The Devil's Cage

It was midnight at the St. Paolo School.

Sister Mony had sent Kieran outside the church and asked him to board her personal horse wagon. The wagoner was Security Captain Reed.

Reed seemed very unwilling to serve Kieran, but he could not disobey Sister Mony’s order.

He just wanted the task to end quickly. As soon as Kieran had gotten on the wagon, Reed swinged the whip in his hand.

With a clear noise, the horse wagon started to move, slowly disappearing into the night fog.

When it was out of sight, Sister Mony turned around and went back inside the church.

Her Guardian Knight was hiding behind the shadows of the candles, remaining vigilant.

After ten seconds, Guntherson came out of the shadows.

"Just as Kieran said, those scoundrels have been spying on the school the entire time. They might have used binoculars with extra long vision or night vision. Those scoundrels sure are bold!" Guntherson shrugged coldly after he finished his words.

"Now their attention must be directed at Sir Kieran!" Sister Mony sighed softly, sounding worried.

"Don’t worry. If Kieran chose to go ahead with his plan, then he must have confidence in it. After all, so far so good. Everything is still going according to plan. We just need to wait patiently for Kieran’s good news!" Guntherson offered some comfort to Sister Mony.

"Let’s hope so."

Sister Mony approached the Goddess statue and started to pray again.

Guntherson’s lips moved a little, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he did not.

He moved back into the shadows quietly.

Once a glorious Guardian Knight, now a quiet night watcher.

His prideful days were over, and his glory had worn off with them.

The vow he had once sworn had become clear to him.

That was why he had started to face his own emotions.

To Guntherson, one incident had been more than enough. He would not allow anyone near Sister Mony again.

...

The city was quiet during the night, and the streets were empty.

The horse wagon sped through them without meeting any obstacles.

Ten minutes later, Kieran had already reached his house.

The captain did not bid Kieran farewell. He just drove away quickly.

Kieran saw Reed off with a cold shrug of his shoulder.

He knew that it was wishful thinking to want to get along with someone as hard as Reed.

It was hardly easy in such a short period of time.

He pulled up his coat’s collar to cover his face from the chilling night wind, and headed up to the second floor, where he lived.

He did not need to go through the first floor. The stairs were outside and he could directly access his place from them.

The door was made of a single piece of wood.

At the top of the door frame, there was a crude palm-sized sign hanging. The crooked words on it spelled "Detective Kieran".

Seeing his name there for the first time, Kieran could not help but smirk.

Had he been given the choice, he would have rather not have such a sign on his door.

He took out his keys, unlocked the door, and entered the apartment.

The apartment consisted of an outer and inner area with a separate washroom.

The outer part was the living room, study, and dining room, all of them neatly arranged. The inner part was just the bedroom.

Kieran was quite satisfied with the arrangement.

He had no OCD, he just wouldn’t like to live in a messy apartment.

The room itself was nothing to talk about.

He had inspected it the night before when he had stayed there.

Therefore, when Kieran entered the place, he went straight into his bedroom, tightened his coat and waited patiently on the bed.

He was waiting for the bastards that were after the treasure of the Church of Dawn.

Kieran believed that they would come for him. He was the greatest detective in the city after all.

Two days in a row, he had showed up at St. Paolo School. It might have made sense yesterday, when he had been there for Altilly’s case, but what about today?

Not only had he stayed there a whole day, but he had also been well-received by Sister Mony.

That alone had to be enough to spike their interest.

After all, one would call a detective for no reason.

They would have to be in need of a detective’s skills.

Why would St. Paolo School require the aid of a detective?

To find the millennium treasure of the Church of Dawn!

There was nothing else there that mattered.

If those scoundrels were thinking the same way, they would definitely come for Kieran.

Kieran knew it in his gut. It would be either that night or the next day.

Kieran had made an estimation about the time it would take for them to approach him.

If that time passed though, he would need to go with Plan B.

Lucky for him, he would not need to use the alternative plan.

About twenty minutes later, his E+ Rank [Intuition] picked up the clear noise of the lock turning.

It was not the sound of a key, but some other kind of metal instrument.

