Chapter 87.
Chapter 87.
While we were on our way to find the second suspect, the burden reached his hand towards me and said, "Hand it over!"
"Hand what over?"
His demeanor, along with his face, gave the impression of a gangster trying to mug someone. "The badge! Hey, you ass! You were impersonating a knight! That’s a felony! Do you want to eat oatmeal for the rest of your life?"
When the burden asked if I wanted to eat oatmeal, it was like asking if I wanted to eat rice with beans in my past life. It was an idiom that arose from the fact that oatmeal wasn’t eaten even in the slums but was served as the main diet in imperial prisons.
I clicked my tongue. "Tsk. Here."
The burden growled as he took the badge, "You’ll pay for this when we get back."
I just snorted, "Try it. I’m going to say that you were an accomplice."
"...What?"
Looking at the bewildered burden, I gave a victorious smile. "Think about it. The captain is definitely going to believe that a weak civil servant trainee like me stole a badge from the vice-captain."
"Well, that’s-"
"Even if he were to believe you, you’d be in trouble for allowing a weak civil servant trainee like me to steal it from you.”
The burden was speechless.
"If you’re going to get punished no matter what, it’d be better just to keep your mouth shut. If we don’t say anything, who’s going to find out? Oh, the owner of the alchemy workshop just now? If we say the same story, we can bury such testimony. Huhuhu." For some reason, I felt like a devil dragging him down an immoral path, but it didn’t really matter.
The burden shouted, conflicted, "Look at what you’ve done! If that guy from before files a complaint, I’ll be disciplined!"
The complaint that the burden was talking about was not regarding the fake identity but the sudden raid. Come to think of it; the first suspect definitely had enough for a complaint. We suddenly broke the door, accused him of being a drug offender without evidence, then conducted a search without consent and exposed his secret porn stash. I think I’d file a complaint, too.
"It’s alright. It’s none of my business," I shrugged. The burden’s face showed a flash of anger, and he clenched his fist but then relaxed.
If he were really going to hit me, I would have yelled, "You gonna hit me?" and "Neighborhood people!" but what a shame.
The burden shouted as if he had realized something, "No way! Are you still sulking because I made fun of you for not being able to draw a map?!”
The burden looked at me as if he was shocked.
"Ahahaha! No way,” I laughed and kicked the door of the second suspect’s alchemy workshop.
Kwang!
Just like before, the door broke into pieces and flew away.
"Get over here!"
"See, you’re upset!"
No, I said I wasn’t. Jeez, the burden really doesn’t believe what people say. Still, he had good intuition as a detective. How unhelpful.
I grasped the collar of the second suspect, who was in the midst of fleeing just like the first suspect.
"Are you Mr. Dwen?”
Having his collar suddenly grabbed before he could speak, the second suspect nodded in panic. "Can, can you let go?”
I ignored the second suspect and spoke, "There have been reports that you’ve been manufacturing and distributing drugs here. If you obediently cooperate with the search, there will be no bloodshed."
"What the hell!" The second suspect turned pale, and the burden frowned like he knew this would happen.
The reason I was so aggressive now compared to the first suspect was that the burden had taken back the White Deer Knights badge. I secretly shot a glance at the burden, and he sighed, showing his badge.
I let go of the second suspect’s collar and headed inside without delay.
"Wa, wait!" The second suspect reached out and tried to grab me, but I easily dodged and started searching the entire workshop.
The layout of the workshop was similar to the first suspect’s, Capol. So, this was the popular style of alchemy workshop in the capital. If Yuria later said that she wanted to learn alchemy properly, then a place like this could be useful. After all, I’m also part of a new generation that’s quite style-conscious.
Unfortunately, in the alchemy workshop, Nepenthes’s digestive fluid could be found, but not the blood of the giant ice troll. The second suspect was sadly not the culprit. I felt a little anxious about whether I was going in the wrong direction, but it was too late to change course now.
I looked around the workshop and searched for a secret space again. The floor, ceiling, and walls were the three places where mana was roughly gathered. I approached the secret space in the wall, which had the most mana aggregated there of the three, and ripped off the wallpaper.
"No!" The second suspect shouted, but the burden blocked him.
On the surface, this was a drug investigation. The burden wore a reluctant expression, but no matter if it was for me or to catch the real criminal, he was doing a good job.
"Come out, hidden porn stash!" I chanted an incantation and dispelled the magic on the wall. I opened the door to the secret space, hoping that paradise would welcome me again.
"What is this?" I asked. The secret space was full of sacks containing some white powder.
"This bastard was actually a real drug offender.”
The second suspect retreated from the burden when I took out the sack of drugs.
