However, Lucia, who was operating separately from Clara, also had her own task.
It was still an assignment arranged by Dr. Fran.
She took out a rechargeable glasses case from her backpack, then removed the glasses inside and put them on.
They were thick-framed glasses that suppressed her appearance.
Although they looked like simple plano glasses, indistinguishable from ordinary thick frames, their interiors were highly complex—integrating a microcomputer, bone conduction headphones, high-resolution cameras, and various sensors.
Because it was a highly integrated electronic device, it was heavier than it appeared, and wearing it for long periods tended to press on the ears.
“Powering on… Miss Fran, I’m ready here.”
“Mm, good, I can hear you~”
Through the glasses, Lucia heard Fran’s voice.
Thanks to advanced bone conduction technology, no one else could hear Fran’s voice unless they were extremely close—close enough for their faces to almost touch.
“Mm! I see you too! Things are going smoothly~ The signal’s great, so I can check your situation from the company as well~”
Lucia asked, “Is Miss Fran the only one working today?”
“Who else would it be? But there are still people from the moving company, the interior decoration company, and the landscape design company at the base. However, I’m the only employee of the Dream Witch hero company here. This kind of thing should have been arranged before the official opening…”
Fran dared to complain like this because Cressia herself was on leave and nowhere to be seen.
“In any case, use those glasses to scan the equipment of the other heroes. Just focus on them, and the data will be automatically captured and sent to my server…”
There was still some time before the museum opened, but all the equipment had long been set up, and there were no other visitors around.
As an intern in maintenance, she already had some knowledge about this kind of gear, and the glasses Fran gave her could let her see through the internal structures—a rare learning opportunity for Lucia…
But she also knew this was stealing technology, an illegal act.
This was Lucia’s first time doing something like this, so she felt a little uneasy and guilty inside.
“Miss Fran, won’t we get caught doing this?”
Although it was a hero company, they were engaged in this sneaky act, and Lucia wasn’t sure if it was right. Could this be the reality of corporate warfare?
But she had no particular hero ideals herself, and Fran was her direct superior, so she decided to follow orders.
“Oh, we won’t get caught~”
Fran assured her confidently, “Besides, these glasses are so small. Sensors of this level are everywhere inside the museum. Even if someone noticed, it wouldn’t matter. After all, everything on display… is way too outdated!”
“Better be that way, or it’ll be me getting caught.”
It was too bad to get arrested on only her second day at work. How would she face her older brother afterward?
The museum was huge; it was impossible to visit all the booths within an hour, so she purposefully picked out hero companies known for their technological prowess…
“Hm?”
Fran’s voice suddenly sounded curious.
“What’s wrong?” Lucia asked.
“I received something interesting. I’ll forward it to you~”
“What is it?”
Fran sent Lucia a video via phone. It wasn’t a photo, but a recording of Clara holding her phone, trying different selfie angles.
In the video, Clara puckered her lips, smiled, and puffed her cheeks. Though silent, she was making an effort to look cute, displaying an irresistibly charming side.
The culprit was obvious: Nyx had already hacked Clara’s phone and was secretly recording with the camera while she was taking selfies—it was a piece of cake.
“Clara… haha, the senior is really cute.”
Lucia saved the video, and Fran chimed in, “Right? You wouldn’t imagine what she used to look like…”
“What used to look like? What was Clara like before?”
Realizing she had misspoken, Fran hurriedly corrected herself:
“Ahem, she wasn’t such a lively kid before becoming a magical girl…”
Lucia didn’t doubt this and went along with the topic: “Gaining superhuman powers and becoming a hero definitely changes a person’s personality, that’s normal… huh?”
Just then, something eye-catching and strange caught her attention.
“Miss Fran, what’s that?”
Or rather, it was hard not to notice.
“Let me see~”
Fran looked through Lucia’s glasses and saw a black pyramid-shaped object occupying about ten square meters—not too big, not too small. Its exterior was pieced together with a metallic, sci-fi-looking material.
It seemed coated with some special paint. The sensors in the glasses couldn’t see inside. It appeared to be quite advanced, but they couldn’t tell what exactly it was…
This thing was just placed right in the middle of the museum’s central cross corridor.
“Looks like some kind of mysterious high-tech equipment. The surface material is incredibly dense and has a special coating… Which booth does it belong to?”
Even Fran couldn’t figure out what the device was.
“Can’t tell which hero’s exhibit it belongs to? Or is it official decoration?”
“Even Miss Fran doesn’t know?”
“Strictly speaking, my specialty is biotechnological modification…”
Coincidentally, two staff members wearing the organizer’s uniforms were also standing around the black pyramid, pondering it. Lucia approached and asked, “Excuse me, what is this?”
One of them glanced at Lucia while holding a tablet and replied, “We don’t know. We’re asking the exhibitors to see who left it behind. If no one claims it, we’ll have it removed.”
“An unidentified item? Did it just appear suddenly?” Lucia asked.
The staff explained, “Yes, at least it wasn’t here when the museum closed yesterday. We don’t know when it was brought in… For hero equipment, this size is a bit large, unless it’s a giant mech like the ‘Brave Titan.’”
“Got it, thank you.”
The ‘Brave Titan’ was the hero whose booth Lucia originally intended to visit. It was a towering 19-meter-tall giant robot, now standing on standby not far away.
Judging by the paint scheme, it was clearly unrelated to this device.
“Could this be something from an evil organization?”
Lucia muttered and stepped aside, then asked, “Miss Fran, what do you think? Any data from the scan?”
That wasn’t an easy question, especially not to Fran Rivka.
“The internal energy reaction is low, so it looks safe for now… No, wait!”
Before she finished speaking, she corrected herself, “Step back, Lucia! The energy readings from this device are rising. It’s dangerous!”
Dark streams of hazardous light rhythmically flickered along the seams of the black pyramid’s outer shell.
It seemed to be accumulating energy.
And at this moment, only five minutes remained before the “Calamity” would strike.
It’s been pushed! No recommended spots available~ So temporarily back to the weekend double updates, saving up drafts for a big update when the novel is officially launched~ Will consider adding bonus updates then, of course without affecting the regular weekend schedule~