Chapter 232: Career Experience Learning 2
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 232: Career Experience Learning 2
The place we arrived at in Rhea’s car wasn’t the regional headquarters where my mother worked. It was a rather impressive five-story building, far too large to be just a police station, but it certainly felt much smaller compared to the regional headquarters’ skyscraper.
Under a sunshade set up beneath the scorching sun, a police officer stood with her back ramrod straight. Next to her, a kid who looked my age stood in the same posture.
It seemed to be career experience season, as kids from other schools were also participating in various activities here and there.
“...Inspection, Prosecutor.”
“You’re working hard. Here’s my ID. Are you doing things by the book because you have your junior with you?”
“Normally, maybe not, but when I’m training a subordinate, I have to follow procedure.”
“A cute subordinate you have there.”
The police officer, who seemed to know Rhea, chatted lightly before glancing at me and speaking.
“Is our Young Master here as the prosecutor’s assistant?”
“Yes!”
Chuckling, the police officer took the kid standing under the sunshade inside, did something to check us in, and then returned with Rhea’s access card.
We parked the car, leaving behind the officer who was wiping sweat from the little kid’s brow; he must have been very hot.
Nearby, another police officer working as a parking attendant and a little kid were moving around as a set. In a thoughtful touch, presumably for safety, five balloons were attached to the kid’s clothes.
“Career experience season is always fun. Seeing the kids scampering around seems to motivate everyone, you know?”
Rhea hummed as she pulled into an empty spot right in front of the building.
“Reports related to economic crimes are this way! Fraud, breach of trust, embezzlement, and so on!”
“Reports related to cybercrime are this way!”
“This is not the place to report property damage compensation or pay fines!”
As we got out of the parked car, kids my age began to eagerly promote their sections.
We casually ignored the children and entered the police station’s main entrance.
“Welcome!”
A little kid standing right next to the guide greeted us cheerfully. A police officer followed slowly behind him. It seemed Rhea wasn’t the only one who enjoyed the career experience period.
“How can I help you?”
“I need to enter the investigation headquarters building. Could you issue me a permit? I’m Prosecutor Rhea Dupre, and this is Jeong Yong-hwan, who I’m mentoring for his career experience. If you contact the Organized Crime Investigation Unit of the Earth North China Governorate, they’ll confirm our identities.”
The kid meticulously wrote down what Rhea said and ran over to the police officer at the information desk. The officer then immediately rushed over to us.
“Thank you for your hard work! Issuing the access passes might take a little time, so I’ll escort you myself.”
“You must be busy, there’s no need for that. It’ll probably just take the time to drink a cup of tea, so we’ll wait.”
When Rhea politely declined, the police officer said she would resolve it quickly and hurried inside.
“Everyone’s so polite to you, Rhea.”
“Ahem! What do you think? Being a prosecutor looks cool, right? You want to be a prosecutor like me?”
“...I’ll think about it.”
I had thought it was cool for a moment, but hearing her say it herself like that made the coolness factor die a bland death.
While we waited for the passes, I saw a kid who looked my age take an elderly woman’s hand and lead her into the building.
“Sorry for the wait. Here are the access passes. I got one for your friend just in case, but…”
The police officer began to look back and forth between the document that looked like an access pass and me.
“Is there a problem?”
“No, it’s just… it says you’re the child of Lady Degrain… I was just wondering if that’s correct.”
“What? I was told he’s the nephew of Deputy Chief Tiria Le Piats.”
For a moment, watching Rhea blink her blue eyes and say something so foolish made me worry if I could really trust this person. But then I figured that since she was a high-ranking public official, it was possible she didn't know, so I let it go.
“...Ame Cal Degrain is my mother.”
“See? I knew it, right? I thought you looked familiar from the movies!”
Because cameras failed to perfectly capture my appearance (you might think I lack self-awareness or have an inflated ego, but I’m just quoting the females around me), not many people recognized me. But being a police officer, she seemed to have a good eye.
“Could I take just one picture with you?”
“Sure.”
The police officer pressed up close to take a picture, so I shot Rhea a look.
“Let’s take one together later, too!”
Wondering if she was just hopelessly dense, I took the picture and then headed with Rhea into the building that housed the investigation headquarters.
Everyone was walking around with stiff, hardened faces, but when they saw me holding Rhea’s hand, they would stop, their eyes widening, and stare before continuing on their way.
“It’s right here!”
In the corner of the third floor of a dreary, green building of the same height built next to the police station, I could see a room with piles of documents beyond a glass door.
And I could see someone with blue hair rummaging through the papers.
Rhea threw the door open.
“I have arrived!”
“...Prosecutor, you’re here.”
A woman in a dress shirt and jeans, with dark circles under her eyes, responded well to Rhea’s absurdly dramatic entrance.
She was practically radiating exhaustion, but the faint smile on her lips suggested she and Rhea were on very good terms.
“Where is everyone?”
“As reported, Team A has been dispatched with the riot police, and Team B is on stakeout.”
“What! I told you to take me with you on dispatches! That’s the coolest part!”
“You got shot in the stomach last time while reading a warrant out front… What’s so cool about that?” the police officer, who exuded the aura of a Violent Crimes Unit detective, asked Rhea, her eye twitching.
