Ch.146The Fourth Entanglement – Elegy for the Vigilantes (7)

“This is becoming a problem. How can we chase ourselves? I mean, it’s our case.”

Leonard Price was the one who said it would be fine to use police methods to maintain order in the city, but for now, they couldn’t get caught. Everything needed to be revealed only after all was done.

After killing everyone named in that ledger, they would demand to know what the police had been doing while they handled everything. That would surely bring change to this rigid organization.

Since starting this vigilante work, he had regained his health. The trembling and startling that had worried his wife and children were gone. Having control over his own life was such a pleasant feeling.

Their car was heading toward the warehouse by the dock where they had rescued Simone Proci before. It was their temporary investigation headquarters. By now, it could be considered official. The crime they needed to solve was the corruption of the city.

Detective Li, who was driving, came up with an idea. It wasn’t a bad one. In Leonard’s personal opinion, it was even enjoyable.

“So, you said there are quite a few traitors within the police force. What if we kill some of them and frame them as the culprits? Everyone already suspects the crimes look like police work…”

Those traitors could be of some use after all. They couldn’t touch the angels because guns didn’t work on them, but they had been weeding out the traitors among non-angelic police officers one by one.

It was simple. They just needed to write confession notes claiming to be the Inquisitor and place them in front of the bodies.

“This is why I wanted to work with young people on this. Your thinking is so open. I would have only thought about eliminating them.”

Before starting this work, Leonard had been quite rigid. He would select people based on seniority and refused to trust anyone outside his circle.

But this work had changed him. To find people who shared his thoughts and ideals, he needed to look more broadly. Before dismissing them as “irresponsible youngsters,” he needed to trust them.

When trusted, they showed their abilities. It was almost sad how narrowly he had lived until now. After being liberated from Charles, he felt like he had regained everything fresh and invigorating.

Detective Li glanced back briefly. He had the feeling that the same car had been following them. It seemed he was mistaken. Though the car had been on the same road for quite a while, it turned off to the side.

After driving a bit further, they arrived at their investigation headquarters. They opened the ledger that they worshipped like dogs, yet also despised like the prostitutes and traitors littering the streets.

With hands that seemed to be touching the God-President’s scripture, they traced through the ledger. The next name was scratched out with a pencil. Names began to appear. Everyone watched with expressions as if receiving divine revelation.

This was not a crime. This was not murder. When Abraham heard the God-President’s command and picked up a knife, people didn’t call it attempted murder. That’s what Leonard believed.

As the names were fully revealed, Leonard felt an uneasy sensation. Perhaps because of the sea breeze seeping into the dock, he felt a cool draft coming from somewhere.

Someone’s gaze swept over them. Without a clatter or rustle, they began watching inside. Desks and files were scattered messily. The place smelled strongly of police work.

And as expected, they have the ledger. Four people, like I saw last time? Better to keep watching. Whoever dies from that ledger doesn’t concern me anyway.

Leonard didn’t notice this someone. So they remained unknown to him. With a blind belief that this place was safe, he suppressed his anxiety and continued reading the names.

“This is the next one we need to catch. Even if the amount isn’t large, we can’t let anyone go who spent even a penny in such places. We’ll check the records available at the station first… and handle it as usual. Oh, and Detective Li, help me choose which traitor to frame as the culprit. Those dirty bribe-takers should be put to some use.”

Leonard flinched again at that moment. He still felt something ominous. The sensitive perception of elves often caused such spasmodic reactions, so he deliberately ignored it.

Using traitors in such a way. That police officer was the one the journalist had called when rescuing the children, claiming he was a contact. Rose Leafman’s connections were no different from Charles Clichy’s.

Then there must be something left at the New York branch of the Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn. Someone continued the thought.

That police officer is the type who feels reborn after sticking his head in a basin of water and repenting. That someone despised such people.

Whether you kiss the feet of a deity or stick your head in a water basin making gurgling sounds for a few seconds, what you’ve already done doesn’t disappear. He was still the police connection of the Forest’s Firstborn.

