Aswin looked at him hesitantly, then sank into thought.
'There's no way he's the suspect, and...'
That tense moment flashed through his mind again, causing Aswin to instinctively step back until he was standing beside the vice captain.
'There's no way that thief and con artist from before is here.'
The sound of the door was nearly swallowed by the howling wind outside, while the voice faded away as Vaetan looked at Velnard and smiled.
"...There's no need to keep pretending, Mr. Qustor," Velnard said, realizing the revolver was already in his enemy's hand.
Vaetan had never expected this to happen, or rather, Qustor had already stolen his future.
The silver revolver was aimed directly at the vice captain's forehead, while Aswin, standing to his right, froze in fear of death.
Knowing he stood no chance against him, he chose to remain silent and stay out of their business.
Qustor had come there with one purpose alone: to kill Vaetan before moving on to his true target.
"Where is your captain...?" he asked.
Velnard's face instantly vanished, replaced by the face of a man with slightly long black hair and a monocle over his blue eye.
His expression was devoid of emotion, revealing nothing except a burning desire to fight that woman once again.
Qustor lowered his revolver, tossed it toward Vaetan with a faint smile, then took several steps back.
Vaetan caught the revolver, gripped it tightly in his right hand, and aimed it at Qustor as he walked away.
Crack...
Vaetan's left arm was torn apart, blood spraying in every direction and staining his dark blue military uniform.
"Ah, Captain Arzen, huh?" Vaetan asked to make sure, suppressing a smile.
Vaetan was not surprised, because he already understood the ability of the thief and con artist of time, Saka Qustor.
"...Vice Captain? Your arm... it's bleeding..."
Vaetan turned to the right and answered calmly, as though the wound meant nothing. "I know. Go upstairs and save Velnard."
The battle was complicated because Qustor possessed a power that defied the limits of time.
The bullet that had destroyed his left arm had actually struck its target forty minutes earlier, when Qustor captured Velnard, returned to their location, and dragged him here.
Aswin hesitated after hearing the order. However, after seeing Saka Qustor give a slight shrug with his eyes closed and a faint smile on his face, Aswin finally gathered the courage to walk past him.
Tap... Tap... Tap...
As he climbed the wide staircase, Aswin glanced downward, lost in thought.
'So that's how he is. I wonder what it is about Captain Arzen that fascinates him.'
He shifted his gaze through the dim, silent house, searching for Velnard.
On the ground floor, neither of them attacked. Instead, they talked.
"So... it's true that you stole the money from all sixteen victims," Vaetan said, pausing briefly as the exchange of wounds affected his arm.
Sweat streamed down his face. He had never imagined what kinds of attacks Saka Qustor had launched from forty minutes in the past.
"I can work together with you to drive that woman away, but..."
Having witnessed his ability twice already, once when he saw Queen Seon Arzen fight Saka Qustor, and another time when he fought him himself, despite losing, Vaetan finally saw an opening.
Now the third battle began as Vaetan charged straight toward him, the moment he transformed into his spirit form.
Whoosh...
The gust created by the transformation slammed the door shut, and for a brief moment, a gentle breeze swept through the room.
Upstairs, Aswin stopped walking for a moment.
He looked back over his shoulder, his eyes sharp.
However, before Vaetan could emerge from his spirit form, Saka Qustor had already evaded the attack.
The two of them had merely switched places.
"Why aren't you using that plague ability?"
Vaetan slowly shook his head, frowning.
"This house would be destroyed, and..."
'I could end up being hunted by them.'
"And why is that?" Saka Qustor asked in confusion.
"No. Forget it," Vaetan replied quietly.
The revolver that had been nowhere in sight suddenly appeared as Vaetan opened his palm.
He aimed it at Saka Qustor's head once more.
"Where is your little creature? I hope you're taking this fight seriously. Judging from your expression... are you exhausted?"
Instead of answering, Saka Qustor sat down with a sigh, his face clearly hiding something he could not allow to be seen.
Click.
A moment later, a familiar voice shattered the silence on the ground floor, causing both men to instinctively listen.
"Vice Captain... I've found Velnard," the voice shouted firmly, echoing across the floor before the air grew heavy once more beneath their locked gazes.
Saka Qustor rose from his seat, looked at him, and spoke with mild indifference, "Very well. If that's what you want."
Vaetan prepared to pull the trigger while studying the serious expression on Saka Qustor's face.
"I won't bring that creature out. I'm dealing with a bit of a problem," Saka Qustor continued with a grimace.
"...What are you talking about?"
He watched as Saka Qustor walked toward the door, the revolver still trained on him.
He knew firing now would be pointless. He still did not understand how Saka Qustor's ability worked.
Click.
The door opened as Saka Qustor turned the doorknob, and he walked out of the house, leaving his enemy behind.
In an instant, the house collapsed. Not only that, but both of Vaetan's legs were shattered by the very same gunshot wounds.
Crack! Crack!
Vaetan gritted his teeth to suppress a groan, and now the exchange of wounds focused on his left arm, which had nearly recovered, pausing briefly to soften the roof that was about to bury him alive.
A black, dust-like substance shielded his body, along with the two people still trapped upstairs.
Saka Qustor had left after reaching a state of extreme exhaustion without suffering any serious consequences.
Although he could have killed all three of them, doing so would have caused Queen Seon Arzen to collapse, leaving her unable to fight with the strength she once possessed.
After losing twice to the same person, the eccentric man was driven by a desire to intensify the conflict in Vleco, hoping to force the captain of the Cevenose Department to appear.
