With Rüdiger's sudden death, there were others in trouble too.
Ted and Oscar, who had been cast adrift, must have felt utterly hopeless, thinking their path to advancement was cut off. Adelbert had likely counted the soldiers assigned as watchers among the causes of Rüdiger's death. Of course, the biggest cause was me.
He probably thought I'd turned them to my side.
So after returning from the Finance Department residence, I sat the anxious pair down.
"You two, tell me everything you reported to the Deputy Inspector General that day."
"Wh-what do you mean? We never reported to the Deputy Inspector General."
"Cut the useless lies. Don't you realize how fucked your position is right now?"
They could end up even worse off than me.
At least I'm a hereditary knight noble, even if a lowly one.
I could push back to some extent even when facing the Finance Minister's successor, but these guys are commoners, so if they're fired, that's it. Employment for commoners isn't easy, and if word spreads that they were blacklisted and fired by the Finance Minister's successor, they'll have no work except day labor.
"I'm trying to give you a chance. Otherwise, how will you make a living after being fired?"
"Sigh... then will you take us in, Inspector, sir?"
"Of course I have the means to employ you. But to earn that, shouldn't you show me some trust first?"
The mindset reflected in the Manager Scouter for these two was anxiety and worry.
Crucially, their disposition remained at honesty (good), so I was making a scouting offer. If their disposition had been even slightly lacking, I would've kicked them out without hesitation.
"We heard information about Nixe from that kid Bodo and reported to the Deputy Inspector General first, before informing you, Inspector, sir."
The hesitant Oscar chose to come clean with me, since things had turned out this way. Eventually, Ted followed Oscar's lead and explained in detail. They'd reported the information about Nixe and that I was hungry for merit, but Rüdiger's reaction had been cold. Well, of course it would be.
"But Inspector Mort came and whispered something to him, and suddenly the Deputy Inspector General mobilized his forces."
"And he ordered us to stall for time so you couldn't come to Nixe, Inspector, sir. But then you said you'd go the next day, so we were completely thrown."
Hmm, at first he didn't believe it, but immediately after Inspector Mort whispered to him, he deployed right away. Does that mean information from another source corroborated mine, turning suspicion into certainty? But the problem was that armed organization members were lying in wait at Nixe.
So who were those organization members? Oscar said that among the information obtained from Bodo, he couldn't determine which organization it was. Had Bodo deliberately withheld that? There were more variables than expected. Nixe is in the north of the brothel district, so that area had already been cordoned off.
This was a case where the Deputy Inspector General of Finance himself had been killed.
Because of that, the Finance and Judicial Departments were in an uproar.
Dozens of casualties had occurred, and to deal with the aftermath, traffic bans and intense crackdowns were in effect. Fortunately, the south wasn't blocked off, but it had grown very quiet after all that chaos. I headed to The Pauper's Crown with Hans and the soldiers.
At this point, there was no other option besides finding Bodo.
I didn't believe Bodo had betrayed me.
The scouter's judgment had never been wrong.
Walking the quiet streets toward The Pauper's Crown, the prostitutes wearing yellow ribbons and headscarves I'd seen before had vanished without a trace. Even the beggars who'd been everywhere were gone. The gloomy cold weather and the barking of stray dogs seemed to be the only things left on this street.
I arrived at The Pauper's Crown.
Hans knocked on the door first.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
"Doesn't seem like anyone's here."
"Wait, Hans. I smell blood."
The unpleasant scent of blood wafting from inside set my nerves on edge. The metallic smell—familiar yet never something you get used to—raised my tension. When I drew my longsword, Hans and the soldiers also drew their arming swords and raised their shields. Hans swallowed hard, saying the day to swing his sword had come.
I ordered Ted to take the lead.
Ted stood in front of the door and kicked it at my signal.
Bang!
We rushed in as the door flew open. The interior, reeking of blood, was a wreck. Everything was broken, and the corpses of women and men bearing sword wounds lay tangled together. Hans was speechless at the carnage, and Ted and Oscar couldn't hold back their retching.
It was strange that no one had even reported such a massacre.
Who exactly? Why had they attacked The Pauper's Crown?
"Good lord, what on earth is this... Oh, Lord."
The stunned Hans prayed while making the sign of the cross.
Now was not the time to pray.
I could make out footprints tangled with blood and grime. Not just one or two. And these footprints led toward the back door. Going out the back door, I found a blood-stained wall. Someone had climbed over it. I activated the Searcher Scouter.
My briefly distorted vision returned to normal, and Bodo's small footprints appeared before my eyes. Fortunately, Bodo hadn't died here. It was Bodo who had climbed over the wall, and it was clear there had been a desperate escape. I'd only wanted to meet Bodo and confirm the facts, but this had happened.
Finding Bodo was the urgent priority.
Since there had been an attack, time was of the essence.
"Don't just stand there—follow me! Bodo's still alive."
After shouting, I climbed over the wall and ran into a narrow alley. My subordinates, who had snapped out of it, followed behind me. Judging by the direction and position of the footprints and the route through small openings, Bodo had chosen narrow passages to escape, doing whatever it took to survive. So he wouldn't have been caught.
At the boundary between the slums and the brothel district, I found where Bodo was hiding.
It was a dead-end alley with nothing in it, but through the scouter I noticed there was space to hide inside the cracked wall. When I tore off the loose section, Bodo burst out holding a dagger. He screamed and tried to stab me.
"Aaaah! Die! Die!"
"Bodo! It's me! Calm down!"
I grabbed his wrist and pinned him to the ground. Bodo struggled, but his resistance faded. He looked up at me while breathing raggedly—he was a mess. When I carefully let him go, Bodo went limp, as if the fight had drained out of him. When I gently held him, he started crying pitifully.
After sobbing for a while, Bodo's voice grew hoarse and he couldn't cry anymore.
"Bodo, what on earth happened?"
"They killed my whole family! May they rot in hell! Bastards!"
"Calm down and speak slowly. You told Oscar that Nixe was the contact location, right?"
"The contact location is Nixe! But I didn't know this would happen! Dammit!"