Chapter 2: Mission 1: Backup Plan
XXXXXX XXX, 1963
Berlint, Ostania
Operation Strix; an operation planned out by the heads of the Westalian spy agency W.I.S.E.. Designed as a plan to infiltrate the upper echelons of Ostanian society, the plan focused around establishing close contact or relationships to the target Donovan Desmond. To do this, the agent would need to make contact with the target during one of his few official, public outings; an official gathering at Eden Academy.
Getting into that gathering was the main hurdle of Operation Strix. Infiltration wasn't an option given the scrutiny of those who were allowed entry, and assassination wasn't yet planned. The agent needed to get close to Desmond, and for the most part that party was the only way to do so. The problem? The only people with access to the party were Imperial Scholars of Eden Academy and their parents.
This meant planting a child into Eden Academy, raising them up to be an Imperial Scholar - which was difficult in and of itself thanks to the high standards to even count as one -, and praying that they would manage to pull it off. Even then, there was no guarantee that just getting access to the gathering would be enough to get close to Desmond, as Desmond could always be busy with other figures more influential than Parent X.
Desmond himself was a powerful and influential figure in Ostania, being the former Prime Minister and current Chairman of the National Unity Party that held much political clout. As one would expect when dealing with a renowned politician, WISE's agents would have to fight an uphill battle to make their way into his sphere.
It was for this reason that WISE chose their best; Agent Twilight. Having enacted several successful missions in a wide array of different jobs and tasks, there were few better for the job. With him on the job, it would have a better chance of success than any of their other agents.
As for Twilight himself, he was exhausted.
The first step of Strix was finding a child to enlist in Eden Academy. That seemed hard enough on its own, given the standards, but he did find success in finding a child named 'Anya.' Despite their apparent intelligence when they filled out a crossword puzzle in front of him, he was beginning to consider the possibility that it was merely a fluke.
While he was willing to bite the bullet and see how she fared, he wasn't confident in her alone. He was already stressed enough having to rely on a random child for his mission, so the least he could do was improve his chances by getting another one if the first failed.
For this, he needed to find yet another shady run-down orphanage that likely carried few papers on their children. This was essential to his disguise, as it would allow him to make it appear as if the child had always been biologically his since the orphanage would conveniently lose all of its records shortly after. Currently, he was under the identity of Loid Forger, a completely made-up identity and thus one that they could more easily shift around and alter as needed. Rich? Sure. Handsome? Done.
The orphanage he was currently standing before was one of the last on his list. Any other orphanages anywhere near Berlint would be of too high quality; their documents would be too reliable and difficult to modify.
He had gone to several equally run-down orphanages before arriving at this one, and he had found some children he considered choosing, but he wasn't going to take his chances. He wanted to be thorough, no more possible flukes like Anya. He wanted to clearly know the level of intellect the child he was adopting had.
Even he could recognize how unrealistic this was, his standards were quite high, and without studying the children he would never reach them, but his goal wasn't to find someone who could. His goal was to find whoever got closest. The smartest child he could possibly find was what he was looking for, and he would use every method he had to properly test for it. He would just have to raise them afterwards to become as intelligent as possible.
As he entered the orphanage, he was quickly spotted by an elderly woman laying her head on the front desk. The woman appeared to be in her early 50s, although she could easily be mistaken for being well into her 60s. It was obvious from the look in her eye alone that she didn't care one bit for her job. While this would start ringing alarms for most people, for Loid it was another good sign of this orphanage's useful incompetence.
The woman sat up and yawned, leaning her head against one hand as she looked at Loid, mumbling, "Alright, what d'ya want? You want a kid? I got plenty of 'em."
"Yes, I was hoping to adopt, you see m-" Loid began before he was suddenly cut off.
The woman interrupted, "I don't need your sob story. C'mere, I'll show you the kids."
