[Unless absolutely necessary, I do not wish to engage in any communication or contact with you,Nia-san. That just now was rely a warning. If there is a next ti, I might report you to the police for sexual harassnt.]
Watching Arusu Maria on the screen deliver a threat that was completely unlaughable with a kind smile, the corner of Nia's mouth twitched slightly, and cold sweat broke out on her forehead.
"Boy... is this child usually like this?"
"I don't think so... right?"
Shido scratched his head in so distress. In his impression, although Maria was occasionally a bit mischievous, she was generally very kind and gentle to everyone. It was the first ti he had seen her show such obvious hostility to soone she t for the first ti.
"Maria, have you t Nia before?"
[No, this is my first ti eting Nia-san.]
Maria closed her eyes and answered in a feigned polite tone.
Although Shido felt that Maria's answer had a hidden aning, it seed the other party didn't want to elaborate much on this, so it was hard to ask further.
"By the way, where's Marina? Is she here too?"
Half to change the subject, and half to complain about the prank she played next to the choices during his attempt to conquer Mukuro, Shido asked Maria.
[Well... Sister is... she is here, but...]
Hearing Shido's words, Maria looked sowhat troubled. With an expression of wanting to speak but stopping, she looked to her side—an area not shown on the screen.
[Hmph!]
Suddenly, a displeased snort sounded. The screen flashed, and the white-haired nun in the picture was replaced by a black haired girl wearing an inverted cross black nun's outfit .
This was the artificial intelligence originally created by DEM—Arusu Marina.
[Idiot Shido, go to hell!]
"Eh?"
Leaving behind a curse with a displeased face, before Shido and the others could react, Marina disconnected the screen and left on her own.
When the screen lit up again, the image switched back to Maria. The girl was currently giving Shido an apologetic, bitter smile.
[I'm very sorry, Shido.]
Although Shido didn't mind much, he was still sowhat confused by Marina's attitude.
"Well, I'm fine with it, but what was that about Marina..."
"Actually, Sister is a bit... about what you did in the temporary command room..."
Maria said, looking like she wanted to say more but held back.
Shido was montarily at a loss for words. Although out of consideration for the surrounding Spirits, Maria didn't speak very clearly, he guessed that Marina was angry about his argunt with Yutsuki earlier.
[I don't think Shido was wrong.]
After affirmatively expressing her stance, Maria's clear eyes looked at Shido, and she revealed a gentle smile.
[However, after finishing the business here, Shido, you must properly resolve the matter on the other side too.]
"Mhm... I will."
Shido nodded with difficulty.
"Alright, alright, that's enough chit-chat for now."
Noticing that the Spirits had faintly sensed so incongruity from Shido and Maria's conversation, Kotori clapped her hands to interrupt the topic and draw everyone's attention to herself.
"Kannazuki, you guys go with Maria to adjust and familiarize yourselves with the new equipnt first. Shido, you guys co with . The person who wants to see you is waiting in the reception room now."
"Yes!!"
Hearing Kotori's order, the crew mbers saluted together and replied.
"Kotori, who exactly is the person who wants to see ?"
Seemingly unable to suppress the doubt in his heart, Shido asked.
"Oh, it's about ti I told you."
Seemingly feeling it was ti to give Shido ntal preparation, Kotori nodded and answered.
"Elliot Woodman. My boss, and also the founder of Ratatoskr."
—————————————
On the way to the reception room, from Kotori's description, everyone got a vague impression of this person nad Woodman.
The founder of Ratatoskr, the chairman of the Round Table Council which is the decision-making body that determines the organization's policies, and also the most powerful supporter of Kotori and the others's actions to save Spirits.
To put it bluntly, without Woodman, everyone, including Kotori, wouldn't be able to live in normal society like they do now.
"Umu—I see. Simply put, he's a very amazing person, right?"
Tohka nodded, half-understanding. Although her summary was so simple and rough it left people speechless, no one wanted to refute it. After all, they hadn't even t him yet, so it wasn't good to make specific evaluations just based on Kotori's words.
Except for Nia.
"What's wrong, Nia? Your expression is a bit scary."
Noticing Nia's grave expression, completely opposite to her usual frivolous personality, Shido asked softly.
"...!"
Nia was clearly startled by Shido and hurriedly replied with a smile.
"Hm? Ahaha, it's nothing! Though, Boy, have you been paying attention to to the point where you can even notice such small changes?"
"Hey, hey..."
Shido chid in with a bitter smile. He saw Nia shrug, look ahead, and mutter to herself as if scared.
"It's just... I feel like I've heard the na Woodman recently."
"Eh?"
Before Shido could ask further, Kotori opened the door to the reception room and walked in.
"E-Excuse ."
