Three days after the attack on the kidnappers base, Richard was in the office staring at Maiko who had once been a delusional supporter of the once missing Karen Tamashiro.

Yes, the woman who was missing from the group of kidnapped individuals was now getting malding at the woman who she was willing to risk her life for.

The reason?

[KonShio~ It’s your lovely little SeraDiva! I know that news about me going missing and all that came out but I am here to announce that I’m alright! I’ve shed away my mortal form and now am a true Angel! A seraphim! BOW TO ME MORTALS!!]

After her chuuni-ass introduction, Richard watched as she described her fate in the past few days.

From how she wanted to escape her current life and that her dreams could only be achieved if she truly walked her own path in the world-

She told her fans not to worry as she was in a safe place, outside Japan but somewhere in the east.

Of course, the reason why Maiko was malding wasn’t the fact that her oshi was safe, it was something else...

[I had this feeling that someone was watching me... it always gave me chills and it started about three months ago. Now that I left Japan, the feeling’s gone and I could relax!]

Her "chills" coincided not with Richard’s search but with Maiko’s "stalking".

It seems that Karen had some supernatural roots as she was able to sense Maiko stalking her which was something on the level that only mystics could do.

""I loved her! I tried to protect her! When she went missing I did everything to save her! Then she... then she..."

Ignoring the ghost that was on the verge of a mental breakdown Richard focused on his thoughts, a few ideas came to mind and he felt that something was truly wrong with the whole situation...

[They’re dragging you to their homefield]

’Obviously’

[Still worried about Freyja?]

The goddess asked, leaving Richard unable to answer.

After Ragnar explained the origin of the writings left in the base of the kidnappers, Richard learned that only the Vanir would use the old language.

This meant that the people who had Karen were not keeping her as a "prisoner" and instead kepty her under their "protection".

This would explain why he didn’t have a strong immediate "need" to look for Karen.

Unlike the situation with Andrea where he had a strong desire to make a move, the situation with Karen was more along the lines of "it’s better to ignore it".

Yet there was still a nagging feeling in the back of his mind.

Not born from his "guts" but born from his rational thoughts.

The US gave him "the creeps", the event that dragged him into the world of mystics made him lose confidence in the nation. Even when he was approached by the mystical groups, he didn’t feel a sense of security being in the same room as them.

Instead, he felt as if they would sell him out to his enemies if they could get a good deal.

Moreover, the way they were pushing Agartha...

The fact that they pushed a hidden group to be his enemies because they were "looking for Merlin’s descendants"... there was something off about that.

He escaped to Japan, mostly because the nation, despite its strong ties with the US has some strong misgivings to foreign influence.

Moreover, with how much influence Japan has on the US economy, Richard was sure that people won’t try to use influence to drag him back.

In a way, what Richard did was a form of silent asylum in Japan.

Of course, he tried to hit two birds with one stone but that didn’t really turn out as good as he thought.

Of course, even if Karen did not exist in Japan, he would still end up coming here but he would spend quite some time moving to and from the country.

Yet-

The whole situation with Karen... the kidnappers and all that... Although his senses told him that there was "nothing wrong"... logic said otherwise.

Moreover, the goddess was constantly reminding him "not to rely on clairvoyance".

Past sages had told the story countless times, from Cassandra to Joan d’Arc, prophets die to their own prophecies, trying desperately to resist the future but their obsession with their own "vision" is what blinds them to the present.

But Richard was at an impasse.

His "prophecy" did nothing but assure him of Karen’s safety, but his logical mind told him that everything was a plan.

Yet, no matter how he tried to flip it, combining his logical mind with his prophecy only did one thing-

Lead him towards one path.

But the path he saw... Richard knew that something was up with it after all...

[Freyja is a prophet, you believe that this has something to do with her and Ragnar’s claim on her obsession with Merlin... you think she’s the one who manipulated everything?]

’I wish it were that simple... the biggest problem is that the layered trap points towards Freyja and the Vanir...’

[But on the flip side, their involvement could also be a trap in and of itself, to get Merlin’s allies to fight amongst themselves- like Av*ng*rs C*v*l W*r?]

