Lunch ended amidst the satisfied clamor of the children.
After Feliel helped the childcare worker tidy the dining table, her gaze involuntarily began searching the cafeteria.
However, that petite blue figure wearing an apron with a high ponytail had seemingly evaporated into thin air, leaving no trace behind.
‘Has Teacher Sefina already left?’ Feliel wondered to herself.
‘Perhaps… I really was just being suspicious. Teacher Sefina might have really just come to the orphanage on a whim to volunteer, experience life, or purely out of kindness.’
After all, given her cold personality, doing something that seemed so out of character was surprising, but not entirely impossible.
‘I’m being too sensitive. Because of my own secrets, I see everyone as having an agenda.’
Feliel let out a soft breath, trying to suppress that inexplicable unease.
Once she stopped doubting, she remembered something else.
Taking advantage of the fact that the children were still resting after their meal and the childcare worker was busy, Feliel stepped away. She noiselessly climbed the familiar, narrow stairs toward the quiet attic.
She wanted to see Campbell, her only cherished friend who was always deep in slumber.
The light in the attic remained somewhat dim, and the air was filled with the scent of old wood.
Feliel habitually lightened her steps. She reached the door and pushed the wooden panel open as usual, calling out in a gentle voice, “Campbell…”
However, the rest of her words stopped abruptly, as if severed by an invisible blade.
Behind the door, that familiar petite blue figure was currently sitting quietly on the edge of Campbell’s bed.
Sefina’s back was to the door, and she remained motionless. Her gaze seemed to be fixed on the sleeping Campbell.
The afternoon light filtered through the attic’s only small window, tracing a blurry halo around Sefina, yet it did nothing to dispel the cold aura clinging to her.
At that moment, Feliel froze in place, her mind going blank for a second.
‘How… How is she here?!’
A thought that chilled her to the bone flashed through her mind like lightning — ‘Exposed?!’
From their first meeting, this person, Sefina, had always given her an indescribable sense of pressure.
Whenever those burgundy eyes occasionally swept over her, they gave her the illusion of being completely seen through.
But years of undercover and camouflage training allowed Feliel to quickly suppress this momentary panic.
‘No, it’s impossible!’ she desperately denied internally.
Although the operation to seize the demon tools had failed last time, only some insignificant Grassroots Members were caught. They didn’t know her true identity or appearance at all.
She had never left any obvious flaws elsewhere, either.
Feliel calmed down rapidly, her thinking becoming clear once more.
‘Perhaps… maybe it’s just a coincidence? Teacher Sefina isn’t familiar with the orphanage’s layout and took a wrong turn, accidentally stumbling in here?’
Clinging to this sliver of hope, Feliel took a deep breath. She forced herself to speak in her usual gentle yet slightly detached tone, though her voice was a fraction tighter than normal.
“Teacher Sefina? Did you… take a wrong turn? This is the room where my friend Campbell rests. She isn’t well and needs quiet…”
Feliel tried to use her words to guide Sefina away, while cautiously observing the other woman’s reaction.
However, Sefina did not stand up to apologize and leave as she hoped.
She didn’t even turn around, remaining with her back toward Feliel.
Just as a suffocating silence fell over the attic, Sefina’s cold voice rang out word by word, clear as ice beads falling onto a jade plate.
“No, I came here to wait for you, Feliel.”
She paused slightly before unhurriedly uttering that title.
“Or should I call you — the Seventh Seat.”
Feliel’s pupils instantly constricted to their limit. Her heart skipped a beat, nearly stopping altogether.
Feliel’s fingers curled slightly under her skirt, her nails digging deep into her palms. The sting of pain allowed her to barely maintain her surface composure.
As the Seventh Seat of Black Utopia, she had experienced countless dangerous missions and rigorous screenings. Her mental fortitude played its role now.
Almost instinctively, Feliel’s face quickly shifted into an expression of complete confusion and vacuity.
She tilted her head slightly, pushed up the glasses on the bridge of her nose, and asked back in a bewildered tone, “Teacher Sefina, what are you talking about? Black Utopia? What is that? And the Seventh Seat? I don’t understand what you mean at all.”
Feliel believed her disguise was flawless. The failure of the last operation hadn’t directly implicated her, and the organization’s internal secrecy measures were extremely strict.
It was impossible for Sefina to possess solid evidence. ‘It’s a test! It must be a test!’
Feliel quickly made a judgment. If she really had ironclad proof, she would likely have moved to make an arrest immediately. Why waste words here?
At this thought, the panic in Feliel’s heart subsided slightly, replaced by high alertness and cold analysis.
But why was she targeting her? What had aroused her suspicion? Had Rofilia sent her?
Sefina didn’t seem surprised by Feliel’s perfect “bewildered” performance.
She still didn’t turn around, as if Feliel’s denial was entirely within her expectations.
She simply began to slowly strip away Feliel’s disguise in a flat tone, as if stating facts.
“On the night you seized the demon tools, the time the operation ended was long past Oselenka’s curfew.”
Sefina’s voice echoed in the silent attic. Every word felt like a hammer striking Feliel’s heart.
“A person who needs to carry out a secret mission outside naturally cannot return to the dormitory on time. Therefore, one only needs to check the dormitory supervisor’s records of those who were absent that night…”
Hearing the words “curfew records,” Feliel’s eyes behind her lenses flickered slightly. Her fingers gripping the edge of her clothes tightened unconsciously.
‘So that’s it…’
She felt a chill in her heart. This was indeed an unavoidable loophole.
But Feliel immediately found a reason to explain it away, responding in her soft voice, “So that’s what you mean, Teacher… I might have accidentally gotten too absorbed in reading at the library that night and lost track of time?”
“Or… I might have stayed here for the night. After all, this place is like a second home to me, and the childcare worker knows that.”
Feliel tried to attribute the reason for her absence to a reasonable accidental event or staying at the orphanage, for which there was precedent.
Sefina didn’t immediately refute this reasonable-sounding explanation.
Still with her back to Feliel, she simply continued to peel away Feliel’s disguise in her own cold voice.