After leaving the shop, Shirou headed toward the slums while taking out his phone and dialing Rope's number.
"Hello? Shirou?"
The call was answered quickly. Rope's voice came through, though she sounded unusually quiet.
"It is me. Where are you all right now? I did not see any of you in the shop just now."
As he walked down the street, Shirou's worries eased somewhat. At least he could confirm that nothing had happened around the shop. Yet for some reason, he still felt that something was not quite right.
In the past, he would have assumed he was simply worrying too much. But after everything that had happened recently, Shirou felt it was sometimes better to trust his instincts.
"As for everyone else, they should already be on their way back. I happened to run into the person we were investigating earlier, so I am tracking them right now," Rope replied.
"Tracking..."
"I understand. Be careful. If anything happens, use the emergency contact function on your Rhodes Island terminal."
The moment Shirou heard her explanation, he realized she was working. He frowned slightly as he spoke.
Rope carried the same type of terminal issued to Rhodes Island operators. It featured an emergency contact button. In Lungmen, activating it would immediately notify the Rhodes Island office and include the user's location.
However, since Shirou was officially Rope's guardian, emergency alerts from her terminal would also be sent directly to him.
"Got it. The target is moving. If there is nothing else, I need to get back to work!"
After responding, Rope hurriedly hung up.
"This job really is dangerous..."
Looking at the disconnected call, Shirou let out a sigh. In the end, he had chosen to respect her wishes.
Unlike the others in the shop, Rope had grown up surviving in the slums. The skills she developed there, both her physical talents and her ability to gather information were the foundation of her survival.
Now she earned some spending money using those same abilities.
As for her old habit of pickpocketing...
She mostly used it these days to play harmless pranks on acquaintances.
Besides, many people recognized Rope's abilities. Chief among them were Ch'en, Hoshiguma, and Swire, all of whom had worked with her before. That was what reassured Shirou the most.
He knew nothing about tracking, intelligence gathering, or information analysis. Asking him to do that kind of work would be less realistic than expecting him to bake an apple pie for Exusiai.
That was why he had not tried to stop Rope. Instead, he chose to support her from behind the scenes. If something really went wrong, he could use the terminal's location data to reach her quickly.
Normally, Rope already enjoyed the privilege of being able to summon Shirou whenever she needed help. It was just that all the recent abnormalities had compelled him to remind her to be careful.
The reminder was as much for himself as it was for her.
"What a hassle..."
Thinking about it, Shirou sighed again.
If possible, he wished he did not have to deal with these situations or think about these problems. He would much rather spend a peaceful lunch break in the shop with everyone else.
Unfortunately, even such a modest wish seemed out of reach.
Soon, he noticed some commotion ahead.
The faces involved were all familiar.
After counting everyone and confirming nobody was missing, Shirou led them back to the shop. He had intended to give them a few warnings, but his phone rang before he could.
Worried that something might have happened to Rope, Shirou immediately handed the children over to Phal and stepped outside with his phone.
"Why is Yith sending messages to the work group at a time like this?"
Looking at the screen, Shirou saw that Yith had posted a message in Penguin Logistics' work chat.
Under normal circumstances, Yith would never send messages during working hours, especially not during lunch break. That time was precious to him.
Anything important enough to interrupt his lunch break...
Had to be serious.
With that thought, Shirou quickly opened Yith's chat window and scanned through the messages.
"Someone used festival fireworks as a cover to transport large quantities of Originium gunpowder into Lungmen through various logistics companies... and just now, some people used that gunpowder to assemble crude Originium explosives and cause trouble within the city."
Skipping over the less important details, Shirou quickly grasped the situation and connected all the pieces together.
So that was why the Guard Department vehicles and fire department trucks had mobilized together earlier.
Fireworks.
Originium gunpowder.
Crude Originium explosives.
That meant the explosion he had heard earlier had not been his imagination. Someone had actually detonated explosives.
Or perhaps someone had been setting off fireworks?
No.
With the facts laid out before him, the explosive theory was far more likely.
Shirou felt an even stronger headache coming on.
At first, he had assumed it was merely gang violence. Now the situation had escalated several levels higher, and it even seemed connected to Penguin Logistics.
The cargo had been delivered by Penguin Logistics personnel. Naturally, the moment the Guard Department uncovered that fact, they contacted the company's boss.
