Aurora, the twins, Rose, and Sarla, slept on and around one bed in Aurora's group's room, while Koren slept on the other. When morning arrived, to no one's surprise, Koren was the first to get up. Only a couple of hours had passed since the girls had arrived since they'd partied until the early morning.
Koren could tell that it had been quite the party. The girls reeked of alcohol and sweat and were still covered in bodily fluids.
"I bet we'll have to pay a fine to get those sheets cleaned. Or maybe they'll give us a pass since we're from big sects," Koren mumbled before taking a shower. When he was done, he woke the girls up.
"I'm going to get breakfast and meet the others. You all should shower before going anywhere," Koren said after the girls were awake.
Since they were Energy Storage cultivators, they could manage just fine, even though they'd only slept a couple of hours. Even if they'd consumed an obscene amount of alcohol.
To save on time, the five young women decided to make use of the relatively large hot tub in their bathroom to get clean. They relaxed together in the water for a while before taking quick showers in pairs. When they were done, there was only one problem, though. The clothes they'd worn were all filthy, and Sarla didn't have a change of clothes here, nor did she have a key to her room.
Rila ended up lending her one of her uniforms, though. It was technically against the rules, but it was only an outer disciple's uniform. Sarla was more than a bit embarrassed with how much skin the uniform showed, though.
All dressed, the five grabbed the thin notebook from the boss and headed downstairs. The others had finished eating, but they were discussing something. The girls walked on over and took their seats. The disciples from the White Sword sect acted like nothing weird at all had happened. They didn't even utter a word of thanks to Sarla. Sarla just quietly took her seat and started eating.
"Seems like this is our guy. He's some doctor if I recall correctly," Aurora said, throwing the notebook on the table. Koren grabbed it and started sifting through it.
"This guy, huh? That's unexpected. Sarla, it's that guy we spoke with. The doctor therapist. Says here he's relatively new in the city, has an unknown past, and ordered tattooing tools that match the description required for the mysterious tattoos. Seems like he's our guy," Koren said.
"Seems plausible enough. But this can hardly be used as concrete evidence. It's just something we got from a criminal in a less-than-savory way," Laurey said.
"Then we simply need to create some more concrete evidence," Rose said.
"Are you suggesting we fake it?" Koren asked, one eyebrow raised.
"Not at all. Just that we allow this doctor guy the opportunity to provide us with solid evidence. Now that we know he is most likely the culprit, it should be simple enough," Rose continued.
"Any suggestions?" Laurey asked.
"Sure. We simply need to give him a false sense of security. Having someone else arrested for the crime should do the trick. Someone who was already a suspect. Coincidentally, one such guy was present at the party yesterday. I recognized him as one of the tattoo artists we investigated. We just need to arrange a deal between the crime boss and the mayor. We will have our fall guy arrested and leave town with him. But secretly, we will sneak back in and set up somewhere near this doctor's home or clinic, where we will spy on him until he kidnaps someone else. Then we will arrest him red-handed. All we need to do is make some sort of deal to have the crime boss help us. Perhaps the mayor can pardon one of his men, or maybe more sex will do the trick. We'll figure something out," Rose said.
"Sounds like a plan to me," Koren said.
"It's good enough."
Everyone else agreed on Rose's plan and got to work. The first object on their to-do list was meeting with the mayor. Considering their status and mission in town, it was easy to set up. Rose repeated her idea to the mayor, who listened intently.
"I see. I will do my best to help. One of the syndicate's men is currently held in jail, but he's yet to be charged with anything. I suppose if the boss agrees to help you, the crime committed by this man could be forgotten, allowing him to walk free. If I'm not wrong, he is quite important to the syndicate's operations," the mayor said.
Second, on the list was paying another visit to the boss. They returned to the warehouse, which was guarded by another two men. These weren't the same men as last time, but they recognized Aurora, Rose, the twins, and Sarla from the orgy. Those two men had the pleasure of fucking all five of them the night before and let the group through. Upstairs, the boss wasn't present, but he quickly learned of the disciple's arrival and went to greet them.
