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TODAY, Ophelia would finally be joining her first interrogation.
She’d chosen to wear the uniform pants, anticipating that she’d most likely take quite a few tumbles before the day was through. The moment he saw her, Samael looked shy and told Ophelia she looked cute. Since her body didn’t shake at all, Ophelia could only conclude that he, at least, genuinely believed that. Personally, Ophelia thought “cute” was pushing it a bit, but at least it seemed safe to say she didn’t look weird.
Ophelia, not realizing that her mouth had softened into a faint smile, stroked the embroidery along the hem of her pants. Bruno’s words were still replaying in her head.
In any case, once I finish this assignment, I’ll head back to the Architectural Institute. I’m definitely going back. Still, a large part of her longed to live up to the expectations of people who said they needed a useless person like her. I’m going to do my best with this interrogation!
…Not that I have even the slightest clue what I’m supposed to do!
Ophelia stood abruptly, her hands clenched into determined fists.
“It’s about time to get going, Ophelia,” Angelo said, his wide eyes crinkling kindly as he looked at her. Then he unceremoniously chucked a pen and a notebook into a small tote bag.
“Um, what do I need to bring with me?” she asked.
“Mmm, I don’t think you’ll need anything. Right, Bruno?”
Bruno, who was holding a map in one hand and flipping through paperwork with the other at his desk next to Ophelia, raised his head. He glanced at the wall clock, then nodded slightly. “Yes, Lady Narve, all you need to bring is yourself.”
Immediately after responding, Bruno looked back at the map and returned to flipping through the documents. Claudio and Samael had already headed over to the private interrogation room assigned to the Director’s Office. It seemed Bruno would be staying behind today to man the office.
“All righty, let’s go!” Angelo announced cheerfully.
“O-Okay!”
The interrogation room was on the third floor. Angelo opened the first door they came to at the top of the stairs and ushered Ophelia inside. The only thing in the small room was a table surrounded by four chairs.
“Is this where we’ll conduct the interrogation?” Ophelia asked.
“Oh, that’s right; you’ve never been inside the interrogation room before, huh? The interrogation room is on the other side of the room next to this one.”
“The room on the other side of the room next to this one…?”
Then what is this room for? Storage? The interrogator’s break room?
Unsure of what she should do or where she should position herself, Ophelia looked around the room anxiously. Her eyes landed on Angelo, who scratched his head and then violently yanked open a door on the opposite side of the room.
“Over here, come on. We just need to watch from here.”
Ophelia hurried after Angelo, who’d already passed through the door. But when she bustled through after him, she accidentally crashed right into Angelo’s back, where he’d stopped just inside the room.
“Ah! S-Sorry…!
“It’s fine. Ophelia, would you mind standing over there?”
Ophelia looked over to the area Angelo had indicated and did a double-take. Only now did she realize that they were standing in a long, thin, dimly lit room. One entire wall was taken up by a window that looked into the neighboring room.
“On this side, we can see the window, but from the other side, it just looks like an ordinary wall. It’s a really impressive magical item created by the Ministry of the Magical Arts,” he explained.
I see… It seems that they’ll be conducting the interview in that room on the other side of the window. This must’ve been what the director meant when he told Father that I wouldn’t have to meet any of the suspects directly.
The window amazed Ophelia. It was the first magical item she’d ever encountered. But that wasn’t what surprised her the most. As if a bucket of cold water had been poured over her head, Ophelia instantly snapped back to her senses and turned to Angelo.
“U-Um… Wh-What is that?” Ophelia asked, pointing nervously toward the spot Angelo had told her to stand. A thick mat was laid out on the ground, covered in a plethora of pillows. “Am I supposed to lie down…?”
“Ahaha, you can’t go to sleep! We want you to stand over there and listen in on the interrogation.”
“Pardon…?”
“The suspects we interrogate always lie through their teeth the entire time. We figured it would hurt if you fell on the hard floor, so we prepared some padding.”
Ophelia’s eyes widened with shock. She couldn’t believe that group of irreverent guys had gone out of their way to do something like this for her.
“Thank you very much,” she said. “Did you do this yourself, Lord Angelo?”
“That’s right! Er… Well, I suppose I should admit that it was on the director’s orders. When we were testing your lie-detecting abilities the other day, he saw how you fell off the couch and got worried.”
“The director was… worried?!”
“He ordered me to fix up this room to protect your knees. I got the mat from the palace guards’ training area and the pillows from the on-duty nap room. All you have to do is use the director’s name, and they’ll let you take whatever you want.”
Come to think of it, Claudio had been glaring at Ophelia with wrinkles between his brows at the time. Maybe he was actually an unexpectedly kind person after all? Based on the broody expression he was always wearing, he didn’t look like he was worried about the welfare of others, but…
Ignoring how this news affected Ophelia, Angelo pushed back the hair over one of his ears, revealing a silver cuff. “This is another hella badass magical item the Ministry of the Magical Arts created. It allows you to communicate discreetly with the person wearing the matching cuff.”
“That’s certainly, um… hella badass? Indeed.” Ophelia peered curiously at the cuff on Angelo’s ear, causing him to chuckle. “Is that what the Ministry of the Magical Arts does, create tools such as this?”
“Hm, how to explain the Ministry of the Magical Arts… Well, only those who possess magical powers can join the ministry, and they do use their magic to create useful items.”
“Um… Why don’t you just get them to use their magic to make the suspects confess, then?” she asked.
“Well, from what I’ve heard, magic that affects the mind is really scary. There are often terrible aftereffects, and in extreme cases, the subject’s mind could be broken entirely. Not only are such methods inhumane, but the confession would not be considered credible, either. The person casting the spell could just as easily manipulate the suspect to say whatever they want, and we would have no way of telling it apart from the truth.”
“I see.”
“In particular, the current director is very concerned about false convictions. He’s a very conscientious person.” Angelo flashed a goofy grin and reached up to fiddle with the ear cuff.
Does he always watch the interrogations from this dark room? He seems very accustomed to all this…
If the interrogation doesn’t go according to plan, will he join in? With his implements of torture…
“Hella badass…” she repeated.
I absolutely don’t want to let it come to that, not least of all because I don’t want to witness such a thing! I’ll make use of this soft space and keep going no matter how many times I fall over, if that’s what it takes!
Ophelia nervously wrung her hands together in front of her chest and gave herself a bit of a pep talk.
“Okay, all set here.” It seemed that Angelo was communicating with someone via his ear cuff. He grinned when he noticed Ophelia staring blankly at him. “Ophelia’s all set, too.”
The door opened in the room on the other side of the window, and two burly men who looked like soldiers entered. They both wore the Ministry of Justice’s black uniform with leather bracers and leg guards layered on top, and each had a sword hanging from a belt fastened around their waist.
The two men circled the small room, furnished only with a large, sturdy-looking table, a sofa on both sides, and a backless stool on the side closest to the room’s only exterior window, which, despite being small and higher up on the wall, provided a glimpse of the world outside. Once the two men had confirmed whatever they’d come to check for, they left the room again.