Under ordinary circumstances, Shirou would not care much if they had merely transported some "questionable merchandise."
But now people were using that questionable merchandise to cause trouble throughout Lungmen.
That meant Penguin Logistics would have to cooperate with the Guard Department's investigation.
Those people really had narrowed their own path.
If they had only used the materials for minor trouble, hardly anyone would have cared.
But causing chaos in the middle of Lungmen?
Sorry, but the Guard Department was not known for leniency. Every major logistics company would be forced to cooperate.
Penguin Logistics was even more proactive.
Emperor had already instructed Yith to compile a list of suspects and was preparing to send Shirou and the others out to recover the problematic packages.
Recover, officially.
In practice, it meant kicking down doors and either retrieving or destroying the packages before the Guard Department or more specifically Wei Yenwu came knocking.
The overtime pay was generous, which was exactly the sort of thing their boss would do.
After all, Emperor had no interest in getting tangled up with Wei Yenwu.
Once Shirou understood the full story, he finally replied with a simple acknowledgment.
Texas, Exusiai, and Croissant were already ahead of him. Yith had assigned the three of them to operate together.
Now, only Shirou remained unassigned.
This meant he would have to operate alone. Neither his boss, Yith, nor Shirou himself saw any problem with that arrangement.
Just as he had thought earlier: start with Reinforcement Magecraft. If that did not work, pull out a card. That would be enough to handle over ninety percent of the problems in Lungmen.
The remaining ten percent could be dealt with using Noble Phantasms.
And if even the Noble Phantasms failed, then Shirou was out of options.
"Everything is in the slums... I can suddenly understand why the Guard Department hates patrolling this area so much. The danger level is far higher than patrolling the other areas of Lungmen."
Opening the locations and list that Yith had sent him, Shirou could not help twitching at the corner of his eyes.
The reason was simple.
There were far too many targets.
According to Yith's conservative estimate, the Originium gunpowder hidden throughout the slums could be assembled into more than a dozen batches of high-grade Originium explosives. Unlike the crude explosives used earlier, a single one of these could bring down an entire building.
Seriously, how had something like this been shipped into the city under the label of fireworks?
Did nobody in the logistics industry inspect their cargo!?
Oh, right. Penguin Logistics had delivered it.
Never mind, then.
Countless complaints filled his mind, but in the end they all became a single deep sigh.
He already knew that Penguin Logistics sometimes transported dangerous cargo. The Guard Department knew as well. It was only because of the relationship between Emperor and Wei Yenwu that everyone chose to look the other way.
That was also why Penguin Logistics deliveries were frequently targeted by robbers.
After all, one successful heist of valuable cargo could make them a fortune.
As for retaliation?
Who cared?
Normally, shipments like these would be clearly marked in the commission details. This time, however, both Penguin Logistics and the other logistics companies had been completely fooled.
All he could say was that anyone capable of turning fireworks-grade Originium powder into military-grade explosives was a special kind of genius.
"At least I know who the enemy is now. I do not have to be nervous about every little thing anymore."
Shoving aside the scattered thoughts in his head, Shirou tried to focus on something more optimistic.
Just a few minutes ago, he had been worrying about everything under the sun. Now he knew the source of the problem, and the weight on his heart had finally been lifted...
Or had it?
Actually, things seemed even worse than he had expected.
What started as gang violence had turned into dangerous extremists armed with Originium explosives.
Realizing this, Shirou immediately jumped onto his bicycle and pushed hard on the pedals.
"I should deal with those things as quickly as possible. I only need to handle the people. Yith can recover the explosives afterward."
Without any cargo loaded behind him to affect his balance or weigh him down, Shirou rode much faster than before.
If he had been cycling at this speed in downtown Lungmen, the Guard Department would probably have stopped him for questioning.
But this was the slums and the situation was urgent, he could not afford to care about that right now.
The recovery operation went more smoothly than expected.
Some of the suspects had never imagined the operation would be exposed so quickly. Under Shirou's fierce assault, they were subdued and tied up before they could even draw their weapons.
Others had come prepared.
They immediately launched ambushes using crossbows and hastily assembled Originium explosives.
Unfortunately for them, their opponent was Shirou.
Shirou simply activated his magecraft, ignored their attacks, and walked straight up to them.
