Chapter 29 : Interrogation – 2

“That criminal?
I might know who it is.”

Karen’s interruption drew everyone’s eyes to her.

The male detective, who’d sat quietly behind the female detective, stood up.

“Answer carefully.
Are you connected to the Stone theft case?”

“Well, you can’t say I’m completely unrelated.”

Karen barreled on like a runaway train, before I could stop her.
She wouldn’t be planning to take the fall for me, would she?
If so, I couldn’t stand by.

“Are you the culprit?”

The detective’s cold, direct question.
I opened my mouth to defend Karen, but she answered first.

“No way.
If I was the culprit, would I stand here so boldly?
I’m just cooperating as a witness.
I said I know who the culprit is.”

The unexpected turn made me pause, deciding to watch how this played out.
She wouldn’t have jumped in thoughtlessly.
For now, trusting Karen and leaving it to her seemed best.

“…Who’s the culprit?”

“Harriers.
You probably guessed as much.”

Harriers.
A notorious crime syndicate in Neotopia, even appearing in the original story.
Think of them as a bandit crew specializing in plundering.

Like mercs, they disrupt city order, but while mercs are a necessary evil, wiping up corporate messes, Harriers and similar gangs are purely heinous criminals, useless to the city.

So, Karen’s answer made sense.
But the detective scoffed, unimpressed.

“Clever answer.
Even if Harriers stole it, Stones have limited uses.
They’d inevitably flow to Stoners like you.
Your claim to know the culprit proves that.”

Despite his sharp point, Karen shrugged nonchalantly.

“Not wrong.
Actually, not long ago, they offered me a deal.
Said they had a top-grade Stone—how ’bout it?”

“You refused?”

“Otherwise, why would I be this confident?
This bad boy on my neck’s already high purity.”

Karen proudly displayed the red pendant gem around her neck.

“They’ve got a Stoner among them.
Maybe they couldn’t find a buyer, so he’s using it himself.
Either way, no Stones have hit the Stoner market.
I guarantee it.”

“How are we supposed to trust you?”

“Investigate.
If I’m lying, arrest me.
I’m not running off anywhere, am I?
While you’re at it, sweep up those Harriers—even better.”

Obviously, arresting Harriers wasn’t as easy as it sounded, or they wouldn’t thrive so openly.

Infamous yet still active, their survival proved their formidable skill.
Police could barely nab their lackeys, never pinpointing their hideouts or core.

I admired Karen’s clever handling.
In a typical case, cops would’ve backed off by now.
But this time, they didn’t budge easily.

“Then we’ll confiscate both your Stones until we arrest Harriers.
Comply, and we’ll acknowledge your innocence.”

Objections erupted instantly.

“Are you insane?
You know damn well what taking a Stone from a Stoner means!
You picking a full-on fight with us?
Even us rats follow basic code on our home turf!”

As if Karen’s anger was a signal, the bar’s patrons, previously silent, began exuding hostile vibes, wary of outsiders invading their *turf.

The tense atmosphere, on the verge of *clashing, was defused by Lycan at the counter.

“Everyone, cool your heads.
Fighting here benefits no one.”

His low, calm voice gradually eased the tension.
Then, he made cocktails, handing them to the detectives, and downed one himself.

“Sheriffs, don’t get too worked up.
If your demands aren’t too unreasonable, we’ll cooperate fully with your investigation.”

“…”

The detective, staring at Lycan, finally sighed, accepting the whiskey.

“We can’t leave like this.
Especially that white-haired woman—her recruitment timing coincides with the incident.
Got any proof of her innocence?”

Of course not.
I’m the culprit.
The Stone the sheriffs are after is gleaming on my hand right now.
A thorough check would expose me instantly.

“No misunderstanding.
She joined Red Dog recently, but she’s used a Stone for much longer.”

“Proof?”

“Tell her to use it right now.
As a Stoner, you can tell from how she controls the energy, right?”

So the detective’s a Stoner too.
No obvious accessory, but I recalled hearing some Stoners hide their connectors in discreet spots.

“…Fine.
You, there.
Use your Stone.”

With my Stone mastery skyrocketing lately, this was my strongest skill.

Connecting the brain chip and connector, I felt the electrifying sensation of energy flowing from the Stone, coursing through my veins, spreading throughout my body.
My body lightened, a subtle euphoria enhancing my mind.

I could’ve stopped there, but to seal the deal, I added a small performance.
I grabbed a glass from afar in an instant, sipping calmly.
To a normal person, it’d look like teleportation.

Disconnecting, the energy supply cut off, leaving a brief wave of fatigue.
But that was it.
Using the Stone this briefly triggered no side effects.
It felt so natural, as if this power was always mine.

“Clearly…
Not the level of a one-month rookie.”

“That prove it?
If you still doubt her, at least investigate Harriers first.”

“Senior, what do we do?”

“…We’ll report back for now.
Acting solo could screw things up.”

“But…”

“Enough.
Sorry for disrupting your business.
We’ll drop by again.”

“Wouldn’t it be better for everyone if we never meet again?”

“That’d be nice.
Whether it’s possible, who knows.”

The male detective waved casually, leaving the bar, with the female detective following after a hesitant glance.

Only after both unwelcome guests left did I finally relax, sighing.
In contrast, Karen’s calm expression slowly hardened.

“This is gonna be a pain.”

“Why?
Isn’t it all resolved?”

“Idiot.
There’s no Stone with Harriers.
I lied, so if it’s exposed, we’re screwed.”

“Oh…
Then what do we do?”

“No clue.
It’ll work out somehow.
Those two can’t arrest Harriers alone, so it’s probably fine.
It’d take the entire police force to pull it off, and their higher-ups won’t greenlight that.”

If so, that’s a relief…
But a baseless unease lingered, suggesting this wouldn’t end here.

Lycan, seemingly sharing my gut feeling, spoke after mulling it over.

“The safest way is to turn the lie into truth.”

“Huh?
Turn it into truth?
How?”

“Judging by the vibe, the cops won’t give up easily.
So, get rid of that Stone you have and replace it with another.”

Replace the Stone to make the lie true.
In other words.

“You’re telling us to return it?”

“Karen, you mentioned last time—a Harriers Stoner wanted that Stone.”

“Yeah, but…
You think getting a new Stone is easy?
Do you know how much I busted my ass to reserve that one?”

“Whatever it is, it’s not worth your life.
Negotiate a fair price and return it.
I knew this would happen when you said it was Ikazuchi-made.
Anything tied to them is a headache.”

Lycan’s firm stance made Karen raise the white flag.

“Fine.
I’ll swap it.
…This Stone’s so rare, though.
This is why normies suck.”

The conversation flowed quickly, decided without my input, leaving me slightly miffed.
I’m the Stone’s owner… well, technically, Karen was the original owner.

“So we go now?”

“Even if you wanted to, you can’t.
Contacting them involves tedious steps.
It’ll take at least a week.”

“That long?”

“That’s how they’ve stayed uncaptured this long.
For now, treat this as a rest period.”

I nodded reluctantly.
Relief washed over me—we’d dodged the danger for *now.

By the way, where’s Ruby?

As I searched for Ruby, I witnessed something I couldn’t ignore.