The Rogue Prosecutor’s Survival Guide in Another World
After the centaur’s thunderous roar faded into the distance, I rushed the barely conscious colleagues to the hospital with their assistance.
“Is the doctor all right?”
Therion asked.
On his back lay the unconscious Piaje staff member.
“Yeah, I’ll wrap up the search and join you.”
Therion nodded lightly and turned to leave, but Piaje suddenly snapped his eyes open.
He muttered one sentence in a daze.
“I was really shocked.”
“…?”
Piaje raised his arm without a word and clenched his fist, opening it again.
“Ah…”
The despairing expression that had flashed across his face when the lightning magic vanished finally returned.
“The situation was so urgent that we couldn’t even discuss the plan in advance.”
Piaje must have been genuinely startled.
A faint smile spread across my face as I listened to his explanation.
I smiled back and sent him the signal to rest.
Only then did Piaje slump unconscious once more.
“Therion, please look after them.”
Therion nodded and carried the wounded away.
Only then did perfect silence descend.
All that remained were the red blood puddles on the floor and the bodies of the enemies.
I turned on the last remaining magic stone transceiver and contacted Miko.
“Doctor Miko, we need to find the original virus.”
Miko’s excited voice came through.
“Researcher-nim, where are you? If you’re near Green Energy Park, get away immediately! There’s lightning striking and weird energies rising everywhere!”
Ah… it must have been quite the spectacle.
That was probably why Therion had been able to reach me so quickly.
“We’ve resolved it.”
“What?”
“All the virus spreaders have been eliminated, and they’re currently in their secret laboratory.”
Miko’s surprised voice returned.
“Then the lightning…?”
“Yes, I did that.”
A brief silence followed.
“Ah… Researcher-nim cast that monstrous lightning… ah… I see… I’ll depart immediately. If I leave right now…”
“First, secure the virus original. I’m worried the virus original may not remain after the laboratory was completely destroyed in the fighting.”
Everything had been obliterated.
“You don’t need to worry. Researcher-nim, if it’s those guys, they’ll have hidden it in the safest place.”
According to her explanation.
The virus was stored in a completely sealed location to avoid exposure to the outside environment.
So, by searching for places covered in various protective wards or secret passages, we would find the storage site.
“Given the researchers’ perverted tendencies, it’s likely stored inside a bright red door. Who would want to open a bright red door?”
She added that too.
While I kept her words in mind and searched around.
Before long, I discovered an odd passage connected to the sewer system.
Following the drainage path for about 1 km, a bright red door appeared.
Chik chik.
The bright red door was covered in powerful protective wards.
Following Miko’s instructions, I deactivated the wards, shattered several security mechanisms, and pushed open the unusually heavy door that looked far from ordinary.
The air that greeted me was so cold it nearly produced steam.
Miko’s voice came through the magic stone transceiver.
“Researcher-nim, they won’t store the virus original in some flask-like place that can be cracked… um… if I were them, I’d put it in a solid capsule made of special materials and freeze it in extreme cold conditions. That way they can keep the virus alive longer and activate it easily when needed.”
“So I’ve come to the right place.”
Rubbing my chilled hands, I searched the surroundings when I found a swarm of dead experimental mice in a cage in one corner.
Next to it lay a silver candy with the word “Angel-ing” written on it.
‘Angeling… this…‘
Angeling was a health functional food manufactured by a subsidiary of EcoNova.
It had recently become a sensation across the empire.
Though somewhat expensive, people rushed to open their wallets for its anti-aging effect.
I opened the door of the freezer beside it.
Inside were hundreds of solid capsules neatly arranged.
“……!!!”
Everything matched Miko’s explanation perfectly.
I immediately opened the magic stone transceiver and contacted Miko via video.
“Is this it?”
“Hah! The virus storage facility matches… but is there no magic stone microscope nearby? One with a penetration function.”
“…What does a microscope with a penetration function look like?”
“Ah… that’s… how should I put it… ah! It looks like a machine shaped like a spider? It resembles a trash bin at first glance, but it has nine legs.”
I looked around and saw a grotesque pile of scrap metal right nearby.
“Is this it?”
“Yes, that’s right. Place the capsules right under that machine. It will appear on video immediately.”
Following her instructions, I placed the solid capsules under the grotesque trash bin—sorry, under the magic stone microscope.
The nine legs moved with a swish, shooting a thin line of light.
And in the floating hologram, something oddly shaped writhed.
Not a worm, not a snake, something that moved as if alive.
“Hah! Yes! VO-5241 with the ending changed. That’s it!!!!!”
Miko began shouting.
“Ha! There are hundreds of them? They really wanted to kill them all. I’ll depart immediately to retrieve them. Under no circumstances open the capsules!!”
After the sound of chaos and the call with Miko ended, about thirty minutes later the health and sanitation bureau staff arrived with Miko.
They wore several layers of wards and terrifying hazmat suits, carefully inspected something, and began transferring the solid capsules.
“Researcher-nim, the virus original is confirmed. We can now develop the treatment.”
Miko smiled brightly, her tail swishing left and right.
Her eyes were shadowed from all the worries she had endured.
I had heard it secondhand.
Unlike the health and sanitation bureau, which had pinned the monster plague’s cause on a curse or artifact, I had taken the exact opposite route.
And for that reason, I needed to give Miko a gift to ease her discomfort and quiet harassment from the bureau.
“Take this too and investigate.”
I pointed at the Angeling.
“A candy? Suddenly where did that…”
Miko’s eyes widened in curiosity as she looked at me.
