Wearing dark blue military uniforms and caps, members of the Cevenose Department and the police investigation team headed toward the site of the mass theft.
The victims were already waiting for their arrival, and the case had become the top priority for both teams that afternoon. Afterward, they planned to search the outskirts of Vleco and the banks of the Veletasanuvia River, which flowed into the great Vesuvius River before finally emptying into the Kasnia Sea.
Fifteen victims were present, including four women who worked as prostitutes at a nightclub in Jikusuma, and every one of them was questioned about the incident.
Their answers were identical: they had seen nothing, and when they came to their senses, they discovered that their money had suddenly disappeared.
Luis, Evelina, and Luifis stepped into the bustling crowd, and one of them asked the same question.
"Was the thief really that mysterious, sir?"
The officer looked at Luis with a firm, masculine expression.
Luis hesitated, as though carefully choosing his words before speaking.
"...Mysterious? Not really, but the theft itself was very strange," Luis explained with a quiet chuckle.
"I see. So you were also one of the victims?"
Luis nodded and quickly replied, "Of course. I want to find the thief, even though it seems almost impossible."
The officer remained silent, studying him carefully.
"I feel like I've seen you somewhere before," the officer said, looking Luis up and down.
"Oh, really...?"
Luis clearly had no idea where he could have met the officer. More importantly, considering he had recently been associating with a criminal, he did not want to answer the officer's question carelessly.
'Where did we meet? Is he just making that up?'
After thinking for a moment, the atmosphere grew tense as the officer, with a few loose strands of black hair falling across his face, muttered something to his colleague.
Sensing an opportunity, Evelina turned around, cupped her hand beside the left side of her mouth, and whispered, "Have you met that officer before, Luis?" Luis gave a slight shrug, his body shifting sideways for a moment.
"No. I've never met him, let alone known him," Luis answered firmly.
Evelina let out a short sigh, hoping everything would go smoothly.
The officer started to walk away but paused briefly to say, "I'll be back to question you. We have something that needs to be sorted out!"
Luis had no idea how to respond as he watched the two men approach none other than their deputy captain.
A few meters away, the two men stood before their superior officer.
"Deputy Captain, we've found the suspect," said the black-haired officer as he brushed his hair to the side.
The brown-eyed man wearing a military cap felt something unusual prick at his mind. Two seconds later, he spoke firmly, "We don't have much time. Prepare to move out immediately."
"Understood, Deputy Captain," they murmured in unison.
After taking a few steps, the three officers were stopped by a member of the police investigation team, who had noticed their movements.
One of the investigators, wearing an indifferent expression, asked coldly, "Where are you three going?"
Not wanting to cause trouble, the Deputy Captain replied, "North of here."
"What's over there?" the man muttered in a hoarse voice.
The Deputy Captain clicked his tongue, glancing toward his subordinates who were still questioning the theft victims to his left.
The three men saluted as the Deputy Captain's gaze fell upon them before following him as he resumed walking.
The fifteen victims, the three of them, along with four members of the police investigation team, seemed to share the same curiosity. Driven by it, they followed the five security officers.
The plan worked, and after walking nonstop for half an hour, they arrived at the northern edge of the Haban slums, near Mausuma, northeast of Jikusuma Street.
It was exactly noon. The blazing sunlight beat down from overhead, while the mixture of black and white smoke made the scorching heat feel even harsher in the air.
It was the hour when laborers and construction workers stopped working, giving the team an opportunity to spot the suspect amid the crowded northern Haban slums.
Relying on their experience and agility in handling missions like this, the Deputy Captain ordered them to move forward immediately without hesitation.
"He won't attack us. At least, not right now."
That was what he said, and his words carried complete conviction, considering the confidence possessed by the man named Vaetan.
The others followed closely behind, making their way along Haban's crowded sidewalks, filled with the lower class and those who had no permanent home.
Of the original fifteen victims, only seven remained, including Luis, as they continued following the Deputy Captain of the Cevenose Security Department.
Eleven minutes later, a rather magnificent apartment building stood at the corner of a run-down alley in Haban.
A few dozen meters ahead stood a street sign bearing the name "Mausuma."
"So, this is the place?" the Deputy Captain murmured, raising his head to examine the apartment building before him.
It was rather absurd to find such an impressive apartment complex, standing twenty meters tall and nearly seventy meters wide, built in a place like this.
Still, his suspicion was justified. The Deputy Captain knew this area extremely well.
This slum alley was a den of criminals, a place where nobles carried out their conspiracies.
The rumors were widespread, yet no one, not even the police or the authorities, dared challenge their influence.
Wanting to investigate further, and realizing he was standing too exposed in the middle of the sidewalk, the Deputy Captain stepped onto the first of the three stairs leading directly into the corridor.
"Foziw and the others, keep watch around the building," he ordered firmly before glancing at the others. "You two, come with me."
The two men he referred to were Aswin and Velnard. They were the ones who had delivered this crucial information, although it was Velnard who had actually uncovered it.
The two nodded and followed him.
Of course, the Deputy Captain was aware that someone, perhaps more than one person, had been tailing him the entire way here.
