503: Chapter 503: The Path to Redemption Lies in the Book (Super Long Chapter, Seeking Monthly Passes) 503: Chapter 503: The Path to Redemption Lies in the Book (Super Long Chapter, Seeking Monthly Passes) The sharp axe glead with an icy radiance in the sunlight.
The man had already begun to realize there was sothing off about this young man, either he was a madman or a special agent from so other transcendental organization.
Or both.
This was his safe house, and just in case, he needed to get rid of this guy and then move imdiately.
“Please wait a mont,”
As the tall man raised the axe, He Ao pointed to his chest, where a small black cara was flashing a faint light, “Please don’t make such a dangerous move, the cara on my chest is recording our conversation, and this will serve as evidence afterwards.”
“Once you’re dead, I’ll naturally crush your little toy.”
The man’s actions paused for a mont and he snickered, then continued to raise the axe high.
“Please wait a mont.”
He Ao picked up the law book in his hand.
The man paused again, his impatience growing in his eyes.
He Ao flipped open the law book to a page, “According to the law of Rodan, if you attack , I have the right to fight back.
The book in my hand is a very strong weapon.”
He held the law book, revealing a smile, “Stop it, the way to redemption is right here.”
“Then go ahead and fight back!”
The man laughed heartily, thinking the young man in front of him was probably a madman, and spat out impatiently, “Alright, kid, put away your death-delaying tricks.
Take your words to God.”
The sharp axe swung down suddenly, the powerful force creating a thunderous sonic boom in the air.
In that mont, the man seed to have already envisioned He Ao lying in a pool of blood with a broken head.
However, none of what he had imagined happened.
As the axe ca down, He Ao leisurely put away the law book and took a light step forward.
His movent was so casual and natural, yet it was completed at a speed almost imperceptible to the man’s eyes.
Then he saw He Ao raise the law book in his hand, revealing the tal corner that had been held in his grip.
The slightly reflective shadow of the law book swept through the void, smashing violently into the man’s temple.
Blood sprayed.
The man’s axe-swinging motion was frozen mid-air, and he struggled montarily, attempting to use his last ounce of strength to strike at He Ao.
But in the end, his vision went dark, and his body tilted forward with the montum.
He Ao slightly sidestepped and moved back half a step, avoiding the falling man.
“Ah, that’s why you shouldn’t run around with such dangerous weapons.”
He Ao crouched down, pulling the axe from the man’s grip.
The law book in his hand was already sowhat deford.
Of course, the law book with its tal corner was not the real weapon; even with a solid corner, such a book would cause minimal damage to soone of D level.
What had really shattered the man’s temple was the Miracle Wand that He Ao had concealed with “Silence Concealnt.”
Although it was a B-ranked ranged Magic Wand, it was also very effective in lee combat.
And just as He Ao took the axe, a figure in the room gradually moved toward the doorway.
It was a young woman with a curvy figure, wearing an apron, holding a pink pistol aid at He Ao, who was stooping down, retrieving the axe from the man’s hand.
Her movents were light, cat-like in their grace, almost completely silent.
Her slender, fair fingers rested on the trigger.
Humm—
A violent whir of cutting air suddenly erupted.
Bang—
The silver axe split the forehead of the woman right in the center.
Blood, like an upturned red coral, flowed over her cheeks.
Her body swayed for a mont, then with a thud, she collapsed to the ground.
He Ao stood up, stretched lazily, and took out his phone to call the gendarrie.
······Fifteen Minutes Later······
“Why is it you?”
The gendarrie captain frowned, looking at the earnest young man before him, who held a legal book in his hands.
“Actually, I ca here to educate them about the law,”
He Ao said sincerely.
Then he removed the cara from his chest.
······Half an hour later······
“Can’t you be more discreet?”
The gendarrie captain returned the cara to He Ao while his subordinates had already surrounded them.
“Others are afraid of encountering such thugs, but why do I feel like you’re rushing in to be attacked?”
