Relinquished (OliverxReader)

Chapter Seventy

(third person)

Renee and the others have been discussing how they should approach the situation. There's so much tension in the air it's uncomfortable. Mujika had filled the humans in on everything that they should know. Sonju received a letter from some spy he sent out, reviewing it with Renee to make sure it was "legit," in Renee's words. The letter said that Zagren's lands have been experiencing a increase in tax. There has been an increase in security around the castle and nobody can go in and out. However, nobody knows why. Normally, their ruler would make a public statement if she were to be working on a project, but she hasn't done that. She's been cooped up in her castle and nobody has seen her for the past week.

"We don't have any idea of what might be going on in there?" Ray asked, looking up from a book he was reading to see if he could pick up anything Mujika might've missed explaining.

"If Garmon couldn't get anything then no," Mujika sighed.

"There's nothing in those books that might tell us anything," Renee said, looking at the books and papers laid across the table they were all gathered around in the library. "There's nothing here! I've been looking over them for the past week, trying to connect them, but there's nothing in them. The only thing I found strange was that rulings only last 60 years, that's it, and that's nothing to go off of."

"Why is that strange? Isn't that normal?" Gillian asked.

"No," Barbara started. "That's normal for us. That's not normal for demons because they live longer than us."

"What do you think this means then?" Lucas asked.

"Could Zagren be a human?" Norman asked. "I thought the promise made sure that every human was going to the Human world?"

"I don't think she phrased it that way," Zack mumbled.

"The book says that they go M.I.A every now and again," Ray started, grabbing everyone's attention as he slammed the book shut. "They went M.I.A nearly three years before we humans left the Demon world and resurfaced a month after we humans left. What do you think she might've been doing?"

"I don't even know, but what does that have to do with all of this?" Renee groaned.

"If Zagren really is human, why do you think she benefits from having Y/N?" Ray furthered. "Keep in mind, your spy's letter mentioned that it is common to see Zagren working on experiments. Y/N has powers, doesn't she? What if Zagren is trying to replicate those powers, what if she's trying to give those powers to demons?"

"Why do you think she knows that Y/N has powers?" Sonju asked. "And how would they know Y/N is human?"

"My best guess would be that Zagren is somebody from Grace Field headquarters," Ray said.

"Maybe but that doesn't explain how they know Y/N is human."

"If I were her, I think it would be kind of obvious," Mujika cringed. "I don't think we've been doing a good job at protecting her identity."