Richard sighed, the whole situation was a trap, if he made a move, he would get dragged deeper into a conflict and for what?

Chasing after a ghost?

Moreover, his theory was not ensured, it was all a guess, a "Faint Hope" if anything.

Was it really worth throwing it all away for that? To chase after a ghost ignoring the obvious danger because he can?

As Richard was pondering such things, the door to the office opened.

"Is this the paranormal investigation group?"

A young girl walked into the room, she looked to be a high school student-

Scratch that, his guts told him that she was a true high school student-

Why?

He could hear police sirens in his mind the moment he pondered if she was a real student of a cosplayer.

Whether the goddess was playing a trick on him or not didn’t matter.

Richard wasn’t going to jail for hitting on an underaged woman.

Especially since he already had few beauties in his group-

Not that he could make a move on such dangerous women.

"Yes, we investigate anything from mysterious stalkers, actual ghost, mysteries or potential paranormal phenomena. Of course, not for free"

The girl nodded as she entered the office and closed the door, she came up to Richard and sat on the seat opposite of his.

The office was not small but the space for a "proper consultation" was yet to be set-up.

Especially since most of their advertising was done through posters and a chain message that Hana was able to create.

It went under the radar and was sent to people randomly.

Of course, the contact information was set but it also had an address that led to their office.

Normally, such a stunt would garner strong attention but modern phones had methods to immediately delete spam messages.

Moreover, most phones detected spam through "random numbers that had a certain format".

Automatic systems had advanced that much, after all, AI had already started taking over.

Still, Richard’s company did receive some replies. Some of them were spam as well while others were potential hauntings.

Yet none followed up on the communications.

Hana said that she had made sure to have all the messages lead towards individuals that were near or connected to mystical powers.

Even then, unless someone was stupid, any self-respecting mystic won’t answer such an obvious bait. Moreover, non-mystics won’t really see it as any more than a sick joke or maybe a prank cooked up by a few young idiots who learned how to send such messages through a computer.

The number of "Professional Hackers" and "Professional Programmers" on the internet was quite big.

Many of them claimed that they mastered how to invade the systems of others when their greatest attack was a failed attempt at changing the Javascript of a website through "Inspect Element".

That or going to a website that allows them to type randomly on their keyboard and show lines of green text in the form of code.

They were also the type of people who love wearing hoods in an enclosed room without the AC on in the summer heat.

Of course, they also had to endure through the calls from their mother about breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Add the typical scammer who wants you to give them your credit cards pin number, the African Prince who needs money to withdraw his billions and you have a whole generation of people who would ignore any unrecognized contact.

There were even phones that had "Do Not Disturb" modes where users would end up opening their phones only to see 100 missed calls. Some were actively using their phones and they’d still end up missing such calls.

Because of that, Richard didn’t even get a single genuine customer ever since he started the crazy marketing scheme that used mystical methods.

Moreover, he can’t publicly declare that he was the one who rescued the kidnapped people.

Mostly because he left them to Yuna who was going to deal with the aftermath.

It was one thing to rescue the missing people but another thing entirely to explain why the perps disappeared.

Add the accounts of the people saved and Richard could easily get himself in hot water.

Due to that, the rescued people were likely going to disappear. Though Yuna would ensure that they had a way out... she will right?

All Richard had was trust based on Yuna’s desire to form a "good relationship" with him.

Whether that would prove useful or not, only time would tell.

But for now, his focus was on the young girl who had deep dark circles under her eyes that was accompanied by lethargy.

"What seems to be the problem miss?"

Richard asked which made the girl come back to her senses, even when Richard was silently thinking to himself, the girl did not try to grab his attention and had instead started to doze off.

"Sorry... it just felt- comfortable here that I just..."

Richard could tell what she was going through, not because of clairvoyance but logic and thousands of hours watching mystery anime, playing mystery games and also the repetitive stories that he read on the interweb.

"Are you being haunted? From the looks of it, you haven’t been able to sleep well have you?"

The high school girl bit her lips before she started to explain her story.

"I-"