Ellen, Aren't You Being a Little Too Honest?

A few days later, in the HDD room of the video store on Sixth Street.

Ellen sprawled lazily across the sofa, her shark tail tapping a cushion to the beat of the music on her MP3 player.

The room was dim, but the expressions on its two owners' faces were anything but. They looked mostly speechless.

"Ellen, are you cosplaying a mermaid?" Belle crouched and poked Ellen's tail. "The species seems a little off, though."

Ellen glanced up at Belle. Too lazy to move, she merely flicked her tail now and then in protest.

"So, Ellen, you came to the video store... to sleep?"

Wise looked at their unexpected visitor, unsure whether to laugh or sigh.

It had started with that commission a few days earlier.

Griseo hadn't been around, so the siblings had set out to find the hacker Rain to crack a password. Along the way, they had joined forces with Victoria Housekeeping at Ballet Tower and played the heroes.

During that partnership, both sides had unexpectedly discovered each other's secrets.

The Phaethon siblings learned about Ellen's life outside school, while Ellen learned the secret behind the two store owners' identities: they were illegal Proxies.

Both sides had assumed the others were ordinary citizens. Instead, one side worked underground, while the other was a municipal maid and enforcer.

"Oh, my boss sent me to keep an eye on you." Ellen pulled off her headphones, rolled over, and drew her tail away from Belle's fingers.

"Tch—"

Belle clicked her tongue in disappointment, then asked curiously, "Ellen, you're just telling us that outright?"

"What's the big deal? I can catch up on sleep at the video store while I'm here."

Ellen had actually been delighted to take this "surveillance assignment."

For one thing, she knew how prone she was to falling asleep.

In the past, she had dozed off on street benches, on park lawns, beside swimming pools, and even in the Hollows... Wherever she went, she slept.

For another, there were Ruby, Mona, and Rin.

Ellen didn't dislike the three of them, but her circumstances were unusual. Having a perfectly legitimate reason to get out of their sight and sleep in peace was wonderful.

Besides, Lycaon had only told her to "report the Proxies' whereabouts from time to time," not treat the two store owners as enemies.

As far as Ellen was concerned, taking the assignment was the same as getting a license to sleep.

"Uh... only Ellen would do something like that."

After hearing her candid explanation, Belle and Wise had no idea how to respond.

Now that the subject was out in the open, Ellen decided to follow her rule of "work first, sleep later."

She slowly sat up and asked lazily, "So, where are you two planning to go next?"

Perlman had escaped at Ballet Tower.

For the Phaethon siblings, the obvious next step was to keep tracking him down.

Belle raised an eyebrow. "Ellen, are you asking so you can secretly report us when we make our move and then stop us?"

Ellen rolled her eyes. Apparently, everything she'd just said had gone in one ear and out the other.

"Belle, why would I go to the trouble of stopping you? I just need something to tell my boss when he asks how the job's going."

Wise shook his head, a helpless smile tugging at his lips.

Sure enough, Ellen was still Ellen. If she could avoid extra effort, she would.

"So, Wise, can you tell me?" Ellen blinked at him, putting on her cutest look.

Wise considered it for a moment, then answered, "Most likely the Outer Ring."

Simply put, Victoria Housekeeping had been carrying out a job at Ballet Tower when they ran into the rebels during the airship hijacking and had no choice but to intervene.

Meanwhile, Phaethon had been looking for Rain, and the Cunning Hares had been trying to capture Perlman. None of them had expected someone to try to kill him to keep him quiet.

The three groups had converged at Ballet Tower. For their own reasons, Phaethon and Victoria Housekeeping had temporarily joined forces and stopped two violent incidents.

But in the chaos, Billy of the Cunning Hares had lost track of Perlman, who had seized the chance to escape in an airship.

An airship was too conspicuous to hide anywhere in a city like New Eridu.

Only the sparsely populated Outer Ring, with its vast stretches of land and numerous Hollows, offered any chance of concealing his escape.

All things considered, the Outer Ring was the only place that fit.

Satisfied, Ellen nodded, put her headphones back on, and sank deeper into the sofa.

"The Outer Ring, huh... The signal's bad out there. If my boss asks, I'll say I couldn't reach you." She closed her eyes and gave her tail a slow tap.

"I'm going to sleep now. Keep it down, you two."

Belle stared at Ellen's brazen expression, torn between annoyance and amusement. Wise could only spread his hands helplessly.

On the roof of a building near the video store on Sixth Street, two figures watched the store in silence.

"Master Lycaon, the two store owners are becoming more deeply involved in the Sacrificial Ghost incident."

Rina, Victoria Housekeeping's head maid, spoke softly as she looked at Lycaon beside her.

"Will it truly be all right for them to learn the secrets involved?"

"It will be fine," Lycaon said calmly. "The mayor's latest instructions are to provide appropriate assistance and guidance."

"Is this a test to see whether the two store owners are qualified to become allies?" Rina asked.

"No. That is only part of it." Lycaon shook his head slightly. "They are already caught up in this and cannot pull away. What the mayor truly cares about is that person..."

His gaze drifted upward to a third-floor window, where a little girl with sky-blue hair stood.

"Griseo, the one known as the princess of The Stars?" Rina followed his gaze.

"Yes. Even the mayor addresses her as 'Your Highness.'"

Lycaon looked away, his eyes troubled.

During his last conversation with the mayor, that tone... Lycaon had a vague suspicion that perhaps the mayor cared little about the Sacrificial Ghost, Hors, or Belobog Heavy Industries' past.

Rina was silent for a moment before saying, "But from what we've observed, isn't she simply a little girl with unusual abilities?"

"That is all we have observed. The mayor may have discovered something long ago."

Lycaon turned, his white wolf tail swaying gently. "Come, Rina. We've been spotted."

"As you wish, Master Lycaon..."

Rina answered softly, and the two figures vanished without a sound into the shadows atop the building, as though they had never been there.

In the video store's third-floor art studio, Griseo opened the window, glanced around, and said, "Trigger, those two have left."

Below the window, a masked woman replied, "Mm. I know."

The details of Griseo's abilities in this story will begin to become clear during Trigger's arc... so

To learn how these clues play out, come back tomorrow.