The woman led Loid back through a hallway behind her. Soon, the lady opened the door and allowed Loid to step inside. Upon entering he saw a few dozen kids all messing and playing around. Most of their toys were poor in quality or simply just old, the only new ones being clear donations of old hand-me-downs due to how scuffed they were. Their crayons and other art tools were cheap off-brand versions that didn't seem to work very well, and it was pretty obvious that the whole building was only minimally cleaned at best. All of it almost made him feel bad for the children, but there wasn't much he could do. He might be able to spare at least one of them from this awful-smelling pit of negligence if he found a suitable child.
The old woman followed behind Loid and soon stood next to him, beginning to point at groups of children. "Over there are the playful brats. Throw them a shitty toy and they'll be entertained for hours, especially if they have someone else to play with."
Loid had seen many like them throughout his visits to many orphanages. While such a child would no doubt be good for Anya, it wouldn't help either much with getting into Eden Academy. He needed one that was able and willing to learn, not one that would prefer to play the whole time instead of taking lessons.
The woman then pointed to another group of kids, this time being a scattered group all sitting or playing independently, doing their own things, uncaring of the others. "Those are the anti-social brats. They don't play with nobody and they don't care about nobody, but they'll usually find a quiet way to entertain themselves, at least."
There were many quiet kids that he spotted throughout the day, and it was often them who were the top candidates. Quiet might often meant studious, and compared to the more playful children who cared for play more than work, the quiet kids could be swayed more easily; at least in theory. Still, it wasn't enough for him to fully place his confidence on yet.
Next, the woman pointed at a group of kids all sitting at a table coloring and drawing. Most weren't drawing well, but there were a few that had decent art ability for their young age and lack of support. "Those there are the creative brats. Damned idiots keep drawing on the walls no matter how much I tell them not to."
While the arts was a category in Eden Academy that could provide a path towards getting Stella Stars, the main struggle was getting them into and keeping them in Eden Academy. Art was unfortunately not on the Entry, Midterm, or Final exams, at least not for their age.
Lastly, the woman pointed to a lone child sitting in the corner, reading a book of surprising size for someone her age, "And that demon there is the weird kid. I'd pay you to take her off my hands. She don't talk like a normal kid and she's done scared off every parent that's ever been even slightly interested in er'. She insisted on bein' allowed to go to the library down the road, nowadays I'm just hopin' she gets kidnapped. No child scares me as much as that one does."
Loid looked at the girl, her blue eyes never once lifting from her book. It was a bit strange to describe a little girl that way, but from the sheer size of the book she was reading, and her desire to go to the library, she was immediately giving off green flags in Loid's head. There might be some strange aspects to the child, but if they could get good grades then he frankly didn't care.
As Loid slowly approached the child, dodging the other children, he finally was able to read the title of the book stating in large gold font, 'Ruins of an Empire,' with the dual-headed dragon symbol of the Empire plastered on it. Although he had never read the book, he had heard about it. The novel was critically acclaimed by many historians and scholars and detailed the years immediately following the end of the Great War and the build-up that led to the First East-West War in 1932.
Although he didn't know much more than that, he knew that the book should've realistically been far beyond the reading level of any normal child. Surely the kid was faking reading the book, right? There were many adults who would struggle to read something as complex and long as such a historically acclaimed book.
The girl in front of him was Tanya, and unknown to him she could very easily read the book. She could read far more than it, in fact. Truth is, she wanted to know more about what happened after her death. She was confident in her knowledge of the past, but when it came to knowledge of what came after her death, she was uncertain. She needed to know more.
By now she had noticed Loid approaching, her wartime senses yet to fail her. At first, she thought it to be some other parent she would need to scare off, but she was surprised to see someone who actually appeared well-kept by most standards.
She had been more or less content with this orphanage, at least compared to her last one. It wasn't by any means a good orphanage, but she was no longer starving, and that was truly the best upgrade she could hope for. A high-quality orphanage would've asked too many questions about where she was from, but she wasn't willing to take her chances with the nuns again if they were even still around. Nuns were nuns, the less said the better.
