Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume 18 - Chapter 9.1

Chapter 9:

The Case of the Jerky Thief

THE INCIDENT TOOK PLACE ten days prior, as the rainy season began in the Doldia Village. Someone had murdered—err, wait, this isn’t a detective novel. I mean, someone stole some dried Rainforest Lizard meat the village had stored for later consumption. Naturally, the warriors conducted an immediate investigation. There was only one suspect: a female warrior named Pursena Adoldia.

Pursena was the daughter of the Adoldia tribe’s chief, and she had only returned to the village about six months ago. She’d come back as an accomplished graduate of the Ranoa University of Magic and promptly announced to everyone, “As a candidate for future matriarch of our people, I have returned to fulfill my duty! By the way, Linia is a big loser.” And thus, she entered the Doldia Tribe’s militia.

The matriarch is the person at the apex of the hierarchy of the Doldia tribes, which included the Dedoldia and the Adoldia. You didn’t earn that kind of position simply by wanting it. You needed adequate strength and the trust of the other warriors, and it was also necessary to earn the position of warrior chief before the reigning patriarch stepped down.

Pursena had both the talent and accomplished history to ascend to the position of warrior chief except for one small issue: she’d left the village before she could enter the militia’s ranks and had spent over a decade away. She wasn’t accustomed to being a part of the community. That was why the current chief and patriarch, Gyes, had agreed to let her train for the position. Once she was competent at her work in the village, and had memorized all the scents and faces of the other members, she would be promoted to warrior chief. From there, she could someday earn herself the title of matriarch. You could call it an elite induction course.

Since Pursena knew high-level healing magic, she earned the other warriors’ respect in no time. Gyes was satisfied with her progress. Once the rainy season was over, he planned to have her marry, then he would promote her to warrior chief.

That, sadly, was when the incident occurred.

The night the food was stolen, Pursena was on duty in front of their provisions storehouse. It was packed full in preparation for the upcoming rainy season, and at night, they always had a group of two keeping an eye on the place.

The person working alongside Pursena at the time was another Adoldian warrior by the name of Kanaluna. Unfortunately, Kanaluna she was feeling ill that day. The day before, she’d been hurt fighting one of the many beasts that appeared in these parts, and the wound had festered without proper treatment. Kanaluna had claimed it was nothing to worry about, but the person working the afternoon shift before her attested, “During the shift change, her face was white as a sheet.”

As was proper for an upcoming matriarch, Pursena told her, “Go home and rest. I’ll take care of things here.” Kanaluna did as she was told and slipped into the nap room to catch a few winks. She only intended to rest her eyes for a little while, but she was out like a light—perhaps because her body needed the extra sleep to heal itself.

Early the following morning, a single warrior arrived at the storehouse for the shift change. But when he got there, he noticed that one of the guards who should have been present was nowhere to be seen. Thinking it suspicious, he looked inside the storehouse, only to find someone had broken in and ravaged the place, devouring things left and right. But that wasn’t all—Pursena was in there with crumbs all over her face, happily snoring away, having filled her belly.

Pursena was arrested on the spot for her crime. In the Doldia Village, food theft during the rainy season was a serious crime. Whatever trust she’d built up with the other warriors evaporated, and her chances at becoming warrior chief—let alone matriarch—were obliterated. 

Anyway, that was how she ended up in the slammer.

“Someone came up behind me that day and decked me in the head, knocking me clean out. The next thing I knew, I was inside the storehouse,” claimed Pursena. “Someone framed me, the sick bastard! Boss, I’m begging you. Search for the real criminal! I’ll bet there was someone out there who didn’t want me becoming the matriarch. Minitona and Tersena seem the most suspicious, if you ask me!”

She huffed, adding, “And anyway, none of it makes any sense. I’d never be stupid enough to get caught that quickly if I was really behind the theft. It would be too obvious, especially after I sent Kanaluna home. I wouldn’t pig out like that, either—I’d swipe stuff little by little so no one found me out!”

She was insistent about her innocence. I could say from my first impression of them—and from personal experience—that the beastfolk were skilled at wrongly accusing people. If Pursena really was innocent, then I wanted to help her. 

I decided to do a little investigating.

The Doldia Village was a mix of Dedoldians and Adoldians. Since its primary duty was to look after and protect the Sacred Beast, many of its inhabitants were in the militia, but there also were many married couples and children since they raised their young here. It was a pretty large settlement of about five hundred people, all living atop the trees. 

Since the land below them flooded completely during the rainy season, they were more like an island in the middle of a continent. This made it exceedingly unlikely that the culprit was an outsider. There couldn’t be many out there who could navigate these stormy waters like I could.

If we assumed that Pursena was telling the truth, then the most likely explanation was that someone here had framed her. So with the help of my trusty assistant Watson and police inspector Gyes, I set about gathering evidence and testimony from witnesses.

“And there you have it,” I said. “Let’s get going, Watson.”

Linia tilted her head. “Who’s this Watson, mew?”

“That’s you, Linia. There’s a certain country out there where people call their assistant Watson,” I explained.

“Uh, okay…”

Gyes seemed to have no problems being given the title of police inspector, but despite that indulgence, he did sigh as if he thought this whole thing was an exercise in futility.