[22 April 2023, 10.45 AM]

[Hart Child Care's Main Building - Hallway]

As Chloe and I were led to the director's room, where the Darkest Secret was by Tina, I looked around the condition of the orphanage and it was not as bad as I thought. The director's room was located on the fifth floor, the topmost one, so we needed to walk a bit to get there.

Maybe because the Darkest Secret had a lot of money, he invested some of it in the orphanage to make his life earlier, or he didn't want to raise some suspicion and decided to make the orphanage a proper one. Either of those was maybe his reason.

I found another thing about her when Tina led us. She was incredibly energetic and had a loud mouth.

"Huh~ So my brother worked as an instructor yesterday? I can't imagine that."

Even now, she was chatting with Chloe on friendly terms while walking by her side with a smile, which surprised me, considering Chloe had a hard time opening up to someone new. Mainly because of her Trait, I only knew some people that actually talked to Chloe.

Those people were the heroines, who were basically nice girls, and Mrs. Marita, the middle-aged lady who came to eat together with us a few days earlier.

"Yes. Vincent is unexpectedly good at being an instructor." Chloe answered her, looking down slightly due to their height difference.

While Chloe was only a few centimeters shorter than me, Tina was a head shorter than Chloe. My height was 185cm, which meant Chloe was around 180cm while Tina was only 160cm, a shorty.

We went through the third floor and arrived at the fourth floor when the conversation got to this point.

"Good instructor, huh?" Tina had a mischievous smile as she glanced at me. "I bet he let his students do everything while he's chilling in the back, no? I can imagine him being, 'I am not here to babysit you, do your shit by yourself.' Or something like that."

And that was another strange thing that I found out after knowing this girl for a while. She could accurately guess what I did.

Whatever it was, it must be related to the reason why I was transmigrated here in Vincent's body. I had no clue about what happened to me prior to my transmigration nor who actually sent me to this place. But, whoever it was, purposely put me in Vincent's body, who had a similar personality to me, considering that Tina could guess what I did perfectly.

"He did say that. However, he saved the Awakeners before they were badly injured. Only a person had broken bones, but he was perfectly fine."

To think that she said broken bones were perfectly fine. Or was it actually perfectly fine in this world? Should I just let the mutated Hobgoblin hurt Zaiden more at that time? It seemed like I was still a bit na?ve in terms of torturing people in the real world. I should look at the '100 Ways to Torture People' book if there were any.

Anyway, they continued talking and sometimes laughing until we arrived in front of a room with a wooden door. The room was surrounded by Mana, thicker than the Mana in our surrounding, a sign that an Enhancement was used to secure it. I could see through it because I was adept in Enhancement and did it a few times, but I bet even Chloe couldn't see the Enhancement placed in the room.

I did see through that there was an Enhancement done in the room itself, but I couldn't guess what kind of Enhancement was placed in it. I could see it if I used the Artifact that Park Injun used in our heist, but unfortunately, that Artifact was rare, and only he had it.

'Anyone who placed the Enhancement must be a real expert.'

Knock, knock, knock.

Tina approached the door without hesitation, knocked on it thrice in a certain rhythm, and shouted. "Hey, pops! My brother is here!"

"Enter." I heard a deep voice of a man in his middle age from beyond the door.

"Alright. Let's enter, brother. Pops has been waiting for you since this morning."

She opened the door, and behind it was a magnificent office room that came straight from a movie, or rather novel in this case. She entered first and jumped on the couch on the right. She made herself comfortable and pulled a lollipop from the bag on her waist, probably a magic bag because her hand could enter

I surveyed the room a little and noticed the guy in dark blue priest clothes looking at me with a kind smile.

"Welcome, Rai. Or rather. Welcome back, Vincent." He greeted me while pulling off his glasses. He massaged his temple before standing up and approaching me. When he stood in front of me, he patted my shoulder and said, "Glad to have you back, my son."

