Enten had little difficulty guessing that the reason for Hoapilen’s poor complexion was her personal affairs.
It was only natural that her mind and body would be agitated since the person responsible for the death of her family two years ago had resurfaced through the incident that occurred in Neadegu.
Indeed, Hoapilen seemed very busy lately, likely running around to handle the incident.
Enten had even felt that it had been a long time since he had seen her face-to-face and talked.
Enten knew why Hoapilen was busy, but he couldn’t know exactly what she was busy with.
Aside from his personal curiosity, information regarding what a person in the position of the Director of the Capital Central was doing privately using their inherent authority was inaccessible even to Enten, the Deputy Director.
In fact, he could probably find out if he genuinely set his mind to it, but the feeling of ‘Why bother?’ was strong.
He understood Hoapilen’s personal grudge against Roilnia, the person involved in the current incident, but that was an area too private for Enten to interfere with.
He preferred to deal with Hoapilen only in the official domain, and out of respect for his superior, he didn’t want to pry into her privacy.
Bubble, bubble—Thump.
When the electric kettle sounded the signal that the water had finished boiling, Enten broke free from his reverie and quickly took out his thermos and a paper cup for the Director, filling them with the quince preserve.
As he poured the water into the cups, steam billowed up, warmly enveloping his face.
After stirring the quince preserve well with a muddler, Enten hurriedly left the utility room.
“Haven’t you heard from [Integra]?”
“In fact, they contacted me to register the final third control device release. I think Moria was supposed to do it today with Ben, but I wonder if they’ve done it.”
“The final… control device.”
“Yes, indeed. Who would have imagined that it could all be released? But I heard that Haimar has been suffering from adaptation to the release lately. So, it seems they’ll proceed with the release once he gets a bit better, not immediately.”
Hoapilen sat at the main computer of the Development Office database, vaguely nodding, and clicked the mouse.
As Enten approached her and offered the cup, the computer screen naturally entered his field of vision.
Even with a privacy film attached, it wasn’t a significant hindrance enough to completely obscure the screen from an Esper’s eyes.
To add a slight excuse, he just happened to see it as he placed the cup down; he didn’t intentionally try to look.
He had merely raised his eyes slightly over his horn-rimmed glasses.
‘Guide Data Browsing? Is she looking for someone?’
The surprising topic piqued his interest, but the opened window was abruptly minimized.
Enten, who was left in a position where he had inadvertently spied on his superior’s work, cleared his throat and brought up the most talked-about topic of the moment to cover his flustered expression.
“Ahem! Director, did you hear the news? They say Ben and Haimar are official now. I must be living a long life to see this.”
“…Haimar Eilec, you mean.”
Hoapilen’s hand, which was raising the quince tea to her lips, paused.
The news seemed surprising to the Director as well, just as it had been to Enten.
When Enten first heard Moria talking with unrestrained excitement, he thought it was a joke.
It felt like only yesterday he was praying they would at least become a harmless pair, if not a couple, just so Haimar wouldn’t go berserk, but now they were lovers.
Although they seemed to be keeping it quiet, the life of a celebrity was tough; it was already a hot topic known to everyone in the loop.
Enten wondered if the people at the center of the rumor even knew they were being treated like celebrities.
In any case, although Enten was surprised, he welcomed their relationship.
An Irregular Guide was already difficult to make an exception for, so it was better for them to be an inseparable pair rather than on distant terms.
When contemplating love, Enten involuntarily thought of his Guide and beloved wife, nodding to himself.
“That’s… good news.”
Hoapilen, whom Enten expected to be surprised and add a few more words like others, merely continued her sentence with a reluctant look without the usual small talk, and said nothing further.
It was a disappointingly bland reaction to Enten.
She moved the keyboard and mouse while sipping her quince tea, without further conversation.
Enten, who had been ready to make a big fuss but was embarrassed by the other person’s cold reaction, resolutely decided to abandon the topic that the Director seemed displeased with.
“But Director, you don’t look well. Are you sick?”
Instead, when he skillfully rephrased ‘Are you okay lately?’ in a seasoned corporate manner, Hoapilen put down the quince tea and let out a hollow laugh.
“Sick? Not at all. I was just preparing for a disaster. I took out insurance for it.”
