The drunk's eyes were wild with terror. He nodded frantically.
Shadow Cheng Shi eased his grip slightly and released the man. The drunk imdiately blurted:
"Spare —spare my life! I'll tell you everything! Just please don't kill !"
"I really did co for that thing, but I swear I don't know where it is!"
'That thing!'
A gleam flashed in Cheng Shi's eyes. He uttered two words: "The divine gift."
"Yes! The divine gift!"
"Have you seen it? What is it?"
"Never seen it!" The drunk shook his head faster than a rattle drum. "I only saw Kandert kill Koshna to steal it. I—"
"Wait—who? Kandert killed Koshna?"
Cheng Shi blinked. "Wasn't Koshna killed by a group of jealousy-crazed citizens of Redi Core?"
"Yes, that's also true—but those people were sent by Kandert! He bought emotion-manipulating potions on the black market, dosed them, and then—while they were out of their minds—secretly restrained Koshna and let the poor fools stab their daggers into Koshna's throat."
"So the mastermind behind everything was him!"
Hearing this, Cheng Shi had an epiphany: "Then the one who killed Kandert and impersonated him... was you?!"
The drunk's pupils contracted violently. His eyes went wide and the words flew out: "No!"
But under Cheng Shi's piercing stare, he quickly crumbled, hanging his head in defeat:
"...It was ."
"I didn't an to kill him. I just wanted a glimpse of the god's gift. But he wouldn't give
a single chance—even threatened
with a blasphemy charge. I had no choice but to fight back."
Cheng Shi hadn't expected his stakeout—an unintentional gamble—to reel in such a big fish. He said with great interest:
"Talk. From the beginning. Tell
everything."
"If you don't lie, I might consider letting you live."
Under the threat of death, the drunk held nothing back and spilled every last detail.
The drunk's na was Max—a black market rchant who drifted between the undergrounds of several cities. Kandert's potion had co from him.
"Folly's followers rarely buy potions from . My custors are usually non-devout multi-believers."
"So when I recognized the man doing secret deals with
as Kandert from the Folly Prohibition Office, I kept my eye on him."
"I knew that when people like them risked embracing a foolish act, enormous profit had to be involved."
"I've always been interested in profit. So I followed him in secret."
"Until one day, he used the potions he'd bought from
to poison several citizens' judgnt—drove them insane—and used the confusion to secretly pin Koshna down, letting those poor wretches plunge their blades into Koshna's throat... That's when I knew I'd bet right. I was holding this town's biggest secret!"
"After witnessing it, I spent a long ti debating whether to use it as leverage to extort so treasure from him. But curiosity won out in the end. I wanted to know why a Folly Prohibition deputy would murder his own superior."
"Jockeying for rank isn't exactly a secret, but Folly's followers rarely use such unconvincing thods to prove themselves. As you must know, they're impossibly proud—they can't accept embracing foolishness themselves."
"So the night Koshna died, I snuck into Kandert's ho. I found Koshna's body and the report on the desk."
"That's when I learned the statue could produce ravings, and that Koshna's investigation had yielded results—the statue had bestowed a divine gift upon Koshna one night!"
"Kandert killed Koshna for that divine gift. He wanted to keep the god's blessing all to himself!"
"I made a slight noise from the shock, and Kandert discovered . But since I wasn't a local and had no direct conflict of interest with him, I wasn't worried."
"I only wanted a peek at what the divine gift was. But Kandert refused repeatedly—even tried to kill . I had no choice but to fight back."
"I killed him, but still couldn't find where the divine gift was."
"So I decided to impersonate Kandert, retrace his daily routine—hoping I'd discover where he'd hidden it."
"But on my very first day on the job, I discovered soone had dug up Kandert's body..."
"That person... was you, wasn't it?"
"..."
'Sharp enough.'
'But... the divine gift is gone?'
Cheng Shi's expression darkened. He hadn't expected he'd done sothing stupid.
He'd assud Kandert's killer was the mastermind who knew everything. Instead, the murderer had stumbled into the role and knew nothing.
If he'd known, he should've asked Kandert's corpse where the divine gift was hidden. Now his one-and-only question had been wasted.
'Sigh, if only Dragon King were here. At least a mory follower would have a way.'
There was technically a mory follower in this trial, but unfortunately he'd killed her. And even alive, with her attitude, she'd never have cooperated.
Cheng Shi frowned and asked: "Were you the one who tore pages from Koshna's report?"
Max blinked and imdiately shook his head:
"No! I deliberately left it in the most conspicuous spot, hoping that soone close to Kandert would notice and react—so I could observe and find new leads."
"But everyone respected him. Nobody committed Knowing Folly."
'Not him?'
Now Cheng Shi was stumped. 'Could there be a fourth player in all this?'
"What did the last few pages of the report say?"
Max recalled carefully:
"It was about Koshna's thods of verifying the ravings..."
"He replicated every behavior of every person who'd heard the ravings, but found nothing unusual. Until finally, fed up, he drank a bottle of wine and truly passed out drunk before the statue—that's when the statue bestowed its divine gift upon him."
"I was pretending to sleep in front of the statue just now to replicate his behavior—clinging to a one-in-a-million hope that I might receive another divine gift..."
"But the statue didn't react at all. I haven't even heard the ravings. Probably because I'm not a local believer."
'The statue protects believers. Non-followers can't feel its gaze. That makes sense.'
Cheng Shi nodded and asked offhandedly: "Who do you worship?"
At this question, Max instantly sobered. He bowed his head and intoned:
"Fabricated laws, the universe's punchline. My lord... Chaos!"
"?"
Though he'd suspected as much, the mont he confird that this black market rchant stirring up chaos in Redi Core was "one of his own," Cheng Shi felt a bizarre wave of absurdity.
'What is this?'
'Chaos's underling in a trial, making a ss on behalf of Chaos's big brother?'
'But you've made such a ss I can't even find the divine gift anymore.'
Cheng Shi pursed his lips and continued:
"So your manhunt for the escaped prisoners was also about finding clues?"
"Yes, I was grasping at straws—anyone who'd been in contact with Koshna or Kandert was a potential lead."
"I hadn't been thinking about those unfortunate prisoners, but when I heard that half-dead fugitives had broken out, I assud the divine gift had activated. So I sent n to—"
'Reasonably thorough thinking. As expected from one of Chaos's own.'
But it was all useless information. After listening this long, Cheng Shi had the full picture of the incident—except for the most critical part.
Was the divine gift the Eye of Mockery? And where had Kandert hidden it?
He thought briefly, then asked: "What happened to Koshna's eyes?"
"I don't know. When I saw his body at Kandert's place, the eyes were already gone. I figured Kandert was afraid soone would extract information from the residual data in the eyes and trace it back to him—so he destroyed the evidence..."
"You know how it is. Folly followers—their eyes are always a little... odd."
"..."
'I have a feeling you're throwing shade at Folly's followers. But I like it.'
Cheng Shi snorted, then released Max.
"You can go."
Max's eyes lit up with joy: "Really?"
"Really."
"But you can't leave Redi Core. At least not until I find where the divine gift is. Stay here and be ready when I call."
"Of course, I won't restrict what you do. If you manage to find it before
and bring it to ..."
"I wouldn't mind putting in a good word for you with Lord Ultraman."
"!!!"
At the ntion of that lord's na, Max trembled from head to toe: "You... you know Him?"
Cheng Shi curled his lips into a deeply aningful smile.
"Know Him? We go way back."
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