"Keuk! I don’t know how you figured it out, but you’d better regret the fact that only two of you came here!” When the second suspect uttered a typical villain’s line, gangsters crawled up from the secret space on the floor.
Surrounded by the gangsters, the burden stepped forward to protect me and drew his sword, saying, "Damn it, I shouldn’t have gotten involved with a guy like you!"
Although he looked like he was truly regretting it, his desire as a knight to protect me was still admirable.
"I’m gonna need to have you guys spill where you got the information.”
It was laughable to see the second suspect shout in triumph.
"Make sure to stick close behind me. I think it’s going to be hard to protect you against this many people,” I sighed and continued, "After a good night’s sleep, it’ll be all over."
"What?"
I secretly showed the gas mask to the burden, who looked back at it. Then I took out the sleeping bomb I made in the village from my pocket space and shook it.
"You! Wait!" As soon as the burden felt something ominous and was about to say something, I threw it at the floor.
"Have a taste of my bomb!"
Pang!
The sleeping bomb hit the floor and gave off the sound of a small explosion before it began to release sleeping gas.
"What, what is that?!” The gangsters panicked, but it was too late.
The gas filled the room in an instant, causing everyone in the workshop to collapse except for me.
"Nice. It works well.”
Actually, I had made this sleeping bomb in anticipation of leaving home, but it wasn’t until I finished making it that I realized that I had to go outdoors to escape. Inevitably, this type of bomb worked well indoors, but not so much outside. Furthermore, the sleeping bomb worked by entering the respiratory tract, but considering the lung capacity of those from the village, it was essentially useless. Honestly, I don’t know why I made it.
In addition to sleeping bombs, I had many different types of flash bangs, tear gas, and smoke bombs, but if I had put a little more thought into it, I would’ve realized they weren’t useful for escaping. Back then, perhaps due to my youth, I made a lot of these useless things.
I pulled out a rope I bought in Granwell and tied the drug offenders’ arms and legs. Just in case, I strengthened the rope with magic then took the military supply map from the drooling burden.
"I’m going to borrow this for a moment.”
Ah, I can finally ditch this burden. Just to make sure, let’s take the map so he can’t follow me. I chose to use the sleeping bomb because I wanted to hide my strength as much as possible, and also, it was easier to get rid of the burden this way.
After catching the criminal, I would have to torture him behind the scenes. It would have been annoying if he showed a sense of justice when we interrogated the suspect. I left the workshop before people reported the smoke and the guards showed up.
* * *
The captain of the White Deer knight division was working on a report to present to his superiors regarding Pelgrant’s attempted poisoning. Although the captain was the highest rank in the capital’s security, Pelgrant was a senior member of Prime Minister Arcanta’s secret intelligence organization and was his direct subordinate. In other words, the report he was writing now was going up to Arcanta.
The captain stopped writing the report and sighed, "Why did I let him leave?"
He was referring to Den, the man arrested on the spot as the prime suspect. Ever since he was told that Den knew about the Big Mama Information Agency, he began to feel a strange sense of trust. Thus, he assigned his most trusted subordinate to keep watch over him. He admired Den’s clever ways of speaking, as he would have never allowed this to happen normally.
At the same time, he began to worry about what to write in the report. He wasn’t aware of it, but he was being hypnotized by magic ever since he had the strange sense of trust in Den’s words. Now there was not even a speck of magic left for evidence, but still, there was an intangible remaining feeling of trust.
The gratitude for saving Pelgrant’s life amplified the sense of trust, but it would fade in a few days. However, as he began to go over Den in the report, he wasn’t sure what to write.
As he sighed again, his subordinate shouted in an urgent voice and came into the office. "Captain! There’s a big problem!"
"What’s going on?"
"There is smoke suspected to be toxic gas rising from within the capital!"
"How’s it being handled?” Though the captain’s voice was as calm as usual, his composure was bound to be broken due to his subordinate’s words.
"Everyone who inhaled a little bit of the smoke has lost consciousness, so they aren’t able to deal with it right now. However, some eyewitnesses said the vice-captain entered the area before the smoke showed up."
"What! Where is this?" The captain urgently asked.
His subordinate informed him that this occurred at Dwen’s alchemy workshop. As soon as he heard the location, the captain quickly left his office and headed to the scene. The captain started to get a headache as he hurried to his destination. The man assigned to watch Den while he tried to catch the criminals had gone to that workshop.
Thus, the person in the workshop was either the criminal or a suspect. In other words, the suspected toxic gas may have to be considered as a kind of terrorism rather than just an accident in an alchemy workshop. Whether it was a terrorist attack or an accident, he just wanted the vice-captain to be safe.