Still, Loid seemed to be a neat and professional man, which wasn't something she expected to see in a million years at this orphanage. Usually, such people went to nicer orphanages where the children were taken better care of; most of the parents that came to this orphanage were people Tanya definitely didn't want to be a child of, even if they seemed loving and caring.
It wasn't love and care Tanya was truly after, it was success. She needed an education since even in her previous life she had spent a half decade of her childhood in war and never really got much formal schooling in this world. She was confident that she could get the academic scores needed to earn a scholarship of some kind, but she needed to get into a half-decent school first. Most of the families that came to adopt in the orphanage were largely from low-income communities, and she'd be lucky if they could support even her basic schooling needs, much less any further academic pursuits.
Was she being too picky? Most definitely, and she was even considering lowering her standards. But to see someone walk in wearing an actual clean suit certainly got her interested. If nothing else, it might be best to just take what she can get, so long as this man wasn't some lunatic. And if the man could display themselves to be more than just this, they had her attention.
The man himself was strange though. Even ignoring the fact that it seemed like someone from the middle to upper-middle class was looking to adopt in a shitty orphanage like this, the way he looked around the room… He was analyzing them. She had seen a handful of people come looking for a specific child, but this man wasn't looking, he was observing. She could tell, and that caught her attention. He seemed to judge every move every child made. In what way? She couldn't tell. Just what was he after, and why?
Part of her hoped he was looking for a smart kid, to be her way out. She wouldn't be all too surprised if someone was unable to produce children but wanted a reason to pretend like an adopted child was biologically theirs. Usually, such a thing would be more for the upper class that cared more for inheritance, but it was possible it would apply to him, too. Why else would someone come to such a shitty orphanage when there were plenty of better, more secure options. The man was sketchy, but so long as she got what she wanted, she didn't really mind dealing with it.
And now here he was walking to her. He had analyzed every child in the room and had chosen her above all else. That was a good sign. She specifically chose to read large books like her current one in the orphanage itself. The goal was to attract parents who wanted a genius child, or at least inform any potential parents that she was a kid who would excel in academics. All she was doing was reading, which meant that this man wanted a kid capable of reading advanced stuff. Alternatively, she could be thinking too much about all of this, and he was coming to suggest an easier book to read for her supposed biological age.
The man approached and leaned down to bring himself closer to Tanya's face as she glanced up from her book. The man politely placed a hand on his chest as he spoke, "My name is Loid Forger, can I ask your name?"
She quickly answered, "Tanya."
"Well Tanya, that's a pretty big book you're reading, are you perhaps interested in history?" Loid inquired. He needed to know if her success was limited to only one or two fields. Clearly, she would succeed in Language and likely excel in History, but he was curious if there was anything else he needed to account for, as it would impact what she would need to study.
Tanya lightly nodded, glancing back down at her book before returning her eyes to meet Loid's. "I'm familiar with the general bits of history leading up to the Great War, and I'm greatly familiar with what happened in the Great War, but I'm afraid my knowledge of recent history and the aftermath of the Great War is vague, so I was hoping to learn more."
Loid was taken aback by the sheer vocabulary of this child! Any doubts that she was truly reading the book were quickly fading if she spoke like that. He was still curious about the depths of her historical knowledge though. He couldn't fairly question her on anything after the Great War, but what about the Great War itself? She seemed to imply it was her best-known era, no better an era to ask about then.
"Would you mind if I ask you some questions about the Great War? I'm curious to hear how much you know." Loid asked, wanting to make certain that this girl would not be a fluke, despite how too good to be true it seemed.
Tanya nodded, "Sure, I don't mind. Ask whatever you'd like, I'm sure I can answer it."
