Chapter 134

After hesitating for a moment, Alvin said, "I think I saw Blondie somewhere before. Maybe I can track him down"

"Are you sure about that?" asked Gordon.

"No. It's just a guess at this point. But I think it could be him" said Alvin.

Gordon nodded, and said "Blondie is not a priority at the moment. But you are not required to do anything against the Black Rose, so feel free to chase this lead down" said Gordon.

He then handed over a piece of black paper over to Alvin and said, "Burn this paper if you find him. I will come over in 1 minute, or send someone over within that time. You can also use it if you have any other emergency"

Alvin accepted the paper, thanking Gordon. The paper had a few mysterious-looking symbols which seemed to have been drawn with spiritual materials.

"Captain, who is in charge of the matter if Blondie gets caught? Because if I the clue that I have pans out, he may be involved with more than one noble" said Alvin.

"Well, that would be tricky to decide then. Generally, the one who caught him is responsible for following up on whatever matters he was involved in. But if there are nobles involved, then the Mandated Punishers will probably try to get in on the investigation, as most of the nobles in Loen are believers of the Lord of Storms. The Machinery Hivemind may also lay claim to him, as he totally humiliated them by using them as a distraction, and waving at them when he escaped. But since Blondie was involved in such a public debacle, the MI9 wants to have a piece of him as well. So I can't tell you for sure. But the final result depends on the importance of whatever was in the safe he was trying to steal. But the person who caught him has the highest capacity of deciding his fate, however" explained Gordon.

Alvin then left, as Hannah stayed behind to go over some matters with Gordon.

Alvin then went back to the Half Inch Bar, where he decided to spend the rest of the afternoon resting. There was no one in the bar, as Riccardo already had a day off. The Machinery Hiveminds had already investigated the two incidents nearby to completion, and were probably embarrassed to stay any longer after they nearly cause him to be killed. Hence, the bar was empty. As Alvin was dozing off, a small bell at the corner started ringing. Alvin instantly bolted up, readjusted his weapons, and sprinted home.

The bell was an arrangement he had left behind, connecting the bar and his home. A string pulled in his home would cause the bell in the bar to ring, and vice versa. Alvin had installed it as a distress signal in case something happened when he was at another place.

Alvin was sure it wasn't that serious, because he, Naomi, and Cheryl had other means to alert each other depending upon the severity of the situation. But he decided to head there and check it out just in case.

As soon as he arrived, he went in to see Naomi sitting in the hallway.

"What happened?" asked Alvin.

"I just walked inside and saw a woman in the house. She jumped out of the window and ran soon after she saw me. I didn't touch anything and waited here after calling you" Naomi said, looking worried.

When he, Naomi, Cheryl first moved in, they did not know too much about Beyonders and were constantly worried that whoever targeted the Hans family would come after them after finding out about them through divination or something. Hence, he had installed over the top bordering on paranoid measures to ensure their safety and drills on what they should do in case of an intrusion or suspicion.

Over time though, they grew much more confident, especially from since a few weeks ago, after Alvin became a Beyonder and knew that divination wouldn't find them unless they left obvious clues. Plus, to a stronger Beyonder, their means weren't really effective anyway

Alvin calmed Naomi down, and looked around.

There were very few signs of intrusion around the house, but Alvin could vaguely identify the traces of a woman who was not Cheryl or Naomi everywhere. Everything around their house like the drawers, tables, bedsheets seems to have been ruffled thorough, and put back in place, but Alvin could see that there was some unevenness when the intruder did so.

Alvin then walked into the study room, where Naomi said she saw the woman. He looks around at the various documents scattered there. There were bills for the bars, a few unimportant information reports which he didn't immediately destroy, official paperwork related to the identity of him, Cheryl and Naomi, Naomi's University paperwork scattered all around. This time, while things were approximately in the place where he had kept them, the signs of someone going through them were more apparent.

After looking around for a while, Alvin spotted something suspicious.

"The whole room looks like it was searched through. If Naomi surprised the intruder, barring the highly unlikely possibility that Naomi entered just as she was finished, there would surely be a portion she hadn't searched through yet. Also, she didn't seem to have knocked anything over, or throw something at Naomi to disorient her as she was escaping. That is very unlikely, unless she was caught right by the window with no obstacles in her path, and Naomi was just far enough to not be able to react" though Alvin, now convinced that this was a farce to see how they would react.

While wondering who it could be, he quickly walked over to Naomi who was still in the hall.

As he walked over, he swept his gaze around, looking for any monitoring devices, but found nothing

As he walked past the mirror in the hallway, he felt a gaze on him.

Alvin realised someone was watching through the mirror. He quickly started thinking about which Pathway's Beyonder powers or mystical powers could accomplish it, and wondered who with such means would target him.

After he reached an answer, he quickly started thinking about what to do next.