Cornflower Witch

Chapter 415 The Double Disappearance Case
——Scallion Street Underground——

"Your Majesty, it has been five days now," the old man with the bird-beak whispered in the dimly lit, spacious room.

"I know."

They had planned to have the Fox family obtain the dragon's remains for their own feast ceremony, but things didn't turn out exactly as they had envisioned.

The dragon's remains did arrive, but they were the core exhibit of the 'Bionics School'. If they wanted them, they would inevitably offend this school, and the consequences would be completely different from what they had previously anticipated.

Offending the Fox family is troublesome, but their power is limited. As long as they escape the Asra district and find a remote place to hide, the matter will be over in a few years. But a mage school has far too many methods at its disposal, which are not easily accessible to them.

Although the changes in circumstances almost ruined their previous plans, it was not entirely hopeless.

“The Bionic School must have brought more than just the Dragon Eye treasure from the dragon's remains. There are probably one or two smaller treasures as well, to fill gaps or as backups. All we need are 'Tier 4 Dragon Eye' treasures. Such items are much less important to a school of thought,” the bird-beaked scholar helped analyze.

"However, we need to have someone investigate this matter and verify it before we can take any action."

"If you want to get information from the exhibition hall, you must be a current student in the Asura District; your existing subordinates are not suitable."

"Yes," the Fire Pig's muffled reply echoed in the room.

“We need to find a student who is easy to control and obedient to complete this task.”

"Go and find them. You must find several candidates."

"Once we had the intelligence, we began our operation."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

The complete dragon skeleton was beyond their reach, but the small, scattered dragon eye treasures still held a sway over them, prompting the fire pig to slowly take action.

Time is limited, and their best chance to act is to obtain the treasures they need before the arrival of the three major academies at the very end. If they wait until the representatives of those three academies arrive, many things will become extremely dangerous. Even the Fire Pig and other leaders who never attend school have a sense of awe and fear towards them.

The next day, in the evening.

As usual, Agate Street gradually became lively as many workers returned home after get off work.

Anali also came to the restaurant today to help out, hoping to share the workload with the older woman.

However, there were two other figures here today.

"Anali, you're back." The auntie welcomed her first, then introduced the two newcomers.

It turned out they were new helpers at the restaurant, introduced by the auntie's acquaintance.

“You won’t have to work so hard anymore. I know you’ve been missing out on a lot of study time because you come here so often, which isn’t good,” the auntie explained, comforting Anali.

Faced with this situation, Anali appeared accepting and indifferent on the surface, but she was still a little disappointed inside, probably because she felt less important.

However, reason told her that the aunt was right. The restaurant was too busy with just her and the aunt, and sometimes they couldn't keep up. She also needed more time for her studies and couldn't let that person down.

"I understand, but let me help you out for a bit today," she replied with a hint of stubbornness.

After the aunt agreed, Anali went back to the restaurant kitchen and started working. However, she was not as hurried and anxious as usual today, and her movements became a little slower and more serious.

Time passed, and it was time to close the shop. When the last light was blown out, Anali stood in front of the shop and said goodbye to the old lady.

"Then I'll head back now. See you next time."

The Asura District's academic exhibitions were still ongoing, but Hilti had already visited most of them, so she hadn't paid much attention to them recently. Until one evening, on her way back from school to her dormitory, an extremely anxious orc woman stopped her.

"Lord Hedra, I apologize for appearing here." As an unregistered person, she cannot easily leave Agate Street; this is an underground rule of the Asura District.

"However, something happened to Anali. She didn't go home yesterday, and the school sent people to her dormitory this afternoon to inquire, but there was still no one there. I don't know what to do, so I can only think of you."

What is this? Hilti was surprised, not expecting that something like this would happen in the Asura District at this crucial moment.

"I understand. Take me to where she lives first."

She then hailed a steam locomotive from the roadside and immediately set off.

A few minutes later, when she got out of the car, there was already a police car parked on the street.

Because they were acquaintances, it was easy for her to find out what was going on inside.

"We only arrived shortly after receiving a report that a student was missing." The officer didn't have any clues at the moment, and simply searched the house.

"The items were all in perfect order, and there were even some valuable personal belongings and a small amount of money. It didn't seem like a planned departure, but rather an accidental disappearance."

This is even worse, Hilti thought to herself.

She then followed the police officers to the simple room, which was a student dormitory inhabited by orcs. The other orcs had poor grades and didn't interact much with Anali. It was said that they had even had some minor conflicts.

No wonder she likes to go to the older women's place so much; it seems her dormitory life isn't very pleasant.

After the initial investigation was completed, not many clues were left, so Hiltiya had no choice but to return to the police station with the officers. There, she heard even more unexpected news.

"You mean, the Bionics School's exhibition hall has lost a rare 'Dragon Eye' treasure!?" The police chief loudly questioned the member in front of him.

"Yes, this matter was just reported to us by the mages of the bionics school. In fact, they had been searching on their own for a day but had no results, so they notified us."

"Is it the remains of that giant fire dragon?" The police chief felt that if something happened to that guy, his position would also be affected.

"No, it's another, smaller 'Dragon Eye Pearl,' supposedly a Cold Song Dragon Eye encased in lapis lazuli," the officer replied nervously. In the exhibition halls of the various schools in the Asura district, besides their own personnel providing protection, the local police also send people to assist with security. Although they only bear secondary responsibility, if anything were to happen, the mages of those schools would at most receive internal punishment, while the officers would lose their jobs.

"I understand." The police chief waved him away, letting him leave for the time being, while he sorted out the intelligence and his thoughts.

It seems a lot has happened in the past two days. Instead of disturbing the chief immediately, Hiltiya found the most recent case files in the police station and began to look through them.