“A real veteran detective needs a bullet wound in the gut and a stab wound to have something to brag about!”
“...We’ve made this much progress thanks to you, Prosecutor. You are more than worthy of our respect.”
Except for this part, the police officer seemed to add, letting out a short sigh as her words trailed off.
“So, who’s this kid? Your future husband, Prosecutor?”
“What!? Ah, I wish! He’s Deputy Chief Tiria’s nephew… ah, I mean, Superintendent General Degrain’s son!”
“...It’s Senior Superintendent General.”
The police officer let out a long sigh. It looked like she had to put up with Rhea a lot.
Then, her gaze shifted back to me. She walked over and crouched down.
“Nice to meet you, little guy. This auntie is your mom’s subordinate, so you can relax.”
I couldn’t help but feel a little tense as the woman, who called herself an auntie and gave off strong married-woman vibes, patted my head, but I straightened my back to show I wasn’t scared.
“It is career experience season, after all… and the Senior Superintendent General is currently dispatched to the Earth Colony, so I suppose the Deputy Chief is looking after you in her stead.”
This police officer’s sharp analysis was impressive.
“My name is Jeong Yong-hwan! Can you tell me your name, Sister?”
“Not sister, auntie. It’s Emily Marino. It’s a pleasure.”
I thought she was a very kind person, but I realized something when I took her outstretched hand.
“Surprised by how rough my hands are? Sorry, sorry. It’s because of my job…”
Noticing my surprise at her hand, which was covered in calluses that could rival Whitey’s, she apologized first.
“Not at all! It’s cool! It’s because there are lots of people like you, Emily, that we can live safely!”
“Hehe, you’re quite the flatterer.”
From the pleasant sound of Emily’s laughter, it seemed I’d successfully made a good impression.
“Are you busy right now? I’d like to get another briefing on the case… and this little guy was begging me to see what we do.”
“I’m more or less done with my work. The dispatch team is under field command anyway, so there’s no rush…”
Let’s see. Emily lightly tapped her lower back, then brought a whiteboard over from the corner.
“Alright, Prosecutor. And our future prosecutor. We’ll begin with the cognitive investigation process.”
Emily began her briefing.
It all started three years ago, when a bank employee noticed a pattern: money was being consistently transferred from several high-balance accounts to a specific account.
A report was made to the financial supervisory authority here, which I assumed was the equivalent of the Financial Supervisory Service from my past life. At the same time, not only the suspicious accounts but several times that number all ceased their transactions.
The employee who made the report, with a colonial transfer just around the corner, received what was suspected to be a retaliatory personnel action, getting reassigned to a rural backwater.
The female manager, who had been full of dreams of seducing a man in the colony and living happily ever after (my guess, since what other reason would there be to want to go to a colony!), decided to investigate the account histories herself. She became a whistleblower, gathered information, and threw it at the prosecutor’s office.
The prosecutors were suspicious, but they all knew that this was the kind of thing the higher-ups did, so they tried to drag their feet and sweep it under the rug.
But that was the story of how one prosecutor, burning with a sense of justice and (self-proclaimed) competence, took an interest in the case and began to seriously dig into the transaction records.
“Ahem… ahem!”
Rhea puffed out her chest and straightened her back, looking proud. It seemed unlikely this woman would be getting promoted anytime soon. I probably didn't need to get too close to her.
“Now, do you have any more questions? Future prosecutor?”
I was here for a police career experience, not a prosecutor’s, but it wasn’t hard to play along with the mood, so I spoke up.
“So, after all that digging, you must have identified the culprit, since you’ve even dispatched a team?”
“An excellent question. It’s an organized crime, not an individual one, and it was hard to pin down because they spread the money around to launder it. But we finally figured out who the mastermind is.”
Emily flipped the whiteboard over.
“It’s this person. Looks scary, right?”
“Uh…?”
The face looked familiar.
“This is a dark elf, identified as a high-ranking executive in what can be called an international criminal organization.”
“Uh…”
It was really familiar.
“We first became aware of this individual when she was reigning as the queen of the underworld in a small city. We thought she was a very dangerous person, but no one expected her to go under Hindel Dun Vurdia.”
“Uh…”
The introduction was familiar, too.
“Lisar Wintershard. We’re certain she’s the mastermind, but there’s no link in the middle. We’re only speculating. What we’re raiding now is just one of the businesses operated by Lisar Wintershard.”
“Ah, yes…”
I shifted from my comfortable listening posture.
“Well, even if we catch people like this, it’s obvious they’ll be released due to insufficient evidence… But we can’t give up.”
I avoided Emily’s gaze, which seemed to be seeking my agreement, and simply nodded.
“Well, those people over there are full of trash. It’s common for their subordinates to commit crimes without their knowledge. She might be innocent. However, we can’t say that Lisar Wintershard’s influence had nothing to do with them committing such crimes, so we’ve dispatched the team to get a warrant and issue a warning.”
“It’ll serve as a light warning to manage the trash underneath her better,” Emily added. I couldn’t bring myself to look directly into her sparkling blue eyes.