The Six Executives of Freedom (2)

It had been happening for a few days now when an unidentified Relic User slowly hunts down other Relic Users in a cornered way yet in a crowded place.

The suspect list can be narrowed down but if his methods are known then the guys from Freedom shouldn't have any trouble finding him. But considering how he is still roaming freely that does not seem to be the case.

If an organization of more than 200 supernatural ability users cannot track one single person with an ability to be invisible then it becomes rather suspicious if anyone is actually trying to catch him or not.

Or maybe they are trying to catch him but they are after wrong target. I have this eerie feeling that I am being deceived by someone, like something's wrong. A lie mixed up within the truth because of which people aren't questioning the information and being misdirected by it.

All of this feeling is because of one thing, I have seen the video along with the article of the man being strangled to death before it got popular. I don't know the exact contents but there was something in the article which was different from now but the article was removed after I woke up, because of this I have no proof of it for now.

I have near no memories of it because the next day was followed by Chandler's untimely death and the sudden arrival of Irina in my life.

But for now I can think of one thing, this is not a simple murder or a specific target killing. Someone is killing people without any thought or rather a thought of another person.

"That would also mean that there is a killer and a mastermind behind him." Just having that thought made me feel uncomfortable for what was about to happen.

Last night I asked Irina to let me meet with the Executives because of something I suspected.

It wasn't just a random request, I didn't want to get involved too deep but now I was, not because I felt bad for a kind stranger dying, not for that Pig Bastard who definitely died plotting and not even for Irina.

I am being involved because Chandler wants me to and he's making me. Pig Guy should not have known he even insulted me but now he went out of his way to involve me in this mess and i feel like Chandler is involved.

It may sound weird for me to do this but I was confident. My deduction ability may not be close to the best detectives of our country but I have gained a good amount of experience because of Chandler's tests where he made me solve real life cases which had happened in the past.

There are also a few things to consider for me as well, Irina may protect me but the culprit was a murderer known for killing people with supernatural abilities, taking that into account, I may be walking on thin ice by directly declaring I'm trying to narrow down the culprits.

In the elevator, Irina explained to me about the power contribution in different factions and the current state of Freedom. The Freedom had 7 factions and few unbounded members but after the Pig Guy's death it had turned into 6, most of the people from Pig Guy's faction have joined Irina's faction. While other factions didn't receive comparable or just any amount of people.

After our chats, Irina and I headed to meet with the Executives. The sixth floor was weirder and didn't look huge like the fifth, aside from the area near the six elevators, the way ahead was narrow.

The path had doors in the left and the view of the outside behind the glass on the right. The design was unique but it was understandable because this area was designed only for the use of few people.

I looked around while walking but the place didn't look too weird, that was except one door which wasn't located in our left but at the end of the path and had a counter beside it where an old man was sitting.

There was also a label above the door, which read "Executive's Meeting Room" which completely meant that this place was our destination.

As we went inside that room, 5 people were waiting inside standing confidently waiting for us.

The five people seemed way more different than the Pig Guy, their body language didn't look just relaxed but rather confident.

"Hey Healer, or should I call you Leader now? Either way you really brought the Assistant guy here. I thought it was another silly joke from Mr. John." The man who spoke looked somewhere in his early 20s by his physical features and way of talking.

"Let me introduce him to you, you can call him Assistant for now because he has no name yet but he can be dangerous for you all if you let your guard down."

What do you mean dangerous? The most I can do is best them in a math quiz, also why am I an assistant?

"I guess you will be helping us from now on, well as you have guessed all of us gathered here are Executives, you can call me Crystal User." One of the executives spoke.

Even though he sounded nice, from his made up way of talking I felt like he had one of the most nastiest fake smiles I would ever see.

He had a good physique and bold tone, behind that mask I can already imagine him having a good face. Because of a... certain incident in my past I'm pretty sensitive to lies and these kinds of people.

"Hi~ I'm Ice Demon. The name's pretty wicked but I'm the kindest person you'll find here." One of the two girls spoke while extending her right hand.

Alongside the beautiful dress and a voluptuous body figure for a woman, I somehow felt sinister while I shook her hand.

Her palm looked really smooth and soft while holding it, as I tried to pull my hand back she didn't release it, I looked up at her in confusion when she slightly tilted her head and whispered something and then slowly released my hand.

"H-hi." I didn't know what had happened.

"Please introduce yourself properly you guys, according to Mr. John he should hold the highest power after the Leader! I'm Controller, even though I'm an executive I'm not in this position because of my brains or Relic's power, I'm just a normal man here to fill the empty position." The executive beside her broke the tension between us.

"Yeah... Nice to meet you too."

He seems way too kind and normal for a post like this. Judging his demeanor, he should be around in his 30s but that guess can be wrong knowing how both Irina and I don't at all act our age.

Also second in power? Then I would've been in higher power than Irina if the Pig Guy didn't die?!

"Hey assistant, I don't really want to waste much time on useless introductions, I'm Cupid and the one behind me is White Mage." The man who objected when I entered the room spoke this time.

A name like Cupid for a rude man like him was ironic. Well at least White Mage suits the lady behind him.

After the introductions, the executives sat down at seats. As I sat down beside Irina, all of the Executives suddenly looked at me.

What? Did I do something wrong sitting here?

To their reaction, Irina gently put her hand around my shoulder. And all the Executives dispersed their looks.

"Hey would it really even be possible to kill Spider with such security?" Cupid asked ignoring the tension built in the room.

"I doubt that, unlike you we all have seen his excessive security multiple times, it was always impenetrable." - Controller.

