Instigator

"Deep Sleep Flower, then Rock Rose..."

Angel carefully mixed several kinds of plant essential oils together. After shaking them thoroughly in a transparent glass bottle, the oils required for the Ritual Magic took on a pale blue color.

This thing wasn't poisonous, was it?

She tried opening the cap and taking a sniff. The blended oils gave off a fresh scent, with a familiar hint of mint mixed in, as well as a new fragrance that belonged to none of the oils before they had been combined.

"It doesn't seem poisonous, but with this strange color... I'd better keep it properly stored except when using it for Ritual Magic..."

She placed the bottle in an empty space high on the bookshelf, beside the bundle of expensive Sandalwood Candles she had bought. Then she took several books from nearby and used them to cover the outside. Unless someone rummaged through the bookshelf, no one would discover the bottle of essential oil.

Since the Ritual Magic taught by The Fool required not only essential oils and candles, but also four different foods arranged in a square, Angel planned to try it the next afternoon after buying fresh food.

If the ritual failed by accident, she would still have a day to remedy it and would not miss the deadline set by The Fool.

Having resolved one important issue, Angel felt a weight lift from her heart. She then recalled another matter that had been bothering her—the round-faced youth, Triss, whom she had encountered at the Underground Market beneath Evil Dragon Bar.

Thinking back on it now, her vigilance at the Underground Trading Market had been shockingly low. If her spiritual intuition had not warned her at the end, she might really have followed him out of Evil Dragon Bar in a daze.

Of course, if a conflict had truly broken out, Angel believed that as an Assassin, she had some ability to protect herself.

Unless he had been a Beyonder as well.

"Was he really a Beyonder?"

"What is it? You know him?"

The captain of the Nighthawks, Dunn Smith, asked Angel curiously.

It was Tuesday morning. Most of the Nighthawks had gathered in the reception room on the second floor of Blackthorn Security Company. Dunn was holding an internal Wanted Notice with a sketched portrait on it, showing it to everyone.

The portrait showed a round, somewhat shy-looking young face. He was around eighteen or nineteen, and he was precisely Triss, whom Angel had met yesterday.

"Yesterday, I went to the Underground Trading Market in the Docklands... well, the one behind Evil Dragon Bar, to buy supplies for practicing Ritual Magic. I ran into him there and exchanged a few words with him. At the time, I thought he was just an ordinary person with some knowledge of mysticism. I never expected..."

Angel explained to the captain and the others why she knew this Wanted Criminal.

"...I never expected the Clover Incident to have been committed by someone so young. God, that was dozens of lives. It was actually the work of a Beyonder, and he doesn't even look like an adult!"

Rosanne, beside her, exclaimed incoherently. In front of her lay a Tingen Daily from two days ago, opened to a page with a lengthy report on the tragedy that had occurred aboard the Clover at sea.

That unfortunate Passenger Ship had first encountered Nast, The Great Pirate who called himself the King of the Five Seas, in the Turbulent Sea, and had been stripped of all its valuables. Then infighting had broken out. Fierce conflicts erupted between the crew and passengers, escalating from verbal arguments to armed brawls intended to eliminate one another physically. Although the passengers who retained their reason had ultimately won under the Captain's leadership and survived, dozens of lives had still vanished into the boundless sea during the mutual slaughter.

The Tingen Daily's commentary considered it "an ugly conflict that erupted among survivors under extreme circumstances."

But judging from the Church of the Night Goddess's internal Wanted Notice, it had been a tragedy caused by a Beyonder.

"If Klein hadn't noticed something wrong while helping the survivors with divination, the Police Station would probably have shared the Tingen Daily's opinion."

Dunn added from the side.

"It seems that taking on some side work really does help with the job."

Leonard looked at Klein, who was sitting in the corner, and spoke with a smile, seemingly implying something. Klein stared at the Wanted Notice on the table with a deeply furrowed brow, lost in thought.

Recalling the witty, elegant youth she had met yesterday, Angel simply could not connect him with the Beyonder who had caused the Clover Incident.

Although Triss had shown a trace of concealed malice at the end of their conversation...

Angel froze. At last, she realized where that familiar feeling about Triss had come from.

It was not because she had seen him before, but because his mannerisms felt familiar.

"He's an 'Instigator'..."

Angel slowly spoke the name of the Potion. No wonder she had lowered her guard against a stranger after only a few words yesterday, speaking with him as if they had been old friends for years. It seemed the Instigator's Charm through language had taken effect.

Dunn nodded, his expression solemn. "That's right. Last night, the Heart of Machinery team asked me to investigate the survivors of the Clover. I found some clues in their Dreams. Combined with the details of the tragedy they had learned, we confirmed that this case was the work of a Beyonder."

"His name is Triss, a Sequence 8 Instigator. We cannot rule out the possibility that he comes from the Gnostic Society. He excels at stirring people up through words, intensifying contradictions, and provoking conflict. The Clover's encounter with Pirates was an accident, but the fierce conflicts between the passengers and crew afterward can be confirmed as having been caused by Triss's Instigation."

