ALL NOVEL Chapter 252: Preliminary Conflict (1)
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While everyone was shocked that the detective had finally managed to catch Fuzzy Dice, the thief began to grin within the cage of light.
「Impressive, very impressive. But you won’t catch me so easily.」
When Fuzzy Dice made that remark, the detective frowned with concern. It seemed the thief was still planning his escape, prompting the detective to brainstorm ways to apprehend him without resorting to brute force. Given Fuzzy Dice’s seemingly endless bag of tricks, the detective had to meticulously observe every one of his movements.
「Three… Two… One…」
With a smile, Fuzzy Dice held up his hands and began counting down with his fingers.
Everyone watched attentively, trying to be ready for whatever he would do. Once the countdown reached zero, the detective’s wariness reached its height, and then all of a sudden the Union was filled with white mist.
「What… What just happened?」
Everyone knew that Fuzzy Dice’s most used ability involved white mist which put those who breathed it in to sleep. And surely enough, the adventurers began to fall asleep one after another.
The warriors fell first, followed shortly by the spellcasters who had started to panic. But the mist seemed to originate from behind all of the adventurers, which meant that the spell had been cast there.「How did he do it?! He’s supposed to be trapped inside!」
Julius raised his voice in shock. The devices they were using did not only restrain the target within the light cage, but was also supposed to stop any spells from getting out, and made it impossible to set the origin spot of a spell outside too.
In other words, Fuzzy Dice was not supposed to be able to use his mist outside of the cage. That was why Julius was so shocked, as well as the other men holding the devices.
「Masks on!」
The Union workers were the next to start falling asleep when the detective shouted that order. That helped Julius and the rest to calm down and take out masks from their bags and put them on.
「Ohh! I knew it would come in handy!」
The masks they were using were the same Safe Breathing Mask – Amphibian Type devices that Mira had bought in the Dinowal Store the other day. Now was the perfect time for her to use it too, as the resistances granted by Martel’s fruit were powerful, but not impenetrable, and it was better to plan for the worst case.
While they adjusted their masks, all of the Union workers fell asleep, leaving only the detective, Julius, the men helping them, Mira, and Fuzzy Dice awake.
「Still, why did the spell activate outside…」
They had managed to avoid falling asleep, but they had not yet figured out how Fuzzy Dice had been able to use that spell while being inside of the cage. But the answer came shortly.
「It’s quite simple really. I wasn’t inside there to begin with.」 Fuzzy Dice’s voice came from within the mist, not the cage. In fact, it was the same spot where the mist had originated from.
「It can’t be..?!」
They could still see Fuzzy Dice inside of the cage, but when they turned around to look at the direction his voice had come from, they also saw him there. Seeing that made everyone gasp in surprise, including the detective.
Before they could do anything, Fuzzy Dice seemed to throw something and the detective took a defensive pose, only to hear Julius’ groan a moment later.
「Julius, what happened?!」 The detective turned around, and saw that Julius and some of the other men’s masks had been pulled from their faces, like there was some string tugging at them.
(That was also a Forbidden Art, Chain Spider’s Web or something like that.)
Three of them had lost their masks at the same time. Mira was astonished at how quickly that had happened, and knew she could not lower her guard. She still did not know the reach of Fuzzy Dice’s power, and if she lost her mask, she could fall asleep as well.
「Ugh…I’m so sorry…」 Julius inhaled some of the mist and soon fell asleep. At the same time, they dropped the devices, which rolled on the ground and turned off, making the cage vanish.
A moment later, the Fuzzy Dice released from the cage vanished.
「I see… We trapped an illusion the whole time…」 Seeing that, the detective knew where he had made a mistake. They had only trapped an illusion of Fuzzy Dice within the cage.
Back when he had been found amongst the adventurers and revealed his identity, he had also created an illusion, completely fooling the detective. Thinking of switching places with a clone like that was something only the thief’s quick wits could come up with.
「Well played, Fuzzy Dice.」 The detective did not seem to have any more tricks up his sleeve, but he seemed refreshed as he laughed about it.
「You outdid yourself this time too, detective.」 Fuzzy Dice gave a casual reply to the detective, but still seemed to be wary of Mira, not giving her any openings to try anything.
「Still, if I knew it would end like this I should’ve asked them to take their time.」 The detective muttered that as he looked into the mist, and Fuzzy Dice seemed to agree, saying, 「I really would’ve been in a bind if you did that.」
Mira was puzzled by that exchange, but when she followed the detective’s gaze, she understood what he meant. They were looking at the Union workers, who had finished clearing the evidence of any type of seals.
Fuzzy Dice would not have been able to use his white mist if they had still been working on the evidence, as they would have fallen asleep mid-process.
But the displays of Warrior Skills and spellcaster affinity tests had taken so long that the evidence was fully stabilized by the time Fuzzy Dice used the mist. And now the only ones still awake were the detective on his wheelchair, and Mira.
「Hmm…does this mean your bout with the detective has reached its conclusion?」
Just to make sure, Mira asked that. The detective and Fuzzy Dice had been rivals for a long time, and this was their latest encounter. By now, it seemed clear that Fuzzy Dice had won again.
「Yeah, I’ll admit defeat. Mira, thank you for being so considerate.」
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