Chapter 21
But the newspapers kept spouting nonsense.
— An anonymous police source claims the suspect is such a bigshot that revealing their identity would turn the entire country upside down!
And so, every famous person in the city began to fall under suspicion of being the Thieving Crow.
Mrs. Doris Hunt made an appearance at a charity auction to help crime victims.
But suspicion, which had been darting from one person to another, collapsed in an instant like bubbles popping. After all, someone locked up in a cell couldn’t possibly appear in public.
However, conspiracy theories are as persistent as weeds—uproot one, and another sprouts immediately.
The arrest of the Thieving Crow is actually a massive government hoax?
The Thieving Crow’s capture is a lie.
It’s a staged show orchestrated to boost the approval ratings of the incumbent mayor ahead of next year’s re-election, which is why the culprit’s face and name haven’t been revealed.
When the baseless accusations began to target the city government itself, the Eden City Police Department made public some of the confiscated evidence.
— The Hopeless Diamond, which the Thieving Crow had tried and failed to steal.
— A kitchen knife with an ornate rose pattern etched onto its blade.
— A pair of plain brown boots.
— And a black umbrella—damaged, but still capable of lifting a person a hand’s span off the ground.
Only after that famous umbrella was revealed did the rumors of a staged arrest begin to die down.
Yet, since no photograph or identity was ever disclosed, neither the press nor the public could put their doubts to rest.
“You idiots! The Thieving Crow has been caught.”
Sitting at the head seat of a massive table, an old woman hurled the newspapers she’d been reading onto the floor like so much kindling, lashing out with biting words.
“Claire Kent never came back to work.”
Claire Kent.
…who was actually Gemma Steel in disguise.
She had uncovered the Thieving Crow’s true identity before the police ever did.
The old woman stroked the white cat on her lap, its sharp eyes watching the subordinates gathered around the table as though keeping them in line, while she recalled that moment.
“Oh my, you must have been startled, little ones. I have some treats with me—please, help yourselves if you’d like.”
“What’s the point of giving us things like this?”
‘Money is what matters.’
Snacks were nothing but food waste to robot cats who couldn’t even eat them. And yet—
‘Wait a second, this…?’
Wrapped around a dried fish no bigger than a pinkie finger was a strip of chicken jerky she recognized.
‘It’s the same as the one I saw on the night the Scarlet Queen’s Heart was stolen, isn’t it?’
She and her subordinates had gone to steal that enormous ruby as well.
‘But that wretch beat us to it!’
The plan had been perfect—steal it, pin the blame on the Thieving Crow, and avoid pursuit from the police.
But when they returned empty-handed, the robot cats she had sent to scout the museum had each come back with one of those strange treats in their mouths.
“You brats! You shirk your work, and what’s this garbage you’ve brought back?”
“Meow, nyaaa, nyanyanya!”
According to the robot cat translator—
“Is that so?”
That night, the Thieving Crow had escaped through the window wearing a museum employee’s uniform.
“What did the woman look like?”
[She had ivory-colored skin, black hair, and brown eyes. But I cannot remember her face.]
Her hair had streamed black in the wind as she flew skyward.
‘And her face couldn’t be remembered?’
That was the common testimony of everyone who had encountered the Thieving Crow.
The woman who had given the cats those bizarre treats was the Thieving Crow. And the one who handed them out under the name Claire Kent?
‘You’re the Thieving Crow—Gemma Steel.’
The old woman’s gaze shifted from the snack to the woman herself.
Different from the appearance on that night. But everyone knew the Thieving Crow could change her looks at will.
That sly, catlike face imprinted itself clearly in her mind. Whether magic, sorcery, or some kind of technology—it meant she hadn’t used her usual trick of erasing her face from memory.
‘This is the Thieving Crow’s true face.’
And it matched the faint memory she had of Gemma Steel’s features.
At last, she had found her.
They had spent a fortune in money and manpower to catch the Thieving Crow, and yet she had been right there under the police department’s nose all along.
The culprit had finally been found, but not the jewel.
The very night she set a tailing cat on her in the plaza, the police had arrested the woman before they could even attempt an abduction.
The old woman turned to an elderly man in a white coat, one of the many subordinates seated stiffly on either side of the table.
“She is being held in the underground detention cells of police headquarters.”
“Have you found the Scarlet Queen’s Heart?”
The man shook his head with a grim expression.
“Kent insists she didn’t steal it. The police searched her home, but they say they still haven’t found it.”
“Is that so? Hm…”
As the old woman stroked the white cat on her lap, pondering, one of her subordinates—a man with a black eyepatch over one eye—offered his opinion.
“Now that it’s in police hands, security will only get tighter. Extracting the ruby will be far more difficult.”
“Then we’ll need to extract Claire Kent before that happens.”
“Mistakes will not be tolerated. Dismissed.”
At once, they all rose to their feet and placed a fist to their chests. The slogan they shouted together thundered through the room,
“For the day ZamanChu conquers the world!” (1)
* * *
Outer office of the Police Commissioner’s office.
Two men summoned by the commissioner sat side by side on a sofa.
While waiting for their host to arrive, Raven sat rigidly, back straight, face hard, his eyes fixed only on the wall.
Chase, on the other hand, lounged comfortably, casually scanning a newspaper on the coffee table with a spark of interest. In a voice pitched low so only Raven could hear, he muttered,
“This time? Let’s be clear—I always win.”
The pair of deep blue eyes that had been locked on the wall shifted toward the newspaper Chase was reading.
Raven Hunt: Hunter of Crows.
Newspapers everywhere proclaimed that it was Raven’s cunning that had brought down the Thieving Crow.
To prevent the Central Bureau of Investigation from stealing their credit, Eden City Police had gone so far as to reveal the full details of the operation.
But in truth, it wasn’t Raven who had caught the Thieving Crow—it was that woman’s own heart.
A thief, yes, but one who never harmed others.
Even kicking Raven had been to save his life.
‘So then… if this time it were truly my life on the line, what choice would that soft-hearted woman make?’
They would drive the culprit up onto the roof.
While Raven confronted the thief, Chase would step in and fire a blank round.
Raven would then pretend to be struck by a real bullet while shielding the culprit, tumbling off the roof.
If the Thieving Crow tried to save him, Raven would arrest her in his own way. If she abandoned him and fled, Chase would catch her in his way.
That was the bet—and Raven had won it flawlessly.
The fewer who knew a secret, the better it was kept. Even within the force, only a bare handful had been aware of the wager, which doubled as the operation plan.
Now that everyone knew, the glory naturally poured onto Raven—the one who had read the suspect correctly and devised the strategy.
“How does it feel to be a big star?”
Chase flipped through the newspaper overflowing with praise for Raven. Raven, well aware of the mockery, gave no reply.
“Still, I’m surprised you trusted me.”
What did that mean?
Raven’s eyes narrowed.
“Weren’t you worried I might swap your blanks with live rounds and pretend it was an accident?”
He was asking whether Raven hadn’t feared he would use the opportunity to kill him.
“Just as you said—I trusted you.”
“…What?”
“Your brains might be poor, but I trusted that you weren’t stupid enough to kill me in front of everyone.”
