SSS Ranked Awakening: All My Skills Are at Level 100

Chapter 685: Enough of Other People’s Business

The clerk finally opened his case four hours after the wagon left.

Leon shifted beneath the tarpaulin, easing his weight off a beam that had been pressing into his ribs. Through the shed’s lit window, he could see the man set the case on a bench and turn something inside it.

Across the room, the captive straightened.

His hands stopped trembling. He looked down at them, flexed his fingers, then reached for the tools the clerk placed in front of him.

”There,” Leon murmured.

Seraphine was already studying the change.

”The suppression weakened when he adjusted it,” she said. ”I can follow the connection now.”

So could Leon. With the controller active and the captive circulating again, the restraint’s structure was much easier to distinguish. The bands pressed against his channels, limiting how much energy he could move. The case regulated that pressure through a thin spiritual tether.

Leon traced it carefully before checking the bands themselves.

No concealed attack. No secondary formation waiting to activate if the connection broke.

All that watching for a man with a dial.

Still, he preferred the wasted hours to discovering something unpleasant after he had cut it.

”Ordinary suppression,” he said. ”Sever the tether and it releases. We take the case intact.”

Seraphine nodded. ”Ira found a clear route behind the shed. The night workers are leaving for their meal.”

”Then let’s stop lying on this wood.”

They passed the instructions through the group and waited for Qingyue’s signal from the public yard. She had positioned herself where she could see the workers’ path and intercept anyone wandering back early with an innocent request for directions.

When the last porter disappeared up the bank, Leon moved.

He crossed the distance into the shed and caught the clerk’s wrist before the man realized someone stood beside him. His other hand covered the open case.

The clerk tried to turn.

Leon put him facedown on the bench.

”Keep still.”

The man drew breath to shout. Leon sealed the sound within a small fold of space and removed the communication token from his belt.

Behind him, the guard reached for his weapon.

Seraphine entered through the side door, caught the draw with the flat of her blade, and drove him to the floor. By the time his cheek struck the boards, his sword was beyond reach.

Outside, Ira dropped the two guards at the gate before either got a weapon clear. The remaining pair turned toward the noise and found Vyra between them and the shed.

A narrow line of flame closed their route to the river.

One tried to force his way past her. She struck him down without disturbing the fence behind him. His companion hesitated just long enough for Ira to reach him.

It took roughly nine seconds.

Leon listened for an alarm and heard only the clerk’s boots scraping against the floor.

”Done outside,” Vyra reported from the doorway.

He nodded and looked toward the captive.

The older man had not left his stool. His forearms rested on the bench, his fingers curled around an engraving tool he seemed to have forgotten he was holding.

”Whose men are you?” he asked.

”Jade Moon Palace,” Leon said. ”We’re taking you out of here.”

The captive’s gaze moved to Seraphine, then back to him.

”To another workshop?”

”To give an account of what happened to you.”

”That’s all?”

Leon secured the clerk before answering.

”That’s what I need from you. Whether you accept the Palace’s protection afterward is something you can discuss with them.”

The man studied him without looking reassured.

Fair enough. Leon doubted he would have believed it either.

Loriel entered and approached the stool.

”May I check your circulation before we release the restraint?”

After a moment, the captive put down the engraving tool.

She took his wrist, examined him, and glanced at Seraphine.

”Slowly. He’s been suppressed for some time.”

With Leon holding the controller, they eased the pressure down before Seraphine severed the tether. She then released the bands and set them beside the case.

The captive rubbed one bare forearm.

He tried to stand.

Loriel caught his shoulder and guided him back onto the stool.

”Not yet. Your channels are bruised, and you haven’t been eating properly.”

”I can walk.”

”I saw you come out of the wagon,” she said. ”Sit for a few minutes. Nobody here needs you to prove it.”

He looked as though he wanted to argue, then lowered his eyes to his hands.

”They took me from my house,” he said.

Loriel’s voice softened. ”You can tell us once you’ve had something to drink.”

Leon left them to it.

Vyra found the collection schedule in a locked drawer, along with the consignment manifest and correspondence concerning the Moonfall workshop. Seraphine secured the controller. Ira brought the outer guards inside, their cultivation sealed, while Qingyue confirmed that nobody in the public yard had noticed the seizure.

Six prisoners, one witness, and enough paperwork to keep a Palace recorder occupied.

Leon questioned the clerk in a corner of the shed.

The man initially insisted that he handled legitimate freight. Leon placed the suppression case beside him and asked whether bound craftsmen were listed under household goods or livestock.

The clerk abandoned that explanation.

He supplied the collector’s description, the expected arrival time, and the phrases used to acknowledge delivery. He admitted that the captive was intended to replace the Moonfall craftsmen. When asked about their deaths, he said the order had come from above and that he had not been consulted.

He sounded more frightened of being blamed for the delay than troubled by the murders.

Leon kept questioning him until the answers began repeating.

The clerk claimed never to have met the Hollow Steward. Perhaps that was true. Perhaps he had one last piece of information he hoped to bargain with.

Palace interrogators could decide.

”He books the freight and pays the holding fees, Young Master,” Vyra said after checking his identification against the records. ”The correspondence supports that much. I’ll separate his statements from what we can verify.”

”Good. Keep the originals together.”

Leon stepped outside long enough to clear his head.

The river smelled of wet timber and fish. Farther up the bank, someone laughed at the tea stall.

Tomorrow’s collector would lead to another contact. There might be a storehouse, a buyer, or an office somewhere with more names waiting in a drawer.

He could follow them.

He could also spend that time doing something he actually wanted.

The Lord’s observation had been bothering him throughout the journey. He had caught himself sketching branch ratios beside Vyra’s supply figures that morning, and she had pushed his hand off the page before he ruined her arithmetic.

I’ve done enough to hand this over.

The captive was safe. They had records, prisoners, and a scheduled meeting the Palace could exploit. Leon had no reason to make the entire organization his personal responsibility.

He sent Ji a concise report.

The formation master had been recovered alive, with no additional injuries during extraction. Six prisoners were secured: the shipping agent and five guards. The controller, manifest, correspondence, and collection schedule were intact.

He included the collector’s description and the agreed arrival time the following evening.

Then he added his request.

I would like to transfer the prisoners and the remaining operation to your investigators. We have secured the witness and the supply records. Please advise where to hand them over.

Ji replied before the hour ended.

Agreed. You have given us enough to continue.

Elder Shan’s detachment is already on the northern trade road. I have ordered them to divert. They will reach you tomorrow afternoon, before the scheduled collection. Hold the prisoners and preserve the appearance of ordinary business until then.

Shan will take responsibility for the collector and subsequent arrests. Submit your full account when you return.

Leon read the message, then went inside.

Loriel had found broth among the kitchen supplies. The captive held the bowl himself, although she watched closely whenever his injured arm shifted. Vyra was organizing the records by date. Ira had discovered a bottle of wine and was examining its seal.

”Tomorrow afternoon,” Leon told them. ”Elder Shan takes over before the collection.”

Vyra reached for a clean sheet. ”I’ll prepare the inventory.”

”And after the handover?” Seraphine asked.

Leon tucked Ji’s plaque into his sleeve.

”Afterward, I’m going to work on my Scripture.”

Ira put the bottle down.

”You sound pleased.”

He was. The papers in his room had been waiting long enough.