Unless they rewrote the history books. Tanya almost wanted to add, but knew to hold back her tongue. The rewriting of aspects of history was bound to happen, but in the modern age of documentation, the more likely outcome would be the rewriting of perspective at best. They couldn't really erase actions of the past, all that would really change was the political finger-pointing and how certain people would be viewed. People would be framed as evil warmongerers and their achievements shouted as war crimes, while the winners turned into famed war heroes, and their misdeeds largely ignored although not outright denied.
Learning where aspects of history had been changed was another area she needed to do some research on later, but for now, her focus was on the immediate recent history of this world. Of course, with Loid here, her focus was returning to the Great War as he asked his first question.
"Well then, Tanya, when did the Great War start?" Loid expected a simple answer, something like '1923' or along those lines. That was enough to give him some satisfaction.
On the contrary, Tanya blew his expectations out of the water. "The war started in June 1923 when Legadonian armies crossed over into the Imperial Norden Territory in multiple positions. The response was the Empire declaring war not long later and an artillery bombardment by the Empire. The Legadonian armies fell into chaos as they started a war without preparation. When the Legadonian mages finally managed to get past the Empire's air defenses, they were stopped by a lone mage observer who held them off from attacking Imperial Positions. Of course, one could argue that the Great War didn't truly start until the Franqois, Dacia, or even the Rus joined at various later points, given the relatively small scale of the violence compared to the rest of the war."
Tanya adding in a brief mention of her own actions that day was intentional. She was curious if her actions were even still remembered, assuming Being X hadn't wiped her from history. No, Schugel knew who she was, so that wasn't a high possibility, but being wiped from all military documents definitely was one since she was a soldier with quite the kill count.
Loid meanwhile was surprised at the depth of her knowledge. Not only was she right, but she had even gotten the finer details of the battle correct too. She even mentioned the first appearance of the White Silver, which nowadays was more of a neat historical fact that people occasionally looked up to rather than a commonly known individual.
Nevertheless, Loid was thoroughly impressed, and he had basically already confirmed that he wanted Tanya, but he wanted to test more of her knowledge just in case. Eden Academy had four main subjects that they tested on during Midterm and Final exams; History, Math, Science, and Reading. Although they also had classes like Physical Education and Arts and Crafts, those didn't have the same proper tests as the other classes. He had already confirmed that Tanya was proficient in History and Reading, but if he could also confirm that she was proficient in three out of four of the main academics, his immediate worries about Strix would drop, at least for now.
After a moment, Loid asked, "Tanya if you don't mind, could you tell me what 87 divided by 3 is?"
Without hesitancy, Tanya answered, "29."
Almost startled by her speed and directness, Loid continued, "4 times 9?"
"36."
"114 divided by 6?"
"19."
"The square root of 196?"
"14."
"86 times 9 divided by 3?"
"258."
Loid was baffled, but also satisfied. Where the hell did a six-year-old learn all of this in such a shabby orphanage? Clearly, the manager had no part in it, did she learn it all herself? Just how had such a child prodigy never been adopted, something wasn't adding up.
Then he noticed it, he looked around and out the windows of the orphanage, seeing the low-income town around it. He then looked back towards Tanya, her eyes weren't the cute sparkly eyes one would expect from a girl her age. No, he recognized the look in her eyes, she was analyzing him as much as he was analyzing her. It became apparent how so many people were scared off by her in the past. She was doing it intentionally. Most of the people who came into this orphanage were no doubt of a lower income. Of course, surely that didn't mean they weren't loving, but that meant she had other goals, goals he could work with.
After all, the logical persons were the best to manipulate, and the hardest were the fools, as the former followed patterns whilst the latter did not.
It wasn't love she seemed to be after, no, she was aware of the intelligence she had, clearly. She didn't hesitate on a single question he asked and didn't seem to question why he was asking them in the first place, nor have a problem with it. The girl clearly knew her intelligence and knew not to settle for wasting it. A low-income household wouldn't be able to afford the education she knew she deserved, but fortunately for both her and Loid, he could, in spades and diamonds.
