บท 463: Fallout
Yash was in the break room getting yet another cup of coffee. It was only 2 P.M., but he was already on his 8th cup, and it didn't look like he was getting a chance to rest soon.
"Man, paperwork is hell," another man walked inside the break room. He wore a white shirt, black tie, and dark jeans as their uniform. The only difference between the clothes of the two was that, unlike Yash, this man was wearing dark blue suspenders.
"That's a bit insensitive, isn't it, Michael? I mean, considering what they've been through," Yash took a sip from his coffee.
"Fuck me, man. Do you need to go there? You know I don't mean it literally. Of course, they've been through worse, but the paperwork is annoying," Michael gasped while sitting on the table, his hand reaching out for the box of donuts, "Who ate the last one with sprinkles? I know I left one here."
Yash took a bite out of the donut with sprinkles, "Consider it a payment for the crap you pulled earlier today. Or do you think I wouldn't have found out that you swapped our lists when you saw that yours had a lot of family members of the victims?"
Michael shrugged, "If that's all you're asking for payment, it was worth it. I really don't wanna deal with those."
"You are still paying for dinner and happy hour for the next month. Then we will be even," Yash continued eating and pulled up his clipboard with the file for his next interview.
"OK, OK. No. Wait, dinner? Do you mean the double date? You are making me pay for the whole thing?" Michael gasped.
"Yeah, I am. This was a dick move, and I wouldn't be a good friend if I didn't punish you for it. That way, you can be a better person in the future," Yash snickered.
"I said that once. Once. Do you have to keep bringing it up every single time I do something like this?"
"Yes. Yes, I do."
Michael gave up and started eating a chocolate-glazed donut. A few moments passed before they stopped playing around and went back to the discussions about the situation. It was the second day of interviews, and they had cleared out most of the potentially problematic people. Now, they had to make sure they weren't missing anything by talking with the others. Both of them agreed that this was probably unnecessary since they already had someone who confessed and was ready to explain everything, from how the monsters got there to who was responsible for it. The only things they didn't know were the location of the centaurs, their actual motives, and whether they were related to the other terrorists. This attack seemed very different than the one in Union City. Here was about killing people while the one that happened there was about sending a message. The methods were also considerably different, which raises some questions, but they still couldn't rule out the possibility of both attacks being made by the same group.
"I'm going back there. Talk to you later," Yash looked in the mirror and stopped to tidy up himself. His brown skin contrasted well with his white shirt, and his eyes were a very beautiful amber color. The problem was his nose. It was bigger than he would like and it reminded him of a potato, but he was afraid of getting a nose job just to fix his appearance. Not because of the risks, which were almost non-existent, but because of what his mother would say.
"You know you spend more time looking in the mirror than your wife, don't you?" Michael said after a minute had passed and Yash was still trying to fix up his clothing and short hair.
"What do you expect? You've seen Jaya. You don't keep a woman like her by looking like crap."
"Oh, please. She's madly in love with you, even if I have no idea how that happened. You can be missing half your face, and she's still gonna think you're hot. I don't know how someone so beautiful can have such a bad taste in men," Michael laughed.
"Right back at you. How you managed to land Sabrina is still beyond me."
"She fell for my natural charm, of course. It's something you wouldn't understand."
"That's true. My grip in reality is too strong to understand your delusions," Yash chuckled and left the break room. He walked through the corridors and headed to one of the meeting rooms that he was using during the last few days. They had changed a bit how the room looked. Everything was gray, and there was a double-sided mirror splitting each meeting room so two groups could be there at once. Not that it was being used right now. Those extra sets of ears were only useful when they were actually talking with someone relevant, which shouldn't be the case.
He walked into the meeting room and saw a blond woman sitting on the chair anxiously picking her nails, "Hi. Miss... Kingsley correct? Hera Kingsley?"
Hera got up and bowed slightly, "Yes, that's me."