Disaster. Insurance.
Unable to intuitively understand the words, Enten met Hoapilen’s eyes.
She was smiling with her eyes, but her true intention was unknown, and she didn’t necessarily demand an answer from Enten.
So, Enten awkwardly pulled up the corners of his mouth and said nothing.
Hoapilen hadn’t twisted her words.
Enten was an intellect-type Esper and wasn’t slow-witted, so it wasn’t difficult for him to grasp the meaning.
He guessed that the disaster she referred to was some kind of situation stemming from her personal feelings.
There was a high probability that ‘Roilnia Lanilgraph’ was involved, and he estimated that the preparation for it was what she called ‘insurance.’
But the necessity of preparing for insurance by coming to the Guide Information Development Office…
Whooooo—.
At the sudden vibration, Enten and Hoapilen’s gazes simultaneously turned to the source.
Picking up the smartphone that was vibrating violently on her clutch, she slightly bowed her head and asked for understanding.
“I’m sorry, this is an important message. I’ll check it for a moment.”
Hoapilen, who had been sitting and checking the messenger app by just turning her chair, quickly cracked her composure.
Soon, her movements on the smartphone became frantic.
She checked various things and exchanged a few more messages.
Finally, her face, which had been intently staring at the screen, gradually stiffened.
The composure vanished, and the anxiety that had been precariously hidden underneath subtly revealed itself.
A tension unlike anything before enveloped Hoapilen.
Stiffened, she finally raised the smartphone to her ear to make a call but then spotted Enten, who was looking at her in confusion, and hastily ended the call.
“Director?”
“Ah. Enten, you see.”
She seemed reluctant for Enten to see her make the call.
It looked like something so embarrassing and surprising had happened that she had completely forgotten his presence for a moment.
Hoapilen, who was uncharacteristically flustered and losing her composure, abruptly grabbed her clutch and jumped up from her seat.
She searched for words for a few rare seconds, but in the end, she only left Enten with an incomprehensible statement.
“I have to leave my post for a while, no, for quite a long time. I’m entrusting it to you.”
“Pardon? What do you… Oh, Director!”
Enten tried to grab her, but she had left him with the absurd words, “I have to leave my post, so I’m entrusting it to you,” without any explanation.
Unfortunately, Hoapilen had already run out of the Guide Information Development Office.
‘Why leave? For how long? Then what about the work?’
Additional questions rained down in Enten’s mind.
The person who could give the answers had vanished like the wind, and only the still warm quince tea occupied the empty space.
“Good heavens…”
What a terrible surprise on a morning that was supposed to start with a simple cup of quince tea.
The aftertaste of the quince tea he had drunk was slightly bitter.
It was similar to his current uneasy feeling.
He wondered whether he should consider the bad feeling as a personal emotion or an Esper’s intuition.
Although he had many thoughts, Enten set everything aside for now.
Since the commuting time was approaching, it wouldn’t be strange for employees to start appearing in the office one by one soon.
Most of all, Enten, who wanted to avoid the awkward sight of running into an employee from another department in an odd location, cleared the paper cup Hoapilen had used and tidied the chair.
Finally, he looked at the monitor to organize the main computer where she had been sitting.
Since she had left in a hurry, the computer was still turned on, and there was one program that hadn’t been closed.
Although the computer would be turned on again when the employees arrived, it was better that no trace of her visit remained.
Enten, who had suddenly found himself helping his superior destroy evidence, sighed and moved the mouse cursor toward the shutdown button.
Then, he suddenly remembered Hoapilen browsing the Guide data earlier.
“……”
The contemplation was very brief.
‘Since I’m closing my eyes to my superior’s transgression and even helping destroy the evidence, surely I can look at this much?’
Enten confidently moved the cursor and clicked on the browsing history.
‘…Deleted?’
Contrary to Enten’s expectation when he casually opened the history to see who she had checked, the most recent record was from yesterday.
Either she hadn’t searched for anything, or she had deliberately deleted the browsing history.
It was one of the two, but Enten leaned toward the latter.
There must have been a reason for Hoapilen to come here; she wouldn’t have just opened the program and done nothing.
So, the dilemma now was whether to simply shut down the computer or to search a little further…
