Chapter 251: Chapter 251 Running Late_1
Aiden sat in the office and took out his pocket watch to glance at the time—it was almost the time he had agreed to meet with Kael, so he should set out now.
Although Kael was responsible for the search, in order for Kael to fully employ his ability to split into bats, Aiden had to temporarily lift the restrictions imposed by the Heretical Inquisition. He was obligated to oversee this process.
The success of tonight’s mission was far from certain.
The premise for catching the Grim Reaper’s agent tonight relied on the assumption that the adversary would be active in that location today.
The ideal scenario would entail following the trail to find the enemy’s hideout and then informing Abigail to clean up.
However, he also knew that things did not always go according to plan—the agent could very well be active elsewhere, but at the moment, they had no better lead.
But... in case, Aiden thought of an unexpected possibility.
If they happened to catch the Grim Reaper’s agent in the act of committing a crime, then they would probably have to prioritize the rescue mission.
Having Abigail take out the enemy was indeed a surefire method, but standing by and watching innocents be killed, knowing they could have been saved... it would be difficult to face oneself as a police officer afterward.
Given Kael’s background and the Grim Reaper’s agent’s special concealment methods, it might be tough to get direct help from the Heretical Inquisition.
As for the prisoners in jail, it was unlikely to find someone who could reliably deal with such an enemy—most prisoners wouldn’t volunteer for such a risky mission.
The mercury-metal golem had shown strong restraint while dealing with Father Bales and Sister Neve, who mastered the divine words of "proliferation," but it was doubtful it would be as effective against the Grim Reaper’s agent.
The mercury-metal golem could only use physical attacks and was virtually ineffective against High-Rank Bloodline members capable of shapeshifting and vaporizing. Moreover, the agent’s power of "Death Claim" worked on all living entities, a rare method that could pose a threat to the golem. Even if the life given to the golem came from Abigail, it would likely suffer considerable damage upon contact with the enemy.
Furthermore, as their initial plan was to search, follow, and surveil, having the cumbersome mercury-metal golem would only get in the way.
In the event that things turned so dire that both of them had to face the battle, he would probably have to let the undead Kael take the lead and provide support from the rear.
However, if the agent chose to kill outside of Fireworks Alley tonight, they would probably be powerless to stop it.
After changing out of his uniform, Aiden left the prison through the side door and from the briefcase he carried, he took out a sealed glass vial containing a dense, grayish-white mist, as if someone had taken a puff of smoke and sealed it inside.
This was the hand Ophelia had given him. In any case, carrying a severed hand in a bag like a villain from a comic book was too ghastly, and the Heretical Inquisition and the Mounted Police had been patrolling nearby recently; a misunderstanding would surely arise if seen.
With Daili’s assistance, after attaching a familiar magic spell to Ophelia’s hand, turning it into Aiden’s familiar, Aiden controlled the hand to vaporize into the sealed container.
After briefly considering, he opened the bottle cap, letting out a small wisp of fog.
"Transform," he commanded the small wisp of mist.
The released wisp of fog transformed into a black bat, which perched on Aiden’s sleeve.
Aiden resealed the vial and placed it back into his briefcase, then flicked his sleeve to send the black bat flying toward the nearby eaves: "Patrol the surroundings, follow me."
Only after transforming into a bat did Ophelia’s limb acquire the olfactory sense to detect the enemy. Since Ophelia insisted on lending a "hand," Aiden certainly wouldn’t waste this resource.
At least, he should have his own radar for detecting enemies.
Then, Aiden left the small alley beside the prison and came onto the main road, striding towards a nearby intersection where he and Kael had agreed to meet at a coffee shop to discuss the details of their plan before heading to Firework Alley.
The public carriage approached unhurriedly from the opposite direction and stopped at the curb. Aiden saw Veronica hurry off the carriage and immediately began sprinting towards him with a burst of speed that even short-distance runners would find hard to match.
Aiden immediately understood the reason for her rush—he had actually left the prison after the time for the evening shift check-in.
In other words, Veronica was late for work today.
"Yo!" Aiden greeted his subordinate with a smile as she sprinted towards him.
When she saw clearly who was on the other side, Veronica was visibly shocked: "Ah!"
"Ch-Chief!?" She immediately stopped in her tracks before Aiden, reflexively saluting, her face turning a shade paler.
"I’ve said there’s no need for saluting outside." Aiden couldn’t help but chuckle at his subordinate’s nervous reaction, "My, my, quite a rare sight, this must be the first time you’ve been late since you started working."
"I’m sorry... I’m very sorry." Veronica said, deflated, her eyes downcast after being caught by her superior.
"Did you oversleep?" Aiden asked knowingly.
"No, not at all! I... I’m not trying to make excuses, but today, the public carriage got blocked on Silver Avenue. The Inquisition was setting up checkpoints checking all carriages and pedestrians going this way, which caused a significant delay." Veronica muttered softly, her expression somewhat aggrieved.
"After all, considering the incident that happened, the Inquisition has stepped up the security in the surrounding areas. Aside from the checkpoints, they’ve also been patrolling the vicinity, all for the safety of our prison..." Aiden explained to Veronica.
However, Aiden was also very clear that such surveillance was probably of little use now.
If Death’s Agent, as Kael had said, was manipulating the dead in this city, it was as if he had a completely legitimate identity.
"I’m sorry, I didn’t anticipate this... I knew I should have just run here directly from my home, it would have been even faster." Veronica said, head bowed in frustration.
Aiden thought to himself that you’d probably be the only one confident enough to outpace a carriage over a distance of two or three kilometers.
"Someone had already reported to me this morning, so I made a special point to inform personnel that being up to ten minutes late recently won’t be counted as tardiness," Aiden said with a laugh.
"Eh?" Veronica looked up in surprise.
"So you..." Aiden took out his pocket watch to check, "still have about five minutes or so, you can take it easy."
"That’s great—" Veronica let out a sigh of relief, but then she frowned slightly, "Wait a second, Chief... why didn’t you tell me this when you saw me earlier?"
"Seeing your expression just now, anyone would be tempted to play a little prank on you." Aiden laughed.
"Don’t always make fun of me, okay?" Veronica muttered, but in that moment, her mood had swiftly shifted from gloomy to sunny.
