"Damn it!" the man cursed, as he ran through the forest, shoving vegetation and branches aside. "How could I have been found out!? I kept this mission as secret as I could!" he said further, tightly clutching at something in one of his hands.

He had been sent to retrieve something by his mistress, but just when he'd found it, a pair of people (one male and one female) appeared to stop him from returning.

Meanwhile, the two that were chasing him were starting to catch up, and the male looked at the female.

"Keep chasing him." he told his partner. "I don't know what he's up to, but it seems like that tip-off from Jake's buddy was right on the money." he went on.

"I'm going to get ahead of him, and we'll cut him off at the clearing that's ahead." he said further. "Just keep him distracted. Make him think that we're both still chasing him." he finished, before veering off slightly, and disappearing into the forest... though she could hear him moving ahead.

"Leave me alone!" she then heard their suspect yell. "I haven't done anything to you!" he exclaimed.

She did not respond, and merely continued to chase him.

Sure enough, when they reached the clearing, her male partner ran out from another area of the forest, slamming their suspect into a tree, causing him to fall to his ass, dazed.

"Halt! You are under arrest for trespassing and tampering in a restricted zone, by law of the Council and Triad!" the male declared, flashing his Unit badge.

The suspect just growled.

"You'll never take me! ABSOLUTE LOYALTY!" he declared, before he slammed his hand onto the tree behind him. This caused a swirling hole of mana to form behind him, and he fell back into it, the mana dissipated just as quickly as it appeared.

"Damn. He got away." the female said. "We need to report this to Sharp." they told the male, who bent down and picked up a fountain pen.

"Guess he dropped this." he mumbled, pocketing it. "Shame to let a good pen go to waste out here." he reasoned, before looking at his partner and nodding.

"Let's go." he agreed.

A few hours later, the two of them had left Sharp's office, and were making their way down one of the hallways. They ended up parting ways, and the male ended up bumping into Azazel when he turned a corner, causing the pen he'd found to come falling out of his pocket, though he didn't notice it.

"Watch where you're going, demon." he grumbled to Azazel, before just continuing to walk onwards.

"...he really needs to do something about his attitude towards demons." Azazel sighed, before shaking his head and continuing on where he was going... leaving the pen laying on the floor, unnoticed.

But it wasn't for very long, as a lone person noticed it out of the corner of their eye, and made their way towards it.

"Hello? What's this?" Illias asked, bending down and picking it up. He inspected the writing implement for a minute or so, before looking around. Seeing nobody there, he shrugged.

"I'm sure if it's important, it will be reported, and I'll return it." he reasoned, pocketing the pen.

'For now, seems a shame to leave it, in case someone more unscrupulous finds it.' he then thought, before looking at his watch and panicking slightly.

"Ah! Kiah'll have my head if I'm late for the compound testing!" he exclaimed, as he started to bolt toward the R&D department.

Illias bit his lip a little, and sighed as he hung his head low.

"Of course, Illias." he said to himself quietly. "Of course you're late. Of course you're disappointing her." he scolded himself.

"Miserable little fuck-up is what you are." he then spat at himself, before slapping his cheek... though it seemed to be more to get himself back in the right head-space for what was coming up.

"Coming!" he called to Kiah, before he raced after her.

"I'm sorry I'm late, I just-" he started to say, before stopping himself abruptly.

"Nevermind." he told her.

'She doesn't need to hear your lame-ass excuses.' he told himself mentally.

"I'll get to observing and recording the readings." he said to her.

Illias looked at the displays, and checked a piece of paper on a clipboard he had grabbed.

"Hmmmm." he mumbled.

"......hm?" he then muttered.

"For the most part, things seem fine." he told her.

"But for some reason, the salinity of beaker C is a bit low." he said further, before looking at the glass container in question.

"It seems like it needs half a gram for it to be where we want it to be."

Illias was silent for a moment, studying the readouts, before going back over to the beaker.

".........hmmmm." he mumbled.

He looked all over the thing, before scratching at his chin.

"Wait..." he muttered.

"Who filled this?" he asked.

"Because this might be that specially filtered water. You know, the one that's enchanted to purify itself?" he suggested.

"It could be that the water is actively ridding itself of the salt."

"Oh, crap, yeah, him." Illias responded.

"Well, it's a good thing this is the only beaker with water in it." he said, grabbing it.

"Let's try tap water." he told her, taking it away, grabbing another one, filling it with the right amount of water from the tap, and bringing it towards her.

"This might solve the problem." he commented.

"Otherwise, I have no idea what it could be."

"Huh?" Illias asked.

"Oh, it's... it's stupid." he said.

"I got caught up reading some books, and then got distracted on my way here." he told her.

"Found a lone pen in the hallway." he went on.

"Seemed too nice to just leave, so I grabbed it." he admitted, before taking it out and showing her.

"See? It's really quite exquisite." he commented.

"Well... hm." Illias mumbled.

"I suppose it wouldn't be surprising. Pen and book sets are common, especially when it appears to be such high quality." he commented, before sighing.

"But yeah, I couldn't just leave it there. It's too nice." he reasoned.

"I know, it's a stupid reason, but it was merely something that delayed me an extra minute." he lamented.

"The real reason was because I got caught up reading that new text about how the various elements react with various mana potencies." he admitted to her.

Illias accepted the pen back, and looked at it, before looking at what she jotted down.

"Huh." he said.

"So this isn't just some antique or decorative item." he commented.

"Seems like this was actively used." he went on.

"Well... if someone comes forth, asking about it, I'll return it." he told her. "Otherwise, I may just hang onto it." he told her further.

"It's always nice to have a good pen." he reasoned with a small chuckle.

"Regardless, you may need to have a word with that intern, if it was, indeed, the water that was the issue." he then told her.

Illias just sighed.

"Lovely." he said.

"And I was looking forward to it, too." he told her.

"All I can do is watch the solution and monitor its salinity." he went on.

"Do you want me to make sure all the other components and elements are accurate and correct?" he then asked her.

"Well, it seems that everything else is as it should be." Illias said, looking at the screen.

"...yeah. Yeah, everything else is reading normally." he told her.

"...." he was then silent, before looking towards Kiah, and sighing quietly.

'I need to do better.' he thought.

'She deserves a better coworker than me. She deserves... well... better than me, right now.' he further told himself mentally, before looking back at the screen.

"Careful with beaker A. The temperature seems a few degrees higher than it should be right now."