"Yes, good afternoon."
The middle-aged man who looked like a Father nodded lightly. His gaze as he looked up at Shade was remarkably calm, like a worker looking at a streetlamp after getting off work following a tiring day:
"May I ask if you are the Candidate who possesses the Serpent's Shedding and has already completed an important story?"
His tone was equally calm, even polite. Shade, meanwhile, looked at the notebook on his knees:
"I've seen loose pages from The Puppeteer's Script, but this is the first time I've seen one with its cover and back cover intact. I thought the one holding it would be from the Blood Spirit School."
"Are you the Candidate who possesses the Serpent's Shedding and has already completed an important story?"
The middle-aged man dressed like a Father ignored Shade's words and repeated himself. Shade asked him instead:
"Are you using that notebook to search for others who possess the Serpent's Shedding?"
Shade had roughly guessed what he had been scribbling and drawing just now. If this dragged on any longer, Miss Larson might appear.
"Are you the Candidate who possesses the Serpent's Shedding and has already completed an important story?"
The middle-aged man dressed like a Father asked for the third time, then frowned slightly:
"Didn't your father and mother teach you to answer other people's questions properly? You really are rude. I asked you the same question three times, yet you only cared about saying what you wanted. Why didn't you answer?"
"Why should I answer your question?"
The Father-like middle-aged man actually explained patiently:
"This is a basic social courtesy. A gentleman should answer my question."
Shade felt that he had run into a lunatic, so he shut his mouth and stopped speaking. Instead, he raised his hand and struck