He chose to remain silent. After all, they would not see what they expected.
That thought crossed his mind as he examined the oddity before him: shoe prints and scratches on the ground in front of the door.
Yes, scratches. Deputy Captain Vaetan was no ordinary man. He was a Receivers of Black Death, at first level, Invomer.
The basic ability of Black Death allowed its user to sense lingering traces, such as scratches and footprints, by perceiving the essence of life that had remained up to ten or fifteen minutes earlier.
Although invisible to the naked eye, especially to the two men beside him, these traces could be detected by Vaetan. Even though Black Death was known as a long-range combat path, first level Invomer like him possessed the ability to track specific targets.
He could track up to two people, provided their traces were no older than an hour, and those individuals had been inside the apartment fifty-eight minutes ago. It was almost too late. Whatever their reason for being there, Vaetan's attention shifted as he turned his head to the left.
"Deputy Captain, why are we standing outside Room 16?"
Velnard was naturally puzzled to see the Deputy Captain standing in front of Room 16 while staring intently toward the left.
After a brief pause, Vaetan shook his head and said, "Who lives in this room?"
He glanced at Aswin and added, "Find the occupant of Room 16... Velnard, go with him."
The two straightened their posture and saluted in response.
Outside the apartment building, Luis was beginning to lose his patience and wanted to leave. The atmosphere felt different. It was not because the place looked run-down, but because of something difficult to explain, something similar to what he had sensed that night.
Evelina and Luifis urged him to be patient, while the other six victims waited hopefully for the three people who had gone inside to succeed.
The four members of the police investigation team felt the same way, waiting to confirm whether the Cevenose Security Department truly differed from their own unit.
Along the second-floor corridor, hidden from outside view despite running parallel to the street, Vaetan used his spiritual vision to examine the lingering footprints and scratches, brought to life by the passage of time.
1 minute, 3 seconds.
Not wanting to waste time, he transformed into his spirit form, allowing him to pass through the objects around him.
The weakness of this state was his inability to launch attacks using his abilities, although a spirit's scream was powerful enough to allow him to escape before an opponent could prepare an attack.
Although the spirit could be detected, its speed and movements exceeded the speed of light, or perhaps even beyond that. It was impossible for an ordinary human to catch it, or even for Receivers at the first or second sequence.
After transforming into his spirit form, Vaetan found absolutely no trace of the suspect, so he immediately returned to where his companions were speaking with the occupant of Room 16.
Tap...
"Huh? Deputy Captain? Why are you here?" Velnard asked in surprise as he turned toward him.
Vaetan stared at him for several seconds before saying, "So you're the occupant of Room 16."
As he stepped toward the man, threatening energy surging through his hand, he added,
"Where is your partner? If you don't answer, you die."
The man smiled, assuming it was nothing more than a threat. However, Vaetan touched the man's forehead, forcing him to witness a vision that nearly drove him insane in an instant.
"Ah... please, stay away! I really don't know anything... ah."
The man nearly slammed the door shut, but it was held open by his stunned companions, who had not expected their Deputy Captain to appear there.
'So, he's already done it, huh?'
'This will become troublesome if the Deputy Captain gets involved with the factions out there.'
Moreover, the suspect's true identity was still unknown. Velnard suspected that the culprit had used a forbidden item to steal money from numerous people, carrying out the thefts at the same time and in the same place.
However, with the Deputy Captain present, he stopped thinking about the outcome, or the success they had been hoping for over the past three days, which would be decided later that afternoon.
"It seems he doesn't want to answer you, so what should we do?"
Vaetan touched the man's forehead once more, signaled with his eyes, then headed toward the ground floor.
He already knew the location of the suspect who had been toying with him.
The journey between locations was short, taking them from the apartment to a secluded building located along a branching street in the left side of the Haban slums.
The others followed behind, driven by curiosity.
The Deputy Captain knew the location, but he had no intention of revealing this ability to people like them.
Faced with the closed door and the silence surrounding the place, Vaetan and the other two took the initiative to enter the house, climbing the small steps in front of it.
"Aswin, your revolver," Vaetan murmured calmly, sensing the decisive moment had arrived and wanting to bring this pursuit to an end.
Without a word, Aswin handed over his revolver.
Click.
The revolver was now in the Deputy Captain's hand as Velnard pushed open the unlocked door.
A voice echoed through the room, greeting their arrival with a mixture of admiration and delight.
"Impressive. You actually managed to find my location..."
After a brief silence, exactly one hour had passed since the incident began, and the voice added,
"Catch me if you can..."
Then the sound of objects falling came from above.
Bang!
Vaetan glanced upward and to the left, narrowly avoiding the bullet by dodging sideways.
'Who... who exactly is this person? Does he know about my presence and this pursuit?'
He noticed something strange about Velnard, something he should have realized much earlier back on the sidewalk.
He turned halfway around and fixed his eyes on him.
"You... you're the suspect."
Instead of answering, Velnard flashed a sharp, sinister grin that instantly filled their minds with an overwhelming sense of unease.