Elena was finally able to get some basic clues about the phantom thief only using her heightened senses. She didn't have to use her cheat-like magic and skills which was a happy thing for Elena as she didn't want to solve the case that easily as it would not be very fun then.
The clues she got were all minor as the thief was definitely a top class one. He had a high knowledge about magic locks and was also a decent mage himself. Elena was also sure of one thing that this thief had someone who had helped him from the mayor's own family. After checking the records on the guards of the underground vault and asking some questions to the guards she was sure that someone from the main family had interfered in the schedule of the guards to create a blind spot.
Next, she again changed her looks and went to the slum area of the city. From her experience, this place would have the highest concentration of criminals and they had a high chance of knowing some information about the thief. It didn't take much time before a group of thugs blocked her path. Even tho Elena had changed her looks to look less beautiful she was still more beautiful than normal. They tried to take Elena to a back alley to do this and that. Elena followed them obediently and after then reached a secluded place she kicked their ass and asked them some questions.
As she had guessed, they didn't have any information on the thief but they knew a lot about the gangs in the slum and about this city's underworld. She found out that they themselves were part of a gang named "Houtie". This was one of the top gangs in the slum. The only other gang that could match it was called the "One river Seven valleys" gang. She then healed them up and told them to bring the highest possible ranking member from the "Haotie" gang to a secret place she found and let them go.
She again started walking in the slum area in search of more prey. In just 2 hours she had found more than 10 groups trying to pick her up and all of them became her loyal informants. Soon she was able to get the attention of some of the high level members and from them she finally started getting some important information.
In the evening, she came back from the slum area to the main city area and went to her inn. She took a cozy bath there and then after a hearty meal she went back to her room. Her journey to the slum area was very impactful. She was able to meet all the leaders of the underworld and the gangs. Even though they didn't know the actual identity of the phantom thief but they could at least narrow the list of suspects down.
She found out about three individuals who had a high chance of being the phantom thief. One of them was a B rank solo adventurer living inside the city. She was a high level scout and she also had a good understanding of magic tools. Another suspect was a man named Hansel. He was a somewhat wealthy merchant who got rich very suddenly. He on the outside had a business of apothecary but he actually sold drugs in secret. He also had a good relationship with the Oliver family. And the last suspect was a witch who was leaving inside the city. That witch didn't have a bad or a good reputation. It was said that she liked to live in seclusion busy with her research. She was also said to be the strongest mage living in the city as one time when a monster attacked that part of the city, she was able to drive the monster off alone.
She was going to the adventurer guild tomorrow and she would also investigate these individuals after that. She had sent some insect she created to keep an eye on the members of the Krueta family and she was able to find a suspect very soon. Before going to bed she checked out the memory footage the insects sent. It was the brother of the current family head. His name was Loki Krueta. He was going inside a suspicious building to meet with a clocked person. There was also a third clocked individual present there other than them. Those three had a meeting for about two hours before they left. The insects were not able to enter inside that building as there was some kind of barrier preventing them. Elena analysed the magic signature of that barrier through the insects and she was sure that it was done by the same person who had opened the lock of the vault. The faint traces of mana that she found on the vault match this mana quite a lot (about 85%). She was not in a hurry and would not go after the culprits tonight. She had found out almost the whole plot when she was able to discover the identity of the persons who were in the meeting. The only thing she didn't find out was the actual identity of the phantom thief which she was sure to find out tomorrow. Thinking these things and telling the insects to keep an eye for the suspects she fell asleep.
...
Next morning she went straight to the Krueta family first thing in the morning to kidnap Loki Krueta with the excuse of needing his help with the investigation. After a very intense torture/tea session she was able to get the confession from Loki. The whole plan went like this -
Loki was jealous of his brother and angry that his father choose his as the family head only because he was the eldest. Loki believed that he was way more capable than her brother so he deserved to be the family head. He started to find ways in which the current family head might lose his position and he would be able to take it from himself.
He found out that if he could make a great contribution to the family while the family was going through a crisis, he would be able to replace the current family head. He always had a distaste for the divine pendant too as he believed that he could make the family great even without its help.
So he contacted the Oliver family head who had a good relationship with him to sell the divine artifact outside this city. He could do this himself as he didn't have any connections outside this city. But even though he was a member of the Krueta family it was still impossible for him to steal the item alone. That was when he heard about the phantom thief who never got caught and he tried to contact him. But it was almost impossible to contact this thief and just when he was going to stop with his attempts to find him, he mysteriously contacted him with a mental massage spell and after a lot of negotiations he accepted the deal of stealing the pendant with a little bit help from Loki. Loki just had to drop a little bit of special water inside the room where the vault was. That was not a big deal and nobody even noticed that little bit of water inside the room. Loki didn't have any idea what the thief did to get inside the room with that water. He was given the pendant on the same day and he sent that to the Oliver family for safekeeping. The pendant still hadn't left the city as the Oliver family wanted the tension about the pendant to die down before selling it.
So from interrogating Loki, Elena was able to find out the plot behind the theft and she would also be able to get the pendant back from the Oliver family and that would be enough to complete the mission. But she was still unable to find the identity of the phantom thief so she would still search for him. But first she would get the pendant back. Thinking so she went toward the Oliver family.
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