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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Shrine
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“Uncle, is there anything I can do to help?”
She wanted a way for her to help, huh.
William stared at Hye-ryeong’s face, full of eagerness, and then spoke:
“I’ll be going out to investigate with Constable Meng. When you’re eating at the inn, make sure to say those words loudly enough for others to hear: ‘Actually, the secret manual that the thief stole was fake, and Master Zhang has hidden the real one safely.'”
“I’ll do my best!”
“Thank you.”
William wasn’t sure how good Hye-ryeong’s acting skills were, but her skills still should have some effect. After all, she was known as the Flower of Haenam.
Men couldn’t help but be interested in any rumours spread by a pretty woman.
So if any rumours were spread through Hye-ryeong’s lips, they would spread faster.
Of course, most people would dismiss such rumours as baseless gossip, but rumours in general tended to circulate more the more interesting they were.
First, they would spread this rumour and provoke this senior apprentice brother of Mater Zhang’s.
Since he had likely spent his whole life obsessing over the Shadowless Divine Thief’s secret manual, he would quickly notice that the one he stole was fake and attempt to find the real one again.
William wasn’t sure how much risk the man would be willing to take, but for now, they would spread this rumour and wait for him to take the bait.
It was a simple but effective trap.
In any case, since they had the item he wanted , the man would have to come to them eventually. They just needed to catch him when he tried to steal it.
How he knew about and got rid of the tracking fragrance, and what was the source of the fragrance on William’s body.
They would probably find out the answers to those questions once they caught him.
As well as the lies in what Master Zhang had told them.
“Uncle, take care!”
“Take care and don’t cause any trouble.”
“I won’t!”
Hye-ryeong wasn’t the type to cause trouble, but William couldn’t help worrying. Beautiful flowers tended to attract insects, after all.
Of course, with the Haenam Sword Sect disciples around, they probably wouldn’t allow anyone to approach her easily…
Well, worrying too much about such things was a bad habit, so William decided to focus on his own task.
He left the inn.
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“Ah, you’re here.”
“Has there been any progress with the investigation?”
“We found a few more traces of the tracking fragrance. There were others like you who had it on their bodies. It seems… the culprit deliberately planted traces on other people to confuse the investigation.”
Deliberately planting traces on others to cause confusion?
It was a clever method, but when exactly did he do it? William had never seen anyone approach him.
“He didn’t apply it directly, but seems to have placed it on certain objects.”
“He’s using unnecessarily complicated methods.”
It seemed like he could have just erased his traces and fled.
He could have cleanly escaped if he had just left the city.
When William saw him that night, he had been fast enough that others couldn’t pursue him.
Why was this case becoming so complex in the first place?
This case was becoming unnecessarily complex just because this so-called disciple of the Shadowless Divine Thief stole a copy without proper intelligence gathering, and then unnecessarily scattered tracking fragrance to give people headaches.
“Constable Meng, does one need special training to detect this tracking fragrance?”
“That’s right. Only trained individuals like these Tang family martial artists can distinguish the scent of the tracking fragrance.”
“Then how did this Shadowless Divine Thief’s disciple distinguish the scent?”
Constable Meng also looked at William with a startled expression, as if he had just realized this. William felt frustrated looking at his expression that showed he hadn’t thought of this at all.
Shouldn’t someone who had risen to the position of constable have deduced this much earlier? It wasn’t even that difficult to deduce this although William himself had only thought of this after some time had passed… In any case, this new question raised some points to be suspicious about.
“Constable Meng, About that tracking fragrance that you said was on my body. Where exactly was it?”
“…On your sleeve.”
…On my sleeve?
If it was on his sleeve, it could have easily been planted by anyone passing by.
William turned his gaze to the Tang family martial artist standing behind Constable Meng.
The martial artist, who had been idly twiddling his thumbs as if completely uninterested in the matter, seemed to sense William’s gaze and turned to look at him.
“It was on your sleeve.”
“Which side?”
“…The right.”
…William couldn’t understand why Hye-ryeong hadn’t had any fragrance on her if the fragrance was on his sleeve.
This was becoming more and more complicated.
“As you said, we need to find out how that thief detected the presence of the tracking fragrance.”
