After Zich’s clash with Glen, Zich and his crew continued their search for the culprits. However, as if they had learned from their mistake, the culprits never appeared before Zich and his companions again. Even when they placed Snoc and Elena as baits, nothing happened. It seemed like the culprits weren’t that stupid.
Yet, that didn’t mean the incidents stopped. It seemed as if only the criminals only highlighted their alertness as the cases decreased, but they continued with no hints of stopping. After several days passed like that, Zich headed out to a place early in the morning.
“Where are you going?” Lyla asked. Her voice sounded a bit tired. After seeing Zich leave by himself, she followed him. Although Zich didn’t stop her from following him, he didn’t tell her his destination.
He simply responded to her question by saying, “I am meeting an old friend.”
Lyla was surprised to hear that he had a friend in this city. In the first place, it was surprising that Zich had someone he could call a friend.
‘He has a friend with that personality?” Lyla was probably not bad for thinking these thoughts.
Zich stopped in front of a lodging. Even though the lodging didn’t look as high-quality as the one Zich and his companions were staying in, its size, interior, and standing in this city were nothing to joke about.
‘Is it a rich friend?’ Although Lyla had immediately imagined an ill-mannered gangster when thinking of Zich’s friend, it seemed this ‘friend’ was surprisingly wealthy.
‘Or is this friend a wealthy gangster?’ An image of a person scattering gold everywhere and laughing as people scavenged for them popped up in her mind.
“I didn’t mean for you to call them down,” Zich said to the person who opened the front door of the lodging and came out. It seemed like the person who was going to come out now was Zich’s friend. Lyla looked at the person carefully out of curiosity.
“…Huh?” she gasped. Zich’s friend was someone Lyla also knew, so it was more unexpected. The person wasn’t someone who seemed well acquainted with Zich at all.
“Huh?”
It seemed the person shared the same thought as Lyla. His eyes widened when he saw Zich, and his body stiffened so that he was blocking the entrance of the building.
“What are you doing? You shouldn’t block the door.” As the door was blocked, the woman following him out pushed him a bit forward. Glen had been standing in front of the door in surprise, but he walked forward. However, his eyes were glued to Zich.
“What are you…!” Lara was about to ask Glen when she saw Zich. She was also surprised. “Oh? Aren’t you the one from last time…”?
“Yes. I introduced myself before, but if you don’t remember, I can do it again.”
“Ah, no. I remember you. You are Mr. Zich, right?”
“Yes, and you are Ms. Lara Browning, right? I heard from Hans.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Although they were exchanging a conversation, Lara was taken aback. In comparison to Hans, whom she had talked to a couple of times before, she wasn’t very comfortable with Zich. Their first meeting hadn’t been ideal, and he had even fought with Glen recently. Glen said the fight had been his fault, but it was impossible for her to look at Zich favorably when he had beaten up the man she liked. Yet, she carried on the conversation because of the expression on Zich’s face.
He looked so bright and friendly right now. He didn’t act like someone who had trouble with them on their first meeting or had beaten up Glen recently. He acted like an old friend. Lyla stared at Zich suspiciously.
‘Is he calling these people his friends?’
Zich didn’t have a good relationship with Glen and Lara, especially Glen. Lyla thought there must be some kind of misunderstanding or he had met them by coincidence before meeting a friend. Yet, in contrary to Lyla’s beliefs, Zich approached Glen with light footsteps.
“Have you been well?”
“Ah, yes.” It seemed like Glen was also really taken aback as he struggled to respond properly. However, Zich remained unperturbed.
“I am glad to see that you look fine. Even if I had a misunderstanding last time, I feel guilty that I might have gone too far last time.” Somehow, Zich’s tone sounded strangely agitating.
Lara’s face was filled with slight discomfort, but all Glen did was make a bitter smile. Of course, that was just his outer appearance.
“It’s fine. It was a good lesson for me to learn. But what did you come all this way here for? Do you have some matters to attend to here?”
“Yes, to tell you the truth, I have something to ask you.”
“Me?”
It was hard to tell if Zich was planning to provoke Glen further by using their battle from last time. However, with Zich’s current attitude and behavior, that didn’t seem to be the case.
“Yes, aren’t you also chasing after the serial kidnapper right now?”
“Yes.”
“Did you find any clues?”
“…Why are you asking about that?” Glen asked suspiciously.
Zich maintained his friendly tone as he answered, “It’s because I want to ask for your collaboration.”
“Collaboration?”
Lara, Lyla, and of course, Glen were all surprised. Lyla was beyond shocked and was closer to stunned. She wondered if Zich had gone crazy from the stress of failing to catch the culprit these days. It was to the point that she wondered if the man in front of her was really Zich. From what she knew, the person Zich disliked and detested the most right now was Glen Zenard. Yet, how could he be asking for Glen’s collaboration?
“…It’s a bit sudden. I’m also quite surprised.”
“That’s understandable. It’s not like we have a good relationship. To be honest, it’s quite stressful.”
Glen didn’t reply, but anyone could see that he agreed with Zich’s words.
“But who are we? Aren’t we Karuwiman Honorary Knights? We have been chosen by the righteous Karuwimans; that also makes us righteous people.”
