The Devil's Cage

After hearing Kieran reject Tanya, other than Jen who was confused all the time, the inspector and Kana were also puzzled by his actions.

From their perspective, it was a good way to get more leads.

"I don’t trust divinations," Kieran said.

It wasn’t wholly the truth but it wasn’t entirely false either.

He was quite reserved towards divination, prophecies and such, especially the one from Tanya.

It was not because of her heavy eighth-grade syndrome but the entire situation.

All the coincident occurrences were pointing at a mastermind, controlling the situation behind the scenes.

He couldn’t be sure who the person was right now, nor the goal of the mastermind but he was sure about one thing. Based on the understanding of the mastermind of Saint Brilliant, he must have done his research on Tanya as well.

Or in other words, it was because of the mastermind’s intensive understanding of the school, his scheming would work.

So, other than Ling the dead senior, would Tanya who shared the same talents be one of the pieces of the mastermind’s plot?

The answer was self-explanatory. She would definitely be!

Even more so from a certain perspective, the mastermind would just have to slightly alter his plan to fully utilize Tanya and her talents to lead the investigators onto a wrong path which would be a lethal trap.

But how could the mastermind affect the talents’ owner?

If the person was Nikorei, Kieran wouldn’t even need to feel worried, with that elderly lady’s abilities and character, who dared to treat her as a chess piece in their plots, they better have the resolution to be turned into cat’s food.

Yet, Tanya was different!

A young girl with talents might very well provide her with unlimited futures but right now, the girl was not mature enough.

It was too easy for an immature diviner to be affected. Kieran himself already had more than three methods to affect her judgments, if the time allowed him to be more prepared, he would be able to come up with double the numbers.

Yet, against a bunch of uncertain natives, Kieran couldn’t explain his theory thoroughly, therefore he needed an excuse.

At the same time, try to probe the mastermind behind. Coincidentally, there was a perfect pathfinder before him.

"If you guys want to use some divination to locate the murderer, please be my guest! While I..."

"Inspector Oaker, is your mind filled with doubts now? If you don’t mind, please follow me. I’ll tell you the things you wish to know." Kieran turned his eyes to the elder inspector.

"Fine!" The elder inspector frowned a little before nodding eventually.

Kieran then left the corner of the academic building without pausing his steps. He didn’t even lay eyes on the girls from the moment he left, because he knew even without his reminder or warnings, Kana and Jen would continue their investigation and naturally walk into the course that the mastermind had initially prepared for them.

Quite the contrary, if he would intervene or even an extra reminder would cause unwanted accidents.

What about Tanya then?

"Destiny is always cruel, like the raging storms on the sea!"

"Oh my knight, you words stabbed my heart like blades but... I will use the blood that flowed out to dissolve the icy exterior of yours!"

While such words echoing in Kieran’s ears, the corner of his eyes took a peek at Tanya, who was covering her chest with both her hands, kneeling on the ground with a sad face, as if she was a girl dumped by her lover.

Kieran hastened his steps even more. The way she behaved was more than embarrassing, it was shameful!

.......

Back in the old school dorm, Kieran’s room.

The window was fixed with a plastic cloth but it didn’t stop the sunlight from shining through. Although it was blurry, the warmth didn’t decrease a bit.

Though the elder inspector wasn’t one bit pleased in such a warm environment that could make one sigh in satisfaction.

Even though the inspector suppressed his chaotic thoughts in his mind with the vast experience he gained throughout his career, after changing to a quieter environment, the suppression was released under the changes, the thoughts erupted out like a live volcano.

After two to three minutes, the inspector shook his head, shaking off the unwanted thoughts.

"We address those monsters as fiends, and I think I would be considered as the person who kills them. Some who know better call us huntsmen."

Kieran calmly spilled out the limited information he had to the inspector. He put up quite a show to conceal his newbie tender side in this new situation.

"Fiends?!" The inspector couldn’t help but gasp when he heard what Kieran said.

He couldn’t really comprehend the appearance of such monster only spoken of in legends but his eyes wouldn’t lie to him. He went quiet again but after around ten seconds, he raised his head to Keiran.

"So you are the one hired by the dean to solve the incidents in Saint Brilliant?" The inspector asked.

Kieran smiled and gave a nod. The inspector was being cooperative, Kieran didn’t even need to give him more tips and he provided Kieran with the answer that he was looking for.

Though, he had to fill the inspector in with more details.

"I guess you can say that. The reason the dean came for me maybe because he was looking for a protective measure for himself. Though he would never have thought of the outcome, since he had requested help, he should have been more honest. He hid a lot of important details from me, so he died!" Kieran explained in a very skillful way.

Kieran avoided the crucial points and dwelled on the trivial ones. There weren’t any real meanings to his words but they left enough space for people to think wildly. He completely misled the elderly inspector before him.

"No wonder he was acting that way yesterday. So why did you tell me all of these? You don’t look like an enthusiastic person, providing free help to others."

The inspector took in a long breath and looked at Kieran with a stern face.

"Did I make it so obvious? Don’t worry, if I really do have any malicious intentions, you would be dead long ago. Trust me, I don’t really need a lot of efforts to deal with you and such, it won’t even cause me any trouble because I’m quite good at cleaning up! How many unsolved cases are there throughout the year? Though, compared to those horrifying scenes, the puzzling cases were much better right?"

Kieran said while looking at the inspector, his eyes were giving out a ridiculing meaning that one couldn’t fully comprehend.

"What are you trying to say?" The inspector asked in a heavy voice.

Even though Kieran’s words sounded like a sneering comment at their incompetent police force but Inspector Oaker was a veteran officer, not some hot-headed young lad.

When all the impulsive actions were washed away by the sea of time, all that was left was the spiciness of deep thoughts from a veteran.

The inspector looked at Kieran quietly, trying to spot what Kieran’s intentions were with his eyes of wisdom that he gained throughout his years on the force.

Eventually, he was disappointed, Kieran might look young, sitting on his spot allowing the inspector to size him up as much as he wanted but he never felt rushed or unsettled, as if the inspector was looking at a puddle of silent water.

A silent surface and the reflection of himself!

Seconds turned into minutes, with the shifting of time, the inspector started to grow anxious since he couldn’t get anything out of Kieran.

Just when the inspector wanted to say something, Kieran cut him to it.

"Let’s work together!" he said.

The inspector was stunned right away.