“Well, putting that bit aside… let’s see what Adler has to say, shall we?”

  “... Yeah. That Eye is goo the systems knows where. For now, they are the only information-oriented Heart Mirror user we know, if that bickering is to go by,” Valerie said. “That being said, I think we should ask both if we have the ce to.”

  “Right, let’s do what we for now,” Cire hen, with the other two following behind her, she approached Adler’s silhouette. Their body nguage suggested that Eye’s remarks hit close to where it hurts.

  “Hey, uh, Adler, right?”

  Adler stayed silent; however, they were focused on another silhouette o them. It seems they were in the middle of a versation.

  “You three are…?” The figure with the dignified aura asked.

  “Ah right, call me Huhese two are my teammates. Sorry, I just saw what happened earlier, and yeah, we need information. If that Eye was correct, Adler is one of the information specialists here. You call me Hunter, and these two behind me are Pestilend Bar,” Cire expined. “We just want to know what information we have on the spires mentioned in the mission.”

  “All of you seem sihe figure replied. “I guess there’s no harm done. Well then…”

  The distortion surrounding them started to part, revealing a tall, elegant woman. Her bck hair reached down to her lower back, and by its appeara was well taken care of. Her blue eyes almost shih life, her gaze intense, with strength to pin those against her if she deigo do so. o her, there was a red-haired woman, the true owner of the name “Baskerville” – The upper half of her face was hidden by a e skull, but her golden-slitted eyes shohrough the skull’s eye holes with the iy of a capricious ruler. Finery adorns her red hair, her dark purple dress reag down her feet, trasting the macabre accessory hiding half of her visage.

  “You call me Baskerville of team 4E, the sole team with four members, as you have heard.”

  Baskerville then turo look at the other three, “Hey, you three, we have work, especially you, Adler,” she added the st part with a bemused voice. “e on, it’s time to be serious.”

  “Ah! I, yeah, sorry, Miss Baskerville,” the short one known as Adler replied. “I was just discussing something,”

  “Fair enough – hey, you two! This includes you both, you know,” Baskerville said, looking at the dire where two people were leaning against the wall, their body nguage suggesting that they would rather be anywhere else.

  “I’d rather go alone for now. You two go and discuss it among yourselves,” a tired voice replied, their form fading out before anyone else could get a word in edgewise.

  “Same here, I have better things to do,” another voice added. Distorted as their voice may be, there was a tinge of haughtihat stood out.

  “Desotion, I swear to the systems, you put down your feud with that Verdant for a sed? I don’t know your history with them, but at least, don’t pull us all into that mess,” Baskerville sighed. “Don’t you think this whole matter with the Primeras is a bigger fish to fry?”

  “Heh, be that as it may, I have my own priorities. If you want to py pretend heroes, go ahead, I’m not stopping you. It looks fun, but as! If only I don’t have anythier to do!”

  Without waiting for a reply, Desotion sauntered off, followed by the silhouette of their Mirror Avatar. From what they could see of their body nguage, the Mirror Avatar agreed with the idea of pursuing this Verdant at the very least.

  “That useless Desotion…” Adler muttered, “Eh, fine, no point iing mad about it. As you’ve heard, I’m Adler,” as they spoke, the darkness surrounding them parted, revealing a young girl with stark white hair and red eyes. o her, her Mirror Avatar was floating, , her purple eyes and red hair, along with her ly pressed elegant vender dress made her seem like a quick-witted aristocratic dy that walked out straight from one of those virtual eai stories, usually featuring a person going ba time to fix the wrongs of the world.

  In respoo Izabel’s stare, the Mirror Avatar looked away.

  “Okay, back to the matter at hand…” Adler said.

  “Wait,” Izabel asked, how did you two reveal your form without, you know, divulging your real name?

  Baskerville and Adler went silent at the same time, their stares incredulous.

  “You three revealed your real name? Seriously? Did you all realize that we’re given fake o enpass both Mirror Avatar and us, so we don’t get tracked? What if we have a snitch here?” Adler started first. “This is only the first day!”

  “Calm down, Adler,” Baskerville chided. “You’re making assumptions again. There should be some level of trust between people of the same goal, at least, when that goal is involved. Anyway, you should really have asked your Mirror Avatar for that. They are the ones most familiar with the Heart Mirror.”

