Chapter 24: An Actual Test

"You killed me again and again for this…?", I mumbled, slightly annoyed.

"What was that?", Daphne said, her ears pricking up.

"Will there be people accompanying the other directors?", I asked hastily.

"Yup. To my knowledge, many assistant directors and important people are coming around. There is just one person you need to keep a really close eye on. Darus, the one brought in by the branch 14 director. There is a chance he might come by here. "

Darus…? Why did that name ring a bell? I don't know him. But I was sure I had heard that name somewhere…

"Is he a really important person?"

"Nope, not really."

"Then why is he coming here?"

"His sister is in branch 17, our branch. So he convinced the director to take him here."

"And why exactly are we suspecting this random guy from branch 14?"

"The director of Branch 14 kinda hates us, the director of our branch did a little something something to him in the past.", she said, pretending as if she was whispering.

"Okay, I got the gist of it.", I said. "Is there any information about him?"

"Not really, there is a file on his sister though."

"Can I have his sister's file?", I asked, not realizing what exactly I was asking for.

Daphne paused. Then she grinned and gave me a file. "My my, if anyone heard you say that, both of us would have someone explaining to do."

"Oh right… I am not allowed to do this, am I?"

"Why do you think you will be allowed to pry through another person's personal life? You aren't the daughter of a politician now, are you?"

"No… I am-", I said, realizing the question I asked.

"The name is Lucia.", she said, handing me a file labeled 'Batch 4'.

I opened the file and found the name quickly.

Name: Lucia Coppola

Her picture was not in a red border.

Place of Origin: Italy, Milan

Note: Has a brother who is currently residing in the 14th branch of the Deus Project. The two were separated due to demand from the sister.

So the sister didn't want to be with her brother? That was suspicious. Other than that, there was nothing more useful, not at face value at least.

I looked closer at the photo and asked Daphne, "Hey Daphne, when was this photo of Lucia taken?"

She was seemingly taken aback by how proactive I was being, but she cooperated anyway. "If I remember correctly, it was taken the moment she was put into this branch."

"And is there a current day photo of her?", I asked.

"Nope. You can go see her in person.", she said. "In fact, I am exempting you from training for now, I want to see what you are up to. She should be using up one of the training rooms at the end of the dormitories. Look for the number 4, she is probably there."

"Alright thanks.", I said, giving an awkward bow and heading toward the training area. Just from the evidence I gathered so far, it was pretty obvious as to what the conclusion of this was.

But I still wanted to confirm it.

I flung open the doors to the training room 4. I rushed in there and pretended I was looking for something.

"… Who are you? I am pretty sure I have priority for this place.", the behind me said. She was a short girl, with long black hair, and hazel eyes. She also seemed to be gifted in the… other department. It was always girls like her that made me feel self-conscious, even though I considered myself to be good-looking. She was brandishing a wooden practice sword, in a fashion similar to kendo.

"Oh yeah, my bad.", I said, trying to play it cool. "I lost my hairband here, so I was just looking for it. Sorry for interrupting you.", I said, blatantly lying.

"Oh… no it's alright…", she said, going back to swinging her wooden blade.

"Say…", I said, while pretending to be searching for something. "What's your name? I am pretty new here, so I don't know anyone here.".

"Uh…", she said, visibly uncomfortable from my presence. Why was she uncomfortable because of me? "My name is Lucia… what's yours?", she said, almost stuttering.

Jackpot. This really was Lucia. Looking at her confirmed my suspicions.

Her brother probably abused her or mistreated her before coming to this place. After coming to this place, the two had a falling out, and ended up in different branches. This also meant that the two were not on very good terms. Then why would he come to visit his sister?

It was obviously an alibi. It was just an excuse to get here, and that fact alone made me suspicious.

All of this might sound convoluted, but her first picture proved it in my eyes. She had dark circles under her eyes, some parts of her cheek looked bruised, her hair looked messy, et cetera.

There was also the possibility that the two were just homeless, and ended up here by chance. But the chances of that are pretty low.

"My name is Cecilia. I joined this place very recently, but was sent out for an investigation almost immediately. Anyway, I'll be heading out, my hairband doesn't seem to be here.", I said, heading out of the room, feeling quite proud of myself.

"Okay then…", she said, standing there awkwardly. She seemed quite introverted if anything, but she certainly didn't seem as bad as she did in that photo.

I went straight to the infirmary again.

"What did you find?", Daphne asked.

"Just confirmed my suspicions, is all."

"I see… anything you want me to do?", she said. Well she hit the nail right on the money. I did want her to do something for me. Her intuition was on point.

"Yup… if possible, can you tail the Darus guy who is coming for a visit."

"Why?"

"He seems suspicious. He is clearly not coming here to meet his sister, that's for sure. Which means he is coming here with an ulterior motive."

"Aren't you smarter than you look.", she said, smiling like how a parent would after seeing their child win a competition.

"Well either, way, if I do have to fight him…", I said, "What talent does he have?"

"I dunno I don't have the 14th branch data.", she said.

"…"

"C'mon now, don't look so disappointed.", she said. "Let me give you another task. Go into the director's office and tell me if you find anything suspicious."

Did she find this to be a game? Because it was sure as hell a fun one. "How will I get in…?"

"Don't worry, I'll distract him, alright?"

"Alright, I'm in.", I said.

I followed her, as she did a little bit of chit-chat with the director, and made him come out of the room. I opened the doors and went inside.

His office looked a lot more hollow now that the director wasn't here. There was nothing here to illuminate the empty room, other than the red carpet lying everywhere.

Well, no time to waste. I went straight to the director's desk.

Other than the papers scattered around everywhere, and the stack of files, there was nothing unusual about the desk.

I looked through the papers closely, making sure I didn't touch the papers.

One was a document requesting approval for… something. The other was a letter asking for money for a project. Most of it was just generic paperwork. Nothing suspicious here.

I looked over to the files. I opened the top file.

It was a carbon copy of the folder I saw the other day, the one with data on a bunch of students from batch 2.

Below it was something more… important looking. It even had a purple stamp on its cover. I took it out with utmost caution to avoid any trouble. The purple stamp said: 'NOT TO BE SHARED'

There was no title on the cover, so I flipped through the pages.

The first 3 pages were similar to the batch 2 data in terms of formatting. Just basic data. The data was about me…

But that wasn't even the weirdest part. I flipped past page 3 and saw a detailed report on the golden chicken attack.

Many of the statements there were given by me, during the 'interrogation'.

Judging from the purple stamp, it was clear they wanted to keep the fact that a giant bird ate a plane a secret.

I looked through the top files, but they just seemed to be data on random people and remnants. Wait remnants?

I flung it open. The page I opened to was a wall of text describing a marble remnant, from the god Janus.

Its description was similar to that of the remnant the director tested me with way back when.

Among the wall of text, one thing caught my eye. 'This remnant is portable and is hostile to the first thing it sees. It is quite valuable as a tool for distraction.'

Right… so this was an encyclopedia for remnants? I honestly wanted to explore the folder some more, but the more I stayed in the room, the more uncomfortable I felt. So I just headed out.

I went out of the room, as quietly as possible, and went back to the infirmary.

Daphne came back a few minutes later. "What did you find?"