You're Overthinking It

Saleswoman?

Karon was taken aback for a moment.

As an old smuggler, he had seen it all. He knew things like [theocracies] existed—people who came walking toward you with gods on their lips, swords beneath their right hands, and long hair and ears drifting in the wind.

She was no saleswoman.

She moved with the swiftness of the wind. She looked exceedingly slow, yet reached him in an instant.

Contradictory.

Most male Fortes grew tall and imposing after adulthood. Though Karon was old and much weaker than before, he was still a Forte to his core. His enormous frame made him look like a spire, brimming with presence.

Yet before this pink-haired shrine maiden, he somehow felt as though he had to look up at her.

Was it inferiority?

No. It was more like a sense of danger.

Hoshino slowly approached from afar, her knee-high boots stepping across the ground. Her left hand remained on the hilt of her sword, but her gaze was gentle.

"Do you believe in gods?"

"If gods really exist, I'd probably believe in the god of money."

Karon did not back down.

As a smuggler, he kept his money hidden in secret places, with several backup stashes like a cunning rabbit's burrows. This time, he had simply been damned unlucky. He wondered whether the Guard Department would come laugh at Karon if he reported this himself.

The Guard Department had long wanted to investigate his assets, but they had never found any evidence.

Wait, the Guard Department?

His eyes flicked toward Hoshino's sword hilt. That was clearly a standard-issue blade of the Lungmen Guard Department.

So this was entrapment!

Close one. He had nearly fallen for their trick.

Karon had intended to have his hidden bodyguards teach her a lesson, but she carried a Lungmen Guard Department sword. If they ran into Guard Department officers, he would have no way to explain why he had hired bodyguards. Then he really would be capsizing in a ditch.

Hoshino merely watched him in silence.

She noticed that the tense, sword-drawn atmosphere seemed to have eased. There was no need to start a war.

"Would you like to make an offering to the gods?"

Her sword slid one centimeter from its sheath, and cold light spilled forth like moonlight. Rope ran out from behind her, carrying a cardboard box for collecting offerings in both hands.

Rope?

That little thief who prowled between the slums and the wealthy districts?

Karon suddenly sensed that something was wrong.

As a smuggler, Karon's sources were incredibly well informed, and he could practically never forget anyone he had seen.

Rope's appearance put him on alert, forcing him out of his habitual way of thinking. He fell into thought, considering how this whole matter had begun and unfolded.

Something was off.

If this was entrapment, why leave such an obvious flaw? There was clearly no badge proving that she came from the Lungmen Guard Department, yet her sword was so conspicuous. It was practically as if she wanted Karon to notice it.

This was a [scam].

To be safe, Karon asked, "Miss, if you don't mind me asking, where did you get that sword?"

"Chen Huijie threw it to me. She wanted to duel me with blades, then couldn't stand losing..."

"Heh."

A cold laugh interrupted Hoshino's answer.

Chief Inspector Chen, known as the [Dragon of the Guard Department], had actually lost in swordsmanship to a religious con artist robbing people by the roadside?

What a joke.

At the mention of Chief Inspector Chen, this smuggler from the slums instinctively felt fear. To him, she was an overwhelmingly powerful enemy. When someone casually claimed she could not accept defeat, his first reaction was disbelief.

Hoshino frowned.

This old man seemed to have developed killing intent again. She really did not know how someone with such a fickle temperament managed to do business normally.

But then again, what decent person prayed to gods and worshipped Buddha?

Brawny young Fortes surrounded them from the side. Hoshino shook her head and lightly tapped the guard of her sword with her thumb. The flashed-out blade light vanished in an instant.

"Rope, stand behind me and watch carefully with your eyes wide open."

"Okay, okay, okay."

Rope nodded repeatedly.

Lungmen Guard Department, temporary office.

Several chief inspectors were holding a meeting.

"What's going on? You let a terrorist escape while you were in the Guard Department?" Special Chief Inspector Swire had just arrived at work. "Don't make me laugh."

Chen did not dare answer that question directly.

After all, she had done it herself.

The first time she had shifted the blame onto a terrorist, she was still a little nervous.

She instead asked, "And you, you big cat—something this huge happened at the Guard Department, so why did you only come to work after a whole night?"

"My house is soundproof!"

That was a reason Chen could not refute. Swire's home was far from the Guard Department, a manor in the mountains and woods. Even its windows were noiseproof. If no one had informed her, it was perfectly normal for her not to know that the Guard Department had been blown up.

That damned dragon was picking a fight for no reason again.

What annoyed her most was that the second floor of the Guard Department had been blown up—the office area for senior chief inspectors like them.

All of Swire's decorations had been sliced to pieces by sword energy.

Swire had seen the scene herself. Her Originium Arts were nothing special, but the murderous aura and sword energy crisscrossing the place had terrified even a cat. It had looked as though Chen had drawn Chi Xiao and fought someone for three hundred rounds.

"Was that enemy injured?"

"No."

"What did she look like?"

"..."

"Say something, you bastard dragon!"

Normally, when faced with this situation, Chen Huijie might have started cursing Swire out. But not today. Chen was in a very low mood today.

Chief Inspector Hoshiguma hurriedly stepped in to smooth things over.

"After all, she lost to someone in the swordsmanship she was most proud of. Maybe she was... shaken by that."

"I didn't lose either."

Chen could not quite make sense of that person's swordsmanship. It had only been one slash as they approached and drew their blades, like a fleeting glimpse of a startled swan. Though it had been incredibly dangerous, neither had shown any sign of defeat. It was still uncertain who was stronger.

Still uncertain...

Chen thought guiltily, when she suddenly saw a group of people staggering toward them.

At their head was an old Forte man. Throwing his head back, he let out a miserable wail like a plowing ox. One of his horns was missing a section, leaving it hollow.

The smuggler, Karon.

An old acquaintance.

"Chief Inspector Chen, don't draw your sword. I'm here to report a crime today."

Uh...

Chen sheathed Chi Xiao, Swire lowered her flail, and Hoshiguma slowly set her oni-faced shield on the ground.

That was Karon—shrewd Karon. He carefully controlled the scale of his operations, always keeping his business right below the threshold that warranted a major operation. He had always been deeply wary of the Guard Department. Why would someone like him come report a crime?

Chen found it strange. Why had he specifically come to the temporary tent where the chief inspectors worked? If he wanted to turn himself in, the first floor of the Guard Department was still operating normally.

Karon explained everything from beginning to end.

He had been so careful, yet all the gold hidden inside his two horns had been robbed by that woman!

"Chief Inspector Chen, she's been using a Guard Department sword without authorization to swindle people, and she even said your swordsmanship narrowly lost to hers. If that were me, I wouldn't be able to stand it!"

"..."

Swire watched Chen suddenly lower her head and found the situation rather interesting.

When you encounter ads such as "Are you a real person?", there is no need to pay attention to them. Just close them. Do not scan QR codes or send text messages!