Chapter 19: The Underworld’s Most Wanted

Since this supernatural incident occurred on a construction site, an essential method of investigation for a Reaper—aside from exploring the scene itself—was to find an insider within the construction crew to gather information.

Naturally, it would be best to find an eyewitness.

This would be of immense help in helping them figure out the trigger conditions and infer the key mechanisms at play.

Unfortunately, when supernatural incidents happen—especially serious ones involving missing persons—it is hard to say if one will ever find a surviving eyewitness to get intel from, unless it happens to be some kind of human misunderstanding.

Consequently, a Reaper’s work often involves groping blindly through sparse intel.

Every step must be taken with extreme caution; a single moment of carelessness, and another name is added to the list of those killed in the line of duty, along with a raven to boot.

However, luck was indeed on the side of these two novice Reapers this time.

In this particular supernatural event, there actually was an insider who was suspected to be an eyewitness.

“This is information Hydra helped us find.

The person we’re going to meet in a bit is the client-side project manager for one of those projects.”

When one of the incidents occurred, this manager was inside the construction site with a few workers, but in the end, he was the only one who managed to escape.

Tossing the document containing the relevant information to Tei, Belladonna informed him of the target they were about to contact.

“It’s still as we agreed beforehand: our identity is safety inspectors.

Under the guise of work, try to squeeze as much information out of his mouth as possible.”

After skimming through it briefly, Tei looked up and sized up the girl in front of him with a strange expression.

“What’s wrong?”

“Actually, I’ve been wanting to ask… with our height and appearance, will they really believe we’re actual staff?”

If this were the Underworld, it wouldn’t be strange at all for someone with Tei’s build—barely reaching the height of a high schooler, if even that—to enter the workforce, since male individuals in the Underworld naturally tend to have smaller body frames.

As for Belladonna’s loli-like figure, while rare in the Underworld, no one would pay it much mind either.

After all, shota were running around everywhere in the Underworld, so having a loli wasn’t anything unusual.

But this was the Living Realm.

Could their student-like figures really convince the person on the other side?

“You don’t need to worry about that.

We have the Netherworld backing us up… the onboarding identity info is completely official and legitimate, not some fake stuff.”

Belladonna waved her hand, signaling Tei not to worry about that issue.

She then raised her hand, allowing Hydra, who had just returned from scouting info, to land on it.

“By the way, the guy on the other side is pretty tough to deal with.

He puts on big airs, demands appointments before meeting anyone, and all that nonsense.

Quite annoying.”

Fortunately, Hydra had already figured out the upcoming itinerary of the guy’s secretary.

They only needed to find her, bring it up, and schedule a meeting time.

“Huh? An underground magic show? These people are still in the mood to watch something like… ugh, I have a bad feeling about this.”

Obtaining the scouted intel from Hydra through the Spirit-Manifesting Silk, Belladonna frowned.

Did that mean they still needed to make a trip to this so-called magic show venue to find the person?

“What’s wrong with that? We can just watch the performance while we’re at it~”

“You actually watch magic shows?”

Tei’s enthusiasm left Belladonna thoroughly baffled.

Unlike the attitude in the Living Realm, magic tricks in the Underworld weren’t even considered tricks to fool children.

Ordinary people in the Underworld might not differ much from those in the Living Realm, but for beings like Reapers who could control their own spiritual power, it was no secret either.

Simply put, spiritual power could accomplish things similar to superpowers.

To put it plainly, in the eyes of the general public, things like superpowers were completely commonplace.

In a society with that kind of general understanding, magic tricks that relied on sleight of hand to create visual effects would only make people feel amused—I can literally move objects with my mind, and you’re still playing with shuffling playing cards over there?

Of course, it wasn’t as if magic tricks had zero audience in the Underworld, but in everyone’s eyes, it was at most a niche and boring talent performance.

However, disinterest aside, the three words “underground magic show” indeed made Belladonna think of certain unpleasant things.

“Forget it, let’s go check it out… An underground performance like this usually only requires buying a ticket on the spot to get in, right?”

Originally, they only needed to wait outside for the person to come out.

But with the intention of double-checking something else while they were at it, Belladonna decided to go along with Tei’s idea and buy a ticket at the scene to take a look…

— Divider —

“Hello! This is Blue Iris! A spontaneous performance out of nowhere! Welcome, everyone!”

On a temporary stage built in a hidden underground location, an exquisitely adorable little girl, barely over 1.4 meters tall, was wearing a beautiful magic-style mini dress and enthusiastically greeting the audience below the stage.

“It really is her…”

When she saw the name Blue Iris while buying the ticket, Belladonna had already known who the star of this magic show would be.

No, perhaps she had already guessed it the moment she heard a term like “underground magic show,” which was niche even in the Living Realm?

It couldn’t be helped; the other party was indeed quite famous in the Netherworld.

For a high-society young lady like her with connections, it was truly hard not to have heard the person’s name.

“Huh? It’s her?”

Not just Belladonna, even Tei, a problem student, revealed a surprised expression.

However, such a reaction piqued the curiosity of the top student beside him—this kid actually knew about such a figure?

“Don’t joke around, Top Student.

A famous wanted criminal in the Underworld—who wouldn’t know her? Ah, though it seems only those of us working for the Netherworld would know.”

“Calling her a wanted criminal isn’t entirely accurate, but she is indeed a lawbreaker.”

Belladonna sighed.

Reapers also had the duty to apprehend wanted criminals like this who fled to the Living Realm.

Upon seeing her appearance, the two of them should have gone up to arrest her.

However, the situation of this tiny magician on stage was indeed very special.

Even the wanted poster issued by the Netherworld against her was incomplete and vague in information.

One of the very few known details was that she occasionally held underground magic shows in both the Underworld and the Living Realm under the name of Blue Iris, which in itself did not constitute a crime.

The charges leveled against this little girl calling herself Blue Iris included—illegally using a synthetic body to sneak into the Living Realm, publicly using spiritual power in violation of regulations, and so on.

Every single one of them was a major offense when singled out.

The problem, however, was the lack of evidence.

She was performing magic tricks; you had no evidence to prove that her magic was performed using spiritual power—especially since people from the Underworld couldn’t utilize magical power at all when using synthetic bodies.

As for synthetic bodies, as a key and necessary tool to enter the Living Realm, their regulation in the Underworld—from custom manufacturing and registration to transportation and usage—was strict to an absurd degree.

Under such a degree of regulation, if you were to say that a little girl stole a synthetic body that was not only unregistered but also happened to be custom-fitted to her size, and then brought it into the Living Realm to operate…

If word got out, all personnel related to synthetic body management in the Underworld would be held accountable.

Therefore, no one dared to step forward to accuse Blue Iris—at least, no one would admit that her synthetic body was produced or managed by their department.

Thus, despite being a wanted criminal, this tiny magician happened to sit in a delicate position where no one dared to hold her accountable.

Furthermore, she didn’t cause any trouble, so the Netherworld’s attitude toward this little girl of unknown identity was simply to turn a blind eye.