Maeve introduces herself and the girls quickly accept her although are hesitant to get too close. I give Maeve a tour of the place and my abilities since she has like dozens of questions. I try to satisfy her as best I can and also hold her back from destroying the place. Her destructive impulse is impressive.
Maeve 「 Geez, I thought I was a cheat, but you… Darn, you gotta share with me. Give me some of those skills. 」
My sight hovers to Maeve and I peek at her status.
Her name and age checks out. Her class is called something known as a Chaos Esper. That sort of explains her chaotic nature and destructive powers. What’s this, a title? I haven’t seen one since Cheshyr’s demon slayer bloodline title.
Maeve has a slayer title like Cheshyr but it reads, Slayer of a Thousand Evils. The description reads that this girl has amassed a reputation for killing over a thousand entities. Seriously? This girl, she has almost no qualms with killing. The effect of the title boosts her damage done to entities by 20%.
Her status has normal human values in most stats except for Magic and Will, which tops out at a whopping 300. She’s probably a match for Envie the demon. In the skills list she has powers of Telekinesis, Pyrokinesis, Psychokinesis, Extra-Sensory Perception(ESP), and Electrokinesis.
That is one scary girl. And she wants me to add to her existing skills?
Becca 「 I guess I could transfer some skills to you, but why should I? You’ll just make more trouble for me, won’t you? 」
Maeve 「 Oh come on Boss! I would never do that. I just want to try out some magic, maybe try experimenting with freezing someone’s bloodstream solid… I’ll be careful with it I promise! 」
Becca 「 … On second thought, how about I give you a hand crafted item? 」
I use the crafting skill in front of her, taking a lump of steel and imbuing it with a hard and tough nature so it won’t break under extreme force and heat. Then I shape it into a collar and snap it on her neck quickly. Finally, I enchant the collar to have one effect on it.
Maeve 「 What the--? I feel...different. Strange? 」
She lifts a hand and tries to will a mirror nearby to move to her but nothing happens. It dawns on her that her psychic powers are sealed. Her face pales.
Maeve 「 Did you… you didn’t… 」
Becca 「 I did. That collar is enchanted with Seal, a status effect that cancels out skills. It can’t be removed by non-party members and can only be turned off by the party leader, me. 」
She stares at me with narrowed eyes for a moment then goes back to having a harmless poker smile.
Maeve 「 Oh, this is gonna be interesting. So what, I’m a pet now? 」
Becca 「 Not quite. The collar only works when there’s no danger detected to the wearer. I won’t stop any self-defense, but you won’t be able to use your powers on normal people. It’s more of an insurance for sake of mind. Otherwise I’d be stuck supervising you all day. 」
Maeve clicks her tongue in annoyance and leans back in a lax manner.
Maeve 「 You’re more of a killjoy than I thought. Can’t stand a little gore and fun? Whatever, you’re the boss now. I’ll play nice, just as long as things stay interesting. 」
She doesn’t say it, but I can tell that was a threat. That is to say, she will be obedient for the time being, but if she gets bored she’ll start scheming. I have no idea when that will be so I should keep an eye on her.
Of course, I say that but it doesn’t mean I need to spy on her 24/7. I leave her to the girls and contact Detective Raina Geritz. We meet up and I explain that the issue has been taken care of.
Raina 「 So everything’s safe now? 」
Becca 「 Yeah the… culprit, has been handled. No need to be mindful of the place anymore. 」
Raina 「 You mean until another Entity shows up, right? 」
Becca 「 Yeah I guess so… wait what? 」
Raina’s comment has a keyword that only people of the unseen world should know. I realize what she is implying right away. She must be a part of that unseen world as well, maybe part of a society integrated in the police force.
Becca 「 So you knew? And you sent me anyway? 」
Raina 「 Did I know that an Entity was detected at St. Esclaire? Yes, I did. I sent you there because I wanted to see how you would handle it. 」
It turns out she was sending me to investigate while she had me investigated at the same time. She must have seen everything that happened. Oh crap, am I busted for real this time?
Raina 「 You’re definitely one of a kind. Displaying magic and cultivation arts like its nothing and binding up that girl. You’re more of a surprise than Julie could have given me. 」
Becca 「 Is Julia one of the unseen? 」
Raina 「 Yep. She and I are part of the Solstice society. Like the Bleak Moon, we are a noncombatant force that works from the shadows. We take care of things that might involve lawful intervention. 」
That explains why prosecutor Mitchel so readily accepted my silence when asked about my abilities. So these two were suspicious of me since a while ago.
Raina 「 Frankly it’s not our duty to question you about your origins. Our Solstice society only tries to avoid hassles and keep things under the rug. So long as you’re not a hostile we won’t touch you. 」
Becca 「 Well that’s sort of reassuring. 」
Raina 「 Of course, we might ask for your help again like in this case. Keep up a good rapport with us and the other secret societies will accept you too. Just as long as you don’t turn out like the Vile Brotherhood. 」
Becca 「 That phrase, the Vile Brotherhood, what is that? The principal mentioned it too. 」
Raina 「 Well every society has its bad apples. The Vile Brotherhood is a collection of older societies that fell to temptation in pursuit of power. I’ve heard they’ll resort to sacrifices and demonic rituals for power. What they want to do with that power is secondary, just the fact that they might have that power is cause for concern. 」
Becca 「 So, bad guys? 」
Raina 「 You could look at it like that, although I’d argue that not all of the unseen world is squeaky clean. It’s more of a matter of principle, on whether power is all important or peace is. 」
Becca 「 Well I’m sure I won’t run into them in the near future. 」
The detective looks at me with a sympathetic look that worries me.
Raina 「 That might not be the case. Word is going to spread even if Bleak Moon and Solstice try to suppress it. The fact that you have multiple disciplines of power. 」
Becca 「 Let me guess, that’s bad because it’s the sort of power that the brotherhood would want. 」
Raina 「 Bingo. 」
Great. It seems that I’ll have a run-in with this Vile Brotherhood here on Earth sooner or later. I think I’m starting to miss being in the fantasy world called Arcoul. At least in that world there’s no secret societies to be wary of.
Actually, it’s more likely now that I thought that.
END of Chapter 10
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