Walking into the room with a bit of unease and nervousness, just as Kotori said, there were already two people in the room quietly waiting for their arrival.
One was a foreign man who looked to be in his fifties. Light frad glasses adorned his regular features, and his grayish-blonde long hair was tied into a small braid resting on his left shoulder, giving off an amiable impression.
Beside the man stood a young woman around twenty years old. A neat suit, an upright posture, and elegant, dignified square-frad glasses made one feel she was a very astute and capable secretary.
"Eh?"
"Eh?"
Shido and Tohka widened their eyes in surprise.
The reason was simple; both of them had t him once before.
No, for Shido, it should be said twice. Before Natsumi appeared, he had been approached for directions by this foreign man sitting in a wheelchair.
"B-Baldwin-san...?"
"Long ti no see. It's better than anything that you all have energy. —Let reintroduce myself, my na is Elliot Baldwin Woodman."
As if having completed a small prank, Woodman looked at the astonished Itsuka Shido, sowhat unable to hold back a smile.
"Sir Woodman, you've already t Shido and the others?"
Kotori asked in surprise.
"Mhm, I happened to et them by chance when I went to Tengu City before."
"By chance... you've got to be kidding ..."
Watching her boss say sothing quite serious in a nonchalant tone, Kotori couldn't help but feel a headache.
She absolutely had not received any notification that Woodman had visited Tengu City. In other words, Woodman had snuck over behind the company's back.
"Please make sure to inform before you co next ti. Otherwise, what will we do if sothing happens?"
"Haha, sorry. I'll be careful in the future."
Dealing with Kotori's questioning with a lukewarm, relaxed attitude, Woodman let out a hearty laugh. This made Kotori slump her shoulders in weakness.
Despite this, his unpretentious and easygoing attitude still gave everyone else a good first impression.
"I am very sorry about today. We should have been the ones to proactively co see you."
Saying this, Woodman bowed slightly to Shido, expressing his gratitude and apology to him.
His gratitude was for the boy being able to risk his life to help them save Spirits. And his apology was for the fact that, towards such a boy, they had made the decision to abandon and destroy him when he was in the most danger.
Dáinsleif, the satellite weapon specifically manufactured to annihilate a berserk Itsuka Shido. Although the weapon was activated back then due to a certain council mber's arbitrary decision, and it wasn't Woodman's original intention, a fact is a fact. Woodman still had to apologize to Shido for the consequences of his inadequate supervision.
"I promise, the sa thing will absolutely not happen again in the future."
After a mont of silence, Shido raised his head and answered with a candid attitude.
"Um... although my feelings are a bit complicated, it's not that I can't understand your reasoning. After all, I did actually go berserk. Moreover, saving Spirits is a decision I made myself. Even if I knew this beforehand, my choice wouldn't change. On the contrary, feelings of gratitude are probably still stronger."
Hearing Shido's answer, Woodman couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
"Thank you, you really are a forgiving person."
"You flatter . However... in exchange, may I ask you a question?"
"What question?"
"Um... could you tell your reason for choosing to save Spirits?"
Shido raised the doubt in his heart.
"Regarding this point, I am also very curious."
At the sa ti, Origami followed up on Shido's words.
"Ratatoskr is an organization that saves Spirits. I acknowledge and am very grateful for that. But please definitely tell the reason why you want to save Spirits even at the cost of such imnse financial resources."
A natural doubt. If viewed solely from the perspective of saving Spirits, Ratatoskr could be said to be perfect. Not only did they prepare perfect dormitories for the Spirits and comprehensive identification docunts, but they also arranged for them to go to school, and even took care of all their living expenses. And not just that, if you consider the various equipnt and devices used when saving Spirits, the expenses incurred would be an astronomical figure.
However, in exchange, the Spirits didn't have to give anything back at all. It was like a pie falling from the sky, so good it felt sowhat unbelievable. If Ratatoskr could gain so clear benefit from it, Origami actually wouldn't be this uneasy.
"That's true, it's not strange that you would have such doubts. However... this is truly troubling."
Woodman revealed a helpless, bitter smile. Although from his reaction, it was clear he had long anticipated this question, he hadn't prepared an answer that would convince Shido and the others.
"Saving Spirits... you might not believe it. But this is indeed my greatest goal."
The result was obvious; this answer did not convince everyone.
"Well... I admit there might be good natured people in the world like the boy, who are selfless and purely wish to save others. But the boy's actions, in the end, can only be said to be his personal, spontaneous behavior. As the saying goes, 'water that is too clear has no fish.' Can you, a big boss of such a massive enterprise, lead all your subordinates to contribute selflessly to this extent?"
