Chapter 118: Chapter 117 – Reports

18:55 Same Day

Yuna sat at the bar of the Hideout as she waited for the time of her appointment to come by. There was no follow up email after the initial one she received so she didn’t know what to expect. 

‘All I can do for now is wait,’ she thought as she took a sip of her water. 

Glancing around, she couldn’t find the two women that she had met the first time she had visited. She also noticed that there were considerably fewer people who were staring at her. It was probably because she decided to wear more casual and muted clothing than she had the first time.

The minutes ticked by until the bartender came by Yuna to refill her drink. He took a glance at her glass and took it.

“It looks a bit dirty,” he explained. “I’ll getcha a better one.”

“Thank you,” Yuna said and the man nodded. “Wait.”

The bartender turned around, eyebrows raised as he waited for Yuna’s question.

“I just was wondering where the other bartender went,” she said with an uncomfortable smile. “The lady with the violet eyes?”

“Oh, are you talking about Erica?” the bartender asked. Yuna nodded. “She doesn’t actually work here full time. Sometimes she’ll drop by and work for a bit. She says that it’s fun.”

“I see. Do you know if her eyes are real?” Yuna said, recalling those deep violet eyes that almost glowed. “They’re very beautiful.”

“I really don’t know,” he answered. “I never thought to ask, but they’re quite something. She’s also pretty beautiful herself as well. Not just her eyes.”

‘He’s not wrong.’

“Anyway, let me getcha a new glass,” he said again. “I’ll be back in a jiff.”

He walked to a corner of the bar and reached under. Taking out a glass, he dumped the water that was in the original glass and filled the new glass. Then he walked back to where Yuna was sitting and set the drink down on the coaster in front of her.

“Here you go,” the bartender smiled. “Are you sure you don’t want anything? You’re at a bar ya know? You should get a drink or something.”

“No, I’m good,” Yuna shook her head, giving the bartender a small smile.

“Alright then,” he said. He walked off and Yuna turned her attention back to the glass of water in front of her. 

‘Oh.’

On the base of the glass, black words were written. It was just like how Yuna received the message to meet up behind the bar the first time she was at the Hideout. This time the message told her to go to the hallway that led into the restroom. Checking the time on her watch, she saw that it was exactly 19:00.

‘Let’s do this.’

She took a sip of her water before heading toward the restroom. When she entered the hallway, there was a male elf waiting. He gestured to her to follow him and started walking down the hall. Yuna followed him until he stopped at a particular part of the hallway with no doors or devices that Yuna could see. The elf pressed his hand onto the wall and a section of the wall was pushed in. The section then moved to the side without a sound and the elf motioned to Yuna to enter.

“Thank you,” she said as she walked in. The elf didn’t reply and the door shut silently. 

The room was dark but seemed barren. Yuna could hear her footsteps on the hard floor. There didn’t seem to be anyone inside of it.

“Welcome, Yuna,” an unfamiliar voice greeted. It was female but Yuna was unable to locate the source. “How was your day so far?”

“It was good. If I may, who are you?” she asked. “And where are you?”

“Let me shine some light onto the question,” the voice replied. The room lit up and Yuna found herself in a room filled with tiles. Light shined from the cracks in between the metal tiles. The voice giggled. “I always wanted to use that joke.”

“I still can’t see you,” Yuna said apologetically. 

“Oh, that’s true. Maybe this would help.”

A mass of golden particles appeared before Yuna that pulsated and morphed continuously.

“Can you see me now?” the voice said. The particles moved as if it was synced to the voice. 

“You’re the ball?”

“Excuse you, I’m not a ball. I’m an AI unit.”

“AI?” Yuna repeated, her eyes growing big. “Like Raphael from the Academy?”

“Yup~,” the voice said. “I’m an AI. Uncle Raphael is like a grandpa compared to me though. But that wasn’t what you’re here for.”

“Wait. Who made you?”

“Can’t answer that, sadly,” the voice said cheerfully. “Boss doesn’t like it when I get off topic anyway so let’s get on to the main topic. Your mission.”

Screens appeared before Yuna displaying pictures of the Academy and her own school profile. Her profile that contained her actual age.

“This is you correct?” the AI asked. “You don’t really have to answer that. It was more rhetorical than anything.”

“That’s me,” Yuna answered.

“Okay, I wasn’t looking for an actual answer but alright,” the voice said. “Anyway, we don’t really care that you lied about your age or any of that, so don’t worry about it. You do what you have to do. So now we can take advantage of this situation.”

The screens disappeared, leaving Yuna alone with the golden mass of particles. 

“As you probably could guess, we don’t have any underage people inside of the guild. That’s because the recruitment site is at a bar. But now that you’re here, we have one member underage. And you’re currently enrolled in the Academy. I think you know what I’m going to say next.”

“You want me to do reconnaissance and spy on the Academy,” Yuna said.

“Ding ding ding! That’s correct,” the voice cheered. “We couldn’t do this before since we didn’t have anyone that would fit the profile needed to infiltrate the Academy properly. So thank you for joining us, Yuna.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Well, that’s it. Uhh, there’s really nothing else to say,” the AI said, the end of its sentence trailing off.  “So, yeah. You’re free to go~.”

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“Wait, what exactly do you want me to report on?” Yuna asked.

“Whatever you find interesting. Any big news or events that happen inside. You’ll receive another notification when we want a report back. Any other questions?”

“Yes. There was something I was wondering about,” Yuna started. She stopped for a second to consider her next words. “Are there demons that are members in the Valkyries?”

“That’s quite an interesting question. Why do you ask?”

“I was just a bit worried. Demons aren’t known to be gentle beings and I would like to know if I’m going to be working with them.”

“Oh, Yuna. Demons should be the least of your worries,” the AI laughed. “There are many more dangerous beings in the world than demons. If that’s how you see them, then you may want to reconsider your views.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can’t elaborate on that. So, goodbye~!” the AI said before the mass of particles disappeared.

“Thank you?” Yuna said hesitantly. She didn’t know where to direct her words to. There was no reply and the room once again grew dim.

---

 

“What happened, Yuna?” her captain asked. His shadowy face was being projected in front of her from her watch.

“What do you mean, sir?” Yuna asked. The captain had just picked up her call and she hadn’t said anything yet.

“You wouldn’t call me unless something happened. Especially at night. You’re scheduled report day isn’t until a few weeks,” he explained. “So what happened?”

“Nothing happened, sir,” she replied. “At least, nothing happened to me. I just needed to report something I found.”

“And this thing you want to report is very important, right?”

“I believe it is.”

“Then go on, officer,” her captain said, waving his hand.

“There are a few things that I found that are interesting,” she started. “I received my assignment from the guild today. I was sent a notification through my Academy assigned watch that then proceeded to delete itself.”

“Did you give them your information?” 

“I never remembered every sharing my contact information with them before,” Yuna said, shaking her head. “It’s possible that they took the information when they briefly made me unconscious for security reasons.”

“I see. What else?”

“The big thing that I wanted to report was that my actual age was discovered within a day,” she continued. “When I was receiving my mission from the guild, an AI showed me my Academy profile.”

“Hold on. Back up,” the captain interrupted. “An AI?”

“Yes sir.”

“And they managed to find your Academy profile within a day?”

“Yes sir.”

“I need to inform the higher ups about this right now,” he said as he rubbed his forehead. “This is worrying news. Thank you for telling me this now, Yuna.”

“Wait. The higher ups? You mean the chairmen?”

“Yes,” the captain nodded. “I’m going to emphatically recommend that your assignment be upgraded in priority to urgent if not to emergency. What you’ve given me is enough to do that.”

“Emergency?” Yuna asked, her eyes growing large. “But that’s only for cases that pose an immediate threat.”

“Yes, and what you’ve told me is enough for me to make the assumption that the Valkyries are an immediate threat. Though it might not be enough.”

“If you don’t mind, can you explain to me why?”

“Of course,” he said. “When the Valkyries were first brought up to our attention, they were a little known group that seemed to only do the occasional raid. The only reason we decided to start an investigation was because Mason Inc. had requested one. Based on our preliminary information, we assumed that the Valkyries were a small and under equipped dark guild. This was because they only target small supply trucks and the like. You were sent in to see if you could find anything else. And what you found was that they have resources that we severely underestimated.”

“Do you mean their AI?”

“That and the fact that your Academy profile was discovered. When we were preparing to send you in, we edited your profile in the government database with their permission. That profile is the only profile that is available to the public. The other profiles you have is the one with the LIA and the one with Academy. The Valkyries managed to access the one in the Academy.”

“But the Academy should have a weaker database than the LIA.”

“That is true,” the captain nodded. “However, the Academy has a stronger digital defense than the majority of government agencies.They also have the benefit of having an AI to help in their security. So hacking into their systems is not an easy task to do. Even us here at the LIA have problems trying to access their databases. Trust me, we tried.”

“They could just know the right people in order to obtain that information.”

“Yes. But then you said that they have an AI. There are only two known AI systems in Libra. Raphael at the Academy, and Joseph at the White Room. Now we know that there are actually three and so that must mean that someone that works for the Valkyries has the capability to create an AI. That is a massive concern.”

“I see.”

“That is why I’m going to send in a request to upgrade the status of your mission,” the captain said. “However, I don’t think I have enough information to justify assigning it an emergency. For the rest of the information, I’m going to need your help Yuna.”

“What do you need, sir?” Yuna asked, her back instinctively straightening.

“I’m going to give you one week,” he said. “One week to find out what their motives are. We need to know if they are an enemy or if they are merely just a power. If they are just a powerhouse sitting in the background, then we can watch them but not attack them. If they are an enemy, then we would need to upgrade their status to emergency. Can you do that, officer?”

“I’ll try my best, sir,” she said firmly.

“I believe you. You have one week, Officer Yuna.”

 

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