「Impossible. Ariadya has too many citizens. Even if the culprit really is hiding in this country, trying to find that person is close to impossible…」
My words were shot down by Reiji immediately.
I mean, there was a high possibility that the remnants of the Evil God’s followers were still hiding in the outskirts of this country. Someone with the skills to disguise themselves would rather make full use of their skill to hide in the city rather than staying outside– that’s especially so when it’s in the Republic of Ariadya, the most populated country in this world. Considering they don’t follow the system of having a census, there’s many unregistered citizens living in the country. Thus, it’s a lot easier for them to slip in and hide amongst the humans.
It’s easier to spot a suspicious person in a small country, but it’s literally impossible within the Republic of Ariadya. That’s why, it’s better to just give up flipping over the entirety of Ariadya upside down over this. It’s simply not worth it.
Naturally, we couldn’t investigate the neighbouring countries either. Waiting for those guys to come after us is a much better choice than wasting our time on investigating.
Besides, Reiji often went overboard when we conducted investigations in the past. We’d most likely end up being avoided like the plague if we caused problems in this country.
「Uhm, please wait a minute. Hero-dono.」
A voice suddenly interrupted us.
「Is something the matter, Decius-dono?」
I asked Decius due to his interruption.「To be honest, it's our job to look for the culprit behind this incident. That's why can you let our group handle this investigation?」
Decius asked for permission while bowing his head.
Normally there were two kinds of police: the administrative police and the law implementation police. The former job was maintaining public security and preventing crime, while the latter’s job was to investigate crime.
The administrative police of this country were led by General Clasus and the members were mostly from the Rena temple. Additionally, the people from the Trident temple who’d mastered the way of fire fighting also did nightly patrols to prevent fires.
The law implementation police was mainly composed of the Priest Knights who served under Oudith, the God of Law.
If it was in Japan, it would be literally impossible for a religious organization to be entrusted with these matters. But, this was a normal practice in this world which was why Decius was asking us to let his group conduct the investigation.
I knew from his pure and honest, yet strong, eyes that he would investigate this matter properly.
「I see, you're right. It'll be easier if we let the Knight of Law handle the investigation. In addition, it is also easier to get help from the other Oudith temples around the world. How about it, Reiji-kun?」
I looked over to Reiji as I asked him.
In this case, I wanted to get help from the professional investigators.
「But, you know…. 」
But, Reiji gave a sullen reaction to the suggestion.
「Naturally, we'll go along with them. The culprits are strong enough to control Karkinos after all so we might be the only ones who can beat them. What's your opinion about us tagging along, Decius-dono?」
Decius nodded to me in response.
「Surely, I don't think our group can defeat the ones who control the Karkinos. In this case, Hero-sama and his group are a necessary addition during the investigation.」
Decius admitted to the fact easily.
I couldn’t hate someone who didn’t meaninglessly force themselves to do the impossible. That alone gave me a good impression of Decius.
「Is what he say, Reiji-kun.」
I looked at Reiji again.
「Yeah, it can't be helped then…」
Reiji finally yielded to the terms.
I mean, the scale of this investigation was far too big for our group alone. We needed the cooperation from a much bigger organization.
「And, Shizufae-san. Is your group going to join the investigation too? We'll give you appropriate compensation for it.」
I looked at Shizufae.
「Yeah, with pleasure.」
Shizufae exchanged glances with her comrade momentarily before they nodded altogether.
「It's decided then. Shall we start the investigation tomorrow?」
◆Dark Knight; Kuroki
「Karkinos huh…」
The woman named Turia in front of me nodded.
「Exactly, God of Black Storm.」
It seems that ‘God of Black Storm’ was some sort of nickname they’d given me. I have no idea since when that name spread out, but it seems to originally be the name the dwarves used to call me.
I heard a report of the current situation from the woman called Turia who’d come to the ship where Kuna and I were. Meanwhile, Kuna, clearly not interested in this matter, had already entered the dream world with my knee pillow.
By the way, this woman named Turia was apparently an acquaintance of Dario. She’d heard about me from him.
