I Can Read People's Comments

[Chapter 136 Comments]

'Where is it?' Theo looked around, observing the people's expressions and gestures. However, he couldn't see anything weird about them.

On the one hand, he wanted to go up and regroup with his students. On the other hand, the current problem was so big that he needed his students to handle some side objectives.

There was nothing he could find until Rintaro finished talking to Iris regarding her job as bait.

Rintaro walked to Theo while asking, "Should we begin searching?"

"I'm wondering if we should involve the civilians to find them…" Theo muttered.

"I think it's going a bit too far. Besides, it will be troublesome if they are affected by the catalysts." Rintaro shook his head helplessly.

"No. I'm not talking about direct help. I'm talking about that." Theo pointed at the CCTV on the ceiling.

"Ah!" Rintaro nodded in understanding.

Theo gestured to Rach before informing him about the use of CCTV. Although he couldn't directly communicate with them, it should be enough to give him a lot of locations to investigate.

After that, Theo asked, "One last question. This opponent seems to be something coming from your world. Do you have any idea about the monster's identity?"

"I'm not sure. I haven't heard anything about a ghost this strong… Even if there is one, they are in an isolated zone with several high level exorcists standing by." Rintaro shook his head helplessly. "Considering this is a ghost, there is also a chance that it's possessing someone to cross over the portal."

"It seems that we can't get any information that can kill this ghost. In that case, let's begin on the first floor. You're going to take this side and I will go to the opposite side of the building. How is the layout?"

"The formation should create a spherical barrier."

Theo remembered that the sphere came directly from the ground, so it created a perfect half-sphere, indicating that the barrier was either formed on this floor or underneath them.

"Let's check the first floor first and we can go to the basement if we can't find anything."

"Sure."

After reaching an agreement, Theo and Rintaro split up. During this period, Theo was extremely sensitive to people's changes of expression since he could determine if someone was possessed or not.

Though, it would become much easier for him if he had the Eye of Truth. While illusion wouldn't work on him, if he had the artifact that could see the real thing, it would be much easier.

Still, the Eye of Truth was with his daughter. In the end, Theo looked around without the artifact.

There didn't seem to be anything weird in his area. His perception was extremely high, yet, he didn't notice any essence changing in the area.

The visitors were afraid and kept talking to the security guards who tried to calm them down. Some of them wanted to go back because it was getting dangerous, but they had closed down the hotel for one reason.

The visitors would definitely be attacked when they came out of the hotel and without any high level escorts, there was no way they could survive.

After another thirty minutes exploring the first floor, Theo returned to the main lobby. The people had calmed down a bit, but it was still pretty chaotic, especially because there was already a casualty.

This made everything harder for Theo since someone might use the chaos to do something unthinkable.

"It seems that there is nothing I can find here… In that case, it might be underground. Mia and the others should have done their jobs." Theo muttered.

It appeared that Rintaro had the same thoughts as him. He had been waiting for Theo and immediately said, "I think we should go down to the basement."

"Yeah. We should do that." Theo agreed without hesitation. "But can you wait for a bit more?"

"Is there something else?" Rintaro tilted his head in confusion. They had to fix the problem as soon as possible.

"I mean, have you heard anything from the outside?"

"Outside? Do you mean Miss Iris?" Rintaro dropped his jaw as if he understood the meaning of that question. Iris was a strong person, so she should be able to withstand the enemy's attack. But the fact that there was no ruckus outside could mean three things.

First, the barrier had prevented them from hearing anything from outside the barrier. Second, Iris had been defeated and it wasn't even a fight since there was no noise coming from outside. Last but not least, the ghost was hiding among them instead of fighting Iris.

"I see. This is rather concerning. Should I go out to check it?" Continue reading at My Virtual Library Empire

"No. Please wait for a moment since we will know the truth." Theo rejected the idea and looked at the emergency exit.

As he expected, the door was opened again. In fact, it had been opened by a lot of people who seemed to have been saved by his students. Now that there were not many people left coming out, Mia and the others should have finished their jobs.

Fortunately, the students emerged from the emergency exit two minutes later.

Some of them were injured, but they were just small grazes. There didn't seem to be anything life threatening.

They obviously became the center of attention. The people they saved earlier couldn't help but admire them while those who heard about their deeds were whispering to each other. In addition, the equipment that his students had was also quite eye-catching.

"Those are the students."

"No. They are our saviors."

"Without them, we would have died."

"Way to go, kids!"

Some people cheered. Those who knew them couldn't help but clap their hands. The one standing in the front was none other than Mia with a weird eye-shaped object on her right eye. Mia didn't have any change of expression when she came out.

It was only after she saw Theo that a big smile appeared on her face as she ran toward him. "Dad!"

