Illusion Report

When it came to Chaisi or Brianna, Fu Tailan was confident he could at least hold his own against either of them.

What he never expected — and still couldn't quite believe — was that some run-of-the-mill bodyguard, appearing out of nowhere, had actually managed to put him in a genuinely embarrassing position. He was now hugging his knees, crouched under the desk, staring at Westley's two legs wrapped in sleep pants.

The study door had swung open before the identity swap was finished. There'd been no time to finish it.

If this was the critical moment when Westley's body was about to be discovered, then Fu Tailan absolutely could not be caught red-handed at a crime scene.

The moment that person opened the door, they'd see him. One step back and they could bolt into the hallway and start screaming. But for him to lunge across, he'd have to cover the full length of a study larger than most people's living rooms — there simply wasn't enough time.

Just imagining the consequences of that bodyguard raising the alarm gave him a headache. In a flash of desperation, he hunched low, used Westley's body as cover, and squeezed himself under the desk.

Lucky for him, there wasn't a single person around who knew him. Nobody in the world would ever know that the so-called "genius young Hunter" was, at this moment, a genius young rat.

"Mr. Westley, I'm coming in… huh? Wait — Wes — Wes—"

The bodyguard had apparently assumed Westley wasn't in and had crept inside. Catching sight of the figure slumped over the desk, he got a genuine shock — it sounded like he nearly knocked over some decorative piece in the process. For several long seconds, even Fu Tailan, crouched under the desk, could feel the chaotic energy radiating off the man — a tangle of fright, confusion, and pure helplessness.

Ivan, the bodyguard, stumbled around in his own feet for a moment — seemingly afraid to move, wanting to edge forward for a closer look, and simultaneously fighting the urge to bolt out the door and shout for help, all at once.

"Mr. — Mr. Westley?"

He was trembling and completely at a loss, and he didn't come across like someone with any kind of plan. No Hunter would fall apart this easily.

Fu Tailan held his breath and waited a few seconds.

If Ivan moved toward the door, it would be the perfect window for a quiet escape… But then he heard the study door click softly shut, followed by the snick of a lock turning.

…Now that was not the kind of reaction a typical bodyguard would have.

"Why are you like this, not moving at all… Are you — are you dead?"

As if a dead man was going to answer "yes."

Ivan seemed too scared to approach Westley directly — he appeared to lean over from across the desk, craning his neck for a look from a distance. After a moment, Fu Tailan heard his footsteps draw closer. A pair of feet appeared at the edge of the desk. Someone was standing beside Westley's body, a few steps away, silent for a beat — it was impossible to tell what he was thinking.

"He's really dead."

Ivan let out a short snort through his nose, his voice wavering slightly — equal parts tense and excited. "So you weren't just being paranoid… people really can die…"

He stood there for a moment, then something seemed to flip a switch inside him. His footsteps turned light and purposeful as he swung around and headed toward the other end of the room. Fu Tailan was still trying to remember what was over there when he heard the sounds of cabinet doors and drawers being yanked open and rummaged through.

Fu Tailan was momentarily baffled.

"Ha. And he wanted to fire me."

Ivan wasn't doing anything physically strenuous, but he was so worked up his breathing had gone ragged. "And then life went and fired him first! You know what that means — you've got to do right by people. Whatever you put out comes back around. Karma catches up. If he hadn't fired me, none of this would've happened. He was so ruthless about it too — honestly, he had it coming."

What had he done to get fired by Westley?

The answer came almost immediately.

"What did I even do that was so terrible? I tried on your trousers, big deal. I'll tell you something — they were short on me, only came up to my ankles. Expensive, sure, you could feel it in the fabric, the tailoring… so what if I tried them on? Does that wear them out? I don't regret it one bit. If I hadn't, I never would've found the key in the pocket."

Listening to him mutter away, Fu Tailan had the distinct sense that his understanding of the world had just expanded.

He thought about it for a moment, then slowly inched his head out for a look.

A young man was methodically picking through the display shelf, examining each piece. He'd taken off his suit jacket and tied the sleeves together to make a makeshift bundle.

He didn't seem to have much of an eye for what was valuable and what wasn't. He hesitated, dropped a bone carving into his jacket-bundle, thought for a few seconds, and then took it back out.

Fu Tailan slid out from under the desk along Westley's body, not making a sound.

Ivan, apparently following some train of thought, gave up on the display pieces and carefully pushed the cabinet doors and drawers back shut. By the time he strode over to the desk and stopped beside Westley's body, Fu Tailan had already padded silently around to the other side of the desk and slipped behind the curtains.

"I know I left it right around here…"

Ivan's entire attention seemed consumed by the desk drawers. It probably never even crossed his mind that someone was hiding in the curtains just a few steps away.

He suddenly let out a low exclamation and pulled something from a drawer.

"There it is… I knew it. I saw you take it off with my own eyes and just drop it in there."

What was it? Surely not an Illusion.

Fu Tailan's curiosity got the better of him, and he peered through the gap — Ivan was standing in place, holding something up high: a watch. He turned it over and over, and it was hard to say which caught the light more brilliantly, the gold watch chain or the expression on his face.

If it was just a watch Westley had casually tossed in a drawer, it probably wasn't priceless… though even something he used every day would be anything but ordinary to most people.

"Has to be worth a hundred grand or so, right?" Ivan murmured. "Call it my severance pay. Seems fair."

He tucked the watch happily into his pocket, then pulled open another drawer. Rummaging away, he muttered, "Anything else worth taking? Man's loaded like this — me grabbing a few things wouldn't even register, would it? Why does one person get to sit on this much money, this much estate? What's wrong with me? Why am I busting my ass for a few thousand a month? Does a man lose all his dignity the second he's broke?"

Something stirred in Fu Tailan.

