Chapter 488: Distraction
A young man was walking through the bustling streets of the city, backpack slung over one shoulder.
He had just finished his morning classes at the university and was heading to his usual spot for lunch—a modest fast-food restaurant known for its quick service and decent burgers.
But the moment he turned the corner, he stopped dead in his tracks.
The restaurant, which was usually only somewhat crowded at this hour, was now surrounded by a massive throng of people.
The crowd spilled out onto the sidewalk, phones held high, cameras flashing, voices shouting and screaming in excitement. Some were jumping to get a better view through the windows.
The young man blinked in utter confusion.
He tapped the shoulder of the guy standing nearest to him. "Hey, what exactly is going on here?"
The guy turned, eyes wide with excitement.
"Lady Nadia is inside! She’s actually inside the restaurant right now!"
The young man’s jaw dropped. "You’re joking."
"No, I’m serious!" The guy pointed eagerly toward the glass front. "Look, look! You can see her over there."
Heart racing, the young man pushed his way through the crowd, muttering apologies as he squeezed between bodies.
When he finally reached the front and peered through the large glass windows, he was stunned.
There she was—the legendary Battle Angel herself, Nadia.
She stood near the bathroom area with her arms folded neatly in front of her, maintaining that signature calm, almost regal expression on her face.
The crowd gasped.
"It’s really her!"
"Lady Nadia! Over here! Please!"
"Can I get a picture? Just one picture!"
People inside the restaurant had stopped eating. Burgers sat half-eaten on trays, drinks melted in their cups.
Everyone was staring at her—customers, employees, even the teenage cashier who had forgotten to close his mouth.
But Nadia did not turn. She didn’t wave, didn’t smile, didn’t acknowledge the chaos at all.
She simply stood there, composed as ever, occasionally glancing toward the bathroom door with the faintest trace of impatience.
But inside, Nadia was slightly annoyed.
She had thought they would head straight to the cult’s headquarters after leaving the meeting hall.
Instead, Mika had suddenly declared he needed to use the bathroom ’really quick.’
She had tried to reason with him.
"Mika, this is a much more important matter. You can hold it in, can’t you?"
But Mika had shaken his head with complete seriousness.
"If I really hold it in, it’ll burst out into the open, and then you’ll have to carry around your son who stinks of poo."
The casual explanation had left her momentarily speechless. In the end, she had relented, and they had ducked into the nearest restaurant.
Now here she was—the great Battle Angel, serving as an impromptu doorwoman while her son was inside the toilet.
She checked her watch again, then glanced at the closed bathroom door. He still wasn’t coming out, and she was starting to worry something had happened.
Just as she was about to call out to him, the door finally opened.
Mika stepped out looking refreshed, as if he had just emerged victorious from a long battle. A content sigh escaped him.
She frowned and couldn’t help but scold,
"We still haven’t found three bombs yet and here you are wasting your time in the bathroom. You could have at least come out really quick, right?"
He shrugged. "These things can’t be rushed, Nadia. Using the toilet is a sacred process. You have to let nature take its course."
Her eye twitched.
"Besides." He added. "I don’t know what I ate, but my stomach was not happy. Better out than in, as they say."
Nadia’s eyes narrowed in clear annoyance.
"But there really is no need to worry. We still have more then half an hour."
Mika quickly checked his watch.
"We also already know the bombs won’t go off early, they’re programmed for a specific time. And I’ve already confirmed that the timing mechanism is mechanical, not electronic. So no one can trigger them remotely."
He leaned against the wall, casual as ever.
"There’s no need to rush. We’re fine."
Nadia stared at him incredulously. "How can you be so carefree? You say it as if you have all the time in the world—it’s only 30 minutes."
Mika glanced at her with a knowing look in his eyes before saying,
"Well, I guess it is a precarious situation. But even if we fail right now, and we really can’t find all the bombs..."
"...do you really think your dear old sister will allow something like that to happen?"
Nadia paused, a contemplative expression crossing her face. After a moment, she nodded slowly.
"That is true...she definitely won’t allow that to happen."
She thought about her older sister, one of the main reasons the human realm had remained extremely peaceful.
Any sort of massive disaster would draw her immediately.
But then Nadia shook her head firmly.
"But still, I don’t want to bother her right now. She definitely would be annoyed if she were to know that we ourselves should have solved the problem and we are to let it up to her to fix it."
