I! Cleaner!

"Mm?"

Just as the Black Goat suddenly reneged and demanded Leon retract it immediately, a female reporter wearing a wide-brimmed wool hat in The Sun News newsroom suddenly felt something, reached back to touch her own buttock, and a look of astonishment appeared in her dark, glossy eyes.

"Nicole?"

Even though her movements were large, the female reporter didn't make a sound—there wasn't even the rustle of clothing, so she went unnoticed. Only her colleague's sleeve brushed against her, noticing something was off, and they tilted their head to whisper a reminder,

"Be careful, the director is holding back, itching to yell at someone. Don't get yourself caught!"

"Uh-huh, but don't worry, he won't be his arrogant self for long."

Nodding slightly at the kind-hearted warning of her colleague, she habitually pulled down her wool hat, tucked a wayward tuft of hair at her temple, then scrunched her nose at the supervisor who was frowning during his lecture, and then, turning her head, said with a playful grin,

"Old Martin has no standing in his family; he really can't support himself at home. Beaten dead by his two-hundred-pound shrew of a wife, he can only take it out on us during meetings.

So, getting scolded a few times now is nothing. Next month, when I become the head of the news department, I guarantee we won't have a single pointless meeting just for impotent old men to vent their frustration!"

"Uhh..."

Tickled by the female reporter's words, her colleague next to her bit down on their cheek to stop themselves from bursting into laughter, managing to hold back with a face flushed red.

Catching her breath after stifling the laughter, the female colleague couldn't help but whisper a complaint,

"Nicole, don't get me in trouble. If I'd laughed, Old Martin would probably point at my nose and scold me for an hour!"

"Sorry, sorry."

Offering an apology with no sincerity at all, the female reporter casually flipped her wrist, pulling out a theater ticket, and placed her genuine apology into her colleague's hand.

"Take this as my apology, okay?"

Is this... a ticket to the Morning Star Troupe? And signed by Master Wilde, allowing for a backstage handshake after the performance!

Sneaking a look at the ticket in her palm, the female colleague was overjoyed but quickly became suspicious, skeptically looking at the smiling female reporter,

"Not okay! You're suddenly giving me such an expensive ticket, it must mean there's trouble you need help with, or you want me to cover for you!"

"Correct! You're so smart!"

Winking playfully at her, the female reporter gently clasped her legs together, her face bashfully flushed akin to having powder dusted on it, shyly saying,

"Well... I stayed up late yesterday. This morning, afraid I couldn't hold up, I drank a few more cups of coffee, and Old Martin's nonsense is unusually abundant today, repeating for over an hour and still not finished, so could you maybe..."

Understood, she needed to relieve herself and required someone to cover for her, right?

But today's the pitch meeting. When it's time to stand and present the story ideas, if Nicole isn't back, I'm afraid I'll have to take double the scolding for her.

Double the scolding... a ticket signed by Master Wilde... Ugh! It's worth it!

Hesitating for a while while gripping the ticket, the female colleague sighed, pocketing the ticket, before sliding her chair forward a bit to shield most of the female reporter's body.

"Come back quickly!"

"Mm-hmm-hmm, you're the best, Maggie~ mwah~"

Blowing a sincere kiss to her friend, the female reporter, having found her decoy, leaned her upper body slightly backward, using her colleague's body to block others' view. She then discretely extended her booted foot, deftly nudging open the slightly ajar back door of the conference room.

"Screech~"

With a faint creak from the old door hinge, the female reporter, who had been sitting primly at the table just a moment ago, quietly slipped out of the conference room without anyone noticing her departure.

...

Did she already leave?

After slipping out of the meeting room and hastily making her way to the newspaper office's entrance, feeling the vanished presence, the female reporter knitted her brows and asked, with no one there to hear,

"Didn't you just tell me you sensed another part of your information? Where did it go?"

There was no response for a long while.

When the female reporter's patience was nearly exhausted, a lazy-sounding voice finally sounded slowly.

'It ran away.'

No kidding! I came over and didn't see anyone, of course, it ran away! The question is where did it run to!

Grumbling with a slightly darkened expression, the female reporter irritably demanded,

"Direction! Location! Features! Quick! Tell me whatever you know! Stop making me ask! Where did the other seventh of you go?!"

'...'

"..."

'I don't know.'

"..."

That damn lazy demon!

Squandering a precious autograph ticket only to come up empty at the entrance, the female reporter stomped her foot in frustration but found she had no way of dealing with the part of the demon too lazy to make a sound, so she had to grit her teeth and start back toward the newspaper building.

Annoying demon! If I bother with you again, I'm a fool!

'By the way.'

Just as the female reporter was swearing silently, an invisible furry goat tail floating behind her rear leisurely spoke,

'There's someone from the Purification Bureau waiting in your office.'

?!!!

Hearing the goat tail's reminder, the female reporter's eyebrows raised slightly, then completely ignoring her recent oath, she asked with a tense voice,

"Who's waiting? How many people? Are they here to arrest me or what?"

'...'

"Speak!!!"

'Male, one, your fan.'

"Ah???"

...

"This gentleman collected three years' worth of double subscription stamps and received a pass to our newspaper, Mr. Lyon."

After introducing Leon's identity, the cheerful guide gestured toward the female reporter wearing the wool hat, smiling as they continued,

"This is reporter Nicole from the news department. Over the six years since joining the news department, she has written over four hundred pieces of public news and more than a hundred twenty in-depth reports, immensely popular with our readers at The Sun News.

Nicole's reports attract a large loyal readership, be it in the public edition or the quality edition. However, there aren't many readers like you who subscribe to both editions and continuously for a full three years... You two chat now; I won't disturb you further."

Following a pointed introduction lifting both parties' "status," the guide promptly exited the office without lingering.

After the guide left, the two, both trying to guess the other's identity, stood in silence for a moment before the female reporter spoke first,

"Mr. Lyon, you..."

"I came this time to ask you a few questions."

As Leon spoke, he pulled out the prepared newspapers from his shopping bag, laying them out on the table,

"Charl Department Store's Big Sale, One Man Hospitalized by 'Large Sum'"

"Shocking! The Lane Family Slaughtered Last Night, and the Murderer is This Person"

"Duke Can't Beat Cabbage? A Comprehensive Look at the Lane Family Crisis!"

"Publicly Slapping the Prince, the Lane Family's New Duke Suspected of Having Mania!"

"Beauty Over Power? Duke of Lionheart Suspected of Joining the Royal Family!"

"..."

"I just want to ask you."

Pointing at the newspapers on the table, Leon, watching his counterpart's expression, asked with palpable dissatisfaction,

"In just over a month, you've written about me eight times, all in a negative light, so what exactly is it between us? When writing a report and sourcing material, do you have to fixate on just one person to milk?"