“You and Lotus had quite an interesting conversation.”

“Ah! K-Kat what exactly are you talking about?”

“Oh nothing much. I just heard you telling Lotus that I would teach her how to get better at magic.”

“I-I was just telling her that you were good at magic and how you might be willing to t-teach her. She’s wanted to become a powerful mage for a long time.”

Hmm Leila must trust Lotus a lot if she still isn’t willing to admit the truth to me even after hinting that I overheard the entire conversation. Of course it would’ve been nicer if I actually did, but I guess I have to instead bluff about knowing their secret. Lotus was scared of betrayal and the fact that her family might send someone to kill her. Maybe her siblings wanted her dead for succession rights but she escaped before they could actually kill her? I know some families do allow females to take over the family after all.

Well I guess I should just act threatening, which isn’t hard since I tower over her, and keep it vague until Leila gives a few more hints. “Now why would Lotus want to become stronger? It wouldn’t be because someone wants her dead, would it?”

“N-no nothing like that. She just really loves magic and her parents have high hopes of her becoming a famous mage someday.”

So her parents are still alive, or is it just another lie? If her parents are actually alive I doubt that someone wants her dead over succession rights and if she just disobeyed her parents they’d probably just bring her back home and punish her, not kill her. Argh if only I didn’t suck so much with negotiations and subtleties. Fuck it I’ll just interrogate Lotus instead. She might be more willing to tell me stuff since all she should know about me are the terrifying rumors and what Leila has told her.

I searched for Lotus using the shadows and I found her inside a carriage, probably heading back to her manor or something. I hid myself and teleported inside the carriage leaving behind a very confused and mildly terrified Leila. I would like to interrogate Lotus right now, but when we reach the manor I would have to stop because if she never got out of the carriage it would be suspicious. So my best choice would likely be to just interrogate her when she’s alone in her room.

It only took about 3 minutes before we arrived at the manor so I’m glad I decided to hold off on interrogation. After we went inside Lotus greeted two older people. Are these two not her parents? If so then why would they be living here? I still haven’t decided if I want to help Lotus, but I am very interested in what her big secret is.

I continued to follow Lotus as she went through an underground passage that was of course behind a bookshelf. I don’t exactly have pleasant memories when it comes to underground passages but I have to follow Lotus if I want to satiate my curiosity. I can only hope that this passageway doesn’t take multiple days to traverse.

Of course I was being silly and after a few minutes we reached a giant room with a bunch of people practicing the stronger types of magic. I can tell that most of them have a bunch of magic power but their visualization of the magic is weak. All they’re doing is brute forcing the magic until they collapse, which isn't really a useful strategy, it’s way more profitable to train visualization first.

Then again they might be training to work as a squad, which might make it a kind of smart idea. Every Spirit visualizes magic differently and so coordination between Spirits is extremely hard to pull off unless all of them were taught the exact same methods. Even then it makes it so that they only excel in group battle and if anyone in the group dies or is unable to fight, the whole formation falls apart. I’m a bit prejudiced because I like being alone, but I believe it’s better to make everyone learn their own individual method of using magic because it makes it harder for enemies to predict how you use magic based on what someone else in the group does.

While I was pondering all this Lotus walked into a room to the side and started to talk with an old looking man that seemed to be a butler. I wanted to get closer but I decided against it because the room is pretty small and if someone accidentally touches me they’ll know I’m there. Soon the man left the room and I realized this is the perfect chance to interrogate Lotus. She’s alone in a room with no windows and everyone else around is too focused on practicing magic. There aren’t any servants who might interrupt us either.

I used Air magic to prevent any sound from leaving the room so that she can’t call for help and then I teleported inside. She was currently leaning against a wall looking at some type of paperwork so I tried to pin her to the wall with my one arm. I couldn't exactly use two arms to block her escape so I just settled for putting my hand on her chest and pinning her against the wall with my superior strength. It's kind of awkward but I needed to actually start threatening her. “Tell me what’s going on here!”

She shrieked and yelled, “W-what the hell! Let go of me you ghost!” Damn this is the second time I’ve been called a ghost by a girl I was stalking, I mean investigating. I realized I was still invisible so I stopped hiding myself except for my face and questioned her again. “One of your friends refused to tell me what’s happening and you better not do the same.”

She immediately called for help which isn’t really that surprising, and of course nobody came because of my Air magic. Maybe I should just teleport away with her to make her scared? Ugh I really don't know how to be threatening enough to make others talk.

“Nobody is able to help you right now. So how about you start talking about why you’re training a secret army of mages.”

“We aren’t training a secret army!”

“Uh huh, if so then why are you training them in a room underground that can only be reached through a hidden passage.”

“They’re using powerful magic and we don’t want any servants to accidentally get injured. Everyone knows we’re training powerful mages.”

Damn nobles are too good at negotiations, I guess it’s time to bluff again. “You would have no reason to hide the entrance if that were the case. Now just tell me the truth, I already know you’re planning something with Leila.”

“Of course I am, we’re in her house after all.” Fuck, I really need to have Mary teach me how to navigate around conversations. All I can do is try one more bluff.

“Don’t lie to me! I know your family wants to kill you and I want to know why!”

When I said that Lotus looked stunned, maybe because this is an even bigger secret only known to a few people. I think she realized that she let her expressions slip and had no way of denying what I said because she started to talk to me in a whisper. “How do you know that?”