In the middle of the night, when the moon was above and most creatures were sleeping comfortably, my eyes were wide open.
"Sleep didn't come again…"
The pajamas I wore and the heavy blanket that I pulled over my chest weren't helping either.
'Should I pray to the holy mother?'
Although it was a disrespectful to pray to the goddess for her to bless me with a good sleep again, I couldn't help but think so.
Though, I didn't bring this thought to action, and that is all that matters. Humans are sinful creatures by birth, so it was okay to have sinful thoughts, the important matter was to not give in to these sinful thoughts.
Step step step
Crack!
"Huh?"
Abruptly, I turned my head to the ceiling and began to thinly spread my mana.
'Who the hell is running on the roof in the middle of the night?'
After some time, my mana sneakily made its way to the roof runner. Being careful was essential in identifying an unknown person, hence it was taking a bit longer to identify the roof runner. But it wasn't a bad thing. Being careless usually meant a dog's death.
My life was worth more than a few seconds that I would gain by rushing out like an idiot.
"Oh?"
'Oh, it is just an Apprentice Mage. They can't even break a prince's overpowered passive protective artifacts with their measly strength. Those artifacts of royals can even block a few blows from Masters let alone Apprentices.'
Light footsteps.
'A girl or a very small male? Probably the former.'
"Her movements are a bit clumsy, not like an assassin's trained movements. An adventurous student by any chance?'
A series of assumptions passed my mind and I quickly created a character profile of the roof runner in my mind.
An adventurous girl. Apprentice mage. A student who goes out in the middle of the night. She wants to do something that is also a secret, hence she does it at night.
'Illicit relationships in the academy?'
Or maybe a thief, pervert, a murderer, or a devil worshipper...
"I should at least confirm her intentions..."
With this thought in mind, I slid out from my blanket and leisurely changed into my black inspector suit.
After that, shadows moved with my will and covered me, reducing my presence that anyone under Master wouldn't sense me with their senses. Then the space around me bent and I appeared near the roof runner.
I found myself on a roof, out of the borders of the academy. On my side was a girl who was one head shorter than me. The crimson moon's light was gently caressing us.
The rooftop runner girl was donned a black hood that covered her whole body and a mask on her face, a few strands of golden hair stuck out from her hood and rested on her shoulders.
At first glance, it was a nearly perfect disguise to hide one's identity, but it was only for the young fools who didn't know about how the world works.
'What if you hide your physical features? Mana signature doesn't lie. I can always find your identity in the academy with your mana signature.'
Oblivious to my existence, the masked girl carefully climbed down from the roof and slid into one of the windows.
I followed right behind her.
The girl, for some reason, entered the bedroom of a stranger. I could understand from her awkward movements that she was in an unfamiliar place.
In the bedroom was a large comfortable bed and on the bed was an old fat man, whose naked lower body was covered by blanket, and a young pretty girl. Signs of abuse could be seen in the girl's body.
Seeing this, the masked girl froze for a second and then she grabbed a dagger from her side with trembling hands.
'I see, you are playing vigilante, huh?'
The girl lifted the dagger with a surprisingly fast determination and swung it to the fat man's throat. It was apparent that this wasn't her first time doing this. Though it wasn't her regular job either.
'It seems she killed a few people as a vigilante.'
The man's eyes opened wide with the sharp pain as the dagger slashed the man's skin and vessels. Blood poured from his wound as the fat man was about to scream but the vigilante girl was faster.
[Silence]
With the vigilante girl's one-word, commonly known as single-word chant, the man couldn't let out any noise. Her cyan, almost light blue mana enveloped the room, made it impossible to cause any noise. The fat man opened his mouth and screamed, but it was futile. The room was completely silent. No amount of effort from a normal man was sufficient.
As for the naked girl who was sleeping at that man's side, she didn't wake up. The vigilante girl made her enter into a deep sleep with magic.
'While she doesn't know how to properly use a knife, she at least knows to not cause unnecessary casualties to hide her identity and not leave any witnesses. Well, except me. This little mage can't sense me unless I let her sense me.'
"..."
The fat man gave his last breath and the light in his eyes dimned. The metallic scent of blood covered the room and the vigilant girl leaned against the wall and slid down to the floor. The dagger fell from her fair hands to the wooden floor without any noise.
The vigilante sighed.
"I can't get used to it..."
It was the voice of a young girl who recently stepped into the age of adults. The voice was full of innocence and humanity and it was hard to believe this person was killing people at night.
'As if she is trying to change her perspective... What happened to this girl for her to force herself to blacken her own sight of the world?'
It was such a curious thing.
I didn't care about the man who had been killed or the previous victims of the vigilante girl. As the Chief Inspector, I only investigate people and cases that harm the interest of the empire.
And, I still had some conscience. The man who was killed by the vigilante girl seemed far from an ideal and model citizen of the empire. I could just pretend to not see the actions of this girl.
And I might even use this to blackmail this girl to help me with a few not-so-important tasks. Although she won't be much help, even cannon fodder has some use.
"Hap!"
The vigilante girl got up to her feet after some time, the previous trembling limbs were no more. She calmed down in a matter of a few minutes.
'High mental power. She is good.' I noted inside.
Then the vigilante girl proceeded to get out of the bedroom from the same way she came and climbed from the window.
'Tsk! You forgot to clean the corpse or throw it away from the abused girl. Can't you think how she will react when she wakes up to see a bloody mess of a human corpse?'
Deciding to help this little vigilante, I quickly lifted the abused girl from the bloody blankets and put her down in a relatively clean space of the room. Then I used basic level cleaning magic to clean the blood on the girl's body. Then lastly, I covered her naked body with a clean blanket and cast a deeper level of sleep magic on her.
With that, she wouldn't wake up for at least a day. At that period, knights would probably come here when they heard the screams of servants and take the corpse and the girl away for interrogation and autopsy.
'Well, I should continue to follow the vigilante.'
With this thought, the space around me bent again and I appeared right behind the vigilante girl. She was running on the roofs and proceeding towards the Academy.
Her steps were less firm than before and her hands were clenched rather tightly, her knuckles were white.
After some time, she arrived at the academy walls and crouched under a tree. After clawing on the dirt for less than a minute, she lifted a wooden plank.
'I see, so you made or found a tunnel huh?'
Even though the academy didn't restrict movements, they were rather strict with when and how students go out and come back.
The vigilante girl got into the tunnel and I followed her with my mana and senses. It was a bit too much hassle to follow her through the dirt tunnel.
The little vigilante got out from another hole under a tree, which was also in the borders of the academy, and then, she ran into the Royal Dormitory while casting stealth magic on herself.
'There goes my plan to blackmail her... She turned out to be a high-ranking person.'