"Why did you kill the leader of this Grimaldus group?! You already have him defeated! You could just subdued him and take him in alive, for questioning!"

"You do realize that you're talking about a guy from a dark guild who just conducted a demonic ritual to bring a monster to existence, right?" I met the interrogator's glare evenly, refusing to back down. "I have no idea what the extent of his abilities were. For all I know, he could be secretly casting a spell, getting ready to fight back. I know I sensed a lot of mana churning inside his body, in preparation of some big spell. I refused to take the risk and let him get away, or hit me with his spell. So I finished him off before he could do anything funny."

"But from what I see here…" the interrogator indicated a paused section of my recording, where Green Dragon had all but crushed Henry James into a broken mess. "You already subdued and incapacitated him! You didn't have to kill him!"

"You should know that mages can still cast spells, even with their bodies broken." I did exactly that when the Crastrates broke my neck. "If he attacked me while my guard was down, or I allowed him to complete the casting of his spell and got killed when he unleashed it, are you going to take responsibility? You are the ones who showed up all late to the party after I defeated the demon that he summoned into this world, and then you complained about how I handled it. Easy for you to criticize me when you're not the one actually fighting and facing the risks on the ground."

"You…!" the interrogator growled, but his partner held him back. The grizzled veteran looked about forty and was a lot more composed and calmer than his younger colleague. He studied me with those dark eyes, probably using his years of experience to sc.r.a.pe out as much information out of me as possible.

"Don't go fighting with kids now, Ichinose," he growled. "The kid has a point. It's our fault for responding too late to the distress call. If it weren't for this kid, those other two kids would have been sacrificed for the demonic ritual. h.e.l.l, I doubt we have anything in our a.r.s.enal that could have stopped that Chaos Chimera. We should have suffered horrendous casualties while trying to buy time for the Sword Saint and her party to arrive on the scene."

He then paused, as if realizing something.

"I did find it weird that the Sword Saint and her friends were already well-prepared and ready to move out shortly after the police was mobilized. h.e.l.l, it was as if they already antic.i.p.ated this…and then in your recording…"

He played out the dialogue where Henry James essentially admitted that this whole thing was set up for Kureha Franklin and friends to play hero. The poor fool didn't realize that my gla.s.ses could record everything, and he gave away the secrets.

"d.a.m.n it. This might not be conclusive evidence, but we still have to bring the young miss of the Franklin family in for questioning." Ichinose was grabbing his head in frustration. "What the h.e.l.l is going on?!"

"Relax, Ichinose," his older colleague told him, and then brought a cigarette to his mouth and drew a deep breath of smoke before puffing it out. "One thing at a time. It's clear that there's a conspiracy at work here…"

"Will we even be able to get a warrant approved? It's the Franklin family, you know?! One of the ten great families!"

"I'm sure they'll find some way to deny the links to this." The veteran interrogator sighed, and then turned back to me. "Do you have any other information to provide?"

"Not really." I shook my head. "I shared everything I know. I just hope you guys will inform me when you get intelligence regarding Grimaldus. If you plan to make a move against them, I want to be part of it."

"Heh…" the veteran glanced down at his holographic screen. "We probably wouldn't have to. It says here that your old man is a freelance mercenary, and you have close links to the Silver Wolves. You will probably be called upon for your services soon enough."

"Huh?!" Ichinose turned upon his older colleague, his jaw dropping open in disbelief. "Why would we be hiring mercenaries?!"

The veteran gave the younger interrogator a dry glare. "The police isn't equipped to deal with criminal mages. Why do you think mage mercenaries exist? Because they are armed with the tools, weapons and spells needed to fight monsters and other mages. We're just ordinary police – our basic spells aren't enough to fight the military-scale spells that these dark guilds have access to. We'll just get blown up."

Basically, you do not call in the police with their revolvers and shotguns to try and deal with paramilitary troops armed with automatic rifles, carbines and rocket launchers. Even with the S.W.A.T. and their submachine guns, it would still pretty much be a one-sided slaughter. You would nee to call in the military or other paramilitary forces.

"Anyway, thanks for your cooperation. We'll contact you again if we need anything else." The veteran reached out to shake my hand, and I was finally released from the interrogation room. Stepping outside, I saw that Adrian and Melina were waiting for me. As for Zhao Yan, she had been allowed to return home earlier, when her parents showed up to pick her up. I hoped she wasn't in any trouble, but judging from what I knew of the Nan Gong couple, they would be more worried for her wellbeing than angry that she played hero.

"They finally let you out, Brother Richie!"

"We were so worried!"

"Nah, I showed them everything and told them the truth." I tapped my gla.s.ses and smiled. "They can't press charges on me for anything. But��"

"?"

Melina looked confused when I turned to her with a serious expression. Taking a deep breath, I placed a hand on her shoulder and chose my next words carefully.

"I don't know what will happen to your family. Your cousin, Kureha, is under suspicions for getting involved in this whole mess."

