The Construction Ceremony (4)
“I am Prosecutor Zeo Blood of the Capital Defense Command.”
We had arrived at the Ministry of Environment building. It was the Ministry of Environment after all, and the building was everywhere covered in nameless plants. The guards blocking the entrance took one look at my ID and shook their heads. “Without a prior appointment, I’m afraid you won’t be able to see him.”
The guards were stone-faced. In cases like this, I had to pull out the card. “Should I issue a search warrant?” I asked, voice calm and matter-of-fact. “That would only make things more complicated.”
It wasn’t a threat. It was a fact. Warrants could be issued at any time, but the journalists who caught the scent would follow right behind. “Please wait just a moment.”
The guard picked up the phone, dialed, and chatted for what felt like forever. Then he led us all the way to the highest floor of the Ministry of Environment building.
Ding. The elevator doors opened, and a massive man in a suit greeted us. His hand, the size of a bear’s paw, reached out. “Ah, noble visitor. Welcome. This is where the Green Dream grows and the pristine future is designed. Our minister has woven the policies of the sky and gathered the energies of the earth, and his wisdom shines brighter than the sun.”
“….”
I was stunned. I had never seen a harpiling before, and today I was also meeting the eccentric poet who kept a harpiling for a secretary. “The minister is an unbiased person.”
I furrowed my brow, and Miko, suppressing a laugh, whispered, “His mouth is about to open wide again.”
Just as the harpiling’s hamster-like mouth was about to gape, Piaget, the office manager, stepped forward. “Every brick in this building was built with the breath of nature, and the windows carry the blessings of the fairies, purifying the air into something beautiful. Will you bestow upon us the blessing of guiding us to the minister’s office?”
The massive man’s lips curled into a satisfied smile. He gestured for us to follow him with satisfied eyes. “If I don’t do this, you’ll have to listen to the fat poet’s song through all three verses.”
Piaget’s neck was still red despite her brazen expression. The shame she felt seemed to spread to me. “Here we are.”
Following her unsteady steps, we reached a door with a nameplate reading ‘Environment Minister’s Office.’
Knock. Knock-knock. Knock-knock. The harpiling knocked in a strange rhythm and then vanished. No sound came from inside the room. The door was not locked. I twisted the handle, and it swung open.
The moment the door opened, the refreshing air of a druid enveloped us. The minister’s office was like a small forest. Vines and air-purifying trees climbed the walls, and a strange-eyed squirrel darted between them. “As expected of a druid…” But it was strangely quiet. One step deeper, a chill ran down to the tips of my ears. Behind the scent of vegetation came a sharp, bloody smell. “……!!!”
In the office, instead of the minister, lay the headless corpse of the Environment Minister. * * * “We have to… report this first…” Miko’s hand trembled. Her eyes were fixed on the dead minister, staring even at the small horns that had sprouted on his head. “I know everything. Not just me, but every civil servant knows the minister well.” The Environment Minister was said to have been born the son of a poor slime farm, studied day and night through extreme poverty, and entered the Imperial University of the Empire. After the university collapsed, he had been hastily hired as a low-ranking official, but through countless hardships, he finally reached the position of minister. “He wasn’t someone anyone would hate.” I remembered something I had read in some knight’s memoir. If he had entered during the minister’s time, the Imperial University had been open only to a few geniuses. It turned out he had entered under the special quota for a small number of races, so it made sense, but… “Prosecutor, this horn looks a bit rough. Someone must have intentionally filed it down.” As Piaget had pointed out, the horns on the minister’s head appeared to have been artificially trimmed. “The minister said he fed it to his son. To improve memory.” Miko added. “……” It felt excessive. Good education, but feeding part of his own body to his child? A druid’s horn might help suppress aging cells, but improving memory? That was nonsense, like the germanium bracelet from Earth. “Even if it were true, a father who feeds his own horn to his child…” It could be an abnormal obsession, a clue to his murder. Obsession breeds greed, and greed breeds tragedy. “Manager Piaget, investigate the minister in detail.” “Yes, Prosecutor.” “Especially, investigate every detail of his family’s financial transactions.” “From now on, everything will be recorded on video.” “Prosecutor, I’m already recording.” Piaget tapped the video recorder clipped to her chest. Every scene would become evidence for the murder investigation. From the minister’s body to the trash can in the office, we filmed everything. Then… “Huh?” Piaget, filming the potted plant by the window, suddenly jerked back. The moment she brushed the plant, a grand hologram rose from the wall, displaying complex blueprints. Only one section was highlighted in red. [Green Energy Park Construction Design] “Just touching the plant…” “There’s a magic circle inscribed on the leaves.” It was druid-style document concealment. Still, the trick was one thing, but the blueprint looked suspicious no matter how I looked. Miko seemed to think the same. “Doctor Miko, is this how water sources are usually managed?” The blueprint showed the water source connected to the park’s sewer system. “No way! Absolutely not! A water source connected to a park’s sewer? That’s ridiculous!” The water source supplying drinking water must be connected to the sewer system. A sewer is simply the path through which household wastewater flows. But in the blueprint, sewers were connected to the water source. That meant the drinking water supplied to every household was flowing through the sewer. “Look. This is nothing like the certified design.” Miko dug through her own magic recorder and showed the Ministry of Health and Sanitation documents. There, the water source’s sewer was perfectly separated from the drinking water system. It was completely different from the blueprint. “The water source