{T/N: In my 3-month-long absence, I've not been idle. I managed to stockpile 54 chapters.
I'll be releasing them periodically over the next 5 weeks on the standard rate of 10 weekly chapters.}
...
Viscount Verde's bodyguard, Beavis, was not adept at investigating Beyonder cases. Once the trail went cold, he had no choice but to return and report to the viscount.
Meanwhile, Viscount Verde, already utterly drained from his bouts of diarrhea, dispatched someone once more to notify the Mandated Punisher agents, urging them to find the culprit at all costs.
When Conard, a senior deacon of the Mandated Punishers, learned that Viscount Verde was demanding they investigate who had slipped him laxatives, he was furious enough to swear.
Only after kicking a table across the bar did he vent a sliver of his anger.
At that moment, Conard was at the Passion Bar, leading a team to investigate the Lelouch case. Out of caution, however, he still instructed a subordinate to perform a divination.
The result revealed that the person who drugged Viscount Verde with laxatives was neither Lelouch nor an accomplice of his.
Mr. Gale's subordinates were, of course, no accomplices of Lelouch.
Assuming the viscount had offended someone at some point and that the person had seized the opportunity for revenge, Conard did not take it to heart, merely asking the police to look into it properly.
Presently, he was in charge of Lelouch's case, which weighed heavily upon him. The police chief had even come in person the previous night, insisting that they take Lelouch alive during the arrest under any circumstances.
The City Hall and the Backlund Police Department were under immense pressure. If Lelouch were to die now, regardless of whether it occurred while resisting arrest, the situation would spiral out of control, very likely escalating into protests and political unrest.
What the police chief did not know was that by the time Conard traced the trail to the Passion Bar, it had essentially run cold.
Simon, Lelouch's manager, had vanished. The surrounding gangs had all received word of his death and had begun vying for control of the Passion Bar the previous day.
Several of his capable subordinates had also died in the gang warfare, and the remaining bartenders and staff could provide little of value, not even knowing how Simon and Lelouch had first met.
Now, only three clues remained. One was how the neighboring gangs had learned of the man's death in the first place.
Earlier, Simon had avoided the police by lying low for several days, prompting nearby gangs to stir restlessly; yet it was only the night before last that they received definitive word that he was dead.
As for the messenger, one gang boss claimed it was an enigmatic man whose hat obscured part of his face, while another said it was a heavily bearded man. In short, no one had clearly seen the person's face.
This lead had not been entirely fruitless. During their search of the surrounding gangs last night, they had captured a fugitive.
In the course of the arrest, the Mandated Punisher Beyonders had used their abilities, which was why an abnormal clap of thunder had echoed across the night sky of Backlund.
Yet this capture did nothing to aid the search for Lelouch!
Another lead was the address where the latter had last operated: Unit 176 Riverbay Avenue.
They had tracked down the landlord of the property, only to be disappointed once again because the landlord had finalized the lease entirely by correspondence.
The rent was somewhat higher than the market rate, but on one condition: the landlord was barred from inspecting the interior during the lease. In return, the tenant had promised a deposit of 100 pounds, from which any damages to the property could be deducted.
Swayed by such a hefty deposit, the landlord had agreed to the terms.
Over the past two-odd years, the landlord had occasionally observed the property Lelouch rented from outside the door, noting that it seemed unoccupied. Yet because the rent always arrived promptly, and with 100 pounds, which was equivalent to three years' worth of rent, safely held as a deposit, he had honored the agreement and refrained from probing any deeper.
Now, look where it had brought him... the house had caught fire, and he had no idea whether the 100-pound deposit would even cover the renovations. More importantly, someone had died there, making it nearly impossible to find a new tenant anytime soon.
Naturally, the agents of the Mandated Punishers cared nothing for the landlord's grievances. Taking several letters with them, they prepared to pursue their investigation using the correspondence.
Soon, however, they discovered that both the envelopes and paper were ordinary items purchasable at any regular stationery shop.
Moreover, the postmarks originated from post offices scattered across the whole of Backlund, rendering them utterly useless for tracing any meaningful leads.
The third lead concerned Simon's family. After inquiries through various channels, they learned that his wife and daughter had been staying with one of his relatives.
Yet when the Mandated Punishers tracked down the residence, they found that on the very day of Lelouch's incident, the mother and daughter had already been collected.
The three individuals who came to fetch them had likewise concealed their faces using various methods. Knowing that Simon was involved in unsavory underground businesses, the relative had seen them produce his family heirloom pocket watch and refrained from demanding to see their faces.
The only lead of any value the Mandated Punishers secured from this was a sketch of a rented carriage, but rented carriages across Backlund were practically indistinguishable, and an investigation into the license plate quickly confirmed it had been forged.
When Viscount Verde sent men to ask for assistance, Conard was already racking his brains over the leads for this case, with zero energy to spare on investigating who had slipped laxatives to the viscount!
Judging by the rental records, he found it hard to imagine that anyone had been secretly plotting for over two years just to eradicate Backlund's underground fight club!
'Could someone really have spent that much time orchestrating such an enduring conspiracy just for the sake of something as fleeting as justice?'
Thinking this over, Conard considered that looking into the victims' families might prove worthwhile; perhaps some leads could be uncovered there.