"Cousin Kureha will never scheme anything like this!" Melina insisted angrily. I pursed my lips and nodded.

"You're right. I've fought alongside her before. I won't pretend that I'm very familiar with her, but from my few interactions, I know that she's not the kind of person to murder people like this. Perhaps she is arrogant, but she's definitely not a murderer."

However, she did lose her sister. I couldn't remember the details, but Kureha had also mentioned that there were family feuds even way back then, where she suspected that her relatives had plotted to have her and her sister killed. We had learned that it was Frank Franklin and his son, Fred Franklin, who had created the Foundation Research Group as a front, and collaborated with the Dark Church to a.s.sa.s.sinate her.

"What happened to your Uncle Frank and cousin, Fred?" I asked, suddenly remembering those two. It had been a long time since they showed up, and I remembered they vanished shortly ater the invasion of Jing Tian City.

"Eh? I have no idea. They went missing, but then Father said not to worry about them. Cousin Kureha, Uncle Kensuke and Aunt Kathleen were furious after Cousin Kurenai's death…they wanted answers, but Uncle Frank and Cousin Fred just…vanished. We never saw them again. They've been missing for several months now."

Everything fitted now. The doom of Jing Tian City (except that we saved it), and now these deaths.

"Give me a second." I then k.o.c.ked on the door, and Ichinose and his older colleague poked their heads out.

"Eh? You're still here? I thought I said you could go home."

"I just remembered something." I glanced at Melina, and then returned to the two. "I don't know if there are any links, but I wonder if you guys know anything about Frank Franklin and his son, Fred Franklin."

"Ah…honestly, no. We heard they vanished a few months ago, and despite searching, all our leads turned cold. It was as if they vanished off the face of the earth. We figured they got mugged and killed somewhere. Not unusual for the ten Great Families to engage in bulls.h.i.+t like this. Not the first time either."

"Do you think it's possible that they went underground?" I was already connecting the dots inside my mind. "If that's the case, it's not impossible that they might have sought refuge with a criminal guild such as Grimaldus."

The lights went on in the veteran's eyes, and he nodded thoughtfully.

"That might be a feasible explanation. I will definitely let the higher-ups know about this, and see if we can find any links."

"The kid might be right!" Ichinose exclaimed excitedly. "Perhaps the reason why we couldn't find any sign of that father-son pair this entire time is because we were looking in the wrong places! It never occurred to us that they might be hiding out wth the dark guilds!"

"We actually did consider that they might have thrown their lot in with the Dark Church," his older colleague reminded him. And then he paused, slowly turning to me. "The Dark Church. Demonic ritual. An artificially triggered Emergence event…"

"It all fits," I agreed, seeing the connections. I glanced at Melina. "It is possible that the mysterious client is your Uncle Frank."

"That doesn't explain why he is aiming only for Melina and helping Kureha here." Adrian looked puzzled. "From what you told me last time, this Frank person and his son, Fred, were plotting Kureha's death and successfully killed Kurenai. So why would he suddenly turn around and help Kureha benefit from this Emergence event?"

"…I don't know," I admitted. Ichinose also looked stumped, but his colleague struck his palm with a fist.

"Diversion."

"Pardon?"

Everyone turned to stare at him, but he was pacing up and down the corridor, growing increasingly excited. He looked up at us, his eyes wild.

"Don't you see? It's all part of the plan, to incite infighting within the Franklin family. To have them blame each other and tear each other apart. Let's say the Duke suspects Kathleen Franklin and her daughter – he will make a move against them. of course Kathleen and her husband, Kensuke, will not just sit back and let themselves get killed. the whole Franklin family will descend into internal strife and destroy themselves from within."

"…if that is indeed their goal, we cannot allow that to happen."

Everyone spun around at the sound of the voice. Fergus Franklin had appeared, along with Amelia and an entourage of security staff. Melina's eyes widened.

"Father? What are you…?"

"I heard that my daughter was in danger, so I rushed over." Fergus Franklin breathed a sigh of relief as he strode over to wrap his arms around her tightly. "I'm glad to see you're safe, Melina."

He then nodded at me, Melina still locked in his embrace.

"Thank you for saving her, Richard."

"Not at all, it's my job. In fact, it was my huge blunder that led to them being kidnapped even though I was supposd to keep watch over them."

"That couldn't be helped. The enemy is professional, and you did your best." He rose to his feet and nodded at the police. "In the coming days, I'll provide the police with resources from my family. We will get to the bottom of this matter."

"Y…yes, sir!" Ichinose was overwhelmed, while his older colleague nodded.

"I appreciate it, Duke."

"Good." Fergus then turned away, gently leading Melina out of the corridor. He gestured for me and Adrian to follow him. "But for tonight, please allow me to bring my daughter home, along with her friend and private tutor. I'm sure they are very exhausted after his ordeal."

"Yeah." The veteran cast sympathetic eyes at us, and then he vanished from sight when Adrian and I stepped out of the police station, eagerly following Fergus and Melina to his private limousine.

Please go to to read the latest chapters for free