Chapter 81 Error 404

As if they didn't draw enough eyes already, Elina's announcement made every soldier in the surroundings freez in their place and look their way.

Sam began to panic. His reputation wasn't the best and he already had enough false rumors spread about him. He didn't want to feed the fire, but Elina didn't care.

"Hey, can you stop, please?" Sam said, keep his voice down. "You're really embarrassing me!"

"Why did you leave me?" Elina asked between the sobs. "Was I not enough? I did my best for you and yet…"

Feeling the embarrassment growing Sam began to look for a way to escape. Noticing that they were close to the male dorms he quickly grabbed Elina's hand.

"Come with me."

~◇~

Once they were inside his room, Sam placed the suitcase on his desk and heaved a tired sigh.

"Just… what were you thinking?" Turning to face his ex, Sam noticed that her tears had stopped.

She was looking around the room. For some reason it felt like the mood had changed but he couldn't get his hands on it.

Elina reached inside her pocket and took out a phone. One look told Sam it wasn't the standard model given to all soldiers and staf. Tapping on it a few times she placed it on the desk and turned her eyes toward Sam.

"We need to talk." She said, her tone different than before.

"Of course we do." Sam replied, still feeling that something was off about her. "What was that just now?"

"Sorry. But there is no other way." Elina said. "We are being monitored so it was the only way to get to somewhere private without drawing suspicion."

"Monitored?" Sam glanced at the phone Elina placed on the desk then took out his own.

It was just a hunch, however when he checked he noticed that there is no signal.

"I'm jamming everything inside this room, just in case there are bugs we dont know about."

"Hold on. What are you talking about?"

Sam's confusion was to be expected. It's clear by now that what Elina intended to discuss wasn't their breakup or her sex life, which makes everything she said so far a well performed act meant to mislead whoever is eavesdropping on them.

"Sam, be honest with me." She said, her eyes lowered into a sharp glare. "The white haired woman, you have yet to make a move on her, right?"

Sam hesitated to answer the question as he couldn't guess the intention behind it. After contemplating for a couple of seconds he decided to go with the default answer.

"What are you talking about?" He said. "I already told you I have a girlfriend."

"That's good to hear." She replied, taking her round glasses off and wiping them with a cloth. "Listen, Sam. It might sound like I'm talking nonsense, but I need you to believe me."

"That's a lot to ask." Sam said. "You don't seem to believe it yourself."

"We didn't part on the best of terms, but I still look up to you, at the very least." Elina said. "When you left for this place, I began looking into the woman named Alice Schneider. At first I did it out of jealousy trying to get some revenge."

"... Seriously?" Sam wanted to facepalm himself.

"That doesn't matter right now." Elina replied, seemingly not bothered by the absurdity of her own actions. "What I found while investigating is what matters."

Sam gulped audibly. It sounded like she's just trying to smear the image he has of Alice, however he couldn't dismiss it as just that. Elina wasn't someone who would waste time and effort on such petty things. She is a no life scientist. Someone who would spend days in a lab foregoing any kind of self care. If she went through with her investigation then she must've discovered something that kept her interested.

"She had very few acquaintances, which is strange for someone as good looking and successful as her." Elina went on. "I tried tracking some of them, mostly her peers in collage, but everyone I spoke to refused to give me any kind of information about her."

"Well, that makes sense." Why would they spill the beans to a complete stranger.

"It doesn't." Refuting Sam's response, Elina's glare green sharper. "Once or twice would be understandable, but all of them refusing to talk about her at all is definitely suspicious."

"They refused to talk about her?"

'Did something happen that made them want nothing to do with her?' Though he still found it hard to believe, Sam couldn't help but think it through. 'If that's the case the she would've definitely told me… strange…'

"That's only the surface of it." Elina continued. "The staff in the university knew almost nothing beside her appearance. She's a top student according to the records yet none of the teachers seemed enthusiastic when talking about her. Then there is the matter with her relationships."

"You sure did a thorough research, huh?"

"Yes." Elina nodded, not catching on how creeped out Sam was. "At around that point I noticed something strange about my lab and apartment."

"Let me guess, someone broke in and bugged the place."

"I didn't believe it at first, after all nothing was moved out of place. However I noticed that several of the devices I own were moved. Most had voice command and cameras so I suspect they were hacked and used to spy on me."

The more he listened the more he wanted to dismiss everything she said. The whole story sounded like something out of a mystery novel, too fictional to be true.

"At that point I considered dropping the search and going on with my life, however I feared that it would draw attention exposing that I know that I'm being watched."

"You should've stopped anyways. It sounds like you've gotten yourself in quite the deep trouble."

"Well, if I did then I wouldn't have discovered what I'm about to tall you." Taking a deep breath, Elina looked Sam in the eyes before continuing her borderline fictional story. "The only thread I had yet to check was her dating life. I remembered you saying that she had five fiances, but when I tried to look for them I found nothing." Pausing for a moment, Elina continued with a troubled expression. "There aren't many people in the world, let alone places they could go to. Finding someone isn't supposed to be difficult as long as they're alive, but I couldn't find anything about the men she dated. There are no records of the first four as if they never existed. No names, addresses, academic or military records, nothing. As for the fifth…"

Elina stopped there, pursing her lips as she remained silent for a while.

"One day I was suddenly summoned to the Resistance headquarters where I was offered my new job. Since then I have been too busy to do anything. But it still bothers me to this day."

Sam held a hand to his chin in thought. As Elina had pointed out, with the sharp decrease in human population and settlements it should be relatively easy to find people. Even if one were to try and hide the likelyhood of all four going dark for no reason is minuscule. Then there is the fifth.

'Come to think of it… alice never mentioned his name…'

Sam tried as hard as he could however he couldn't remember at all. His eyes slowly widened as he realized that he had no idea of who they were.

Alice talked about them whenever she got into a relationship or had a breakup, however beside what they looked like and their personality traits she never mentioned their names or showed him any pictures.

'Come to think of it, I never wanted to know so I never bothered to ask…'

Feeling that his heart was getting stepped on again and again Sam cultivated a habit of ignoring anything that has to do with Alice's ex fiances. Everything she said as she cried in his arms went in from one ear and out of the other, but now that he's faced with this situation he wished he paid more attention.

"As you said, it is rather-"

Before he could finish his sentence a knock on the door shook the Soul out of his body. Elina was as shocked. She quickly grabbed her phone and put it away.

Sam was about to go open the door but she grabbed his arm stopping him.

Before he could ask she reached out for his vest and opened it. She then loosened his necktie and undid some of the buttons on his shirt.

Sam was confused for a second but she motioned for him to open the door as she messed his attire as well.

"General Schneider is looking for you."

To Sam's surprise the visitor was one of the Valkyries Wolf had brought with him. She was a petite girl about as tall as Zero Three, probably from the same generation as well. Her hair had the same bolen color as Nine and reached to the back of her knees. Her eyes were bark blue and contained some fierceness Sam had never seen in any of the Valkyries he had met before.

"He's waiting int the lab." The Valkyrie said.

"We… will be there in a moment."

Just then Sam realized what Elina did. She was trying to make it lookk as if the two of them were making out to hide the fact that they were discussing a very sensitive topic. It was a smart idea, however he couldn't help but fear what would've happened if he opened the door and found Shizuru standing there instead of the young blond Valkyrie.