Beyond that, Lelouch's counter-investigation capabilities were simply astounding! He had systematically severed every single thread.
In the end, harboring little hope, Conard decided to question the bartenders and staff of the Passion Bar, "Has anything unusual happened at the Passion Bar recently?"
Held under the watch of the Mandated Punisher agents, the men squatting on the floor eagerly offered various pieces of information, but none of what they said was worthy of attention.
Until one of Simon's subordinates spoke up: "A few weeks ago, someone won three matches in a row in the arena."
At first, hearing that it had happened weeks ago, Conard assumed it was yet another useless lead, but then a thought struck him: 'Three wins in a row? Lelouch had also kept a winning streak...'
He pressed further: "What was his name?"
"Dunno."
"Where did Simon find him, then?"
"Dunno."
"Did Simon stay in touch with him after the fight?"
"Dunno."
"I..." Conard raised a hand to strike the man, then slowly lowered it.
In the end, the Mandated Punishers used Beyonder means to obtain a portrait of a young man.
Conard froze: 'Isn't this Odis Gale?'
...
Back when Odis visited Simon's underground fighting ring, he hadn't yet considered destroying the Backlund Beyonder fighting arena.
Inevitably, he had left behind a few traces, but shielded by the Knowledge Moor, the official Beyonders' divinations were utterly useless for tracking him down with them.
Even if they did manage to find him, he could entirely rely on his identity as an informant for the Machinery Hivemind to prevent the Mandated Punishers from arresting him. Without Beyonder powers being used in an interrogation, he had no fear of routine questioning by official Beyonders.
After all, he had already forged an alibi in advance.
At this moment, that matter was hardly Odis's primary concern. Unsure whether the Machinery Hivemind would intensify their surveillance over him once more, the only thing he could do right now was carry on as usual, never showing the slightest anomaly.
This was a way of living Odis was intimately familiar with. He had, after all, once endured more than a year of strict surveillance under the Machinery Hivemind.
A Mysticism Research Society gathering was scheduled for this morning. As usual, he first took a rented carriage to Unit 77 Hilton Avenue.
There, he changed into his Leader attire and activated the teleportation circle in the basement, emerging at Unit 199 Hailin Avenue.
Leaving the basement, he took his seat as the Leader and watched the members arrive one by one.
At nine o'clock sharp in the morning, Odis spoke: "Let us begin."
Before exchanging intelligence, four more members purchased potion formulas from him, netting him 920 pounds right at the start of the gathering.
Meanwhile, just as Odis had anticipated, members such as Peacock and Wolverine also began offering potion formulas for sale. However, only two members remained who hadn't yet bought one, and they were distinctly more interested in the potion formulas he had to offer.
Soon, people began inquiring about the main ingredients required for the potion formulas. Yet, because Beyonder transactions had been scarce in this gathering previously, this sudden surge of people seeking Beyonder materials caught everyone empty-handed.
For the moment, only a single deal went through...
Once the Beyonder transactions concluded, the members moved on to trading intelligence or posting commissions.
Hound was the first to speak: "There's a high bounty for information regarding Lelouch's whereabouts!"
The female member, Peacock, asked, "How high is this 'high bounty' of yours?"
"Someone has offered 200 pounds for information on Lelouch's whereabouts, along with a massive 2,000-pound bounty on his head," Hound replied, then added, "Apart from that gentleman's bounty, the police department will also pay a handsome reward. If you can eliminate Lelouch, you can claim a total bounty of 3,600 pounds!"
The size of the bounty stirred quiet whispers among several members. It was indeed a vast sum, but since none of them knew which Sequence this Lelouch belonged to, none dared to take up the offer.
Odis thought to himself: 'Heh, Viscount Verde lost a son, yet he's only willing to put up 2,000 pounds? And the official Beyonders only put up a bounty of 1,600 pounds? Who do they think they're looking down on?'
"You couldn't possibly have failed to even track down Lelouch's whereabouts, could you?" "Peacock" chuckled, "Such a high bounty only proves how difficult this task is."
Hound did not answer her question, instead adding, "Furthermore, providing any clue regarding Lelouch will earn a reward between 30 and 100 pounds."
The entire living room fell silent for two seconds. Hound's final bounty practically declared that they currently had no leads on Lelouch whatsoever.
Wolverine remarked with emotion, "A single Beyonder set a fire right in Backlund, where powerful figures gather in droves, and the official Beyonders couldn't find a single clue about him. This... this is honestly quite the feat!"
'It's well worth learning from for our Aurora Order.' He thought.
The Leader, Odis, nodded in deep agreement.
The other members had also read about Lelouch in the newspapers, but the reports focused primarily on Bishop's crimes with scarce descriptions of the former.
Still, anyone who had read the news knew that Lelouch had to be a Beyonder. In their minds, this figure should have long been apprehended by the official Beyonders and locked away in a specialized prison.
Who could have thought the official Beyonders possessed no clues about him at all?
Giraffe, an attending member, voiced the question on everyone's mind: "What Sequence is Lelouch?"
Hound took a deep breath before saying, "Sequence 8."
Many members of the gathering gasped in unison, especially those who were Sequence 8 themselves: 'We're all Sequence 8, so how can the difference between us be so vast?'