"Shut up idiot, there may be a case that he was unguarded that day." Cupid replied rudely to Controller's answer for some reason.

Idiot? I know Cupid sounded a little rude earlier but now he's just simply insulting the most normal guy here, why?

"How about we ask the faction members, unfortunately nobody has joined my faction from his."

As Controller suggested and looked around, other Executives slightly shook their heads from left to right with the exception of three.

"Some joined but they were low level and barely had any connection to top members of the faction or any useful information." Ice said.

"My new members are in the same boat." Crystal User also joined in.

As they both completed their side of the situation all the stares fell towards my direction, but still I was not clueless enough to not know who the stares were actually directed to.

"A lot of members explained to me the actual details of the story."

"Then the guard was?"

"Coincidentally I also visited Spider on the day when he died, his guard was nowhere close enough that some random Relic User could kill him."

Hearing Irina's words all the five went silent for a few seconds when one spoke up.

"Coincidentally~ huh? Visiting Spider, fastest to rise rank, becoming leader when you're so young and finally him dying after your visit, it must be a lucky coincidence that most of the people from Spider's faction joined you, right?" Ice replied to Irina in a mocking tone.

"Yeah and coincidentally we also talked about the identity of Invisible Hunter there, coincidences can really be scary am I right?"

Everyone again went silent, it may look like Irina didn't have any excuses but to us it was obvious that in truth she intentionally gave out details of her visiting the Pig Guy to warn everyone.

"Hey, why don't we put a bounty on his head, with a big enough reward. Freedom members would easily corner him." Cupid spoke again and ignored Irina's statement.

"He is already known for his invisible Relic, and no one knows his face, if we put a bounty on his head people would just bring any random Invisible Relic User. In the worst case scenario they may even hunt down Relic Users with Invisibility from other Regions to make it more believable." Irina rejected Cupid's idea but he didn't seem angry like before.

I thought I would be useless for this meeting but if it's criticising others ideas and plans, I was an expert in that field!

"Hey then why don't we strictly interrogate members of our factions, if he has only killed Joint Freedom Members he should most likely be in one of our factions." - Ice.

According to what Irina told me in the Elevator, Joint Freedom members are people who are under the protection of one of the Executives, so people like Mark and others while the opposite ones who don't belong to factions are called Sole Freedom members.

Indeed, and by the looks of it most probably in Irina's faction so she should be the one to rule out this suggestion

"That would've been a good idea in the normal scenario but because of Spider's death, few factions had a new member from either Spider's faction or a new Sole Freedom who are scared of Invisible Hunter." But I was the one who objected.

"What are you trying to say?" Ice looked at me.

"We can't rule out that he doesn't belong to a faction or used to be in Spider's, the interrogation idea of yours will result in lack of security and holes in communication which will give the killer more freedom in killing the people who quit."

"..." Ice seemed slightly surprised that I wasn't just a decoration item.

The others also tried to suggest an idea such as pretending to stop searching for him and spread rumours about Executives but Irina and I took down all the ideas with a logical counter argument.

As we thought that everyone would be out of plans, White Mage suddenly suggested something.

"I also have a plan."

"Mage, you should not be involved in this case."

White Mage was sitting silently without suggesting an idea but she suddenly spoke. While Cupid seemed to dislike that.

"Please listen to me first, I have noticed his attack patterns and he has only attacked people in public places, while all the targets were Joint Freedom members on a normal day."

She started with stating the common things about victims.

"So to lure him I have a simple plan where I will be sitting there as bait for him and there will be strong Relic Users hiding behind me to protect me."

"What! That is a completely absurd plan!" Cupid yelled.

He said that, but other than him nobody rejected her plan.

"What?! Wait you guys were taking down such thoroughly constructed plans but you're fine with this?!" Cupid looked at Irina and me.

"With Crystal User's powers you can even look at me directly when I'm acting as bait." White Mage tried to convince Cupid.

"I mean it's pretty simple but sounds good to me." Ice looked at us while saying that.

It was a good idea, an animal which has tasted rich flesh will always return. After killing the Pig Guy there was no way he would leave an Executive offered on a plate.

Irina and I, of course didn't plan to object but Cupid rejected the idea with all his strength.

Cupid and White Mage's relationship was weird or rather the relationship being weird, it was the place that relationship was. Considering how most people are merely acquaintances even in the same faction.

Both of them were executives of two different groups which should make them rivals if not enemies, their behaviour sure was weird.

Cupid couldn't calm himself down so White Mage talked to him in private. They left the room for a few minutes and returned, she somehow managed to convince him in agreeing to her plan within that time.

What did she say to make such a hotheaded man come out so calmly.

Her plan was simple but using a bait was the same thought I had for this scenario.

She then started adding dimensions to her plan and suggesting counter plans for what if scenarios.

As we were ending our meeting Cupid glared at us. As the executives started to leave he came to us and said -

"You two better play the roles of Leaders well, and not the roles of some players enjoying a game leisurely again." And left the room as well.

Players? Again? Those were strangely specific, I looked at Irina who slowly removed her mask and showed a kind of evil smile.

Looks like Cupid and Irina have a history I wasn't aware of, that could also be the reason why he was the one to break tension whenever Irina said something outrageous.

It can also be assumed that Cupid understood why both of us allowed White Mage's idea and what was going on in our heads.

Both of us have thought of a plan to capture this Invisible Hunter and now that we have connected all the dots, we have become aware the other person knows about it.

Tomorrow White Mage's plan will fail but the Invisible Hunter will still be caught.

All the Executives left the room leaving only the two of us behind.