Just then, Nia, who had been silent, suddenly spoke up. Unlike her usual frivolous tone, facing Woodman right now, Honjou Nia's attitude could be better described as fierce rather than stern.
"...Nia?"
"Wait a minute, Boy. Let finish asking."
After a brief instruction, Nia stared at Woodman and asked word by word.
"Elliot Baldwin Woodman—I didn't misrember your na, right?"
"Mhm, that's correct."
Woodman nodded gently.
"Then let ask you again... As one of the founding mbers of DEM Industries, and the one who caused the first Spirit manifestation thirty years ago. What right do you have to say such pretty words?"
Nia's words exploded among the crowd like a blockbuster bomb.
However, Woodman didn't show the slightest surprise at this.
"I see... she told you, did she?"
"What do you an?"
Hearing the unexpected topic, Nia couldn't help but frown and ask.
"No... it seems I was mistaken. You must have investigated it when you possessed the omniscient Angel."
After observing everyone's reactions, Woodman smiled bitterly and shook his head.
"I understand. It's about ti I had a proper talk with you all."
After making this decision, Woodman's expression actually beca much more relaxed.
Simply put, thirty years ago, Woodman was a mber alongside Westcott and Ellen. They founded the DEM corporation together, and in order to utilize the power of Spirits, they managed to summon a Spirit, triggering that Eurasian spacequake.
However, after summoning the first Spirit, Woodman and Westcott had a disagreent on how to handle the Spirit, and thus parted ways.
Woodman, who chose to protect the Spirit, fled DEM Industries and established his own organization, Ratatoskr.
As for the reason for doing so—
"I fell hopelessly in love with that Spirit."
That's right. This man, well over fifty, said it in a tone so serious that even bystanders would feel embarrassed hearing it.
According to his own account, the mont he saw the Spirit of Origin, Woodman was captivated by her ethereal beauty, thinking about her day and night, unable to extricate himself. To put it bluntly, love at first sight.
Because of this, he beca unable to harm Spirits, nor could he forgive Westcott, who attempted to use violence to harm Spirits.
"I cannot tolerate Spirits, existences identical to her, being hard. Although it might be an idiotic reason, this is indeed my motivation for saving Spirits."
"Mhm, I believe you. Rather, it's wonderful that soone like you exists in the world."
Shido nodded in strong agreent. He didn't think Woodman was lying. After all, if it were really necessary, the other party could have completely fabricated a more convincing lie to fool him. Moreover, he didn't think it was an idiotic reason.
Looking at Shido with slight surprise, Woodman's expression then softened again.
"Thank you, I am also very glad. To be able to et a boy like you."
"..."
Origami and Nia exchanged a glance and sighed in unison. Although they still had doubts, since Shido had already chosen to reconcile with the other party, it wasn't their place to say much more.
"And what about you? Why did you follow him and escape from DEM?"
Nia turned her gaze to the secretary beside Woodman.
By the way, her na was Karen Nora Mathers. She is the biological older sister of the Wizard who has constantly caused Shido and the others bitter suffering—Ellen Mira Mathers. If you took off her glasses, you would find that these two look so similar it's almost as if they were carved from the sa mold. Upon knowing this, Miku excitedly clamored about "sister bowl" (shimai don) and other such incomprehensible things.
"I fell in love with Elliot."
The other party confessed a fact that was, in a sense, even more explosive. To add, Elliot seed to be a pet na for Woodman.
"...Um, hasn't Woodman already... with the Spirit of Origin..."
"There is no logic in giving up just because the other party has soone in their heart. If he changes his mind and there is no one by his side, wouldn't he be left without choices?"
"I-Is that so..."
Karen's overly firm and magnanimous tone left Shido temporarily speechless.
"Moreover, to be greedy, even if I don't get his heart, I really want to engage in reproductive acts and bear his child. Although I will respect Elliot's wishes to the utmost extent, if his bloodline doesn't continue, it would be a world-class loss."
"Pfft—cough, cough!"
Shido was instantly choked hard by Karen's words.
"Haha... this is really a headache."
Regarding Karen's overly blunt and explicit remarks, Woodman seed long accustod to them, rely sighing with a bit of distress.
"Elliot, there is no need for you to be troubled. I will look for the right opportunity to strike on my own."
After listening seriously to Karen's speech, Origami stepped forward and extended her right hand towards her.
"I can understand your thoughts perfectly. I express my admiration and applause for your noble resolve."
A hint of surprise flashing in her eyes, Karen looked at Origami, seed to understand sothing from her gaze, and a smile couldn't help but rise on her lips.
"Not at all. I should be the one thanking you; you are the third person to agree with my approach. Let's do our best together."
"Of course!"
Watching Karen shake hands with Origami, everyone present, without exception, had the exact sa thought.
A troubleso duo has been born.
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