After watching inside for a long time, someone lightly jumped from the windowsill. Leonard thought the sound of something falling was the source of his uneasiness and rushed outside the headquarters.

There was no one. It was quiet as if no one had ever been there. Did he rush out after hearing that sound? The detective who had quickly hidden himself almost clicked his tongue but stopped. An elf’s senses were terribly sensitive.

“Is something wrong, Inspector? There doesn’t seem to be anyone.”

Detective Li, who had followed him out, looked around with him. Being human, his senses weren’t as keen as an elf’s, so the detective was just someone to him. Leonard shook his head.

“No, it’s nothing. Elves have unnecessarily sensitive senses. Even wind sounds make me anxious. And in this situation, it’s no wonder I’m more on edge…”

Leonard felt a terrible anxiety crawling up his ankles again. Though he thought he was cured, he was still a madman trembling at betrayal and evil deeds. He was becoming more and more like Charles Clichy.

The Forest’s Firstborn left a curse too. The journalist made him able to make the same expression, and Leonard Price was made to resemble him to the point of believing he was doing the right thing.

Only after they went back inside the warehouse did the detective leave the dock. After getting away from that location, he grabbed a public phone and called the journalist. The call connected soon.

“Hello, Rose Leafman speaking. Could it be…”

After confirming the voice, he answered without listening to the rest. The detective wasn’t one to make long reports.

“I followed him for three days, and on the day of the murder, he only came home at dawn. You said the killing happened around 10 PM. So I followed him today and saw him with the ledger in a warehouse by the dock. Do you believe me now?”

Now the detective didn’t need to worry about the Madam. Once it was revealed that the police had stolen the ledger, the Madam wouldn’t be suspected by others. Rather, it was proof that she hadn’t coveted the ledger.

So now the detective’s responsibility was just to help the journalist. And this case was somewhat personal. Dealing with disgusting humans who believe people can change easily is always personal.

The vigilante business wasn’t that important. After all, the detective himself did it quite often. He had no intention of discussing the value of human life now. He wasn’t going to invoke the name of justice.

Rose made a sound as if she couldn’t breathe. She barely gathered her broken breath to form words.

“If it’s a warehouse by the dock, was it set up like an investigation headquarters inside?”

Rose remembered the day before she was attacked by the detective. Perhaps because Simon Proci’s body had surfaced from the sea, the special investigation team led by Captain Leonard had set up a headquarters by the dock.

The entanglement was deep. Everything felt deeply intertwined, down to the white tips of the roots. She barely exhaled.

“Yes. It looked like it hadn’t been used for months, but it was set up that way.”

The statement that it looked unused for months was proof itself. Rose coughed a few times before speaking in a whisper.

“I won’t doubt you. I’ve been there before. Ah, you don’t need to explain the plan over the phone. Let’s see. I’m at home with Willem, so please come over.”

The detective, having received the address, drove to a much more run-down, or rather ordinary, street than the neighborhood he had visited last time. This wasn’t an issue that needed to be handled as quickly as when he was the Hanger of New York.

When he reached the house and rang the doorbell, the journalist soon ran out to open the door. Her expression showed firm resolve but also considerable anxiety. It was probably because her worries had become reality in just a few days.

The detective, who only briefly nodded in greeting to Willem who followed Rose out, entered the journalist’s apartment, which now somewhat deserved the name, and sat on the guest sofa.

Rose, despite being the homeowner, followed the detective in and spoke with an anxious voice.

“So, what are you going to do? I’ve been meeting with the victims’ families for days… but got nothing. They just seemed to have lived well-hidden lives.”

Is there a need to hide the plan? Since he wasn’t planning to kill everyone, there was no need to hide it. Still, it was better to confirm once more.

“That police officer, he was Charles Clichy’s connection, right?”

The journalist nodded briefly. Then there would certainly be information at the New York branch. Now they couldn’t just barge in invoking the Forest’s Firstborn’s name, so they needed to sneak in.

“Then I’ll cause internal strife. They were talking about framing the bribe-taking traitors, and there’s no way a collaborator of the Forest’s Firstborn didn’t take some crumbs. We just need to break into the New York branch of the Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn and steal some documents. If we show how much that police officer took, the four will scatter. That’ll make them easier to catch.”

