Chapter 81

◈ Chapter 81: The Approaching Night Walk (3)

Before Lloyd went to interrogate Rudger, Tereena gave him one command.

“Lloyd.”

“Yes, Commander.”

“If you can’t get a proper answer from him, give up cleanly.”

“Is that all right?”

“Yes. But in the end, shake his hand when you part ways.”

“Shake his hand?”

“Do it naturally. You understand what I mean, right?”

Lloyd didn’t ask why.

The night before.

In the alley, Tereena had explained everything.

The assassin of the Kalsa faction was killed by a mage specialized in close combat.

If he could take down the Kalsa faction’s assassin, he must have been more than just a superficially trained fighter.

Then, how could one verify the traces of such training?

By looking at the hands.

Handling cold weapons with the hands would inevitably make them rougher and harder than those of an ordinary mage.

“Did you shake hands without gloves?”

“I didn’t, but he was wearing gloves.”

“I see. But just a pair of gloves wouldn’t have hidden it from you, right?”

Lloyd nodded.

In the end, what he was after was the handshake at the end.

The questions he had asked beforehand were a ruse to divert the other’s attention.

“So, how did it go?”

“Yes. The feeling I got from shaking his hand was...”

Lloyd reported the facts he had confirmed.

“He is an ordinary mage who has received no special training.”

“What?”

Tereena’s face twisted in confusion.

* * *

After Lloyd left, Rudger was alone in the staff room, sitting at his desk and clenching and unclenching his fists.

“A handshake, huh.”

To an outsider, it might seem like a casual gesture to conclude a meeting.

But from Rudger’s perspective, it was a truly revealing act.

‘Lloyd of the Nightcrawler Knights under the Security Bureau. In his late twenties, wearing glasses, with neatly parted hair. Steady gaze and a meticulous nature, right?’

He had felt it during their conversation.

Lloyd asked his questions calmly and clearly, as if he had prepared them all in advance.

Like a well-rehearsed script.

While answering his questions, Rudger had the illusion of building a wall.

The bricks piled up, eventually surrounding him.

And that’s how he was trapped.

And the final handshake from Lloyd.

‘Continuously asking questions to mentally pressure the other, then delivering the decisive blow at the moment of relaxation. Thorough. A very sophisticated method.’

If he didn’t know better, he would have shaken hands without a second thought.

But Rudger immediately guessed his intentions.

‘That man Lloyd must have searched my personal office before I arrived.’

When Rudger entered the room, Lloyd’s gaze was directed at the window frame and the top of the bookshelf, and his fingertips were brushing over the books in the study.

He was checking places where human touch is rare and dust easily accumulates.

Controlled actions. Immaculate attire.

A nature that even refused the light refreshments offered.

Rudger was certain.

He had a bit of a compulsive personality.

Would such a person request a handshake without gloves?

‘He was trying to confirm something through the handshake.’

What could he be trying to confirm?

Sending magic power through the clasped hands to gauge the other’s strength?

That would be considered a very rude act, an attack on the other. Even the Nightcrawler Knights wouldn’t do such a thing lightly.

Moreover, he was a teacher at Seorun.

Even the Security Bureau, known for its aggressive nature, couldn’t treat him so casually.

‘Then, what could he confirm just by shaking hands?’

Exactly, the traces.

The marks on the palms.

‘Last night, the Security Bureau’s knights found the scene where Viola and I fought. I don’t know how they got there, but it was a close call.’

And they must have found clues from the traces of the fight.

The culprit was a mage, but also skilled with weapons.

How was that possible? If asked, the Nightcrawler Knights would likely say it was possible.

There was magic, and a stabbed corpse. Given their elite status in the Security Bureau, they would have figured it out quickly.

‘Indeed. He was trying to confirm if I was the culprit through the handshake.’

They are clever.

To confirm a suspect as the culprit just by shaking hands.

If he hadn’t known, he would have thought, “What kind of people are these?”

But.

If he knew, it was a matter of being able to handle it.

Rudger recalled the conversation he had with Seridan before leaving the hideout.

‘Seridan.’

“Yeah? What is it, sir?”

“I have one favor to ask before I go.”

