Rest Room Observations

"Knock, knock—" A light tapping came from outside the rest room door.

"Come in." Angel, who had been spacing out in the rest room on the second floor of Blackthorn Security Company, rose from the sofa by the window. Her right hand instinctively moved toward her skirt before she remembered that all her weapons had been handed over to the young Nighthawk named Leonard Mitchell for safekeeping.

The doorknob turned, and a white-haired figure in a black trench coat entered carrying a wooden lunch box.

At first glance, Angel had thought the person was an old man. Only after the newcomer had fully entered the rest room did she realize that beneath the long white hair was the face of a woman around thirty. Her features were unremarkable, but she carried herself with a calm, peaceful air, and her black eyes seemed capable of seeing through everything.

"Sica Theon, Nighthawk." The white-haired woman introduced herself briefly. "The captain asked me to bring you lunch."

The captain was that cold-faced Dunn Smith... So this was the female Nighthawk he said he would arrange to "watch" me? Angel hurried forward and took the lunch box from Sica Theon.

The box was not large. Inside were a piece of oat bread, a small bowl of stew, and several thin slices of bacon. The portion was not much, but it had both meat and vegetables, so it was reasonably balanced.

Blackthorn Security Company did not seem to have its own kitchen. Angel guessed the lunch had been delivered from a nearby restaurant.

Since she had skipped breakfast, it had been nearly a full day since Angel had last eaten. Aside from the two cups of hot water she had drunk after arriving in the rest room, her stomach had long been completely empty. Not caring that someone else was present, she set the lunch box on the table and began wolfing down the food.

Sica Theon quietly sat on the sofa beside her, casually picked up an Ahova Evening News from several days ago, and hid her gaze behind the newspaper.

Yet Angel still felt that Sica's attention remained fixed on her.

A female body's appetite was far inferior to Angel's formerly well-trained capacity for food. Though she felt ravenous enough for her chest to stick to her back, after finishing more than half the oat bread with the stew, she already felt eighty percent full.

After slowing down and gradually finishing the last of the food, she picked up the napkin beneath the bread and wiped her mouth and hands, letting out a satisfied sigh.

Sica Theon lowered the newspaper and glanced at the empty lunch box. Her brows rose in surprise, making Angel feel her cheeks grow a little warm.

I've been hungry for nearly a day. It's perfectly reasonable to finish one meal, isn't it? Besides, this lunch wasn't even that substantial. Before, I could have put away three portions in one go...

"Where should I return the lunch box?" Angel asked, trying to escape the awkwardness.

"Just leave it here. Someone from the restaurant will come collect it this afternoon." The white-haired Nighthawk answered with a smile. "I just think that being able to have an appetite in this situation is very... well, very impressive."

As long as I'm not embarrassed, the other person will be... Angel's gaze darted around as she tried to change the subject.

"How many people are there in your 'security company'—I mean, the Nighthawks?" The moment the words left her mouth, Angel regretted them. That topic change had been far too abrupt.

Sica Theon did not mind. She simply set down the newspaper, shifted her long legs beneath her trench coat into a comfortable position, leaned back against the sofa's soft cushion, and thought for a moment before answering:

"There are six combat personnel including me. I think you've already met some of them. Including the clerical staff, there are a little over ten people altogether."

That was a rather vague answer. Was she afraid of leaking secrets?

Angel silently recalled the Nighthawks she had met: Dunn Smith, called the captain; Daly Simone, dressed like a Medium; the young Leonard Mitchell; and Sica Theon before her. That already made four. When she had first arrived at Blackthorn Security Company, Dunn had sent Leonard to find two others who were on leave. It seemed these were the Nighthawks' entire combat force in Tingen.

Though there were not many of them, if they were all Beyonders, they were absolutely not a force to be underestimated. Even if they were all Sequence 9, each possessed different peculiar abilities. Once multiple Beyonders fought as a team, their endlessly varied powers could cause an enemy immense trouble.

"Only six combat personnel? Doesn't that get overwhelming?"

Angel pressed on, genuinely curious. Just to investigate Cole Granger's case in the latter half of last night, three Nighthawks had come to her house. Half the combat personnel had been deployed. Excluding those resting at home and those on duty, it had practically been an all-hands response.

Sica Theon chuckled. Her narrowed eyes made her look much younger.