"Oh, Mia!" Theo had a relieved smile. The people couldn't help but feel a bit envious to see such a talented daughter. Mia leaped to him and hugged him so tightly that she looked like a sloth hanging on a tree.

"Are you waiting for them, Mr. Theo?" Rintaro asked.

"Yeah. These are my students. While they are still learning, they are quite good." Theo smiled.

When Rintaro and Haruka caught each other's gaze, they instantly recognized each other.

"You are… Rintaro from the Kozuki House?!"

"Oh my. It's the young lady from the Kimura Family. It's an honor to see you here."

"You know her?" Theo asked.

"Of course. How could one not know the esteemed Kimura Family? And the young lady is even more famous for breaking the record of having a familiar at the age of seven."

"It's an honor to be recognized by an exorcist like you. But if you are here, does that mean the Kozuki House…"

"Yeah. However, they were going to a different location last night and will probably be back tomorrow. I'm here enjoying my vacation… though, I never expected for this to happen."

"Mhmm!" Mia suddenly let out a small groan. She was actually pouting while closing Theo's eyes. "Dad. Pay attention to me as well!"

It looked like Mia was jealous when she saw her father focusing on someone else instead of her. After all, she had done a great job.

"Wait. Mia. Don't be rude!" Theo looked startled. His balance looked off as his body began to spin as if he were trying to maintain his balance.

It was a normal reaction from a kid. But what they didn't know was that the eye-shaped object in Mia's eye had gone. In fact, Mia didn't completely close Theo's eyes. There was a small gap for Theo to see things in front of him.

And the eye-shaped object had been hidden behind the palm, allowing Theo to use the Eye of Truth.

That action alone was enough to explain everything to Theo, so he acted like he was troubled by Mia's action and rotated his body to get another look at the hotel.

It was at that time that he noticed a total of six different beings that seemed to have merged with the people.

The first three were normal visitors. While they didn't have the strength to fight, the amount of essence in their bodies was quite high. It might be the reason why he couldn't notice it earlier.

Yes. The catalyst seemed to have been inside their bodies and mixed with the essence of their hosts to cover their existence.

Two other hosts were fighters. They were among the first ones to fight against the spiders, reducing the casualties significantly.

The last person was a chef. He was supposed to be in the kitchen to prepare for dinner, but because of this incident, they couldn't really work, so it was understandable why he came out.

Theo didn't have any changes of expression. He acted like he was overwhelmed by Mia and tried to soothe her.

"I know. I know. My dear daughter has done a good job!"

"Hehe!" Mia smiled and finally took her hands off his eyes before jumping off him.

Theo just patted her head from behind to calm her down.

"It seems that we have made her a little jealous." Rintaro chuckled. "Still, this is not the time to have a fun family reunion."

"Indeed." Theo sighed with a troubled smile.

All of a sudden, Rintaro heard a voice ringing directly inside his head, saying, 'If you hear this voice, don't make any sudden movements and just cough. It's me, Theodore Griffith.'

Rintaro was startled at first, but it seemed that Theo had noticed something. He coughed once to show that he heard his voice.

'This is an illusion that I plant directly in your head, which allows you to hear my voice, but not the other way around. Don't look or do anything suspicious. Also, play along with my little chat.' Theo sent this message directly into Rintaro's head while his mouth said, "Please wait a moment. I have to calm down my daughter."

Rintaro understood the assignment and said, "Fine."

While they were making small talk on the outside, Theo kept sharing the information he got by using the Eye of Truth.

'The locations are within the people's bodies. They cover their own energy by using the host's essence. And I will implant that illusion to show all those five locations. Cough once if you can release them from the catalyst, cough twice if you can't.'

Rintaro coughed once in between their conversations.

'If that's the case, I will leave those five to you. I will take care of the sixth person. Since you said there should only be five catalysts, it means that the last person is being possessed. It might be the ghost or only a part of his soul that is used to monitor us. Either way, we will check it out. On my signal, I want you to rush to save those five people as quickly as possible. Cough once if you can do it, twice if you need help.'

Rintaro let out another cough. It seemed that he was confident in his own skills.

He had to thank his daughter for being able to maintain her expression the whole time. She could even act like that to fool their opponent. Mia was indeed the daughter of the God of Tricksters. It had been a while since he had to do this to fool someone, but it seemed that the opponent had forced him to resort to a simple trick like this.

There were six people and one of them was their enemy. Among the six people, there was one common thing that the five people had and there was only one that gave that, thus the reason for Theo believing that he got the right person.

Now that Rintaro had understood the assignment, Theo sent the signal by snapping his finger, forming the illusion. All five people instantly shone brightly in Rintaro's eyes as if Theo were telling him, 'Go!'

Both Rintaro and Theo turned around and ran toward them.