“Ahem…” The postmaster coughed lightly several times, then continued as if nothing had happened, “After announcing his name, that Cat Thief charged at the four of them.”

“According to that young thief, that Cat Thief is quite skilled in jujutsu.”

“One strike per person, and within moments he had knocked out all four of them.”

“When they woke up, they found themselves tied up and thrown outside the gates of our post station office.”

Aoto’s eyelids instinctively drooped slightly.

The Cat Thief being skilled in jujutsu…

This was intelligence that Aoto… or rather, the Edo Magistrate’s Office had never known before.

While Aoto was pondering this internally, the postmaster’s account continued:

“That young thief also revealed the hiding place of the money they had stolen previously.”

“They had buried all the money stolen previously under the roots of a large tree in a forest not far from our Fujisawa-shuku.”

“I sent people to dig it up overnight yesterday, and indeed recovered these stolen goods.”

“I’ve personally counted this batch of stolen goods, and it completely matches the total amount stolen—not a single coin more, not a single coin less.”

“Even the stolen money has been recovered… Where are the stolen goods?” Aoto asked.

“I’ll have someone bring them right away!”

The postmaster called one of his subordinates and instructed him to bring the stolen goods recovered yesterday.

Moments later, they saw this subordinate of the postmaster carrying a large lacquered box back before Aoto and the postmaster.

Opening the lacquered box revealed it filled to the brim with gold and silver.

After briefly counting the money in the box and confirming it completely matched the known amount involved in the case, Aoto requested the postmaster take him to see that very pragmatic young thief who had told everything he knew and cleanly sold out his remaining companions.

This person was being held in a temporary prison cell within the post station office.

Upon meeting this person, Aoto skipped any pleasantries and bluntly asked him several questions.

Tell me in detail the entire process of how you were caught by the Cat Thief.

Did you see what the Cat Thief looks like?

Describe the Cat Thief’s physique.

Why did the Cat Thief come to capture you? Did you have some previous conflict with the Cat Thief?

…

The reason for having this person recount the entire process of being caught by the Cat Thief was purely to check if the old postmaster had omitted or concealed anything.

After Aoto announced his official title “Tachibana Aoto, Teimachi squad constable of the Edo Kita Bansho” to this young thief, he immediately sat up straight, answering every question Aoto asked with an ingratiating smile and utmost respect.

While answering Aoto’s questions, this person also repeatedly emphasized: “Sir, I’ve told you everything I know, please be sure to reduce my punishment!”

The account of how they were captured by the Cat Thief was almost identical to what the postmaster had reported.

According to the young thief, that Cat Thief was about 1.5 meters tall, dressed entirely in black, wearing a black face covering, with a black headscarf—only a pair of eyes were visible.

The voice was quite neutral, neither clearly male nor female.

Extremely agile, moving across steeply sloped inn rooftops as if walking on flat ground.

Completely consistent with the intelligence about the Cat Thief currently held by the Edo Magistrate’s Office…

When asked if they had any previous conflict with the Cat Thief, the young thief shook his head like a rattle drum.

He said: They had only heard of the Cat Thief’s name before, never seen him, and he couldn’t understand why this Cat Thief would suddenly attack fellow thieves so ruthlessly.

After asking this young thief a few more questions, Aoto finally emerged from the temporary prison cell with a dark expression.

Just after leaving the prison cell, Saitō, who had been silently following closely behind Aoto like a conjoined twin, asked quietly:

“So… was our business trip this time a wasted journey?”

“…Pretty much.” Aoto’s mouth twitched as he heaved a heavy sigh.

Aoto now felt that this business trip… was truly a trip to nowhere!

After traveling for three days and reaching Fujisawa-shuku, only to find the suspects had already been captured… Not only had one suspect fully confessed, but even the stolen goods had all been recovered…

Well, to put it bluntly… Aoto could now turn around and return to Edo.

Aoto naturally didn’t need to personally escort these four suspects back to Edo.

He just needed to notify the post station office staff and have them help transport these suspects back to Edo.

When it came to transporting people and goods, the post station office that specialized in providing “horse and personnel relay” services for officials was professional.

“However…” Aoto raised his hand to scratch the hair at the back of his head, saying softly, “It wouldn’t be entirely accurate to say we gained nothing… At the very least, we obtained the latest intelligence about that Cat Thief. Bringing this information back to Edo would count as a small achievement.”

As the Cat Thief was a major bandit recently causing significant headaches for the Edo Magistrate’s Office, they had already changed the person in charge of capturing him several times.

Just about the day before yesterday, Aoto received the latest intelligence: The “Cat Thief case” had currently been assigned to their Kita Bansho’s top investigation expert: Nishino from the “Tojo Group” to handle.

They had already dispatched the “ace” of Kita Bansho to take full responsibility for this case—showing just how seriously the Edo Magistrate’s Office was taking the “Cat Thief case.”

The Cat Thief’s jujutsu skills were formidable, taking down and knocking out four grown men with one strike each.

The Cat Thief’s movements were suspicious—previously active only in Edo, this time he suddenly appeared in Fujisawa-shuku to perform righteous deeds, helping authorities capture a group of thieves…

Either of these two pieces of intelligence would be extremely important information beneficial for capturing the Cat Thief in the future.

If Aoto could bring these two pieces of intelligence back to Edo, it would indeed count as a small accomplishment.

“Really strange…” Aoto crossed his arms and tucked his hands into his haori sleeves, “That Cat Thief… why would he suddenly appear in Fujisawa-shuku, and even suddenly start helping catch thieves…”

With too little information available, after thinking for a while without reaching any conclusions, Aoto simply stopped bothering to think about it further.

After all, the “Cat Thief case” wasn’t his responsibility—these questions could be left for Nishino, currently in charge of the case, to slowly worry about.

Aoto returned to the postmaster, had a brief discussion and gave instructions regarding the transportation arrangements for the suspects in this case, then led Saitō striding out of the post station office.

“…Are we returning to Edo now?” Saitō asked.

Aoto shook his head: “It’s already late now. In just over two hours, it will be dark.”

“Only two hours until dark—no matter how fast we hurry, we can’t make it back to the previous post station in that time.”

“I don’t want to travel at night or spend the night in some place with no village ahead and no inn behind.”

“We can only wait until tomorrow morning to start our return journey to Edo.”

After speaking, Aoto turned his head and gave a slight smile to Saitō behind him.

“Right now… let’s just pass the time slowly here in Fujisawa-shuku until tomorrow.”

“Consider it a half-day holiday, rewarding ourselves for three days of hard travel.”

“Saitō, is there anywhere you’d like to go?”

Saitō shook his head: “There’s nowhere I particularly want to go.”

Hearing the completely expected response from Saitō, Aoto turned his gaze forward again.

“As expected, I’ll have to decide where to pass the time…”

Aoto crossed his arms and tucked his hands into his haori sleeves, slightly raising his head as he considered where he and Saitō should visit in Fujisawa-shuku to pass the time until dark.

Suddenly, Aoto remembered Fujisawa-shuku’s most famous tourist attraction…

Aoto’s gaze slowly turned toward the direction of Enoshima Shrine.

“…Saitō, interested in visiting the shrine?”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep