Chapter 15: Investment 15— Investigating (Part Two)

The next day Elliot arrived according to the plan. They were supposed to head to the mailbox department.

"Taumus, how long is it going to take for you to floss your teeth?" Elliot murmured. They were already running late and for some reason Taumus was taking his sweet time in the bathroom.

"Am almost done," he replied.

"You said that about 30 minutes ago," Elliot grunted. "Imma leave you here." He turned around and started walking towards the door. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

"You monster. I thought we were besties." Taumus quickly rushed out of the bathroom.

’This trick works all the time.’ Elliot purposely said those words to get Taumus to hurry up and, knowing him, he wouldn’t want to miss out on a detective mission or class.

"I almost forgot. We are having our first Introduction to Spells class this afternoon," Taumus quickly mentioned upon remembering the professor that would be taking the class.

"Oh shit! The more reason why we have to hurry." Elliot dragged Taumus out of the room and they ran towards the front of the mailbox department.

After many twists and turns and Taumus rapidly catching his breath, they finally came into view of Deria and Edith.

"What took you guys so long!" Deria muttered with a slightly disappointed expression.

"You both are two minutes and forty-one seconds late." Edith checked the time on her watch.

Elliot stopped, barely catching his breath. "Sorry. We are here now." He crouched, his chest against his knees, panting.

"Where’s Se—I mean Cloudia?" He stood upright.

"Am here Elliot-chan." She waved at him from behind.

"Here you go." She handed him a cup of coffee.

[Special quest: Clear Seria’s name]

[Reward: two vitality potions]

[Time limit: two days]

[Penalty for failure: Death]

[Secondary quest: Take Seria along while investigating]

[Reward: flame affinity +1]

[Penalty for failure: mana reserve tier -3]

’Elliot-chan.’ He was taken to cloud nine in an instant. His feet wobbled from joy.

He quickly came to after seeing the text pop-ups from his system. He had already received the secondary mission previously so basically his system was being kind enough to give him a reminder.

’What’s with the special quests always having death penalties? Does this system hate me or something?’ He grunted inwardly.

"Girls!" She gave out two cups of coffee to Deria and Edith.

"Serry, you always remember the extra sprinkles," Deria swooned over her act of kindness.

"Leave it to my impeccable bestie to get that vendor to put the extra chocolate chunks." Edith grinned widely over the fact that the coffee vendor usually declined people who asked for the extra chunks of chocolate.

"Argh, I am here too in case anyone forgot." Taumus waved a hand with an awkward smile.

"Tsk. Are we supposed to care?" Seria pursed her lips as she turned her face away.

"One joke and she already hates me," Taumus cried in a brief moment of regret.

"I warned you though." Deria brushed past him as she walked inside the building.

"No— no you didn’t," he grunted, following behind her.

"I am now," she chuckled.

They entered the building of the mailbox department. Stacks of letters yet to be delivered sat atop the desks all over the room. The department was responsible for delivering messages to the dorms of students in the academy.

They were a group of individuals that always looked like they were about to drop dead. For some reason the students in the academy were very passionate about sending letters as it was the only easy means of communication apart from the intercoms which only a select few and the student council were allowed access to use.

A female student sat behind a desk encircled by numerous letters.

"Are you here to deposit some letters? Please drop them over there." She pointed a finger towards the stack of letters to her left.

"And then write your name and the name of the student you intend to send it to, plus your signature." She adjusted her specs.

"We don’t want another case of inauthenticity." She added, eyes fully focused on whatever she was writing and paying them no mind.

"Eh-Eh, we are actually here to check the register for the mails that were sent about a week ago," Elliot mentioned.

"AHH, in that case. Please hand over your student IDs." She stretched forth her hand.

They each dropped their student IDs on the desk. It was just Seria remaining.

"I don’t have a fake ID for Cloudia," she whispered to Elliot.

"Don’t worry. I made provision for that." He handed her an ID card.

"Thanks." Her eyes lit up and then she dropped her ID on the desk.

The mailbox department receptionist meticulously checked each of their ID cards.

"All done." She pushed aside their ID cards.

"You can access the register through that door over there." She pointed towards the door at the edge of the room.

"Ensure not to touch anything else apart from the register. You have 20 minutes." She continued writing.

"Argh, thanks," he replied as they collected their IDs and went towards the door.

’This place is super gloomy just like in the rumours.’

The door creaked open and they walked inside. The book at the center table immediately came into view.

"Why the hell are the lights twitching?" Deria jolted.

Edith walked behind Deria and clapped her hands. "Boo!"

"Hcckkkk!" Deria’s hair stood on end.

"Edith, that was not funny." She pursed her lips.

"Hahahaha. That was super satisfying." She burst into laughter.

"I second that." Seria chuckled.

"Ahaha—" Taumus joined them to laugh but the glares he received shut him up instantly.

"Why so hostile?" He lamented inwardly.

"Found it!" Elliot’s voice carried. He placed a finger upon the page.

"Good going." Seria praised him.

"From what’s written here, Seria dropped those letters off on the 17th around 10am," Elliot mentioned.

"Wait, wasn’t that the day we went to the commoner district?" Deria stated quickly.

"Yes, yes exactly." Edith nodded her head.

"10am?" Seria placed a hand underneath her chin.

"Wasn’t that the time that we were helping you practice how to ask—"

Edith covered Deria’s mouth before she could spill Seria’s secret.

"What’s going on?" Taumus asked.

"It’s none of your business, twib." Edith verbally assaulted him.

"So from whatever you guys are hiding, Seria was with you guys at that time right?" Elliot cut in.

"Yeah, yeah. She was with us the whole time. That I can guarantee." Deria said as she flexed her jaw to check if she received any damage from earlier.

"Then who wrote her name and signature?" Elliot said with a disturbed tone as he showed them the signature.

"That’s a really bad imitation of my signature," Seria muttered.