  “Hunter?” Izabel asked in her mind. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I see no harm in telling a o teammates, but Baskerville is right, the essential thing you o do to dispel the illusion is think about unveiling yourself for the system tister it and allow the targets to see your appeara does work uhe same principle as revealing your real name, as the iion, to the system, registers in a simir manner,” Hunter expined. “As a reminder, you five are perfectly visible to each ht now.”

  Izabel g Pestilend Bar. She has no idea what the other two said to their partners, but ohing was clear, Pestilence was still as rexed as usual, while Bar only smiled, causing her host tard the witch with barely cealed exasperation.

  That was certainly useful to learn, but they were here for something else.

  “Alright, uh, where were we?” Izabel coughed a little, a signal for the other two.

  “Yes, about the spires. Ohing is clear, the spire of area E isn’t located somewhere open in public,” Adler expined. “Yes, I get it, that sounds as if I’m talking out of the waste disposal, but… Hey, Adler? I?”

  In respoo the question, the aristocratic-looking girl nodded.

  “Alright, let me just tweak the numbers, and… Back to the matter at hand, look at the areas A, B, C, D, ah your Mirror device maps. Each area has something I’ll refer to as a promi point, with area A’s being the Tower of Human Distra. It’s off-limits to everyone except the Primeras, but acc to the system, that pce is where the Primeras researew ways to improve Happiness coeffits based of historical and current trends iertai. As it stands, this is the most promi structure here.”

  “Right, it stands out, sidering the color, the tools lio it, and the fact that it’s a spot where the Primeras tend to hang out” Valerie nodded, “Some people get rather hyped whenever one of them are seen around.”

  “, area B, there’s a few spicuous pces here, sidering that area is close to the Primera-exclusive transportation facilities, but the Energy Transference ter stands out among all those. From this point on, I believe you clude the rest, so we’ll skip to E. Area E, from the map, is clearly some sort of mix between work and residence area. Uhe others, there is no promi facility or a particur pce where Primeras gather with no special occasions. If it weren’t for Baskerville’s information, we won’t know this, but…”

  “… The shattered skies i’s first hole and crack occured in Area E,” Baskerville finished. “I saw it happen while I was heading out

  “Shattered skies? Apt name, is that what we’re calling the whole bck things’ invasion now?” Pestilence piped up.

  “Sure, for venience’s sake,” Baskerville replied. “For now, we are moving uhe assumption that only those who have the Heart Mirror remembers it.”

  “Makes sense, memory manipution is one of the Primeras’ favored tactics,” Hunter said. “They erase memory thhly enough that trauma is a negligible sequehere’s almost nothing they ’t fix with all that teology.”

  “Whatever the name is, if everyos it, that’s enough. My proposal is, we find out more about the crack. They may be able to hide traces of the i and remove most people’s memories of it, but I heard some talks about the Primeras ing here more frequently, so that supports the theory at least…”

  Adler’s voice trailed off into a low whisper; her eyes focused on her Mirror Avatar.

  “… I get it, but I don’t think they’ll like how that sounds like.” “… What in the- Whatever, I’m not getting beled a lunatic for you. We’ll discuss this ter.”

  Adler turned back to look at Izabel and the others. “Sorry about that, anyway, our first step should be gathering information. We’ll have a perfect opportunity for this.”

  “The Vitae system upgrade annou, ing in ten system day cycles,” Baskerville finished.

  “Wasn’t that thing announced quite a while ago?” Bar, who was silent the whole time, finally spoke up. “Always from the same Primeras, happens whehe system gets new features that you’d get a tutorial for anyway, and for that, the Primeras would usually send a broadcast to all the habitation units. Good background noise if you want to sleep.”

  “Pfft, try saying that in the hearing range of the system, I want to know their rea,” Pestilenickered.

  “They’re meant to be non-mandatory, actually, the way there is no one specifidated eai, even with all the mia,” Izabel reminded. “I never watched any, not my thing, and the system will just tell me with a tutorial about it the day after anyway.”

  “Yeah, about that, here’s where I need you three to trust me,” Adler admitted.

  The shirl walked to the front of the others. With each step she took, her aura was shifting, ging with the clicks on her slender fingers on the Heart Mirror’s device strapped to her wrist. Purple enveloped the tips of her white hair, her gaze noer, as a light vender color bled intht eye, c the inal vivid red color. With the ges, the Mirror Avatar that floated o her has faded, putting the focus all otle girl, whose voice exudes an otherworldly authority, filled with power even though her smaller stature suggested otherwise.

  “We believe that soon, one of the Primeras will arrive in the area.”