"Das ist ein schöner Tag," Julius said as he tapped the digital board. "Repeat after me."

"Das ist ein schöner Tag."

"Good," Julius said, writing the sentence again beneath the first one. "Now tell me what it means."

Helga raised her hand immediately. "It means… it's a pretty day?"

"Close," Julius said. "It means it is a beautiful day. But pretty works too."

Alina leaned forward and said, "Teacher, why is it schöner and not schöne?"

"That's exactly what we are reviewing today. German adjective endings. Something your class has been struggling with."

Both girls groaned and dropped their heads onto the desk.

Julius waited a few seconds before speaking again. "Lift your heads."

"...."

"...."

They lifted their heads.

"Adjective endings aren't hard," Julius continued. "You only find them hard because you memorize nothing. So today, we will practice slowly."

He wrote another set of examples.

Alina blinked. "Teacher… why does German do this?"

Julius paused. "Because German is a cruel language made to test your patience."

"Pfft—"

The twins burst into giggles.

Once they calmed down, Julius continued the lesson, writing simpler examples and letting the twins guess the correct endings. They made mistakes, then tried again, getting closer each time. Julius corrected their work patiently.

German grammar was difficult, but the twins listened closely. They wanted to do well and impress him.

"...."

But Julius didn't care.

Yawn——

The juice Lukas had prepared for them was already taking effect. Julius had mixed a laxative into it, not enough to harm them, just enough to make them sleepy and slow.

Thirty minutes later, the twins began to grow drowsy. Their eyes grew heavy, and their focus gradually waned as they lost interest in the lesson. They tried to keep up, forcing themselves to listen, but the exhaustion pulled at them until their heads started to nod with each passing moment.

It didn't take long before Helga fell asleep.

"Hel–ga…" Alina murmured, her voice tired as she tried to shake her sister awake. Her eyelids were heavy as well. She tried to sit up straight, but her body kept leaning forward.

"It's okay. She must've been tired," Julius said. He kept his tone gentle, calm enough to coax Alina into relaxing. "You can sleep too, Alina. I'll end the lesson today."

"Really?" She looked up at him with glassy eyes, trying to hold on.

"Yes. You two have done a great job today."

"Yay… Teacher Julius is really nice…" she whispered, smiling as she swayed in her seat. "You teach better than the other teachers…"

Her voice faded. Her eyes closed. A soft sigh left her lips as she finally gave in and fell asleep beside her sister.

Julius watched the twins sink into silence before carrying their small bodies to the bed. He settled them down carefully and pulled the blanket over them, making sure they were tucked in.

Once they were resting, he turned back to the table and packed the rest of his teaching materials into his bag before stepping out of the bedroom. The hallway was quiet, and with the twins asleep, the house finally felt empty.

At this point, they had gathered more than enough proof to arrest Lukas on the spot.

"...."

But the question was whether it would be a clean arrest.

That was the part that bothered him. Even with everything prepared, Julius knew there was no guarantee it would go smoothly. He doubted Gabriel's Revenant Knight group could handle Lukas if the man decided to resist.

Lukas was dangerous in ways that were easy to underestimate, and Julius refused to risk a sloppy operation. It had become an obsession, making sure every risk was accounted for.

This assignment was only supposed to take a few weeks, yet because of his insistence on perfection, it had stretched into three long months.

But it had to be that way.

There was no room for mistakes.

If they rushed it, they would all die, just like the Directorates in his previous life who had underestimated the wrong person at the wrong time.

"This is…"

Inside Lukas's bedroom, Julius found the transaction receipts. He paused as he flipped through each page. The amount of weapons being smuggled was far from normal.

It wasn't small-scale dealing or scattered orders. It seemed as though someone was preparing for war. Lukas had always been meticulous, and because of his undercover identity in the deep web, he kept meticulous records of every client.

He didn't use digital transcripts but instead, he used ledgers, handwritten entries, and traditional bookkeeping methods. It was primitive, but it kept him outside the government's reach, far from any data breach or tracking system.

"Haha…"

Julius let out a quiet breath, almost a laugh, when he saw one of the names listed. One of the clients was recorded as "Jakob."

Of course it was. Just who else in this god-forsaken country had Nameless not reached out to?

The web of connections only grew deeper the more he looked, stretching into places Julius had hoped they wouldn't find.

He disabled SIBYL's scanner once he had everything he needed and gathered the documents into a neat stack. Lukas had hidden them well in places that would have taken an ordinary Directorate operative days to uncover.

Without tools from 2160, most agents would never have found them at all. Lukas had been that careful.

However, thanks to SIBYL, Julius was able to locate everything within minutes. The tech made what should have been a painstaking search feel almost trivial. He tucked the papers into his bag, making sure every piece of evidence was accounted for before leaving the room.

As Julius was about to leave the house, the front door clicked open.

"Ah, hello, Teacher Jeremy. You're still here?"

