Ke-style law enforcement officers

Chapter 313 A Frail Soul

"Since it's already been handed over, it's nothing to be surprised about.

Old Theon wasn't hard to find; he frequented only a few places: the law enforcement office, the pleasure house, and the tavern.

Old Theon showed no surprise when he heard that the patrol had taken Milo's weapons.

"Nero is protecting you in a roundabout way. It's just a gun; we can just get another one."

“That’s why I came to you.” Milo squinted.

He knew that old Theon was an expert in some unorthodox matters. Nanwei City did not have very strict gun control, or rather, this was the case throughout the country. Nobles probably had more firearms stockpiled in their homes than the armory of the law enforcement agencies. As long as you had money, getting a gun was not difficult.

However, getting a good gun without spending money is a bit difficult.

Old Theon knew Milo well; he knew the kid would never pull money out of his pocket.

He rubbed his head and thought for a moment, then finally said:
"Alright then, you definitely won't be interested in flintlock muskets anyway, and the inferior products from black market workshops are even worse. It just so happens that I'm planning to investigate the Duller and York families tonight. It's quite easy to get some weapons from nobles. I'm not very mobile right now, so it wouldn't hurt to include you in the list."

"What do you mean? Robbery?" Milo narrowed his eyes.

"Can you even call robbing nobles robbing? It's all smuggled goods anyway. It's just that they've got connections and nobody's investigating. Even if we empty their warehouses, nobody will report it to the law enforcement office the next day." Old Theon said, pulling a slip of paper from his pocket and handing it to Milo:

"This is the address I found. Remember it. The Duller family and the York family are both involved in human smuggling. The purpose of investigating them is to find out the origin of those murderers. So we should be careful when we do this. We might run into those assassins. But we shouldn't be that unlucky."

“Hunters, we call them hunters now.” Milo took the note, glanced at the address on it, nodded, and then muttered, “Crocodile is quite the informant, isn’t he? He can even find out these kinds of rumors. Do you spend your free time investigating these kinds of things?”

"He's not bad at all." Old Theon scoffed. "I sent him to investigate missing persons, and he hasn't found a single clue in years. I'm even thinking of getting a new owner for that lousy casino."

"Missing persons?" Milo raised an eyebrow.

Old Theon took a deep drag on his cigarette, exhaled a cloud of smoke, and said in a deep voice, "Eric and the others."

"Oh~" Milo suddenly realized.

After the funeral, everyone seemed to believe that the group of seven would never come back.

Thinking about it, besides himself who knows the truth, old Theon is probably the only one left in the entire city of Nanwei who is still relentlessly searching for the whereabouts of the Seven.

Milo didn't know where to begin, so he could only mutter, "Have you found any clues?"

Old Theon, who was usually absent-minded, suddenly perked up and became incredibly energetic, looking nothing like someone who had just been shot. He spoke fluently and at length:

“I’ve reviewed all the missing persons cases in Nanwei City over the past decade. Nearly 7% of the missing persons cases were lost without a trace due to a lack of clues. But I’m certain that some cases are not accidental. If we simply list the missing persons cases within one or two years, the data won’t be much different from other cities. But if we statistically analyze the data for a whole decade, it’s not hard to find that the proportion of missing persons cases in Nanwei City is higher than that of several neighboring cities, and it’s several times higher. Yet the case-solving rate for missing persons cases is lower than in other cities. Isn’t that unreasonable?”

“Nanwei City has a law enforcement academy, and its law enforcement officers are more powerful than those in surrounding cities. In those cities, missing persons cases might not be solved immediately, but the remains of those unfortunate souls who died in the wild or from natural disasters are often discovered a few years later, leading to a case being closed. But in Nanwei City, that's almost never the case. Those who disappear seem to vanish into thin air.” “So there's definitely something fishy going on. I've been tracking missing persons cases, and I haven't stopped…”

……

"Uh……"

Milo didn't know what to say.

He knew that old Theon was almost obsessed, but after much deliberation, Milo decided against telling him about the banished shadow.

A person who has already undergone psychiatric treatment probably has very little SAN value left. If you tell him about things beyond his comprehension, such as the Necronomicon, the Finich Manuscript, and the Banishment Spell, Milo will probably have to go to the York family alone to steal a pistol tonight.

Forget it, let him be obsessed.

At least keep something in mind.

Essentially, Theon and Moggold of Galid are the same kind of people. Although Moggold is somewhat crazy, he was able to live to that age because he firmly believed that there were ghosts in the desolate mountains and that he had a duty to protect that cursed land. Otherwise, he would probably have had his sanity completely drained and gone insane long ago.

Therefore, Milo does not agree with Raven's statement that the human soul is too weak to resist temptation.

Ultimately, there are some people who can withstand it.

Those who still have something to hold onto in their hearts can do it.

……

"So what do you mean? When do we make our move?"

Milo didn't intend to dwell on the topic of missing persons any longer.

This is a bottomless pit from which the truth will never be found. The more they talk, the more excited old Theon will become, and the more excited he will be, the more Milo will feel that this is cruel.

“After dark, let’s check the Duller family’s docks first.” Old Theon nodded. “The crocodile said that they have indeed had large cargo ships entering the port through clandestine routes recently, but no new cargo has appeared in Arden Village. In my opinion, that smuggled cargo might be from those…hunters, right?”

“Okay.” Milo nodded. “What about the York family?”

“We’re still investigating the York family’s situation. If we don’t find anything with Duller, we’ll head straight back to Arden Village to find Crocodile. He should be finding a clue soon. Information trading takes time.” Old Theon paused for a moment, then reached out and poked Milo’s shirt. “Don’t wear that white shirt anymore. Change into something darker. We’ll be sneaking into the docks. The nobles have deployed quite a few guards there.”

"That's it."

Milo seemed thoughtful:
"If we're going to sneak in, I can bring one more person with me; it might work wonders."

(End of this chapter)