Richard folded the parchment and glanced over at Old Big.
Old Big held up his hands in a gesture that said, ’I’m staying out of this.’
"She already said you could learn it, so I’ve got no problem with it. I couldn’t learn it anyway."
Only then did Richard tuck the parchment into a compartment of his shoulder bag.
He thought about the "Perception Shield" Technique Dionysus had traded at the Divine Pantheon Salon.
’The core of the Silencing Technique is to temporarily sever an opponent’s own Techniques and Breathing Technique.’
’If I think about it in reverse...’
Mrs. MacNeil was clearly too busy to notice the glint in his eyes.
She took the Tire Track Net out of the Answering Head Thorax, refolded it, and placed it back in the Ebony Box.
"That’s all for today."
The Spirit Medium glanced at the wall clock. It was 1:20 AM.
"I have to report the news about the Canal Map’s deployment tonight."
She nodded at Richard.
"You should get some rest. There’s a debriefing first thing tomorrow morning."
Richard murmured his assent, then glanced at Old Big beside him.
Old Big waved a dismissive hand.
"You go on ahead. I’ll stay and clean up."
"The Refining Furnace only burned the section with the outer port. I still have to dismember the rest and get rid of it piece by piece."
"Tough job," Richard said, nodding as he prepared to leave.
Old Big chortled and pulled the copper penny from his pocket again.
"Let me tell you, the longer I do this line of work, the more I feel..."
He glanced over at Mrs. MacNeil and swallowed the rest of his sentence.
"Never mind. We’ll talk later."
Richard took off his autopsy gown and hung it back on the hook behind the door.
...
Back in his dorm, Richard placed his shoulder bag on the nightstand.
He took out the parchment first, spreading it open on the desk.
His Erudite ability gave him a photographic memory, but he was still in the habit of going over things several times with his own eyes.
Richard ran the core structure of the Silencing Technique through his mind several times, silently mulling over the possibility of a "reversal."
Shadow Reversal could only reverse Techniques he had already mastered, and he hadn’t truly learned this Silencing Technique yet.
He folded the parchment and tucked it back into the compartment of his shoulder bag.
After switching off the wall lamp, he lay down on his cot.
The entire Branch Office building was deathly quiet, save for the occasional thumping of the boiler from the far end of the underground passage.
Richard’s mind was still racing.
’The outer port, the Silencing Technique, the thirteen locations, the Echo Society, the borrowed Signature Marvel...’
Any one of these things was enough to occupy his thoughts for a good while. All together, they were just a tangled mess.
And then there was the business with that eye and a certain Expert—things he couldn’t afford to dwell on.
At some point, he drifted into a hazy sleep.
In his dream, he was back in the inverted core of the Unyielding Pit.
The reflection of the Star Sea overhead was as cold as frost glinting up from the bottom of a well.
The Answering Head stood at the center of the pit’s core and turned its face to him.
"So, will you answer, or not?"
There was no salt under Richard’s tongue.
He opened his mouth to reply, then choked the answer back down.
The Answering Head laughed.
"You’ll answer eventually."
Richard’s eyes snapped open.
The sky was still dark.
...
The debriefing was held in a conference room on the second floor of the Branch Office.
Major Aud sat at the head of the long table, his steel prosthesis resting on its surface.
In a corner of the room, Xiaoma sat in a chair against the wall.
There was no cup before him, nor any pen or paper.
The female leader of Team One, a woman with a scarred brow, sat beside him, her hand on his shoulder.
The meeting began with a document concerning death benefits.
Major Aud pushed the document to the center of the long table.
"We’re processing this under the ’standard losses’ clause. The Hunter was killed during a maintenance mission at a medium-level weak point.
Compensation, family relocation, and the posthumous honors process will all follow established protocols."
"Hold on." Winterworth looked up. "What do we tell his parents?"
"Carbon monoxide poisoning," the Major replied without hesitation.
"There’s a strike at the West Suburb Mine Area this year, and it’s caused issues with air circulation in the shafts. He was with us as an Inspector on an inspection tour and was overcome by the fumes."
"...Understood."
Listening to this exchange, Richard felt a deep sense of unease.
Major Aud signed the document and passed it to Mrs. MacNeil for her signature.
When the document finally reached Winterworth, the lead Inspector hesitated for a moment before picking up his pen.
But in the end, he signed.
"Next." The Major filed the document in a folder to his right.
"Time to distribute the spoils."
He gestured with his chin toward Mrs. MacNeil.
The Spirit Medium placed a leather case on the table and unlatched the lid.
She began taking items out of the case in two batches.
The first batch was a set of small porcelain jars, their mouths sealed with black wax and a red string tied around the body of each one.
Each jar bore a handwritten label, its corner impressed with a seal.
"This batch is the Casting Mediums recovered from the Answering Head."
The Spirit Medium arranged the porcelain jars in the center of the table.
"The remaining fodder from inside the two steel pipes, seven grams of Many-eyed Black Moss, and three grams of Silent Fern.
In addition, there are remnants from the outer port, a Blood Contract Paper Sample, and a Wheel Track Net Rubbing... seven items in total."
"This is physical evidence of the Echo Society Entity. It’s the first time a batch of this scale has been recovered within Imperial borders."
"The Northern Branch Office Headquarters has been chasing a lead on a Deep Realm harvesting operation for years, but before now, it’s all been theoretical, based on shared intelligence from the Western Continent.
Securing these items today means we’ve brought that investigation from paper into the physical territory of the Empire for the first time."
She pushed the jars toward Major Aud.
"I’ve sealed them along with my autopsy notes."
Major Aud glanced at the labels, saying nothing. He simply slid the porcelain jars next to the folder on his right.

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