“What is it? Making something?”

“Yeah. Can you make something like an inner glove that fits on the hand? Something soft, like human skin.”

“What?”

“Is it possible?”

“Of course! But making it exactly like human skin is difficult right now. I need to examine the material, which takes time.”

“That’s fine. I can handle the rest with my magic.”

“Okay. I have some leftover materials from the artificial skin mask you used. I’ll make it work. Oh, but what happened to that mask?”

“It was torn and thrown away.”

“What?!”

The artificial skin from Seridan.

Rudger attached a part of it to the inside of the glove’s palm.

That’s right.

The sensation Lloyd felt through the glove during the handshake was not Rudger’s real skin.

‘Even a knight of the Security Bureau wouldn’t notice.’

Seridan’s skills are genuine. The artificial skin she made is indistinguishable from real skin.

The mask made from it could easily pass through the thorough inspections at the border.

Unless someone had touched it and noticed the subtle difference from the actual wearer’s skin, they wouldn’t know.

Who would notice that from a handshake with someone they met for the first time today?

‘The knights of the Security Bureau. They thought well, but only to a certain extent.’

Rudger slightly curled his lips and began reviewing the test questions for the first exam.

* * *

“Senior. Is that really true? You’re not mistaken?”

“Do you think I wouldn’t know such a thing?”

“No, but...”

“Enya. Stop it. Lloyd wouldn’t have missed it, right?”

“But Commander...”

Tereena was quite troubled.

Rudger, who she thought was the only clue, showed no suspicious signs.

The last straw turned out to be a dud.

‘Does this mean the case is back in a dead end?’

The real culprit is hiding somewhere in Ledervark.

But she couldn’t figure out who it was.

She knew the population of Ledervark and the size of the city.

‘Arsène Lupin. I thought I had found the trail of that man.’

Am I going to miss him again?

Tereena Ryanholt clenched her fist.

Before she was known as the Patriotic Knight, even as an elite of the knights, she had never tasted failure.

She had always been successful, but this was her first defeat.

Born into nobility, with innate talent and the effort to match, she was defeated by a mere thief.

No, not a mere thief anymore.

A master thief.

A man who steals the unstealable and mocks many wealthy figures.

Arsène Lupin.

She wanted to find him immediately.

‘I can’t afford to waste more time on an investigation that isn’t progressing.’

At this point, her role was over.

She was the commander of the Nightcrawler Knights under the Intelligence Bureau.

It was a position where she couldn’t move freely.

“Lloyd. Enya.”

“Yes!”

“Yes!”

“I’m leaving for the capital now.”

“Then, what about the investigation of this case...”

“Without a proper clue, we can’t proceed further. It’s on hold. I have to report it to the higher-ups.”

“Is that it?”

“I can’t stay here indefinitely. I’m a busy person. So, Enya, you stay here.”

“Yes?”

“Stay in Ledervark. If anything suspicious happens, report it to me without hesitation. Understand?”

“B-but, Senior? Wouldn’t it be better if you...”

“No. Lloyd has other tasks. Lloyd, do you agree?”

“If it’s your order, Commander.”

“Eh, well, even so, to suddenly say...”

“Enya. Please.”

“...!”

This was not an order from the Security Bureau.

Enya realized it was a personal order from Tereena Ryanholt and nodded resolutely.

“Yes! Commander!”

“Good. I believe you can handle it.”

Tereena said this and was about to leave.

At that moment, Lloyd called out.

“C-Commander! Are you really leaving like this? Even if you should at least meet that teacher Rudger...”

“No. I can’t do that.”

“Why...”

“I came here under ‘those conditions’.”

“Those conditions?”

Lloyd couldn’t understand. Was it so difficult to just meet someone?

Tereena, about to explain the situation to her confused subordinate, sensed someone approaching and turned her head.

“Just in time.”

“Huh?”

Lloyd and Enya also looked in the direction Tereena was looking.

A woman was slowly approaching them.

‘When did she...’

Even though she was close enough to see clearly, they hadn’t sensed her approach.

White and light pink two-tone long hair.

A beautiful woman, swaying her hair in the morning sunlight, approached with a bright smile and waved.