The room looked nothing like a boardroom.
Instead, it resembled an elegant office—quiet, polished, almost deceptively calm.
A man sat behind a broad desk enclosed by glass walls, dark circles carved deep beneath his eyes as he flipped through the documents spread messily before him. His posture was rigid, shoulders tense, like the weight of the papers alone was enough to crush him.
Beyond the transparent walls, the city stretched out below.
Or what was left of it.
Broken buildings leaned at awkward angles. Cars lay abandoned across the streets, some overturned, others shattered, forming long, chaotic lines that told a story no one wanted to finish reading.
"Please, take a seat, lad."
The man didn't look up when he spoke. His eyes remained glued to the papers in his hands, fingers clenched so tightly Elias half-expected the page to tear apart any second now.
Elias drew in a slow breath.
His thoughts were already spiraling.
Baron Weimar.
The investigator.
He'd become a Chordbearer at fourteen. Reached the Virtuoso rank before graduating from the Resonance Academy. A certified B-Ranker.
There was hardly anyone in Arvenelle who wouldn't recognize the man sitting across from him.
And no—it wasn't because of his strength.
If anything, it was the opposite.
Baron Weimar was famous for a far more terrifying reason.
You couldn't lie to him.
Literally.
As long as you stood within his Echofield—and you weren't overwhelmingly stronger than him—every word that left your mouth would be the truth. No half-lies. No clever wording. No loopholes.
Just truth.
The ability wasn't exactly flashy in combat, but in the political hellscape of Arvon, Earth's capital city, it was priceless.
Noble Houses were built on secrets, schemes, and carefully crafted lies. Internal conflicts thrived on deception. So an ability that stripped all of that away—
—it was like giving wings to a tiger.
However despite all the benefits the scions of the Noble Houses had offered him, Baron had turned every single one down and chosen to work for the Harmonic Council instead.
A decision Elias still couldn't wrap his head around.
Whatever those Council assholes were paying him, it was nowhere near what the Nobles could offer. Not even close.
In the end, Baron was probably one of those people.
The heroic type.
The 'I'll give up my life to save the world' kind of idiot.
How noble.
How stupid.
Still, his presence made things complicated. Elias wouldn't be able to bluff his way out of this one—not with Baron Weimar sitting across from him.
But hey. No problem.
If there was one thing Elias felt he was good at, it was surviving situations he had no business surviving.
And for once, his almighty drawback might actually come in handy.
That stupid curse might finally be useful.
Clicking his tongue, Elias walked toward the chair reserved for visitors. The television mounted on the opposite wall droned on, the anchor's voice echoing through the room.
"Breaking News: Eighty thousand casualties have been reported in Arvenelle following the Echoform plague that appeared last night. The count is still ongoing."
"Reports suggest the invasion was caused by the Dissonant Hand, though doubts remain regarding how they managed to open a Mirrorth…"
"Saintess Myria has described the incident as unfortunate and has already dispatched the Choir Knights to cleanse the corruption…"
"The S-Rank team Melody, led by Antonio Sevrati, has been sent to investigate. Further reports are pending."
Elias sat down, his brows knitting together.
The Dissonant Hand.
Chordbearers whose Resonance Strings had been twisted by corruption— stuck somewhere between sanity and madness. Because really, only madness could make a human worship Echoforms and betray their own race for those nightmarish things.
And yet…
Elias couldn't shake the memory of last night.
The way the Echoforms had vanished. Just—poof.
Gone.
That wasn't normal. Monsters like Echoforms didn't simply disappear like that.
Not unless someone was pulling the strings.
Someone powerful enough to end the whole charade on a whim.
And now that he really thought about it—
Elias felt his heart freeze.
The Launder guy from earlier.
Wasn't it a little too convenient?
The man had known about the invasion before it happened. Knew it was coming. Even knew the kind of Echoforms that would hit the city.
That wasn't normal.
Before Elias could chase the thought any further, a tired voice cut through his spiraling mind and dragged him back to the present.
"Would you like some coffee?"
Baron spoke while leaning his head into one hand, yawning halfway through the sentence.
Elias blinked.
Wow.
Poor, overworked man.
He shook his head. "No."
Baron nodded and casually pushed the scattered documents aside. "That's great," he said. "Because I just ran out of coffee."
"…." Elias felt his eyebrow twitch.
What a complete dick.
Baron, of course, ignored the look on his face.
A long, translucent string suddenly appeared in front of him—thin, luminous, glowing a soft gold as it rippled gently through the air. A faint, soothing sound accompanied it, like a distant hum.
Elias' eyes widened.
He watched, almost entranced, as Baron lifted two fingers and pulled the golden string.
The sound that followed was light and airy, like the morning breeze slipping through an open window.
Elias felt dizzy.
Then—
Space distorted.
The world around them washed into shades of sky blue, ripples spreading outward in slow, endless waves. The air itself seemed to breathe, exhaling that same soft, calming sound.
The Echofield had been deployed.
Elias had a vague idea about how this stuff worked.
Just enough to know that only Chordbearers above the Novice rank could form an Echofield.
Just enough to know that this was way above his league.
An Echofield was a spatial distortion that spread around a Chordbearer, mirroring their emotional wavelength and imposing it onto the world around them.
And judging by the way his chest felt like it was being slowly twisted—
Baron Weimar's wavelength was built around honesty.
Inside this field, lying didn't just feel wrong.
It felt impossible.
The sensation was deeply uncomfortable. Like something fundamental had been scraped out of him. Lies were woven into human nature—tiny ones, big ones, necessary ones—and having that stripped away wasn't pleasant.
Especially not for someone like Elias.
Someone who happened to be a very impressive liar.
"I will speak. You will answer, kid."
Baron straightened in his chair, the tiredness in his eyes sharpening into something colder. More focused. The investigator was awake now.
"You're here because things around you don't add up," he continued. "You'll do both of us a favor by not clamming up when you're asked a question. Refusal will land you in a detention center, labeled suspicious."
His gaze bored into Elias.
"And we both don't want that. Right?"
Elias nodded so fast it was almost comical, a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. "That sounds great. Really. You're doing an amazing job."
Baron's eye twitched.
"But," Elias added, "I just happen to have a very serious problem."
Baron rolled his eyes, clearly slotting this into the same old tricks category. "And what would that problem be, boy?"
Elias' smile widened. "Oh, nothing serious. Just that I've got a very troublesome drawback."
[Mental Strength: 721 / 1200]
A vein bulged on Baron's forehead. His fists tightened. "And what does that have to do with anything?"
Elias ignored the glare. He whistled softly and leaned back, resting his head against the chair like this was a casual chat.
"Oh, it has everything to do with it," he said. "Because it just so happens to, uh… consume my mental strength whenever I talk."
[Mental Strength: 582 / 1200]
There was a beat of silence.
Then Baron's eyes widened so much Elias thought they might pop out of their sockets.
"Then why the hell are you still talking, damn it?!" Baron snapped. "Save your voice for the questions!"
Elias frowned. "But how are you supposed to know about my drawback if I don't explain it?"
He tilted his head. "You'd probably just think I gave up the moment I went mute."
[Mental Strength: 262 / 1200]
"STOP TALKING, YOU LITTLE BASTARD!"