"Back for more, eh? Well, I don't mind, but I can't really hold parties like that every day. Don't mind giving you lot a good fucking, though," the boss said.
"That's not why we're here," Koren corrected him.
"Then why are you here? I gave you the information you wanted. My part's done."
"We need further aid from you and have arrived with a deal for your cooperation."
Rose proceeded to repeat her plan again.
"Aye, I can see the benefits of your plan. I get Marlin back without any hassle, and Torn gets a free vacation. Sounds good to me. Just one more thing. Leave 'em twins with me for an hour or two. I want to fuck 'em."
"Fine," Koren sighed. He knew Rila and Sila well enough that he knew he didn't need to ask permission first. They were okay with having sex with anyone if it helped the mission. Or just in general. And it was only for an hour or two, this time. Not like yesterday.
"Good, good. Then, how we going to do this? You want to make some grand spectacle or something?" The boss asked.
"Something like that. We will bring the mayor's men to make the arrest at the Torn's shop. It will be public, and it will be loud. However, one little tricky thing. You can't tell him what we're doing. Don't worry; we'll inform him when we've got him out, but we want him to deny everything when the arrest happens. If he comes with us without any trouble, the doctor might figure out it's a trap. We want him to just think we're lazy and arrested Torn without doing a proper investigation. If he thinks you just used us to get rid of him, that's fine," Rose said.
"I see. Quite the deviant plan. People are probably going to be mad at the mayor and you guys if Torn's innocence gets out, but it should be fine by the time the doctor is arrested," the boss said.
"Indeed. So we have your cooperation?" Koren asked.
"Yes. We won't hinder the arrest. I'll even set up a space for you to spy on the doctor. We own a building nearby his place with a great overlook. Should function fine," the boss said.
"Good. Your man will be freed from jail when this is all over, and Torn will be returned without any harm," Koren said.
"And we're yours for the next two hours. We'll do anything you want, but you knew that already," Rila said as the two walked over to the boss.
"What the hell is the meaning of this?! I didn't kidnap a single fucking being! You're framing me! This is a fucking setup!"
An understandably upset tattoo artist threw a pile of sketches on the floor, but the emotionless Koren put a steel grip on his arm and dragged him away.
"The evidence gathered in the past few days indisputably points to you being guilty. We'll take you back to Rose city, where you will be interrogated and face judgment," Koren said before twisting the man's hand, dropping him to the ground with absolute ease. A girl instantly came up and put some handcuffs on him before dragging the artist back up.
"What fucking evidence? That I'm a tattooist? Then why aren't you arresting every other tattoo artist in the city, huh? I didn't do it!"
The man's pleas were ignored as he was silently dragged into a vehicle. His struggle and screams were the last thing the onlookers saw of the poor artist before the car sped off. Not long after, the group of disciples and the would-be criminal were inside a train, speeding away from the town.
Torn, the tattoo artist looked at his captors with a death stare.
"I didn't do it. You're ruining an innocent man while the perpetrator walks free," Torn said.
"We know. Someone take those handcuffs off. We need to hurry," Koren said as he waved Torn away as if he was an afterthought. In seconds, Torn's hands were free again.
"What? You're letting me go?" Torn asked.
"Listen, what was it, Torn? This is just a ploy, a distraction. You need to stay at the next town over until you receive word from your boss. Here's some money. Don't contact anyone. We need to go," Koren said.
"Oh," Torn sounded. He wanted to say more, but before another word could be uttered, the disciples left their compartment and proceeded to jump out of the moving train.
With a train moving at hundreds of kilometers an hour, jumping out was undoubtedly a challenging matter. Without question, all eleven disciples rolled on the ground as they landed, the train leaving them in the dust in a matter of seconds.
It was only thanks to their high cultivation base that they could do it without any injuries.
In the short period of time that had passed since they left the train, they'd already managed to get one or two dozen kilometers away from the city. But with the sun setting behind them, it was the perfect moment to return to town.
They could make the distance in less than half an hour if they ran. By then, it would be decently dark outside, giving them the cover they needed to sneak back inside.