A slight fear entered her eyes as she continued,
"She’ll also not let you off as well. In fact you’ll bear the brunt of it, Mika."
Mika’s face took on an awkward look. He really did not want to deal with that particular mother right now.
So, he let out a sigh. "I thought of getting a burger and a drink and then continuing with this mission, but after hearing that, I guess we have to go ahead."
The moment he finished speaking, Nadia didn’t hesitate. She grabbed onto him from behind and shot into the sky at absolute speed, disappearing from the restaurant in a blur.
It didn’t take long before they arrived at the headquarters.
It was an unremarkable building in a suburban stretch of the city—the kind of place you passed without noticing.
Old storefronts, faded signs, a few remaining businesses barely clinging to life. It was the perfect cover.
The area had already been cordoned off. Police barriers, flashing lights, investigators in protective gear moving in and out. A small army of officials stood outside, looking grim.
Nadia landed at the entrance.
A subordinate rushed over, a middle-aged woman with sharp features and tired eyes.
"Lady Nadia."
"What’s the situation?"
They walked into the building, the subordinate keeping pace beside her.
"We have a problem." The woman’s voice was tight. "There’s a mole in the organization. Someone warned them."
Nadia’s eyes narrowed.
"By the time we arrived, most of the personnel had already fled. We’re tracking them, but they’re good—they destroyed their trails, scrubbed their digital footprints. We’re still working on it."
Nadia nodded. "And the evidence?"
The subordinate’s expression grew darker.
"They tried to burn everything. We managed to salvage about half before the fire spread. But the remaining documents and files are encrypted. In a language none of our specialists recognize."
She paused.
"They say it could take weeks to decipher. Maybe longer. Combined with the sheer volume of material—we’re talking thousands of pages, hundreds of computer files—it’s not feasible."
She looked at Nadia with desperate eyes.
"They’re recommending we focus on finding the escaped personnel instead. The trail is still warm. We might catch them before they disappear entirely."
Nadia didn’t respond immediately. Instead, she looked toward Mika.
Mika remained calm as ever, a small smile on his face like this was nothing more than a casual stroll. Seeing that, Nadia said nothing either.
They quickly made their way into the main headquarters room—a rather large space where books, files, and papers were scattered across tables and pinned to the walls, along with various maps.
But half the room had been completely torched.
Charred remains and ash showed where the cult members had tried to destroy everything before fleeing.
Investigators had arrived just in time to prevent the fire from consuming it all, leaving only half the evidence intact.
Nadia picked up one of the surviving books. She flipped through the pages, her eyes scanning the text.
It was a language she had never seen before. Runic symbols, unfamiliar syntax, a script that seemed to twist when she looked at it directly.
"Secret code." She murmured. "Only members of the cult can read it."
She set the book down.
"People think the Eternal Queen’s followers are barbarians. Uneducated fanatics driven by nothing but hatred."
She looked around the room—at the sophisticated encryption, the complex planning, the successful placement of six undetectable bombs.
"But they’re clever. More clever than we gave them credit for."
She turned to the subordinate.
"What about the bombs? The three we already located?"
The woman handed her a file.
"We’ve evacuated the surrounding areas and located the devices. Just as the bomber said—they’re extremely powerful. The reports are inside."
Nadia scanned the documents. Her expression remained calm, but inside, her heart was sinking.
The bombs were complicated—a fusion of mana and technology, designed to create a blast far beyond their size.
This wasn’t amateur work. This was the product of years of research.
The subordinate continued, "The bomb squad is currently observing the devices, but they haven’t made any progress on disarming them. They have theories, but nothing concrete."
She looked at Nadia with barely concealed desperation.
"Lady Nadia, we don’t have much time. Even if the theories are risky—even if there’s a chance they’ll fail—we have to try something. We can’t just let them explode."
Nadia closed the file. She handed it back.
"For now, I want the bomb squad to do nothing but observe. Take photographs. Record data. Document every detail, every measurement, every irregularity."
"But do not touch the bombs." She emphasized. "Do not attempt to disarm them."
The subordinate’s eyes widened. "But—"
"That’s an order."
Though the subordinate clearly disagreed and believed they should start experimenting immediately, she didn’t dare disobey. She nodded fearfully and hurried away with a deep sigh.
