Pursuit

By the time Angel returned to Zouteland Street by Public Carriage, it was already afternoon. The westering sunlight carried a faint dusky yellow hue, as if it had spread a layer of gold dust over the street.

She kept her left hand inside her trench coat sleeve, gripping the dagger left behind by the "assassin" in reverse. Carefully, she jumped down from the carriage. One careless move in this position could cut her, but she couldn't exactly wave a weapon around on a Public Carriage. She would have been asked to get off before traveling two stops, or even attracted the attention of the police.

She hurried from the Public Carriage stop back to Blackthorn Security Company. Just as when she had left at noon, the main door was half open, and faint voices drifted out from inside.

Seeka Tron, with white hair and dark eyes, was sitting on the sofa in the reception room. She held a palm-sized notebook in one hand and a fountain pen in the other, scribbling away in the notebook.

Sitting opposite her was Rozanne, her face filled with helplessness. She had clearly just been dragged onto the sofa. A steaming cup of tea still sat on the reception desk.

When Rozanne saw Angel push the door open, she sprang up from the sofa as if she had seen The Chosen One. "Angel's back! Why don't you just ask her directly?"

Before Seeka Tron could react, she darted back behind the reception desk, curled herself into the broad-backed chair, and refused to move.

Angel looked at the white-haired woman in confusion. The latter helplessly lowered her notebook and explained, "I just got back from Khoy University. I heard Rozanne say that you and Mr. Moretti took on a commission and used Divination to solve it. Well... I thought it would make a good novel idea, so I wanted to ask her about the details."

A novel idea?

Looking at the notebook on the table, Angel remembered Bredt mentioning "gathering material for a novel" during lunch earlier. She understood.

"Detectives, Divination, deductions—put all those elements together, and it's bound to make an engaging story. Add a thrilling battle at the end, and it'll be perfect."

Whenever Seeka started talking about novels, her eyes seemed to glow.

"If it's convenient, could you tell me about the process of the Divination? I've never really understood how it works, and Old Neil is always so mysterious about it..."

"Of course, but I have to see the captain first. There are some things I need to report to him." Angel finally understood why Rozanne had looked so helpless earlier, because the same expression had now appeared on her own face. "If I still have time later, I'll tell you all about it."

The excited Author stared at her for two seconds. After confirming that Angel wasn't brushing her off, she nodded.

"All right. Business comes first."

She pointed toward the partition. "The captain is in his office. He may be resting, so remember to knock."

"Thank you." Angel nodded her thanks.

She went around the partition and arrived outside Dunn Smith's office. She didn't knock at once. Instead, she stood there and went over everything from receiving the commission to escaping the warehouse in the Docklands, organizing her account and confirming that she hadn't missed anything.

"Come in. The door isn't locked."

Dunn's deep voice came from inside.

I haven't even knocked yet...

Angel froze, then pushed the door open and walked in.

Dunn Smith was sitting behind his desk. His trench coat hung over the back of his chair, and his top hat lay casually on the desktop. He seemed somewhat listless. When he saw that it was Angel, he nodded and asked, "Did you complete the commission, or did you run into some trouble?"

"You already know..."

Angel had already prepared what she wanted to say and planned to begin by introducing Mrs. Green's commission, but Dunn's first sentence disrupted her plans.

"Rozanne told me."

Dunn's gray eyes held a hint of amusement. "As long as it doesn't interfere with their official duties, I don't object to new members taking on simple commissions so that they can integrate into the work as quickly as possible. But it would still be best to discuss things with the others before taking action."

He then changed his tone.

"Still, a commission worth £120 tempted even me a little. It's only natural that you couldn't hold yourselves back."

It sounds like he isn't blaming me...

Angel let out a sigh of relief, drew the dagger from her sleeve, and placed it on Dunn's desk.

"The commission is complete. Mrs. Green... I mean, the client, provided accurate information. Thanks to Mr. Klein Moretti's precise Divination, recovering the ring went smoothly as well, but..."

She skipped the preparations the captain likely already knew about and began directly from when she entered the warehouse to search it.

"In the Chairman's office of the Labor Mutual Aid Society, I found a notebook recording the society's various illegal activities. Besides some of the gang's 'traditional businesses,' it also contained evidence that they might have been involved in human trafficking. When I was preparing to leave with the notebook, I was attacked by an 'assassin.' He was a Beyonder who had consumed the Assassin Potion, not an 'assassin' in the literal sense..."

Angel described the battle between the two of them in detail.

By the time she took out the dagger, all of the listlessness had vanished from Dunn Smith. He straightened up and listened attentively to Angel's account, his expression gradually turning solemn.

"Are you certain that the hooded man was a Beyonder who had consumed the Assassin Potion, rather than an ordinary person with extraordinary skills?" After hearing about the attack, he frowned and asked, "This is very important. It determines whether the police handle the incident or we do."

"I'm certain. Even if he hadn't admitted it verbally, the abilities he used exposed his identity, like this."