This child wasn't like Anya though, she was smart, he needed to be blank with his intentions, at least to an extent, so that she could understand properly. A deal was in order.
"Tanya, I have an offer for you. What you want is an education, yes?"
Tanya nodded, her eyes clearly sparkling with interest.
"Well here's the deal. I was hoping to apply a child into Eden Academy, one of the best schools in the country, however, for that to happen you'll have to pretend to be my biological child, would that work for you?" Loid knew it was probably for the best to be straightforward with this kid. Anya simply accepted her role as his fake kid, but this child might need some proper explanation.
Tanya's eyes sparkled like never before, almost startling Loid yet again. She was very aware of Eden Academy. The school had existed for hundreds of years, and as such it was very much around when she was born for the first time in this world. She had discovered it when looking for a school she might've been able to squeeze into despite being an orphan. Despite Eden Academy's position as a prestigious school, it was an elitist school she had no chance of getting into with heavy influences from lineage and wealth, so she gave up on it immediately before. Of course, her plans to get into a school were sidelined by the impending war at the time, but now Loid was offering for her to go to a prestigious school and only in exchange for pretending to be his kid?!
It was the deal of the lifetime, but it was also why she was skeptical. No matter, so long as he kept his word, she'll deal with whatever shady business came along the way, so long as she got her academic credentials in the end.
"I can agree to that," Tanya quickly responded, although the eager look on her face did not match her calm tone of voice.
"Oh, right, I guess I should confirm, you are six, right?" Loid asked.
Tanya nodded, "I was born in 1957, I am six."
Loid wasn't sure if she was telling the truth or not, but she was more than mature enough to pretend to be older and she didn't seem as short as Anya, so it would work out.
Speaking of Anya… How was he going to introduce them?
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As Tanya and Loid approached the apartment where Loid resided, he began to dread how Anya would react to another child. It was like introducing your pet dog to a new pet, they would either jump for joy and welcome them, or become jealous at the prospect. He was hoping for the former, but even he knew of the possibility of the latter.
Tanya's reaction seemed to be calm, he had told her everything on the way back here and she seemed generally fine with it. The problem with Tanya wasn't how she'd immediately react to Anya, but how she'd interact with her over the long term. If he had to deal with two sisters fighting each other for the entire duration of Operation Strix, he might lose his sanity before either could become Imperial Scholars. He was good, but he wasn't that good.
Getting them to become friends was a necessity, not only for the stability of Strix but also for his own mental sanity. It had been a long time since a mission stressed him out so much, and unlike those missions, this wasn't a one-and-done deal, this was going to last months, maybe even years. For all he knew he could be ordered to keep this false family indefinitely so they could keep an eye on Desmond. Whatever the case was, all that was left was to introduce them to each other and do his best to handle the fallout.
When Loid opened the door to his apartment he wasn't greeted immediately by Anya, instead he was greeted by a visibly frustrated Franky that quickly marched over to him, loudly whispering, "You know I'm not a babysitter right?! I'm supposed to be an infor-"
Franky stopped as he looked down to see a small pair of blue eyes staring up and judging him. True to what he was going to say, Franky was an informant, and it was largely thanks to him that many of Loid's operations could go off without a problem. Although unfortunately for him, he was also the only person Loid could get ahold of consistently enough to watch Anya for the day; which largely meant being called 'scruffy head' all day due to his distinctly afro hairstyle.
Franky glanced down at the girl and then back at Loid, whispering again albeit more quietly, "Giving up on the first one already? I don't blame you."
Loid sighed, "No. I just needed a backup plan. Having two children increases my chances of producing a successful one."
Franky blinked. "It also means having to take care of two gremlins."
"I can manage," Loid replied.
"Well I can't!"
Franky folded his arms and stepped aside, allowing the two to pass. However, as they did, there was a slight spark of interest in Franky's eyes as he stared at the piece of jewelry around Tanya's neck.