With what he believed was a friendly smile, he pointed a black gun-blade at them and politely suggested that they hand over the explosives and tie themselves up.
The criminals had never seen anything like this.
Under normal circumstances, this should have turned into a fierce battle and even if their enemy reacted quickly, he should still have struggled against their barrage while trying to disable the explosives.
But this guy was completely abnormal.
Not only did he ignore the crossbow bolts, but the Originium Arts they had painstakingly prepared were shattered by the weapon in his hand.
As for the planted explosives, it was even worse.
For some reason, he immediately identified every trap. He simply used blades to detonate them ahead of time, rendering the ambush completely useless.
How were they supposed to fight someone like that?
"Hm... It is a good thing there is nobody nearby. Otherwise dealing with these explosives would have been troublesome."
Holding his weapon while directing the criminals to tie one another's hands, Shirou suddenly commented.
To avoid attracting attention, these people had deliberately chosen a remote location as their base.
Ironically, that decision had become the very reason he could clear the area so quickly.
Several hours had already passed since Shirou entered the slums.
The sun was beginning to set.
During that time, he had done little besides travel, clear targets, call Yith over to clean up the aftermath, and then move on to the next location.
In only a few hours, he had nearly finished processing the entire list Yith had sent him at noon.
However, when combined with the operations being handled by the rest of Penguin Logistics, less than half of the packages had actually been recovered.
That meant the majority of the Originium gunpowder was still concentrated in the hands of a small number of groups.
Those locations would undoubtedly be the most dangerous.
Yet Emperor and Yith seemed extremely confident in him. Neither showed any intention of sending Exusiai or the others as reinforcements.
They had even said something along the lines of, "The capable should do more work. Since you can sweep through everything alone, there is no need to send extra people."
Shirou very much wanted to roll his eyes in protest.
Unfortunately, there was nobody around to see it.
The truth was that he was feeling somewhat worn out.
One battle after another inevitably created pressure. That was also why he had chosen to greet his opponents with a smile and have them tie themselves up.
The old Shirou would have simply bottled up those emotions.
Now, however, he had learned a great deal from the people of Penguin Logistics, especially about finding healthy ways to relieve stress while working.
This method was surprisingly effective and it also significantly reduced his workload.
At last, Shirou understood how the members of Penguin Logistics could remain cheerful under any circumstances.
Handling all these trivial matters with complete seriousness was simply exhausting.
"All right, that should do it. Be cooperative and hold out your hands and feet."
After confirming that everyone was securely restrained, Shirou tied up the last person's limbs as well.
Then he projected a steel cable and wrapped all of them tightly together.
Throwing the other end upward, he hoisted the entire group into the air.
This arrangement maximized the chances that none of them could escape or cause trouble after he left.
With both their hands and feet bound, and several people crammed together while dangling above the ground, escaping had become vastly more difficult.
Even if someone somehow managed to break free from the restraints on their hands and feet and squeeze their way out from the tightly packed group, the height alone would make the landing unpleasant enough to keep them suffering for quite a while.
"All right, I will leave the rest to you! I am heading to the next stop!"
After finishing everything, Shirou lightly clapped the dust from his hands, quite satisfied with his efficiency.
Soon afterward, he heard the buzzing of a drone.
Turning his head toward the sound, he greeted it with a wave.
The drone was being operated by Yith.
From this point onward, he would take over the scene until someone arrived to deal with the captured suspects.
During that time, Shirou could either take a short break or continue working.
He chose the latter.
Although he had accomplished quite a lot throughout the afternoon, it was still only a warm-up by Shirou's standards. Physically, he was not particularly tired.
The real exhaustion was mental.
Most of it stemmed from the constant consumption of mana. After all, there was nobody here supplying him with magical energy.
On top of that, this work was simply...
Extremely annoying.
The combination had placed a noticeable burden on his mental state.
This was not the kind of fatigue that could be cured with a brief rest.
Because of that, Shirou decided he would finish dealing with everything first and then properly relax afterward.
With that, he set off toward the next target location.
As for his bicycle...
It was probably better not to talk about it.
In an emergency situation, a bicycle was even more fragile than a motorcycle.
Fortunately, only the wheel rims had been destroyed.
The frame itself was still intact.
As long as he replaced the entire wheel assembly later, the bicycle would be able to continue accompanying him for quite some time.