Chapter 22: The Childhood Nemesis

But the next sentence took a sudden turn: "However, I still have to charge a fee. After all, this is an agency."

"Ah, my apologies. Please, go ahead. Though I'm not sure if I..." Cabiss had already subconsciously switched to honorifics for Lin Yilin, who was significantly younger than her.

"Please don't worry. At the very least, I won't overcharge you. Besides, you are a client brought in by Aunt Chen, so I will give you a discount. Considering your current situation, I can allow you to pay in installments," Lin Yilin said with ease.

In the end, Lin Yilin proposed a price that was neither too high nor too low, leading Cabiss to accept after a moment of hesitation.

Payment would be based on the level of completion of the commission. If the attempt failed entirely and resulted in no gains, the deposit would be refunded. It was a very reasonable contract.

Although Zheng Fan was still surprised by the amount Lin Yilin proposed—it was higher than he had expected, easily reaching five figures, and could double if the entire job were completed perfectly—he remained silent.

After the deal was struck, Lin Yilin saw Cabiss off, returned to her desk, and began typing away on her computer with a rhythmic clatter.

"I thought you would continue to provide free services for such a pathetic victim," Zheng Fan said, looking through the door at Cabiss’s retreating back before turning back to her.

"A pathetic victim and charging a commission fee are not mutually exclusive. The last time, regarding the knocking incident, it was partly to lower the client's guard and partly out of consideration for their financial situation. Besides, even though I said there would be no fee, Mr. Chen sent over some compensation eventually. There are still good people in the city, after all."

"She’s destitute. Can she really afford the amount you quoted?"

"It’s difficult, but not to the point of impossibility. She is still managing to take care of two children; she surely has some emergency savings tucked away. While she is a traditional and conservative wife, she is not stupid," Lin Yilin assessed.

As she spoke, Zheng Fan leaned in next to her: "What are you doing?"

"Registering the commission on the Bureau's official website. Once certified, every completed commission becomes a credential for me on the site. Every bit of accumulation is important."

Lin Yilin finished quickly and then stood up. "Mr. Illusion, let’s go. It’s time to work."

"Right. Toast, you look after the house." Zheng Fan called out to Toast before they left.

Inside a basin of flour, the struggling and regenerating Toast gave a weak, muffled response, then went still.

Lin Yilin completely ignored Toast; the girl was still angry at him.

After her adoptive father passed away, Lin Yilin had renovated the office, but that single armchair remained a memorial to him. In the past, just like her a moment ago, her father would sit in that chair to listen to clients whenever they arrived.

Toast had undoubtedly stepped on a landmine.

The destination was a bit far, so Lin Yilin chose the nearest subway station.

"We’ll go to Ms. Cabiss’s home first to take a look. It’s in the gated community on Hihikoki Street, already on the other end of the street."

"What if we run into her husband directly?"

"That would be the best-case scenario," Lin Yilin said bluntly, raising her small fist. "Mr. Illusion, go up and take him out, and the commission is finished."

Zheng Fan was speechless, but he had to admit: "True, that is true."

Lin Yilin had a rough understanding of the level of Zheng Fan’s current "violence index" in the city. His upper limit was unknown, but his known lower limit was already beyond imagination.

Her assessment was that he could basically do whatever he wanted; he wouldn't run into any real trouble under normal circumstances. For minor encounters like this, brute force was undoubtedly the simplest solution.

"And if we don't run into him?"

"Then it will be a bit more troublesome, and we'll have to go looking. But there are a few points about this case that make me curious. After all, I still need to reconstruct the rough truth for Cabiss later, so I have to investigate."

Zheng Fan thought for a moment and said: "There might be someone pulling the strings behind this."

It was simple: the "pot of gold" that Cabiss’s husband brought home was real. Excluding the unlikely possibility that Cabiss herself was possessed by an illusion at the time, someone must have given him that first pot of gold.

Lin Yilin nodded: "That’s true, and there are other things... but before that, there are these annoying things to deal with."

