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ANGELO went ahead to retrieve a second mat, leaving Ophelia to make her way to the interrogation room on her own. As she was climbing the stairs, she passed two women from another division.
“Oh, isn’t that her…?”
“Yeah, the one who was assigned to the Director’s Office.”
“I wonder what kind of connections she used to get a prime position like that.”
“She doesn’t look like much. It couldn’t have been due to her skills, that much is for sure.”
The two women watched her with narrowed eyes, speaking loud enough that they must’ve known they would be overheard. They used the files they were holding to daintily conceal the lower half of their faces.
Not this again…
It seemed that things were not much different here than at the social events she hated attending. Ophelia’s body didn’t tremble at all. This vitriol was the two women’s genuine feelings.
Ophelia shrank in on herself and turned to look, but the women had already turned away from her and moved on to discussing other things. Ophelia sighed in relief.
This work may be fulfilling, but it looks like I won’t be able to stay here long, after all.
When Ophelia entered the smaller interrogation room, Angelo was already seated at the table with a notebook open in front of him. A lot of numbers were written on the page, and Angelo was jotting down calculations in a second notebook off to the side, then coloring in one section at a time in the first notebook. Ophelia didn’t understand the calculations at all, but her estimation of Angelo rose a bit. There was no doubt that, despite everything else, he was incredibly intelligent.
“Mr. Angelo, is that a coloring book?”
“It’s a puzzle. Hey, take a look over there. What do you think?”
Ophelia looked where Angelo had pointed and saw that two mats were now laid out on the floor in the space behind the window, and the number of pillows seemed to have doubled as well.
“I snatched all the pillows from the on-duty nap room, so it doesn’t matter how hard you fall; there should be no way you’ll get hurt now!”
“Wow, this is incredible. Thank you very much!”
“Sure thing. Fall over as much as you like!”
“I’ll do my best!”
Angelo put on the ear cuff and said, “Ophie, OK!” and just a moment later, the same two guards led a man into the room on the other side of the window. This man also appeared to be an aristocrat based on his attire, but unlike the previous suspect, his face was already bright red with anger. Even so, once Claudio appeared, the man’s mouth twisted in humiliation, and he fell silent.
Like before, Claudio merely observed from the stool by the exterior window while Samael carried out the questioning. Unlike the first nobleman, this one was talking up a storm. He spoke so passionately that spit foamed in the corners of his mouth, with droplets occasionally flying through the air when he was particularly worked up, which caused Samael to lean back in his seat with a disdainful expression. The man loudly proclaimed his innocence repeatedly, but nearly every word out of his mouth was a lie. Ophelia gave up trying to resist and simply lay back on the mat, clutching one of the pillows tightly.
Even so, with Ophelia’s ability, she could only be certain of the fact that he was lying and therefore guilty of something, but she had no way of knowing what that might be.
Samael had a finger pressed to his lips and let out a long “Hm…” as he tried to pick his words carefully. What question could he ask that would reveal this man’s objective?
“We know that you enabled foreigners to illegally enter the country and that you were preparing for the illegal exit of someone from the country. A large number of someones, in fact.”
“I’ve already told you! I brought in cheap labor from a neighboring country! Everyone does it!”
“So you’ve said. But we have evidence that suggests that you are bringing a large number of people into the country for some other purpose.”
Just as Ophelia was rising to her feet on the other side of the window, she suddenly tumbled back to the ground.
There’s no evidence.
“What evidence…?”
“Heh, I’m sure you can guess.”
“Hmph, there shouldn’t be any evidence.”
From where she lay prone on the ground, Ophelia’s body gave a sudden jerk that wrenched her forcefully off the ground. Thanks to the mats and pillows, it didn’t hurt when she crashed back down on the floor, but the impact rocked through her body. The delight Angelo couldn’t conceal each time Ophelia cried out “Ahh!” and “Ugh…” was starting to irritate her.
