It was like a high-tech laboratory straight out of a sci-fi movie, combined with strange runes spread across the floor. Fantasy and science fiction had been fused together perfectly.
Cid's gaze swept over the array of advanced laboratory equipment before him. He walked slowly and silently between the instruments, his brow faintly furrowed.
"What are you doing here?"
"As you can see, investigating."
Hearing Sayaka Kirasaka's puzzled voice, Cid answered without turning around.
After he entered the final level of this evil Fallen Angel base, Sayaka Kirasaka quickly followed him down and joined the search.
As for what they found... it was not as if there was nothing. But aside from uncovering more evidence that proved this place was the base of an evil terrorist organization, there was little else. After all, they could not alert the enemy.
Most of the rooms contained all kinds of inhuman experiments, with only a few exceptions. One of those was the emptied-out laboratory he had opened first.
After that, most of the rooms were largely the same. The few that stood out included a laboratory splattered with blood that, judging from how much it had coagulated, was no more than a day old. In the center sat an enormous operating table.
That operating table really was huge. By Cid's estimate, it would have been more than big enough to perform surgery on a Dragon.
"Huh? Is this place any different from the rooms before it? Is that why you've been standing here so long?"
Sayaka Kirasaka looked around the laboratory in confusion, but no matter how she examined it, she could not see anything wrong.
"There's no difference. I just thought that since this is the last room, pretending I'd discovered something incredible would fit the mood better."
Cid turned to Sayaka Kirasaka with a faint smile, spreading his hands in a helpless gesture.
"...Why do I feel like your entire vibe suddenly changed?"
Unable to help herself, she took two steps back. Cid had been acting mysterious, brooding, and unhinged earlier, only to abruptly turn into some kind of comedy act. It genuinely startled Sayaka Kirasaka.
"Just a joke to lighten the mood. Let's go."
Cid walked over to the frightened Sayaka Kirasaka and patted her on the shoulder. Then he shrugged indifferently and strode toward the exit.
"Uh... hey, wait for me."
Cid's repeated shifts in attitude made Sayaka Kirasaka hesitate for a moment, but in the end, she called after him and hurried to catch up.
"I still have a mission!"
"Give it up. Kojou has probably already been moved."
"Huh? Then doesn't that mean..."
"Mm-hmm, exactly. Your mission failed. Hurry back and report the evil base you discovered to your superior."
"But my radar shows..."
Cid suddenly stopped and turned his head slightly toward Sayaka Kirasaka. His cold gaze instantly forced the words back down her throat.
What is wrong with this guy? Can he really change faces that fast?
"This is the territory of the evil scientist under Shadow's command. Do you understand what that means?
Giving up the mission now is better for both you and me. If you keep digging, it won't be comparable to this little skirmish anymore."
"G-got it."
Sayaka Kirasaka badly wanted to argue that she did not care about her own life, but for some reason, when she looked into Cid's cold, ruthless eyes, boundless fear instantly crushed her mental defenses.
"Good. Going up against that utterly vile Shadow for your sake wouldn't be worth it..."
Since Sayaka Kirasaka had shown good sense, Cid dropped that icy demeanor and returned to normal. His pace remained unhurried as he walked toward the passage, and the atmosphere settled back into what it had been at first.
And so, with the two of them exchanging words as they went, Cid and Sayaka Kirasaka disappeared into the passage. Silence once again returned to the experimental base buried deep underground.
...
"Tap, tap, tap..."
A black figure sped through the depths of the underground, passing one laboratory after another that looked as if they had come straight out of a Frankenstein movie, before finally stopping at the end of the corridor.
He pushed open the door, swept his gaze around, and slowly walked inside. His fingertips lightly brushed against instruments made from a special metal.
"The texture is real. The Magical Power traces are real. Even the visuals are flawless. But why..."
A low voice sounded. Beneath the mask, the black figure's lips curved faintly upward, and blue-violet flames rose from his excited eyes.
"Why is my heart beating this fast?"
Jet-black Magical Power surged out, instantly covering the entire room. Fine strands of Magical Power flowed into the runes on the floor, replacing the original Magical Power running through them, then followed the conduits and seized control of the entire Magic Circle.
