The next day, Leo picked up the cats in his pickup and headed toward Forks High School. On the way, they kept staring at him worriedly.
Thanks to the load of papers he had to process—and the things he actually uncovered—Leo had gone through a long, sleepless night.
"Nini, you okay?" Lapis asked with concern.
"I'm good," Leo said, patting her head. "I just took the night to finish the work. It just surprised me, what I found—that's all."
Between the information and the paperwork, he found himself revising some national contracts involving arms dealing and military technology.
And that was just the tip of the iceberg.
"Sonia, what's the deal with all that?" Leo asked, using the silent drive as a chance. "I can get the normal business, but what's all that about the weapon-manufacturing department?"
The host asked one of the critical questions. Answer cannot be given… Activating the hiding mission.
Sonia's answer surprised Leo. But what surprised him even more was the familiar screen that appeared in front of him.
Light leads the darkness in dance.
Leading and deceiving, burning and healing, birthing and dying.
The return of the great white shall be the last stand, as the scale equalizes.
-------Explore the world.
--------Find your origin.
Involuntarily, Leo frowned. Now he was even more confused—what did weapons have to do with anything like this?
What's wrong with all this puzzle talk? Leo asked Sonia, but once again she went silent, something he really couldn't understand the reason behind.
Despite being his helper, she hardly answered his questions, and when she did, her answers were difficult to understand.
By the time he stopped the car in front of the high school, Leo decided to give up thinking about it, seeing no problem for him or his family for the time being.
The front of the school was already packed with teenagers. This caused them to become the center of attention.
That was for two reasons: new faces in a small town, and the fact that Ruby and Lapis towered over the kids by a good margin, let alone Leo, who stood over 2.5 meters tall, and the obviously oversized car that didn't really need any signs to make it interesting.
"Okay, girls," Leo said, patting their heads. "Have fun with your peers, but don't cause trouble."
He was hugged by the pair before they headed inside.
Driving back, he went straight to the house and was about to call Loyed, but to his surprise, he found him smoking in the backyard.
"What's up? I was about to call you," Leo said, sitting beside him and snatching the smoke from his hand.
"Well, actually, I came for this," Loyed said, placing a file and a laptop in front of Leo. "Last night, one of my clan's busybodies found a weird liquor in Phoenix."
After Kali's call the night before, Loyed had stepped directly into action, moving with his best assassin squad. After having them investigate a specific place, he skipped to New York, the best location to gather information.
While probing around, he got a call from a subordinate in Phoenix, asking him to come over.
That led to the discovery of a hidden office underneath a liquor store.
The funny thing was that they were more like suppliers for adventurers and magical partners then actuel store.
The underground office itself felt like an Ancient Forest guild. just on a smaller scale.
"In general, that office was actually a home base for what's commonly called hunters," Loyed added. "And you'll love this."
Opening the file and shoving it into Leo's hands, he explained how this world had far more in it than they expected.
On the surface, it was just a typical world, and humans only knew about the supernatural through books, movies, myths, and legends.
But the truth was that they had existed since the dawn of mankind, hiding in plain sight.
"And that's based on rules agreed upon by the current ruling and peace-keeping organizations," Loyed said, pointing to the laws and governing bodies listed.
To summarize, there were three major forces: the old clans, the ruling parties of each country, and the hunters' bureau, with all its sub-organizations and contractors.
The old clans referred to unique bloodlines that had existed since humans first walked the land. They were extremely introverted and closed off, appearing only a few times throughout history—but recently, they had begun appearing in public more often.
The country leaders were always in the know, which made investigations and cover-ups easier.
And finally, the hunters' bureau—the biggest and most active force in the shadows—their main job being to hunt down any fallen or lawbreaker, either imprisoning or outright killing them.
"As for the creatures themselves," Loyed continued, "they practically have no real indexing after World War II."
"And why is that?" Leo asked. "Since they hunt them, I at least expected them to have records."
"They do have records," Loyed replied, pointing again at the file. "But most of them focus on light-side creatures or the more popular dark types. In general, any supernatural being falls under two categories—light and dark."
"The latter, also known as fallen," Leo said, reading, "are basically monsters with human consciousness."
"They also have a generic database based on diet and weaknesses," Loyed added, pushing the laptop toward him. "At least for the ones they encounter regularly. I uploaded everything—check it yourself."
"Okay, thanks," Leo said, standing up with the file and laptop. "Now tell me the real reason for this early visit."
"So you figured it out," Loyed sighed, standing as well.
"A lazy ass like you being up this early," Leo snorted. "That only happens when we're really in trouble."
Inside the house, Flint—who had just woken up—stood in the living room doorway. When he noticed Loyed, he sighed.
"I'll freshen up and be right back," Flint said, slipping toward the bathroom. "It's too early for this shit."
"What?" Loyed frowned. "What do you mean?"
"You being up this early means you just dumped another problem on our plate," Flint grumbled without stopping.
"See?" Leo said. "Everyone knows."
"Am I really that lazy in your eyes?" Loyed said, but after seeing Leo's face, he sighed and waved it off. "Forget it."
By the time the coffee was ready and Flint returned, Leo got straight to the point.
"So, what is it?"
"Well," Loyed said, scratching his head, "apparently, the dimensions you mentioned were at war not long ago. There was an apocalypse-like event about a century ago."
Judging by their shocked expressions, that alone was enough.
"And that's just the title of the disaster," Loyed added.
"If that's your reaction now, wait until you hear the whole story."