Chapter 247: The Akashic Record [2]
[Adler’s Detective Agency]
"Is this your office?" Cyan muttered, looking at a shabby three storey building squeezed between two tall luxurious glass towers on either side of it.
"Hey, what is with that tone?" Irene narrowed her gaze at him, then added, "this happens to be the most beautiful building you will ever see."
The place looked like it had not been painted in years. There was a noticeable dent running along one section of the outer wall.
"Did someone throw rocks at it?" Ethan inspected the wall with his eyes.
Before arriving here he had assumed that given her reputation among the royals, Irene would have a considerably larger and more impressive agency to her name.
"Ahem." Irene cleared her throat. "Anyway, why don’t you three come inside? Let me introduce you to my people."
"Wait, you have employees?" The words left Ethan’s mouth before he could stop them.
Irene turned and shot him a look.
"..."
Leon watched their exchange from where he stood, arms crossed, leaning against the side of the Voltstreak.
Inside his head he had been having Rumi inspect something quietly while the others were distracted.
It took Rumi less than a minute to come back with her findings.
’Haru, it was exactly as you thought.’
’Really?’ Leon blinked, rubbing his chin. ’Alright. That is going to be troublesome.’
He glanced at Irene.
’How is she doing it though?’
’I have no idea,’ Rumi replied. ’But it must have something to do with Astral Matter. Though I am not entirely certain.’
’That is fine. This much is enough for now.’
"You like my Voltstreak that much? Heh, it’s one of the finest beauties Evana has produced."
Irene walked up to him with a smug expression, and stopped in front of him, folding her arms. Her golden gaze moved briefly to Leon’s neck, then downward toward his hand, settling on a silver ring hanging there.
Leon noticed her approach. "It indeed is. Tell me the price and I will buy it from you."
"Haha. It’s not for sale."
As she said, her eyes traced Leon’s clothing and accessories he was wearing.
"That is quite a unique ring," Irene said. "Where did you get it?"
Leon’s eyes moved up to her face. His tone was calm.
"I did not buy it. It was given to me by my institute."
"Institute? As in one of those magecraft institutes?"
Leon nodded.
Irene let out a small sneer. "So you are a noble. Well, I kind of expected that."
She sighed and changed the subject. "Are you not coming inside?"
Leon glanced sideways at Ethan, who had been listening to the exchange from a little further down the pavement. He caught the slight shake of Ethan’s head.
"Sorry," Leon said, turning back to her. "We have other things to take care of first. We will stop by once we are done."
He looked at Ethan and Cyan. Both nodded.
"Alright then." Irene said, walking away from Leon toward her agency. She paused and looked back at the three of them. "If you ever find yourself stuck somewhere, just tell someone you know me."
"Eerrmm...Yeah, sure." Cyan waved at her, forcing a smiley face.
Though after seeing how the city’s military had reacted to her at the gate, it would probably be better if they did not mention her name at all.
As Irene entered her building and disappeared inside, Leon watched the door for a moment with quiet caution.
At this point, he had a rough idea of why she had been acting the way she did toward them.
"Leon." Ethan stepped in front of him. Cyan moved up beside him.
Leon met Ethan’s eyes and sighed before admitting, "I understand. Let us keep our distance from her as much as we can."
"Same thought." Cyan added. "Did you two notice how she was talking to us? Like she had known us for years."
"Yeah, that too. And also..." Ethan said, then stopped suddenly.
"What?"
"Nothing. Forget it." Ethan replied.
Cyan tilted his head. "Wow, did she actually scare you that much?"
"Haaah..." Ethan ignored him and twisted the top of the prism.
A dimly lit hologram of the entire city of Evana formed in the air in front of them. Every building, house, road, flyover, tunnel, rail track, and airway was mapped out in precise detail.
"Damn."
Even Ethan himself was momentarily stunned by it.
He raised his index finger and scrolled through the holographic map. As his finger moved, the map shifted in the opposite direction and came to a stop at a single zone.
It was the same shape as the prism in his hand, though the structure shown on the map was pristine white and metallic. It sat at the very centre of the city and covered a wide stretch of the surrounding area.
It looked like the heart of Evana.
"It is not too far from here..." Ethan murmured, his curiosity already pulling him forward.
He glanced at the progress of his quest.
──────「Ongoing Quest」──────
◆ Quest Name: Reminiscence of the Past
◆ Objective: Explore Evana City and uncover the truth of their Calamity.
◆ Quest Status: Accepted
◆ Reward: 01 Oracle
◆ Progress: [||||────────] 23%
──────────────────────────
"Twenty three percent progress?" Ethan muttered. "That is a lot."
Almost one fourth of his quest had already been marked as complete. And all he had done was arrive at Evana City.
It made him wonder if this was actually going to be an easy quest.
He closed the quest window and looked at the strange prism shaped building on the map.
Maybe he would gain more progress if he visited it. From the way it was positioned at the centre of everything, it looked like something extraordinarily important.
Thinking along those lines, he marked the location.
Beep.
The map made a faint sound. The prism shaped building lit up on the hologram, and as it did, a name shimmered above it in black text.
[The Akashic Record]
"The Akashic Record? That is a strange name..." Ethan read it out loud, then looked up from the map toward the distant skyline ahead of where they stood.
He closed the hologram and looked at Cyan and Leon.
"That place over there..." he pointed. "What do you two think? Should we pay it a visit?"
Leon looked at it, then back at Ethan. "Same thought. Even from the air it felt strange."
"Right. And that building has the same structure as this prism."
Cyan looked at the prism in Ethan’s hand, then at the building rising above the others in the distance.
"Oh, you are right. I did not notice that." He met Ethan’s gaze and asked. "By the way, now that we have found Evana, what else do you want to do here?"
That was an important question. Cyan was unaware of Ethan’s quest, so from his perspective, proving Evana’s existence had always been the end goal. The same went for Leon, at least from Ethan’s point of view.
Leon was the one to speak up.
"What do you mean? This is a lost civilization. Just imagine what kind of knowledge we could find here. It would be idiotic to leave without exploring first, no?"
Cyan blinked. "You know, you have a point."
Leon smirked at Ethan from the side, as if saying, ’see that? He is so easy.’
Ethan sneered lightly. "Alright then, let us head over there and have a look—"
Growl~
A low rumbling sound came from Cyan’s stomach. Ethan stopped mid sentence.
"Oh?" Cyan looked down and patted his stomach. "Why don’t we eat something first?"
"Sounds good," Leon said, nodding his head. "Ah. You two go ahead, I will go hit the restroom first and join you after that. Alright? You can order the same thing for me."
As Leon said that, he went to the other side of the road, where he could see a public Library written on the top.