"I’d appreciate it if you allowed Gaia to handle the management of the interworld travel sectors. It’s been our area of expertise for some time, so we have a lot of experience dealing with interworld travellers."
Jason hummed as he heard this. Jason already planned to give the job to Gaia anyway, since they were already familiar with handling people from other worlds, so there was no need for him to object. Jason just moved on to another topic.
"How about what I asked you to handle?"
Cerci grimaced when Jason finally brought up the most important topic, and Cerci shook his head with a frown.
"I really don’t know what to say to you, Jason. You’ve given me one hell of a puzzle."
The issue that Jason was asking about was the Machina that had attacked the cities recently. After Jason went into the minds of one of the Machina and saw that the Machina’s mind had been manipulated by someone, Jason decided to send multiple Machina bodies over to Gaia for them to analyse and tell him what exactly was going on. Gaia carried out their experiments, and they even called in multiple superhumans who all had mind-related powers to see if they would be able to see what happened to the Machina, but no matter how hard Gaia tried, there was no way they could dive into the minds of the Machina. The moment anyone even comes close to the Machina’s memories, the Machina’s mind would immediately push them out before wiping itself clean! It was like some sort of computer that was programmed to self-destruct the moment anyone tried to tamper with it!
Cerci said all this to Jason, and Jason clicked his tongue in annoyance. Jason already expected something like this, but Jason had hoped that Gaia would have a better chance since they had superhumans that could erase and change people’s memories. Cerci spoke up.
"We’re still looking into it, but we’re doing our best not to rush. There’s only a limited number of Machina left alive, and if we wipe all their memories clean, we’ll have no more leads."
"Just keep me up to date on how things are progressing. There’s someone behind all this, and I need to find out what they’re planning."
Cerci nodded at Jason’s orders, and Cerci turned as his phone began to ring. There were some Gaia agents standing around Jason and Cerci to prevent anyone from getting close to them, and Cerci gave Jason a nod before he began walking away with the agents to take the call. Once Cerci was gone, Jason turned back around to look at the pyramids again, and Jason began to wonder if what he was doing was actually the right thing. Jason knew that taking those superhumans into the Gate was extremely dangerous, and the only reason Jason was doing this was because he needed them to become stronger faster. But could they really handle it? Jason had felt the mana from that Gate, and he knew that many people would buckle and break just from that alone. If they entered the Gate right now, the superhumans would be crushed.
Jason let out a small sigh, and he strengthened his resolve. There were times when you needed to make difficult choices, and this was one of those times. If the superhumans turned out to be too weak, then Jason would handle the Gate alone.
"Jason, I need to talk to you."
Jason turned around in surprise as he heard a familiar voice, and he raised a brow when he saw Agiel standing behind him. Agiel was no longer wearing the usual Enforcers uniform. Instead, she was wearing a long pair of black faded jeans and a t-shirt. Even though the attire was simple, her beautiful appearance made it look far better than it had any right to, and Agiel was still able to turn heads from the people walking by in the hallway. At that moment, Jason felt that same connection he always felt whenever he was around Agiel shooting through him again. It was like two predators who recognized the same monster in each other’s eyes, but Jason ignored that feeling, and he gave Agiel a smile.
"Hey, it’s been a while."
"Three months."
Agiel said those words in a sharp tone that made it seem like Jason had done something wrong to her. Agiel’s eyebrows furrowed for a moment before they relaxed again, but Jason could easily sense the anger flowing off Agiel. But Jason ignored that, and he spoke.
"Yeah, it’s been three months. I was pretty busy. But how about you? How’s your work with the Enforcers?"
Agiel frowned at this question, and Jason could see that she wanted to say something, but for some reason, Agiel held back, and Jason blinked in surprise when he heard her next words.
"That’s not important. I need an answer, Jason."
Agiel stepped forward when she said this, and Jason frowned.
"What? What are you talking about?"
"I can’t explain it, alright! I just need an answer!"
This time, Agiel actually raised her voice, and Jason saw multiple people in the hallway looking over at them in surprise. Agiel was staring up at Jason with a hard gaze, and Jason tilted his head to one side.
"I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about, Agiel. You’re not making any sense."
Agiel squeezed her hands into fists at her side. There was a furious anger boiling deep inside Agiel’s heart at that moment, and Agiel could feel a tear threatening to break free from her eyes, but Agiel refused to cry, and the next time she spoke, it was with a seething intensity that actually shocked Jason!
"So you mean to tell me that in the time since you left, you didn’t think of me even once. You didn’t think of this connection that we had? You went and got yourself another wife, and you just decided to ignore me!? You’re leaving me to rot just like your father did to my mother!"
"Uhm, am I interrupting something...?"
Jason turned to the side as he heard Cerci’s voice, and Agiel clicked her tongue as she turned away in anger! Cerci decided not to get involved in whatever was going on, and he just spoke to Jason.
"Jason, there’s something really important that just came up regarding the Machina matter. I think you’ll want to hear this."
In that moment, there were many routes that Jason could have taken. Jason could have stayed with Agiel for a few more minutes to try to understand what she was asking him about, or Jason could have simply told Agiel that he would be back to listen to her later. But at this moment, Jason’s head was occupied with so many different things that he didn’t have the time to think about Agiel’s feelings or what she was trying to tell him. Jason knew that Agiel was an important friend, but he decided that he had more important things to deal with right now. So instead, Jason said:
"I can’t really do this right now, Agiel. I need to deal with something important. I’ll see you later."
Jason turned away to walk with Cerci, and he failed to see the look of wide-eyed shock that appeared on Agiel’s face. Agiel stared at Jason’s back, and she held a hand up desperately, like she was a dying woman reaching for her last salvation, but then Agiel’s eyes darkened as she felt her resolve harden, and Agiel realised in that moment that she had been a fool. For a long time, Agiel had been holding onto the hope that Jason would eventually give her what she wanted, but it was obvious that Jason wasn’t interested in marking her. Just like his father hadn’t been interested in marking her mother. Agiel made up her mind to do what was necessary, and she turned to walk towards the exit.