Runar rushed into the house, looking around. As he did, Ryan noticed a slight limp in his step.

  "Yo yo yo, wait, did you get injured? What happened?" he asked immediately while holding onto Runar's arm.

  "As I just said, I'll explain later. Just let go of me for a moment," Runar continued walking, and though Ryan tried to keep holding onto him, his uncle didn't even budge whatsoever. He just continued walking through the space, looking around in the living room. Soon, though, he spotted Liam, sitting on the couch while watching TV.

  Having heard the doorbell, the boy turned around and saw his adoptive father standing there. Immediately, Runar smiled and jogged over, "Hey, kiddo! How are you doing, having a good time?"

  Liam looked up at Runar and shrugged, "I don't know. That man that just got here a bit ago is kind of weird."

  "Weird? Weird, how? Did he say anything to you?"

  "Hm, no, not really, he's just... I don't know, weird," Liam shrugged, and Runar turned around to Ryan to see what was going on. But to calm him down, Ryan shook his head as well.

  "He didn't say anything bad, but his attitude is kind of messed up," he explained with a sigh, and Runar's smile immediately disappeared as he turned away from Liam.

  "Upstairs?"

  "Mhm."

  "Okay."

  Without a moment's hesitation, Runar rushed up the stairs to the first story. Ryan ran after him, trying to see what was going on. Right now, though, Jargo was just about to step into Ryan's bedroom, even if Yanna and Silvia were trying to block him. The OAA agent stared at the two, unamused, "I said, please step to the side so that I may continue my investigation."

  "Why do you even want to go into Ryan's bedroom, there's nothing in there!" Silvia practically barked at Jargo.

  "If you do not move aside voluntarily, I will forcibly remove you from this building until the investigation is-"

  "You will do no such thing," Runar said, walking down the hallway with heavy footsteps. His limp was much less apparent like this, but Ryan could tell that his uncle was just pushing through, "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

  Jargo turned around, and seemed a bit startled when he saw who was speaking, "... Runar Asamir Aglecard, is it?"

  "Yes. What do you think you're doing right now?"

  "... I am conducting an investigation of this property as per the Awakened Security Act."

  "As per the- Okay, if you're so into rules, then why are you here alone?" Runar asked with an annoyed glare, "I know for a fact that, as per the internal guidelines of the Office of Awakened Affairs, you have to be a team of at least two people. So, where is your partner right now?"

  Jargo placed his wings behind his back, "I received special permission to investigate this matter on my own, as I possess all the needed credentials that are usually split amongst two individuals."

  "You know exactly that's not how that works," Runar groaned, taking out his phone, "... I'm out of battery. Ryan, give me your phone."

  "You're out of-" Ryan stopped himself from freaking out right now, and instead simply pulled out his phone, unlocked it, and handed it to his uncle. He quickly dialled a phone number and held it to his ear.

  A few moments later, the call was answered, "This is Runar Aglecard speaking, I am calling from my nephew's phone. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah, I don't care, shove it for a second. One of your agents, uhm-"

  "... Jargo Carpenter," the agent replied, clearly growing a bit nervous.

  "Right, one of your agents, Jargo Carpenter, is currently at my nephew's home address conducting an investigation alone." While he was talking, Runar just kept staring at the eagle-man the entire time, never letting his eyes drift away for even a moment. But Jargo didn't seem worried. His wings were still folded behind his straightened back.

  "What do you- I don't care what kind of case he has going, we- No, no, that's- Are you kidding me? Are you fucking kidding me? Who did you say permitted this? Who?! That- No, you can't- But-" Runar soon pulled the phone away from his ear and closed his eyes, looking over at Ryan, "... Let them keep searching the building."

  "Excuse me?" Ryan asked, glancing over at Jargo, who was just standing there with a smug expression on his face.

  "It's fine, don't worry. It's not like there's anything here. I know it's uncomfortable, but-"

  "Runar, can you come with me for a second?"

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  With a slight sigh, Runar followed behind Ryan. But before he left, Ryan looked over at Silvia and Yanna, nodding to tell them that it was fine to let them in. It wasn't like he had anything illegal in there. And so, Runar and Ryan walked back downstairs and made their way into the garden, where Ryan immediately stared at his uncle.

  "Okay, first of all, what the fuck was that call just now? I thought you were trying to call someone to tell them off, but clearly, the exact opposite happened."

  Runar sighed lightly, "Yes, the opposite did happen. Usually, for cases like these that involve members of our family, the OAA contacts us first. And when they couldn't reach me... they called one of the elders, and one of them apparently permitted it. I'm going to take care of things, don't worry. I know it sucks, but..." Runar said, looking around the garden a bit. He stopped talking when he saw the arcane lock placed onto the shed, "Uh... what is that about?"

  "Oh, you wonder what that's about? You know, you could have heard what that is about if you had charged your fucking phone!" Ryan yelled out, turning around and starting to pace. Since he knew that his uncle would hear him either way, he began to whisper a bit, "Turns out, that shed used to be a chapel used by the titan skull's cult. It has a magic circle placed in it that creates mind-altering magic, which somehow, we hadn't seen before because it was hidden under a layer of trampled dirt. Morgana placed a blizzard spell into the shed so we could use it to cool our drinks, and then the spell infected all of the drinks at the party we threw last night, and guess what happened?"