As the two walked past, Loid called for Anya, who glanced up from the television she was watching and quickly ran over. Anya's little run was cut short as she stopped upon seeing Tanya.
Immediately Anya's face was filled with shock. She was being replaced! She needed to prove her worth somehow! She still had value for the mission!
Upon reading Loid's mind, she received a different truth, however.
'Two children will improve the chances that one can be an Imperial Scholar, just so long as the two can get into Eden Academy and get along… Best case scenario, it would be good for them to be like actual sisters who have each others' backs. Having an ally would probably be for the best in Eden Academy, given how competitive it is.'
Immediately Anya understood the mission; to become best friends with her sister so that both of them could become Imperial Scholars and protect World Peace!
Loid glanced down at the two of them, briefly worried about Anya's shocked face, although she seemed to revert to a more standard smile afterwards. Now that he studied the two standing next to each other, however, they appeared similar enough to be considered siblings. The different hair and eye colors could be explained easily as the mother having green eyes and pink hair or something along those lines, Tanya herself had Lois's own blonde hair and green eyes. Nevertheless, it seemed like the worries of them looking too different were conveniently nonexistent.
Loid gestured his hand towards Tanya as he spoke, "This girl is Tanya. She will be your sister from now on. If anyone asks, she's always been your sister and she's about ten months older than you." It was enough of an age difference to justify what seemed to be at least a year difference between the two age-wise, even if Anya said that she was six, it was likely that she was on the lower end of six while Tanya was probably nearing seven if that was the case.
Of course, he knew neither of their birthdays, and he wasn't sure if they knew their own, either. It was probably for the best if he made up their birthdays to fit his purposes.
Anya happily looks at Tanya with a wide smile, "I-I'm Anya! I am please to meets you!"
Anya's face radiated joy and an eagerness to play with her new sister, although out of curiosity, she found herself quickly reading her new sister's mind already.
'Just what is Loid's plan here? This child is no doubt adopted as well, what does he need two adopted children for? Or more specifically, what does he need two adopted children to pretend to be his biological ones for? Whatever, so long as I'm not sent to the front lines again. I've got another chance at life and even if my magical power is stronger now, there's no way in hell I'm going down the career path of a mage again! Either way, this seems to be my sister… But what the hell is she doing with her face?'
Anya's face turned to shock the more she listened to Tanya. The speed at which Tanya's thoughts ran through her head rivaled Loid's, if not faster, making it hard for Anya to keep up. This was added onto the several words thrown in there, even ignoring the big ones she didn't fully understand. Magical power?! Mage?! Another chance at life?! Was her sister a former mage? Those were talked about all the time when she was a test subject and they appeared all the time in her cartoons, for her father to be a spy and her sister to be a mage, or at least a former mage…
It was perfect!
As the two children interacted by awkwardly shaking hands, Loid let out a light sigh of relief that they didn't seem to immediately be at each others' throats, although such a worry was no doubt exaggerated. He then turned to Franky, handing him a piece of paper. "Can you go pick up the bed I ordered yesterday? I got it from the store down the road, you should be able to bring it here rather easily. I need to handle Tanya."
Franky snatched the paper from Loid's hand as he gave him an intense stare, "Fine, but I'm charging you extra."
Loid sighed, "Yeah, yeah, whatever."
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Franky collapsed onto Loid's couch with a heavy sigh, leaning his head back against the top of the cushions as he lays back in exhaustion.
Loid meanwhile walks down the hallway from Anya's room, looking down at the exhausted Franky and muttering, "You don't live here, y'know…"
"I hauled a whole ass bed up four floors, I'm allowed to take a break!" Franky retorted, lifting his head up.
"Very well then," Loid sighed and sat down in a nearby chair, having put both Anya and Tanya to bed after setting up space for Tanya to share a room with Anya. Best if the two slept in the same room, might help them forge a better bond, although for better or worse he couldn't tell.
