Chapter 2
“AH. THANKS SO MUCH for waiting, Mira,” Julius said from the top of the grand staircase, several minutes later, bowing as soon as he recognized her.
“Oh. You must be her. Sorry to have kept you waiting,” said the man who’d appeared in front of her alongside Julius. As he spoke, a warm smile broke across his face.
This was surely the Chief Detective Wolf that Julius had spoken of. He had the strong build one would expect of a former adventurer, and his grizzled face matched his steely voice perfectly. Moreover, a keen intellect radiated from his striking eyes. His entire being gave off the impression of someone with both brains and brawn, a man whose guard was utterly impenetrable.
What surprised Mira the most was that he sat in a wheelchair. It didn’t look like the kind she’d often seen used in hospitals. Rather, it looked as if a rocking chair had been fixed to a frame with treaded tires.
Mira’s heart pounded as she finally looked at the famed detective whose arrival she’d anticipated. As his job title suggested, the man before her was essentially the archetypal detective in a rocking chair—at least in terms of appearance.
“A-ah! You must be Chief Detective Wolf. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you,” Mira replied, then stood up and basked in his steely, investigator-like presence.
The grand staircase stood before the chief detective, so Mira made to walk toward him.
“Oh dear. Would you mind waiting right there, Miss Mira?” the chief detective asked suddenly, bringing her to a halt.
“All right, but…” Needless to say, she didn’t have the heart to ask someone in a wheelchair to come down a flight of stairs.
Seeing her hesitation, the chief detective laughed as if nothing were the matter. “It’s only proper that I come to you. I was the one who asked to meet with you, after all.” Before he’d even finished speaking, he pushed his powerful body out of the wheelchair and stood.
“Whoa!” those around them gasped, observing the display of vigor in astonishment.
However, it didn’t seem like Chief Detective Wolf’s legs could quite match his spirit.
“Ngh!” the chief detective groaned before his knees buckled, his disability impeding him visibly. The commotion he’d created when he stood had yet to wane as he clung to the railing like a bedsheet hanging on a line.
A moment later, everyone watching cried out as the detective slid down the handrail as if it were a slide.
“Hngh!” He let out a sharp cry as he slipped off the end of the railing, landing with a thud in the middle of the lobby. As one might expect of a former adventurer, he sat up quickly and hushed the worried voices around him, assuring everyone that he was completely fine.
“Good heavens, I’m sorry you had to see that. I thought I’d almost recovered—but not quite yet, I suppose!” the chief detective said with a hearty laugh, still sitting in the middle of the floor.
Judging from that display, he hadn’t completely lost use of his legs.
“Ouch.” Wolf moved his legs slowly, then muttered with a grave look, “Have they gotten worse…?”
“They aren’t getting any better because you keep doing these kinds of things, Chief Detective. Haven’t the doctors and healers told you that the best thing to do is rest?” Julius complained with a sigh, making his way down the staircase with the wheelchair. From his unconcerned voice, Mira guessed that this might be an everyday occurrence.
“I certainly botched that one.” The chief detective smiled as he took Julius’s hand and eased himself back into the wheelchair.
When Mira saw his abashed smile, the strapping and intellectual image she’d had of him a moment earlier vanished. Suddenly, he came off as affable and charming.
“Hrmm… You took quite a spill. Are you sure you’re all right?” she asked, erring on the side of caution. As far as she could tell, he seemed totally fine, but she wanted to make sure.
“I apologize for making you worry. But, as you can see, I’m perfectly fine!” Wolf said, demonstrating that he was still perfectly capable of moving his entire body.
But hadn’t he groaned in pain while barely moving his legs a moment earlier? Perhaps that pain had already gone away?
A grin spread across Chief Detective Wolf’s face as he saw Mira’s puzzled look. She guessed that his wheelchair was imbued with some analgesic effect. That would explain why he’d smiled so pleasantly as soon as he sat down in it.
“Please take it easy,” Julius admonished the chief detective with quiet exasperation. While the chair’s analgesic effect masked the pain, he explained, it wouldn’t heal Wolf completely. If he kept overtaxing his body, it would never heal. Just how many times did the detective need to hear it?
“Yes, you’re right. But I’m fine now.” Having endured Julius’ wrath, the chief detective slouched slightly.
As she witnessed this exchange, Mira smiled sheepishly to herself over just how off the mark she’d been about Wolf. It seemed he wasn’t the gritty, hard-hitting detective that she’d imagined.
The guests watching around them broke out laughing. They weren’t doing so derisively; rather, they seemed in on the joke. Amid the laughter, the chief detective smiled abashedly.
“May I ask what happened to your legs? If it’s a small enough injury, my summoning magic might be able to heal it,” Mira said.
