Instigator

Deep Sleep Flower, then rock rose...

Angel carefully mixed several plant essential oils together, shaking them thoroughly in a transparent glass bottle until the essential oil required for ritual magic presented a light blue color.

Wasn't this thing poisonous?

She tried to remove the bottle cap and sniffed it. The mixed essential oil emitted a refreshing scent, with the familiar mint scent mixed in, as well as a brand-new aroma that did not belong to any of the essential oils before mixing.

It doesn't seem to smell poisonous, but this eerie color... Aside from ritual magic, I'd better keep it safely stored away at other times...

She placed the bottle in a high space on the bookshelf, together with that bundle of high-priced sandalwood candles, and then pulled a few books over from the side to cover the outside. This way, without flipping through the bookshelf, no one would be able to discover the existence of this 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 purchase fresh food the next noon before trying it.

If the ritual accidentally failed, there would still be a day of remedy time, so as not to miss the time limit set by the Fool.

Having solved an important problem, Angel felt the stone in her heart drop to the ground. She then thought of another matter that concerned her—Tris, the round-faced youth she met in the Underground Trading Market of the Evil Dragon Bar.

Looking back now, her vigilance in the underground trading market was simply astonishingly low. If it hadn't been for her spiritual perception sounding an alert at the end, she really might have followed the other party away from the Evil Dragon Bar in a daze.

Of course, if a conflict really broke out, Angel believed that as an Assassin, she also possessed a certain degree of self-preservation ability.

Unless the other party was also a Beyonder.

"He's really a Beyonder?"

"What's wrong, you know him?"

Dunn Smith, the captain of the Nighthawks, asked Angel in a curious counter-question.

It was currently Tuesday morning, and most of the Nighthawk members were gathered in the reception room on the second floor of Blackthorn Security Company. Dunn was holding an internal wanted circular with a sketched portrait, displaying it to everyone.

The portrait showed a round, somewhat shy youth's face, aged around eighteen or nineteen—precisely Tris, whom Angel had encountered yesterday.

"I went to the underground trading market in the Docklands yesterday... Um, the one behind the Evil Dragon Bar. I ran into him while purchasing items for training in ritual magic, and we even exchanged a few words. At the time, I thought he was just an ordinary person with some slight involvement in mysticism, but I didn't expect..."

Angel explained to the captain and the others why she knew this wanted criminal.

"...I didn't expect the Alfalfa tragedy to be done by such a young person. Goodness, that's dozens of lives, and it turns out to be a Beyonder crime. He looks like he isn't even an adult!"

Rozanne, standing aside, exclaimed incoherently. In front of her lay a copy of Tingen Daily from two days ago, and the page she had turned to introduced a tragedy that happened to the Alfalfa at sea with a large-spread article.

This unlucky passenger ship first encountered a great pirate who called himself the King of the Five Seas, Nast, on the Berserk Sea. Its treasures were looted clean, and then internal strife broke out. A fierce conflict erupted among the crew and passengers, escalating from verbal disputes to physical brawls to eliminate each other. Although led by the captain, the passengers who regained their sanity ultimately won and survived, dozens of lives still vanished into the boundless sea amidst the mutual slaughter.

The commentary in Tingen Daily considered this to be an "ugly conflict that broke out among survivors under extreme conditions."

Yet judging from the internal wanted circular of the Church of the Evernight Goddess, this was a tragedy that occurred under the manipulation of a Beyonder.

"If Klein hadn't noticed something was amiss while helping the survivors with divination, I'm afraid the police would hold the same view as the Tingen Daily commentary."

Dunn added from the side.

"It seems that going to pick up some side jobs really helps with work."

Leonard looked at Klein, who was sitting in the corner, and said with a smile, seeming to imply something. The latter stared at the wanted circular on the table, his brows tightly furrowed, not knowing what he was thinking.

Recalling the witty-talking, gracefully-behaving youth she met yesterday, Angel could no more connect him with the Beyonder who created the Alfalfa tragedy.

Although Tris had also shown a hint of hidden malice at the very end of their conversation, yet...

Angel started, and she finally discovered the source of that sense of familiarity about Tris.

It wasn't that she had seen this person before, but rather the familiarity of his actions.

"He's an Instigator..."

Angel slowly recited the name of the potion. No wonder that yesterday, when facing Tris, she laid down her guard against a stranger in just a few short sentences, chatting like she was talking to an old friend of many years. It seemed that the linguistic charm ability of the Instigator had played a role.

Dunn nodded, saying with a solemn expression, "That's right. Last night, the Machinery Hivemind team invited me to investigate the survivors of the Alfalfa. I discovered some clues in a dream, and combined with the details of the tragedy they understood, I confirmed that this case belongs to a Beyonder crime."

"His name is Tris, a Sequence 8 Instigator. We can't rule out the possibility that he comes from the Gnostic Society. He excels at stirring people's hearts, intensifying contradictions, and provoking conflicts through language. The Alfalfa encountering pirates was an accident, but the subsequent fierce conflicts between passengers and crew can be determined to have been caused by Tris's instigation."

"He went missing after disembarking at Enmat Harbor, but survivors witnessed that he has already come to Tingen. Memorize his appearance. If you encounter him alone on the street, do not directly start a conflict. The Sequence 9 of the Instigator is the Assassin."

