"So you're saying the chairwoman of Phenex Society, Miss Ravel Phenex, is actually a pureblood phoenix?"
"Correct."
"Was she turned or born that way?"
"Born."
"From the very beginning?"
"From the very beginning."
After this staccato exchange, Luo Shu picked up his tea, sipping while observing Kotoko Iwanaga's twisted, almost demonic expression of rage across from him, before chuckling:
"Don't make that face~ It's rather unsightly~"
"And whose fault is that?"
Kotoko Iwanaga practically forced the words through gritted teeth, smiling without warmth as she said:
"A pureblood phoenix serving as leader of an organisation where everyone wants to devour phoenix flesh - should I call her bold or reckless?"
'Isn't that the same thing?' Luo Shu mused internally before calmly telling Kotoko Iwanaga:
"There's a lot of backstory here. You might find it hard to accept, but this is how things are."
"..."
Kotoko Iwanaga opened her mouth, then shook her head with a bitter laugh:
"After searching for years, the phoenix was right under my nose all along. Honestly, I nearly punched someone just now."
"Who did you want to punch?" Luo Shu asked curiously.
"Myself."
Kotoko Iwanaga rolled her eyes, then rudely pulled one leg onto the sofa after kicking off its shoe, leaning against the backrest:
"What a miscalculation. Because high-ranking members of secret organisations always carry Abyss Artefacts to protect their identities, I could never get close enough..."
"So all this time, I never thought to investigate the racial backgrounds of Phenex Society members..."
"Never imagined President Ravel would actually be the phoenix I've been searching for."
"This is really..."
If there was one word to describe Kotoko Iwanaga's current mood, it would be regret.
If three words, then very much regret.
From start to finish, she never imagined being this close to a phoenix – so close she could almost reach out and touch one.
And the most absurd part? She'd previously been assisting Luo Shu in capturing Ravel Phoenix.
What does that even count as?
Handing the vault key straight to someone else?
How could she be so stupid?
Watching Kotoko smack her forehead in frustration, Luo Shu took pity and offered some consolation:
"If you think about it, this isn't really your fault, Miss Iwanaga."
"After all, even those on the mystic side don't go around divining every single person's background."
"You do have a point..."
Kotoko seemed to accept Luo Shu's reasoning:
"No normal person would be bored enough to perform divination on someone they just met, invading their privacy like that?"
'Except for people like me, of course. Nobody else would be bored enough to misuse divination powers like this...' Luo Shu silently quipped in his mind.
Though he joked to himself, Luo Shu fully understood how rare divination skills were.
While it might seem that many of the people he encountered could perform divinations, that was just survivor's bias.
Standard divination methods were nowhere near as convenient as Luo Shu's Mysticism Encyclopaedia or Raziel.
Even the Mysticism Encyclopaedia required the diviner to identify their target and obtain some genetic material for accurate information retrieval.
If even a Demigod Rank artefact like the Encyclopaedia had such limitations, imagine the constraints others faced.
The most convenient and efficient divination Luo Shu had witnessed was Raziel's search function.
Yet even then, Raziel struggled to obtain concrete information about Demigods.
This was because Demigod Rank experts generally specialised in anti-divination techniques.
Even a Hero Rank individual like Luo Shu could redirect divination attempts towards the Calamity Concept within his body.
More powerful Demigods or Apostles could trace divination links to mentally assault the diviner directly.
Thus, while divination was powerful, it carried significant risks. Accidentally targeting some heavyweight could result in fates worse than death.
This explained why novels and dramas always featured diviners suffering backlash for revealing heavenly secrets.
Unlike Luo Shu with his cheats, the less confident Kotoko naturally avoided casual divination.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have worked with Ravel for years without detecting her pureblood phoenix identity.
Described this way, it's hard to say whether Kotoko was lucky or unlucky.
Lucky because her promotion materials had been right under her nose all along. Unlucky because she only realised after they'd fallen into someone else's hands.
One could only say it was utterly tragic, so pitiful it made one's teeth ache...
Even Luo Shu couldn't help but look at Kotoko Iwanaga with some pity in his eyes.
"I really should study divination techniques properly in the future..."
Kotoko Iwanaga rubbed her temples, then tentatively opened her eyes slightly as she asked Luo Shu:
"So, considering how pitiful I am, could you allow me to meet President Ravel?"
"Of course!" Luo Shu responded without hesitation.
However, before Kotoko could show any sign of happiness, he immediately called out to Yukino Yukinoshita nearby:
"Yukino, go get the indenture contract... oh no, I mean the cooperation agreement from my cabinet."
After saying this, Luo Shu glanced at Yukino Yukinoshita as she turned to leave the reception room, then looked back at Kotoko Iwanaga with a smile:
"By the way, what were you saying just now?"
"You want to meet Ravel? Sure~ I can arrange that right now~"
Hearing this, Kotoko's mouth twitched as she stared at Luo Shu with an awkward expression:
"Although I knew your conditions would be harsh, isn't an indenture contract a bit too much?"
Upon hearing this, Luo Shu crossed his legs, leaned back on the sofa, placed his hands on the armrests, slightly raised his chin, and looked at her with amused eyes:
"The question is, will you sign it or not?"
Kotoko Iwanaga: "...You bastard."