"I'll be waiting for your arrival."
After muttering to himself, Saka Qustor's body vanished like dust swept away by a fierce wind.
Meanwhile, pedestrians and the people around the area, including a curious group of fourteen, hurried toward the collapsed house.
"Did that house just collapse out of nowhere?"
"Was anyone inside?"
"I don't think so."
"Call the police. This area needs to be secured."
The group arrived quickly, and one of the officers muttered,
"There's someone in there."
"But who was that man just now?"
The man from the police search team was baffled by the confusing scene before him.
Amid the crowd across the street, he had caught a glimpse of a slightly hunched man walking away, only for the figure to disappear completely the next moment.
The dark-haired man with light brown eyes spoke up. "I'm from the police search team. Please stay behind the line."
He glanced at his three companions before stepping forward. Then he froze in silence as he watched part of the rubble beyond the doorway crumble into dust and scatter into the wind.
"Gevano...?" the man murmured.
Vaetan grimaced in pain. He had successfully completed the exchange of wounds, even though his right hand had previously been trapped beneath the collapsed stone.
Vaetan feigned surprise as he stood up.
"Yasha, what are you doing here?" he asked while dusting off his clothes.
Yasha, who had previously stopped them, searched for the right words.
Two seconds later, he answered without hesitation, "They're the ones who reported your location."
Naturally, Luis, an honest man, rejected that claim.
"No. It's true that the four of us and they had been following you to find that thief," Luis explained in a mocking tone.
The three members of the police search team instinctively slapped their foreheads. Meanwhile, Yasha merely laughed, realizing the situation had changed.
Vaetan, however, paid no attention to it.
"The two of them are still inside that house."
Not long after he said that, his three juniors arrived after hearing the commotion.
"Excuse us, we're coming through."
The pedestrians and curious onlookers gathered around the house stepped aside when they saw the badges and the single silver star gleaming beneath the sunlight on the shoulders of the three officers.
"They're from the Cevenose Department, aren't they?"
"Yeah, isn't that obvious?"
"Keep your voice down. Do you want to get arrested?"
"Whispering won't help. We'd better leave."
"One problem after another. This is driving me insane. Damn it."
Unable to clearly see Vaetan's clothes because of the thin black substance and dust covering them, several people hurried away to continue with their daily activities.
The group of ten understood why the officers were acting that way. However, because they shared the same objective, they refused to leave until they learned the details of this strange theft.
Yasha and his companions hurried across the rubble. Only seconds after stepping through the shattered doorway and climbing onto the pile of debris, the four of them spotted two fingers and four feet covered in strange black dust.
Confusion filled their minds.
'There wasn't any fire, so where did this black dust come from?'
Yasha wondered to himself.
"...Vein," the three of them said almost at the same time.
As though they shared the same thought, they glanced toward Vaetan Gevano, who was talking with his three subordinates.
Once their initial suspicion subsided, they pulled the fingers protruding from the mound of black dust.
Vaetan noticed, but he continued responding to the information his subordinates were giving him.
"Hmm, I see. Understood."
After receiving the report from his subordinates, Vaetan jumped down from the rubble and spoke while adjusting his military cap. "I apologize for our failure. That thief managed to escape, but to make up for it, I'll treat all of you to dinner at that restaurant tonight."
He pointed toward the three-way intersection not far ahead. They looked over, then Vaetan told them the exact location. Unwilling to miss a free meal, they accepted the invitation.
After confirming the meeting time, each of them headed in a different direction, naturally returning to their own homes.
The police search team returned, accompanied by two members of the Cevenose Security Department.
"So, what are you going to do next, Gevano...?"
Vaetan remained silent as the familiar voice reached him, as firm and masculine as ever.
He turned slightly toward the speaker with a bitter smile. "Go back to that place, of course."
After returning to the modest two-story house on Jikusuma Street, Luis grumbled about failing to beat up the thief.
Still, he was somewhat pleased about the invitation, even though he knew the man probably would not actually be there because of his duties.
"Is Luis really determined to go there?" Evelina asked earnestly.
Luis nodded and replied, "Yes."
'Even though 180 Pace disappeared in an instant, spending 20 to 25 Pace on a meal at that restaurant might help ease the loss.'
Although he still had 3,000 Pace in his room, Luis was reluctant to spend the money he had earned through hard work.
The afternoon passed by swiftly, like a human life.
The blue moon hung in the sky, creating a beautiful sight despite doing nothing to dispel the world's gloom.
At exactly seven o'clock, just as agreed, Luis arrived at the restaurant alone, though naturally accompanied by the people who were already there since the others had not shown up.
The night passed quickly. Dinner went on, and as usual, the restaurant along Jikusuma Street was filled with cheerful customers.
After receiving what was his, Luis decided to head home, accompanied by a man and a woman who were walking in the same direction.
They exchanged no words, eventually swallowed by the silence of the night in Haban's grimy alleyways.
When he arrived home, Luis entered without hesitation. As usual, the house was quiet. The other ten residents were out, leaving behind only Nuken Monelli, the fallen noble.
A calm, clear voice greeted Luis from the right, emerging from the dim light of the living room.
"You're back? Miss Evelina was talking about that theft earlier."
"Who are you?" Luis asked as the door closed.
Click.
The sound lingered longer than expected as Nuken rose from his seat and moved to the single armchair on his right.
"Nuken Monelli," he replied quietly, choosing his words with care.
Seeing the confusion on Luis's face, Nuken quickly added, his tone firm yet tinged with curiosity, "Do you want to know who James Moriarty really is?"