“It’s the catalyst for VO-5241, isn’t it?”
Miko’s eyes sparkled as she stared at my face for a long time.
VO-5241 itself was not a fatal virus.
It was clearly designed to release its hidden toxicity upon exposure to special environments.
Miko collected not only the Angeling but also all the dead experimental mice from the laboratory.
The results would likely be out soon, and the treatment would be developed immediately.
“How long do you think it will take?”
I asked Miko.
“With the virus original, it should be ready in three days at the earliest or five at the latest. Thanks to you, Researcher-nim.”
Miko smiled brightly and returned to her colleagues.
She placed her hand on her waist and gave orders with a solemn expression, then suddenly looked at the magic stone transceiver for a long time as if inputting something.
When our eyes met, Miko smiled and tapped the magic stone transceiver lightly.
“……?”
Tap. Tap.
To be sure, I opened the transceiver and found a message from her.
[Researcher-nim. Because of my pronunciation, I receive many misunderstandings, so I send this in writing instead. It was an unexpected disaster that struck out of nowhere, and for an ordinary person like me, merely witnessing this scene was overwhelming. It was terrifying, and I wanted to run away.
But thanks to you, Researcher-nim, I was able to quietly do my job. I am truly grateful. Thank you for making sure I don’t regret it. If there is anything I can help you with at any time, please contact me. At that time, I will also become your reliable stepping stone.]
Clean sentences with not a single typo.
I looked up again and saw that Miko had disappeared somewhere.
I searched the surroundings.
The capital defense unit personnel were recording the scene in detail through video recorders.
The health and sanitation bureau agents continued searching for other infectious factors.
Outside, journalists had already gathered, their eyes gleaming as they prepared to deliver fresh news to the empire’s citizens.
I washed my face with a dry hand and muttered quietly.
“The sun is rising.”
The sun of Clovan City shone intensely through my fingers.
* * *
If not for him, I would have slept for several more days straight.
The series of incidents.
The investigations I had no choice but to push through while barely sleeping for days.
The situation where even support personnel could not be properly assigned because of the monster plague…
My entire body screamed.
Rest was needed.
On the third day of isolating myself at home with all contacts blocked.
Knock. Knock.
Someone was hammering on the front door.
I wanted to ignore it and sleep, but the familiar voice from outside stopped me.
“Prosecutor-nim.”
I reluctantly got up from the bed and pulled open the blackout curtains. Dust rose in clouds.
The knocking continued as I walked toward the door.
“What is it?”
I asked gruffly as I opened the door.
There stood Piaje staff member, who had stopped hammering and frozen in place.
“Ah, Prosecutor-nim. You were sleeping…”
Behind Piaje’s hesitant words were the familiar red shoes.
“Mr. Blood, you live here?”
Freida, the minister with her makeup thicker than ever, appeared abruptly.
“May I come in?”
She entered without waiting for an answer, as if she had never intended to wait for permission.
She stood there, surveying the house, then said.
“You live more tidily than I expected.”
She immediately sat on the sofa.
“Um…”
Still half-asleep, I could think of nothing but a single dazed word.
To me, Piaje whispered softly.
“Prosecutor-nim, please put on clothes first.”
Ah, now that I thought about it, I was still in my underwear.
Thinking the visitor was Piaje, I had not even thought about getting dressed properly.
But the underwear was the least of my problems. There was something more unsettling.
“Minister.”
“Hm?”
“You can take off your shoes over there.”
I pointed at the small shelf in a corner of the living room with my finger.
I was a Korean to the core.
I couldn’t stand entering the house with shoes on.
* * *
I brushed my teeth.
My messy hair was roughly washed with water.
I changed clothes and came out to the living room.
Piaje, looking awkward, was staring out the window with his back turned.
Freida was still surveying the inside of the house.
I was about to boil water for tea when I took out the alcohol from the kitchen cabinet.
“Is alcohol all right?”
I asked as I set the glass on the living room table.
“…Mr. Blood, why are you sitting there?”
Freida asked in surprise.
“……?”
Ah, I had unconsciously leaned against the sofa and sat on the floor.
In this Gilorian Empire, a sight like this was hard to come by.
“I thought there weren’t enough chairs…”
I said, pretending to ignore Freida sitting alone on the six-person sofa.
“Mr. Blood seems to have a lot of interest in interior design. You live in a very unique structure.”
A square sofa filled one wall of the rectangular living room, facing a square magic stone TV.
Between them was a square table.
It was the ordinary, most ordinary living room of Korea.
But people who had lived in the Gilorian Empire would probably see even placing a sofa in the living room as a shocking arrangement.
They placed normal beds in the living room.
“Well… yes, that’s right.”
I couldn’t think of how to explain it, so I decided to become a person with a sensitive interior sense.
“Anyway, what business do you have here?”
She definitely hadn’t come without a reason.
Knowing my address, Piaje had led her here, so there must be an unavoidable matter.
“That is…”
Freida hesitated in a way that wasn’t like her.
Piaje’s gaze was flicking behind her.
“Please speak.”
I asked as I tilted the glass. Freida carefully opened her mouth.
“Um… it seems we need to prepare for the hearing.”
“A hearing?”
From what I knew, the prosecutor of the capital defense had attended a hearing only twice before.
One was when joining the imperial guard.
The other was attending as a defense before punishment.
“From above, they want to transfer Mr. Blood to the imperial guard. Before that, they want to confirm a few things about this incident.”
Freida’s eyes lowered as she muttered, and I realized she was touching both.
It didn’t matter to me.
* * *