Chapter 65: Dixiya's Gift (Tuesday, please keep reading)

Ke Lai remained unconscious from morning until afternoon.

During this period.

Cyno waited here patiently.

I already said that before.

When not on duty, Cyno was still very personable; he also took an interest in Luo De, and the two ended up chatting quite amicably for a while.

If he didn't crack so many cold jokes, the atmosphere in the room would be even more cheerful.

At the same time, he also brought Luo De a piece of news.

That is, the suspects in the earlier attack on the Kawanyi Academy Officer have been apprehended by the Thirty-Person Squad.

This news left Luo De and Dixiya staring at each other.

The real culprit is sitting right here.

Just what kind of culprit did the Thirty-Person Squad actually catch?

Framing the innocent for merit.

Those four words sprang to their minds.

That was the only explanation.

Cyno's later words amounted to much the same.

The Thirty-Person Squad captured a group of desert people, claiming they had a grudge against the Tanit Tribe, that their motive was to seek revenge and frame the tribe, attempting to pin a black pot on the Tanit Tribe.

"Someone is protecting the Tanit Tribe."

This is another piece of information Cyno gave.

The suspects captured by the Thirty-Person Squad all had injuries when they stood trial, several of them seriously wounded.

According to the Thirty-Person Squad, the rough idea was that the desert people resisted arrest unusually fiercely, which is why they ended up injured like that.

Cyno naturally did not accept this outcome.

In his view,

This so-called "culprit" gang was clearly forced to confess under torture, and the matter of the Tanit Tribe's knowledge smuggling was likewise brushed aside with a light remark of "framing."

"Can't even the Grand Wind Discipline Officer handle this sort of thing?"

Luo De was somewhat curious.

"Even though the Grand Wind Discipline Officer is a high official of Sumeru, are you just going to watch the Thirty-Person Squad's mercenaries frame the innocent?"

"That's regrettable."

"I really can't manage these affairs."

"It's not a functional department."

"Even if I had further objections, I could only object to the knowledge-smuggling matter; homicide cases like this fall outside my jurisdiction."

Cyno shook his head: "Moreover, the Academy also endorsed this result, and there wasn't much physical evidence at the scene, so relying solely on their testimony actually meets the standard for a conviction."

"So that means the case is closed?"

Luo De wasn't very satisfied with this outcome either.

If that's really the case,

wouldn't that mean my risky exposure of the Tanit Tribe's knowledge smuggling has basically no impact on the tribe at all?

"It is indeed already closed."

Cyno then said: "Mainly, the Tanit Tribe cooperated fully; when the Wind Discipline Officer went to investigate, their elders immediately handed over dozens of accessories involved in the smuggling and pinned all the blame on the deceased named Adefi, assigning responsibility very swiftly, and since not much contraband was found on them either, the matter ultimately fizzled out."

"Not much contraband was found?"

Luo De didn't like hearing that.

What kind of tribe is the Tanit Tribe?

They engage in pillage, theft, murder, looting, smuggling, and plundering—there's nothing they won't do.

They even bragged about raiding Academy scholars as a point of pride.

How could a tribe like that possibly have little contraband?

"That's simply the fact."

Cyno gave Luo De a strange look, then added: "It seems you also know the Tanit Tribe's reputation—well, you know all that, so wouldn't we Wind Discipline Officers know it too? But in fact we simply didn't find much contraband, whether it truly wasn't there or we just missed it; our convictions are always based on the actual evidence we seize, so lacking sufficient proof, we naturally can't press charges against them."

"Fine."

No matter how dissatisfied he was with the investigation result, now that it's come to this, Luo De couldn't possibly go out and kill a few Tanit Tribe smugglers, continuing to heap blame on them.

It must be said,

the Tanit Tribe really does have two brushes.

To make the Wind Discipline Officers come back empty-handed is no feat for an ordinary desert tribe.

However, upon further thought,

after being investigated by the Wind Discipline Officers,

the Tanit Tribe at least won't dare to engage in smuggling while under scrutiny for a while, and perhaps the reason no contraband was found is that they themselves destroyed it.

Thinking that way,

Luo De felt a lot better inside.

For any desert tribe, smuggling is a very important means of acquiring resources.

Even though we couldn't inflict greater loss on them via the Academy Officer attack, if they can't run smuggling in the short term and also end up destroying many of their own resources, even a large tribe like the Tanit would suffer a loss painful enough to make one's flesh ache.

Just as Luo De and Cyno were discussing the Tanit Tribe, Ke Lai, who had been in a stupor, finally woke up.

Having just awakened, she clearly hadn't yet recovered from the earlier pain; even though she was conscious, she sat dazedly on the bed.

After a long while.

She just came to her senses, her body slightly trembling as she looked at her own hands.

All the bandages that had been wrapped around her body earlier were now undone.

The once crisscrossing, ugly scars were now completely gone, and even the characteristic gray-black scale-like symptoms of the magic scale disease had receded.

Now, judging purely by appearance.

Ke Lai and a normal child were almost indistinguishable.

"The damage to your body from the Archon's remains is indeed severe, but your magic scale disease has also been fully suppressed under the power of the Archon's remains."

Cyno standing nearby explained in a timely manner.

Yes, exactly so.

Don't be fooled by Duotuolei's team, which lured people to his lab under the pretense of treating the magic scale disease, but he indeed found a way to suppress the magic scale disease.

Therefore, although Ke Lai suffered greatly from the toxicity of the Archon's remnants, she has actually turned misfortune into blessing, greatly prolonging the onset time of the magic scale disease.

Moreover, even if the Archon's remnants were sealed, they suffered no loss in effectiveness.

They were even better than when they were active before.

Even Ke Lai's own magic scale disease symptoms have consequently dissipated considerably.

After a brief moment of surprise and excitement.

Cyno began to inquire in detail about Ke Lai's experiences during the experiments over these years and the location of that laboratory.

The first question was fine.

Ke Lai indeed did not want to recall the past; her ordeal back then could be said to be a terrifying memory deeply ingrained in her bone marrow, but knowing that Cyno was helping her, she could barely manage to speak about it.

The second question stumped Ke Lai.

In her view, the desert regions all looked roughly the same—either yellow sand or bones—with no discernible difference; the only thing she could remember was that the laboratory was situated beneath a cliff.

She recorded all of these details one by one.

Cyno then immediately set out to investigate this major case of serious violation of the Academy's prohibition.

After he left.

The solemn atmosphere akin to a police interrogation instantly relaxed considerably.

Dixiya patted Ke Lai's head and happily said, "Ke Lai, I've prepared a gift for you—now is the perfect time to give it to you."

(End of chapter)