Because of the incident happening, everyone is on guard. Seeing the situation unfold, they clearly know now that things will not be the same anymore. I asked the elves to make protection spells and detection spells around the mansion to ensure no more intruders enters the proximity and try to harm us. I also had to do this in my mansion in Tokyo as well or else, the siblings might be in danger.
Akira and Sora noticed some people around the area lingering in the mansion as well but they left after a while. Hearing this, I fear for their safety and decided to bring them along to Nagoya for a while. At least, if they are there, then they will be with everyone and the elves will be able to defend them while I am out.
"It seems the situation is getting worse than ever," Rika shook her head after we recount all of the things happening.
"For real. I thought I would only see this in movies but apparently, this also happens in real life as well," Riko nodded while scrolling on her phone.
I overheard the two of them speaking and I decided to join in the conversation.
"Oh, hey there, Bladeheart. You are back. How are the siblings?"
"They are here. I brought them to their current rooms as I can't really trust the mansion anymore."
"What about Pandora's brother?" Rika asked.
"No worries. According to the siblings, he will not be home for quite a while due to some business meetings abroad. Since his sister will be with us for a long time, he isn't worried too much and he can go freely to other places without the need of dragging his sister far and wide even though she is frail. She already knows this as well so no need to tell her again. Anyways, how is the woman we captured faring?"
"She is still unconscious but we are keeping an eye on her. Alena and Labo are all keeping an eye on her and once she is conscious, they will restrain her before we will interrogate her for later," Riko answered.
"Yeah, don't worry about her, Manato. We will take care of her."
"Then that's good. I needed to go out for a while and I can't go and interrogate her at the moment."
"You are going out despite the hunting of other people?"
"I needed to contact Janus. You still can't contact him, right Riko?"
"His phone has been ringing but he isn't answering. I don't know what is happening either. But I received a phone call from his parents and told us to not look for him anymore which made me a bit hesitant to ask why. I even asked them to let me talk to him one last time but I didn't get the chance. However, I used my hearing to determine where their location, and based on the sounds of the background, they are currently in one of the hospitals in Tokyo. I overhear a few sounds that indicate it was a Tokyo hospital but because there are lots of hospitals in Tokyo, I don't know which one," Riko answered.
"A hospital huh..."
Right, the moment I heard hospital, that's when I remembered his sister. Janus has a sister who he has said to be frail and has been sick for quite a while. Although he told me she have gotten healthier, if she was sick, there is a chance that it was her who is in the hospital instead of Janus himself since the guy is as fit as a fiddle.
The reason I don't know what happened to his sister in the past timeline is that he was already dead by this time around due to the accident and death of Riko. Since I am not that close to Janus's family, naturally, all news regarding his family after his death is something I don't know so the only thing I can do is get the assumption that his sister is the one currently undergoing something in one of the hospitals in Tokyo.
There are a handful of hospitals in Tokyo but I think I should eliminate the smaller hospitals which means they are in a big hospital. I just needed to do a process of elimination to locate him.
"Thanks for the info, Riko. Now I have a lead on where that guy is."
Just like I said before, I left Nagoya and returned to Tokyo to look for Janus. Although I am trying to recruit him, I can tell this will not be a fruitful one and I am guessing that I won't be able to recruit him to our cause at all.
One, Janus loves his sister so much that he will not just leave just for the sake of finding something that is said to be a mythical place that no one knows whether they exist or not.
Two, with his sister being sick, that also means he will not join us as he will be watching over his sister rather than joining this task.
Three, his parents forbid him from doing so. Unlike Pandora's brother, Janus's parents are not that nice and they are a bit strict with him. And Janus is a loyal child to them, so he would rather obey them rather than obey his friends.
But it doesn't hurt to try. Maybe I have to believe in the power of friendship this time even though that is completely bullcrap, to be honest.
...
Once I arrived in Tokyo once more, I was about to depart when I hear some noises in the yard. I am quite sensitive to noises nowadays because I am trying to keep an eye out for intruders but seeing someone is indeed here, I am not just going to let this go.
First, I track down the source of the noises. I don't want to assume that it was immediately a human. It must be a small critter or something. But my assumption is wrong as it was indeed an intruder and based on how the guy looks, it's another AI companion and I don't think I will just let this matter go.
Because I am in a hurry, I immediately take the shortest possible way to defeat the intruder. I tried to detect the other AI companions but it was a bit of a surprise since I don't detect them at all. It was only this snooping guy. AI companions sent by Nobuhiko would not send one guy alone in a foreign territory like this.
I then went into stealth mode and subdue the guy. Grabbing his neck, I tried to disable him when he started speaking.
"Wait, wait, wait! Don't kill me! I am sorry for snooping, whoever you are but I needed to send the message to the owner of this house!"
Message? That's odd, and this guy is warm and sweating too. I must have thought this guy was an AI companion but he was actually a real human, just in the suit outfit, very similar to an AI companion. When he shows his face, that's when I realized who this guy was. He was the butler and bodyguard of Janus and his family.
"Huh? It's you. What are you doing here, and why are you sneaking around like that? If I haven't restrained myself, then you might have been seriously injured."
"I am sorry. I don't want to be seen by some people who are making surveillance on your house and delivering this message might cause big trouble if revealed which is why I wanted to send this by entering the mansion and putting it somewhere discreet enough for you to see so that you can immediately get the message before it is on the hands of the unknown people."
Activating my detection sense, I indeed detected multiple unknown people currently maintaining distance from the mansion but are too obvious to be doing some surveillance mission on the mansion.
"Then what is this message? I am the owner of this mansion. You are talking to him."
"Ah, thank goodness. But please, can you let me go first?"
I then realize I am still holding at him. I immediately let go of him and apologized which he immediately disregard as he pulled out a letter.
"The young miss didn't want to use the digital message to send it to you as it is easy to track therefore, she used a letter instead and entrusted me with the task of delivering it."
I grab the letter and I can tell it was made in a hurry. There's even some ink splatter on the paper and it wasn't placed in an envelope like a normal formal letter.
"Well then, my task here is done, don't worry about sending a response either. It's necessary to know that you keep this a confidential matter as even the young miss's parents do not know about this."
After that, he left in a hurry while keeping himself in cover. I went back inside and opened the letter that is clearly done as soon as possible. The reason for that is unknown but perhaps it might be included in this letter.
"To whoever is reading this, I hope it is the intended recipient. To whoever reading this, do not respond to this letter, and just think of it as something between us. Please, save my brother, Janus, and save him from the people who are holding him captive. He sacrificed himself in exchange for my full recovery. However, he is tasked to find the thing that they are looking for in this place called Alternate World. I don't know what they were doing but if they are trying something that we don't know, then perhaps some of my brother's friends have an idea on how to solve this. Please save my brother from this predicament."
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