Are there only two leaders left in the Asura district now? According to the records, they had quite a few conflicts recently.

At night, several special men in black arrived. They were professionals from the Mage Alliance responsible for finding clues and analyzing various activity traces. They had also appeared before when students went missing, investigating at the school where Hiltiya was studying.

"The result was unexpected. There was some overlap between the missing Dragon Eye treasure and the missing student, making it hard not to suspect that she might have taken the treasure." After the investigation, the two events unexpectedly coincided.

"Is that so? That makes sense. That orc student must have been spying on the treasures, stealing them from the exhibition hall, and then running away with them." Many officers thought so, and they discussed it amongst themselves.

"As expected of orcs, they're capable of stealing and robbing; there's nothing they wouldn't dare to do."

“They are responsible for 80% of the security incidents in the Asura district. I’m not discriminating against these guys, but they really do inhuman things.”

"Now we've got a lead. Let's grab and question the people who know the missing student and see if we can find any clues about her whereabouts."

"Oh, right, her identity seems to be problematic too. She was originally an imposter, but recently she applied to stay through special channels," someone whispered.

"Enough with the nonsense, let's get started on the investigation." A capable police officer interrupted the discussion, urging everyone to get to work.

Then he came over and comforted Hilti.

“Miss Hedra, this matter is probably quite complicated. It would be best if you didn’t get involved.” He knew that the missing orc girl was someone Hedra had helped apply for to stay at school, but he didn’t expect her to be that kind of person. He guessed that the black-haired girl must be very sad.

“It’s nothing.” Hilti closed her eyes and shook her head slightly, then opened them again.

“I believe this has nothing to do with Anali; she was just accidentally dragged into it.” She believed the girl wouldn’t do such a thing, and besides, there were indeed many contradictions in the matter based on various subtle clues.

If it really was Anali who did it, she wouldn't have left behind her precious notebook and hard-earned money in the dormitory, money she had saved up through countless hours and effort.

"Can I assist with the investigation and get involved?"

“This…” The police officer hesitated, after all, this was not an ordinary case.

“I hope you will grant my request.” Hiltiya took out a special badge, showed it to the officer, and then bowed.

This is the badge she previously received at 'Rolik Academy', representing the appreciation of those two professors, allowing her free access to the academy. Although it's nothing special for a formal mage, for a student still in the apprenticeship stage, such a badge is proof of strength, indicating that she has gained the recognition of some important figures and has a bright future.

Afterwards, the police officer reported the situation to the chief, who, after careful consideration, agreed to the girl's request.

“However, you cannot act alone; you must come with us.” He didn’t want anything to happen to the girl, since few people in the Asura District were unaware of her name now, and teachers from various schools often discussed and speculated about which academy she would attend.

“I will,” Hiltiya agreed.

In the following days, the police forces of the Asra district sealed off Agate Street and conducted a more thorough search of people and traces inside. "Chili Face," who was in charge of the area, was also taken into custody by the police.

"This was absolutely not something I did, nor was it something I ordered or directed!"

Tied to a chair, the orc struggled and tried to explain.

“You know me. People like us understand the importance of things and wouldn’t cause trouble at such a crucial moment. Besides, if I really had bad intentions, why would I let the people in my jurisdiction be exposed as suspects? This must be a frame-up! Yes, a frame-up.” Suddenly he realized something.

"It must have been 'Fire Pig' and his gang who did this. I know that guy too well. He can't swallow his anger from before and thinks we framed him, which caused him a lot of trouble. He's definitely thinking the same thing this time to get revenge on us."

Chili Face spoke faster and faster, his emotions gradually becoming agitated, as if he had discovered the truth of the matter, constantly shouting that it was a deliberate frame-up by their rival, 'Fire Pig'.

While the idea is bizarre, it's not entirely impossible. Based on the officers' understanding of the underworld leaders, it's entirely possible that they were capable of such a thing.

“However, this is just speculation. We can’t just report it like this, or those big shots will think we’re just giving a perfunctory answer,” an officer replied.

"We'll have to bring in the people from Fire Pig's side for questioning as well." The police chief rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on.

He knew that these underworld leaders were all cunning and treacherous, and they would never admit anything without solid evidence.

In the past, even if the chieftain did not admit it, if their relationship with the police was strained, their daily business would be affected and damaged, so they dared not offend the police.

But now, if admitting it means death, these guys will definitely try every means to deny it, and some of the methods used in the past will be ineffective. Moreover, if no solid evidence is submitted, those mages will probably think that the police station just arrested a scapegoat to cover up their incompetence.

As expected, things unfolded exactly as the bureau chief had predicted. Huo Zhu consistently denied the allegations, claiming that he had remained completely silent during this period, dared not provoke anyone, and was utterly innocent.

With the questioning yielding no results, and under heavy pressure from above, the police officers thoroughly searched all the underground passages and warehouses where the "Fire Pig" usually operated. Although they found some stolen goods and contraband, they did not find any clues about the Dragon Eye Treasure.

The trail went cold, and the case reached a stalemate once again. Two days had passed since Anali's disappearance.

Hilti was worried about the missing Anali. The longer it dragged on, the lower the chance of her survival. If this was really a frame-up, then after losing her usefulness, Anali would most likely be silenced to prevent the news from leaking out.

Unfortunately, even if she regains her fourth-tier rank, she won't have much of an advantage in tracking down clues.

As the situation spiraled further into despair, Siltiya finally received a secret message alert.

Instead of giving her the answer directly, the other person carefully pointed out a direction using the writing on the sand table at a street stall. Once she saw it, the plate shook slightly, and the writing on it quickly disappeared, leaving only the dark yellow wheat bran for sale.

'67 Shui Wan Street, underground sewer'

(End of this chapter)