Her husband was a dwarf and her husband’s daughter was a dwarf too. The woman who’d gotten married to a dwarf had received lots of treasures including gold and silver from her husband. Thus, she’d opened a business in this country by using those treasures and now she was the wealthiest person in this country. Plus, she was also a part of the labyrinth management team thanks to her husband.
I’d also met the God Heibos on the way back from reporting to Modes about me staying a while longer in Ariadya. I’d heard about Turia from him.
Since Dario was one of Heibos’ aides, he naturally knew about me staying in this country and had told Turia the information so she’d come to give her greetings.
It seems that she’d also made various arrangements for my stay in Ariadya.
「I see, those Karinoses are the remnants of the one who escaped from the arena. Thank you for letting me know about this, Turia-dono. But, the remnants of Atlana's plans huh.」
The one who’d released the monsters from the arena had been Atlana herself. In short, you might say that half the responsibility of this incident lay with her.
「Yes, I never expected that Atlana is a monster, worst of all, subordinate to the Evil God. And thinking that there's more of them hiding in this Ariadya is… just too scary.」
Turia shook her head as if she couldn’t come to terms with such a reality.
Atlanta was a member of the merchant association, thus it was natural for Turia to know Atlana. But naturally, not even Turia had realized Atlana’s real face.
「But, regarding the remnants of those monsters. I already knew of their whereabouts from Atlankua.」
I looked at Turia and responded.
「Is that true, God of Black Storm.」
I nodded.
I’d heard a lot of useful information from the captured Atlankia. I’d kept some of that information from Shirone and co. As for the reason, it was simply because it was related to Nargol.
「Yes, that's why I'm going to visit them personally to check what are they trying to do.」
「Thank you very much, God of Black Storm.」
「There's a possibility that they've abandoned their headquarters but… leave this matter to me, Turia-dono.」
Turia showed a relieved expression on her face as I reassured her.
But unlike her uplifted spirits, I felt pretty down right now.
I felt an onset of a headache just thinking about the culprit behind this incident.
I heaved a sigh while patting Kuna’s head as she lay on my lap.
◆Dancer, Sienna
After separating from Hero-sama and co, brother Decius and I went to meet our father. Father should still be around somewhere on these ships.
「Brother, do you have some sort of lead for tomorrow’s investigation?」
I called out to my brother.
「Unfortunately… not. How about you, Sienna? have you noticed something?」
I replied to his question with silence.
I did notice something was amiss, but I definitely couldn’t tell my brother about it since this matter might be related to the troupe I belonged to.
I felt bad for my brother, but I don’t wish to bring trouble for Leader Midas and co.
「… Is something the matter, Sienna?」
My brother asked.
「Uuhm. It's nothing. Come to think of it, can you keep this item for now, brother?」
I handed him a certain item wrapped tightly with cloth.
「This is?」
My brother received it and started to unfold the cloth.
「Wait, brother!! don't look the thing wrapped inside!!」
I hurriedly stopped my brother.
「Sienna?」
「Please just hold on to this item for now, brother.」
「I understand, Sienna. I won't look at the item inside this cloth.」
My brother reluctantly agreed to my request.
Well, since it’s that straight-laced brother of mine, I know that he really won’t take a peek at it.
「Thanks, brother. Then, I shall excuse myself.」
I split off from my brother after bidding my farewells.
「Wait a minute, Sienna!! Won't you at least greet our father before you leave!?」
My brother called out to me in a hurry.
「Sorry, brother!! Please say hi to father for me!!!」
I pondered over the incident while leaving my brother behind.
Marchas was clearly acting strange during that incident. Plus, the flute that was dropped by Marchas had a black goat crest engraved on its surface.
It was why I’d entrusted that flute to my brother.
But, if he knew that one of our troupe’s members was involved in this incident, I’m afraid that our troupe would get suspended, which was why I hadn’t said anything to my brother.
I mean, Leader Midas would’ve been troubled if the investigation team came to investigate our troupe too.
「It has yet to be confirmed.」
I returned to our troupe’s base while muttering to myself.
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