After the questioning, the man returned to his post, leaving the quartet in silence. They would need to follow the chain of command further up to find out which superior ordered this most recent aggressive recruitment.

However, before the four could discuss their following moves, a large light screen popped up in front of them without any warning.

On the other side of the screen, in a black leather chair, sat a cold middle-aged woman with short black hair. Her looks were average, however, the way she carried herself was not. She only sat there quietly, but her manner was more imposing than most men.

The woman, which Noah recognized as the CEO of Druxa and Asan’s mother, scanned the four people with her cold black eyes.

Fynn straightened up in his seat and opened his mouth to greet this important personage, but the woman spoke first, “I see you requested an employee and shareholder list?”

She wasted no time for introductions and went straight to the point, “What is this about?”

Fynn flashed his inspector badge and deadpanned, “We are investigating a case of attempted murder.”

The woman leaned back in her chair with her eyebrows raised, “What does your case have to do with my company?”

“The target of the attack was a Fluxer that your company has recently tried to recruit rather aggressively,” Fynn explained.

“You suspect that one of my people was behind the attack?” The woman’s thin eyebrows shot further up her forehead, “I highly doubt it, a mere Fluxer isn’t worth the risk.”

One had to appreciate her frankness. Not many could so openly declare that they weren’t going around killing people due to it not being worth the risk.

Fynn’s eyebrow twitched, “It’s not just any Fluxer but an S-ranked Fluxer employed by one of your rival companies.”

“Oh. The one working for Pharmath?” From her lack of expression, it was hard to tell whether she was surprised or not.

Fynn nodded and opened his mouth to further elaborate, but before he could get a single word out, the CEO lady interrupted him again, “In that case, getting an employee list won’t help you. It was me who passed down instructions to recruit him.”

“Is that so?” Fynn’s eyes narrowed, “Why the sudden determination to recruit the man?”

The CEO of Druxa pressed the fingertips of her hands together on the table in front of her, “Because his skills would be very suitable for one of our newest projects.”

“What kind of project?”

The CEO of Druxa rolled her eyes in annoyance, “We are a pharmaceutical company. What else but drug research and development?”

Fynn, however, pressed on, “What kind of drug?”

The woman paused, her eyes squinting dangerously, “I don’t see how this is relevant to your investigation.”

Fynn paused; he couldn’t come out and say they suspected the Fluxer had been drugged. He wasn’t allowed to reveal any details of the investigation unless the other person was trustworthy and had no involvement with the case. Putting aside the trustworthiness of the woman, he couldn’t even confirm whether she was involved in the case or not. He couldn’t sense her intents if the other person was not physically in front of him.

In the end, Fynn could only skirt around the answer, “Whether it is relevant can only be determined after hearing it.”

“Projects we are researching are all highly confidential,” the woman’s smile didn’t reach her eyes. It was hard to tell whether the smile was cold or lukewarm, mocking, or perfunctory. “If you wish to know further details, you’ll have to come back with a warrant.”

“Can we talk eye-to-eye?” The fact that the woman seemed to be sitting in her office that was just a few floors up, yet she would rather talk through a screen, did not inspire confidence in her honesty and reliability.

“No,” she deadpanned.

As expected of a domineering CEO lady, she didn’t even bother to come up with an excuse!

“If there is nothing else, I won’t see you out.” The woman didn’t give Fynn a chance to respond. With confidence and finality, she pressed a button on her communicator, and the light screen in front of the quartet flickered out.

Fynn did a double-take, Levi’s eyebrow twitched, and Noah’s mouth fell open. ‘Lady, your overbearing and domineering CEO aura is off the charts!! If I didn’t know you were female, I would have mistaken you for a male lead of a romance novel!’

(／≧ω＼)

Blackie turned his sights to Levi: ‘See that? You should learn a bit. If you were half as domineering as her, you’d have already snagged your baby.’

(¬‿¬)

Levi: ‘…How dare you compare my darling to some braindead female lead?!? It takes much more than an overbearing asshole to snatch such a precious treasure!’

(凸ಠ益ಠ)凸

Trey, Fynn, and Noah shared a wry look.

To be honest, the woman’s refusal to talk face-to-face didn’t surprise Fynn. The fact that she even took the time to speak with them was already better than the majority of high personages he’d contacted previously. He had already requested to speak with most people from the list of adversaries of the city lord, but the vast majority of them didn’t respond at all, while the remainder claimed to be unavailable.

Which person would like to chat with an Intenter working for law enforcement if they didn’t have to? They might not be responsible for the power rampages, but who didn’t have something to hide? Which one of them had never taken a bribe? Which one didn’t try to pay the least amount of tax? Which one had nothing to sweep under the rug? Hell, was there even a single one who had never illegally downloaded a song or a movie before?

Voluntarily talk face-to-face with an Intenter peacekeeper? In your dreams!

To make them comply with the investigation and see them in person, Fynn had to have sufficient grounds to issue an official summoning for questioning. And that would require evidence of their relevance to the case.

Until then, his best chance of talking to them face-to-face was if he camped in the bushes in front of their house.

The four left the conference room in silence, with Levi looking mightily displeased. This Concordia really had a bunch of shitty laws. If this was Astarea, he’d have surrounded the building and questioned everyone one by one. Where would there be any daring CEOs who’d refuse to cooperate?

This so-called freedom and equality only looked good on the surface. If such laws impeded the crime investigation, then the only ones who profited from it were the criminals.

Look at this mess. Not only did they fail to get the company’s financial accounts, but they didn’t even get the list of employees and shareholders

***

After the quartet had put a sufficient distance between them and Druxa, Fynn finally opened his mouth to ask what had been bothering him for a while now, “Aris… how is your relationship with Asan like?”

Asan’s CEO mother had no response whatsoever to seeing her son’s childhood friend among the investigators. One could easily conclude that she didn’t know Cordia Aris at all.

Noah flashed a cheeky smirk, “Wondering whether he hates me enough to want my head?”

Fynn shrugged, his facial expression a humorous mix of “oh no, I’ve been exposed” and “le gasp, you are so astute, young master Cordia!”.