Angel gripped the dagger with both hands and drew them back to her chest. She planted her feet one in front of the other and bent her knees slightly. Then, right in front of Dunn, she activated the Assassin's Mighty Blow.

First, her legs exerted force and transferred it to her waist. The energy generated by the twisting muscles in her torso added to it, passing through both shoulders into the arm holding the dagger. Finally came the force of both arm muscles thrusting forward. All the joints in her body worked together, concentrating the explosive power onto the short dagger as she stabbed forward like lightning.

That was also why an Assassin had to lunge forward with their entire body when activating Mighty Blow.

Of course, Angel had no intention of stabbing her captain to death and then being hunted by the entire Church of Evernight.

After demonstrating the Assassin's ability, she stepped forward with her right foot and stomped on the floor with a bang, stopping the momentum of her body just in time.

Only then did Dunn belatedly tilt his head backward, as if preparing to dodge the attack.

"I understand..." He settled back into his seat and raised his eyebrows. "Then is it possible that this 'assassin' had also taken on Mrs. Green's commission, and simply happened to run into you?"

"No. He was after the notebook."

Angel shook her head and rejected Dunn's theory.

"He would rather be injured, even risk death, to snatch the notebook from under my gun. He didn't care at all about the other valuable objects in the room. He didn't even ask about them."

"If that's the case, the greatest possibility is that he was also involved in the Labor Mutual Aid Society's human trafficking?" Dunn analyzed. "Their Chairman has been gone for a week. Something might have happened to him, or he might have fled. The assassin came to take away the evidence."

"That's what I think as well. And there may be an even larger organization behind him. He's merely an agent carrying out its orders, rather than a participant in or leader of the human trafficking."

Angel added, "If I were only trying to destroy evidence of my own crimes, then when faced with mortal danger, I should flee rather than continue risking my life to retrieve the evidence. Being wanted by the police would be no more than a reason to leave Tingen, or even go to another country. But if there were an organization above me, things would be different."

She tried to put herself in the other person's position.

Dunn Smith nodded approvingly. "That's a very reasonable analysis."

"The Beyonder above an ordinary Beyonder is very likely to be a Beyonder as well. If we can find this Assassin, perhaps we can wipe out the illegal organization behind the human trafficking in one fell swoop."

Encouraged, Angel continued, "I still remember his appearance and can draw a portrait. This dagger might even yield some clues through Divination. If..."

Dunn smiled and pressed both hands downward, causing her voice to gradually trail off.

"Sorry, I got a little carried away."

"It's all right. That isn't a bad thing. I was like that when I was young, too, but now I have to consider more things."

Dunn narrowed his eyes as if recalling something. After a while, he continued, "The Docklands is the Mandated Punishers' jurisdiction. By convention, we should transfer this case to them. But we discovered the clues, so I'll try to keep it in our hands. At the very least, we should conduct a joint operation."

"You said earlier that most of the people trafficked in the notebook came from Midseashire? The police there will also have to assist with the investigation. We need to find out how many people have gone missing, and they'll have to issue the wanted notices as well. First, draw the Assassin's appearance and give it to the police so they can print the wanted notice. Old Neil can handle the Divination. I'll take the dagger to him in a moment. Hopefully, he can find more clues."

"Since this case will very likely require assistance from other jurisdictions, I'll also have to report it to the Holy Cathedral and let them decide whether to launch an operation and when to do so."

Dunn's deep, steady words gradually calmed Angel down. Only then did she realize that a case involving Beyonders could involve so many different parties.

After all, Tingen City, with a population of less than two hundred thousand, had Beyonder forces from three churches. Although they nominally belonged to the same system as the police, they generally did their own thing. Handling a small case alone was fine, but once cooperation became necessary, coordinating between them would become a headache.

Fortunately, there were tall people to shoulder these problems...

At this thought, Angel felt relieved.

She took the pencil and white paper Dunn handed her and, relying on the impression in her mind, spent several minutes sketching the "assassin." Although Angel had never studied drawing in either of her two lives, her Potion-enhanced memory and body still allowed her to produce a decent likeness.

After handing the sketch, which resembled the young Assassin by ninety percent, and the recovered dagger to Dunn Smith, Angel's task was complete. She was just about to leave when, on a sudden impulse, she asked, "By the way, Captain, do we also have to hand over half of the other items obtained during a commission?"

She took out Mrs. Green's lost ring and the other jewelry she had found from her pocket, along with a stack of old banknotes worth about £20, and placed them all on Dunn's desk.

Dunn Smith looked at the "spoils" before him. After a moment of silence, he said with a smile, "You could actually keep these things. As long as they don't involve supernatural powers, other property obtained during a commission generally doesn't need to be handed over."

"But since you're so conscious of the team, I'll transfer these to Mrs. Orianna. She'll estimate their value and take half of it as the team's operating funds."

Rozanne never mentioned that...

Angel opened and closed her mouth, quite reluctant to take the things back from the desk, but she ultimately held herself back.

The remaining half is still £60. That's already more than enough!