The Earth-Balance Commission seemed to think Stelle could do just about anything.
Stelle and March 7th excitedly ran to the Earth-Balance Commission to take on the case and asked where they were supposed to start investigating.
Dahao, the Earth-Balance Commission's chief administrator, explained that since an outsider had brought the Stellaron aboard the Xianzhou, they could narrow the scope of the investigation to suspicious people who had entered the Xianzhou over the past few days.
There weren't that many. Excluding the Astral Express Crew, who stood for justice and peace, there were only a little over ten thousand.
Unfortunately, although the Xianzhou enjoyed good relations with the Interastral Peace Corporation, they weren't close enough to be all-weather partners, so their official wanted-person databases weren't fully linked.
The Corporation shared intelligence on major criminals notorious throughout the Sea of Stars, such as the Stellaron Hunters. As for the lesser figures wanted by the Corporation, the Xianzhou knew nothing about them.
Otherwise, they could have started with anyone among those ten thousand who had a criminal record, which would undoubtedly have made things much easier.
Stelle felt that although she often ran errands for people, investigating ten thousand people was clearly beyond her.
But during her earlier undercover assignment, she had boasted to the Earth-Balance Commission that she had a photographic memory and a gift for identifying people and objects. No evildoer could escape her piercing golden eyes, and she would bring every last one to justice!
She had left the commission staff utterly dazzled, and they all applauded.
Faced with this outsider so eager to prove herself, the Earth-Balance Commission declared that they had struck gold.
And so they entrusted Stelle with the arduous task of investigating ten thousand people.
Stelle suffered in silence.
*I can't take back all that boasting