Kali's Nonchalant Confession

“Ah, that? Of course. I told you I stole it. Do you think those bastards from the Meredith Family have been looking for me like that for nothing?”

Ms. Kali’s expression as she answered was nonchalant. She showed not the slightest agitation, as if stating an incredibly obvious fact.

I hadn’t expected much anyway. I wasn’t a profiler or a lie detector, and I didn’t have the Talent/Skill to guess the truth of someone’s words just by looking at their expression.

Furthermore, the other party was an Ever, a completely different species from me, and a legendary master Thief whom even the prominent DCPD Investigation had given up on.

There was no need to try to read her psychology. If I did, I would only Get Caught Up in her pace.

I just needed to say what I had to say.

“Right. So I, no, not just me but everyone naturally thought master Thief Zodiac had stolen the command Authority… but when I thought it over carefully, there was something strange.”

Before knowing master Thief Zodiac’s true identity, there was no problem. But after learning master Thief Zodiac’s true identity, after equating him and Kali Haywood as the same person, a problem arose.

“First, the issue of time. No matter how I think about it, there was only one time when Ms. Kali could have stolen the Prototype’s command Authority.”

Because she had been in disguise as Alexandra all along, it felt like she had been away from the Companions for a long time, but in reality, there was only one moment when Ms. Kali separated from us and acted alone.

When the terror first occurred, when the Main Hall ceiling collapsed and debris fell, tearing the group apart - that was the only time.

If Ms. Kali stole the command Authority then let’s map out a scenario where that would be possible.

First, while the terrorists and Dolls, Visitors and Escort were fighting, and everyone was struggling to escape amidst the pandemonium of the Main Hall submerged in darkness where EMPs and beam cannons were flying around, Ms. Kali would have had to quietly slip away from the Chairman without wasting time while others were squabbling, using some unknown method.

Otherwise, it wouldn’t make sense. If she had been tied down by the terrorists like me or the others, she wouldn’t have had any time to steal the command Authority at all.

And then, she would have had to move at an astonishing speed to the place where the command Authority was hidden, without encountering any obstacles.

Also, upon arriving, she would have had to incredibly easily, effortlessly, and quickly steal the Prototype’s command Authority - which would be flawlessly guarded by the Meredith troops and the facilities of Mirror Castle - .

Not stopping there, she would have had to run back to the landing pad at a speed reminiscent of Usain bolt and save me with perfect timing just as I was about to be killed by the Chrome Monster.

Is this even possible?

“I’m a bit skeptical, but… well. It might be possible. Since it’s none other than master Thief Zodiac, you’d be frighteningly good at stealing, and Ms. Kali is incredibly fast. There were also rumors that master Thief Zodiac has an accomplice, so you might have received help from someone.”

But even if one gave a lot of leeway and assumed it was possible, another problem remained.

“If the Prototype AI’s command Authority is so important, to the point where the whole castle is in an uproar over its disappearance and they’re running around looking only for the culprit, ignoring the terrorists and everything else, where would the Meredith Family have hidden such a precious treasure?”

“Who knows? Wouldn’t the Family Head have kept it on him personally?”

“No. If I were the Family Head, I would have naturally left it in the innermost part of Mirror Castle, in the secret vault. Along with that “Core Technique”.”

That was right. It was an incredibly obvious thing.

Even if it wasn’t in the exact same vault, they definitely would have stored it in the innermost part of Mirror Castle, because there was no place as safe.

It was something you could tell just by looking at how arduous our path to the innermost part of Mirror Castle is right now.

Second was the issue of location.

If the Prototype command Authority was in the secret vault in the innermost part, was it possible for Ms. Kali to steal it and get out?

Assuming it was possible, why did she only take the command Authority and leave that suspicious “Core Technique” completely untouched?

Of course, there could be various special circumstances or excuses for this as well.

But I didn’t care. In the end, there was a very simple way to find out the truth.

“So, try using it.”

“Use what?”

“The command Authority, of course. If you have it, you should be able to use it. Try giving an order to the Prototype AI through your neural interface. Summon the Dolls, open an Underground, do whatever.”

“…”

“You can’t do it?”

Ms. Kali eventually raised both hands and surrendered. She had just been feigning ignorance in a “might as well try” manner; it didn’t seem like she had seriously intended to deceive me in the first place.

“You’re a real detective… Yeah. You’re right. I don’t have the command Authority. I never stole it in the first place. More accurately, I should say I got caught trying to steal it.”

“You got caught trying to steal it?”

“Yeah. Honestly, I wasn’t even planning to steal it right away, but I just figured I’d do a quick search since I was separated…”

I understood what had happened.

