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WHEN they returned to the Director’s Office, Ophelia iced her knee with the ice pack Bruno handed her. Reclining in her own chair, she listened in curiously to the conversation the others gathered around Claudio’s desk were having.
“The distance was sufficient. She fell on her rear more than once,” Angelo observed flippantly.
“Do you think we should prepare an ear cuff for Lady Narve?” Samael shot back excitedly.
“There’s no need. All she has to do is focus on what the suspect’s saying without being distracted by anything unnecessary.”
Claudio unconsciously glanced over at Ophelia, and when their eyes met, she jerked her head to the side, breaking eye contact. Angelo responded lightly, “I suppose that’s true,” and then the three carried on with casual small talk.
“Lady Narve, how is your knee doing?” Bruno asked, having slipped away from the others to check on Ophelia. He tilted his head slightly to the side, causing the hair on that side to touch his shoulder and casting one of his cheeks into shadow. Ophelia looked over at the window and discovered that someone must’ve half-closed the curtains, because she wasn’t in direct sunlight either.
“Th-Thank you for your concern. I’m quite used to falling like this by now, so I’ll be fine.”
“Is that so? We’re really counting on your assistance with the interrogations, so please take extra care not to overexert yourself the rest of the time.”
“…U-Um… Thank you!”
Bruno’s kind words seemed to dull the pain in her knee to the point that she could hardly feel it. Her chest felt hot. Ophelia had to close her eyes tightly to prevent tears from spilling over.
“Here you go, Ophelia. This is for you.”
“Oh? Thank you!”
At some point, Angelo had come up behind Bruno and reached out to press something into Ophelia’s hand, wrapping her fingers around the item. She opened her hand and found she was holding something small, wrapped in white paper packaging. The front of the package was marked with a circle with the letter “M” in the center. Bruno made a surprised face when he spotted the item in Ophelia’s palm.
“This is a special candy produced by the Ministry of the Magical Arts. If you eat it, you’ll recover your energy quickly. You’re probably exhausted after your first interrogation, right? Go on, eat it.”
“They sell them in the shop on the first floor, so they are safe, but…”
“Come on, Ophelia! You’ll completely recover, so go ahead and eat it already!”
“Oi, Angelo…!”
The way Angelo spoke over Bruno in his eagerness to convince her to eat the candy was highly suspicious, but Ophelia was too drained to put up much of a fight, so she obediently tore open the packaging. Pushing aside her trepidation at the alarmingly yellow shade of the candy within, Ophelia steeled her nerves and tossed it into her mouth. The next instant, she cringed and nearly spit it back out. It was unbearably sour.
“Ahaha, so cute! You always seem to react just as I expected. You really are my ideal woman, Ophelia!”
“Angelo, your habit of teasing the girls you like is getting excessive.”
“Can I call you ‘Ophie’ too?”
Ignoring Bruno’s reprimanding tone, Angelo turned his wide, doe-like eyes on Ophelia in an intentionally adorable, pleading manner. Ophelia had tears in her eyes from the sourness of the candy and couldn’t respond to his question, so she resorted to simply nodding.
Bruno heaved a massive sigh, then glanced at Ophelia’s face and opened his mouth to speak. “I feel terrible for asking, but do you think you’ll be able to join the next interrogation?”
At this, Ophelia straightened her posture so quickly she half-expected to hear a metallic SHING! sound effect. It seemed that the result of their impromptu meeting earlier was that Ophelia had passed muster. She was so happy she could cry.
“Yes! I’ll do it!” Ophelia replied enthusiastically, forgetting about the candy.
“Really? Thank you very much.”
With this, Bruno returned to the director’s desk, dragging Angelo along with him. Claudio glanced over at Ophelia briefly, then returned to his conversation with his subordinates.