"Please, you can be seated. I'm detective Yash, and I just want to ask you some questions about what happened," Yash closed the door and walked to the chain on the other side of the room. They didn't even have a table for him to use, which was annoying, "For starters. Let's just get a couple questions out of the way. First, you were asked not to bring any weapons and/or leave them back and the lockers. Can you confirm that you don't have any weapons on you?"
Hera hesitated for a moment, thinking about her court, "I don't have any weapons now."
Yash raised one of his eyebrows, "Miss Kingsley. I have to warn you. I have a skill that allows me to know when someone is telling a lie. As you can imagine, it's very helpful in my job. I'd like to ask you again. Do you have any weapons in your possession at the moment?"
"No, not really. I have a skill that lets me summon a weapon construct of sorts. I just didn't know if that counted," Hera tried to explain as quickly as she could.
"Oh, that's fine. And it explains why I had a ping in my skill. And you said it's a skill? I know those kinds of spells are common even if a bit more advanced for your level, but skills that can do that are very rare."
Hera nodded, "Yeah. I got it as a reward for a hidden quest," it was a half-truth, but either Yash's skill didn't register that as a lie, or the man simply chose to ignore it.
"If you don't mind me asking. Could you show me that skill? This is unrelated to the investigation. I'm just curious."
"I'd rather don't summon a weapon here. I don't want any misunderstandings to happen. I'm not trying to look hostile to anyone," Hera glanced at the mirror. She had seen enough cop shows to know that someone should be behind it, even if, in this situation, that was an incorrect assumption.
"Fair enough. And I can see why you'd be hesitant to bring out a weapon. Let's go for the next question, then. Were you responsible, or were you associated with the people responsible for this attack?"
"No. I wasn't even in the room when it started. I was in a dungeon with my party, and when we came out, monsters were already everywhere, and the city was already under attack," Hera explained.
"OK. Great. I don't believe you were part of this. Especially since we can confirm that you were in a dungeon at the time of the attack, but I just had to make sure. Now, I understand that it must have been a traumatic experience. But can I ask you to tell me what you saw and what happened to you during the attack? Let's start from the beginning and go from there. What happened right after you left the dungeon?" Yash asked.
Hera started to explain the events from her point of view. She talked about how everybody was scared and how Alex, one of her party members, had a personal item she needed to retrieve. Hera added that it was a dream journal, but she didn't believe there was anything to do with the attack. She didn't mention the curse but explained that those dreams were helping the assassin figure out some stuff, and that's why she went after the notebook. She followed her because she didn't want her to leave her friend alone, but Yash stopped her when she mentioned someone who saved her from the falling building. It wasn't the saving her part that caught his interest but the way that the men saved her.
"So you're saying that this man turned the falling building into a figurine? Do you know his name? How did he look? Anything?"
"Not really. There was a lot of debris and smoke. I can't remember anything about him. The figurine was honestly what drew my attention. Is he related to all this?" Hera asked.
"He's a person of interest in a case. I can't say anything more than that. Could you give me a moment?" Yash looked back at Hera, who nodded in response. He pulled up his tablet and searched for a few things. A couple of minutes passed, and he gave a satisfied nod, "OK. It seems like that was indeed the only interaction you had with him. Before this, you two were never in the same room, and even when he came here, you two never visited the same places. I apologize for that, but as I said, he is a person of interest to us."
Hera nodded, "That's not a problem. I'm glad I could help, even if only a little."
"You're being very helpful, Miss Kingsley. Now, let's continue. After he saves you, what happened?"
She continued her explanation about what happened during the attack. Yash was interested in what she heard before the madness started and how she fought back against it. Hera only replied that she had a skill that helped her, which seemed to be good enough of an answer for the detective. Unfortunately, Hera didn't have much information about what the spell was or how it worked. After she heard the beginning of the spell, her mind was already starting to be taken over, and when she regained her senses, she couldn't tell what the centaur actually said. She added that she had no idea how her friend managed to withstand the madness. Yash just nodded and said that a few people shrug off the effects without any issues. When it came time to talk about her return to the tower, Hera stopped for a moment and took a deep breath.
