Life didn't get easier, even in another world

62 Fake?

The documents were accurate and detailed. They were a little bit hard to understand to Kairen who had never read such things before, so he had to ask Rai every time he couldn’t understand a thing. He felt sorry for Rai who had to deal with three clueless newbies and do his work at the same time, but what else could he do?

‘There are even files about Mr.Rhoads here.’

Mr.Rhoads, the man that they had to escort for a mission in the academy, had a painting with him that Philomns was interested in. There was a thick file containing any kind of information about the incident, Mr.Rhoads, the detailed explanations of the attack, witness’ statements, people involved in the incident, the painting, and everything else that one could think of.

There was also a part in the file that was about Kairen. Kairen was really shocked upon seeing his name in big letters written on the papers. There were a few pages explaining his role in the incident and about the strange power that he had used to defend the attacks.

“What are you staring at like that?”

Rai leaned to the right and peeked at the documents on Kairen’s hands.

“It’s about that case- Eh? Kairen? Kairen Steyton? Is that you?”

“Yeah...”

“I was wondering why your name sounded so familiar... so that was it...”

.....

“You worked on that case as well?”

Rai moved back his head and sat up straight.

“Well, you can say everyone here was quite interested in that case. Team leader Dains even stopped what he was working on for a few days to look into that case. It was said that you used a mysterious power there, so it is natural for people to be interested in.”

‘Right, that power...’

Kairen gave up on that power after failing to use it for a second time. He had tried to sense and use it a lot, but his efforts were useless. He was even starting to think that he and the others might have mistaken mana with something else.

“By the way, what exactly did you do back then? They said it was a power that they had never seen before....”

Kairen shrugged his shoulders.

“I don’t know either.”

He had decided to forget about that power. What was the use of thinking about it when there were no clues about it at all? He wanted to focus more on learning magic than searching for an unknown power.

And also, it hurt a lot when he used that power. He preferred not to experience something like that again if possible.

“Eh? But-”

Clack

“Everyone, gather together.”

Kairen and Rai stopped their conversation and turned towards the sound. Team leader Dains was the one who said those words while exiting his office. The other people in the hall also looked his way.

Rai got up from his seat when he saw the team leader looking at him.

“I’ll go call the others.”

He hurriedly ran to call the deputy team leader and the others who weren’t present in the hall. The remaining people gathered around the round table in the center of the hall.

Team leader Dains put some papers on the table once everyone was gathered.

“Aren’t these documents the ones that unit 6 gathered in the last mission?”

Team leader Dains nodded his head while organizing the papers on the table and answered the deputy team leader’s question.

“That’s right. I requested team leader Haley to let us work on the case and he accepted.”

“Hmm... ‘Requesting’ you say...”

She smiled while mumbling those words under her lips. Team leader Dains didn’t pay her any heed and started his explanations.

“Four months ago, unit 2 managed to capture five members of Philomns in a surprise attack. It was confirmed that they were planning on launching a terrorist attack on the capital, but they were captured before being able to complete their plan.”

Team leader Dains pointed at five pictures that were printed on paper. They were images of the captured people.

“The people were then interrogated. They didn’t say much because they didn’t know much. They were just mere pawns and didn’t have that much power in that organization. Still, unit 2 was able to gather some information from them.”

Then he placed some pictures on the table.

‘A screenshot from google maps!’

Kairen looked at the picture that looked like a screenshot from google maps while listening to the man’s words.

“These are the pictures taken by SMF’s espionage satellites after tracking down and spying those five people for almost a month. During that time, this place was where the five of them had traveled to a few times.”

He pointed at a mountainous area that was marked on the map. The other pages were also close-up pictures of the same place.

“It was also confirmed after the interrogation that they would meet their boss at a building hidden in this area. That was when the case was handed to unit 6. Having the most members among other units, it would be easier for them to find the building than the others.”

‘Then that’s how Kain ended up on that building...’

Kairen looked at the pictures again. That place was indeed familiar. He had gone there for the rescue mission so he could recognize it.

‘Ah, wait. Didn’t that deputy team leader say that team leader Dains didn’t like to explain things? What is he doing if not explaining things? No, no. I should focus. I should focus.’

Team leader Dains threw another bunch of papers on the table.

“And these are the documents that were found in that building.”

The papers were crumpled and stained by blood, probably because the person carrying them got involved in a conflict.

“They are documents about the planned terrorist attack. They contain some names, locations, weapon names, dates, and all other kinds of things.”

Rai mumbled something under his lips in a low voice that only he and Kairen could hear.

“Hmm? But why didn’t they destroy the data if their plan was exposed four months ago?”

Kairen was also thinking the same thing.

‘They had pretty much a lot of time to get rid of these documents... or at least hide them properly, Right?’

Team leader Dains took one step back and folded his arms.

“But the problem is that the data doesn’t match with the information that we had collected beforehand. Though they are mostly the same, there are a few flaws that were found after examining them thoroughly.”

He took a deep breath and close his eyes.

“There were also other suspicious things. Why didn’t they destroy these documents? Why didn’t they evacuate the building and instead, put some guards there? Why didn’t they destroy the whole building after being attacked by us?”

The deputy team leader frowned her brows and scoffed.

“This is ridiculous!”

“Tch!”

Kairen could hear that sleepy uncle click his tongue and could also see Rai shake his head.

‘What? I didn’t get it...’

Team leader Dains opened his mouth again at that moment as if to answer him.

“These data and everything else... They are all probably fake.”