[SS 2.94] Eye Spy (Part 2/4) (Patreon)

[Human | Alias: Proast | Summoner Rank: Apprentice | Abstainer]

Gelic's, or rather Gawk’s new master, was decently impressive. Less in his Summoner abilities, and just more in status. The Demon found herself summoned to a corner office in a high-rise. Clearly the man was in a high position at his company. Maybe not the big boss, but definitely someone important. Since he’d made it to Apprentice despite being an Abstainer, perhaps he used Demons to leverage his corporate advancement, since he seemed a little young to be a high-ranking executive. Sadly, she couldn’t enjoy the view since it was so early in the morning at their location that even the sun wasn’t up yet. At least Gelic knew she was in her world, since apparently Gawk had insisted on Casniem being where he was first summoned because of her. 

Proast merely gave her a glance, having been forewarned of there being a supervisor for this task, and he didn’t so much as address her, giving her free reign to do as she pleased, not even Bound to the circle she’d appeared in. The Summoning itself had been interesting. Ba Skin had brought her to a room in the office she’d never seen before. There was a blank circular platform in the middle of the room, with the sigils only appearing when the Summoner made the call on their end. Apparently, this was how it worked when Demons and Summoners fully cooperated and made arrangements ahead of time, instead of the one-sided calls she was used to. All she’d have to do was step onto the newly formed Circle, and she’d be pulled over.

That wasn’t the only thing of interest in the room, however. There was another Circle that was drawn onto one of the walls. According to the Legion Heir, it was used for direct transfer to their headquarters, and worked with any Circle in Hell. However, it was limited to Ba Skin’s use, and only in case of an emergency where he needed to get back to the office immediately. The Circle apparently had limited uses, and according to him, was somewhat expensive to have someone come back in and remake once it was used up.

And that’s where Gelic of course wanted to volunteer, to say she could redo it for him, or maybe even improve it. But she kept her proboscis shut, as she’d learned. Perhaps it was something she could use to trade for future favors. But she’d gone ahead and Mused it. Studying the arcane configuration would give her something to do while waiting for Gawk’s arrival, since she still had a good amount of time. 

The Circle was actually a lot more complicated than any she’d drawn or dealt with thus far, so she could understand why it was so pricey. Even replicating it herself would be no easy feat, something she may not even be able to do at her current level, since she could tell it would take a scuffton of MP, especially if she added more charges for use. What she was most interested in learning at present, though, was the limitation lock it had, figuring that could be quite useful in the future. Maybe she’d be able to set up her own network of Circles to frequently visited places someday, and make them exclusive to her as a safety measure.

Proast, who had been tip-tapping away at his keyboard for the last hour, eventually rose and moved back to the circle on his floor. That was Gelic’s cue to find a corner to hide in and activate Conceal. Unlike her summoning, which had been completely silent, the man gave a great spiel this time. Maybe Ba had asked for it, to make it feel more grand for her friend’s first job. “Gawk, I summon thee!”

A moment later, the flapping eye appeared in the middle of the circle. Gelic scried him since it had been a while, and it was nice to see that he’d gotten up to Lv.11. He was making progress, very slow compared to her, but still notable. He and the Summoner got right down to business. It was pretty much everything Gelic had heard from their boss already; follow the dude’s kid, make sure he’s not being bullied. 

Though, another condition was added that Ba Skin hadn’t mentioned. “And if you find out someone is messing with my boy, make sure they don’t come out of it unscathed, so that they’ll think twice about giving him trouble again.”

Well… that could certainly be a problem. Ba was right to be worried, and it made Gelic wonder if even he was aware of this specific condition. Hopefully, nothing bad would happen, but it was hard to say what Gawk would actually do if he was expected to follow such an Order. As for other unpredicted variables, when Proast turned the picture on his desk to show Gawk what his son looked like, the boy was much younger than expected. Gelic had been anticipating a pre-teen, but this kid was maybe in his first or second year of school.

