Frondier, Azier, and Philly, escorted by Imperial knights, entered the Phenomenon headquarters.
Everyone in the headquarters knelt down to greet Philly upon seeing the Empress.
“It is an honor for our Phenomenon to welcome Your Majesty, the Empress.”
And.
Seeing the man approaching Philly, Frondier blinked.
“Eden Hamelot, I greet you as the representative of Phenomenon.”
Eden stood before Philly.
With the same appearance as a year ago, he greeted Philly with an ordinary face and an ordinary voice.
“Eden, I told you on the way here, right? No kneeling.”
“It won’t work if everyone I meet kneels before me.”
Philly took a deep breath. Her eyes sank deeply.
“Everyone in the headquarters, listen.”
Her voice wasn’t loud or high-pitched, but it resonated throughout the building.
It was the manifestation of her aura.
“From now on, kneeling before me, Philly, is prohibited. Those who violate this will be severely punished. The duration of this order is one week. Please keep track of the days.”
Eden seemed to admire her display.
“I’m surprised. I didn’t know Your Majesty could use aura.”
“Well, it’s just raising my voice a little.”
Philly shrugged. Knowing that it wasn’t easy, Eden shook his head.
“It’s truly remarkable. Now, please come inside.”
Eden guided Philly to the meeting room. Azier and Frondier followed behind.
Eden gave a light greeting to Azier, who was coming from behind, and then his eyes met Frondier’s.
“…Oh! Frondier!”
Eden smiled brightly, surprised to see Frondier’s face.
“Yes, the first-year who stopped Renzo’s rampage! Frondier de Roach! It’s good to see you, I’m very grateful for what you did back then.”
Frondier chuckled and gave a slight nod with the same small smile.
“It’s an honor that you remember me.”
At those words, Azier, who was walking, glanced back.
“Stopped Renzo’s rampage? Frondier, what on earth does that…”
Eden hurriedly interrupted Azier’s question.
“Ah, no. Frondier discovered Renzo’s intrusion into Constel and reported it. Thanks to him, we were able to prevent a major incident.”
Eden repeated the fake truth that Frondier had told others at the time. Azier glanced at Frondier suspiciously and then walked on.
When Azier was a little further away, Eden sighed and whispered,
“Sorry, that was close.”
“It’s alright.”
Frondier’s answer was literal this time.
It meant it was okay for Azier to find out.
However, Eden took it as a simple formality and smiled playfully.
“You have a lot of secrets too, Frondier.”
Frondier used all his strength to maintain his poker face.
“──You could say that.”
He replied to Eden with a perfectly ordinary face and voice.
* * *
The meeting room was already filled with people chattering amongst themselves.
Since there were so many eyewitness reports of Mana injections from various regions, each person had different information.
Just gathering and sorting through this information would take a considerable amount of time.
They were surprised to see Philly’s face and were about to kneel, but then they remembered Philly’s voice from earlier and gave a light bow instead. Philly smiled contentedly and nodded, “Hmm, hmm.”
“First, we need to consolidate the information.”
“It’s troublesome to have no reports, but too much information is also a headache.”
Philly muttered in a voice laced with a sigh at Eden’s words.
Meanwhile, Frondier briefly scanned the materials spread out on the desk.
“…Mr. Eden.”
“Yes?”
“Are those dots marked on the map eyewitness reports?”
“Ah, yes. Blue is a simple discovery report, red is an incident with victims, and yellow is a suspicion level. Symptoms of Mana injection include fever, rapid breathing, and red eyes. Since these symptoms can occur in anyone due to various factors, it’s difficult to pinpoint them with certainty.”
“…I see. Is the consolidation about gathering that information?”
“Yes. We need to know where the sightings are most frequent, which eyewitness accounts are true and false, where the discoverers were found and where they moved to, and so on, to identify key points.”
Eden answered Frondier’s questions sincerely.
It was a bit strange that Frondier suddenly asked him these questions, but they were also things that one might be curious about.
However.
“Then how can we determine the north, south, east, and west directions on that map?”
“Is the scale indicated?”
“Are all the materials presented here using the same type of map?”
Frondier asked all sorts of questions. To anyone watching, it would seem like he had a strange obsession with maps.
Eden answered them all. He, too, found Frondier’s questions odd, but it seemed faster to simply answer them rather than asking why.
──And Frondier.
“……I see.”
After finishing all his questions, he answered calmly and then picked up the eyewitness maps piled up on the desk one by one.
It took less than a second to look at each one, and Frondier repeated this endlessly until the meeting began.