Lyla’s face grew pale. She suppressed the insults that threatened to come out of her mouth and began to seriously contemplate if she had to hit the back of Zich’s head to return him to normal.
Zich continued, “Even though we have temperaments and opinions, I think that we are at least similar in that we both don’t want any more innocent victims. So wouldn’t it be right for us to let go of our past troubles and collaborate together to catch the culprit?”
Zich thought he said some very touching words, but everyone around him was completely dumbfounded. However, Zich’s words were not wrong.
Zich saw that Glen was starting to waver a bit, so he added, “What are you wavering for? If you’re a righteous Karuwiman Honorary Knight, don’t you have to immediately grab my hand? Or do you have something special in mind?”
“I don’t have anything like that but…”
“Then there’s no reason for you to hesitate.” Zich walked towards Glen and put his arm around Glen’s shoulder as if he was greeting a friend of 20 years. Glen moved his head to the side. Anyone could see that he was uncomfortable around Zich, but he was unable to push Zich away.
Finally, Glen asked, “…What do you specifically mean by collaboration?”
“Like I told you before, I have connections with the person who is in charge of this case. He is receiving support from the count in this estate and the mayor of this city. We meet every night to discuss and exchange information about our findings, and I would like for you to be part of these meetings.”
“…And by that person, do you mean…”
“I’m sure you met him last time. He was the young person who stood next to me and wore expensive armor. He’s Count Dracul.”
“A count?” Glen pretended to be surprised, but inside, he was calculating his next move.
“Yes. Of course, he’ll also be giving us his support. Wouldn’t it be much better for us to collaborate and exchange information instead of chasing after the culprit by ourselves?”
Glen seemed to contemplate Zich’s words for a bit, but he soon said, “…Mr. Zich, your words make sense.”
“Of course! I’m not the type of person to spout nonsense!”
Even though Lyla wanted to deny Zich’s words, she used up all her patience to not say anything again.
Glen said, “Okay then. Regardless of what happened between us, we have to first stop more victims from appearing. I’ll collaborate.”
“You’ve made a very good choice, Mr. Zenard.”
The two of them shook hands and smiled while looking at each other. From a glance, they seemed to be trusting each other. However, they were the only ones who knew what was actually inside their minds.
* * *
While they were going back to their lodging, Lyla grabbed Zich’s arm and asked, “What are you planning?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m talking about your conversation with Glen Zenard just now.”
“Ah, you mean the conversation I shared with my long-time friend?”
“Friend? Friend? Isn’t he your sworn enemy?”
“Why are you so narrow-minded? Even if I absolutely hate a guy, if I can use him, I can think of him as a friend. I can even treat him like my precious savior,” Zich chuckled.
Lyla shook her head; she was stunned by Zich’s actions. In a way, it was chilling. In order to get what he wanted, Zich didn’t care about what methods he used.
“Fine, I understand that you’re trying to use Glen Zenard. Then, what’s his use?”
Zich’s expression changed. He was still smiling, but it was a different type of smile. Just now, he had made a bright and energetic smile like a prankster, but his current smile was that of a cold, ruthless schemer. Lyla felt a chill run through her body.
“Right now, I’m suspicious that Glen Zenard might be the mastermind of the assassin organization that turns people into Demon People. And if this is true, he’s a hypocrite who puts up a kind and righteous façade. I already told you this, right? And my plan was built with this in mind.”
Zich sneered venomously like a villain, “A person who makes Demon People and raises their fame by killing those Demon People. If that’s Glen Zenard’s behavior pattern, his reason for searching after the culprit this time is probably for the same reason. No, using the word ‘searching’ is laughable, because he would definitely know who the culprit is.”
“Then why doesn’t he immediately take care of the culprit?”
“He’s probably waiting for the perfect time. The greater the damage and fear surrounding the city, his fame would soar higher when he solves the case.”
“If that’s the case…” Lyla clicked her tongue at Zich’s prediction.
“That’s why I drew him over to our side. If he really knows the culprit, I could pry out that information from him.”
“What if he refused?”
“That’s why I cornered him like that while spouting out justice and things like that aren’t related to me at all.”
Lyla recalled the chilling words that Zich calmly let out about Glen Zenard.
Zich said, “I don’t know if he’s really a kind person or a hypocrite, but as long as he’s putting up a kind act, he won’t be able to refuse if I suggest collaborating together to reduce the damage as much as possible.”
And with this explanation, Lyla was able to completely understand Zich’s actions.
Then, Zich laughed, “Heeheehe! If I kill the culprit first with the information I provided, I wonder how angry he’ll get!”
Lyla took a step back from Zich who let out a low, creepy laugh. As expected, Lyla was certain that Zich would make an extremely troublesome enemy. However, Zich’s words had a point.
“Okay, I got it. I’ll help you.”
“Good. Let’s try our best to shake out all the information that Glen Zenard has.”
Like this, the two of them talked about their future plans and went back to their lodging.
After a while…
“This person is going to help us from now on.”
“My name is Glen Zenard. I’ll try my best to help despite my lacking skills.”
Glen Zenard began participating in their meetings.