is under the Ministry of Health and Sanitation. The Green Energy Park with its sewers is under the Environment Ministry.” The pieces were beginning to fit. Different managing departments. That meant they couldn’t know what the other was doing. If someone had tampered with the faint boundary line… “Doctor Miko, do you have patient distribution map data?” “Yes.” The map was covered in red dots. Patients were distributed in the A-3 district of Clovan City. “Do you have the personal details of the first patient?” “Ah… that’s in the next chapter.” The first patient was also a resident of the A-3 district, a core area. The moment I realized, every suspicion pointed to the sewer connected to the water source. The sewer buried right under the Green Energy Park. Someone had tampered with the blueprint, making the water source’s water flow backward through the sewer. And if the water source was contaminated, and the contaminated water was being supplied to every household through the sewer… the Ministry of Health and Sanitation wouldn’t realize the drinking water was poisoned. Not until every citizen of Clovan City was dead. Miko seemed to have realized too. “I can check the documents by tomorrow morning and bring them to your office?” She meant the documents she had to verify at the Ministry of Health and Sanitation. Just to be safe, since I might have missed something. “Doctor Miko, was the water source corpse collected by the Ministry of Health and Sanitation?” “I was worried, so I also collected the water source sample earlier.” A clear liquid in a shaking flask. A smart friend. Miko would check whether the water source was contaminated. If the pathogens in the corpse and the contaminants in the sample matched, developing a treatment for the monster disease would be only a matter of time. “Good.” Smiling satisfied, I nodded, and Miko turned and left. Now we had to find who tampered with the blueprint. “Manager, I think we should enter the Capital Defense Command headquarters.” Piaget also seemed to have caught on. The real investigation was beginning. It was hard to guess how deeply involved she was. I needed to discuss it with Headquarters Chief Frida. “By the way, is Headquarters Chief Frida well?” Ah, I had forgotten for a moment. I contacted her urgently. * * * “What? The Environment Minister was killed?” Even with her voice weak, the sharpness hid the killing intent. Headquarters Chief Frida was still on medical leave. Her secretary. Her subordinates. “Serious? Um… can you come to my house?” As the murder of a high-ranking official of the Gilorian Empire, she wanted a face-to-face report. So she was on her way home. “But, come alone.” “Huh?” “Embarrassing. I haven’t even washed my hair.” In the end, Manager Piaget returned to the office. Investigating the minister’s personal details and account history would take time, and her house was surprisingly small. A single-story house with a well-tended vegetable garden that didn’t match the high heels she usually wore. “Come in.” Headquarters Chief Frida, looking haggard, opened the door. “What’s this?” I handed her a simple, easy-to-eat meal. “There’s only water at home.” She placed a cup filled with tap water in front of me. The citizens of the Gilorian Empire were proud of their own water. Always clear, pristine water sources. That was why they drank tap water. Of course, there were exceptions. “Do you have a kettle?” I would boil and drink it. An old habit. Manager Piaget only drank the bottled water produced by elves. “Ah, over here.” Headquarters Chief Frida slumped into a chair and pointed with her finger. The kettle had settled with white dust, as if it hadn’t been used in a long time. I connected it to the magic power source and boiled the water. “Are you feeling better?” I placed a cup of boiling water in front of her. “You’ve calmed down a bit.” “For now, drink boiled water.” “Why?” “Normally, when you have a stomachache, warm things are better.” I still couldn’t give a definite answer. The water source was the source of the epidemic. “Really? Then what?” Headquarters Chief Frida picked up the cup of boiled water with both hands. “The Environment Minister’s office had a Green Energy Park blueprint.” “Isn’t the managing department the Environment Ministry?” The look on her face said, “Of course you’d say that.” “But connecting the park’s sewers to the water source isn’t something the Environment Ministry decides.” Headquarters Chief Frida set the cup down on the table and leaned toward me. “After checking with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, there was no record of the water source construction being approved. It seems the minister secretly connected the sewers under the park to the water source.” I explained what I had figured out. - The citizens of the Gilorian Empire drink tap water. - Sudden outbreak of epidemic. - Corpses floating in the water source. - Construction of the Green Energy Park. - Suspicious water source construction. - Blueprint discovered in the minister’s office. - And the death of the minister who issued the order. “What about the water source corpse?” “It’s still under investigation by the Ministry of Health and Sanitation.” “Did anything strange turn up in the minister’s room?” “This….” The account history hidden in his secret safe. “Money laundering?” The transaction history was abnormal, with numerous transactions with many people. It was a typical money laundering operation. “If we follow the money, we might catch the Environment Minister’s killer.” “Yes, I plan to analyze including family details.” “Good. Is there anything else you need?” Headquarters Chief Frida asked, sinking deeply into the chair. She looked quite tired. “There’s one thing I’d like you to do.” “What is it?” “Hold a press conference about the minister’s murder.” The opponent was a high-level magic user capable of skillfully wielding dimensional cutting and space-distortion magic. Moreover, a force with connections that allowed free access to high-ranking officials. “You want the investigation to cause confusion?” I nodded lightly at Headquarters Chief Frida’s words. We had to make the investigative authorities think there was confusion. That way we could lull them into complacency while we gathered evidence and wiped everything out at once. “I’ll prepare everything. Prosecutor Blood, get ready too.”