Chapter 86.
Chapter 86.
As I walked quickly, I took out a map of the capital from my coat and drew Director Pelgrant’s movements from today on top of it.
"What’s that scribble?" The vice-captain asked. My will to ignore the noisy burden following me was reaching its limit.
"It’s a map of the capital."
I looked at the burden as if saying, ‘you didn’t even know that?’ Yet, the burden laughed at me with a "poot" sound.
"That’s a map? Even a child can draw better than that."
How dare you spit out such ludicrous words? This map was meticulously copied from the one bought at the Big Mama Information Agency. What, could it be that you had two lives?
Despite the map’s appearance, I proudly thought that I was better than my Uncle Bloody, the man known as the village’s best artist. How dare you injure my pride? This was especially valid when considering that you’re only a burden.
"Poot, are you mad? Still, that’s too far. A map should at least look like this." After saying this, the burden took out a piece of paper from his bosom.
Although I was angry, just one glance told me that it was a much more sophisticated map than the one I drew. It was still lacking compared to the map I bought at the Granwell branch of the Big Mama Information Agency, but with its detailed side roads, it was a map for military use.
I snatched the map from the burden’s hand with a quick flourish. It was quite a sight to see him shocked. He probably hadn’t even imagined that it might be taken away.
"Hey, that’s only for manager-level use!" The burden tried to snatch the map from my hand, but of course, that was not possible.
This man was weaker than my eldest sister, the one with the lowest constitution in the village. Despite this, he tried taking the map even though it was still a hundred years too early. If he wanted to take the map from me, he’d at least need to have the power of my big brother or the quickness of my younger brother.
More importantly, this map must really be military supplies. If I told the knight captain that I took his vice-captain’s map, it might not be enough for imprisonment, but it was probably enough for a demotion. Then, let’s use it gratefully. I drew Director Pelgrant’s movements on the map.
"Ahhhh! I told you that was military supply! Damn it! Losing or damaging military supply is punished with a no-magic 40-kilometer march!"
It sounded like there was a shriek from somewhere, but I must have heard wrong. Even if I was wrong, there was nothing we could do now. This military item had already been stained with black ink. Hahaha! Feels good! It’s like walking in the snow that no one stepped in yet!
For your information, a march in the Empire was with full gear. This was probably true considering the assistant teacher at the training center said so when he taught us how to pack military equipment in the comprehensive weaponry class.
I quickly copied the path of the director’s movements from today and drew a perimeter with a 500-meter radius around it.
"Ahhhhh! No!"
After creating the perimeter, I left behind the very frustrated burden and confirmed the list of people who could handle the horn. The perimeter was the area that they could probably move with the horn. The length of time that the special magic treatment could be maintained was not long. As such, it would not be feasible in terms of time to transport the horn after processing.
Horn was especially toxic, so unless it were an alchemist at elder Mirpa’s level or someone able to move at the speed of a battle race, it would be impossible. As for the time problem, carriages wouldn’t be able to help, as the capital’s roads were not asphalt but bumpy stone roads.
If the magic placed on the horn was released due to the carriage’s shaking, the toxicity could become even worse. The toxicity sealing special treatment did not allow for the reagent bottle to be shaken.
Let’s see. Twenty out of thirty-six were members of the imperial court magicians and lived in the outer palace. Two went missing a long time ago and were considered dead. For four of them, it had been a while since they left the capital to get some materials for magic potions. Seven of the remaining ten were too far, so the suspects were narrowed down to three.
If I knew when Director Pelgrant had eaten the poison, I could pick one right away, but unfortunately, I didn’t have his vomit to find out. I was able to rummage around it, but without a detailed component analysis, it was an impossible task even for me.
This was unfortunate, but even if I did have it, in the time it would take to complete the component analysis, I could have gone to the magic workshop of the three suspects and made a ruckus to find the culprit.
I gave the burden a map with the identities and locations of the three suspects marked on it. The burden was frustrated once again when he saw the scribbled map.
"Hey, there’s no time to be frustrated. We have to hurry and beat it, hmm! Let’s go now to arrest the criminal.”
In regards to military supplies, they were things that would pop up out of nowhere even if you cut off the supply. For him to be tearing up from this even after becoming a vice-captain, this man’s weak-heartedness had no equal.
"Keup! The captain said he’d kill me if I messed up one more military supply item!"
Oh, it was indeed worthy of being frustrated. The captain did seem like a person who would be scary when he got angry.
I smiled nicely and kindly extended my hand to the burden, "Just think of it as nothing out of the ordinary."
As the old saying goes, it’s more convenient to give up. This wouldn’t have happened if he didn’t make fun of my map in the first place. Thanks to him, however, I didn’t have to compare the map in my head with the one I drew, which made it much more convenient for me. So let’s thank him for that point, at least.
The burden didn’t take my kindly offered hand and rather looked to be in more despair. Looking at the burden, I had a thought: Truly a burden.
"Get up, hero!" Remembering the strength control I trained by grabbing Alphonso’s head; I lightly kicked the burden’s butt.
"Ack!"
I was finally convinced when I saw the burden holding onto his butt. I had mastered strength control! He didn’t die, and I didn’t feel any bones break. I just had the feeling that I hit him very well.
"Come on! Let’s go!" I snorted as I pulled the burden by the scruff of his neck.
Let’s hurry up and torture the suspects!
* * *
I kicked down the door of the alchemy workshop, which also served as the residence of the first suspect, and shouted, "Get over here!"
Kwang!
Perhaps due to the impact of the kick, the door easily broke apart and flew away.
"The door’s open, so let’s go in,” I said.