"Found it..."
The various high-tech instruments in the room began to flicker like the screen of an old television, before finally shattering like illusions.
In an instant, the entire laboratory changed. The high-tech equipment vanished, leaving behind only an empty, barren room that looked as if it had been completely looted. Apart from that, there was an underground passage several meters wide and tall in the corner of the room.
"Slurp... I can already smell it."
The black figure strolled up to the underground passage, which had clearly been dug less than a day ago. He took a deep breath, ran his tongue over his lips, rose into the air, and flew inside at tremendous speed.
Using the flow of air to find his way and avoid traps, Cid passed through the pitch-black passage without a trace of light. At last, a faint glimmer appeared ahead.
Gold, gems, materials, treasure chests...
Inside the vast underground chamber, countless piles of gold covered the floor. All the illusionary instruments he had seen in the laboratory were here. All kinds of magical materials and rare metals were neatly packed into treasure chests, while glass tubes filled with special preservative fluid held the floating corpses of mythical beasts, monsters, and rare creatures.
Cid stepped out of the underground passage and looked at everything before him. One hand pressed against his face as his body trembled slightly, and the corners of his mouth curled upward beyond his control.
"Heh, heh, heh... hehahahaha, hahaha..."
Mad laughter echoed through the entire underground space, layering over itself again and again. The piles of treasure even trembled faintly from the force of Cid's excited laughter.
"It's all natural. Not artificial, and not created through alchemy. Pfft, hahaha..."
He picked up gold, silver, and jewels from the ground to inspect them. They were not the kind of artificial gold and gems that had been tainted by Magical Power, nor were they useless decorative fakes. They were pure, natural treasures with no signs of prior use.
What wealth. What an ocean of gold. To put it into perspective, Cid's little treasury that had been blown up back then was less than one-twentieth of what lay here.
With this fortune, he would never again have to kneel on the ground and play Pochi for a handful of gold coins.
One-fifth of the artwork he had his eye on? He would buy the whole thing outright.
"Well, before that, I need to deal with all this stuff that has no collectible value."
Cid looked over the laboratory equipment and the research materials inside the glass tubes with clear disinterest.
Sure, sure. These things might be even more valuable than the gold and jewels on the ground, but unfortunately, Cid had no interest in them. They were nothing but impure things gained through outside forces. They were useless to him, and he could not even put them on display to make a statement.
Perfect, wasn't it? He was not interested in them, but other factions might be. He could use that to make another fortune.
"Dragons, Griffins, Sirens, Vajras... What are these two?"
Cid stared at the two glass tubes in front of him, puzzled.
They looked like the corpses of some kind of large animal, but in Cid's eyes, the system tree of the creature before him was completely out of place in this world.
The other glass tube contained a lump of flesh resembling Demon Possession. Just like the one beside it, it had a new and independent system tree.
"Ding-dong!"
While Cid was thinking, the phone in his pocket suddenly rang, interrupting his train of thought.
"Tch, forget it. I can't be bothered to think that much. This has dragged on long enough. I'll just move everything out."
After glancing at Rias's message asking where he was, Cid put his phone away and looked at the treasure vault before him with a bloodthirsty grin.
Magical Power surged from his entire body. He found an exit from the underground space in the shortest time possible, and after that came the dull, tedious work of hauling everything away.
By the time all the treasures had been moved and Cid successfully arrived at the location Rias had sent him, the negotiations between the Underworld and Heaven had just begun.
"Nice work, hehe. Cid, did you see that? Lady Leviathan was praising you just now!"
No, Rias, I think that's just your imagination.
Cid thought of Sona Sitri's older sister patting her chest, acting as if he had done her a huge favor and could ask for anything he wanted, while in reality, she had already used her body to block every possible route he could take to approach Sona Sitri. He curled his lip. If his sister had not told him earlier to maintain his relationship with Rias, he would have quit long ago.
But... I can ask for anything? I'm not short on money now, so what should I ask the Devils for?
