In the video, Aldridge Corbett did more than simply understand what was going on. It was as though someone had mixed a palette of colors across his face, kneading every emotion together into a complexity that even the finest actor in the world could never perform!
—Secret anticipation and utter astonishment intertwined indistinguishably in his eyes.
His condescending smugness and incredulous fury twisted the muscles of his face into a strained, contorted shape.
There was anger at having been kept in the dark, and panic at being abandoned. Even his body was twisted—his head wanted to turn toward Chairman Hawthorne, while his feet pivoted toward the Manor gates, as though instinctively trying to flee.
Wilan froze the image, marveling at this fleeting display of performance art while slapping a huge [Suspicious] label on him.
Beside him, Viktor had also spotted the final heavily marked target on the list—
Reginald Perez.
Unlike Corbett, whose entire body had gone rigid, Perez instinctively stepped half a pace forward when he saw the Gold Powder erupting into the air. He raised a hand, as if he wanted to catch the Gold Powder drifting down all around him with his bare hand.
His face held an almost obsessive fervor, as though there was no one and nothing else left in his eyes!
Watching that segment of the recording over and over, Wilan said in confusion, "I saw it too. Isn't this guy utterly obsessed with Time Magic? Isn't that reaction perfectly normal? And when the Scourers appeared earlier in the video, his reaction wasn't any different from everyone else's."
"I know, but..." Viktor said.
He dragged the progress bar back a little, slowed the footage down, and analyzed it almost frame by frame. "Look. He came to his senses far too quickly! While everyone else