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

"That's right. After an Assassin advances to the next sequence, all original Beyonder abilities will be enhanced. His close-combat combat capability doesn't even lose to many Sequence 7 Beyonders."

Angel nodded, agreeing with Dunn's warning.

"Then, how should we deal with this Tris?" Seeka Tron, who was at the side, asked. She had been listening in all along, frowning and pondering from time to time, until now presenting her question.

"I've already introduced the skills of the Assassin to you before. If it's in a narrow room or a small alley, my suggestion is to shoot to force him back and then run immediately. Under the same sequence, never engage in single combat with him."

Angel tried to substitute herself into the other party's identity, analyzing the way to fight an "Assassin."

"If it's open terrain, as long as you use ranged weapons, you can suppress an Assassin. The other party's flexible footwork and close-combat capabilities cannot be brought into play under such circumstances. Even a few ordinary police officers opening up distance and shooting with firearms have a very high probability of taking him down."

"So, the trick is to try not to engage in melee, and preferably outnumber the opponent?" Klein, who had been burying his head in studying the wanted circular, raised his head and summarized.

"Assassins are also good at hiding their figures. If you encounter him and aren't confident, it's best not to show hostility so as not to let him escape. Notify us, the Punishers, the Machinery Hivemind Beyonders, or contact the nearest patrollman as soon as possible."

Angel thought for a moment and added a few more sentences.

Dunn Smith emphasized with a solemn expression, "The other party dared to come to Tingen City after committing a major crime. Perhaps they intend to continue committing crimes here, or contact their superiors. Once he is alerted, he is very likely to leave Tingen City, and finding him again will become extremely difficult."

"So the fact that we have already determined Tris's Instigator identity, and yet there hasn't been a time of widespread public wanted notices, is our advantage. Angel ran into him at the Evil Dragon Bar in the Docklands yesterday, which indicates that the other party very likely needs to purchase some urgently needed materials. He might even appear again today. This is the best timing for capture."

He cast his gaze around the Nighthawks in the reception room and quickly assigned tasks: "Leonard, you and I will take a carriage right now to head to the Evil Dragon Bar in the Docklands. Kenley will stand guard at the Chanis Gate for you. Angel, you take the wanted circular and go to the police station across the street to notify them, dispatching a team of people to the Docklands to assist in the capture—wear plain clothes and bring guns. Seeka, you accompany her. After getting the people, you lead the team. Tris has seen Angel, so she cannot follow along. Klein, you guard here, and call Old Neil to come along if you need support."

The named Nighthawks nodded one after another to indicate they understood. Klein, who had been arranged to guard the base, opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but ultimately did not speak out.

The ones going for the capture were all of the Sleepless pathway, at least Sequence 8 Beyonders... Angel looked around at everyone and quickly discovered the ingenuity of Dunn's arrangements.

Even if they encountered the Instigator Tris alone, the Sleepless who were equally adept at close-quarters combat would still have the strength to fight. Once gunfire broke out and the police rushing to the scene surrounded them, even with the Assassin pathway's proficiency in escaping, it would still be very difficult to break out of the encirclement. If they could drag it out until Dunn used the ability of Nightmare, Tris would have no way to fly away.

Angel and Tris had just crossed paths. If she also went to the Docklands, once discovered by Tris, it would easily arouse the other party's vigilance, allowing him to escape before the official Beyonders and police sealed off the area. Meanwhile, Klein, as a Seer, currently possessed no combat capabilities surpassing ordinary people, and going to the front-line combat would easily become a breakthrough point.

What puzzled her was why Dunn Smith made such a fuss, mobilizing almost all on-duty Nighthawks to capture an "Instigator" who had fled from another city. You must know, the portrait of the previously wanted "Instigator" Cole Granger had been hanging everywhere in Tingen for two whole weeks, yet Dunn hadn't cared in the least about his whereabouts after Mrs. Sharon died.

Unless, he believed that Tris had connections with other Beyonders?

Seeming to perceive that Angel still harbored doubts, Dunn spoke up to explain, "The 'Instigator' Tris very likely belongs to the secret organization Gnostic Society, and the latter frequently creates blood-soaked cases like the Alfalfa tragedy. The 'Labor Mutual Aid Society Slave-Trafficking Case' that the Church has been investigating recently very likely has their participation as well. If we can capture Tris, through dream invasion or mediumship, we should be able to obtain quite a few clues."

How did this end up tied to the Labor Mutual Aid Society?

Angel raised her eyebrows. She suddenly recalled the mysterious assassin she had encountered at the Labor Mutual Aid Society. At that time, she and Dunn had analyzed that the mysterious assassin risking his life to retrieve the mutual aid society's account books was likely coerced by the organization controlling him from behind.

That being said, that assassin was very likely the same as the "Instigator" Tris—coming from the Gnostic Society? How was this organization cut from the same cloth as the Demoness Sect, collecting only Assassins pathway Beyonders?

However, thinking about how Beyonders in this world needed to advance through potions, Beyonders of the same sequence banding together was not such an incomprehensible matter after all.

Gazing at the Sleepless making preparations for departure before her, Angel felt that her guess should be very close to the truth.