A Childish Crush (1)

"And this is the code she gave me," Marshall gave Ender a note after telling her the story. "I tried everything, but it seems to be a Quantum Class encryption," he added.

Ender took one look at the note and sighed a little. "It's her social media ID," she said.

"Pardon?"

"If you're not as dense as a block of tungsten, you'd realize that Rena has a childish crush on you," Ender put the note inside the drawer in the study table. "I think she uses Shine App but I could be mistaken."

"I'm sorry?"

"She likes you," Ender said. "Romantically," she added.

Marshall blinked a little in confusion after hearing that. "B-but…"

"Don't make me repeat myself."

The demon wavered under her gaze and gulped nervously. "Y-yes ma'am, what are your orders?"

Ender rubbed her chin in deep thought. "Hmm… Since you need an S-Rank promotion to get a foundation standard smart phone…" she snapped her fingers. "Honesty. You are going to tell Rena that you don't know anything about smart phone or the human world. Then you tell her more about yourself."

"Wh-what!? You mean I'm going to tell her that I'm a demon?"

"The greatest lie ever told was the truth," Ender replied simply. "Now, and this is important, you are going to tell her the fabrication of the truth. Don't just go up and tell her though, you need to make her ask you for the truth."

Marshall dropped down on the bed. "This isn't going to be easy, is it?"

Ender shook her head a little. "Of course not, adding to the fact that Christopher already has her eyes on Rena…" she looked away for a bit. "Now that I think about it… No, yes? No…"

"Ma'am… you're scaring me…"

"Shut it, I'm thinking,"

After almost five minutes, Ender looked at Marshall. "Can you use telepathy spell?"

Marshall sat up from the bed. "Yes, but it doesn't work on you ma'am,"

Ender clicked her tongue. "Dammit," she sighed and looked at Marshall straight in the eyes. "Marshall, I will leave this to you. The fate of our entire mission lies in your hand," she said.

"Pardon? Ma'am?"

"Your time limit is two days, in that time, you will try to capture her heart,"

"May I ask, what is the purpose of me 'capturing' her heart?"

"It doesn't have to go that far," Ender said. "I just need you to get close enough so that she will be comfortable with your true nature. That way, Alicia will have a hard time telling her daughter that you are not to be trusted."

There was a moment of silence. "Wouldn't Alicia or Emilia stop me from talking with Rena?"

"I'll take care of Emilia and Alicia, so keep in touch, okay?"

Marshall gulped a little and saluted at her. "I will try my best, ma'am."

"I thought I told you to call me Ender?"

"Sorry, Ender," he said.

Ender sat down on the bed beside Marshall and pushed him away from her. "Good, now get out of here, I want my privacy."

Marshall quickly walked away from the bed. "Right, ma'am."

"You might be sleeping here, but this is a girl's room during nighttime."

"I understand ma'am, I mean, Ender"

"And don't forget to knock,"

This time, Marshall's face reddens a little. He quickly opened the door and stepped outside. "Yes, I won't forget," he added.

Marshall closed the door behind him and exhaled a breath of relief. Then he looked at the room in front of him. It is also girl's room, Rena and Emilia's room. "Alright, now what?"

The demon walked down the hallway of the second floor. There, he saw Emilia and Rena walking up the stairs. The former quickened her pace and walked passed him while the latter waved shyly at him. "Good Evening, Rena," Marshall said.

"Good evening, Marshall…" Rena replied. She looked like she wanted to say something, but she decided not to.

Marshall however, who has actually some experience in interrogation (while somehow being as dense as tungsten) noticed that. In the split second they walked past each other, Marshall already went through different things that she wanted to tell him but didn't want to.

'Did she want to confess her love? No, definitely too early. Did she want to me to pay for the bill? No, I'm sure she'll just say it. Did she… Oh, the code, she must be thinking I refused her number! Right, now what?'

"Rena," the girl who already walked past him turned around. Marshall grinned sheepishly at her and took out his flip phone. "I'm sorry, I uhh… Can I have your phone number instead?"

A relieved smile formed on her face. "Oh, so you didn't…" she shook her head a little. "Ah, I shouldn't have assumed like that," she quickly took out her smart phone. "My phone number right? Umm…"

After a moment, she showed Marshall her phone screen. The boy took out his phone to add her number to his contacts. "Alright, thank you Rena, until next time,"

"Bye, Marshall…" she said before walking to her room with spring on her steps.

Then, Marshall continued his way downstairs. He also text some message as he went downstairs. "FA492700012 - MARSHALL - DD - NumReq - 467XXXXXX - Hey, can you guys get me some info on this number? I need her background check".

After sending the number, Marshall walked towards one of the table in the Black Cat Bar and sat down on it. He then took out one of his forbidden cursed spell book and start reading it for amusement sake.

After almost half an hour reading the book, Marshall's phone rang. He did a quick silent spell on the area around him before picking up the phone.

"Operator Megan to Agent Marshall, hi!" the voice was that of a cheerful and bubbly teenage girl talking to her friend.

"Hello," Marshall replied politely.

"Just to clarify, you are a B-Rank, Shadow Class, Field Agent Marshall. Congratulations on your promotion by the way,"

"Thanks and yes I did ask the information on a phone number belonging to, presumably a teenage girl living in the Mercat Village."

"Okay, found her! What information do you need Marshall?"

"Hmm… Her background check, her current relationship, and some info that will help me get close to her… Yes, for mission purposes,"

"Her name is Rena, no last name. She was born sixteen years ago in the Koleko Village, an anomalous site just like the Mercat Town. She has a criminal history of… Arson, several cases of homicide, and quite a lot of vandalism. Her crime motives were anomalous in nature so she was never caught by the local authorities, but the Foundation did detained her for a while before Agent Ementior personally vouched for her."

Marshall blinked owlishly for a bit after hearing that. He really didn't expect someone like Rena to have a criminal background.

"Give me her psychological data. Any mental illness?"

There was a slight pause before Megan finally answered.

"She got all of them,"

"Pardon?"

"Yeah seriously, this list goes on forever… oh wait, nevermind, found the bottom. Okay so, she's a, wait no that's classified… Just a moment… Holy hell, did Kali wrote this summary? It's so long!"

Marshall waited for half a minute before Megan finally found the information he needs.

"I think I can tell you this. So, Rena and others of her kind has a power to switch out her memory and personality with a new one whenever her mind is broken. And, well, her mind has been broken plenty of times before so…"

"You mean like… being reborn in the same body?"

"Yeah, like that. Her old life and personality still resides within her though, just locked and very well hidden. She's currently on her, wait that's classified too, goddammit Kali…"

"Just give me info on her current life. What about her current life's relationship?"

"Hmm… she's pretty close to Emilia Maxwell and is acting as her surrogate older sister. She has some ties with someone named Christopher but doesn't know him that well. And, and this just came in. She seems to have taken a liking to you, Marshall."

"That's fast… You've been keeping a very close eye on her huh?"

"Nope, I just looked up her Chirper post. Something about a foreign hottie staying in her place,"

"Right… Can you text me the list of all her likes and dislikes?"

"Already on it, good luck Marshall,"

"Thank you Megan," Marshall hanged up the call and opened his inbox. True to her words, there's a very long list of Rena's likes, dislikes and even gift recommendations. There's also some conversation topics and warnings.

One of the warning is that Rena should never leave the Mercat village. The reason is classified and way above his pay grade.

"Haaa, what do I do now?" Marshall groaned in exhaustion. "Should I just ask her out? Should I just text her now? But I need to request a new fake number before that."