"Actually, we're quite idle. There aren't many supernatural incidents in Tingen City that need handling. Including yours, there have only been four in June. And it isn't only us Nighthawks doing the work. We're only responsible for the Northern District, the Western District, Golden Banyan District, and similar areas. The other districts are handled by the Beyonders of the Punishers and Heart of Machinery."

"If you hadn't reported this to Saint Selena Church, it originally wouldn't have been our business."

The Punishers of the Church of the Lord of Storms, the Heart of Machinery of the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery—these were church Beyonder forces just as the Nighthawks were for the Church of the Goddess of the Night. It seemed the territories of the Ruen Kingdom's three major Orthodox Churches were clearly divided. At least that would prevent conflicts, or even outright fights, when handling related cases.

Seeing that Sica Theon answered every question, Angel went on to ask much more about the Beyonder teams in Tingen City. Apparently, the secrets Sica was wary of leaking were limited to her own Nighthawk team. When it came to Tingen's other two Beyonder teams, she seemed to know everything and held nothing back, greatly broadening Angel's horizons.

"...Since those people were believers of the Lord of Storms, the Punishers rushed to the scene as well. They hadn't had any business for a month, so when they saw that the captain and I had already resolved the matter, their eyes bulged. They nearly started a fight with us..."

Sharing other people's embarrassing stories truly was one of the best ways to build friendship. Angel and Sica Theon quickly hit it off. When Leonard Mitchell, having changed out of his black police uniform and casually draped a black vest over himself, pushed open the rest room door and entered, Sica was clutching her stomach with no dignity at all, nearly rolling around on the sofa.

"Cough... cough." The instant she saw someone enter, Sica Theon regained a proper sitting posture, as if her earlier loss of composure had been an illusion. "Leonard, what is it?"

She looked at the lunch box on the table and suddenly understood. "You're here to collect the lunch box?"

Leonard Mitchell nearly failed to maintain his deliberately handsome expression. After staring blankly for a moment, he answered, "Of course not. The waiter already collected the dishes outside. He probably forgot about yours. I came because the captain asked me to notify you to attend a meeting in his office, about tonight's operation."

Hearing that it concerned tonight's operation, Sica Theon turned serious as well. She rose from the sofa and adjusted her trench coat.

"Then I'll go to the captain first. You take over for me?" Sica gestured with her eyes toward Angel, seated on the inner sofa.

Leonard nodded. "No problem. I'm not taking part in the fighting tonight anyway."

He naturally sat down on the sofa where Sica had just been rolling around, picked up the Ahova Evening News from earlier, and began reading it.

Seeing that Sica Theon was preparing to leave, Angel rose to say goodbye as well. "Ms. Theon, thank you for keeping me company."

Remembering that the Nighthawks were all believers of the Goddess of the Night, she added, "May the Goddess bless you."

"May the Goddess bless you." Sica Theon drew a Crimson Moon over her chest, then left the rest room.

The room fell silent once more. Leonard Mitchell seemed to have come solely to read the newspaper. With one leg crossed over the other, he held the Ahova Evening News in both hands and stared intently at its pages, as if the news contained some secret code to wealth.

Angel felt that he was overly serious and liked to get to the bottom of things, so she did not speak to him. Instead, she took a newspaper from the nearby bookshelf, returned to the sofa by the window, and began passing the time.

It was an Intis Post from a week ago. Apparently, the newspapers in the rest room were not updated very often, and the Nighthawks who used them to kill time did not seem to care.

She focused on the headline on the front page:

"Shocking! Several Tingen University Students Mysteriously Disappear—Could a Female Literature Professor Be Involved?"

What was this nonsense?

Angel frowned and set the newspaper aside. She had no interest in such sensationalist headlines. If something like this could make the front page, this newspaper was probably not very authoritative.

But a few seconds later, she picked up the Intis Post again, wanting to see whether the article mentioned Cole Granger. After all, he had used an Instigator's abilities to trick many students into skipping class and heading for the Ammantha Mountain Range north of Ahova County. They had reportedly been missing for a month. Calling them missing was not quite accurate—Angel believed they had already died, and perhaps even their corpses had been dragged away by wolves.