"He disappeared after disembarking at Emmett Harbor, but survivors saw him arrive in Tingen. Memorize his appearance. If you encounter him alone on the street, do not start a conflict directly. The Sequence 9 of an Instigator is an Assassin."

As Dunn spoke, he looked at Angel, the Assassin.

"That's right. After an Assassin advances to the next Sequence, all of their original Beyonder abilities are enhanced. His close-combat ability is not even inferior to that of many Sequence 7 Beyonders."

Angel nodded in agreement with Dunn's warning.

"Then how should we deal with this Triss?" Sica Theon asked from the side. She had been listening quietly, occasionally frowning in thought, and only raised her question now.

"I've already introduced an Assassin's abilities to you before. If you are in a cramped room or narrow alley, my advice is to fire at him to force him back, then run immediately. At the same Sequence, never fight him one-on-one."

Angel tried to put herself in his position and analyze how to fight an Assassin.

"If the terrain is open, you only need to use ranged weapons to suppress an Assassin. Their agile movements and close-combat ability cannot be brought into play in that situation. Even several ordinary Patrol Officers would have a high chance of taking him down if they kept their distance and fired their guns."

"So the key is to avoid close combat as much as possible, and preferably fight him with numbers?" Klein, who had been studying the Wanted Notice with his head lowered, looked up and summarized.

"Assassins are also skilled at concealing themselves. If you encounter him and are not confident, it is best not to show hostility, lest you let him escape. Notify us, the Punishers, the Beyonders of Heart of Machinery, or contact the nearest Patrol Officer as quickly as possible."

After thinking for a moment, Angel added a few more points.

Dunn Smith emphasized solemnly, "He dared to come to Tingen City after committing such a major crime. Perhaps he intends to continue offending here, or contact his superior. Once we alert him, he is very likely to leave Tingen City, and finding him again will become extremely difficult."

"So the fact that Triss has now been identified as an Instigator, while there has not yet been time to issue a widespread Wanted Notice, is our advantage. Angel encountered him yesterday at Evil Dragon Bar in the Docklands. That suggests he may need to buy certain urgently needed materials, and he might appear again today. This is the best opportunity to capture him."

He swept his gaze over the Nighthawks in the reception room and quickly assigned their tasks. "Leonard, you and I will take a carriage to Evil Dragon Bar in the Docklands right now. Cornley will take over your watch at Chanis Gate. Angel, take the Wanted Notice and go to the Police Station across the street to inform them. Have them send a team to the Docklands to assist in the capture. Plain Clothes, all armed. Sica, go with her. Once you get the people, you will lead the team. Triss has seen Angel, so she cannot go with you. Klein, stay here. If you need support, call Old Neil to come with you."

The Nighthawks who had been named all nodded to show they understood. Klein, who had been assigned to stay behind, opened his mouth as though he wanted to say something, but ultimately remained silent.

Those heading out to make the capture were all from the Sleepless pathway, Beyonders of at least Sequence 8... Angel looked over everyone and quickly saw the ingenuity in Dunn's arrangements.

Even if they encountered Triss the Instigator alone, the Sleepless, who were likewise skilled in close combat, would have the strength to fight him. Once gunfire began, the arriving Police would close in. Even though the Assassin pathway excelled at escape, he would find it difficult to break out of the encirclement. If they could stall until Dunn used the Nightmare ability, Triss would be utterly unable to escape.

Angel had only met Triss face-to-face yesterday. If she went to the Docklands as well and Triss spotted her, it would easily alert him, allowing him to flee before the Official Extraordinary and Police could seal off the area. As for Klein, a Diviner, he currently possessed no combat ability beyond that of an ordinary person, so going to the front line would easily make him a weak point.

What puzzled her was why Dunn Smith was making such a large-scale mobilization, deploying nearly all the Nighthawks on duty to capture an Instigator who had fled from another city. After all, the portrait of the previous wanted Instigator, Cole Granger, had been posted all over Tingen for two weeks, yet Dunn had shown no concern at all for his whereabouts after Mrs. Sharon's death.

Unless he believed Triss was connected to other Beyonders?

Seemingly noticing that Angel still had doubts, Dunn explained, "The Instigator Triss most likely belongs to the secret organization known as the Gnostic Society. They frequently create bloody cases like the Clover Incident. They may also have been involved in the Labor Mutual Aid Society Slave-Trafficking Case that the Church has recently been investigating. If we can capture Triss, we should be able to obtain many clues through Dream Invasion or Spirit Medium."

How had this become connected to the Labor Mutual Aid Society again?

Angel raised her brows. She suddenly remembered the mysterious Assassin she had encountered at the Labor Mutual Aid Society. At the time, she and Dunn had analyzed that the mysterious Assassin had risked his life to retrieve the Mutual Aid Society's account book, likely because he had been coerced by the organization controlling him from behind the scenes.

So that Assassin might have come from the Gnostic Society, just like Triss the Instigator? Why did this organization resemble the Witch Sect, gathering nothing but Beyonders from the Assassin Sequence?

But considering that Beyonders in this world needed Potions to advance, it was not difficult to understand why Beyonders of the same Sequence would band together.

Watching the Sleepless before her prepare to depart, Angel felt that her guess was probably very close to the truth.