Theft

At night, Old Street was quiet. Most of the shops had long since closed, and there were hardly any pedestrians there after dark to begin with. Now it seemed even more desolate, with only the lit streetlamps casting faint shadows across the road.

Yet in one corner of Old Street, the Antoine Alchemy Workshop was still lit.

Antoine set down the cup in his hand and inspected the operation of each alchemy array once more. Only then did he cut off their mana supply and bring the arrays to a halt.

Naturally, he could not let the arrays continue operating while he slept. If something went wrong midway, his entire workshop might be blown apart. After tidying everything up, Antoine slowly went upstairs and returned to his bedroom to sleep.

About an hour passed. Just as snores began to rise from upstairs, Antoine's door was quietly picked open, and a figure crept into the alchemy workshop.

"This is too easy."

Sanderson wore rough black clothes. The fabric that had accompanied him for so many years now made him feel deeply uncomfortable. His steps were light, making almost no sound. After all, theft was his old trade.

If this had been the Pilam Alchemy Workshop, the moment Sanderson picked the lock, the alarm array would have started buzzing. But arranging and maintaining such specialized arrays required a great deal of money, something Antoine clearly could not afford.

Sanderson came to the side of an alchemy array and took a dark green stone from his pocket.

He naturally knew no magic, but what Pilam had given Sanderson was a genuine magical item.

This magical item, called a Recording Stone, could perfectly duplicate the structure of arrays within a space. It was an artifact left behind by ancient magic, and modern magic had yet to decipher its precise principles.

At first, Recording Stones had been used for archaeology. When mages discovered ancient magical ruins, they used Recording Stones to imprint difficult-to-decipher runes and arrays for later study. Now, they had become a convenient means of duplication, used to carry blueprints for medium-sized magic arrays.

Following Pilam's instructions, Sanderson activated the Recording Stone. A flash of green light swept across the room and soon copied one of the Cola production lines. It was flawless, without the slightest defect.

Time to go.

But Sanderson suddenly noticed that the surroundings had gone completely silent. The snoring that had continued earlier had stopped at some point.

In an instant, cold sweat poured down Sanderson's back. He hurriedly put away the Recording Stone and headed for the door.

"You thief!"

A furious roar sounded behind Sanderson, followed by a blast of scorching air.

Even Sanderson, who knew absolutely no magic, caught the trail of burning flame streaking through the air from the corner of his eye.

First-Circle magic: Fireball.

A core the size of an egg, surrounded by crimson flames, shot in a straight line toward Sanderson.

He desperately lunged forward. The fireball passed over Sanderson's head, leaving a scorched streak in his hair before striking the wooden door and instead opening a path for him.

In a panic, Sanderson scrambled and crawled out. The night was deep, and he quickly disappeared into the alley, leaving no trace behind.

Since the Recording Stone's duplication process left no traces whatsoever, Antoine would only assume that an ordinary thief had come to try his luck at the alchemy workshop. Sanderson marveled at Pilam's wisdom while gasping heavily in lingering fear. He touched the Recording Stone in his pocket and only calmed down after quite some time, when he felt a warm wetness below his waist.

The ordeal had made him lose control of his bladder.

The next day, at the Antoine Alchemy Workshop, Antoine was speaking with Leslie, the peace officer who had come to investigate and gather evidence.

"You're certain nothing was stolen?"

Leslie looked at the door blasted open by Fireball, thinking that this mage had probably caused more damage to the room than the thief had.

Fortunately, after Leslie questioned the neighboring residents, someone had indeed seen an unidentified man sneaking out of the Antoine Alchemy Workshop the previous night. That was enough to roughly confirm that a theft had truly taken place, rather than it being the mage's delusion.

"Nothing was stolen. I think the thief was definitely after my alchemy arrays."

Antoine pointed at the alchemy arrays currently operating before him.

"That makes things rather difficult. Sheila, what do you think?"

Leslie asked his colleague. Sheila was a First-Circle Mage. With magical crimes increasing recently, the Magic Crimes Division she belonged to had gradually become busier as well.

"If it was a crime committed using a Recording Stone, then there would basically be no evidence left behind. And if they don't openly bring out the alchemy arrays in certain situations, there's no way for us to track them down."

Sheila shook her head. Her wheat-colored skin looked exceptionally healthy, nothing like that of a mage who spent all her time studying in a laboratory.

"What about divination?"

Leslie asked. There had been cases in the past where divination spells from the Astrology School had successfully uncovered clues, which was why he raised the question.

"It won't work. Too many magical elements are involved in this incident, and divination would suffer enormous interference. Unless we can enlist a high-ranking mage, such as that esteemed person among the Stargazers."

Sheila sighed, helpless.

Unlike the ability to foresee the future as most people imagined it, divination could produce relatively accurate predictions for events untouched by magic. But if magical elements were involved, as in this case, astrological results would suffer tremendous deviations and might even be completely opposite to reality.

"Mr. Antoine, do you have any leads? Such as competitors?"

Following standard procedure, Leslie picked up a finished bottle of Cola. Pilam Cola had not yet become popular in Sorrento Town, where Old Street was located, so he knew nothing about it.

"The Pilam Alchemy Workshop recently produced a batch of Cola similar to mine, though it tastes different."

Antoine answered. Following Rainer's instructions, he did not directly accuse Antoine and merely dropped a hint.

"The Pilam Alchemy Workshop? The possibility of commercial competition is quite high."

Sheila seemed somewhat troubled. That alchemy workshop itself had engaged in many improper activities, but without direct evidence, peace officers from several cities had been unable to convict it. As a mage, Sheila also deeply despised Pilam's conduct.

"We'll return and investigate it, but Mr. Antoine, I still have to tell you that unless we can find direct evidence proving that your alchemy arrays were indeed stolen by the Pilam Alchemy Workshop, we won't be able to convict them."

"I understand."

Antoine nodded, temporarily keeping quiet about the signature he had embedded within his alchemy arrays.