Rope didn't know what to do this time. She truly hoped to recover those important medicines; otherwise, she would never have thought of making this call to Hoshiguma.
Under normal circumstances, even if her own hard-earned money were stolen by someone else, it would be impossible for Rope to seek help from the police to handle such a matter; she would instead retrieve her lost property by herself.
As for Rope reporting the crime, although Hoshiguma felt it was quite surreal, she believed the words Rope said. Furthermore, Jeanne was right there beside her, confirming the truth of what Rope had told them.
"Then lead us there; I'll help you see if we can find any clues."
With that, the three of them—Hoshiguma, Jeanne, and Rope—walked toward the place where Rope currently lived. As they walked, Hoshiguma appeared as if she already knew where Rope lived, even leading the way for Jeanne and the girl.
Along the way, Rope seemed lost in thought. Throughout the walk, she lacked her usual liveliness and the smile on her face, simply moving forward beside them.
Upon entering the slums, Jeanne felt a gaze completely different from before. It was a look of extreme hostility, as if they wanted to use their eyes to linger-cut them into pieces.
Why did they have such looks? Was it because of these Lungmen Guard Department uniforms? Over her many days of interaction, she hadn't noticed the LGD having the same habits as the Ursus military and police.
Jeanne looked at the eyes of the people around them; she estimated that if it weren't for the relatively tall Hoshiguma by her side, these people might have actually made a move.
"Don't pay too much attention to it; the slums here are just like this. The vast majority of people here generally feel some... resistance toward us LGD coppers in their hearts."
Hoshiguma's words were quite subtle; it was far more than just "resistance." Jeanne could imagine how dangerous it was for officers to perform missions in a place like this—it was like operating with your head tucked into your waistband.
At this moment, Rope, who was beside them, also put on her hood to hide her ears and hair, concealing herself behind Hoshiguma as much as possible, hoping to escape the surrounding gazes.
Hoshiguma also raised Hannya, using it to shield Rope from their sight. This also prevented them from seeing what race Rope was or what unique characteristics distinguished her from others.
This was for Rope's own good. If she were discovered to be colluding with LGD coppers, it wouldn't be long before the entire slums knew that a purple-haired Cautus had a connection with the cops.
At that time, those who loathed or even hated the LGD would vent the rage they didn't have the courage to direct at the Department onto this defenseless little one.
Hoshiguma had experienced this before. A mistake by one of her subordinate officers had led to the exposure of an Infected who was willing to reveal information to them. When they went to visit him, all they saw were the already rotting corpses of him and his family, including a pair of children who were only five years old.
During the time after they were killed, the people around them didn't even dare to collect the bodies, fearing they would provoke those unreasonable madmen and involve themselves in such a meaningless event.
Regarding this situation, Jeanne did not voice her opinion. She was aware that this wasn't just a simple matter of the Infected hating the non-infected; what was more serious was the control of the gangs. Although the existence of the Rat King prevented the slums from turning into a hell completely dominated by gangs, the area was still managed by various gangs and lawless elements; the Rat King could only act as the helmsman for the general direction.
And as for gangs, no matter how many nice things were said, they were still associations built by violent groups—how could they not use violence and fear to control this place? Because of the lack of manpower when Lungmen was first established, the functions of the LGD had, to a certain extent, been usurped by the gangs in the slums.
The current situation was that even if the internal boss was one of their own, it was not so easy to take this area back into their own hands. If that day ever truly came, the bloodshed and death in this district likely wouldn't be small.
"Looking at it this way, your daily work isn't easy at all!"
As they moved forward, Jeanne sighed at their situation. Although the situation here was much better than in Ursus, the contradictions of this city were plain to see.
Jeanne felt that the current tension between Lungmen and the slums was like a pile of dry firewood soaked in gasoline. It only needed a single spark between them to be ignited.
She was certain that if Lungmen did not have a proper solution for this, even if Reunion didn't come here to stir up trouble this time, a conflict would still break out before long.
"Wherever the Infected are involved in this world, it's the same. Everyone is troubled by how to treat the slums, but a way to solve it must be found eventually!"
The three talked as they arrived at Rope's home. They saw a very simple room appear before their eyes, but several items inside were completely out of place with the rest of the room.
"These few things... you stole them recently, didn't you? I don't recall you ever buying such expensive things."
Hoshiguma looked at the several bags neatly arranged in the room, a smile on her face as she looked at Rope, who was hiding behind Jeanne. She was certain these were definitely not items Rope had bought.
At this time, Rope also remembered that there were still stolen goods in her room that she hadn't sold yet. She looked at the half-smiling Hoshiguma with panicked eyes.
It wasn't that Rope didn't want to sell these bags, but according to the rules of the trade, these things usually had to wait a while before being sold. During this period, some connected people would find other pickpockets or thieves to see if they could spend a bit of money to redeem the bags—this was considered a rule of the "road."
"Forget it. Since I came here for personal reasons, I won't hold this against you today. Let's look at the scene first, though I'm still taking the stolen goods with me in a bit."
Hearing Hoshiguma's words, Rope couldn't help but heave a sigh of relief. She had been truly worried that Hoshiguma would lock her up again for a while because of this, even though the LGD food was actually quite tasty.
"It looks like something was indeed stolen, and the culprit was clearly coming for your medicine. They didn't take anything obviously valuable; it seems their objective was very specific!"
Hoshiguma spoke while looking at an inconspicuous spot where a safe had been pried open. Hoshiguma recognized this safe; evidence for a case years ago had been hidden inside it, and the box had been stolen. Later, it was this kid who helped recover it. After they took the items out of the safe, the girl had taken the thing back to use as a cabinet.
"This likely wasn't the work of an acquaintance. This person searched almost every place in your house where something could be hidden. However, the possibility of an acquaintance being involved cannot be ruled out."
After searching around and finding nothing, Hoshiguma spoke to Rope. Although the culprit had left the place a mess, they truly hadn't left any clues behind for them. Looking at it this way, the culprit was an extremely professional thief. Even with such a search, they had left no fingerprints or footprints.
Jeanne and Rope stood outside the door, watching Hoshiguma skillfully examine the situation. Worried about damaging the scene, the two chose to observe from the side and did not interfere.
"But the only people who knew the medicine was with me were those who were sick. It couldn't be that they stole it while I was away, right?"
Although she didn't want to suspect her acquaintances, based on the current situation, it was indeed the most likely possibility.
"That's not necessarily true. Perhaps someone bought the information from someone you know, or they told the culprit about it... Go and see if anyone in the vicinity has disappeared."
After a fruitless investigation, Hoshiguma could only ask Rope to ask around the neighborhood to see if she could find anything out.
But this was essentially impossible. The chances of finding such a thing were so small they were negligible; once someone took it home and poured it into a kettle, the evidence would be gone.
Thus, in the end, the three of them failed to find a suspect. Seeing that it was getting late, Hoshiguma could only take Jeanne and leave, planning to discuss further after the investigation concluded.
On the other side of Lungmen, a person wrapped tightly and wearing a large hat walked into a certain company, looking like an employee returning to the office for overtime. Not long after entering the company, they appeared to vanish into the building, their figure no longer visible from the outside.
That person made many twists and turns, arriving at a massive laboratory. They slammed a mineral water bottle in their hand heavily onto the table, appearing to be quite angry.
"This is the junk you wanted! A bottle of ordinary mineral water—and used water at that! I even ran all the way to the slums for this thing! You'd better give me a proper explanation!"