"Hey, they don’t usually say it’s open for situations like this."
Ignoring the crybaby burden who was still rubbing his butt, I went into the alchemy workshop. As I entered the house, I saw a man who seemed to be the owner urgently running out of the house.
"What, what is this?" The man panicked as he looked back and forth at the broken door and us before pointing his finger at the burden next to me.
"What are you doing! How can you just go around breaking doors!”
Suddenly being pointed at, the burden looked at me tearily. Rather than someone who was thin and innocent looking like me, the gangster-like burly burden was certainly more suspicious-looking.
I said with a nod, "That’s right! Breaking the door all of a sudden is too much!"
"No! You...!” The burden choked on his own words.
I smiled at the burden and approached the man who seemed to be the owner of the house. "Let’s see, are you Mr. Capol?"
"Yes, I’m Capol. But..."
I presented a badge made from a steel plate that bore the insignia of the White Deer knights to the flustered first suspect. "This is where we’re from."
This badge, which was something like a police badge, belonged to the burden behind me.
"Huh? Huh?!" When I took out the badge, he panicked and searched his pocket, but no matter how much he looked for it, it would never show up. After all, his badge was currently in my hand.
When I returned his military supply map, I sneaked his badge from his pocket. Seeing that he was unable to notice it until now, I was unsure whether the capital would be safe or not with such dull knights.
"What brings you here from the White Deer knight division?" The alchemist looked at us with rather wary eyes.
"There have been reports that you and your workshop have been producing and distributing drugs. As long as you cooperate with the search, there will be no bloodshed,” I said.
The first suspect and the burden both looked at me in shock. I understood the alchemist’s feelings, but honestly, things were too complicated to explain. To have to explain the situation and wait for consent to begin searching would take too much time, and frankly, it was annoying.
"What nonsense! My workshop is clean and innocent!"
I patted the shoulder of the first suspect, who was shouting with a bluish face. "That’ll be confirmed after we see inside. Let’s go search, vice-captain!"
The burden looked at me as if the situation was absurd and whispered, "Hey, do you even know how a drug offender is treated with the way you’re threatening him?”
"Of course I know. At the training center, I was number one in grades for imperial law. A first offense is at least ten years in prison or capital punishment. A second offense is at least 30 years or capital punishment."
For your information, this law was only for nobility. For commoners, it was just capital punishment, whether first time or second. The Empire was an absolute monarchy, so the laws for the common people and nobility were different. As an uncommon offense, all drug offenders were punished equally, except for nobility with a lot of power.
In other words, to rebel here meant to be marked as a drug offender and be sent to the guillotine. As in most pre-modern countries, trials often took place with the presumption of guilt rather than the presumption of innocence. Come to think of it; I’m really glad I saved the director.
If Pelgrant simply died, I would not have been able to find the criminal myself and would have had to try to prove my innocence while in custody. The alternative would have been to throw away my position as a civil servant trainee and run away.
"I have to do at least this much for him to cooperate easily.” I smiled brightly.
The burden had a rather tired face, but unless this suspect was the person I was looking for, things would be fine. Drugs wouldn’t actually turn up during the search, right?
I went into the workshop and observed the interior. In the middle of the room, there was a large pot, and next to the pot was a desk with magic reagents on it.
"Let’s see." With just a rough look, I was able to see that there were magic reagents needed to magically treat the horn and some others that were not.
I stood on my tiptoes and looked inside the pot. It was empty, but there was a smell left inside. I focused my mind on the scent.
"Moonlight plant, Moon Toad’s essence, Aindra grass, sixth petal of the Mandrago flower...”
When I recited the herbs just from the pot’s smell, the owner of the workshop looked at me in surprise. Being able to distinguish this much was only natural after being trained by elder Mirpa.
"...the blood of hell dogs, hmm, don’t know, don’t know, fairy powder, don’t know...”
The herbs that I didn’t know were odorless in the first place, or three days had already passed, allowing the smell to mostly dissipate.
In order to temporarily seal the poison of the horn, the digestive fluid of the Giant Nepenthes and the blood of an ice troll were essential. However, the workshop did not have the smell of either of these materials.
Even if they were placed in a safe or a secret place and sealed with magic, there was no way there wouldn’t be a smell if they had done the special treatment on the horn today.
Unfortunately, the first suspect was not the criminal. Just in case, I decided to open the little space that was being magically protected underneath. The magic was placed on it so poorly that it may as well have been saying, “Here I am.” In that case, it would have been impolite not to take a look.
"Vice-captain, sir. Can you push this pot for me?”
"Why?"
"Just do what I say. Didn’t you follow me to do the physical work?"
"No, I’m keeping watch..."
“Ssseup!" I opened my eyes wide.
The burden touched the pot and muttered, "Why me?"
The owner of the workshop immediately panicked and stopped the burden, "Excuse me! The location of the pot has a fairly important and magical meaning-"
"There isn’t. You can push it as it is." I cut off Capol and urged the burden to push quickly.
Who are you trying to cheat? After the burden pushed aside the large pot, a small door was found underneath.
"Let’s open it."
I grabbed an iron skewer on the floor nearby and poked it into the crack in the door. I wiggled the skewer around to break the crystal that was the core for the magic. To think that this magic would be broken by an iron skewer... This was another level of poor quality.
The door naturally lifted up when the magic was broken and revealed inside was paradise.
"...your tastes are bold."
The various pornography books inside seemed interesting enough to even tempt me into reading them once.
The owner of the workshop’s face became red as he shouted, "Get...! Get out now!"
That’s how the burden and I were kicked out of the workshop. I wanted to try reading the books. That’s too bad.