"Alex went ahead to scout for monsters that could be coming from the sides of the city while I stayed behind. I made some noise by accident, and an elf that I never had seen before appeared. He seemed affected by this madness, and he tried to attack me. I... I pushed him away and used the glaive that I was carrying just as a way to threaten him, but he just walked into the blade and made me kill him. Not like he walked and I attacked, but he walked into the blade, I was just holding it up. His name was Vulmer Keller. I know it was an accident, but it doesn't change the fact that I killed him. I'm ready to accept any punishment the guild deems fit," Hera was clenching both of her fists together, her nails digging into her skin. She could only hope this wasn't enough to remove her status as an explorer. If that ended up being the case, she had no idea what she would do. Maybe she would even try to run and hide somewhere. All she knew was that she didn't want to leave the MAZE.
"If it was any other situation, you would be arrested, and there will be a trial, But we're not charging anyone with murder right away. You are not the one who killed him. The centaur did. I do appreciate your honesty, and if you want, I can direct you to a few support groups that might help you cope with this. That being said. There was a death involving you. There will be an additional investigation just to ensure that his death wasn't about you taking advantage of the situation for some reason. But if it really is as you said, and you never saw him before, this probably won't amount to much, and you'll be free to go without an issue. However, I will ask you not to leave the room until this part of the investigation is done," Yash stopped for a moment, "Wait. I'll have to see if there are any rooms available in the hotels here. The Kobold Road is not the best place for this kind of thing," he sighed.
"Could I stay in Boothudurn? I live there, and it's just a room away. I can come here at any moment," Hera asked.
"That's the dwarven city, right? I don't see why not. Just don't leave that room unless we call you here. If you don't follow those rules, it will be considered as if you were trying to hinder the investigation. Now, after that unfortunate situation. What happened?"
She continued explaining the events of that day. Even if that happened five days ago, everything was still very fresh on her mind, "… Then we waited two days inside my private room before leaving to find the rescue team."
"OK… and how did you know the rescue team was there?"
"I asked my relic. I have a thing that allows me to ask a question as long as I use enough mana, and I use it a few times a day," Hera told a blatant lie, but she couldn't talk about the guides in any circumstance.
"Was it your relic, or was it something else that you can't talk about?" Yash asked.
Hera sighed, "The second option. But I promise it doesn't have anything to do with the attack."
"Don't worry. I'm just glad that Luna managed to help. You got the meeting room, right?" Yash smiled.
"How did you know?"
"My skill is more sensitive than you think. It can tell me when someone is telling complete lies or just half ones. Since it told me that you were lying about your relic but not about the number of times you asked about it, I assumed it was a fair deduction that you're talking to Luna more than once. I'm glad it was right. I have no idea if the meeting room is gone if I get a strike. I should really be more careful with this stuff," Yash scratched the back of his head.
"I'm glad I can be honest. Yeah, I asked Luna, and she told me about the rescue crew."
"Yeah. I don't think I was the only one, but I also asked her to tell people about them. Anyway, that will be all for now. Thank you for your cooperation and stay in Boothudurn. When we are done with the investigation, we will call you."
Hera nodded, "OK… am I really not being charged?"
"No, you're not. This situation was completely out of everyone's control. And from our point of view, anyone who killed one of the crazed people was just acting in self-defense. I'm not gonna say it was a good thing, but we can't blame people for wanting to leave. I don't think anyone will be charged with murder or even assault in this situation. Well, aside from the people responsible for all this," Yash got up and escorted Hera back to the exit of the guild. He was doing that with everyone that he was talking to today. He didn't want anyone feeling like a criminal when they left. Doing so would benefit him in two ways. First, it will allow people to be more comfortable with him in case he had follow-up questions, and second, if he suspected someone, they wouldn't be aware of it, which would allow him to put a tail on them. Luckily, this wasn't the case for Miss Kingsley. As far as he could tell, she was entirely in her own right to defend herself, and she had nothing to do with the attack. He glanced down at his cup and saw that it was empty. With a sigh, he walked back to the break room and took his 9th cup of coffee before getting ready for the next interview.
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