"This, why are you?"
Kayne knitted his eyebrows when he saw an unexpected person waiting for him in his room. After they went to the crime scene with Lucian and Koiren, Lucian left with no more words for him except for the piece of paper he hid earlier. He's obviously on a rush, judging on the manner he took off with the carriage. Maybe it's because of his troublesome kid again.
"Kayne!" Nathaira called to him as she put down the mug of coffee on the table in front of another person — Keenan Viridian.
Keenan's sitting quietly in the chesterfield sofa he sat before when he first came in as an unnamed orphan, eyes closed, fingers fidgeting and legs trembling uncontrollably. From time to time he will hiccup and sob and wipe some stray tears from his eyes. The image of his brother, Chad is still fresh in his eyes. His disfigured body, broken limbs, wide eyes that alludes the pain he underwent before breathing his last breath horrified Keenan to the bone. It's chilling and painful at the same time, making him torn in between wanting to forget the image and etching the image in his mind forever.
Kayne pointed at Keenan and threw an inquiring look at Nathaira, which the latter immediately responded to.
She walked to him and grabbed his hands and pulled him farther away from the traumatized person in his space.
"Lord Rayleigh took him in according to the school rules but temporarily, he wants him to be away from the inspectors and other people that might trigger him right now. Maybe in a week or at least three days, when he's already calmed down, we can let him meet them for questioning but not now."
"This..." Kayne tilted his head and tried to analyze everything that's coming from Nathaira's mouth. It's not making any sense for him, although it does, the words are contradictory to what they are doing right now. "I am an inspector too, you know?," he said in a whisper.
Nathaira nodded. "Hm, yes, but at the same time, not. Right? We know that Lucian Regulus have bad blood against Knox Valdis so it's probable that he'll kick you out of the team of investigators once Lucian left. From there, you can focus on guarding the survivor." She glanced again at Keenan and smiled at Kayne. "You can do it right, right? I trust you."
Kayne clicked his tongue and left Nathaira standing alone there in the corner. He went to his room and pulled the toy box gifted to him by his father and tried to practice controlling his mana once again like the amateur he is when Rigel was drilling the basics to him.
He need to finish the investigation as fast as he could so he's making simulations inside his head on how he could take advantage of Keenan to increase the speed of the conclusion for this case. That's when he remembered the piece of paper given to him by Lucian.
It looks nothing special, just an instruction on how to use Duane with weird scribblings on the back of the paper.
"That!"
Kayne slapped his ears that suddenly went painful from the sudden screeching of the voice inside him.
"That! I know that," Ris told him.
"Can't you say it a little quietly?," Kayne complained to the soul binded into his second core.
"My bad, hahaha, my bad. I am just shock to see that thing again."
Kayne raised the paper and looked at it behind the light to see if there's something unusual on it.
"Those scribbles, I know what it is. That's the runes used for transport and contain magic that is not usually used since there are already teleportation scrolls and devices available."
"But people can't tele—"
"In our time! Our time, okay? Remember that I lived before and have a brother. During those times, magic was more advanced than what it is now."
Kayne rolled his eyes and just let Ris do all the talking. On the other hand, Ris also felt the need to explain everything to Kayne starting from his origin again but he just let it pass and focused on the matter that's on the desk right now.
"These are ancient runes. Although runes are ancient as it is, this kind of rune existed before the standard runes that we know right now. You can call it the scribblings of the original people. However, it also contains meanings and certain purposes," Ris explained to him seriously.
"And who are these original people?"
Ris thought for a second if he'll say it to Kayne or keep it to himself because there's no merit in doing so.
"Iris Engelard..." Kayne groaned when his reply did not come as fast as before.
"Ah, yes." Ris sighed and continued his spilling of beans. "They are demons. The ancients," he said unenthusiastically.