Even if the evidence was somewhat lacking, they would accuse each other and provide evidence. Seeing that the matter had once again returned to the Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn, the journalist sighed.

No matter how much she tried to escape, she always seemed to return to the starting point of her father. She knew that the effects of what he had done wouldn’t disappear so easily, but feeling it on her skin was different.

Willem, who had been quietly listening, looked at the detective. To Willem, the detective was no different from them. Any discerning person would think so.

“This might be rude… but is there any difference between you and them?”

The detective didn’t mind much. As always, he answered with a smirk.

“At least I talk about money instead of justice. That’s quite an important difference. I do the job because I got paid. If you’re not going to pay me to make moral judgments, then clients should do those lofty and noble things themselves. Oh, and I don’t like being criticized by people who dump all the dirty work on my hands and then feel good looking at their own clean hands.”

Willem thought the detective was a villain. He thought of him as someone who lived in muddy waters, not sticking his head out, but knowing how to shake off grabbing hands with his slippery body.

His judgment was somewhat accurate. The only difference was that the detective neither justified nor enjoyed evil deeds. In fact, he probably didn’t judge most actions as good or evil.

Now Willem understood why the journalist had described the detective as a contract worker. With this deeper understanding, Willem asked a more accurate question.

Unlike his previous question, which had subtle accusation and malice, this one didn’t.

“Ah, you just don’t like them. You’re just annoyed. Isn’t that right?”

The detective raised the corner of his mouth in a smirk.

“It’s funny. An elf who was taking money from the Forest’s Firstborn until recently is now trying to play the role of a justice apostle. It’s very funny and very unpleasant.”

Willem thought that this detective might have been the one who destroyed that brothel, but he didn’t voice it. That was also a funny thought. No one could do such a thing alone.

The journalist again saw anger in the detective’s eyes. It wasn’t directed at others but at himself. Despite being within arm’s reach, he seemed so far away.

She could imagine how someone trapped by their own choices would view the current Leonard. He would appear irresponsible and short-sighted. That’s why he was acting.

But the journalist resembled them in a different way than the detective. She was someone who spoke of justice but wouldn’t go as far as they did.

“For now, I won’t oppose you getting documents about Uncle Leonard from the Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn. Their influence has weakened, so there will be fewer guards. You should be able to get them without much trouble. But please consult with me before spreading those documents. Pandemonium’s Madam hired you to help me, after all.”

For now, she wasn’t speaking of morality. Only those who love morality can be persuaded by it, and a contract worker needed to be persuaded by invoking the terms of the contract.

“Sure. Are you going to find another way?”

“Persuasion… I guess that’s not possible? Usually, I’d think, ‘If I persuade this aspect with these words, and that aspect with those words, I could convince them.’ But…”

Rose thought about the documents the detective was going to bring. Evidence that Uncle Leonard was just another corrupt police officer taking bribes, written by her father. She thought she might see a way this time too.

“Instead of consulting, if you find those documents, please bring them to me too. I might be able to persuade him with them. Uncle Leonard must know that he joined my father of his own will. That’s why he’s trying to escape. He’s trying to escape by doing what he thinks is justice and feeling like he’s doing the right thing. If I say it like this, it might work.”

Within every madness lies sorrow. Within her father’s madness was the sorrow of not wanting to be the one who burns to death while protecting his family, and within Uncle Leonard was the sorrow of wanting to erase the fact that he had helped her father’s evil deeds, even while knowing that fact couldn’t be changed.

Knowing they can’t be purified but denying it, blindly believing they can be purified… there was such sorrow in their obsession with cleanliness and justice while actually moving away from cleanliness.

So remembering that sorrow might make them stop. Rose planned to compose a melody and lyrics for that sorrow, creating an elegy to offer to this vigilante group.

For that, she needed evidence. If she tried to persuade them knowing only that they were involved, it would backfire. She needed evidence that would show exactly how much they received and what they did, evidence that would show she understood precisely.