It was early in the night.
Michael and Lily were walking down the crowded streets of the inner city.
They were alone.
There was a comfortable silence between them.
Alexia and Kang were scouting a nearby site where a Spirit Beast attack had recently occurred just the day before.
Unfortunately, their Squad didn’t get the chance to participate in that battle. Because by the time they even heard about the attack, it was already over.
But they did arrive just in time to try and stop the Knights of the City from covering up yet another incident.
However, this got them into trouble with the Overlord.
Lord Everan accused them of meddling in official city matters and claimed they had no authority to interfere.
In response, Michael threw around the Academy’s name.
It forced the Overlord to reluctantly back off as he ordered his Knights to do the same.
Because of that, this Spirit Beast attack wasn’t covered up.
The media reported the aftermath in full, and the whole city slipped into a slight state of panic.
It wasn’t anything major — not yet, anyway.
But even here in the uptown, far from the slums where the attack happened, Michael could see the anxiety and unease in the citizens’ eyes.
Anxiety was taking root.
Fear was spreading.
Much more than it had been just a few days ago.
Michael wondered if he had made the right call by stopping the cover-up, but Lily reassured him with her support.
And deep down, he knew he had.
To solve the mystery behind these attacks, he needed evidence — evidence that the Knights were going to destroy under the Overlord’s orders.
He had to stop them.
After all, he couldn’t solve a puzzle with missing pieces.
So, no matter the consequences, his choice had been the right one.
He knew that.
He believed that.
Today marked the fifth day of their mission.
Michael had tasked Alexia and Kang with investigating the recent attack site and tracking the trails of the Spirit Beasts.
He needed answers.
Where were these Spirit Beasts coming from?
Where were they going?
Where was their nest?
Alexia and Kang were the best people to find those answers, thanks to their abilities.
The blind girl could rely on her Aura Sense to detect the unnatural, corrupted aura of the Spirit Beasts.
On the other hand, Kang could use his heightened feral senses to lock onto a trail left behind by those abominations.
There was no better duo for the job.
Meanwhile, Michael and Lily were heading down to the Police Head Office to demand some documents they had been denied.
For the past two days, they had been sifting through various types of paperwork.
At this point, Michael was confident he had practically memorized every single page of the city records from the past few months.
Lily had also been helping by examining public data. They had been cross-referencing every clue they could find.
And the more they investigated, the more clues surfaced.
For instance, Michael was looking into Incident Reports, Emergency Response Logs, Missing Persons Reports, City Maintenance and Construction Permits, and Knights and Overlord Expense Reports.
Lily was focusing on Knights Personnel Files, Civic Complaints and Witness Accounts, as well as Medical and Autopsy Reports.
Sure, not everything they reviewed was relevant to the case, but they uncovered numerous suspicious gaps and events in the documents.
Michael noticed a series of unexplained construction permits near several attack sites.
It shouldn’t have been anything noteworthy if not for the fact that these permits were issued long before any attacks occurred there.
Moreover, it was never explicitly mentioned anywhere what these “constructions” were.
Lily also found that there was a significant lag between the civic complaints and the emergency response logs each time an attack occurred.
This could only mean that the Knights were intentionally delaying their responses to these attacks.
Additionally, only specific Knights were dispatched for each incident.
Michael even had a nagging suspicion that some important documents were missing pages and that many timestamps had been altered.
For example, the budget and financial records showed allocations of resources, but the reasoning behind these allocations was vague at best.
There were also discrepancies between witness statements and official summaries.
Overall, it was clear that something was wrong in this city.
The higher-ups were definitely hiding something.
It was a matter of what?
What exactly were they hiding?
Michael’s conspiracy theory was becoming more concrete by the minute.
The final straw happened about an hour ago when the police authorities outright refused to hand over some documents he had requested.
So, now, Michael and Lily were on their way to the Police Headquarters to threaten a subpoena if they didn’t receive what they were asking for.
And Michael was in a bad mood.
Not because of the situation, but because of his fifth squad member.
Yes, because of Samael.
While the rest of them were diligently working to uncover what was happening in the city, Samael was nowhere to be found.
Michael hadn’t seen him since the day after their confrontation in his hotel room.
Alexia had no idea where he had gone either.
“Arghh!” Michael grunted frustratedly all of a sudden, kicking a pebble on the ground and breaking the comfortable silence between him and Lily.
Lily raised an eyebrow as the pebble clattered against the wall of a nearby building.
“Feel better now?” she asked, her tone dry but laced with amusement.
Michael exhaled sharply, running a hand through his raven-black hair.
“Not really,” he said, sounding agitated. “This whole thing feels like chasing shadows in a maze. And Samael? Don’t even get me started on him.”
Lily’s lips curved into a faint smirk. “Oh, I wasn’t going to. But since you brought him up, maybe he’s off doing something useful. Give him the benefit of the doubt.”
Michael snorted. “If by useful, you mean drinking, gambling, or charming nuns out of their vows, then sure. Very useful.”
“Hey,” Lily said with mock seriousness. “Gambling could be useful. Maybe he’s betting on who’s behind all this.”
Michael gave her a sidelong glance. “Lily, why do you always have to defend that guy whenever we talk about him? I never asked you this, but you don’t still have feelings for him, do you?”
She laughed softly. “I don’t. I defend him because I think you both would be good friends if you give each other a chance.”
Michael scoffed scornfully. “Me and him? Friends? Please! He’s nothing but a bully. Always has been, always will be. And I did give him a chance. I was ready to fight for him against two royalties. But what did he do? He ran, leaving us alone, prioritizing victory over his team. That’s not the kind of guy I’d ever be friends with.”
His voice dropped a bit, but the bitterness remained. “And let’s not pretend he’s trying to make things right either. I told you what he said about you, right? He’s intentionally provoking me.”
Lily stayed quiet for a few moments. Her expression was unreadable.
Then she shrugged and her tone turned lightly accusing. “Well, can you blame him? You did kiss his girlfriend. What kind of man does that?”
Michael came to an abrupt stop and turned to look at her with exaggerated disbelief.
“Sure. Of course. Blame the man whenever something goes wrong,” he said, throwing his arms up dramatically. “When will women start taking accountability?!”
Lily burst into laughter. It was a melodic sound, almost angelic. And every time Michael heard it, he couldn’t help but hopelessly fall more in love with this girl.
He tried to keep a stern face but failed miserably and ended up laughing with her.
For the next few minutes, their conversation shifted to lighter topics, little pieces of themselves offered freely in the way that only came with trust.
They hadn’t been together long — not officially, anyway.
They were still figuring things out, testing the waters with cautious optimism.
But in moments like this, when the weight of their world was momentarily set aside and they opened themselves up for each other, it felt effortless.
It felt free.
It felt natural.
However, the mood changed as they approached the looming structure of the Police Headquarters.
The building’s harsh lights illuminated the stark gray facade of the surroundings, and the faint buzz of the city seemed to quiet around them here.
Michael glanced at Lily. “Ready to play bad cop, worse cop?”
She grinned. “Dibs on being worse cop.”
Michael chuckled, but his gaze hardened as they stepped through the heavy doors.