The Insane Regressor: Throne of Pride

Inside the tavern, Robert was finishing his final questioning of Sophia and the rest of the tavern’s staff and customers, while the younger detective helped record their statements and the remaining members of the City Guard busied themselves with organizing the scene and arresting those involved.

Suddenly, the tavern door opened.

”Mr. Robert.” Two members of the City Guard entered, panting slightly—a clear sign that they had come running.

”Why have you come back?” Robert asked.

”Sir... we lost the suspect’s trail.” The two guards lowered their heads apologetically, awaiting Robert’s reaction.

Contrary to their expectations, however, Robert showed none of the anger they had braced themselves for.

”How?”

It was only a single word, but the two guards understood its meaning immediately.

”Once we began following him, we hadn’t gone more than two streets from here before he turned left into an alley.”

”Then?”

”Then... he vanished.”

”Vanished?” the younger detective repeated, his eyes widening.

These two men were Tenth-Rank Awakened members of the City Guard, well trained in tracking operations, so how had they lost someone they believed to be at their own level so easily?

”Yes. We ran after him, but the moment he slipped out of our sight, he disappeared completely,” one of the guards said.

”Did you find any trace?”

Throughout it all, Robert’s expression never changed. He remained the same veteran detective with those still eyes, as though he had expected all of this to happen.

”No, Detective, and that’s the strangest part. We found no trace of his soul energy or life force inside the alley, as though no living creature had passed through it at the time.”

The two guards looked pale as they recounted what had happened to Robert, as though they had been chasing a ghost.

”That’s impossible.”

The younger detective was beginning to feel as though the two men were playing games with them. Even if the suspect had managed to escape, it should have been impossible for him to erase every trace he left behind.

Yet the two men were claiming that he had left nothing behind...

Nothing at all.

Robert drew several puffs from his pipe as he looked at the two guards.

”Tell me exactly what happened.”

The two men exchanged glances before the taller one began to speak.

”He left the tavern and walked at an ordinary pace. He didn’t look back even once, nor did he show any sign that he had discovered our presence.”

”How much distance was there between you and him?”

”About fifty meters at first. We closed in a little once the streets grew quieter, but we kept him in sight the entire time.”

”Did he use any ability?”

”No, sir.”

”Did his soul energy change before he turned?”

The guard hesitated for a moment.

”The truth is... we couldn’t sense his soul energy from the very beginning.”

The younger detective’s hand stopped above the page for several moments.

Robert’s eyes, however, remained unchanged.

”From the moment he left the tavern?”

”Yes, sir. We could see him with our own eyes, but we couldn’t feel his presence. We assumed he was using an ability to conceal his rank, so we relied solely on sight.”

”Continue.”

”After two streets, he turned into a narrow alley between two buildings. He didn’t run or change his pace beforehand. He was out of our sight for three seconds at most, but when we entered after him, he was gone.”

”Does the alley have another exit?”

”Yes, but it’s far enough away that we would have seen him before he reached it. My partner rushed toward the opposite exit while I searched the doors and windows along the sides, but they were all locked.”

”And what was above you?” Robert asked.

The two guards froze.

The younger detective raised his eyes toward them.

”The rooftops,” one of them answered slowly. ”But both buildings were at least three stories tall, and we felt no movement above us.”

”You said you couldn’t sense his presence even when he was directly in front of you.”

The two guards fell silent.

Robert removed the pipe from his mouth.

”Then why did you expect to sense his movement after he vanished from your sight?”

The two guards looked as though they had been struck over the head.

”But sir, we didn’t hear the sound of a jump or an impact, and even a Tenth-Rank Awakened couldn’t reach a rooftop that high within three seconds without leaving any trace.”

”An ordinary Tenth-Rank Awakened couldn’t,” Robert corrected calmly. ”But who told you he was an ordinary Awakened?”

One of the guards opened his mouth but found no answer.

They had seen a young man who appeared to be around eighteen, with white hair and crimson eyes, and they hadn’t sensed any energy from him whatsoever. Consequently, they had assumed that his rank couldn’t possibly exceed their own and that dealing with him wouldn’t be particularly difficult.

But the truth was that they had never possessed any proof of that.

”Was there anything he could have used to climb? A pipe, a window ledge, a balcony?”

”There was a metal drainpipe along the left wall and several stone ledges beneath the windows.”

”Then he didn’t vanish.” Robert returned his pipe to his mouth. ”He went up.”

”But we looked up after searching the alley.”

”After how long?”

The two guards didn’t answer.

That was answer enough.

”Return to the alley and examine the rooftops and the buildings connected to it. Don’t search for soul energy or life force. Look for disturbed dust, a broken piece of stone, or any other physical trace he might have left behind.”

”Yes, sir.”

The guards turned to leave, but Robert’s voice stopped them.

”And if you find him, do not approach him.”

The two looked at him in confusion.

”Watch him from a distance and send someone to inform me. Do not attempt to arrest him or get any closer than necessary.”

”At your command, sir.” The two guards hurried out of the tavern.

The younger detective continued staring at the door after it closed behind them, then turned toward Robert.

”Don’t you think his escape confirms his involvement?”

”No.”

”But he shook off two men we sent to watch him only minutes after leaving.”

”Which confirms that he detected them—not that he killed the man.”

”An innocent man doesn’t run from the City Guard.”

”They never tried to stop him or identify themselves,” Robert replied. ”From his perspective—or anyone else’s—two unidentified men were quietly following him in the middle of the night.”

”But he knew we would be watching him.”

”Most likely.”

”Then why did he disappear like that?”

Robert looked toward the spot where Ravian had been sitting a short while earlier.

”Perhaps he wanted to conceal his destination.”

”Or perhaps he wanted to flee the city.”

”If he intended to flee, he wouldn’t have given us Earl Patrick Viola’s name and the address of his mansion.”

”Perhaps he lied about that too.”

”I don’t believe so, but we’ll know tomorrow.”

Robert removed the pipe from his mouth and gently tapped it against the edge of the table, spilling a little ash into it.

”Send someone to the Viola mansion in the morning. He’s not to enter or ask about him directly. I only want him to watch and see whether the man calling himself Rayan appears there.”

The younger detective quickly noted down the order.

”And what about tonight?” he asked.

”Check the records from the capital’s gates.”

The detective’s hand stopped once again, but this time with far greater shock.

”The capital’s gates?”

”He said he arrived in the city today and hadn’t booked any lodgings yet. Search the records from every gate for the name Rayan Veyr and anyone matching his description.”

”And what if we don’t find his name?”

Robert raised his eyes toward him.

”Then we’ll have a new question to ask him when we meet again.”

The younger detective looked toward the bald man’s corpse.

”You still think we’ll meet him again?”

”He refused to answer the question about the killing, exposed our surveillance, then shook it off within minutes.” A small smile appeared on Robert’s face. ”Someone like him won’t disappear after personally telling us exactly where he’ll appear tomorrow.”

”How can you be so certain?”

”Because running now would make him look guilty.”

”But he already ran from our surveillance.”

”No.” Robert returned his pipe to his mouth. ”He merely showed us that we couldn’t watch him the way we wanted.”

”Besides, fleeing before mentioning his connection to Earl Patrick would be one thing. Fleeing after mentioning it would be something else entirely.”

...

Meanwhile, Ravian stood atop one of the buildings overlooking the same alley into which he had disappeared.

He kept his body low behind a stone ledge as he watched the two guards running back toward the tavern.

’Faster than I expected.’