The list of her crimes was filled in below. The implication involved her whole company Monster Hunters Inc. and risked ruining many lives, not just hers. The reason was the smuggling of goods. It ranged from non-attribute beast cores to military equipment. The more I continued reading the list, it reminded me of Mia’s contact and all the vehicles and weapons he provided us. This sounded like something the old bloke Kei should have been indicted with instead.

“What is all this, and how are you free right now if it's true?” I tried my best not to sound hostile since I didn’t believe any of this nonsense in the first place.

“I’m out on bail until the court date in a month. I haven’t done any of the things they accused me of doing. It’s ridiculous!” The way Vera said it, one month sounded like an expedited court date compared to similar situations.

“I believe you. I didn’t know this was such a severe crime...” I actively sought for non-attribute beast cores and have purchased military-grade weaponry. These were my supposed crimes too. The written sentence for all of the combined crimes was a minimum of twenty years. An entire life sentence.

“Several of my warehouses were raided with evidence of said items in each one. There’s no way I wouldn’t know about this within my own company.” She carried on as I continued sifting through all the documents. An assortment of legal papers and shipping manifests.

“I don’t know what to do. Even my lawyers are stumped and believe my best course of action is to focus on reducing my sentence as much as possible.” Both of her hands slammed down onto the counter in frustration.

“I’ll help you. We will figure it out.” I said that to console her and aside from that, even I was clueless on how to resolve her issue. The timing on all of this led to a particular suspicion. Though I couldn’t be certain of anything yet.

“I know someone that can look into this matter. To find out what is really going on.” There might be a chance this is all my fault and I wanted to get a hold of Mia to investigate the matter.

Vera wouldn’t let me leave until her nerves settled down. I held out key information that may wrap me up in this whole mess with her and ensured that I would do my best to handle it all. The most she got out of me was my involvement with the Official Ethan.

That returned a shocked gasp and fear, almost like she had given up and accepted the reality of imprisonment.

“I’ll take care of this, try to not let it worry you too much. Okay?” I placed a hand on her back and told her to come to stay with us, as a way to distract her mind. Being all alone was the last thing she needed at the moment. Plus, as a last resort, we’ll be able to protect her when they come looking.

Thankfully, she agreed to gather her belongings and move in later tonight for the time being. I took my leave and informed Alexa to prepare a place for her to stay and immediately called Mia afterward.

There was no response from Mia even after attempting to reach her multiple times. All I could do was try and call her again later on. I questioned if it was possible that she ran into trouble as well. I took a moment to calm down since her job could easily cause her to be unavailable. It was pointless to worry this soon.

I decided to call Marcus in case trouble found him too.

“Did something happen?” He responded to my call with the same question on my mind.

“That’s what I wanted to ask you…”

“Just like any other day. Why, ...did you need something?” He mentioned nothing out of the ordinary.

“Something strange has happened to a friend and I’m having trouble reaching another. I’ve got a bad feeling it has to do with Ethan somehow.” It was the nagging feeling that he happened to be behind these random events. I explained Vera’s situation to him so that he didn’t outright deny my hunch.

Marcus remained silent for a few seconds and came up with a rather straightforward solution. “Why not ask him yourself? He came to you with a job, so he’s expecting you to contact him eventually.”

“Your right and also, thanks for the help with the doctor last time.” He replied to my farewell with a few words of caution and that he was glad things worked out.

The holographic device that Ethan provided was my means to reach him. It was somewhere among my things on my desk back home. My better judgment made sure not to store it in the ring, on the off chance there was a tracking device hidden within. There’s no way I would allow him to track my position that easily.

I got someone to hand off the device outside the building and pulled up to the curb of our front entrance to receive it. After thanking her and watching her go back inside I inspected the device a little closer. There was only the single button on the center part of it and nothing else that looked like a call button. My thumb pressed the button and ended up spamming it a bunch of times until a holographic image shined above the device.

“So impatient, for your sake I hope you have a lead.” Ethan’s image on the other end was replicated perfectly. A child that looked like he attended the priciest prep school in the kingdom.

“I’m working on it, though I’d have an easier time if I didn’t have to worry about my friends.” My words implied he was at fault but didn’t outright accuse him of anything yet.

“Think of it as encouragement. An approaching deadline, the more you slack the worse things will become. Good luck-” With that, the image dissipated and I held back the urge to chuck the stupid thing as far as my strength could take it.