“I just ca over to give them a lesson in law,”
He Ao shrugged.
“I think by now they truly understand firsthand,”
The gendarrie captain glanced at the bodies on the ground and waved his hand with a sense of resignation, “Alright, you can go.”
He Ao looked up at him, nodded with a smile, and said, “Thank you.”
Then he packed up his legal book and turned to leave.
——Two hours later——
“Why is it you again?”
The gendarrie captain took a deep breath, looking at He Ao who held a tattered red legal book.
Before He Ao could speak, he imdiately said, “Alright, I know you’ve co to educate the public about the law,”
He extended his hand, “Hand over your cara to .”
He Ao passed the cara over.
This ti, after receiving the cara, the gendarrie captain didn’t take out the mory card to watch but instead pocketed the cara directly into his pocket.
“I didn’t bring a storage device this ti, co back to the gendarrie with .”
He Ao looked at him with a hint of surprise and nodded softly, following the gendarrie captain towards the gendarrie’s vehicle.
“Be careful,” a gendarrie officer ca up to him as they were getting into the car, whispering in Tia language, “Our captain is touchy.
Although you killed those he dislikes, he might think you’re making a fool of him.
Be honest when we get back to the gendarrie; our captain prefers a soft approach over a hard one.”
At this, he smiled, giving He Ao a thumbs-up, “Nice job, I’ve been fed up with those bastards for a long ti.”
Most of these lower-tier informants were only providing intelligence for Li Le, and although Li Le was cautious in his selections, it was clear he still made a mistake.
These informants were not so ‘clean’; otherwise, they wouldn’t have betrayed Li Le so easily.
When He Ao found these informants, several of them were already mingling with the local gangs.
He Ao had no choice but to give these brutally violent gang mbers a lesson in law as well.
After finishing his lant, the gendarrie officer near He Ao sighed, “Ah, Eren’s public order is getting worse.”
“Was the public order in Eren city ever good?”
He Ao asked quietly.
“It wasn’t that good before,” the officer sighed again after hearing the question, “It was a bit better when the king just died.”
“I heard that the forr Rodan king was a scumbag?”
He Ao asked conversely.
“Scumbag doesn’t quite cover it,” the officer seed to recall sothing, “He was an outright bastard.”
In Tia language, the word ‘scumbag’ is a commonly used term that lightly describes soone as bad, while ‘bastard’ is a curse word.
“In his greed for money,” the officer said through clenched teeth, “our families had to pay taxes even for making a fire to cook food.
His lackeys would barge in on anyone they saw with smoke coming from their house, or if they slled sothing fragrant, forcing them to pay up.
Back then, we cooked with the windows closed, curtains drawn, mostly having cold dishes, his lackeys were everywhere on the streets.”
At this point, the officer got worked up and started spewing an array of colorful language in both Tia and Rodan languages.
He Ao learned a plethora of Rodan swear words that rarely appear in the dictionary.
Clearly, the last king of Rodan was indeed a bastard.
After the gendarrie officer finished his outburst, they had reached the vehicles.
The gendarrie officer shared a car with He Ao, and the gendarrie captain was also on the sa vehicle, sitting beside the driver.
He Ao got into the car first, followed by the gendarrie officer.
And just when the gendar’s foot had touched the vehicle, the gendar captain sitting in the passenger seat suddenly said, “Duona, deduct a day’s salary.”
“Ah?” Duona was startled and asked in confusion, “Why?”
“You stepped up with your left foot first.”
The gendar captain replied indifferently.
Duona: …
He Ao handed over a pack of the cigarettes he had bought earlier to the grimacing Duona with a smile.
The cigarettes were expensive and should exceed Duona’s daily wage.
After all, Duona was being punished for reminding him.
Helping out and not losing out ensured there would be a next ti to help.
The gendar captain, through the rearview mirror, saw what He Ao did but said nothing.
The group quickly returned to the gendarrie.
Upon arriving at the gendarrie, the captain said not a word, his face stern as he directy brought He Ao into his office.
