So, by his own standards, this mission was nothing short of a complete success.
Hm… But still, he had to hold back, absolutely hold back. The bureau director was clearly in an extremely bad mood right now. If he acted too delighted at this moment, he’d definitely be in for some unpleasant consequences.
“It was my recklessness.”
To avoid exposing his true thoughts through the “windows of the soul,” Leon quickly bowed his head and gave a “disheartened” self-criticism:
“After completing the basic investigation and narrowing down the target range to those five people, I should have immediately returned to the bureau to request support. I shouldn’t have gone alone to investigate Bobby Lane.”
I originally thought that even if I accidentally got discovered by him, with the Holy Spirit Pendant and the Witch’s Broom, escape would definitely not be a problem. But his compatibility with that heart was just too high! Not only did it prohibit flight, but it also sealed off the entire manor. I really had no way out…”
You didn’t have no way out! There’s a 90% chance you did it on purpose! Recalling Leon’s penchant for sticking his nose into other people’s business, the red-haired bureau director couldn’t help but glare angrily at him, pondering the possibility that this little brat intentionally caused trouble.
Leon was usually a very cautious person. Even within the Clearing Bureau, he would hesitate and run away at the slightest sign of abnormality.
This time, he didn’t come back for backup but instead took direct action against the target. It was likely that during the investigation, he discovered all sorts of terrible deeds done by the Lane family, couldn’t suppress his anger, and deliberately made contact with Bobby Lane earlier than planned, wanting to deal with him personally.
However, Bobby Lane’s compatibility with the demon heart was truly astonishing. Encountering such a low-probability event caused Leon’s original plan of dealing with just one person to fail completely, leaving him trapped and unable to leave. As a result, he was forced to expand the scale of the operation, leading to the Lane Blood Night.
As for the two hundred-plus people who died, looking at their records, they were almost all candidates for the death penalty, perfectly fitting the group he despised and even hated. He probably wasn’t incapable of saving them; rather, he simply never intended to save them! This kid has gone bad…
Looking at the “dejected” Leon who admitted his mistake but whose posture and muscle groups were completely relaxed, showing no sincerity in repentance, the red-haired bureau director clenched her teeth in frustration.
This little brat had only been in the Clearing Bureau for a month but had already learned how to dance around the rules’ boundaries, satisfying his excessive sense of justice without making any mistakes. He was practically an old hand at this game! Truly… Who did he learn this from?
The utterly unrepentant red-haired bureau director, after roughly deducing the “truth” of that night, couldn’t help but glare again at the pretentious Leon but ultimately didn’t say anything harsh.
After all, as detestable as this little brat was, he was indeed an excellent subordinate—hardworking, talented, diligent, and with a good attitude… Aside from having an overabundant sense of justice, compared to the bunch of problematic oddballs in the bureau, he was already the least troublesome.
Moreover, those people who died this time weren’t exactly deserving of pity; they were criminals who deserved execution. Even if she herself had been there, she might have ended up being “too late to rescue” them as well. So this time, she would have to cover for him a bit, lest the bureau uncover any issues.
Sigh… There’s no such thing as a perfect employee in this world. She gritted her teeth and endured.
After muttering “he was recruited by me” more than ten times to console herself, the red-haired bureau director exhaled deeply and then opened the drawer viciously, grabbing several mission slips and slamming them onto the table, eyeing Leon maliciously: “Alright, stop your self-reflection. Emma helped shoulder a lot of your work during your absence, but there’s still some left. Since you’re discharged from the hospital now, hurry up and make up for it!”
Let this little brat act on his own without consulting me first and cause chaos. I’ll work him to death!” “Got it!”
Upon hearing about new missions, Leon’s strength and confidence surged simultaneously, and he couldn’t help but become invigorated. He quickly grabbed the mission slips and flipped through them.
His current badge count was twelve, but he only had five slots, one of which was locked by [Materialism], which was quite insufficient.
And currently, the only way to further expand the number of slots was to obtain more anomalous items. These missions suited him perfectly.
…
A large number of goats went missing in Barfu County. Six herdsmen went up the mountain to search and disappeared for three days, only to reappear 800 kilometers away in a brothel, claiming they had no idea how they got there…
There was an arsonist in the Chal Arcade. Someone witnessed him carrying numerous fire-starting tools wandering around several streets in the rich district at night, requiring interviews with witnesses to track his movements…
After flipping through the mission slips for a while, Leon’s eyebrows furrowed involuntarily.
Why are they all investigative missions? And they don’t seem closely related to anomalies either?
Especially those so-called goat-herders—receipts for selling sheep and train tickets were found, yet they claimed they were kidnapped to a brothel. What is there to investigate here? The remaining two cases are equally absurd…
If I had to guess, the truth behind these three incidents is probably like this.
One group consists of perverts who refuse to admit their visit to the brothel from afar, another group of “upper-class” people disdain free food, and the third group is likely rebels planning to attack and cause destruction. How could these yield any anomalies?
With a few swift moves, he moved these three mission slips to the back, deciding to handle the first two later. After catching the arsonist, Leon looked down at the last mission slip in his hand.
Rescue the only daughter of the boss of Chal Department Store who was kidnapped at Rose Manor of the Marcellini Family? Marcellini… Are they the noble family involved with the Scale Gold Religion that orchestrated the Holy Spirit Descent incident? By the way, if I want to continue leveling up my Practitioner badge, I need to delve deeper into the Scale Gold Religion. This is a great opportunity to gather information about them! “I’ll do this one first!”
Finally finding a mission suitable for himself, Leon’s furrowed brows relaxed slightly as he signed his name on the mission slip and handed it back.
Rescuing someone at Rose Manor… Hmm… Not bad.
Seeing the mission slip Leon handed back, the red-haired bureau director nodded approvingly. Leon was able to be released so quickly thanks largely to the efforts of the boss of Chal Department Store, so assigning him this task seemed quite appropriate.
However, just as the red-haired bureau director was about to sign her name to finalize the mission allocation process, she caught sight of Leon’s rather anticipatory expression.
“…”
Marcellini… Lane… Marcellini… Lane… Another big noble family that doesn’t do anything good. Is this little brat planning to stir up something big again?
“Hold on with the mission.”
Quickly stopping her signature, the red-haired bureau director eyed Leon warily and asked, “Tell me, what’s your plan for this mission?”
“Eh?”
Thrown off by the red-haired bureau director’s attitude, Leon paused briefly before answering, “Since it’s a rescue mission, I would choose to infiltrate under cover of darkness, first investigating the situation of the Marcellini family, then…”
Then create another Marcellini Blood Night, right? “Do it during the day!”
Afraid that Leon might get excited halfway through the investigation and cause another major scandal, the nervous red-haired bureau director quickly intervened:
“And you don’t need to investigate this time. The location of the hostage has already been found by the bureau. Go to Jerry’s office on the first floor and let his ‘friends’ take you directly!”
(Chapter End)
