"...nothing much."
Aiwass smiled composedly, "Just, last night I had a very long dream... I dreamt that Yulia left me."
However, at that moment, he suddenly felt Yulia's body in his arms tense up sharply.
...Hmm?
A flicker of movement crossed Aiwass' mind.
As if to cover something up, Yulia suddenly asked, "Brother's wheelchair... how long must you use it?"
"Probably... about a year?"
As Aiwass spoke, he looked towards the old butler, "That's what the doctor said, isn't it?"
"Yes, Mr. Aiwass."
The old butler asked without hesitation, "So, you'll be taking a year off from school? After all, you have already taken three months off."
That was a lie.
And it was from both sides.
There was never any doctor who asked Aiwass to use a wheelchair; it was Aiwass' own request. Those Demon Scholars who had contracted with Shadow Demons would use this method to seal the demons while they were still unable to control them.
In addition to sitting in a wheelchair for movement, one must also avoid violent actions and slow down their movements to reduce the heart rate—this is a conventional method of suppressing a demon.
Beyond that, one could also take some medications to suppress the heart rate, causing the sealed demon inside to sleep.
"There's no need," Aiwass said, "Once this incident is resolved, I'll go back to school."
"...This incident resolved?"
Hayna belatedly realized something.
She instinctively felt that in that instant... Aiwass' attitude seemed to have changed.
She was quite familiar with that feeling.
In her freshman year, still ignorant, Hayna believed she was the genius of her remote small town. When the end-of-year exams arrived, barely passing astrology was a cold sweat inducing experience.
But precisely because of this, she took things seriously and realized that in the most prestigious institution in Glass Island's Red Queen District, she was not as brilliant as she thought she was. At least... she was not a pure genius, but a hard-working one.
With the attitude of casual learning she had held before, she might have failed despite not missing any classes... Now, being able to graduate with the Seven-Petal Flower Seal representing a perfect score was indeed thanks to Professor Moriarty's scathing Three-Petal Flower Seal, representing "passing," that woke her.
For ordinary students, this was a mark of release from penalty, worthy of celebration; but for the proud Hayna, it felt like a slap on the face, burning and silencing her, leaving her mind blank.
Aiwass was giving her that feeling at this moment.
It was like waking from a dream upon seeing the report card—
"Yes, I want to participate in the investigation."
Aiwass suddenly became serious, "Since they kidnapped me once, there will be a second time. I can't rest easy leaving home until those cultists are cleansed; likewise, I can't sit idly at home waiting for an investigation result that I may not be able to accept—so I, too, want to join the investigation."
Upon hearing this, Hayna felt embarrassed. Undoubtedly, this was an implicit comment on the Supervisory Bureau's extremely slow investigative efficiency.
The Supervisory Bureau, very particular about "rules," must report everything to the higher-ups and follow standard procedures. These are the edicts of the knights in the Senate.
Because they can hardly uncover anything, they even have to request assistance from detectives. The "Sherlock" Hayna mentioned earlier is a detective who has recently become quite famous in the newspapers.
Sherlock graduated from Royal Law University years ago, but didn't choose to join the Supervisory Bureau, the Court of Law, or the Arbitration Hall. Now, he is a special counselor to the Supervisory Bureau, conducting investigations free from the myriad of regulations imposed by the bureau, and has successively cracked several major cases, his status now far surpassing that of his old classmates who entered the Supervisory Bureau after graduation.
"If Miss Hayna can't decide, feel free to report my words to your superior and ask for his opinion,"
Aiwass said calmly, with his hands crossed, "After all, according to the rules, you must submit all the content of this conversation to your superiors, mustn't you?"
For some reason, Aiwass at that moment reminded Hayna of an Inspector from the Supervisory Bureau.