Clues

"Do you remember something like this happening?" Sandella mused. "A woman wanted us to help find a reporter for the Jedi Brothers Newspaper, and I believe her name was Judy."

"You have an excellent memory," Woody said with a sigh. "I only noticed her when I was retrieving Cote Dane's file. In fact, she filed reports at four different police stations, saying that a newspaper reporter had disappeared while investigating the serial murders. Those reports still haven't been withdrawn."

"So she came to us because she had nowhere else to turn..." Sandella couldn't help rubbing her forehead. She hadn't even stopped to hear the woman's plea for help. In fact, before the woman had even gotten close, one of her subordinates had shoved her away.

"You can't blame yourself," Woody said. He understood what his superior was thinking. "Our duty is to protect Glorious Fortress and His Excellency the Count. The City Guard isn't suited to getting involved in matters of law and order. Still, I never imagined North City Police Station could sink to such a low."

Had he really never imagined it... or had he simply never given it any thought?

The serial murders weren't a minor case. Whenever one occurred, it made the front page of every newspaper, and people discussed the gruesome crimes wherever you went.

The City Guard was no exception.

The longer the case went unsolved, the clearer it became that the police system had failed.

But she had ignored all the warning signs because of the "public safety contract."

"Go see her."

"Who?" Woody asked, looking surprised. "Judy?"

"Yes. Take her a bouquet of flowers, as a... gesture of comfort." Sandella hesitated for a long time, but still couldn't bring herself to say "an apology."

Judy had finally learned what had happened to Cote Dane.

His name had appeared on the newspaper's list of victims.

The poor girl must have been heartbroken.

"All right. I'll take care of it."

After Woody left, Sandella opened the drawer beside her desk.

A battered red-and-black mask lay inside, all alone.

She picked it up and stared at its patterns, lost in thought. However she looked at them, those grotesque, exaggerated human figures seemed to capture the Cultists' deranged style perfectly. And yet, if he hadn't suddenly gotten involved, North City Police Station would probably still be carrying on with its bloody game.

"The way to deal with Cultists... is to become even crazier than they are..."

Sandella repeated Govi's words unconsciously, then shook her head with a self-mocking smile.

Humanity had achieved great things through orderly organizations and rules. That was the power that had united billions of individuals. If all that remained was madness, how would people be any different from monkeys scrambling through the trees?

The masked man was no different.

Although his arrival had put an end to Kuiqi's crimes, it had also led to the destruction of the Grand Theater and dozens of casualties. Even if those people had been accomplices of North City Police Station, they didn't deserve to be sentenced to death without a trial. Whatever his purpose in coming to Glorious Fortress, he had seriously threatened the order of the city.

She had to catch him as soon as possible.

Half an hour later, Woody returned to the tower office.

"Miss Judy wasn't at the newspaper office. The manager said she hasn't shown up for quite some time."

"Is that so?" The result was perhaps to be expected. "It seems this was still too much of a blow for her..."

"Maybe. But she hasn't quit her job. In fact, three days after the theater burned down, she wrote an article and sent it to the newspaper. She just didn't come in person."

It wasn't unusual for reporters to spend a long time out in the field. As long as they regularly supplied the newspaper with worthwhile stories, it was happy to keep them on. Judy's resilience surprised Sandella a little. She had thought the woman would be unable to get back on her feet for a long time. "In that case, it's enough that the flowers were delivered."

But Woody spoke with great caution. "Lady Sandella, when Manager Jed was talking about Miss Judy, he mentioned that she had met with a private detective shortly before she disappeared."

"A private detective?" Sandella couldn't help thinking of the list of victims in the file.

"The man wore a leather trench coat and a wool felt hat. He was about a meter eighty tall, middle-aged, and of a fairly average build..."

As her adjutant continued, her expression grew increasingly serious.

In the mansion at Wangshui Manor, in that ransacked room, the person standing across from her had been dressed exactly the same way!

And his height had been about the same!

Her adjutant must have realized this too. That was why he had asked so many detailed questions.

"Do we know his name?"

"The manager didn't ask, but he definitely wasn't anyone important, because Judy couldn't afford to hire someone like that. None of the bodies in the theater were in that age range, so he probably isn't on the list and is still alive. All things considered, I think this discovery could give us a lead to follow." Woody finished.

Sandella's lips lifted in a rare smile. She clapped her adjutant firmly on the shoulder. "Well done!"

This was an unexpected stroke of luck!

When someone had tried every possible avenue for help and found nothing, what would she do in her despair? Perhaps that was exactly what had finally drawn the Cultists' attention.

"What do we do next? Issue a wanted notice for Miss Judy?" Woody asked. "If she really is hiding from us, we probably won't find anything at her home."

"No. A wanted notice would only put them on their guard," Sandella said at once. The encounter with Shi Dong Bradley was a clear warning. All the evidence showed that these people were very good at hiding themselves. "If Judy has been out of sight for a long time, she may still be in contact with the Cultists. If we issue a wanted notice, they'll catch wind of it too. So we have to search for Judy in secret, then use her to pinpoint the Cultists' location!"

"But Glorious Fortress is so big. How are we supposed to find her without a wanted notice?"

"Be patient." Sandella went to the window and opened the shutters, letting the howling sea wind rush into the room. The damp, chilly air would help her think more clearly. Then, a thought suddenly came to her.

"Doesn't she still send articles to the newspaper from time to time? That's our chance." Sandella turned and instructed her adjutant, "First, assign a team to keep the newspaper office and the nearby mailboxes under round-the-clock watch. Make sure the people in the area don't notice anything unusual."

"Then notify the managers of the Daily Mail and the Herald, and invite them to Farview Tower. I have something to discuss with them."

"Welcome to Glaic Academy, sir. Would you like to borrow a book or submit a document for the archives?" An old man wearing a gold-rimmed monocle stood behind the counter, smiling warmly.

The person he was speaking to was the thoroughly confused Chaoyang. Wait, wasn't this place supposed to be something like a library?

He looked around again, starting to doubt himself. Why was the lobby decorated like a luxury hotel? The gleaming marble floor and gilded ornaments everywhere showed that the developers of this building had no shortage of funds. Even the receptionist had an air of refinement. If you replaced the collar clasp on the old man's traditional Chinese jacket and put a suit on him, he could easily pass for a professor at a prestigious university.

The only thing he couldn't find was the books themselves.

Damn, he'd overestimated himself again. He should've brought Judy along. Chaoyang couldn't help grumbling inwardly.

After all his hard work building a business, he had finally managed to establish himself in this world. Now a new problem had presented itself: he knew far too little about this world. He especially lacked knowledge of basic terms and common concepts. If he didn't know what they meant, it was easy for misunderstandings and suspicions to arise in conversation.

Naturally, he couldn't discuss that sort of thing with Dane or Judy.

So, after asking around indirectly, he had received this answer—

"If there's anything you want to ask about, you can find the answer at Glaic Academy."

"That's where the world's center lies."