“Prezen Meredith found you.”

“Yeah, that’s right. I don’t know what kind of trick he was using, but he saw right through my optical camouflage. And since he’s smart like you, he quickly deduced that I was master Thief Zodiac.”

I had wondered how master Thief Kali Zodiac and Prezen Meredith ended up joining hands, and now I finally knew the circumstances. Surprisingly, it was Prezen’s side that made contact first, rather than the master Thief.

“If it were the Ms. Kali I know, I feel like you would have tried to silence Prezen with force somehow, but I guess that didn’t work out?”

Ms. Kali flared up at my question.

“Hey, it’s not like I’m some gangster. Is that the kind of image you have of me?”

“So, you didn’t do that?”

“…Honestly, I did entertain the thought. Only in my head, though. But whenever we met one-on-one, that guy kept hiding behind the Dolls. I thought the risk was too high, so I didn’t try it.”

I knew it. You could say Prezen Meredith was very wise.

“So that’s why you made a deal with Prezen Meredith.”

“Yeah. I agreed to help Prezen kill the Meredith Family’s Family Head and take that seat instead. As part of that, I bluffed that I had the Prototype’s command Authority.”

“But how did you pretend to steal it when you never actually did? The Meredith Family aren’t fools; they would have at least checked if the command Authority had been taken.”

At my question, Ms. Kali shrugged while remaining seated.

“I don’t know either.”

“You don’t know?”

“Yeah. I’m not a net diver, so how could I pull something like that off? I’m just a master Thief, through and through. Prezen Meredith did it all.”

Maybe he’s a terrifyingly skilled hacker or Net Diver, or maybe he was the one who stole and possessed the Prototype command Authority from the very beginning, not me?”

I pressed my forehead and sighed.

I had been under a massive misconception.

Since Kali Haywood was the infamous master Thief Zodiac, I thought she would know a lot about Prezen, Mirror Castle, or the Meredith Family.

But my ass. Looking at it now, it wasn’t that Prezen and the master Thief had cooperated; the master Thief had practically just been worked to the bone as Prezen’s subordinate.

I felt the vague illusions and fears I had held about the legendary master Thief shattering to pieces. I shook my head and asked.

“Alright. Let’s say Ms. Kali helped Prezen become the Family Head. You actually succeeded, too. Then what is Prezen doing for Ms. Kali in return? What did he promise you?”

“The Core Technique. He offered the Prototype’s Core Technique. He said it would be the most precious treasure in this Mirror Castle that I was looking for.”

“And did you actually receive that Core Technique?”

“No? To get it, I have to go to the innermost part of Mirror Castle now. That’s why I sent Prezen ahead and was about to chase after him, but you caught me.”

I let out a hollow laugh in disbelief.

To think master Thief Zodiac was such a sloppy person.

In the end, didn’t that mean she had just acted as Prezen’s hands and feet, working hard without having received anything yet!

What was she going to do if he stabbed her in the back?

“No, what are you even trusting?”

At my look that practically called her pathetic, Ms. Kali suddenly flared up and protested.

“Hey, aren’t you looking down on me too much? I’m still master Thief Zodiac… Haa, whatever. Of course I had a plan too. First of all, Prezen didn’t look like he was lying. My eyes are never wrong, you know? That person, Prezen Meredith, seemed completely filled with revenge against his Family, an obsession with the Family Head position… and metaphysical subjects like his calling or existence. I couldn’t see even a speck of any other thoughts.”

Not to mention the metaphysical subjects, it did seem that his feelings toward his Family weren’t that good.

He had actually used master Thief Zodiac to draw attention, then killed the Family Head and usurped the Family Head position.

“When he talked to me, he transparently revealed all his goals without needing to hide them. He had absolutely no lingering attachment to the Core Technique either. I’m sure of it. There’s probably no one else in the world as honest as him. I almost thought he was a robot instead of a raver.”

“But he still could have been hiding something. What if his acting skill is just that outstanding?”

There was a reason I was concerned.

The Prezen that Ms. Kali evaluated was the exact opposite of the Prezen I had seen.

I experienced Prezen Meredith showing no signs of satisfaction even after usurping the Family Head position. Far from being honest, I felt that his inscrutability had become even deeper than before.

Perhaps the Family Head position was nothing more than a means to an end.

What if he had a different true goal in the first place? What if that goal was something even bigger and more crucial than turning the Meredith Family into this mess?

Perhaps the real villain, the final boss of this Mirror Castle, hadn’t even appeared yet.

Ms. Kali grumbled.

“I considered that possibility too. Do you think I’m an idiot? I had my own safety mechanism.”