My body was stoned. My brain was running at a faster speed than usual, thinking about how I should answer him. My instinct that I got from the combination of my Talents told me that this guy was dangerous.

This guy was the Darkest Secret. Even without any knowledge before, I knew that he was the Darkest Secret. His Mana that surrounded his body was hiding his strength; it worked in a similar fashion to Faker's Earring that I wore before I enhanced it.

He was hiding his strength. That was the reason why he couldn't be found, and people only thought of him as a kind director. However, beneath his veil was a terrifying strength that maybe rivaled those Six Devas of the Association. He was not as strong as Park Injun or Smith, but he was certainly a strength to be reckoned with.

"Vincent?" He asked me in a lower tone, seemingly confused as to why I didn't answer him.

However, I was still thinking about my answer and questioning my decision to come here. What if he knew that I was not the real Vincent? He could find any secret in the world, including the existence of the Witch. In fact, he was the one who spread about the Witch's existence in the future, which made the world plunge into chaos.

But, I needed his information network for my goal. So I answered.

"Yeah, pops. I am back." I pulled off my mask, put it inside my magic bag and smiled at him as my face changed back to the usual.

"Hahaha, it's nice to see you, my son!" He hugged me tightly as he patted my back a few times.

Chloe was watching us with a smile, probably misunderstanding this as a lovely reunion between a foster father and a son, but I was sweating inside.

After a few pats on my back, he pulled away and asked.

"It's been two months since you left this orphanage. How is it, the Academy?"

"Nah, it's not interesting at all. Just the usual."

From what I have observed so far, it seems like I made the right choice so far. I only acted like how I originally was instead of bullshit things through, and it worked.

"Hahaha, I see. Well, just sit down for now. I will finish my job real quick, and we can talk later."

"Sure."

He then returned to his desk and put on his glasses again, working on his laptop while Chloe and I sat on the couch across from Tina. When I sat beside Chloe, Tina pouted her cheeks and muttered.

"So you choose your girlfriend over your sister, shitty brother?"

"Huh, what are you talking about?" I asked her while smirking. "I won't sit beside you before you talk about the mess that you caused recently."

When I said that, I heard a laugh from the Darkest Secret. "Hahahaha, he got you good, Tina.

"Pops! Did you tell him about that already?" Tina exclaimed as she raised her voice slightly at the Darkest Secret.

"No. But you underestimated your brother too much." He said without looking at us and kept typing on his laptop. "Did you forget why he left in the first place? Because he found out about that."

"Of course, I know about it! There is no way my shitty brother, who loves me so much to the point of sending a lot of people to the hospital, left without any reason!" Tina confidently shouted back at the man.

It was amazing that she could say that his brother loved her so much, but my investigation was on point. Vincent really sent people to the hospital to protect his sister. However, one thing was still bothering me.

'That?' I questioned inside my mind. What was 'that' that he meant? And it was related to why Vincent left the orphanage in the first place.

'Could it be he's talking about the opportunity that will come in two months?! In that case, how could Vincent.. No.. Darkest Secret must've told him some hint about it. Because that opportunity is purposely left for Vincent.'

It was at that moment I noticed something. My novel indeed had no plot hole, that was until volume 29 that had been edited by my editor. However, the opportunity that I talked about was explained in volume 30 when Vincent faced Zaiden. I didn't explain why Vincent came to the Academy in the first place.

I also found out that this body had been Awakened since I was first transmigrated.

'That means Vincent knew about the opportunity and purposely attended the Academy to get it.'

The pieces had come together now. Unexpectedly, the plot hole that I made in volume 30 had connected me to the Darkest Secret, the best informant in the world. Should I call this fortunate? Or should I be mad because I made a plot hole?

Anyway, this was truly fortunate.

"So, my little sister, what mess did you make when I was away?" I asked her playfully.

Chloe didn't say anything earlier, and I glanced at her only to find her smiling as she looked at me. It seemed like she was trying to be considerate when I was talking with Tina. She didn't need to do that, though.

