Ivan hesitated.
Should he follow through on what he had implied to Corea and seek out Sevanci, or should he head directly to the Third Hospital to investigate?
Aside from those two places, he honestly couldn't think of anywhere else worth going.
The First Prince was out of the question.
Back when he was studying at Kakin First Military Academy, Ivan had once received an invitation from the First Prince himself.
He had been invited to join the First Prince's private military reserve.
As long as he graduated and passed the final evaluation, he would become an official member of the prince's private forces and receive the待遇 of a military officer.
In Kakin, that was considered an excellent opportunity.
But Ivan's goal had always been to become a judge, just like his father Lyman.
So he had decisively rejected the First Prince's offer.
And it hadn't been only the First Prince.
Several other princes had tried to recruit him as well.
Among them, the Third Prince had offered the most appealing conditions.
He promised to support Ivan's path toward becoming a judge—eventually even aiming for the position of Chief Justice.
The intention was obvious.
Once he inherited the throne, he wanted Ivan in a position where he could serve him more effectively.
Unfortunately, Ivan's ambitions had never been to become a loyal servant of the Kakin royal family.
The dinosaurs were gradually being eliminated.
After pulling up his hood and leaving the alley, Ivan walked for a while before noticing that the streets had filled with more vehicles.
Black sedans.
The kind the mafias favored.
What had happened on Yalan Street was spreading faster than he expected.
Originally, Ivan believed the fact that he was still alive might stay hidden for two or three days.
But now it seemed likely that by tomorrow morning, both the mafia and the Phantom Troupe would know.
That realization gave him a headache.
But it also helped clarify his thoughts.
He didn't actually need Sevanci to fully protect him.
He only needed her to buy him a few days.
Because the real danger he faced right now didn't come from Kakin.
It came from the Phantom Troupe, who could find him at any time.
With Pakunoda among them, if he were captured, it wouldn't just be the truth about his resurrection that would be exposed.
They would uncover the fact that he was a transmigrator.
Ivan had a strong feeling that his conflict with the Troupe would reach its conclusion within the next few days.
So as long as Sevanci could delay the Judicial Bureau for a short time, Ivan would have a much better chance of dealing with the Phantom Troupe.
As for the mafia—
That was something that had to be handled through the princes they served.
For now, it wasn't Ivan's main concern.
And he didn't consider the mafia to be a major threat anyway.
The Kakin underworld was far from unified.
If his Investigator identity was still usable, Ivan would have even more options.
As for the Third Hospital, that would have to wait until after he met Sevanci.
With his decision made, Ivan knew what he had to do next.
First, he needed to contact Wilge, the captain of Sevanci's royal guard.
Wilge would report the matter to Sevanci.
If she agreed to meet him, Wilge would arrange Ivan's entry into the Kakin Royal Palace.
Those were the rules.
Unlike Yalan Street, the royal palace was not a place anyone could simply sneak into.
Ivan was quite familiar with Wilge.
After all, it had been Lyman who introduced Wilge to Sevanci in the first place.
And the fact that Wilge had become the captain of her guard proved just how much Sevanci trusted both Wilge and Lyman.
The only problem was that Ivan needed Wilge's contact information first.
His phone had been smashed back when the Xi-Yu Family kidnapped him.
Fortunately, Ivan had always kept backup records of important numbers.
Working as a frontline investigator meant his phone frequently ended up broken during arrests.
Because of that, he kept copies of contact information both at the Judicial Bureau office and at home.
But going home was impossible now.
That place was probably under surveillance.
Walking into it would be suicide.
The Judicial Bureau, however, was different.
There were still people there he trusted.
And Ivan still remembered one of their numbers.
Besides, the mafia would never dare stake out the Judicial Bureau.
Unless they were extremely bored and looking to cause trouble for themselves.
Ivan pulled out a flip phone he had just stolen from a street punk.
He entered the number from memory and dialed.
Then he waited.
The call rang three times.
Ivan hung up.
He dialed again twice more.
Both times, the person on the other end didn't answer early.
After finishing the sequence, Ivan stopped beside a wall at a crossroads.
Less than a minute later, the flip phone rang.
Ivan answered immediately.
"Where are you?"
A calm voice came through the receiver.
The man on the other end was a neatly groomed young man with glasses and perfectly combed hair.
His name was Caesar.
He was also a member of the Kakin Judicial Bureau.
His expression showed no emotion at all—just like someone answering a completely ordinary phone call.
"Am I wanted?" Ivan asked quickly.
"No," Caesar replied.
"Why would you ask that?"
Ivan suddenly realized something.
From the moment he had been kidnapped until now, less than twenty-four hours had passed.
Technically, he couldn't even be considered missing yet.
"What's the situation on Yalan Street?" Ivan asked instead of answering.
Caesar paused for a few seconds before replying.
"Someone reported abnormal creatures appearing on Yalan Street."
"Chief Justice Corea was attacked."
"The police have sealed off the area."
"The culprit has not been found yet."
The answer surprised Ivan.
He had assumed that after Ivan escaped, Corea would immediately issue a warrant for his arrest through the Judicial Bureau.
"I see."
Ivan understood something now.
Before Caesar could ask anything else, Ivan hung up.
Corea hadn't issued an arrest order.
There could only be one explanation.
He was sending Ivan a signal.
A signal that there was still room for negotiation between them.
Was it because he cared about the file?
Or because he believed Ivan had no chance to reveal it?
Ivan couldn't tell.
But he knew he had to respond.
Otherwise, the situation might change without warning.
Just as Corea understood Ivan, Ivan also understood Corea.
Corea was meticulous, sharp-minded, thorough, and extraordinarily intelligent.
Every decision he made carried deeper meaning.
And in Ivan's eyes, Corea's current move only pointed to one thing.
He was forcing Ivan to seek out the Seventh Queen.
Whether or not she protected him didn't matter.
What mattered was the attitude it represented.
If Ivan went to her, it would mean that even if he knew the truth contained in the file, he had no intention of harming the Kakin royal family.
At this point, one thing had become completely clear.
The contents of that file were a royal scandal.
Something that, if exposed, could shake the entire Kakin system.
A possibility Ivan had known about long ago surfaced in his mind.
He quietly muttered a single phrase.
"...The Carnival of Sacrifice."
Just saying those words carried a heavy weight.
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