The decor of the office was not extravagant: it featured a sofa, a wooden coffee table, and a desk laden with various docunts in disarray.
“Speak,” the gendar captain leaned against the front of his desk, lit a cigarette, and looked at He Ao, “what exactly are you trying to do?”
White smoke billowed from his mouth, “Eren City is so chaotic, those bastards died, so be it, you didn’t need to find the gendarrie.
And judging from your skills, your identity isn’t simple.
I don’t want to, and can’t, involve myself in your affairs.”
He turned around to face He Ao, “As for , I don’t have much ambition, nor do I care about these so-called duties of justice and safety as a gendar.
I’m in this position to make more money and find a few beautiful won,”
He Ao didn’t reply to him.
He walked over, eyed the chaotic docunts on the desk, and casually picked up a file,
“The ashtray was almost filled with cigarette butts; the mug on the desk had severe coffee stains, yet your clothes are neat, and the door handles are clean.
The adjacent sofa and coffee table are spotless, proving you are a person who cares about his image.”
“So, what are you trying to say?”
The gendar captain, holding his cigarette, tapped a corner of the ashtray, shaking off the gray ash.
“I rember when I saw you yesterday, your facial grooming was very neat, but today, there’s so untrimd stubble and faint dark circles under your eyes.
So,”
He Ao smiled and gently waved the docunt in his hand, “a gendar captain who only wants to make money, spent last night in his office reviewing case files?”
The gendar captain calmly gazed at He Ao’s face, the cigarette perched on the ashtray, emitting faint sparks, with wisps of smoke rising slowly.
Just as the embers were about to reach his fingers, he shook his hand, dropped the gray ash, and stubbed out the butt in the ashtray, “Yesterday there were two cri scenes; I saw you nearby both, so you ca for this case?”
As he spoke, he casually picked up a file, “I thought all last night, but could not figure out the killer’s thod, why they didn’t leave any traces, or how they disfigured the victim’s body to that extent, and this.”
He placed the file on the table, opened to a page featuring a stain of dried blood, where a few clear words had been traced out, “‘It has co’ – who does this refer to, why did the victim leave us this ‘hint’?”
“I didn’t co solely for the case,”
He Ao picked up the file that the captain had laid on the desk, it was the dossier of the first victim He Ao had seen in the alley yesterday.
His gaze quickly swept over the docunts, and he spoke softly,
“Perhaps we should consider a different angle.
This ‘hint’ might not be for us.
When the case thod isn’t getting answers, why not start from the victim instead?”
“Hm?” The gendar captain frowned slightly, “What do you an?”
“The victim was a female, twenty-five years old,” He Ao, glancing at the information in his hands, said slowly, “She left Allen during her middle school years to study in the Yika Republic and only returned after graduating from college.
Her alma mater was the Yika Institute of Technology, which to my knowledge, is among the top twenty engineering schools in the Western Lands,
“And after graduating from this prestigious university, what was the job she took upon returning to Rodan?
A clerical position in a small company earning a monthly salary of only 3,200 Rodi, whereas the average starting salary reported by Yika Institute of Technology for its graduates is around 9,300 Rodi per month.
“There’s a clear disparity in inco compared to her classmates.”
“If I were her,” the gendar captain pulled another docunt from the stack, “I would feel a severe sense of injustice.”
“And on this job that paid barely more than 3,000 Rodi a month, she had been working for nearly three years.
The company she was employed at was not particularly generous; her salary had only increased by 200 Rodi over those three years.”
He Ao turned the page, “Yet, her spending was high; you found brand na bags and coats worth tens of thousands of Rodi in her ho.
Her family was decent, but her parents were just better-than-average wage earners who couldn’t support such high expenses.”
“She had a credit card from Yika Trade Bank,” the gendar captain pondered, “with a credit limit of two hundred thousand.”
“Yika Trade Bank is an old-established bank of the Western Lands, known for its conservative managent style.
Do you think this bank would extend a credit line of two hundred thousand to a clerk with a monthly salary of only three thousand?”