"Ugh." Tina grunted as if she had been found guilty before averting her gaze at me. "I just entered a dungeon illegally to get some clue about Demons and got caught while I was at it. So I spent some time in the Awakener Prison..."

'Excuse me, what?' I was surprised when I heard her. 'She's trying to find a clue about the Demon? Why? And she got caught because of that?'historical

This girl seemed to be more troublesome than I thought earlier. Even Chloe's mouth gaped when she heard what Tina said. But, my expectation was shattered the next moment Chloe spoke.

"You did exactly like what Vincent did when he met me the first time. I guess you are really his sister!" She exclaimed happily.

I wanted to scream at her that she shouldn't tell Tina about that, but it was too late. Instead, I crossed my arms and grinned.

"But I didn't get caught. Unlike a certain girl." I narrowed my eyes at Tina, making her shriek like a small animal.

"Alright, it's my bad, okay? I won't do it again! I will not get caught next time!" She yelled at me, but her face betrayed her bravado. She was pouting while throwing her face away as her legs moved back and forth like a little child.

What was this? Teasing Tina was fun. And it seemed like she was used to being teased. Maybe Vincent also teased her? I didn't care; it was fun. I felt refreshed, and I felt like my stress left me because of it.

"Forgive her for it, Vincent. You shouldn't tease your sister too much." The Darkest Secret spoke. I glanced at him and noticed that he had taken off his glasses.

"You are done?" I asked.

"Yes." He stood up from his seat and made his way to Tina, sitting beside her. "Tina, you should compose yourself again. How can you be an information gatherer if you always got your emotions ahead of you? Learn a little from Vincent. He's good at concealing his emotions."

"Ugh, but Father Richard! He..." She answered, seemingly dejected and was about to complain, but quickly shut her mouth when she heard what Darkest Secret, Richard, said next.

"No, but. If you want to get back at him, just tell him about the information that you get. Maybe he will stop teasing you with that."

"Oh right!" She exclaimed happily. How fast. Her recovery was quick as if her sad and happy expression could be turned on and off with a single button.

She turned at me and puffed her chest before exclaiming.

"Listen here, brother! You have taken care of the Fake Artifacts' mastermind, right?"

Although her tone was filled with happiness and sounded as if she was bragging, the atmosphere turned serious all of a sudden. Even Richard gave me a look that I should listen to Tina seriously.

Sensing the atmosphere, Chloe put on a serious face, and I asked.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Don't be surprised, but he was not the true mastermind! There is someone else behind that scam!" She explained.

I knew that the Demon was behind Raymond, but it was surprising that they found out about it in less than a day. However, I shouldn't have known about that information, so I put on a surprised face.

"What?"

"Yeah! To tell you the short story, I heard a Demon in the prison that I was in talking about the Fake Artifacts thing and paying back the girl who hit him in the Supermarket when he was pretending to be a human. So, the true mastermind behind the Fake Artifacts is actually a Demon! A Demon, I said!" She repeated the name Demon to show how important it was.

I did know about it, but then again, my attention was focused on something entirely different from what she wanted to tell me.

'A girl who hit him in the Supermarket? Is that..' A person came into my mind when she mentioned about a girl who hit a person that was dragged into a prison because he made a mess in a Supermarket. I glanced at Chloe, and she looked back at me.

"I think the Demon was the person that I hit. What do you think, Vincent?" She asked innocently.

'So it was indeed her!' I screamed inside my mind while facepalmed.

Richard and Tina looked at Chloe in confusion. Shortly after, Richard burst into laughter.

"HAHAHAHA! How funny. This situation is so funny! So the Demon wanted to defeat the Hero? That's just suicide!"

I never thought that the second arc would be started by a mere coincidence where a Hero accidentally put the Demon unconscious and made him put in prison.

'Ah, I made a lot of retorts today. Why do things never follow what I intended? I am the fucking Author! Fuck you, Zaiden! If only you didn't change the story, it will still follow the path that I intended it to be!'