The City That Never Sleeps (8)
“Any way I can help, mister?”
Help, huh.
I stared at Hyeryeong’s face, bright with enthusiasm, then spoke.
“...I’ll head out with Constable Meng to investigate. Every time you eat at the inn, I want you to say—loud enough for others to hear—‘Actually, the manual the thief stole was a fake. The real one is hidden away somewhere safe by Lord Zhang.’”
“I’ll do my best!”
“Thanks.”
I wasn’t sure how well Hyeryeong could act, but it wouldn’t be entirely useless. After all, she was the one they called the Flower of Hainan.
Any man would take an interest in rumors dropped by a beautiful woman.
If the rumor flowed from her lips, it should spread faster.
Of course, most would dismiss it as nonsense, but rumors have a way of traveling farthest when they’re interesting.
First we spread the rumor, then we provoke that so-called senior brother of his.
A man who’d spent his entire life clutching the Shadowless Divine Thief’s manual would realize it was fake soon enough. He’d come looking for the real one again.
I didn’t know how much risk he was willing to take… but for now we’d scatter the bait and wait for him to bite.
It was a simple trap, but an effective one.
Since we held the real item, he had no choice but to come to us. The moment he tried to steal it, we’d grab him.
How he’d learned about the Thousand-Mile Tracking Scent, and exactly what had been smeared on my body—we’d find out once we caught him.
We’d also learn why Lord Zhang had lied to us.
“Take care, mister~”
“Stay safe. And don’t cause any trouble.”
“I won’t!”
Hyeryeong wasn’t the type to stir up accidents, but I still couldn’t help worrying. Beautiful flowers always draw insects.
Of course, with the Hainan Sword Gate watching over her, they wouldn’t let just anyone get close…
Still, worrying too much would only cause problems. Time to focus on my own work.
I left the inn.
“Ah, you’re here.”
“Any progress?”
“I found a few more traces of the tracking scent. There were others with it on them, just like you. It seems the culprit deliberately placed the scent on different people to muddy the investigation.”
Deliberately putting it on others to create confusion?
It was a clever enough tactic, but when had he done it? I’d never seen him approach anyone.
“It doesn’t look like he applied it directly. More like he coated specific objects with the scent.”
“He’s going through a lot of unnecessary trouble.”
Simply erasing his tracks and running would have been enough. Once he left the city, it would’ve been clean. The night we saw him, he’d been fast enough that no one could follow.
Why was this whole affair so unnecessarily complicated?
The so-called disciple of the Shadowless Divine Thief had stolen a copy without even gathering proper information, eyes blinded by greed. Then he’d scattered tracking scent everywhere just to give everyone a headache.
“Constable Meng. Does the Thousand-Mile Tracking Scent require special training to detect?”
“That’s right. Only those trained—like the Tang Clan warriors here—can distinguish its scent.”
“Then how did the Shadowless Divine Thief’s disciple recognize it?”
At my belated realization, Constable Meng looked at me with genuine surprise. The fact that he hadn’t considered it at all left me feeling frustrated.
He’d risen to the rank of constable. Shouldn’t he have made this kind of basic deduction long ago? It wasn’t even that difficult…
Of course, I’d only thought of it after some time myself… Still, a new question had surfaced. Something worth investigating.
“Constable Meng. You said the tracking scent was on my body. Where exactly?”
“...Your sleeve.”
My sleeve?
That was a spot that could easily be brushed while passing by.
I turned my gaze to the Tang Clan warrior standing behind Constable Meng.
The man had been staring into space as if the whole matter held zero interest for him. When he felt my eyes, he turned to look at me.
“It was the sleeve.”
“Which one?”
“...Right.”
But Hyeryeong definitely hadn’t had any scent on her.
My head was growing more tangled by the minute.
“Like you said, we need to figure out how that thief learned about the tracking scent in the first place.”
“We’ll find out once we catch him.”
“I know. But… there are too many things that don’t add up.”
“Did you also realize Lord Zhang was lying, Constable?”
“I knew from the start. He clearly had no intention of telling the truth, so I didn’t press him… but our course is clear.”
“Background investigation.”
He nodded, satisfied with my answer.
“However, it won’t be easy. Since we’ve approached him this way, he’ll try to erase every trace. He won’t act against us directly, but…”
“Meaning we don’t have much time?”
He nodded with a complicated expression. Just as he’d admitted, time was not on our side. We had to catch the senior brother and uncover Lord Zhang’s secrets.
“The most important thing is capturing the one called senior brother. If the manual Lord Zhang spoke of really is the Shadowless Divine Thief’s, and if his story about the past is true, that man will definitely show himself.”
“But we can’t use an obvious lure.”
Blatant traps were easily spotted. It had to be something inconspicuous—at least until the moment it closed.
“We set a trap that’s barely visible and wait for the prey to approach. That’s our job.”
“Then we should go see Lord Zhang again.”
Constable Meng stood and gathered his things. I unfolded my arms and followed him out of the government office. We were going to explain the plan to Lord Zhang and secure the necessary funds.
And so we began our operation to catch the thief who had stolen the manual inside the city that never sleeps.
“Hmm.”
Lord Zhang let out a displeased groan as he stared at the warehouse.
Whether he liked it or not, we continued sprinkling the powder evenly across the floor.
The Thousand-Mile Tracking Scent… or rather, the paralyzing powder disguised as it.
This warehouse was a place people rarely entered unless there was urgent business.
Unless it was the thief, no one would come in here. Anyone who inhaled the paralyzing powder we’d scattered while pretending it was tracking scent would soon be incapacitated.
Once we’d spread it all, we turned back to Lord Zhang.
“Among your guard warriors, has anyone recently quit or shown suspicious behavior?”
“None.”
So the guards were clean, for now.
It was definitely someone inside the mansion. At minimum, someone in a position to obtain the tracking scent and learn about the manual.
Whether he was the true culprit or merely an accomplice, catching him would reveal information we currently lacked.
“Now we just wait.”
“You think he’ll fall for such an obvious trap?” He looked at me doubtfully, but there was nothing to say. If the thief took the bait, good. If not, also fine. The important thing was identifying who tried to enter this warehouse.
“Let’s wait and see.”
“...I’ll be inside. Do as you will.” Lord Zhang turned and left the warehouse, acting as if he had no interest in the manual at all. It made sense. The manual hidden in the center of the warehouse was fake anyway.
The real one was…
“Constable Meng. Let’s head out too.”
We left the warehouse and made our way to the inn. I didn’t know how long we’d have to wait, but we needed to stay hidden without drawing attention.
I pulled down the bamboo hat I’d loosely tied to my back. My hair was far too conspicuous; there was no helping it.
“How long do you think it’ll take?”
“If Lord Zhang is right, we should see some kind of reaction within a week—whether he likes it or not.” What kind of reaction remained to be seen. “You’re saying we have to stay hidden for an entire week?”
“We only need to wait. Unless the man is immune to all poisons, he won’t stay fine after breathing in that paralyzing powder. Since this part isn’t that important anyway, we’ll simply move according to the plan we already made.”
I hadn’t experienced it myself, but at the very least it would slow his steps.
“Then let’s go to our room. I’m curious what the food is like in a mansion this large.”
It had to be better than the inn. They even had a dedicated chef, after all.
With that expectation, I headed toward the room prepared for us.
After all, the place we truly needed to watch wasn’t here. And so our stakeout that wasn’t really a stakeout began.