My Ecchi Superpower System

Chapter 173: Chapter 173| A File Pulled Twice

Zane woke at 5:30 AM with his heart already going.

He lay still for a few seconds, listening. Gerald wheezed. Dex was a lump under the blanket with the headband stuck to his forehead. The room was grey and quiet, and nothing in it had changed since last night.

Except him.

He held out his right hand over the edge of the bed and reached for the third slot. It answered at once, steady and warm, like a hand already waiting to be taken. No thread, no seam, no hunting for a handle. A soft pressure folded out of his palm and held the air above his fingers in a flat, shimmering pane.

’Sixty percent,’ he thought.

He let it go before it woke Dex.

For the next half hour he sat on the edge of the bed with his elbows on his knees, trying to decide how to tell Vael about Hollis and the greenhouse. He’d run the speech in his head all night. Every version sounded like a boy confessing to a crime. In the end he gave up, pulled on his uniform, and went.

_ _

Vael’s office door was open at 7:40.

She sat behind the desk with a mug in one hand and the tablet propped against a stack of binders, in a white blouse that was one button too loose and dark trousers, her hair pinned back. Her cleavage showed at the open collar, the pale skin of her big breasts pressing against the fabric. She looked up when his shadow crossed the frosted glass and set the mug down very slowly.

’Damn,’ Zane thought, before he could stop himself. ’Must be tasking, carrying those.’

『 System Note: The host is staring at his instructor’s boobs. The system recommends looking at her face. 』

’I’m looking at her face.’

『 The host is not. 』

『 System Note: What about a sex task with an instructor? 』

’Whoa,’ Zane thought, nearly choking on air.

『 The system laughed. It may be a joke. It may not. 』

’It better be a joke, system.’

”You’re early,” Vael said, cutting his mental conversation.

”I said I’d come.”

”You didn’t say anything.” She nodded at the chair. ”But I’d have been disappointed if you hadn’t. Sit.”

He sat. The chair was hard, and the window behind her was bright enough to make him squint. For a moment neither of them spoke.

”Something happened,” Vael said.

”Yes,” Zane said, meeting her eyes and forcing his shoulders to stay still.

”Tell me from the start,” Vael said, leaning back in her chair with the mug cradled in both hands.

He told her.

He started with the first text on Monday evening, plain and short. Then the second, then the third on Tuesday morning with the greenhouse and the time. He told her about the roof of the records annex and the man in the charcoal suit, and about the meeting. He kept his voice flat and his hands still. He left out Sera’s name, and he left out the system and everything it had given him. He gave her Hollis, the offer, the card, and the deadline.

When he finished, the room was very quiet.

Vael hadn’t moved. Her expression hadn’t changed through any of it, except around the eyes. They’d gone sharp the moment he said the name.

”Hollis,” she said.

”That’s what he called himself.”

”It definitely isn’t his name.” She said it like she was reading it off a chart. ”It’s the kind of name a man uses when he doesn’t want to be found. I’ve met similar people in my career. They all had calm hands.”

”His were folded the whole time.”

”Of course they were.” She pressed her fingertips together under her chin. ”Did he threaten you?”

”He said it was a weather forecast.”

Her mouth twitched, though there was no humour in it. ”That’s how they all talk. Same men, different faces.”

She stood up and crossed to the window, standing with her arms folded and her back to him. Outside, a line of first years was crossing the courtyard toward the practical complex, laughing and shoving each other with their bags.

”I’m going to tell you something I wasn’t planning to,” Vael said, to the glass. ”Because you came here on your own, and you told me the truth, or most of it.”

Zane didn’t flinch at ”most of it.” He’d expected it.

”The field division has been interested in this intake since before the duel,” she went on. ”Quietly. Requests for assessment data, observer visits that were never logged. I put it down to routine. Every few years they sniff around for talent.” She paused. ”Last month your father’s file was pulled again.”

His stomach dropped. ”Again?”

”It was pulled once before, years ago. Long before you enrolled.” She turned from the window. ”I only found out because the request crossed my desk for a countersignature. I refused it. It went above me anyway.”

”What did they want with it?”

”I don’t know.” Her eyes held his, steady and grim. ”But a file doesn’t get pulled twice without someone deciding it matters. I’d like you to remember that.”

He recalled everything he’d found so far. Four digits in a notebook. A folder with eight pages. A coordinate on a slide in a classroom.

He didn’t say any of it.

”I’m not going to ask what you’re keeping back,” Vael said, as if she’d heard the thought. ”I told you I wouldn’t. But I’d like you to hear me clearly now.”

”I’m listening.”

”Don’t call that number. Not tonight, not next week, not if he phones you himself.” She came back to the desk and rested both palms flat on it. ”The week he gave you is a pressure tactic. Waiting costs you nothing. Answering fast costs you everything. If you take that offer, you lose the one thing you currently have, which is that they don’t know exactly what you are.”

”And if they stop waiting?”

”Then they come through me.” Her tone left no room for argument. ”That’s what I’m here for. You aren’t alone in this building, Calloway. I know it might feel that way.”

He didn’t say anything.

For a moment she looked as if she wanted to say more. Then her shoulders eased, and she picked up the mug again.

”There’s one more thing,” Vael said.

”Yes, Instructor?”

”The man in the grey jacket. You said he left the gallery after the final exchange of the duel.”

”Right after.”

”Did anyone else see him go?”

Zane hesitated.

”Someone noticed him in the gallery before the match ended,” he said. ”Someone I trust.”

”Good.” She nodded once. ”Stay close to that person.”

He let out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding.

_ _

Zane left Vael’s office at 8:05 AM.

The corridor was bright and loud with first years drifting toward their lectures. Somebody called his name from the far end, a cheerful voice he half recognised, and he lifted a hand without turning. He kept walking.

Halfway down the stairs, the system surfaced.

『 System Note: The host was almost entirely honest. The system recommends maintaining that standard where possible. 』

’Almost,’ he thought. ’Nice.’

『 The system does not mean it as praise. It means it as a caution. 』

’Noted.’

He reached the landing and stopped with one hand on the rail.

Tomorrow was Saturday, 8:00 AM, Arena 3. Nyx’s week was up. He was three points short of her Acquaintance tier, but at least the Sigil in his chest finally worked. And Nyx would be waiting for him, with half the answer already in her head.

’What does she do when she sees what I’ve got?’ he thought.

He had no idea.

Then it hit him, standing there with his hand on the rail. He definitely had a lecture right now.

”Nothing bad if you skip a few classes,” he muttered.

He went down the rest of the stairs two at a time, hands in his pockets, and let the morning noise swallow him.