“Wow. Summoning magic can heal as well? It really is useful for everything,” the chief detective said with surprise. But he went on to admit that the injury wouldn’t be easy to heal. The pain was the lingering effect of an old wound that had forced him to retire from adventuring. Then the chief detective began to reflect on the magnificence of the battle in which he’d sustained that injury.
“If that injury really were nothing, it wouldn’t have flared up, right?” Julius interjected reproachfully as the chief detective regaled them with his heroic exploits.
Apparently, the current injury stemmed from a few days earlier, when the chief detective was attempting to determine Fuzzy Dice’s escape route. The phantom thief Fuzzy Dice always seemed to appear out of thin air. Then, after stealing whatever he was after, he’d leap onto a rooftop and escape.
That being the case, Wolf wanted to find out which escape route Fuzzy Dice would take here in Haxthausen. He figured that if he determined the route, it’d be easier to pursue the thief; he could also simply cut off his escape entirely.
The chief detective had hoped to get the jump on capturing Fuzzy Dice, so—fully convinced of this strategy—he’d apparently climbed to a rooftop to work out the escape route. Then he’d actually tried to follow the route he’d predicted to see whether it was viable. Just like Fuzzy Dice, he’d leapt from rooftop to rooftop.
“And here we are,” Julius sighed, glancing at the chief detective. Sure enough, Wolf had ended up falling off one of the roofs.
Some people in this world had exceptional physical prowess. Aaron, whom Mira had worked with in the past, could land perfectly after falling ten yards. Judging by how muscular the chief detective was, he was no slouch when it came to training either. Perhaps he just hadn’t been able to stick the landing.
When Mira questioned him further, he related crashing straight through someone’s roof and waking up in a daze. Thanks to a healer who’d happened to be nearby, his wounds were fully healed. However, since he’d worked his body too hard, some old wounds had flared up. Now he had no choice but to use a wheelchair.
Healing magic could treat lots of different wounds, but it wasn’t a panacea. It couldn’t heal long-term injuries. That was also true of the healing that Mira was capable of.
“Hrmm. So that’s the problem. That’s a tough one…” she muttered.
Since she possessed enough skill to have become one of the Nine Wise Men, Mira could use higher-level restorative techniques than most healers. Still, none were effective on long-term injuries. Even if such injuries healed, they’d still leave a mark. That would have held true even if the healer in question had been Artesia.
“See, Chief Detective? Before you worry about manners, I think it’s a better idea to simply accept any assistance that’s kindly offered to you. If not, you’ll end up in a situation like this, where you’ve made someone worry about you unnecessarily,” Julius said in response to Mira’s dejected reply.
“Hmph…”
If Wolf had just recognized Mira’s concern and let her come to him, he never would’ve fallen down the stairs and caused all the onlookers to worry about his legs. In the end, he’d just made everyone more concerned about him.
As Julius continued to lecture him, the chief detective hunched his shoulders more and more. “By the way, since they call you the Spirit Queen, you must have pretty close relationships with spirits. I wonder…do you, by any chance, have the blessing of one of those elusive light spirits?” he asked in a bald-faced attempt to change the subject.
Behind him, Julius smiled wryly.
Mira, on the other hand, proudly answered, “But of course. I have all the main blessings a summoner can get!”
Since doing so was one of the specialties of summoners, Mira had linked with a variety of spirits, including at least one of every basic element. And now she had the illustrious Spirit King’s blessing. Since she possessed that, not many enemies could stand against her.
“That comes as a surprise as well. But I suppose I should’ve expected it, since you’re the Spirit Queen.”
Mira had been referring to the main blessings. Each corresponded to one of the eight basic elements, and receiving blessings from all of them was no small feat. Everyone knew that only a mage as powerful as one of the famed Nine Wise Men could do that. Thus, the chief detective was genuinely astonished and impressed; this young lady greatly exceeded his expectations.
“By the way, are you a fan of sweets, Miss Mira? The pancakes here are exquisite.” Flashing a satisfied smile, Wolf pointed to a restaurant attached to the lobby.
“Hrmm. Pancakes, huh?” Mira gave him a vigorous nod in confirmation. “I certainly don’t dislike them!”
“Then what’re we doing standing here talking?” the chief detective asked before deftly wheeling himself toward the restaurant.
Accepting his invitation, Mira trailed cheerfully behind him. That ended the brief exchange they’d begun when the chief detective flew down the stairs. Unbeknownst to either, though, they’d caused quite a scene.
“I apologize for the disturbance,” Julius said quickly on their behalf, then followed Mira and the chief detective.
