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chapter 87
Clare woke up with a shout of joy.
“Knife Rabbit! It’s Knife Rabbit!”
Amid her exclamations, the faint sound of little feet hopping around the room could be heard.
“And these are the first evolved form, ‘Judgment of the Law’ Knife from Chapter 58, and the second evolved form, ‘Righteous Welfare Slaughter’ Knife from Chapter 87!”
“Our little pup must have woken up,”
Biss said, looking up at the ceiling. He had set up a little trap in the room as a gift beforehand so that Clare wouldn’t rush out immediately upon waking.
While the toy held Clare’s attention, everyone busily cleared the breakfast table.
“Five days,”
Gloria finally said.
“Within that, the hunt ends.”
Everyone nodded.
Clare appeared holding a surprise gift.
“Thank you!”
She bowed deeply, down to her waist. Clare didn’t know who had given her the gift, but it was certainly from her family.
“Grandpa, look at this!”
Clare proudly showed Biss her twin swords strapped to her back.
She pursed her lips tightly and narrowed her eyes, trying to look dignified in her own way.
“Cool, right? Huh?”
“Now that you have knife weapons, has our little pup gotten stronger?”
“Hehe, with this, I’m invincible!”
Clare loved the gift so much that she didn’t put down her twin swords even while eating breakfast at the table.
“Did you know? In Chapter 114 of Knife Rabbit, Knife Rabbit combined these two swords to defeat the illegal slaughterhouse gang.”
Even while cutting into a perfectly fried sunny-side-up egg with a fork, Clare’s Knife Rabbit knowledge didn’t lose its shine.
“…Is this really a work for all ages?”
Leto still didn’t approve of Knife Rabbit.
“It might be a prejudice, but I prefer my sister-in-law playing with dolls,” he muttered.
“I wouldn’t call it prejudice, but I prefer her playing energetically like that,”
Noah said. That way, she’d tire herself out and sleep early at night.
Noah welcomed any play that could drain energetic Clare—but of course, games that risked crime or accidents were excluded.
“Take this, brother-in-law!”
The family had to endure being struck by Clare’s special moves from the very start of breakfast.
“Bludgeon of the Livestock Hygiene Management Act! Chapter 3, Section 7, Paragraph 1!”
“Ugh!”
Meanwhile, Leto dramatically vomited the berry juice he had secretly stashed in his mouth.
“…I killed my brother-in-law!”
While Clare froze in shock, thinking she had committed a crime, Leto received a sharp pinch in the side from Noah as punishment.
“Do you want to visit the Oceanus Mansion this weekend?”
Before heading to work, Leto rubbed his sore side and asked Clare.
“The general invited us. He said it’d be great if we brought friends too.”
“Really? I want to go!”
Clare wanted to show off her toy to her cousin!
Humming the Knife Rabbit theme, Clare happily went to school. The visit to Oceanus Mansion was exactly five days away.
“Then let’s head to work too.”
Noah, who had boarded the red steed first, spoke. Soon, the red steed and a black high-end magical vehicle descended the hill.
Gloria and Biss’s black car carried Femina, paired with Noah’s Mas. Starting today, Noah planned to channel his aura into Femina after personal training with Gloria.
“Welcome, Colonel.”
Diligent Lieutenant Feist appeared with the documents Leto had to handle.
“This could have been a good morning…”
Seeing the work waiting, Leto already longed to go home. Yet his body moved efficiently.
“What’s today’s schedule?”
“No major changes, but the captain asked if the afternoon meeting could be moved up by an hour…”
Nothing urgent today—meaning the south remained peaceful.
“Lieutenant Feist.”
Leto, having processed a document, commanded.
“Do we have any military motorcycles?”
“Yes. The military police drive them for escort duty, don’t they?”
“Do they go fast?”
“Excuse me?”
“Go check it out.”
“Now?”
“Yes, it should arrive before morning training begins.”
Even better if he could bring it himself. Leto smiled faintly at the flustered Feist while signing the third document.
“…May I ask why?”
“I’m curious,” Leto replied.
“…Oh, is that why?”
“No, nothing like that…”
Not wanting to hear sarcastic remarks, Lieutenant Feist hurried out. Leto waved, telling him to take care.