As she spoke, she stopped in her tracks. The crowd in front of them parted, and a tall man with medium-long hair wearing a loose black suit approached, accompanied by several thugs whose attire was inconsistent, but whose aura was on a completely different level from street hooligans.

They all wore armbands bearing the logo of the Banmu Agency.

"Lin Yilin, I didn't expect to run into you here." The man stopped in front of her, his eyes scanning her from head to toe. His cold gaze was like an X-ray piercing through a body.

"Kiyono Koji, are you sure you didn't come here to block my path?" Lin Yilin asked back with a calm expression.

"Whoa, a meeting of star-crossed childhood friends," Zheng Fan remarked, enjoying the show.

That’s right—Kiyono Koji, this figure who clearly held a high position in the Banmu Agency, was Japanese. He was a bit older than Lin Yilin, but because both of them had spent their lives active in the nearby Raphael School District and Hihikoki Street, they were relatively familiar with each other.

However, due to the opposing stances of their respective agencies, their relationship was very distant—though it was perhaps Lin Yilin’s one-sided distancing.

At the same time, Kiyono Koji was the "boss" the thugs from the Banmu Agency had mentioned earlier.

"I’m just on my way to retrieve the stray dogs you threw into the subway station this morning," Kiyono Koji said, glancing at the two battered thugs behind him.

"Hmm? What happened on the subway?" Zheng Fan asked.

"Keep your dogs in check," Lin Yilin replied to Kiyono Koji, her words concise.

"You can't maintain the agency on your own. You’re impressive, but you’re not like Uncle Edelman. You’re too rigid, and your way of thinking is different from most people's. Otherwise, you wouldn't have been almost expelled from university despite your excellent grades," Kiyono Koji said coldly.

"None of your business."

"I am protecting you. You have the ability to be a powerful blade, but that assumes you are under someone else’s control and protection. If you persist on your own, the Banmu Agency won't let your office be. And it’s not exactly my word alone that rules there."

Lin Yilin tilted her head slightly, puzzled. "Are we that close?"

The man opposite her froze.

Without another word, Lin Yilin quickened her pace and brushed past him.

Zheng Fan lagged far behind, busy admiring Kiyono Koji’s expression from every angle. He never tired of the constipated look on a "cool, handsome guy."

This guy's vibe made Zheng Fan feel like he had walked into a Japanese TV drama; if the quality were any lower, it would be a domestic romance series.

"Take my advice, bro: don't be a simp. Someone like the binary girl is way out of reach for a 'normal person' like you," Zheng Fan jokingly patted Kiyono Koji’s shoulder—though he couldn't actually make contact, he went through the motions.

He made a face and skipped away joyfully. As he passed one of the thugs, he leaped up and momentarily overlapped his backside with the man's face, pretending to offer him a fart, before trotting along behind Lin Yilin like a child.

Lin Yilin glanced back, the corner of her eye twitching slightly.

Many things in the world were transparent and clear in her eyes; she just couldn't be bothered to care.

Only Mr. Illusion—with his abstract personality and strange existence—was truly impossible to see through.

...

Kiyono Koji pressed his wrist lightly. "How was it?"

"I felt nothing..." A voice that only he could hear resonated in his ear, like an auditory hallucination.

"Nothing at all?" Kiyono Koji frowned.

The reports from his subordinates regarding Lin Yilin’s abnormal behavior recently had led him to form certain suspicions. Some of his subordinates were acting on their own initiative and doing more harm than good—a drawback of the gang-like management style of the Banmu Agency.

He had come to see for himself, but the answer he received contradicted his hypothesis.

The most accurate testing method, even more so than the Bureau's illusion-detecting instruments, was to use an illusion to test an illusion.

It could not be wrong.

Unless...

The voice continued to drift slowly in Kiyono Koji’s ear: "Unless... that 'kind' is deeper than my depth. Much, much deeper..."

A shallow illusion could not observe a deeper one.

And the gap in depth would have to be vast.