Nadia then turned to Mika, who was quietly looking through some of the remaining files with that same calm smile.
"Mika." She called out.
But he didn’t look up.
"We have twenty-eight minutes."
He turned a page.
"Mika."
Another page.
"Mika!"
He finally looked at her. His expression was calm. Relaxed. He smiled.
"Relax, Nadia. I’m reading."
She stared at him.
And he went back to the file.
Despite how Mika was as casual as ever—flipping through documents like a man browsing books in a store, deciding which one to buy—Nadia didn’t seem to care at all.
She wholeheartedly trusted him. She watched as he worked his way through every single document that had been gathered, his eyes moving across pages at an impossible speed.
But he wasn’t reading them. Not really. He was swiping through them, one after another, barely glancing at each page before tossing it aside.
The investigators who had been brought in to analyze the materials watched him with growing disbelief.
"Who is this boy?" One muttered to another. "He’s not even looking at them. He’s just...staring for a second and throwing them away."
Another shook his head. "I don’t know, but he’s disrupting everything. This is a critical investigation, and he’s treating it like a library sale."
Just as some of them were about to complain that he was destroying evidence and creating unnecessary distractions in such a severe case, Mika walked over to the half of the room where all the burnt pages and documents lay. He picked up a book that was almost completely charred and started looking through it as well.
At the same time, he produced a pair of strange glasses out of nowhere and put them on, carefully scanning the blackened pages.
This only confused everyone further. One of the lead investigators finally couldn’t hold back. He stepped forward and said with clear disdain,
"Lady Nadia, who exactly is that boy? What is he doing right now? We’re going through this extremely serious situation, and he’s going through rubbish that’s already burnt."
Nadia didn’t even look at the subordinate. Her eyes remained fixed on Mika as she replied coolly.
"Just ignore him and do your own work."
The investigator opened his mouth again. "But Lady Nadia—"
Before he could finish, Nadia turned her head and gave him a single cold glance.
The specialist’s mouth snapped shut. He stumbled back, nearly tripping over his own feet, and returned to his work without another word.
Around the room, other investigators quickly did the same.
But in their minds, they were mocking him.
Who did this boy think he was? Wasting time on burnt documents, flipping through ashes like they held secrets?
They had already written off the destroyed half of the room as a loss. The fire had been too thorough—or so they had thought.
Then Mika spoke.
"I got it."
His voice was bright. Casual. Like he had just found a coupon for a free coffee.
"I know where the fourth bomb is."
The room went still.
Nadia was at his side in an instant, her earlier calm replaced by sharp focus. Around her, the investigators and specialists crowded closer, their expressions a mixture of shock and disbelief.
"That’s impossible!" One of the specialists blurted out. "You’re lying. There’s no way you could have found anything in that—" He gestured at the burnt debris. "—that mess."
Another nodded vigorously.
"We’ve been trying to decipher the remaining documents for hours. The language is completely unknown. Even if you could read the burnt pages, which is impossible, you’d still need to translate them, cross-reference them, find the relevant information—"
Mika held up a hand. He was smiling.
"The cult members didn’t just randomly burn everything." He said. "They were strategic. They threw all the important documents into this half of the room..."
He gestured to the burnt section.
"...while leaving the less substantial materials on the other side."
He walked toward the charred remains.
"They weren’t trying to destroy all the evidence...They were trying to hide it."
"Make us focus on the surviving documents while the real information burned to ash."
He gave an appreciative nod.
"That’s really smart of them. If we had focused only on the documents that still exist, nothing useful would have come out of it. It would have been completely useless."
A look of realization dawned on the faces of the subordinates, officials, and investigators.
They had initially thought the cult simply hadn’t had time to burn the entire room before fleeing.
Now they understood—they had been duped.
The half-burnt section was the real treasure, and the intact documents were bait.
Guilty looks spread across their faces. They could have screwed everything up by ignoring the ashes.
Nadia’s expression remained calm, but inside, she felt a chill. The Eternal Queen’s followers were not barbarians. They were cunning. Patient. And they had almost succeeded in outmaneuvering them.
Nadia turned to Mika. "How did you find anything in the burnt documents? Most of it is ash."
And the others in the room also turned to him, desperately wanting to know how he managed something so vital in what looked like the left overs of a bonfire.