Inner City Patrol Shaman's Building.

  Khan sat in a large chair, holding a maid in each arm, with another kneeling between his legs. He leaned back with his eyes closed, a look of contentment on his face.

  A faint, pervasive yearning malice drifted through the room, causing the maids to blush and their eyes to glaze over.

  In an instant, Khan's expression shifted. He sat bolt upright, pushed aside the three maids, threw on his coat, and strode out of the room.

  A figure stood like a statue outside the door. Seeing Khan emerge, the figure immediately approached and whispered something in his ear.

  After a moment, Khan listened to the person's words, a hint of surprise appearing on his face.

  "Did Alena leave the inner city in the middle of the night?"

  "Have someone known what she was doing!"

  Khan pondered for a moment, then added:

  "Something happened at the Gray Spector this morning. Have someone clean it up. Tell that useless Marshall that if he makes me clean up his mess again, he will not see the sunrise the next day!"

  The figure bowed slightly upon hearing this, then turned and left.

  "Damn it, these useless shits, I'll kill them all when my term is over!"

  Khan cursed as he watched the figure leave, then turned and went back into his room.

  The next morning, Stirling carried the wooden box to the Night Watch.

  As soon as he entered the Night Watch, everyone standing in the courtyard talking turned to look.

  "Ha! Isn't that Luis, the envoy's favorite?"

  "Have the lucky man finally come?"

  "How many rounds did the battle take last night?"

  "Perhaps not only battle at night…"

  The crowd laughed, obviously envious of the shortcut Stirling had taken.

  "Stop teasing me, guys. Where's the boss?" Stirling shook his head.

  "He's inside." Someone pointed to the side room.

  "Yearning Palace sent someone early this morning. The boss and that person have been talking inside for an hour."

  Stirling nodded and stood still to the side.

  After a while, the side room door opened. A woman in a maid's outfit stepped out and headed straight for the door, not looking to either side.

  The crowd stopped chatting and consciously moved aside for her.

  After the woman left, everyone looked towards the doorway.

  Carlos came out, but his expression was unreadable. He gave a routine reprimand without fuss and then dismissed the crowd.

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  But as he was leaving, Carlos saw Stirling and waved him over.

  Stirling walked up to Carlos, who looked him up and down, then discreetly gave him a thumb-up. "Luis, you are a badass! You have served our Ladies of Yearning very well."

  Stirling, realizing the man had misunderstood again, gave an awkward scratch of his head.

  "Alright, someone from the inner city just came. She said you're in charge of investigating the Gray Spector. That box you're carrying contains the fragment, right?"

  Carlos pointed to Stirling's food box.

  "Yes, Sir."

  Stirling replied.

  "Get rid of it right now. Even with the wooden box, it still has some impact. Register it in the archives later and then find William. He'll tell you what to do!"

  "Also, the scarred guy we captured from the Gray Spector is in jail. With this, you can go in and investigate him."

  Carlos pulled a badge from his waist, handed it to Stirling, gave him some instructions, and left.

  Stirling, however, was secretly on cloud nine.

  These fragments — are they going to let me handle them randomly? Oh, it is not a kidding?

  And you want me to query the Gray Spector?

  Double good news; I should celebrate!

  At this moment, Stirling thought to himself that after the bitter comes the sweet.

  Stirling jogged to the archives.

  Inside the archives were various files from Farfield City over the years. Two clerks were currently organizing documents. Seeing Stirling enter, one of them immediately came to greet him.

  "Sir, are you here for registering?"

  The clerk asked.

  "Yes, I'm here to register the Gray Spector's malice incident."

  Stirling said.

  "Sir, registering a case requires at least two people, and an inspector must accompany you. A single person cannot do it."

  The clerk wasn't very cooperative when he saw Stirling come alone.

  "Will this do?"

  Stirling slammed the badge Carlos had given him onto the table.

  The man glanced at the badge, then nodded awkwardly, indicating he could.

  Stirling smiled and took the badge back. The man sat down and took out a thick register.

  "Sir, you can begin now. Describe the event, location, people, and outcome, please."

  The man dipped his quill pen in ink and spoke.

  ...

  Fifteen minutes later, Stirling finished his narration, adding at the end:

  "The fragments posed a significant threat to public safety; I destroyed them the following day."

  The clerk was a bit surprised, glanced at Stirling, and continued recording.

  Finally, the clerk handed the document to Stirling for his signature, and the case was closed.

  Leaving the archives in high spirits, Stirling went to look for William.

  William was sitting in a small tavern on the street, drinking beer alone. Then he saw Stirling approaching from afar, carrying a wooden box.

  "You bastard, you haven't even been here a week and you're already trying to slack off like me?"

  William chuckled and cursed as soon as Stirling sat down.

  "Slacking off? It is a work the boss assigned to me."

  Stirling took out a food box, placed it on the small table, and patted it.

  "What's this?"

  William asked, puzzled.

  "A statue fragment."

  Stirling whispered in his ear.

  "Pfft!"

  William jumped up like a bristling cat, cursing at Stirling:

  "You son of a bitch, all I did was slash you once a long time ago, then you took this revenge on me?!"

  Stirling asked in confusion:

  "What are you talking about?!"

  "Bullshit! Do you want to kill me? Get the shit away from me!"

  William said, hopping mad. "Boss told me to get this sorted out by you, and you will not help? Alright, I'm going back."

  Stirling stood up, pretending to leave.

  "Fine, fine, you son of a bitch, take the stuff and come with me!"

  William sighed helplessly, took his sword, tossed some coins on the table, and left with Stirling.

  The two of them returned to the Night Watch's outpost, one after the other. William looked at Stirling with utter disbelief and said:

  "You dare to take these statue fragments with a shrug? You must have a death wish!"

  Stirling was puzzled.

  "I'm holding the wooden box over it, are not I?"

  "Malice is quite weird. You can't see it or feel it; that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Destroy it right now!"

  William urged him repeatedly.

  Stirling seemed to understand. Wasn't this like nuclear radiation? As mentioned, this statue is rather a radioactive source. If I used the statue to boost a malice source like a nuclear reactor, could I keep getting malice?

  After thinking about it, Stirling realized he was being delusional. The uranium-235 and plutonium-239 used in the nuclear reactor were unheard of in this odd world. Even if he could enhance it out of thin air, the lifespan required would be astronomical.

  Stirling thought to himself.