The Bureau had many interrogation rooms. This one was unusually quiet.
The same table. The same chairs.
The crystal pendant rested inside its metal support at the center.
Within it—Aldric Marune stood calmly with both hands behind his back.
Miniature. Imprisoned.
Yet somehow... still the one in command.
Only Aldric remained.
Captain Sebastian had already left the lower levels to oversee the ongoing structural recovery operations and manage the press leaks.
...
Knock. Knock.
The door opened. A large hand appeared first.
Then another.
"...Come inside."
"No."
"Come."
"I said no."
A muffled struggle echoed from the hallway.
A second later—Helden Mirch forcibly dragged someone through the doorway by the collar of his coat.
The man resisted the entire way. His shoes scraped loudly across the floor.
"No. No. I don't want to go in..."
"Quit resisting."
"I'm telling you, this is a misunderstanding!"
"You can explain that after you get inside."
After a brief struggle, Helden finally shoved him into the room.
The man stumbled forward, straightened his coat... and adjusted the dark sunglasses covering his eyes.
The very same person who had been hiding inside the BSA headquarters earlier.
Eyemac.
For one brief moment—his smile froze. Because he finally noticed the crystal pendant.
"...Chief."
Inside the crystal—the moment Aldric saw him, his expression darkened. A vein twitched near his temple.
"...Look who finally decided to show up."
"...Where the absolute hell were you during a Level 4 facility breach?"
Eyemac's entire body stiffened. The confidence he usually carried vanished instantly.
His hands and legs refused to cooperate as he stood there awkwardly, unable to come up with a single excuse.
"...Uh..."
"...Well..."
He scratched the back of his head. Nothing came out.
"...You see..."
Helden smirked.
"He figured if he hid inside your office cupboard... nobody would find him.
"Unfortunately for him... I did."
"So I dragged him here."
Eyemac looked genuinely offended.
"...It wasn't a cupboard. It was tactical concealment."
Helden looked at him.
"It had cleaning supplies inside."
"...Exactly."
Aldric slowly placed one tiny hand against his forehead.
"...What am I supposed to do with you..." His tired sigh echoed through the room.
"You possess one of the most broken sensory Grave Arts in the entire Bureau."
"You can monitor almost every corner of Headquarters."
"...yet somehow he's still a complete disaster."
Eyemac flashed an innocent grin. Showing every single tooth.
Helden immediately replied, "And somehow... he's still mentally twelve."
Eyemac's smile slowly disappeared.
Helden turned toward him with frightening seriousness.
"...Should we just kill him?"
Eyemac instantly looked at him with the most pitiful expression imaginable.
'Chief might forgive me...
...but this man definitely won't.'
Inside the crystal—even Aldric couldn't help sighing. Nothing they did ever seemed capable of fixing Eyemac.
"...Enough." His gaze settled back on Eyemac.
"Forget it. What exactly were you doing... while terrorists were walking into my Headquarters?"
Eyemac blinked. Then shrugged.
"Oh! ...Funny story."
Helden already looked exhausted.
"This better not actually be funny."
Eyemac cleared his throat.
"Hm. You see... this morning... my breakfast didn't agree with me. So I was in the bathroom."
Silence.
"...For several hours."
Helden stared at him.
"...I'm going to bury you alive."
Eyemac quickly raised both hands.
"Wait, wait. I was busy. So naturally... I wasn't watching outside." He smiled awkwardly.
"I don't think today's events have anything to do with me. I'm completely innocent."
Helden slowly looked toward the ceiling. Expressionless.
"...Chief. I'm requesting permission. ...to end him."
Aldric ignored both of them. Instead—his voice became completely serious.
"No. You can lie to everyone else. But not me." His tiny eyes remained fixed on Eyemac.
"I don't care what kind of 'important business' you claim you were handling."
"...nothing escapes your sight. So. Are you going to tell me... or should I let Helden fulfill his lifelong dream?"
Eyemac swallowed slowly. His smile faded. For the first time—he realized there really wasn't another way out. He took one long breath.
"...Alright."
"...I'll explain."
The memory immediately pulled him back to everything that had happened earlier.
The room faded. Darkness.
A pitch-black room.
The only source of light came from dozens of floating blue surveillance screens.
Eyemac sat lazily in front of them with a mountain of snacks beside him, casually munching away as if he were watching a movie instead of guarding the Bureau. One hand lazily reached into another bag.
"...Hm!"
Crunch. Crunch.
"...Today's peaceful."
Then—he stopped chewing.
Something... a strange sensation brushed against his Grave Energy.
"No!"
He dropped his snack chip. The smile disappeared from his face.
It didn't feel right.
He slowly removed his sunglasses. Then closed both eyes.
Darkness swallowed his vision.
Something enormous opened. Not above Headquarters.
It opened far beyond it, existing entirely in the unseen spiritual space between reality layers.
A gigantic emerald eye unfolded across unseen space.
Its iris glowed bright green. Around it, a star-shaped structure slowly rotated like the petals of a celestial flower.
This wasn't ordinary sight. This was his Grave Art.
[Eye — Overseer]
Everything inside Bureau Headquarters appeared before him simultaneously.