Then, alone, he made a phone call.
“…Hello?”
[…Ugh, was that you calling?]
A groggy voice complained from the other end.
[Why are you calling so early in the morning?]
“I need a favor.”
[Hey, I already told you back then.]
“I really risked my life to find out.”
During the Finichi district explosion investigation, Laxso’s warnings were no exaggeration: the informant had been tracked, injured, and almost exposed at their base tavern. Since then, Laxso and his informants had been extremely cautious.
[I nearly died! And I still have to watch my back.]
“This time, it’s not dangerous.”
[Do you think I’d believe you?]
“People have to trust people. Closing your heart only makes things harder for you.”
[Opening my heart just made me suffer!]
Ignoring the curses over the line, Leto ordered:
“Check the business-related events in Sharp territory.”
A man in a gray fedora with a black band sat with a cup of coffee, two sugar cubes, and a newspaper bought from a stand.
“These days, we’ve had a lot of guests like you,” said the café owner, offering two small cookies.
The man smiled with his eyes and opened the newspaper.
“Any interesting news?”
“If there were, it’d be troubling,” the man replied, preferring mundane, unremarkable events in the paper.
“Still, the notable ones…”
He read several articles the café owner seemed curious about:
“Summer vacation of the Oceanus family, odd antics of the Adbello family, the saint missing for seven years, the king’s next successor…”
“Nothing different from yesterday’s paper,” the owner chuckled, enjoying the peacefulness.
He glanced outside the window; the man also looked sideways.
“Lots of patrolling officers these days.”
“There was a recent attempted kidnapping.”
The Adbello family had issued instructions to reinforce security in the south.
“Luckily, the kids weren’t hurt.”
“Yes, it was just an attempt. Targeting children is really despicable.”
After trivial chat, the man left the tip on the cup and stood. It was a generous tip, and the café owner’s smile lingered.
The man carried the newspaper he had just read and a black briefcase. At that moment, a group of guards passed by, part of the naval security forces helping patrol Sharp territory.
“…”
He pressed his fedora further down and increased his pace. He arrived at a famous tourist hotel in Sharp territory.
A business expo would be held there in a few days. He planned to attend, present his business proposal, and secure investments—at least on the surface.
“Welcome.”
“Good to see you. Lovely weather today.”
“Perfect summer weather. Have you strolled along the beach?”
“I’ll try to go out.”
Greeting the hotel staff he had grown familiar with, he headed to the 8th floor where he was staying.
“8th floor.”
“Thank you.”
He handed the elevator attendant a generous tip and entered his room.
As the door clicked shut:
“Damn…”
The man cursed, throwing one of his shoes into a corner. He was not speaking the kingdom’s language.
Four men were already in the room—his colleagues who had been there since he began staying at the hotel.
“I think we need to revise the plan.”
The colleagues’ expressions hardened.
“Patrols have increased. Adbello issued orders to strengthen security. I saw for myself.”
“Were we discovered?”
“No.”
He relayed what he had heard in the café.
“There was a recent attempted kidnapping. The orders are precautionary.”
“Better to be careful,” said a short-haired man lying shirtless, his body muscular and scarred—a clear sign of rank and experience.
“You’re right,” he agreed with the man who had returned from outside.
“Kidnapping, huh…”
The man smirked.
“Not a bad method.”
“Did you get a whistle?”
Clare, twin swords on her back, proudly showed Noah and Leto the whistle she received at school.
“If a bad person appears, you blow it like this.”
Whoosh!
As Clare took a deep breath, Noah and Leto quickly covered their ears.
Piiiii-!
The piercing whistle echoed loudly.
“Huff… huff…!”
Clare staggered, panting from blowing with all her might.
“Ugh, dizzy…”
“Geez, who told you to blow it with all your might?”
“Grandma said if a woman decides to do something, she must see it through…”
“Don’t blow the whistle indoors. It hurts your ears.”
Noah and Leto, now upstairs having changed clothes, chatted for a moment.
“…Business expo?”
“There’s a high chance they’re hiding there.”
Leto identified the hotel where spies might be hiding—the same one they had stayed at during their honeymoon.