During their negotiations, which had already been pre-set and were basically a formality at this point, she also noticed one more thing. While Gawk was being polite and mostly professional, there was a certain hesitance to his voice. It was different to the overbearing friendliness he usually had. The Demon was very clearly nervous, something she wasn’t used to seeing from him. Even during their Cult trial, he’d been in high spirits, without a doubt in his mind. But she could see the doubts now. Ba was right, what he really needed was confidence. 

Maybe she could help with that. Glancing around the office, instead of art, there were a bunch of motivational posters. Angelica couldn’t really understand how seeing the same generic phrases and stock photos every day would actually be motivational after a time, but hey, if it worked for him, then great. She could make it work for the Demon too, and anyone else who took gander. It’d be the most effective motivational poster of all time.

[Evoke Lv.30]

She applied the emotion to the poster closest to herself, since there was no need to worry about Gawk seeing it, because he was seeing the office in all directions. Immediately, it was like he perked up, suddenly speaking to the Summoner with a lot more enthusiasm in his voice. The confidence was flowing through him now, and hopefully it’d help carry him through to the end of this mission.

It wasn’t much longer until her flappy friend was escorted out of the building, with her following in tow. Keeping up with him after that was honestly a bit of a chore. Gawk was headed for the man’s house, following both the directions given and the natural assistance he’d get from the Order. But his speed was annoying. Faster than she herself could fly, but slower than she could bounce. So finding a good middle ground while keeping her distance was vexing. Fortunately, while they were in close quarters, she’d pegged him with Hunting Nose, so even if they did get separated, it’d be simple enough to find him again. 

[Hunting Nose Lv.7]

When they got to the house in question, it was still a bit of time before the mission really began. Yet Gawk watched the front door intently, or at least she assumed he did, since he wasn’t actually staring at it directly because he didn’t need to. As soon as the boy came out of the house, though, he more clearly locked in, and almost certainly used his own tracking Skill on the kid, making it so he’d see him constantly regardless of obstacles. 

It was the kind of key scouting ability she wished she had right now to get more distance, because using Conceal constantly and having it drain her MP was also draining her energy. Not to mention, at this point, it’d be late in the evening for her, so it was going to be a long day. She also took the lull to resummon Angie, and let the girl use Return to go back to their apartment and get back to her art binge. 

Gawk followed the kid all the way to school, and Gelic stayed a few more paces behind. She wanted to monitor the kid as well, just to make sure everything went smoothly. It was the kind of community where the children actually walked to school everyday instead of taking the bus or being driven, which were generally quite safe, or at least a bit safer than where Angelica grew up. So it was kind of hard to believe that someone was giving the kid grief, at least if they were an outsider. When they got to school, it could be a different matter, since kids could be cruel. If there was a culprit, then they were most likely a peer.

Once the schoolday began, Gawk posted up outside, staring into the window, watching the boy as time ticked by. For the start of the day, at least, nothing interesting happened. And it wasn’t long until it was clear that his patience was starting to waver a bit. He began to flap around the school, inspecting various things, which should be fine because of his Skill, letting him see his target from any angle. Gelic decided to stay where she was for the most part, as long as she had a good idea where he was. Fortunately, he never completely abandoned his post. If he did end up leaving the school perimeter, she would have needed to find a way to steer him back. But despite his commitment, his mind was clearly split. 

[Incoming Transmission from Accomplice: Gawk. Do you accept?]

“Uhh, hey, Gawk, what’s up.” She did her best to answer normally, despite being just a roof away from him. 

“Hey, Gelic! I’m in your human world right now on a job, and just thought I’d call and say hi.”

“Oh, that’s cool. You’re answering Summons now?” She asked as if she didn’t know.

“It’s my first one, actually!” he mentioned excitedly. “But I’ll admit, it’s kind of slow.”

“Oh, something boring then?”

“No, not at all!” he refuted. “I’m learning so much just from looking around. Right now, I’m outside of a human school, and I’m so envious!”

“Uhh, envious of what?”

