After watching Klein enter the nearby clerical office, Angel also returned to the reception hall.
Rozanne had just finished boiling water and was making coffee. Seeing Angel sit down on the sofa, she walked over with two cups of coffee, smiling, and sat down beside her.
"Angel, you and Klein just went to the Captain's office, was there something?"
Rozanne handed over a cup of coffee as a bribe, her eyes burning with gossip soul, deliberately lowering her voice to ask.
"If it involves secrets I can't access, you don't have to say."
She hurriedly added another sentence.
Angel thought about it, the special application matter wasn't really a secret, after the examiner arrived it would definitely become known to everyone in the Tingen team, and their advancement couldn't be hidden from these clerical staff, so she didn't conceal it.
"What? Klein only took the potion and became an Extraordinary after joining the Nighthawks... how could he be advancing in less than two months? And even you..."
As Angel expected, Rozanne was so surprised upon hearing the news that she almost couldn't hold her coffee steady.
"He summarized a method to quickly master potion power, learned from Lady Daly." Taking the coffee cup from the flustered Rozanne and placing it on the coffee table, Angel continued, "I became an Extraordinary slightly earlier than him, and now it's also time for advancement."
"Even so, it's too fast..."
Rozanne accepted Angel's explanation but was still somewhat shocked.
"You know Old Neil became an Extraordinary, became a Sequence 9 'Mystery Pryer' so many years ago, yet he's never advanced, and there's Frye and the others... only Leonard, he also seems to have some insights of his own, compared to others..."
She muttered to herself, speaking to the end, suddenly realizing her words were somewhat impolite to other team members, and swallowed the last few words back.
Angel was just planning to lay some groundwork about the usefulness of the "Acting Method" to later reveal it to others, seeing Rozanne being so "cooperative", continued following her words:
"They might lack some key insights, hmm, or call it 'enlightenment'. After we submit our special reports, we can chat with others, perhaps it will be helpful to them."
"It definitely will!" Rozanne also said excitedly, "Cohen Lee became an Extraordinary not long ago, perhaps he can advance quickly like you two. It's a pity about Old Neil... he's almost retiring, and his physical condition has been poor recently..."
Speaking to the end, she sighed.
When Extraordinaries take potions to advance, it's not just about the degree of potion digestion, but also has high requirements for physical and psychological stability. When age reaches a certain point, even knowing the Acting Method and being able to completely digest the potion, one shouldn't risk advancement...
Angel also silently felt sorry for Old Neil, but she quickly recovered her mood and discussed newspaper news and street rumors with Rozanne.
"Did you hear? The original deputy mayor Harry, who replaced the previously resigned mayor Dennis, stepped down again due to a bribery scandal. He was originally just acting, now Tingen City has completely no one in charge..."
Rozanne mentioned news from the "Tingen Daily" a few days ago, reporting that due to this incident's impact, the originally scheduled Tingen mayoral election for next year would be moved up to October this year, and acting mayor Harry, due to this scandal, would no longer be able to run, causing many previously hopeless candidates to start stirring.
Recent newspapers had already appeared with many custom news pieces that were obviously campaign advertisements, crowding out much normal news space.
Like the one Rozanne was reading:
"Councilman Maynard, who is also the biggest supporter of the New Party in Tingen City, announced he will participate in October's mayoral election. He took the lead in organizing the renovation of the pocket park on Moon Street in the North District, and will give a speech when the new park is completed."
"They call it renovation, but the original park was already fine. Now they've made that area full of mud and gravel again. Every time it rains there's sewage flowing everywhere, you get mud all over yourself just passing by."
Putting down the "Tingen City Honest People's Daily", Rozanne pouted and complained.
"Indeed, recently for half a month the road section from Red Moon Street to Zotland Street has been impossible to walk on. I haven't been to that area for a long time, even the frequency of going to St. Selena Cathedral for worship has decreased."
Leonard's somewhat frivolous voice came from behind Angel. This "Midnight Poet" had just finished his night shift guarding the Chanis Gate, but at this time still hadn't gone home to rest, instead had somehow come to the reception hall and inserted himself into the ladies' chat during a pause.
"You're really such a devout believer."
Angel commented unceremoniously. The Nighthawks could go to the church through underground passages, yet he gave up because of park renovation making the roads difficult to walk?
"The Goddess witnesses my devotion, this isn't about counting worship frequency, but about real actions."
Leonard shamelessly drew the crimson moon on his chest, then walked around the sofa to the other side of the coffee table, sat down and poured himself a cup of coffee.
"Hiss—where's Klein? I just heard your voices in the break room." The "Midnight Poet" who was burned by the coffee and gasping asked.
"Writing a special application, both he and I are preparing to advance to Sequence 8."
Angel answered.
"Wha... cough, cough cough..."
Leonard was choked by the coffee, coughing violently several times, gasping for breath before calming down.
"So quickly digested..."
He blurted out, his emerald eyes immediately widening, taking back the latter half of his sentence.
"Mm-hmm, digested."
Angel smiled at the corner of her mouth, looking at the "Midnight Poet" who had let something slip, the latter looking back at her with feigned innocence.
Having heard this Nighthawk became a "Sleepless" and advanced to Sequence 8 after two years, exactly at the time limit that didn't require a special application, plus having been "frank" with herself and Klein, Angel had once suspected he also knew the "Acting Method", just pretended to advance slowly to avoid Church suspicion.
Now intentionally or unintentionally saying the word "digest" further confirmed this point.
The two stared at each other under Rozanne's confused gaze when Klein came out from behind the partition holding two pages of application. Seeing Leonard was also there, he politely nodded in greeting, then handed Angel's special application to her.
"See if you need any modifications, if there's no problem I'll submit it to the Captain."
Angel took the application and quickly looked it over, finding Klein had already pushed the reason for accidentally discovering the Acting Method to Lady Daly's deeds as they had previously discussed, then the two exchanged and verified the method's effectiveness, and recently mastered the potion, preparing for advancement.
Hmm, appropriate detail, didn't reveal content that shouldn't be revealed, and there's even some literary talent in it... much better than that "Midnight Poet" who only knows how to copy poems, though he might be forced to copy them for acting purposes, can't blame him...
Criticizing Leonard internally, Angel handed the special application back to Klein.
"Let's go with this, I'll go with you to submit the application to the Captain."
...
Watching their backs, the smile on Leonard's face quickly faded. He got up and came to the window, avoiding Rozanne's gaze, as if observing the distant street scene.
"...Why are they all rushing to advance, should I also..."
He muttered in a low voice, his earlobes trembling, as if listening.