It was not loud, but it was loud enough for Kieran to hear it.

He reached for his [M1905] and dagger, quietly moving out of his bedroom and backing up against the wall behind the door.

The clear, cracking noise indicated that his door had been opened by someone.

Following the sound, a shadowed figure entered the room slowly.

The person scanned the room and glanced in the direction of the bedroom, moving silently towards it.

He had not noticed Kieran hiding behind the door in his [Undercover] mode.

Kieran watched the person carefully. After confirming that he was alone, he frowned slightly.

According to Sister Mony, there had been at least two men.

If he could only see one, then that meant…

Kieran’s mind was speculating, but the answer was obvious. He had guessed it right from the beginning.

Kieran kept quiet as he approached the person from behind. He raised the [M1905] in his hand and pointed it at the back of their head.

The person froze in an instant.

"I meant no harm!" they said in a slightly sharp voice. "I can explain!"

"I’m listening, but my patience is wearing thin!"

The person seemed to hope that Kieran would put down the gun, but Kieran did not.

Instead, he pushed the gun harder onto the person’s head.

"I’ll talk! I’ll talk! We’re here to cooperate with you! It’s about the secret of the Church of Dawn!"

The gun had made him spill everything quickly.

Hearing this, Kieran smirked in mockery.

He was obviously bluffing to save his own life.

He was using confusing words to spike Kieran’s interest.

He was sure that Kieran didn’t know enough, and thought he could use their knowledge of history, books or some Church of Dawn Pope’s personal notes to bluff his way out of this tight spot.

If Sister Mony and Guntherson knew the location of the millennium treasure, then it might confirm the scoundrel’s guess.

The thing was, he did not know that Sister Mony and Guntherson were unaware of the location of the treasure.

If it were not for the scoundrels’ sudden appearance, Sister Mony and Guntherson would have continued to treat that story as a legend.

This person though seemed to think that Sister Mony and Guntherson were aware of the existence of the treasure and might know its approximate location, but probably could not confirm the exact spot, which was why they had to search for it discreetly. When competition had arrived though, Sister Mony and Guntherson must have been forced to get help from this "outsider detective".

The scoundrel thought that he could convince this "outsider" to join their side, using the Church of Dawn’s treasure as bait. Afterwards, they would most likely kill Kieran after to keep the secret among themselves.

Kieran was sure that this was their plan, so he gave a direct answer to the person’s proposition.

He kicked him on the kneecap, instantly breaking his joint with a clear sound.

The person tried to scream in agony, but before any sound could come out of their mouth, Kieran covered it with his hand and punched them hard in the abdomen.

[Kicking: Inflicts 30 Damage to Target HP, Dislocated joints...]

[Punching: Inflicts 20 Damage to Target HP, Target fainted...]

After the invader had passed out, Kieran removed his mask, the dim light from the window revealing their face.

The man had a pair of small, sharp eyes, a flat nose, a small body and black-and-white hair.

Easily forgettable. He could even be considered ugly.

Kieran searched the invader’s body for loot.

A dagger, a flintlock pistol, a monocular and a set of lock picking tools was everything the invader had on him.

The dagger, pistol and monocular were nothing special.

The lock picking tools though were the size of a palm and looked kind of like a purse, which surprised Kieran a bit.

[Name: Lock Picks]

[Type :Etc]

[Rarity: Great]

[Attacking Power: None]

[Attributes: Precisions Lvl 1]

[Effects: None]

[Prerequisites: Lock Picking (Basic)]

[Able to bring out of dungeon: Yes]

[Remarks: Made using a hairpin, a steel wire and a screwdriver.]

...

[Precision Lvl 1: Lockpicking success rate increases by 10%]

...

"Attribute items!"

It was the first attribute items that Kieran had acquired ever since entering the first official dungeon.

"These are some good items from the extra difficult Sub Mission!"

Kieran was hyped.

Suddenly, he turned his eyes back to the invader. This was how he had broken in so easily.

By picking the lock!

Kieran was pretty sure that once he killed the man, a Skill Book of sorts would appear.