hiro~

"Ellen got captured."

Westcott of DEM said so. A hint of amusement surfaced amid the chaos in his deep, dark eyes. He clasped his hands on the chair and crossed one leg over the other, his tone so casual that it was as though the captive was not a dear friend who had grown up alongside him and accompanied him for decades.

As if she had become utterly irrelevant once she was no longer useful.

"What an interesting spiritual power reaction."

The man who was nominally a director but in truth DEM's highest authority stared at that spiritual power with a somewhat obsessed expression for a while.

"Ha, ha, hahahahahahaha! Hahahahahaha!"

A moment later, his body tilted back uncontrollably as he gradually broke into arrogant, utterly horrifying, manic laughter.

Or perhaps,

This could just as well be part of the plan.

They had pushed Ellen, the strongest magician on the surface, out into the open.

Then the operation that truly needed to remain hidden could quietly advance in the shadows as vigilance slackened.

And the central core of that operation was—Material A, Sister.

Artemisia Ashcroft stood motionless beside him, like a doll whose soul had been pulled away. Her face was clearly gentle and serene, yet there was barely any sense of self in her expression, only numbness enveloping her.

After all, for the sake of convenience and ease of use, this was precisely the state Westcott most liked to see.

"The operation can begin."

"Yes." A brief reply came from Artemisia's mouth.

--

For someone who possessed an omniscient Angel, life was probably like obtaining a complete walkthrough the moment a game began.

Although a future that could be casually flipped open made life dull and tasteless, no matter how much she wanted Ratziel to search again, she still