At Aether Paradise, just as Lana was about to leave after visiting Dratini, she was suddenly stopped by Wicke, who had appeared out of nowhere.
Wicke then told her that Lusamine, the President of the Aether Foundation, wished to see her.
"The President wants to see me? What for?"
Given everything that had happened before, Lana didn't exactly have a good impression of Lusamine.
Never mind all the other weird antics—just the fact that she had dressed up as Lillie and fooled around with Haru... there was no way someone normal would do that!
On the contrary, she felt nothing but sympathy for poor Lillie, who knew nothing about any of this.
If she had the choice, Lana would rather avoid any further contact with that woman.
Unfortunately, even she knew that was pretty much impossible.
Wicke simply shook her head and said, "I'm not sure either. The President only said she has something very important to discuss with us, and that she wants to meet us privately."
"That man's not going to be there, is he?"
At the mention of Haru, Lana's tone changed noticeably.
She'd had a conversation with him before, but they hadn't really gotten anywhere. More importantly...
They had both realized later that Lillie had been secretly nearby.
If they didn't want their secret to get out, they'd had no choice but to cut the conversation short. We'll talk about it another day, they had decided.
First things first, they needed to fool Lillie.
Besides, Lana definitely didn't want Lillie to know that she had once had... something smeared on her face.
That would be way too humiliating!
She would lose all human dignity!
Wicke, unaware of what had just transpired or what was running through Lana's mind, shook her head again. "No, at least I didn't see him there."
"All right, I understand."
After thinking it over for a moment, Lana finally agreed.
Oh well. It was probably about that one incident she and Wicke had accidentally witnessed.
Most likely Lusamine just wanted to make sure they both kept their mouths shut.
She'd just have to humor her for a bit.
No big deal!
With that in mind, Lana followed Wicke to a rather remote research facility within Aether Paradise.
The facility looked brand new—probably only recently completed—but oddly enough, there wasn't anyone around. It felt almost abandoned.
"Where is this place?"
"The President chose it as the meeting spot. I think she wanted to talk about... those things in a more secure location."
Wicke had the same thought as Lana—Lusamine was probably calling them here to discuss that unfortunate incident in private.
Though honestly, she was a bit puzzled as to why she, who had already promised Lusamine to stay quiet, had to come along too.
Was that really necessary?
Lana, meanwhile, muttered under her breath, "Secure? Then why didn't she do those things in a more secure place before?"
Wicke chose to ignore that comment entirely and led Lana inside.
They passed through layer upon layer of locked doors and security checkpoints, until they finally reached the innermost room of the facility.
After all that, Lana couldn't help but feel increasingly uneasy.
Something didn't seem right. Even if you wanted a private conversation, wasn't this a bit... excessive?
Could it be that after getting caught last time, Lusamine had developed some weird paranoia about leaks and was now taking insane precautions?
Lana glanced at Wicke, who seemed relatively calm, and relaxed a little herself.
No matter what, she and Wicke were on the same side in this. Surely Lusamine wouldn't go so far as to "deal with" a branch head of the Aether Foundation too, would she?
Yeah. It's fine. She's probably just traumatized. Nothing to worry about.
With that thought, the final metal door in front of them opened.
And inside... was Lusamine herself.
For some reason, she was dressed in a teacher's outfit today, but there was no mistaking that it was her.
She was seated calmly behind a desk, watching the two of them enter.
Lana quickly scanned the room. It was just a regular office—no signs of an ambush or anything like that. She breathed a small sigh of relief.
See? I was overthinking it. Lusamine wouldn't go that far.
Though one odd detail caught her eye: near the desk were two glass window-like structures. She had no idea what they were for.
"You're finally here. Well then..."
Lusamine, her face oddly flushed, nodded at Lana and Wicke before turning her gaze toward what appeared to be thin air beside the desk.
"Let's begin."
As soon as she spoke, and before either of them could process what was happening, ropes seemed to materialize out of nowhere, binding the two of them tightly.
"?!"
"What do you think you're doing?!"
Both women were stunned. They had never imagined things would take this kind of turn.
What the hell was Lusamine up to?!
"Today is your first lesson. If you want to properly serve that man, you must first build a solid foundation of theoretical knowledge!"
"So you'll start by observing. You'll keep watching until you're ready to perform yourselves!"
"I won't force you to do anything with him, but you will attend these lessons."
"After all, you two have already seen it once, haven't you? Since you seemed to enjoy watching, why not watch a bit more?"
"???"
Just then, Haru's voice suddenly came through a speaker on the other side of the room:
"Lusamine? Are you in here? What did you want to talk to me about?"