As one might’ve expected of a hotel with the word “baron” in its name, the restaurant was decorated so lavishly that no other restaurant could hope to compete. It almost felt too glamorous.
As soon as she stepped in, Mira heard people chatting. About half seemed to be complaining about the chief detective. They talked about how the phantom thief was on the side of justice, trying to shed light on the crimes of villains who hid in the shadows, while the detective was attempting to help those very villains! They seemed to consider the chief detective an antagonist.
However, Wolf paid them no mind. Julius must’ve heard the chitchat as well, but also betrayed no reaction. The pair actually looked quite confident, so Mira stopped worrying and began looking around the restaurant.
“This place is pretty…gaudy, huh?”
It was fair to say that it was rather overdecorated. It certainly looked luxurious, but Mira wondered how practical it was.
As she pondered this, the chief detective explained the entire hotel’s theme. According to him, the Baron Hotel looked luxurious on the surface, but it wasn’t truly a first-class hotel. It was the kind of place where someone could get a taste of living like a king for a reasonable amount of money, so it emphasized making everything appear opulent.
“But don’t let the décor fool you. The food here is the real deal,” the chief detective declared over the other customers’ voices as they walked deeper into the dining area.
Mira got the impression that the guests and staff were smirking at them as they passed, but she pretended not to notice. They arrived at a seat near a window, outside of which sprawled a well-maintained garden.
“While there aren’t any brilliant roses, king’s dipper orchids, or other flowers a noble might have, they’ve created something on par with any aristocrat’s garden with tender love and care. You may not be born extraordinary, but you can become extraordinary. That’s how I feel when I look at this garden,” the chief detective abruptly murmured as he looked outside.
Mira got the sense that this seat was a favorite spot of his. She wondered whether he was attached to it for some reason.
Just as that thought crossed her mind, the chief detective looked at one point in particular. Following his gaze, she saw a staff member tending the garden. Given the nature of the work, the employee’s sleeves were rolled up, and her skirt was slightly hiked. The small amount of extra skin she had exposed was rather alluring.
The draw of the chief detective’s spot suddenly seemed pretty lowbrow. Inside, Mira shook her head, but she had to agree; it was a fantastic seat. And while it was obvious that the chief detective was staring at the woman in the garden, Mira appeared to be a young girl simply admiring the pretty flowers.
“Take a look at the menu, Mira.” Julius placed a menu gently in her hand, then turned to the chief detective and warned, “I’ll tell your wife.”
Wolf quickly snatched a menu from Julius and opened it up. Judging from his panicked look, Mira guessed that his wife must run a tight ship. But she was surprised that the chief detective wasn’t a bachelor.
“Wait. So you’re married, Chief Detective? I’d assumed otherwise, since you’re always running all over chasing the phantom thief.”
Visibly uncomfortable at Mira’s honest assessment, the chief detective shifted his gaze and quietly muttered, “I have a daughter too.” He explained that he’d left the house where his family awaited him after swearing that he wouldn’t return until he captured Fuzzy Dice.
“Well, I suppose there are some things a man just can’t back down from,” Mira said.
She wasn’t sure if he was justified in doing so, but she could attest that there were hills that men were willing to die on. She had her doubts about Wolf as a husband and father, but his belief in his cause was clear to her.
“Wow. This is the first time a woman’s understood,” he replied with a mixture of surprise and glee. Evidently, other women had said a few choice words to him about his oath.
The three continued chatting as they browsed their menus. In the end, they all ordered different pancakes.
“I’m glad you came along, Mira. If you hadn’t, we couldn’t have ordered these so shamelessly.” Julius’s comment was half a joke, but he also genuinely meant it.
The chief detective apparently also liked sweets, so occasionally the two ordered desserts like this. Unfortunately, even the people of this world passed judgment on an affable young man and a gruff ex-adventurer simply eating dessert together.
This time, however, Mira was around to make the whole thing less of a spectacle. Regardless of who she truly was, she appeared simply to be a young girl who liked sweets.
Since Mira did enjoy desserts as well, she began thinking that this worked very much in her favor. In the real world, she, Solomon, and Luminaria had once gone to an all-you-can-eat cake buffet that Kagura—a college student at the time—had recommended. The three of them huddling in a corner, eating cake, surrounded entirely by girls, was a memory that still haunted Mira. If only they’d had just a single girl with them back then.
“In that case, feel free to invite me along whenever,” she casually suggested to Julius, knowing his pain full well.
Julius replied gleefully that he’d take her up on the offer. Looking at his smile, Mira wondered if he could just as easily have found a girl or two to tag along with him simply by asking. But that would be asking him to become a heartbreaker. Good-looking heartbreakers were unfortunately the bane of most guys’ existences, so Mira gingerly pushed the thought away.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login