The room smelled horrible, as should be expected. The Rorin policemen stood in the corner of the room, one had his nose wrinkled in disgust.

A body laid on the table in front. Deceased. Hadwyn could tell from the paleness of the skin and the bloated chest from trapped air, but more obviously, from the victim’s punched-in face.

“Leave us.” Hadwyn ordered, and they left just like that, leaving Hadwyn alone with the body.

He too wrinkled his nose, what a day. The case had been immediately determined as aggravated SVS assault. It was unknown, however, what degree of murder it was. Not much was really documented on Curt. He was level 14 when he died. Hadwyn had to assume he had gotten into trouble with another hero and ultimately paid the price.

He had already come to the conclusion on the way there that it was, most likely aggravated. But what Hadwyn felt suspicious of, was the fact that there was zero knowledge of who committed it. Summoned, even local or low level ones, had a profile built for them automatically. Curt’s partner was Nick, so Nick was a big suspect. But nothing was confirmed.

Hadwyn grimaced. That fact reminded him that a few years ago, the AFHA lost the right to access hero guild or government affiliated profiles. The right to manage profiles and the information contained in the profiles, was reserved only for the said guild they belonged to.

This made it a whole lot harder, as the AFHA seemed to be the only responsible one for incidents like these. Hadwyn didn’t really know what methods the Iron Legion, Common Adventurers Guild, or other big guilds used to solve problems like this, but he had a strong suspicion that they either persecute a person who fit a description they saw as suspicious, or that they simply swept it under the rug.

Personally, Hadwyn didn’t care. He had gotten used to ignorance of first gens, and he discovered that they were just all a bunch of immature, entitled brats. Every time he heard a story like this happen, like it did every so often in the wasteland, he would wipe an invisible tear and move on. Call it generationalism, but Hadwyn couldn’t recall the last time a violent act had been perpetuated by a second gen or below. Now, one might assume because of his opinions, that Hadwyn was a second gen himself.

But contrary to what most believed, Hadwyn was actually a first generation Aldarian, It had only added to his resentment towards the irreverent actions of the Aldarians who he once found himself surrounded with.

He remembered his first party, a group of people who only sought materialistic and shallow things, they often fought and complained, yet stayed together because they were the only thing that they knew. It was only when he refused, and tried to change the way they did things, that he was kicked out of the party. He quickly found himself on the street, hopping from one gig to the next. The bubble he had been living in up until that moment popped, and he found himself afraid and alienated from the world around him. The guild was merciless, as soon as he was no longer a member, they forgot he even existed.

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It was Teresa who pulled him out the hole of alienation from everyone else.

He remembered seeing her walking around the street. Occasionally, when he wasn’t looking, she would drop a whole bag of copper into his hat. Eventually, she came up and offered him a job at the AFHA.

Hadwyn had grown to like his job, not love, just like it. It made him feel like he was doing good, and not just running around for cheap glory.

Anyways, he let his mind wander far too much. He had helped the AFHA make a statement before any guild did.

A fresh blast of air hit him as he opened the door. The first thing he noticed was that Kela was nowhere to be seen. He approached one of the officers standing outside the building.

“Where did she go?” He asked.

The officer pointed towards the dock. “Right around there.”

Hadwyn thanked the officer and headed towards the area. He spotted Kela standing next to a fisherman.

She ran towards when she saw him. The fisherman grunted and tried to grab her shoulder. He whispered something to her while she returned to Hadwyn.

“We just found another body!” Kela said. She looked visibly disturbed but also proud at the same time.

The fisherman threw up his hands. “You said you were alone! Now you're bringin’ another!”

“Show me.”

Kela strode to the body, which was in a boat tethered to a dock.

It was Nick.

“Wha- what?” Hadwyn stuttered.

“Oh, I didn’t find it, I had help.” Kela patted the fisherman’s shoulder. The fisherman grumbled. “Don’t get me involved. I only told you about it.”

“Where did you find it?” Hadwyn pressed, “What’s your name too?”

“Jarvis. And I didn’t find the body, It just washed up and I didn’t know what to do.” Jarvis replied, wiping his nose.

Hadwyn leaned over the body. He ran his fingers across the head of Nick. He had no need to clean his hands, any effects washed away in the river.

“Kela, tell the officers what happened and return to HQ. I’ll meet you there in a bit.”

“Sir Hadwyn?”

“Yes?”

“Did I get the job?”

He pondered for a moment.

“Yes.”

With that, she sprinted away.

“This river?” Hadwyn asked Jarvis.

“Yes, it was.”

Hadwyn followed the stream with his eyes, resting on the waterfall near the cliff’s edge. He opened up his map.

“Am I in any trouble?” Jarvis asked.

“Not unless you killed him.” Hadwyn replied.