Under Tos’s lead, the several of them arrived at his furniture store.
It was undeniable that when Red and Brian walked through the door, the first thing they saw was a little succubus greeting them…
‘I almost thought I’d walked into some strange shop on Succubus Street.’
Red’s silent criticism was met with a deeply sympathetic nod from Brian.
However, Tos had no intention of refuting this.
He simply pulled over a table, gestured for Brian and Red to sit down, and then spoke with an incredibly serious tone.
“Rather than saying I invited you two over for a drink… It would be more accurate to say I want to discuss serious business with you, Red.”
“You say that, but…”
Brian crossed his arms, looking at the several bottles of wine the little succubus brought over.
“Didn’t you still prepare alcohol?”
“Oh?”
The little succubus looked at the three of them with a hint of surprise.
“I thought it was time for you all to strip naked and drink again. After all, it feels like you’re either drinking or on your way to a drink lately.”
The moment those words left her mouth, the three men simultaneously looked away, feeling a bit guilty.
Red could understand it.
Using alcohol to drown one’s sorrows and drinking frequently was understandable.
But… the other two were just pure addicts.
There was no defending them.
“Men should drink less,” the little succubus said, covering her mouth and giggling as she took the wine back.
“After all… it’s not convenient to do business after drinking. It’s quite hard to get it up down there, you know~”
Before they could respond, the little succubus returned to the front counter, leaving the three of them staring at the wine on the table, looking at one another in silence for a long while.
“Are you drinking?”
“Let’s… let’s drink, right? When talking business, it feels a bit off if your mouth or hands aren’t busy. Should we go to Succubus Street?”
Brian crossed his arms.
“Red, do you have ‘business’ to do with Letia tonight?”
“What kind of talk is that?”
Red’s mouth twitched.
“Who says a man can’t do business after drinking? Are you saying my body is that weak?”
As he spoke, his damnable competitive spirit flared up.
He poured a glass of wine, stood up, and downed it in one go.
After drinking, he sat back down and asked Tos.
“By the way, Tos, what is this business regarding Litt that you wanted to tell me?”
“That’s a long story…”
Tos crossed his legs and leaned against the back of his chair.
“I should have told you this sooner, but your mental state wasn’t right at the time, so I waited until now.”
Brian nodded in agreement.
“We’re all brothers here. Even though you hid it perfectly, Red, there’s no denying that we could basically all see through it.”
‘Damn… and I thought I disguised it well.’
Red shook his head with a bitter smile.
“But you seem fine now, so I’ll just say it straight…”
Tos’s voice gradually lowered.
Xiloyi, the little succubus who was supposed to be at the front counter, took the hint and closed the shop door.
“Regarding this matter with Litt… No, it would be better to say regarding this person… There are many, many questions. The investigation started after she died, when Mason, Brian, and I went to the Monastery of the White Church.”
“Red…”
Tos’s tone carried a hint of preemptive apology.
“The following words might make you feel uncomfortable or even angry, but…”
He took a deep breath, his eyes becoming sharp and his voice dropping even lower.
“We opened the coffin where Litt’s belongings were placed. It was eerily clean inside… There was no magic residue belonging to the deceased… not a single trace of the aura that should remain after life fades… It was simply… as if no one had ever died in that coffin.”
“It was this extremely abnormal and wrong situation… that led me to launch a thorough, top-to-bottom, meticulous investigation into the identity of ‘Litt’.”
At this point, Tos pushed the documents he had investigated toward Red.
“At first, didn’t we all believe that Litt came to Nightbright Town with the White Church Mission?”
Hearing Tos’s question, Brian and Red subconsciously nodded.
“But that is exactly where the doubts began.”
As a thief, Tos possessed investigative and analytical skills far beyond ordinary people.
He pulled out a photo where several people dressed in White Church attire could be vaguely seen.
“I did a deep investigation into the five members of the White Church Mission. Among them… there was no name for Litt. Her background seems airtight, but in reality, she is a paper person — an exquisitely packaged empty shell.”
After Tos finished speaking, he and Brian waited for Red’s reaction.
Different from a few days ago, this man had now recovered to his usual calm state.
He didn’t immediately rush off to find Litt in a panic upon hearing Tos’s words.
Instead, he also began to analyze seriously.
“Tos, are you saying that Litt… isn’t actually dead?”
“That is just my current guess.”
Tos’s words caused Red to fall into a long silence.
To be honest, if he had received this news a few days earlier, Red might have immediately set off to investigate.
But now… he was more concerned about why, if Litt was fake from the beginning, the person pretending to be her would approach him.
And for what purpose did they stage this fake death?
Besides Letia…
He felt his brain was quite a mess.
After thinking for a good while, he rubbed his temples.
“I need a bit of time to process this. Can I take these documents with me to study?”
“Of course.”
Tos had investigated these things primarily to make Red feel better, so if the other man wanted them, he would naturally give them over.
After packing the items, Red took a deep breath and decided to shift the topic away from himself.
“Speaking of which, where is Mason?”
“You mean him?”
Tos didn’t speak, but Brian spoke up first.
“Lately, it seems like the monsters from the 30th to 35th Layer are acting a bit strange. After Judgment Holy Night received the investigation request, he went down to figure out what’s going on.”