He reached into his pocket and felt the Mouth Puppet.

The Mouth Puppet had a cylindrical body — simple design, easy to grip. Right now, it seemed it could serve an entirely different purpose.

Ivan was bent at the waist, one arm stretched deep into a drawer, feeling around. His mind was completely occupied with finding something valuable — he'd tuned out Westley's corpse right beside him and had absolutely no idea that someone was taking quiet, measured steps toward him from behind.

"…Don't move."

Fu Tailan pressed the Mouth Puppet's cylindrical body against the back of Ivan's head. "Any sudden moves and I pull the trigger."

"You — you're — don't — please—"

Ivan stammered, and sure enough, he froze, throwing both hands up immediately with his back still turned. "I'm sorry, I was just trying to get a little something… please, I'm begging you… I was wrong, I'll put the watch back right now—"

"I don't care about that." Fu Tailan pressed his voice down low.

Ivan swallowed loudly. He wasn't stupid — he caught on fast. "I — I don't know anything… I came in and Mr. Westley was already dead. There was no one around."

Fu Tailan had been sitting on a question for a while now. "What went wrong with the estate lockdown?"

With a gun barrel against his skull, Ivan answered almost without hesitation, no resistance whatsoever. "Something happened at the security center."

"What happened?"

A bunch of people were found dead, presumably.

"This… look, if I tell you the truth, I'm afraid you won't believe me…"

Fu Tailan's curiosity sharpened. "Tell me. I promise I won't shoot you just because I don't believe you."

Ivan swallowed again. "The security center… it's gone."

What?

"I'm not lying to you!" Ivan seemed to sense the jolt of surprise and scrambled to clarify. "The security center was in that side building — the upper floors were the guards' and staff quarters. Secretary Green needed a lot of people to lock the estate down. When we went to the side building to get them… the entire building was gone. We don't have nearly enough people to manage the lockdown now."

The entire building was gone?

Fu Tailan genuinely couldn't wrap his head around what could have happened. But Ivan wasn't lying — a liar always wants to be believed, and there was no point in spinning a story that sounded like something out of a fever dream.

He frowned and turned it over in his mind.

Was this Brianna's doing? No — a missing building served no purpose for her either.

The little eye hadn't seemed to leave. And the alpha hadn't either. Could they have something to do with it?

Why the side building had vanished wasn't the most pressing question right now, and Ivan couldn't answer it anyway.

"I can tell you're someone with real ambition," Fu Tailan said, letting a beat pass as he changed the subject.

Ivan blinked.

"Y-yeah, that's right, I really am ambitious. You read me perfectly."

"Do you want to know how Westley managed to accumulate this much wealth?" Fu Tailan asked, his voice almost gentle. "Hard work alone couldn't get you there — not a chance. No matter how smart you are, no matter how much drive you have, if you don't know the right doors to knock on, the best you'll ever do in this life is get excited over a hundred-thousand-dollar watch."

"The right doors…?" Ivan murmured. "You… you know about them?"

"Of course." Fu Tailan smiled. "You know Dylan, right?"

"Huh? Yeah, Dylan's a senior—"

"Have you ever caught stray bits of conversation from Dylan and the others that you couldn't make sense of?"

The bodyguard named Dylan seemed to have some knowledge of Illusions, Hunters, and Nests. But there were so many guards on the estate that Fu Tailan found it hard to believe every entry-level bodyguard was in the know.

Based on what he'd observed of Ivan over the past few minutes, Fu Tailan would have been willing to bet good money that this man had spent a considerable amount of his time eavesdropping and snooping around.

"How did you know? There actually is some stuff…" Ivan said, right on cue. "I always felt like they were keeping something from me."

"Your instincts are right. Westley had certain things in his possession — things that are truly priceless, worth infinitely more than any watch or estate. Let me put it this way: get your hands on one of them, and any kind of wealth in the world becomes yours for the taking."

Ivan's breathing went shallow. "Is it — is it an Illusion?"

This guy had even sniffed out the word "Illusion."

"I can give you one of them right now." Fu Tailan said it with a smile.

"Why?"

"You don't want it?"

"No — I mean, that's not what I meant—"

"Giving it to you naturally benefits me. What that benefit is, you don't need to know." Fu Tailan said quietly. "Taking it comes with risks. A lot of people will try to take it from you, because it's worth so much. Think it over — do you really want it?"

"I want it. I want it. Where is it? What is it?"

"After I say 'I have a rumor to tell you,' you respond with 'I heard a rumor.' Got it?"

"Huh? What does that even—"

"Just do it and you'll understand."

After those brief few exchanges, following Fu Tailan's prompt, Ivan instinctively reached up to touch his own cheek.

"Huh? Seriously, my tongue just moved on its own… I wouldn't have even noticed if you hadn't said something."

Fu Tailan smiled. "That's the Illusion. Someone will track you down by scent, trying to take it. And no matter where you try to hide it, they'll tear everything apart until they find it." He paused. "But I can tell you how to handle that.

"If I were you, the first thing I'd do after leaving here is get off this estate immediately. The thing is, if the other party has no idea it exists, they won't be able to sense it.

"So you can hide it on a complete stranger — someone who has nothing to do with you, but who you can find again at any time. A mail carrier, say. A bus driver. Someone whose schedule and name you can look up and find without fail, but only you'd know where to go looking. That's the safest hiding place there is."

Let Chaisi work for it a little.

Ivan was breathing hard with excitement, nodding along eagerly. Then, after a few seconds, something seemed to click.

"You just said — 'after I leave here'?"

Fu Tailan swung the Mouth Puppet up and brought it down hard against the junction of Ivan's skull and neck.

Without so much as a sound, Ivan pitched forward and crashed into the desk, slumping right across the open drawer.