Sitting on a chair outside the room, waiting for the "Underworld Devil" Serafall and the "Heavenly Joker" Dulio to finish negotiating, Cid let his thoughts wander as he felt the two slimes Rias had pressed against his arm.
I really can't think of anything. Should I ask the Devils for even more money?
Hah. Suddenly I feel so vulgar!
The thought made Cid laugh at himself.
"By the way, President Rias, where is Yuuto? I have some files here that need his help."
As his thoughts drifted, Cid suddenly remembered that his investigation file was still missing Yuuto Kiba. He immediately perked up, intending to find Yuuto Kiba and have him temporarily fill in the remaining part of the investigation.
"Yuuto..."
Hearing Cid's question, Rias let go of his arm, propped her chin on her hand, and looked awkward.
"What happened to Yuuto?"
Seeing Rias like that, Cid could not help but feel puzzled. He scanned the room and only then realized that Yuuto Kiba was not here. That was strange. Even Gasper, that disgrace of a cardboard-box Vampire, had been forcibly dragged over, so how could Yuuto Kiba, someone who held himself to the standards of a Knight, possibly not come?
"He said he discovered something that needed investigating, so something came up and he couldn't make it. He even dragged one of my soldiers along with him to investigate."
Another voice sounded. Sona Sitri walked over from the other side with a cold expression, sat down, and looked at Rias with an unfriendly gaze.
"...Ah, Sona, weren't you inside accompanying your sister in the negotiations? Why are you out here already?"
Under Sona Sitri's stare, Rias, knowing her side had caused trouble, felt too embarrassed to snap back. She could only laugh stiffly and change the subject.
"The general outcome of the negotiations was already settled before they began. They're only handling the final discussions now. With my sister there, there's no way I'd be allowed to participate, so I came out."
She said it like an explanation, as if Rias had successfully changed the topic, but the way Sona Sitri kept staring straight into Rias's eyes made it clear she had not been fooled.
"Hahaha, looks like the results of the negotiations are very favorable to us. Otherwise, you wouldn't be this relaxed, Sona."
Pretending not to notice Sona Sitri's gaze, Rias stood up with a natural expression and poured her a cup of tea.
"Of course the result is favorable to us. The Church attacked us first. Unless they can prove we were involved in the curse, then with Cid's investigation proving all of our innocence, we were in an unbeatable position from the start."
"Hehe, my Cid..."
"..."
Sona Sitri glanced with contempt at Rias, who had slipped into her own little world, then looked at Cid with a strange expression.
"Come to think of it, Cid really is absurdly good at intelligence work. Even including the time my sister wasted, he may have needed less than a day to investigate all of our movements..."
Sona Sitri's voice stopped abruptly. She froze as she saw Cid's body suddenly go stiff and then shoot to his feet.
"Sorry, I need to use the restroom!"
With that, Cid walked past Sona Sitri and tried to head outside, only for Rias to grab his arm.
"Wait, Cid. Your face doesn't look right."
Out of concern for Cid, Rias asked him.
"I'm fine. I'm just feeling a little unwell. I'll be better once I use the restroom."
"No, that does not look fine at all. And those two things don't have anything to do with each other."
Rias, let go!
Feeling that terrifying Magical Power approaching at shocking speed, Cid's face grew even paler, and his behavior became more urgent.
"I really just need to use the restro..."
"Bang!"
The door was smashed open and slammed heavily into the wall with a tremendous crash. But what drew everyone's attention even more was the black figure that darted in from outside, carrying a blonde nun on her back.
"Cid!"
"I'm sorry, Cid-san. I didn't keep a close enough eye on Delta."
Cid was knocked to the ground in an instant, his face filled with despair as the foolish Delta licked him with her tongue. Asia, who had fallen off Delta's back beside them, was also apologizing to Cid, but that no longer mattered.
"Hey, Sona, she's the one from that night, right?"
Swaying on her feet, Rias spoke in a stiff voice.
"Her aura is a little different, but judging by her appearance, that's definitely her."
Sona Sitri seemed fairly calm, assuming one ignored the hands that were trembling nonstop.