He Ao smiled, “Unless the bank had records of other sources of inco for the deceased.”
“Are you suggesting she had another ‘job’?”
The gendar captain raised his eyebrows slightly, “But we can’t demand Yika Trade Bank to provide records of the victim’s other sources of inco.
I have tried; they only shared so credit card information.”
“It’s not necessarily about getting support from the bank,” He Ao smiled, “Yika itself carries a certain implication.”
The Yika Republic is one of Rodan’s neighbors, and also a bulwark against the encroachnt of the Tia Empire in the Western Lands.
Of course, He Ao also had so other information.
For example, the Yika Trade Bank was one of the cooperating banks of the ‘World Tree,’ a Transcendent organization in the Western Lands, providing banking accounts and loan services for so World Tree employees.
“Are you saying she’s from Yika…?”
The gendarrie captain mused, “The company she’s working for now, they provide services for the Tia Empire.”
“This case has already gone beyond your authority.”
He Ao said softly, “Soone should be contacting you soon.”
Ding ling ling——
No sooner had he finished his words than the phone on the desk began to ring.
The gendarrie captain glanced at He Ao and reached for the phone.
“Okay.”
“Hmm.”
“I understand.”
After a brief exchange, he hung up the phone, looked at He Ao, “They said upstairs that these cases have been handed over to a higher departnt, and soone will co to transfer the files with soon.”
The so-called higher departnt must be the people from ‘Moonlight.’
Then the gendarrie captain, with a thoughtful look, gazed at He Ao, “This case isn’t that simple, is it?”
Without waiting for He Ao to answer, he started to collect all the paper files from the desk, stacked them up, and secured them in a large folder, which he handed to He Ao, “I’ve ‘destroyed’ these files.”
He Ao looked at him with a slight surprise and took the folder, “Thank you.”
“No need to thank , I trust you more than those jerks upstairs, at least you seem to be a good guy,”
The gendarrie captain shook his head, took out a business card from the drawer, and handed it to He Ao, “I hope I can trust you.
If you need my help, call this private number, and when you leave, turn right down the stairs, there’s a small door, don’t bump into the people coming from upstairs.”
He Ao looked at him and nodded slightly.
“Wait a mont,”
Just as he was about to turn around and leave, the gendarrie captain suddenly stopped him.
He looked at He Ao, “Not too many people will die, right?”
He Ao turned back to look at him, “If all goes well, no.”
“Thank you.”
The gendarrie captain smiled.
He Ao left.
The door to the office was slowly pushed open.
Du Na approached the captain sitting in the office chair, gazing out at the city through the window, and carefully offered a cigarette, “Captain, about my day’s pay…?”
“You took their cigarettes, and you still want a salary?
Do you think I’m ‘petty’ enough to give you a salary?”
The gendarrie captain glanced at Du Na.
“Heh heh,” Du Na chuckled, “Captain, look, I’ve got the elderly and youngsters to take care of…”
“I know, get lost.”
The gendarrie captain accepted the cigarette.
“Hehe, thank you, Captain, thank you, Captain.”
This signified all was well, and Du Na quickly said, “Our Captain is magnanimous, with a heart as expansive as the vast rivers and seas…”
“Stop blowing smoke.”
The gendarrie captain lit the cigarette with an impatient wave of his hand, “I’m petty.”
“Captain, what did you say to that guy from Central Earth?”
Seeing that the captain wasn’t angry anymore, Du Na asked curiously; he was still sowhat worried whether He Ao might have been subjected to harsh interrogation by the captain.
“He’s fine,”
The gendarrie captain glanced at Du Na.
He was well aware of his subordinate’s concerns, and besides, using harsh interrogation, he might not even be able to subdue He Ao; he didn’t want to get legally pursued.
He lit the cigarette and put it in his mouth, looking out the window at the sowhat dilapidated city, “I just did so things that one in my position should say and do.”
The afternoon sun shone on the old city, mingling shadows and light together.
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