"This man staged a feint against the confidential carriage twenty kilometers outside of Landon City."
"It was a classic diversion. He used a cloud and mist spell to obscure their vision, then used a roaring enchantment to create a commotion and draw away the armed personnel. After hiding his presence, he turned invisible and committed the theft amidst the chaos."
Ms. Cecil continued her patient explanation.
"It's worth noting that no armed personnel were injured at the scene."
"Even the carriage's structure remained relatively intact."
"He only took one containment object and some documents from the carriage, completely ignoring the other priceless treasures."
Branch Chief Guardian knit his thick eyebrows together.
"What exactly was stolen?"
"Something related to the Fortville family of Moon Bay,"
Ms. Cecil replied quickly.
"It was top-secret information regarding Moon Bay's geological surveys and ancient family genealogies, which headquarters had specifically requested from the Storm Inquisition."
She paused, leaning forward slightly and lowering her voice.
"Branch Chief, the higher-ups have recently been looking to move against Wayland Capital."
Guardian's sharp, single eye instantly went wide.
"Wayland Capital?!"
He took a deep breath, his tone filled with disbelief.
"For something this significant, why didn't headquarters notify the local branches in advance?"
"With all due respect, it's precisely because it's Wayland Capital that the higher-ups didn't want to alert the target,"
Ms. Cecil analyzed logically.
"It was already strange that they took over the Fortville family's twelve lighthouses in the Moon Bay area twenty-five years ago."
"The fact that these items were stolen naturally couldn't be publicized."
She straightened her posture, regaining her professional demeanor.
"Furthermore, because the suspect fled quickly to the nearest city, Galloway City, after succeeding, headquarters first notified them and assigned me to assist in the capture."
At the mention of Galloway City, Cecil's brow furrowed slightly, as if recalling an unpleasant experience.
"But I didn't expect this person to be as slippery as an eel."
"The Detection Department went to great lengths to narrow his location down to the vicinity of Galloway Women's College, so I had to go undercover there to investigate."
"Who would have thought that just as we were preparing to close the net, he had already slipped away unnoticed and even fled to Hope County?"
"Based on his methods and that nauseating level of cunning, we can be certain this man is the career criminal—John Baker."
Branch Chief Guardian pondered for a moment.
"John Baker... I have some recollection of him."
"He was active in Landon City a few years ago. He was a notorious lone thief in the Society of Freemen."
"Correct."
Cecil nodded.
"According to the Detection Department's deductions—and this is the most troublesome part—he has at least two containment objects on him."
"One can perfectly mask his presence and even grant short-term invisibility; the other can store and release specific spells."
"It can store spells?"
Guardian raised an eyebrow.
"A Scale Four alchemist?"
"No. According to the spiritual readings at the scene, he is a spawn of the Raging Sea, though he never served as a Storm Judge."
"Moreover, the spells used weren't high-Scale spells."
"It's highly probable they are transcendent items at the level of a containment object."
"However, the side effects are currently unknown."
"But since he has been using them at a high frequency, it must be a price he can still bear."
Hearing this, Branch Chief Guardian waved his hand irritably.
"Since things have come to this, we can only screen the cases first."
"I will pull a few people from the investigators to fully cooperate with your investigation."
"Understood,"
Cecil responded crisply.
Branch Chief Guardian fell into thought for a moment longer before speaking slowly.
"The case in Pinewood Alley is the most recent, and the trail is still fresh. I'll personally lead the team to investigate it."
"As for the remaining two cases, you arrange the personnel yourself."
"Yes, sir."
With the simple task handover complete, the office fell back into silence.
Ms. Cecil turned to walk toward the door, but her movements hesitated for a moment as she gripped the handle.
The figure she had seen at the train station today involuntarily surfaced in her mind—Elias Rockland.
That young man in the slightly worn suit who looked a bit down on his luck.
Back at the train station square, she had clearly felt a spiritual fluctuation from him.
That wasn't an aura an ordinary person should have.
Was it because of the thin Norse bloodline of the Rockland family acting up?
Or was it...
Cecil didn't know.
At the very least, she hadn't seen such abundant yet unstable spirituality in Charlotte.
If Charlotte's brother really was an unregistered independent transcendent, returning to Hope County at such a sensitive juncture made it hard not to associate him with the storm brought by John Baker.
'I have to keep a close eye on him,'
Cecil warned herself inwardly.
It wasn't just for the case, but for Charlotte as well.
That pure and kind girl must never be dragged into these transcendent events filled with madness and bloodshed.
She was just an ordinary person after all. If it turned out that there really was something wrong with Elias...
A look of resolve flashed in Cecil's eyes.
If necessary, she would have to find a way to keep her away from her dangerous brother.
...
The next morning.
Room 137, Ash Street, second-floor bedroom.
Elias had just opened his eyes on the relatively soft bed, his brain still a bit foggy.
As soon as he looked up, he saw the table in his room beating up the chair.
His mahogany desk was using two thick wooden legs to pin the poor backrest chair to the ground and pummel it.
The chair's four legs kicked helplessly in the air, letting out creaking screams as if begging for mercy.
Elias watched the scene expressionlessly; his eyelids didn't even twitch.
He knew immediately that his old friend, the curse, had arrived, albeit a bit late.
That familiar feeling... it really felt like coming home.
The window in the room was like a toothless mouth, opening and closing as it cheered loudly. He could even feel the stinging sensation of the biting morning wind rushing against his face.
Oh, well.
He just hadn't closed it properly when he was scaring Old Ed last night, so the wind really was blowing in.
As his gaze shifted, the mottled wallpaper patterns on the wall began to squirm, gradually forming faces that seemed to be both crying and laughing.
They crowded together, whispering in voices that sounded like countless flies crawling over his eardrums.
Every item in the room—the water glass, the wardrobe, the carpet—had edges blurred by a strange, multicolored double-vision, like graphical artifacting from a dying video card, emitting a dizzying halo.
Elias took a deep breath, suppressing the nausea triggered by the sensory distortion.
He knew very well that his plans to go out this morning were completely ruined.
He also knew that if he went downstairs for breakfast in this state, Charlotte would probably notice something at a glance.
After all, he and Old Ed had studied this extensively; during the phase when the dream demon curse was active, his spirituality was wildly leaking out.
Like a high-pressure steam tank leaking everywhere.
Never mind a girl with sharp intuition like Charlotte; even a simple and honest ordinary person like Arthur would likely notice the abnormality in his glazed eyes.
The only saving grace was that he had rested well last night, and his mental state was fairly full.
Although the current hallucinations were lively, they weren't severe enough to make him unable to tell left from right.
As long as he ignored the slippers that were currently performing a tap dance.
"Hey partner, good morning!"
Suddenly, Old Ed's voice rang out in Elias's mind, breaking his standoff with the hallucinations.
"What are you doing?"
At this moment, Elias was barefoot, his body contorted in an extremely twisted and bizarre posture as he hugged the wall, shuffling toward the wardrobe step by step.
His movements were cautious, sometimes sidestepping, sometimes leaning low.
'Singing,'
Elias replied helplessly in his mind.
The joke was terrible; even he felt it was bad.
He carefully bypassed the table and chair that were currently grappling on the floor.
Even though, in reality, they were motionless.
Having finally reached the window with great difficulty, he reached out and closed the chattering window, shutting out the cold wind.
Realizing that Elias was talking nonsense again, Old Ed also sensed the problem.
"Elias, is your old condition acting up again?"
"Why are you moving in a serpentine pattern in your own room?"
"Because my table is chasing and beating my chair!"
Rate on N.U.