Hallways. Storage rooms. Elevators. Restricted archives. Reception. Nothing escaped its vision.
Then—one image caught his attention.
Reception.
A young woman stood before the security desk.
Pink hair girl.
She was simply staring at the Bureau security officer and smiled warmly.
The security guard smiled back.
For a second... neither blinked.
"..." Eyemac narrowed his eyes. "That's... strange."
The guard slowly reached toward his access card.
Beep. Access Granted.
The door opened. Without asking a single question—he allowed the pink-haired girl inside.
The girl entered.
Something wasn't right, deeply wrong with the security guard's cognitive functions.
Eyemac watched.
The girl disappeared around the corner.
A minute later—another unfamiliar person entered.
Then another. Then another.
Eyemac leaned forward.
"...Interesting." A grin spread across his face.
His fingers tapped the desk.
"If I stop the first rat... I catch one rat." His smile slowly widened.
"But... if I leave the door open... maybe I'll find the nest."
So... he watched.
One infiltrator became five.
Five became ten.
Ten became thirty.
Thirty became... sixty.
"...That's... a little more than expected."
Still... he didn't interfere.
More and more unknown figures slipped into the Bureau.
red dots on the map.
By the time he finally bothered counting—one hundred and twelve.
Silence.
Eyemac slowly lowered the chips in his hand.
"...Ah."
"...Oh no."
"...Maybe..."
"...I let this go a little too far."
For exactly three seconds... he considered reporting it.
Then—explosions echoed throughout the headquarters.
The alarms began.
Bureau agents flooded every corridor.
First Order.
Third Order.
Containment Division.
Barrier Division.
Every squad moved exactly as trained.
Eyemac watched the infiltrators being crushed one after another.
"...Never mind. They've got it."
He reached for another potato chip. Crunch.
The flashback ended.
Silence filled the room.
Eyemac finished his story with a satisfied nod, as if he had just explained something completely reasonable.
Helden stared at him. Expressionless.
Very slowly... he pinched the bridge of his nose.
"...You... let one hundred and twelve terrorists enter Headquarters..."
"...simply because you were curious?"
Eyemac nodded confidently.
"It was a security inspection."
Silence.
"Our Headquarters needs realistic testing. I simply... created realistic conditions." He smiled proudly.
"If anything. You should be praising me."
Helden stared at him.
"...Keep talking."
"We will."
Eyemac's face brightened. "Really?"
Helden looked ready to explode.
"At your funeral."
Eyemac immediately looked toward Aldric.
"...Chief?"
Aldric sighed.
"...Enough."
He looked toward Helden.
"Don't kill him." A pause. "Just... don't feed him."
"Assign him to uninterrupted surveillance duty. Twenty-four hours. No important breaks."
Eyemac froze.
"...Chief."
His shoulders trembled.
"I would've preferred execution."
"Please... have mercy."
"Someone save me..."
No one responded.
A few minutes later...
Helden walked alone through one of the Bureau's corridors.
His expression remained unusually serious. Something about Eyemac's story continued bothering him.
Then—a memory surfaced.
Earlier. It happened shortly after the attack.
Helden had been walking through Headquarters when someone quietly passed beside him.
A young woman. Pink hair.
Her head remained lowered as she walked past him.
Helden frowned.
For some reason... something deep in his gut refused to settle.
"Stop."
She halted.
Her back remained toward him.
For just a second—a faint smile curled across her lips.
Then—she slowly turned.
"...Yes, sir?" Her facial expression looked perfectly normal. In fact, it looked entirely too normal.
Helden studied her carefully.
"I haven't seen you before."
Helden's eyes lingered on her for a heartbeat longer. Everything looked correct.
The Bureau coat. The identification badge. The regulation uniform.
Yet something refused to settle.
Every Bureau officer carried a distinct, faint trace of Grave Resonance.
Hers felt... strangely absent.
'...Am I imagining it?'
"Who are you?"
She smiled politely and answered without hesitation.
"I'm Reporting Officer Lara."
Before Helden could ask another question—
BOOOOOOM!!
A massive explosion shook Headquarters.
His head snapped toward the sound.
Helden instinctively turned toward the sound.
"...What now?!"
Without another thought—he sprinted toward the explosion.
Leaving the young woman behind.
Back in the present—
Helden suddenly stopped walking. His expression slowly darkened.
"...Damn it." He turned sharply.
"...That pink-haired girl..." His fists tightened.
"...She was the one."
Eyemac had unknowingly let the real infiltrator walk straight into BSA Headquarters.
"...I let her go." A bitter smile crossed Helden's face.
"...Idiot."
Only now... after hearing Eyemac's confession—did he finally understand.
He hadn't let a stranger walk away.
He had let the very first infiltrator walk directly into the heart of the Bureau...
A cold realization spread through him.
She hadn't been escaping.
She had been leaving. With whatever she had come to steal.
The corridor suddenly felt much colder.
Far away—somewhere beyond Bureau Headquarters—
a young woman with pink hair disappeared into the afternoon crowd.
✦ End of Chapter 44 — Eye - Overseer ✦