Chapter 69: She saw through it?
The woman moved with silent confidence, pulling the visitor chair closer to the bed with a soft scrape against the floor. She sat, crossing her legs elegantly, the silk whispering against itself.
"We never formally met," she began, her voice smooth as polished glass, yet holding an underlying chill. "I am Rowena. A senior member of the Hunter Association’s Oversight Division."
Her sharp eyes scanned him, taking in the bandages, the IV drip, the feigned weakness. "I came to discuss the incident at the Rank 6 dungeon."
Fin kept his expression carefully blank, injecting a note of confused effort into his voice. "Incident? I... I don’t remember much, ma’am. They said... amnesia?" He looked towards where Mara had been, as if seeking confirmation.
Rowena’s polite smile didn’t reach her eyes. "Yes. The official report mentions severe trauma. Miraculous survival." She leaned forward slightly, the smile thinning. "Tell me what you do remember, Hunter Carver. Anything at all. The team? The final moments?"
"Hana’s team," he echoed weakly. "We went in... spiders? Big ones?" He frowned, letting his gaze drift unfocused towards the ceiling. "It’s... fuzzy. Pain. Darkness." He stuck to the script. The fabricated memories felt hollow, easily recited.
The room grew colder.
Rowena’s expression darkened, the polite mask cracking to reveal sheer annoyance beneath. "Stop it."
The words were quiet but sharp enough to cut.
"Stop this pathetic act right now," she hissed, her voice dropping low, intense. "My equipment doesn’t lie, Hunter Carver. Guild trackers might be basic, but Association tech is... thorough."
Her cold eyes bored into him. "I know exactly what happened to the Mana Cell Hana was supposed to retrieve. Its energy signature is screaming from inside your body right now."