After reading the article line by line, she concluded that it was completely worthless news. It was full of the same tabloid-style speculation from her previous life, written in whatever way would draw the most attention. It used all sorts of fictional "anonymous sources" for revelations and cleverly employed words like "possibly" and "perhaps" to avoid legal trouble.

Turning to the later pages, she found one eye-catching headline after another. The subjects spanned every industry in every country of the North Continent, their only common feature being wild speculation and sensationalism.

Just as she was about to throw the newspaper as far away as possible, Leonard Mitchell, who had been buried in his own paper searching for a "code to wealth," suddenly spoke.

"It seems you get along quite well with Sica. What was your first impression of her—of us Nighthawks?"

His tone was casual, and his eyes did not leave the newspaper, as if he were merely asking in passing. But with her experience from their carriage conversation, Angel believed he must have some purpose.

"Ms. Sica Theon seemed somewhat distant at first, but after talking with her for a while, you can tell she's a very warm-hearted person."

Angel chose her words carefully.

"As for the Nighthawks, honestly, my first impression wasn't good. After all, you broke into my home in the middle of the night and directly invaded my dreams. If I weren't a Beyonder too, I'm afraid your captain, Dunn Smith, wouldn't even have given me a chance to talk. He would have simply prepared to obtain all the information from my dream, wouldn't he?"

She first voiced her feelings as an "ordinary citizen," then shifted her tone.

"But since it was for the sake of fighting Beyonder crime, I can't really say much more. Setting aside my personal feelings, I think very highly of your professionalism and efficiency."

"Normally, when we come to someone's door, we bring the district police with us. This time, it was late at night and the matter was urgent. Ms. Daly is leaving Tingen tomorrow as well, so the captain was anxious to wrap up the case as quickly as possible."

Leonard Mitchell had not expected Angel's assessment to be so blunt, and he explained with an embarrassed expression.

"Compared to moderates like us, the rougher Punishers prefer to kick down doors, arrest first, and interrogate later. Heart of Machinery is even accustomed to fighting crime in the streets with firearms. I'm sure you wouldn't like their methods either."

As if recalling some past experience, Leonard's mouth twitched. He seemed to want to laugh, but held it back.

He simply put down the Ahova Evening News, which he had not turned a single page of, switched the direction of his crossed legs, and fixed his emerald-green eyes on Angel.

"Based on your current impression, if you had the chance to join the Nighthawks, would you be willing?"

Join the Nighthawks? Me?

Angel looked at Leonard, trying to find even a trace of joking in his face, but Leonard's expression was calm and his gaze did not waver.

He seemed serious...

Angel frowned. As a former Templar Knight, her first impression of the Nighthawks, the Beyonder force of the Goddess of the Night, had not actually been bad. Much of her earlier negative evaluation had been intended to create the persona of an "ordinary person full of complaints about law enforcement." From the perspective of fighting crime, their swift, no-nonsense manner of doing things became an advantage.

But what did that have to do with me? My current identity is merely that of a witness who submitted a report. Maybe tomorrow, I'll wake up in prison beside Mrs. Sharon, thanks to her testimony. And now you're asking whether I'm interested in joining the Nighthawks... You don't look like a suicide squad to me?

She tried to guess Leonard's intentions and did not answer immediately.

"Heh, I was only asking casually. Don't take it to heart."

Seeing Angel's expression shift without receiving an answer, Leonard did not press further.

"It's just that victims of supernatural incidents like you are usually placed under supervision by the department that handles the case, to prevent further harm or the leaking of secrets. Since you're already a Beyonder, you'll have more options. Once Mrs. Sharon is arrested and brought to justice, the captain will probably speak with you in detail."

Victim? Once Mrs. Sharon is caught, if she simply denies that anyone named Angel Granger exists and reveals the effects of the Sequence 7 Witch potion, then it will be hard to say which of us reaches the gallows first. When the time comes, if I say, "I'm a victim too. Cole Granger died during the Promotion Ritual long ago. I'm a wandering soul from another world possessing this body," would anyone believe me?

Although she had long prepared herself for the worst in order to deal with Mrs. Sharon once and for all, the thought of that miserable possibility instantly evaporated the little good mood Angel had gained from chatting with Sica Theon, like dew beneath the Blazing Sun. She grabbed the Intis Post, filled with gossip and sensational stories, once more and immersed herself in its fabricated news to pass the time.