When Annabelle was presented with droves of information, accompanied by her brother offering occasional explanations here and there, she couldn't help but feel her head throb, as the sheer volume of details was overwhelming.
She also had thought the ancient families and the mysterious "essence" were already as far as things would go, but now it turned out there were also people from beyond this world involved.
She shared the same concern as her brother, that, in the long term, those individuals from outside their world posed the greatest threat. However, she found some relief in knowing that, for the time being, they didn't need to worry about them.
As she then went through the vast amount of information and explanations, she couldn't help but find two points that bothered her the most, aside from securing their safety; Eva and the fight with the assassin.
At first, when she heard him talk about his fight with the assassin and its outcome, how he actually went out to bury the corpse, and how he didn't want her to enter his room because of the still-bloodied sheets and the like, it made her heart squeeze.
She naturally didn't care that he had killed someone and wasn't repulsed by that fact. But she felt sad that her brother had to go through something and dirty his hands. She also wished she could have been the one to end that man's life, and at the same time, she felt his death had been far too easy. He should have suffered a lot more before he passed. Such a quick and merciful death felt far too kind for someone who dared to lay a hand on her brother.
At least now, she could try to help, even if only a little, with the aftermath, and that was the only solace she could find.
Then there was Eva, his "girlfriend" according to him, Annabelle increasingly felt uncomfortable with his choice of her. When she was initially told that Eva was an older sister, she thought the age gap was concerning. But now, after learning that Eva was actually the mother of that schoolmate? She realized that it had turned out to be a generation gap instead.
She felt it was really not an appropriate relationship. But feeling his tone when he explained something about her, she chose not to dissuade him, as she had increasingly come to realize that his stubbornness was only growing stronger.
Still, she felt that, given the current situation, there might be a chance for her to shake things up. So, she decided to wait and see.
Of course, if Eva didn't do anything wrong, she wouldn't try to create issues where there were none. She just wouldn't let her mistakes go unnoticed when she saw them.
Moving on, after more than an hour had passed, Annabelle had at least gone through everything superficially. She was tapping away at the laptop's keyboard, all while feeling that her brother was being too optimistic, considering there was clearly a ton of stuff he still didn't know.
"Look, Chris, even if we don't argue about the situation with this Damian Slate you're suspecting to be the culprit without any kind of evidence, which would means there are a shit ton of things you don't know about him."
"Actually, I feel like the situation with Eva is even more grave. While you didn't go into details about many things between you and her, it's clear that she's hiding a lot from you."
"Most importantly, after becoming privy to all these things, I don't know why, but I feel like she could be a member of these ancient family."
Had Annabelle heard the voice record, Christian got, her reaction would have actually been more aggressive, but he didn't show her that. Still, Christian, more surprised by his sister's conclusion, felt like she was jumping to conclusions too quickly when they really didn't know much. So, he said.
"But with her current situation, which seems unfavorable from my point of view, it doesn't seem so."
Annabelle, acknowledging his opinion, couldn't help but comment.
"Actually, that's the problem. Because if she is really from an ancient family, then it's either that this Damian Slate is a lot more impressive than we think, or that my hypothesis about her is wrong, and she's just someone from an influential family."
"But her situation there is not favorable, and most importantly, she could have faced some problems because of her daughter."
"According to the current information and what you said, it appears she is a single mother, after all."
As they reached a standstill, with only their current information and hypotheses, the two of them fell silent once again, each absorbed in their own thoughts.
However, the silence didn't last long. In the end, Christian suddenly yawned, seemingly reaching his limits after everything.
Feeling somewhat embarrassed due to the serious atmosphere, Christian quickly closed his mouth. However, Annabelle, whose attention was once again on him, still wore an expression that reflected her concern and worry, as she hurriedly said in her soft voice.
"It's already night, and you've been awake for two days now, so how about you sleep and have some rest?"
Christian, feeling his weakness, where after just one day without sleep, he seemed worn out, became frustrated. Despite how he knew his constitution was only a ten and didn't exceed that of a normal person, and if it had been just physical exhaustion, it would have been different.
However, the mental fatigue that had been steadily building up, brought on by everything that had happened, put considerable pressure on him.
So, he wasn't entirely opposed to the idea of sleeping, especially with his Danger Awareness skill and Iris monitoring the situation. But he was more worried about his sister. If someone were to bypass Iris's security and come for her instead of him, he might not notice, after all.
The thought of her being vulnerable while he rested made him uneasy, and he couldn't shake the feeling that he had to stay alert, even if it meant pushing himself further.