Chapter 712: Team Expedition [2]
<Daily Voice> — [Feature: Second Helpings — The Mad Crown Reaches for a Ghost]
By ██████ ██████, Guild Affairs
Before Malia, he was the Rising Comet. Then he vanished mid-operation, an S-Rank surfaced in his absence, and blood was shed.
Neither he nor his Guild has explained where he was.
Three weeks after walking away from Malia, Seth appears to have concluded that the problem was that he wasn’t trying hard enough.
Sources at two Guild archives confirm that requests were filed this month for sealed materials on VILE-1048. One of the most enigmatic anomalies known to date.
Ambitious or biting off more than he can chew?
——
I set my phone down and stared blankly ahead.
It was an article that came out of nowhere. One that I didn’t expect. It wasn’t until the Section Chief explained the situation to me that I understood.
’I only thought I needed to hand in a leave request before leaving, but who would’ve thought the entire Guild would find out what I was trying to do?’
But that wasn’t the thing that bothered me the most.
The Section Chief...
Was he so tired that he forgot that my leave would be shown to the entire higher management? Or did he...?
"Alright, let’s not think about it."
Just the thought was enough to give me a headache.
This was a bit of a headache, but it wasn’t that big of a concern for me. From the start, I did go with the intention of solving this situation. It wasn’t like I cared much for my reputation, and with the Guild Master now ’dead’, it was even better for me.
’That’s probably the one thing that they’ve miscalculated when doing this.’
I could more or less tell who had done this. Those from higher management. The attack wasn’t directed at me, but mainly at the Section Chief, who, in their eyes, was probably their biggest threat due to my presence.
’...I also wonder if Myles has had any part in this.’
I still hadn’t heard anything about him since last meeting him. I thought he’d make a scene immediately, but instead, things were rather quiet.
It made me very curious.
"Well, enough of that."
I picked up my phone again and placed my bag on top of my desk. As soon as I did that, the door to the office opened, and several figures walked in.
"Are you out of your mind?"
The first one to enter was Zoey. She was staring at me with an incredulous look.
"Do you even understand what kind of anomaly VILE-1048 is? It’s been years since it was discovered, and yet nobody has managed to find a single clue about it."
"Yet."
I corrected Zoey.
Just because it hadn’t been found yet, it didn’t mean that it would remain like this in the future.
"That’s quite a lot of arrogance that you have there."
"Some might say that it’s confidence."
I retorted almost immediately. In all fairness, I was being a little arrogant. It was just that I needed the perfect excuse to get out of the Guild. I did also want to find VILE - 1048, but if I couldn’t find it, I wasn’t going to lose sleep over it.
There were thousands of other things that were more pressing to me.
"If you’ll excuse me."
I tried to push my way out of the room when I heard a soft sigh coming from Zoey’s direction as she turned to Kyle.
"You were right. There’s no changing his mind."
Kyle shrugged as he muttered back, "What did I tell you? He’s pretty stubborn in certain things."
"Ugh."
Zoey ruffled her blonde hair before tossing me something.
"...Here."
"Hm?"
I looked at the slip of paper in Zoey’s hand. What’s that?
I looked at her.
Her face looked strangely red.
"That’s... ehm, my number."
"....."
"You blocked my number. In case something happens, you can at least reach out to me so that I can help. After all, you reflect the current Containment Department. A lot of eyes are on you."
"....."
I continued to stare at the paper slip.
"Are you not going to take it?"
Zoey’s face scrunched up.
It looked like she was about to blow up.
I then looked at Kyle.
"Is she flirting with me?"
***
"This is bad! This is bad! This is really bad!"
A voice continued to screech across the room as Mia ran from one end to the other, clutching her phone tightly in her hand. From time to time, she’d stop before one of the members and show the articles on her phone.
"Look! Look! It’s about us! They’re talking about us! They know that we’re going on a team expedition! This is bad!"
Mia fanned her face.
"...At this rate, we might not even be able to leave. I’m practically a celebrity at this point. Unless we go incognito, we’ll never make it more than a couple of blocks."
"Ah?"
Nora looked at Mia as if she had said the most ridiculous thing in the world.
"Celebrity? What? You...?"
"Duh."
Mia rolled her eyes.
"I’ve got twenty thousand followers. I’m a hot commodity. This isn’t something the likes of you would understand. Gosh~"
"This bit⎯"
"Alright, stop."
A figure rose from her seat, her silver hair falling around her features as she shifted her gaze between the two of them.
The place turned immediately silent.
First, she looked at Mia.
The atmosphere seemed tense, everyone unsure of what the crazy bi⎯was about to say. Only for her next words to make everyone’s face crumble.
"Mia is right. We can’t go like this. But if we had to compare followers, I have the most."
"⎯⎯!"
Then she looked at Nora, her lips curling into an amused smile.
"...And you too~"
"WHAT?!"
Both Mia and Nora shot to their feet.
Ariel smiled.
"Jealous?"
"YOU—!"
Mia grabbed the edge of the table.
"Come here! I’ll show you how jealous I am! Seal, back!"
"Doesn’t work anymore~"
"Agh!"
Ariel calmly pulled up her sleeves.
"Wait, you’re actually fighting?!"
Someone in the back shouted.
Mia grabbed the table, and Ariel grabbed the other side. The table trembled immediately as Ariel laughed in amusement.
With the Guild Master’s death, her seal had gone undone.
Nothing was holding her back any longer.
"Seal, go!"
"I said that doesn’t work anymore."
And that was precisely when the door opened, and Seth stepped into the room. The first thing he did upon scanning the room was take in the situation before nodding and clapping his hands.
"Okay, enough fun. We’re about to leave."
"But Squad Leader!"
Mia protested.
"News of our departure is all over the place. This is bad, isn’t it?"
"What about it?"
Seth tilted his head, scanning every member from head to toe. Eventually, his gaze settled on Sarah, who had appeared next to him. For the briefest of moments, his eyes shook, but he collected himself really quickly.
"There’s no need to bother with such stuff. Let’s not waste any more time and depart. And..."
His eyes settled on Ariel.
She stared back at him. For a moment, neither said a thing. The more this pressed on, the more her brows furrowed. Until eventually, Ariel’s lips parted to mutter, ’Want to fight?’
Seth didn’t answer.
Instead, he continued to stare at her.
Ariel’s expression twisted further as she pulled at the sleeves of her shirt.
But just as she was about to lunge at him, Seth turned around and left.
Not before saying, "If we really had to compare followers, I have more. I’m just saying."
The reaction was immediate.
Almost immediately, Ariel shot up and tried to lunge at him as the others rushed in his direction, blocking her path.
"Hey! Hey! Let go of me! Let go of me!"
"Seal, go!"
It was total chaos.
And as all of this was happening, a figure stared at all of this in silence, shriveled up in the corner.
"This..."
Is this really a good decision?