  Runar's eyes widened, "No..."

  "Mhm. Everyone at the party went fucking crazy! Of course, excluding Modak, Yanna who had barely arrived when things went down, a new person I met yesterday that only had water because she's a vampire, Liam was fine as well obviously, Kim who could cure himself, and myself."

  "Wait, wait, wait, what do you mean?" Runar looked around, trying to figure out what his nephew was talking about, "What exactly happened?"

  "It's a spell that basically 'buffed' emotion, or 'debuffed' one's control over their emotions, I don't fucking know. Either way, the slightest emotion or thought became this massive fucking thing for everyone. People started fighting, fucking, crying- literally anything you can think of," Ryan closed his eyes, trying not to get too pissed at his uncle. Again, when it really mattered, he couldn't even be reached, "I managed to call Rose. She came here and brought us potions and brought a bunch of guys with them. We were able to cure everyone and convince them that it wasn't a big deal, or some kind of gas leak or whatever. We had everything cleaned up afterward, so things are fine, but..."

  "But what? What happened? Did someone hear about it?"

  Ryan placed his hands onto his hips, tapping his foot on the ground, "Before we realised what was going on, this person came down. They were hanging out with Modak and were already acting weird then. Magic engineer, so a fair amount of magic, but maybe they were too relaxed to fight against the spell. Either way, they were very affected. They... started saying some shit about Liam, to Liam. I threw them out, and though I asked some people that came with Rose to find them, they got away and ended up getting into an accident. At the hospital, they figured out that they were affected by a spell, and... welp. Now this."

  "Okay, sorry, first of all, how could you be so reckless to let something like that happen?" Runar frowned confused, "How could you not realise that a spell was jumping around the party?"

  "Excuse me? I'm sorry, but I was fucking drunk as hell, okay? I sobered up at some point, but it was too late by then. And this is not on me! Your guys were the ones that checked this entire property and signed off on it, saying that there was nothing to be worried about! I'm so sorry for trusting you! Prick," Ryan clicked his tongue, and Runar pulled away a bit. He wanted to retort, but it was clear he realised there was no use for that right now.

  "I..." he slowly started, but he was interrupted by Ryan.

  Turning away, he said, "I already feel horrible enough as is. A friend of mine, Michael, the one with that massive amount of mana..?"

  Runar realised what his nephew was saying, "Wait, what happened to him? How much did that spell affect him?"

  "... He went on a rampage after stepping into the shed, trying to help. And... his mana changed. I don't know how, or why, but it's different now. Muddy, and... swamp-like."

  The mage's face went pale. A spell that was capable of changing one's mana like that, for an extended period of time? Sure, theoretically that was possible, but that was an extremely old sort of magic. It wouldn't be here in just some random, small cult.

  "I get it, okay. We'll figure it out, I'll take a look at Michael later. For now... I'll take care of things. First, let me get rid of that shabby arcane lock. I need a minute, so hold that guy off from coming outside," Runar said, walking up to the shed. But before Ryan went off, still angry, Runar turned around one more time, "And when this is all taken care of, you're going to explain to me exactly how you were able to defend yourself against a powerful spell like that."

  Ryan clicked his tongue, approaching the outside stairway leading up to his bedroom. He walked through the door from the outside, and Jargo, who was currently searching through one of Ryan's shelves, much more intensely than he had looked at anything else in this house so far, turned toward him.

  "Quite the room you have here. Plenty of magical traces in here."

  Ryan shrugged, crossing his arms, "I'm a summoner. The spirits run around wherever they want, whenever they want. Obviously there would be magical traces all over the place."

  "Hmph," Jargo just turned away, continuing to search through the contents of Ryan's shelves. He even picked up some of the models put around, "And what are these supposed to be? Small soldiers? Do you control them with your abilities?"

  With a slight frown, Ryan stared at the agent, "Dude, they're model figurines. I build them as a hobby."

  Jargo scoffed once more, putting the model back down, "If you say so."

  He glanced around, the glow in his eyes just becoming more intense as he did. But, of course, he couldn't find anything in here. And so, he approached the door that Ryan was standing in, which led right outside. But Runar was still working, so Ryan had to find a way to stop Jargo.

  "... Would you like to see the spirits for a moment, so that you can see what their magic looks like?" he suggested, even if he really, really didn't want to expose the spirits to this creep. But they seemed at least okay with it, so he figured he would offer.

  "... That would not hurt. That way I can make sure that the magic I saw here was really theirs," Jargo scoffed, and Ryan rolled his eyes. He held his hand forward, summoning the spirits. The agent walked past them one by one, staring at them quite intensely. It didn't take long, but it was enough for Runar to finally finish the new arcane lock on the shed. Or whatever it was that he put on there, because the door to that shed was wide open right now.

  But it was too late to keep distracting Jargo, who came walking down the steps along the wall. And he went in a straight line toward that shed.