Chapter 16
"Grandmother, if those people come with an order from the city, please tell me. I'm Claire Kent, working at the Police Bureau over there."
"Thank you, miss."
"You're welcome. Ah, the little ones must have been startled."
I took out a lot of homemade cat treats from my handbag and placed them in the grandmother's hand.
"Why are you giving me something like this?"
"It's fine. Please just take it."
I often give them to other cat grandmothers too, so please accept them without hesitation.
Actually, at first, I used to avoid any grandmother I saw with cats. It was because there was a criminal character in the game who was a cat grandmother.
'I don't know what kind of crime a grandmother who loves cats could commit.'
But it turned out that cat grandmothers were as common in this city as cats themselves.
I felt so sorry for suspecting kind grandmothers as criminals all this time.
"This is..."
The grandmother murmured, staring intently at a handful of chicken jerky.
Ah, right. She couldn't feed just anything to her pets.
"I made this myself using good quality chicken and anchovies. But if any of them have sensitive digestive systems..."
Suddenly, the grandmother's head shot up, and she looked at me. At that moment, a system notification popped up, obscuring the grandmother's eyes.
[Natural Meeting Pursuers are targeting you.]
Huh? What kind of random nonsense is this?
Sometimes, I get faction favorability messages even when I haven't done anything. It's not when I do something, but when the faction becomes aware of it that their favorability changes.
There are times when it's a late response, and other times when they misunderstand and their favorability changes for no reason at all.
Then I'm left to ponder why the favorability changed while looking at the random message.
It's truly a hopeless deduction. In other words, a waste of time?
What I'm most curious about right now is the faction, rather than the reason.
'Natural Meeting Pursuers? I've never seen this faction before.By the way, doesn't '자만추' stand for 'Pursuing Natural Meetings'?.
Why would people who want to meet naturally without artificial effort create an organization that goes against nature?
And why would people pursuing natural meetings target me? Then it wouldn't be a natural meeting.
'Well, I am a bit pretty.'
After saying goodbye to the grandmother, I swung my shimmering blonde hair over my shoulder and walked confidently towards the taxi stand.
"Heh."
I did a good deed. So please let my bad deed today go smoothly.
'System, please allow me to be a living thief tomorrow as well.'
I want to be a living thief tomorrow. That means, please don't let me get caught today.
As soon as I arrived, I offered a prayer to the system, which I don't usually do.
In front of the crime scene, citizens who came to watch and reporters who came to cover the event were gathered like a swarm of bees. It was always like this.
'But today, I feel unusually uneasy.'
This must be due to Hunt's accurate profiling.
Even though I'm just Employee 1, who seems a bit clueless, right now, it's not good to be noticed by him at the scene. I need to enter while avoiding Hunt.
I surveyed the area around the scene.
'Fortunately, he's not visible... Huh?'
Suddenly, reporters swarmed towards the police line in front of the main entrance of the scene, and flashes erupted like fireworks.
'Is it Hunt?'
I couldn't see clearly due to the crowd. I tiptoed slightly.
'Nah, it's not him.'
Following the barrage of flashes, the person who started receiving a barrage of questions from reporters was Chase from the Central Investigation Bureau.
"Agent, you mentioned in an interview with Eden Times that you would introduce new methods for apprehension. What exactly are these methods?"
"Are you finally going to use firearms?"
"That is classified information, so I cannot disclose it."
Hunt would have said that firmly and left the scene. However, Chase spoke with a troubled expression and remained standing there.
'He's really leaking information.'
As expected, reporters continued to bombard him with questions. Chase, pretending to be troubled, stood there before suddenly raising his voice.
"All I can reveal is this."
He swept his shiny black hair back with one hand and struck a pose in front of the cameras with a solemn expression.
"The reign of the Thieving Crow will end today."
At that moment, flashes erupted once more.
'Ugh, what a show-off. Aren't you the one with vanity and a desire for attention?'
Surrounded by reporters, Chase looked truly happy.
Even so, he wasn't stupid enough to commit a violation of regulations by leaking classified information to the press. He was just playing with the reporters by hinting at things without revealing them, enjoying his fame.
'He's like a fox.'
Because of that fox, people and cameras were swarming, making it difficult to enter through the main gate. I decided to go around and head for the back door.
'Hunt isn't here either. Good.'
I showed my employee ID to the officer guarding the back door, and as soon as I passed the fence, a notification popped up.
[You have entered the crime scene. Facial Recognition Disorder effect is activated.]
Hey! Why are you activating that now, you insensitive person! Turn it off! Turn it off!
I need to be Claire Kent right now.
If there's an unknown woman at the scene? If Claire Kent brought the equipment, but she's an unknown face?
'Isn't that like advertising, "I'm the criminal!"?'
'Turn off Facial Recognition Disorder.'
As soon as I turned off the effect and the message window disappeared, I froze.
"Kent?"
Hunt was standing at the entrance of the building, looking at me.
'Dude, you should have the manners to not appear at times like this! That's what a gentleman does.'
Just as it's polite not to attack while transforming, it's polite in games to pretend not to see system windows.
NPC Hunt has no manners. He even narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
"What are you doing here?"
His gaze and tone were unusual, but it was best to play dumb first.
"Officer Smith forgot to bring some equipment."
Only then did Hunt's gaze shift to the equipment bag.
'Ah, wait!'
If I take the equipment bag from him here and then tell him to leave, it would be problematic.
'I need to distract him.'
I put on an act of a woman who had been rejected again. I lowered my head as if embarrassed to be standing in Hunt's gaze, and pushed up my glasses that were sliding down my nose...
"Ah!"
Pretending to make a mistake out of nervousness, I dropped my glasses. I fumbled, trying to catch them as they fell, looking utterly foolish.
"Ah, my glasses..."
I left the bag and sat down on the stone path in the garden. My eyesight is so bad that I pretended not to see well, fumbling around in random directions to buy time.
'You're busy as the person in charge, right? Just go, please.'
Thump.
Finally, I heard the sound of Hunt descending the stone steps of the building.
'Yes, just pass by this way, please.'
But the approaching footsteps stopped right in front of me. I slightly lifted my gaze and saw a pair of black shoe tips looking towards me.
'What is he doing?'
Soon, the owner of the shoes came into my view. Hunt had bent down towards me.
"Ah... uh... Captain?"
Hunt picked up my glasses, which had fallen onto the lawn between us.
Because it had rained that morning, the grass was wet, and the glasses were already covered in water and dirt. Seeing that, Hunt reached into the inner pocket of his police jacket and paused.
He must have intended to take out a handkerchief to wipe them. He must have done it instinctively out of habit, only to realize it then.
The fact that Claire Kent liked him.
Excessive affection towards a woman who had confessed her feelings was not manners, but poison.
As expected, Hunt seemed to think so too, and the hand that emerged from his pocket was empty.
"Take it."
Hunt handed me the dirty glasses and then walked straight past me.
"Just deliver the equipment, and head home for today."
"Thank you, Captain."