"I was just about to leave, Miss Meinhardt."

It was Gisela Meinhardt, looking exhausted as though she had come straight from a long shift. She stepped inside while taking her shoes off, looking around the small entryway before her eyes returned to him.

"Where's Lukas? What about the girls?"

"Ah, Mister Meinhardt is currently out. It seems his company called for him. The girls, well… they fell asleep mid-lesson. I was just making sure they really were asleep and not pretending to get out of it before I decided to leave."

Gisela let out a small laugh as she set her bag down by the hallway table.

"Those two… always trying to get out of homework. I'm sorry you had to deal with that."

"It's no trouble," Julius said. "They worked hard today."

"That's good to hear." She brushed her hair back with a sigh and began walking toward the kitchen. "Would you like some tea before you go? You must've been teaching them for hours."

"Ah, yes. Then I'll gladly accept."

He wanted to speak to her.

Inside the kitchen, Julius sat across from Gisela. Gisela placed a cup in front of him and took the seat opposite him.

"This is great," Gisela began. "I've been wanting to speak to you for a while now, just couldn't find the opportunity to, Teacher Jeremy."

"Oh, then go ahead."

"About the girls, are they doing well?"

"They are," Julius said. "Both of them try their best. They get distracted sometimes, but that's normal at their age. They're bright, and they improve every week."

Gisela let out a sigh of relief. "I was afraid I wasn't doing enough for them. These days, I haven't had much time to spend with them lately. Work has been… quite hectic."

"Hectic?"

"That's not the word… perhaps too occupying?"

"Are you a workaholic, Miss Meinhardt?"

Gisela let out a chuckle, shaking her head. "Haha. That's certainly not it. It's just…"

"Something at work is occupying your time? Or perhaps… someone?"

"Ah. That's…"

Her words trailed off, and she looked away for a moment, as if gathering her thoughts or deciding just how much to say. She tapped her fingers lightly on the table nervously.

"Can I ask you for advice, just this once, Teacher Jeremy?"

"Yes, why not? A teacher's job is to guide others."

"Well… it's about a friend of mine, a colleague."

A friend. A typical excuse for someone who wanted to talk about themselves without admitting it.

"This friend of mine…" she slowly began, "has been receiving attention from someone at work. Someone who's been going out of his way to help her. He's been kind to her, more than he should be."

"...."

"And she doesn't know how to feel about it. She's grateful. She's flattered. But she's also scared because she's married, and she knows she shouldn't think too much about it. Yet she can't stop wondering why someone would care that much."

Her shoulders dropped slightly, attempting a smile as if saying it aloud had loosened something heavy inside her.

"She doesn't want to hurt anyone. Not her husband, not this man, not her children. She just feels… lost."

Julius watched her carefully, understanding exactly what she wasn't saying.

"And she wants to know if feeling confused makes her a bad person."

"Is that really all there is to it, Miss Meinhardt? Something tells me you're not telling me the full story."

Through SIBYL, Julius could see the small signs she was trying to hide. There was more to this, and Julius found himself growing curious despite himself.

Klaus, for some reason, had been secretive about his side of the operation. What kind of methods did he use? Julius wondered.

"Well, for one… they kissed."

"…!"

Julius almost reacted. His eyes nearly widened before he locked them back into place, forcing his face to stay calm.

'Holy shit, old man. Didn't know you had it in you.'

Inside, his thoughts were far less restrained.

Gisela stared down at her hands, clearly ashamed and conflicted. She wasn't good at lying at all.

"And this… friend of yours," Julius said, "she just let it happen?"

Gisela's lips trembled before she nodded, the saddest nod he had seen all evening.

"I see. Well, for one, this tells me your friend must enjoy the thrill."

"P-Pardon?"

Julius didn't change his expression. Gisela froze for a moment, unsure if she had heard him correctly, her eyes widening just a little as she tried to understand what he meant.

"The thrill of being seen," Julius continued. "Of being noticed by someone. Especially when she hasn't felt that way in a long time."

Gisela lowered her gaze again, unable to hold his eyes. Her hands tightened around her cup. Julius observed every small movement. It was exactly the response he expected.

"When someone starts craving attention," he said, "it usually means they've gone too long without it. Anyone would be vulnerable in that situation. It doesn't mean she's a bad person. It means she's tired."

Gisela swallowed hard, "I… I don't think she meant to."

"Of course she didn't," Julius replied. "No one plans to cross that line. Sometimes it just happens when someone finally gives them what they've been missing."

"...."

She pressed her lips together, her eyes fixed on the table as if she could hide her shame there.

"The question now is whether your friend wants the thrill," Julius said, "or whether she wants her marriage."

"...."

"Which one is it, Miss Meinhardt?"

For a moment, she opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again, unable to form the words.

Finally, she lowered her gaze, unable to meet his.

"I… I don't know…"

Julius leaned back.

'What the hell did you do, old man?!'

Gisela was completely smitten.

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