“We’ll find out once we catch the thief.”
“I know. But… there are many aspects that don’t add up.”
“Have you also noticed that Master Zhang is lying?”
“I’ve known for a while that he is lying to us. I didn’t press the issue since he clearly had no intention of telling the truth… but our task is clear.”
“we just have to continue Investigating.”
Constable Meng nodded with satisfaction at William’s answer.
“However, it won’t be easy. Since we’ve approached him like this, he’ll try to erase all traces. He probably won’t take direct action against us, but…”
“Are you saying we don’t have much time?”
He nodded with a complicated expression. As he acknowledged, they didn’t have much time. They had to catch the senior apprentice brother and uncover Master Zhang’s secrets in the shortest time possible.
“The most important thing is to catch this senior apprentice brother. If what Master Zhang said about the secret manual is true and his story about what happened in the past is real, that person will definitely show up.”
“But we can’t expect him to fall prey to such an obvious trap.”
An obvious trap would be easily detected, so the trap they were planning to set up needed to be a trap that was hard to notice until the very last moment.
One that no one would realize was there until they were caught in it.
“We need to set a trap that’s barely noticeable and wait for the prey to approach. That’s our job.”
“Then we should go see Master Zhang again.”
Constable Meng stood up and gathered his things. William unfolded his arms and followed him out of the office. Now they planned to meet Master Zhang to explain their strategy to him and request the necessary funds.
And so, they set out to start catching the thief who had stolen the secret manual in this city that never sleeps.
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“Hmm.”
Master Zhang made a displeased sound as he looked at the warehouse.
Regardless of his current reaction, we had already thoroughly spread a powder throughout the warehouse.
This powder was a paralytic powder… disguised as the tracking fragrance.
This warehouse was a place where people rarely entered unless for very special reasons.
Since no one but a thief would enter the warehouse, they would be quickly incapacitated if they inhaled the paralytic powder disguised as the tracking fragrance.
After spreading all the powder, we turned to look at Master Zhang.
“Are there any guards who have recently quit or shown any suspicious behaviour?”
“No.”
…So it wasn’t one of the guards.
It seemed certain that it was someone else from the people inside this mansion then that stole the manual. At the very least, there was someone in a position to obtain the tracking fragrance and hear information about the secret manual who aided the real thief.
Whether that person from the mansion was the real culprit or an accomplice was unknown, but catching them would reveal information we couldn’t otherwise obtain.
“Now we just have to wait.”
“Will they really fall for such an obvious trap?”
What did he expect William to do about his sceptical look? It didn’t matter whether the person they wanted to catch fell for thier ruse or not. The important thing was whether anyone attempted to enter this warehouse or not.
“Let’s wait and see.”
“…I’ll be inside. Do your best.”
Master Zhang turned his back and left the warehouse. His attitude suggested that he had little interest in the secret manual there. That was natural. After all, the secret manual hidden in the center of the warehouse was also fake.
As for the real one…
“Constable Meng. Let’s leave as well.”
We left the warehouse and headed towards the inn. We didn’t know how long we’d have to wait, but we needed to hide inconspicuously in the meantime.
I put on the bamboo hat I had casually tied to my back. My hair was too eye-catching, so this was an unavoidable choice.
“How long do you think it will take for anyone to come?”
“If Master Zhang is telling the truth, we should get some kind of reaction within a week.”
Though I wasn’t sure what kind of reaction it would be.
“Are you saying we need to stake out the warehouse for a whole week?”
“We just need to wait. Unless they’re immune to all poisons, it would be difficult to remain unaffected after inhaling the paralytic powder. Besides, this isn’t even the most important part, so we just need to move according to our pre-planned strategy.”
Although I hadn’t experienced it firsthand, at the very least it should slow down their movements.
“Then let’s go to our rooms. Aren’t you looking forward to the food we’ll eat in this massive mansion?”
It should at least be better than the inn’s food. They said there was a dedicated chef working here, after all.
I headed towards our assigned room with anticipation.
After all, this wasn’t the place we needed to guard.
And so, our stakeout that wasn’t really a stakeout began.
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I don’t think that Master Zhang will end up showing any mercy to anyone that decides to enters the warehouse to steal the manual.
Here we go…