"That kid's got a Great War-era computation jewel from the Empire, y'know." Franky muttered.
Loid raised an eyebrow. "I noticed she had a computation jewel, but I didn't know the specifics. You can recognize it, Franky?"
Franky smugly rubbed under his nose, lifting his head proudly. "Of course! I've got several Great War-era jewels in my collection!"
"Collection?" Loid asked as he gazed over at Franky, exhaustedly muttering, "Is this what you've been spending all the money I pay you on?"
"A man can have hobbies, Twilight!" Franky spat, sitting up straight now before calming down again. "Not all of the money, but I have spent some of it amassing a nice collection of Great War-era computation jewels."
"Is that even legal?" Loid asked.
Franky shrugged. "Not in Ostania."
Loid sighed, "Just don't get caught."
Franky shook his head, "You're missing the point Loid!"
"What do you mean? The kid has an old computation jewel, so what? It was probably an heirloom from whatever family she had before. I'm not even sure if it's real or not."
Franky sighed, "Do you not notice how strange it looks?"
"I'm aware of how computation jewels work. As a spy I need to keep an eye out for mages, they're hard to deal with. Modern computation devices are usually disguised as jewelry, or small enough to escape notice. You can usually tell by the way the light reflects off of it that it's a computation jewel rather than a real gem. Of course, some of the more expensive variants can perfectly mimic jewelry, so I have to be careful," Loid explained in a ramble.
Franky looked almost bored hearing how a spy looked at Jewels, not even taking appreciation for the finer art of all the mechanics and technology that goes into making them that small. "I didn't mean the jewel itself! Great War jewels didn't bother to hide what they were, they were big and conspicuous specifically because they were the first generation of magi-technology for it and, generally, they could be used to intimidate non-mages by declaring the user to be a mage. The jewel the girl has is undeniably one from the Empire, it's easy to tell from its large border and cross at the top. The strange part is that it's circular."
"You wanted me to be able to notice the strangeness because it was circular? Surely there's a thousand circular computation jewels."
"Not in the Empire. The Empire was a generation ahead of all other countries in magical technology, but if there was one thing they weren't, it was being visually creative. Every single jewel they had followed the same silver rectangular border, not a gold circular one," Franky explained.
Loid sighed, "Is this even that important? Can't it be a fake, then?"
Franky shrugged, "Possibly. But I want to check my notebook, it might be rare and thus valuable."
"I don't wanna take the jewel from the kid, it's probably valuable to her," Loid muttered.
Franky groaned, "Fine, fine, but I'm still checking my notebook anyways. My curiosity must be sated. Either way, I'll hook you up with some mana-testing devices. You should probably make sure she doesn't have magical affinity if she's the kid or grandkid of a mage. Ostania's been really desperate to get their hands on any they can find. Unless you're well within the upper classes of Ostania, they won't hesitate to kidnap your kid, adopt them for their own, and send 'em to become a mage or something. If that kid has magical affinity, you're going to need to tread carefully if you wanna keep her."
Loid nodded, "You're right, I should probably have both of them tested, just in case. If either has a magical affinity that would make things trickier if they're ever publicly tested for it. But what's this about a notebook?"
Franky made a smug grin as he explained, "My collector's notebook. A bunch of fellow collectors have compiled every jewel believed to exist from their creation all the way until the East-West War! Even ones that haven't been photographed and theoretical ones that aren't believed to exist are in there!"
"You find the weirdest things to get into, Franky…" Loid muttered, best to leave Franky to his business. It might be good for him to stop obsessing over getting a girlfriend for at least a few days if this jewel thing is enough to keep him distracted. Plus, if he did come up with anything good, more information was always better for his line of work.
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Franky will keep his grubby little hands to himself if he knows what's good for him. - Fish Tank
Dr. Rx - ngl I thought Anya would read Tanya's mind faster.
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