t done yet. I was just about to start a new one, that’s all.

So, I opened the notification.

<<——————————

Alex: It was a success. I’m sending the fake evidence as a document, you can take action.

——————————>>

And I saw exactly the message I was expecting.

Alex… was truly a more successful and talented assistant than I had imagined. If it had been me, it would probably have taken me about three days to do what I wanted to do. I might even have failed. But with both his intelligence and skill, Alex was tailor-made for such covert operations.

<<——————————

You: Good, try to return without drawing attention.

——————————>>

After sending my reply, I gathered all the documents in front of me and closed the screens one by one. Then I addressed the AI.

“The Morten Family.”

Just like before, all the information appeared before me one by one. But this time, I was looking for something specific. It didn’t take me long to find it.

I clicked on the small device on the edge of the desk, and a call log appeared before me. Using the phone number right in front of me, I made a call with this small device.

~beep!

~click!

“Welcome to the Morten Family call center. How may I assist you?”

The voice on the other end of the line belonged to a middle-aged woman. It wasn’t artificial intelligence; it was a secretary who would speak to me accordingly, especially since I was calling from a Family Head line.

“I’d like to request a meeting with Thomas Morten.”

After a brief silence, the woman continued in the same tone.

“Our Family Head is currently not accepting any meeting requests due to internal matters. Is there anything else I can assist you with?”

“I have information regarding Marynette Morten. The reason for my meeting request is to convey this information.”

“…”

The woman didn’t say anything for several seconds, as if she had forgotten what to say.

“I will relay your meeting request to the Family Head, please hold.”

The call was thus put on hold. I spent silent seconds listening to the intermittent beeps indicating that the call was still active.

Less than half a minute had passed when the woman who had told me to wait returned to the line.

“Would two hours from now be convenient for you?”

“Sure.”

*******

The Morten Family mansion was very close to the city center. So close, in fact, that at one point we had to drive through a gate for an ID check. I was going deeper than where just anyone could walk in.

However, it didn’t take long to reach our destination.

I entered the Morten Family’s territory, which covered an area many times larger than that of the Inferesse Family, about fifteen minutes before the scheduled meeting time. Apart from minor design differences and its size, it wasn’t that different from what I had seen before. Therefore, I proceeded without paying much attention.

Inside the enormous mansion, I arrived at the room where the meeting was to take place five minutes before it was scheduled to begin.

However, before those five minutes had elapsed, the door to the room opened, and a very tall, thin man entered, seemingly in a hurry.

This man, in his forties, with dark purple hair streaked with gray and a completely shaved beard, had blue eyes that bore the traces of a sunken look I had seen before. Dark circles under his eyes, showing his lack of sleep, abnormal looseness in his facial features, vacant eyes…

This man looked almost exactly like Ronald Potenbea after the attack during my first year at the academy.

“Welcome, Franz Martin Inferesse.”

He sat down right across from me as soon as the door closed behind him.

He spoke quickly, completely ignoring our similar positions as two family heads, continuing without even waiting for me to respond to his sentence.

“Let’s skip the formalities, I don’t care about them. I just expect you to prove what you claim. Tell me what you know about my daughter.”

Like his appearance, his voice was also weak. Rather than a clear voice, he had a voice that couldn’t prevent the words from gurgling in his throat.

This man… was just a father who wanted to know about his daughter’s condition.

He was the easiest type of man to manipulate, even though he was the head of the mighty Morten Family. His heart was truly weak; his devotion to his family was so strong that it could wear him down like this.

“I don’t know how much you’ve been monitoring families like ours, but you’ve probably looked into me when you heard I wanted to talk. Right now, I’m rebuilding my family, trying to strengthen it, and even aiming to go beyond that.”

Thomas Morten had a look on his face as if to say, “Hurry up and get to the point.” But this time he held back, just nodding.

“Aware that I couldn’t do this alone, I was trying to get support from other families. The Bluelet Family and the Alliance I’m currently in are examples of this. And that’s actually what our topic is about.”

He narrowed his eyes slightly, clasped his hands, and placed his arms on his knees. All his attention was focused on me.

“Yes, I needed good companions and allies who could stand by me. But… I didn’t want to reach out to them blindly. I’ve been researching everything I can find about them for days. I’m compiling reports on everything, even the smallest details. Just in case, I don’t want to join hands with anyone who could put me at risk. And that’s why one of the reports I got recently caught my attention a little too much.”

“And?”

“The alliance was acting suspiciously, not including me, who could be considered a newcomer. So I dug into it a little and found something like this.”

I took a small projection device out of my pocket and placed it on the table. Then, a huge screen covered the table between Thomas Morten and me.

The screens showed different reports, pictures, and information. Each one belonged to a family in the alliance, but they all had one thing in common.

A specific wine cellar was at the center of these reports.

“I sent a friend I trust quite a bit to investigate this wine cellar. He’s not a very strong person, but he’s unmatched when it comes to hiding and infiltrating certain places. He sent me this picture a few hours ago.”

I transferred a single image to the projector, then enlarged it so he could see it clearly.

In the picture was a woman, chained and clearly not in her right mind. The image was quite blurry, as if taken from a distance, but her outline made her identity clear.

Thomas Morten suddenly stood up. His eyebrows were so furrowed that all the wrinkles on his face were stretched taut. His twitching eyes stared at the figure on the screen as if they were about to explode like a volcano. He was clenching his teeth so hard that his lips were trembling.

“Marynette!”

His eyes turned fiercely to me.

“Get up, Franz.”

He had lost even that tiny bit of formality he was trying to maintain.

“Wherever this picture was taken, we’re going there, right now.”

Without waiting for my answer, he turned toward the door, each step heavy enough to shake the mansion, but he was holding himself back.

As for me, I just bowed slightly as I watched him walk away.

“As you wish.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep