Richard let Cindy and Yuna discuss the matters around his cooperation with the Korean witch while he led the tall woman to a private room Yuna graciously offered.

Although Cindy said that he would leave the matter of making deals to Richard, she ended up going back on her words the moment Richard started showing a bit of favor for the pink haired witch.

Because of the interaction he had with his fellow clairvoyant, Richard got the help of Cindy while he was able to get some time alone with the tall lady.

"So, I don’t like beating around the bush, what do you need my help with?"

Richard went straight to the point after he and the tall woman seated themselves in the private room.

There was no need for drinks or anything as Richard was not going to waste time on worthless pleasantries. Those were things that people out in the open rely on, to the current Richard?

While reputation was important, he wasn’t some billionaire whose words could cause his company to go bankrupt overnight.

He was now just a regular person with a bit of money, a bit of power but little to no influence.

The woman took in a deep breath before removing her mask revealing her crimson lips.

"Are you gonna ask me the question? I won’t lie, you’re pretty even without the mask but I don’t see any cuts on your face, so what are you gonna do?"

Richard did not see the typical description people had of the infamous urban legend. The woman did not have the cut up face so-

"I think you mistake me for someone else, I’m better known as the woman that goes "po... po... po", not the woman who cuts faces"

"..."

Despite being corrected, Richard did not show any reaction like guilt or embarrassment. Instead, he simply made a face of realization followed by a slow nod.

"I see, so? What did you need help with?"

Immediately, Richard shifted the conversation away from the topic of what type of yokai the woman was.

This nonchalant attitude did not seem to bother the woman who obviously had more pressing concerns. Getting misidentified was something that would make existences that rely on rumors and legends to exist angry but the fact that she was calm-

No, she had something more important to deal with.

It was obvious from her reactions, joking was not something she wanted to care about.

Seeing this, Richard was able to quickly turn the topic back to the main reason why they had to have this private talk.

"I’m not sure if you know about it, but people have been disappearing recently all over the country"

"I know, but isn’t that normal? People call that ’Johatsu’ right? Even I know of it"

Richard used the same argument that Cindy had shot at him. He won’t just tell the woman that he was also looking into the same thing.

"You’re Japanese is good"

"Thank you, so? Is that all you want to talk about? If you want me to look for your friend then-"

"No, I need help catching the perpetrator of the disappearances"

Richard raised his brow recreating the famous meme featuring a certain wrestler. His reaction though was taken as a "skeptical response" by the woman showing her lack of reaction to the recreation of the famous meme.

"So... what your telling me is that the disappearances are not related to people escaping their bad position and more an act made by a certain individual or group of individuals, yes?"

The woman nodded her head and Richard continued his line of questioning.

"And you know who these individual or group of individuals are?"

*Nod*

Richard leaned his back on the soft foam of the backrest and thought for a few moments. The woman did not say anything and simply waited for him to talk.

Squinting his eyes, Richard tried to force her to say more but she maintained her silence over the course of five minutes and Richard decided to speak up.

"Since you’re asking me for help, I’m assuming that the people responsible kidnapped someone you are about? Or are they encroaching on your territory? From what I recall, the "Po-po-po" lady... well, outside of off brand anime and manga is known for "making people disappear"... Is this a request for help in some turf war?"

Richard enumerated his guess on her request, the fact that she only asked for help and gave vague hints showed that there was something more to this problem that meets the eye.

In the world of mystics, words are dangerous things.

Names are weaknesses and knowledge is a double edged sword.

The woman’s silence proves that whoever it is that was causing the disappearances were unlikely to be a small-time monster or urban legend.

Moreover, instead of gathering help from fellow mystical beings, the woman approached Richard.

"Are they human or control humans?"

*Nod*

"I see..."

In other words, the people who are causing the disappearance are human and they’ve been targeting people and-

"Did they kidnap someone important to you?"

*Nod*

"Human?"

*Nod*

Double kill!

Jokes aside, Richard found an interesting matter, while he wanted to ask if the human was a boy and if they were underage. He held back as he got all the information he needed.

Simply put-

A mystical creature, a famous urban legend in Japan favors a human. Said human was spirited away by a mysterious force but that force was not composed of-

"Are they all human?"

*shake*

"It’s a group?"

*nod*

"Are there mystic beings in the group?"

*nod*

"Practioners of mystic arts?"

*nod*

"Witches?"

*shrug*

"Are the human members... no, are the Normal, non-mystical humans in their group?"

*nod*

A group that is composed of non-mystics, mystics and mystical beings...

They are kidnapping people and making it look like those disappeared individuals were trying to escape from their identity.

Richard then continued to ask more questions but the woman started to shrug more than nod or shake her head.

Seeing as most of the other things he wanted to know resulted in shrugs, Richard let out a sigh as he then asked.

"Could you lead me to where that person you care about disappeared? Maybe their house?"

*nod* 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

By the end of their talks, the woman acceded to lead him to the place where her "important person" vanished.

Just as they finished their talks, Cindy entered the room with a contract.

"Now then, how about we finish the deal?"

She said with a smile as she presented the contract to the woman.

"You weren’t planning to start a job without a contract right?"

Cindy gave Richard a bright smile as she asked and with full confidence Richard answered.

"Of course not, that’s what your job is right?"

He answered calmly, his confidence showing no sign of distress of any other emotion that would say otherwise.

But in his heart, Richard started to sweat.

Though it wasn’t like he didn’t think of making a written contract-

’Wouldn’t a verbal contract work?’

He thought as he recalled the contracts he had made with the people around him. Even Yuna made a contract that was signed by a mystical force through their "souls?".

[Are you planning to enslave the poor girl?]

The Goddess asked Richard who answered her in his mind-

’No’

He understood what the goddess was implying but... was making a deal like the one he was making related to enslavement?

But Cindy and the others weren’t his slaves though?

[You’ve been dealing with witches and God’s, even Ragnar was honoring a pact to work under you. Everyone you made deals with were all closely tied to you and the recent witch was planning to make such a pact with you from the start]

’...’

Simply put, all the deals Richard made were with "relatives and friends", the type of deals where agreements could be waived when necessary. In other words- empty deals.

But the woman before him-

[Her silence could be related to you]

"..."

If the woman kept silent because she was trying her best to avoid getting dragged into a bad state, why didn’t she do it from the start?

[Her words were curt and meant to explain, what came next was an interrogation]

’She could have explained’

[That would still be an "Answer", you don’t need to say "yes" for an agreement to be made do you?]

"..."

Again, his knowledge of the mystical arts improved! This should be something good but... what he learned only made him realize how difficult his future would likely become.

[If it weren’t for that power mysticism had, then it wouldn’t be able to survive to this day]

For a power that could deflect bullets or do some crazy shit with enough "belief", the mere fact that powerful secret organizations existed should mean that they had methods to allow such groups to go on for so long.

Removing the mystical ability to prolong life or toy with life, Richard thought that mystics focused on using barriers and other techniques to "hide in plain sight" but with the revelation of a "deeper" mechanism to "deals"...

’Maybe agreements of cooperation between the mystic and non-mystical world was not as... solid as I thought...’

[Oppression is a norm, everyone who holds power plays a "zero-sum game", you know that right?]

’...’

[You’re now a player on that board, but- unlike others, you don’t play on a single board but multiple]

’I’m bad at chess’

[Then get better, your opponents are already playing in 5D]

’Time travel?! Fuck! They could unmake me!’

[It’s an expression!]

’Hehe’

While having such a conversation with the Goddess, Richard remained silent with a poker face meanwhile, Cindy took over and their exchange was even more silent as they simply passed along papers before stamping the final document with their blood.

"It’s done"

Cindy called out to Richard who reacted immediately and stood up.

"Well then- shall we?"