“Of them! Gosh, I’d love to sit in there and learn everything. The human world is so fascinating. They’re so lucky to have all their knowledge explained to them carefully. Don’t get me wrong, we had a teacher as well when we were Imps, and Ba has been teaching me a lot too, but it’s a bit different. We learned about how to survive, how to grow stronger and be useful. And we’d learn by doing things actively. It’s so different to them, having a dedicated place where they can learn all they want at a steady pace. I wish I could try it out someday.”

Honestly, Angelica had never thought about schooling that way. To her, it was always a bit of a bore that she couldn’t say she ever appreciated. Sure, they learned things, but school was ultimately about getting ahead in life, earning a degree to create opportunities, appeasing her mother. She’d honestly put little stock into what was actually being taught, probably because she never had much interest in any of it, her actual dreams lying elsewhere and dormant for most of her life. So it was definitely interesting to see an outsider’s perspective. 

“Well, unless you find a Summoner who wants you to infiltrate a school more intimately, I don’t know that you’ll have many opportunities. And you’d need Transfiguration first. But I can do my best to answer any questions you might have about humans or their world.” It’d only be a fair trade, since he’d taught her so much about Hell.

“Okay, first question then! I don’t know much about human technology, other than that they use some kind of natural Conductive magic. But there’s these big metal boxes on the school’s roof and they’re rumbling a lot, making a ‘whirr whirr whirr’ noise. Do you know what they’re for?”

“Hmm, I think I know what you’re talking about.” It helped that she could literally see up there and knew what he was describing, or even she might have been a little lost. “Got any guesses before I give you the answer.”

“Uhhh… Oh! Is it for shaking the school to make sure the children stay awake?”

“Heh, no.” Though the idea did make her chuckle. “It’s for air conditioning to make it colder inside, or maybe heat if it’s too cold, depending where you are.”

“Woah, so they can use these metal boxes to turn Conductive magic into Inferno or Glacial?! That’s so cool! Humans are amazing! Okay, next question. The students keep fiddling with these small rectangles under their tiny personal tables. It looks like they’re trying to hide it from the teacher too. Are they doing something bad?”

“Uhh, sort of.” She tried to find the best words to explain. “Those are phones. They’re sort of like our Accomplice system, and they can use them to communicate with each other. But they can also do so much more. It’s hard to explain without showing you. My master lets me use hers sometimes.” And damn, these kids were so young, but they had phones already? Her mom hadn’t gotten her one until she joined the cross country team, and even then, it was a basic one to pretty much be used for emergencies. She didn’t have a modern phone with all the features until she was almost done with high school.

“Ah, so they’re using them to be distracted from learning. They are naughty humans indeed. Oh, but the child I’m observing isn’t using one. He is paying attention to the teacher, and is a good kid. I will be sure to relay that to my master.”

Pretty much most of the school day was filled to the brim with questions like this. Since they were in the same world, Gawk wasn’t actually using MP to keep the call going for all those hours. It was a decent way to pass the time, and it made Gelic feel like a damn genius answering all those inquiries that felt like basic knowledge to her. Gawk’s unwaning enthusiasm for each new thing definitely helped in that regard.

Though she did eventually have a question of her own. “Hey, so it sounds like you’re following around a student. Do you have to stick with them the whole time, or just for the school day?” She already knew the answer, having literally been in the room when the details were laid out.

“I have to follow him until he gets back home after school and then report to my master. But then after that, I am free until the next day or he releases me. I’ll probably just hang around close to their house, however. I know that if I go and explore too much, I might lose track of time or my location.”

Aww, cute, he was trying to be responsible. But maybe a bit of lax leisure wouldn’t be so bad. “Why don’t I meet up with you when you’re done? We can hang out then, and I can show you some neat things, not too far from your master’s home, of course. Maybe try some human food. I just checked with my master, and she said it was fine.”

“Ehh, human food?” He sounded less sure about that part. “But that sounds great. Okay, it should just be a few more hours in this world’s time. Oh, uhm, I don’t really know where I’m at, or how to tell you how to get here.”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll find you.” There was no need to get into the specifics of how or why. He didn’t need such silly little details. And this would be a great excuse in case he suddenly spotted her, or she had to intervene. A brilliant plan that clearly had nothing to do with her just wanting to hang out with her friend.