Samael began tapping the tips of his fingers one after another onto the table introspectively, and Claudio moved from his spot by the window.
“Is your objective a revolt against the government?” Claudio didn’t speak loudly, but his even, imposing voice echoed throughout the quiet room.
“I would never do such a thing. I’m a member of this country’s nobility.”
Silence fell over the room for a long moment following the man’s confident statement. The only sound was the rhythmic tapping of Samael’s fingers on the table.
“…Ophie’s stopped shaking.”
Ophelia reached out with one hand to support herself against the wall and managed to stand. When she peeked through the window, the nobleman was muttering.
“I would never betray His Majesty the King. Never would I disgrace myself in such a deplorable manner.”
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“THANKS to Lady Narve pointing out all the damaged areas, it’s become remarkably easier to walk through the Ministry of Justice building,” Bruno said as he approached the table in the corner of the office where Ophelia sat beside Angelo, picking at her packed lunch.
“I saw some folks from the Architectural Institute over near the Forensic Division’s office,” Angelo said. “Unfortunately, our man Bernie wasn’t among them. Ophie, you can go say hi to them if you want.”
“No… It’s fine. I, um, can’t really talk to people very well, so I’m not especially close with the other staff from the Architectural Institute…” she admitted.
“Ahaha, is that so? I suppose you do have a tendency to suddenly shake and twitch in the middle of a conversation,” Angelo said.
“Y-Yeah… Exactly…”
“Hmm, then does that mean I’m your first work friend?”
Angelo’s face softened happily, and he lay down on the sofa intended for visitors. Claudio and Samael were still working studiously, not even stopping to eat as of yet. Ophelia couldn’t help but giggle at Angelo’s sheer audacity, her gloomy feelings momentarily forgotten.
“Then that would make me Lady Narve’s first ‘reliable senior coworker,’” Bruno interjected.
“What?! Why do you get to be the senior coworker?! That’s not fair!” Angelo whined.
“In that case, I’m her first ‘nice boss’!” Samael called out from his desk, pointing to himself with his thumb. This time, even Bruno laughed.
“So then, Ophie, the director is your first what?” Angelo asked.
“Huh?!”
Ophelia jumped in surprise when the conversation turned to her expectantly, and she looked over at Claudio. It was impossible to tell from his body language whether or not he was listening, but he had stopped writing and was looking over at Ophelia.
I have to choose my words very carefully here…
“The director is… Um, he’s…”
“He’s your first ‘demon boss,’ right?” Angelo prodded with a shit-eating grin.
“Shut up! If you lot are done eating, stop fooling around and get back to work!” Claudio slammed his fist on his desk, then gripped his pen tightly and dropped his gaze back to the documents in front of him, bristling with irritation.
“But you seem to be able to converse with us normally enough, Lady Narve…” Bruno observed out loud as he opened a bundle of materials. Ophelia’s hands froze midway through packing up her lunchbox, and she visibly drooped.
“Yes, but it’s probably a drag that you can’t even joke around or exaggerate when speaking with me…” she muttered weakly.
“Ahaha, it certainly takes some getting used to! Everyone has things they want to hide and the natural inclination to try and portray themselves in a positive light, after all,” Angelo agreed.
Ophelia sank into herself even further at this, causing Bruno to glare pointedly at Angelo in her defense.
“You need to be a bit more tactful with your words.”
“Impossible! After spending so much time around the director, I’ve lost the ability to conform to social niceties.”
Claudio glanced over at Angelo, who chose that moment to let out a big yawn and reached up to massage his temple, still holding his pen. “You had absolutely no social graces long before coming to work for me.”
“I’ve found the Director’s Office to be a very comfortable workplace!”
Sighing pointedly, Claudio stood. Samael rushed after him as he stormed out of the room.
“We can’t be evasive or withhold information from the director either, so we’re used to it. You can act the same way around us as your family,” Bruno said with a small smile. Ophelia was so stunned that all she could manage by way of response was a reflexive nod.