Kojiro crossed his arms as he entered the holding cell. The incident reported near Ataraxia Guild had occurred a few hours ago. The party, Memento Mori, had been placed in police custody and an investigation was currently going on. He sighed as he stopped outside of a large cell.

“You’ve generated a lot of paperwork for me, Em,” he said.

Embla looked up from her chair and gave him a tired smile. “How long are we going to be in here for? We did just kill someone but we didn’t exactly have much of a choice.”

“I know. I saw the reports and the eyewitness testimonies. All of them are in favor of you but we need to run this investigation.” Kojiro sighed and placed his arms by his side.

“Are you going to pay our bail?” Embla asked.

“No, Lady Eschamali is coming over here to pay your bails. You’re all part of this investigation but in the interest of maintaining order, the Sages have decided to continue the tournament as planned which means that…”

“Mom is coming here to free us,” Yuki said, looking at the Knight Grandmaster.

Kojiro merely nodded in response. “She’ll be here in a few hours so you five might want to get comfortable.”

“Wait!” Red said.

“What is it?” he asked.

“William. When he transformed, that wasn’t Beastification. That was something else. He drank something that turned him into it,” Red said.

“I’ll look into it but we have nothing resembling a bottle or vial. Your statement matches that of some adventurers that were exiting the guild during that fight. William took out something from his pocket and appeared to drink from it. This was before he used a knife to attack you five,” Kojiro replied. “I’ll send you word of any updates and Embla.”

“Yeah?” she answered.

“Lord Antares and Lady Altarf are pleased with your progress. They said good job,” Kojiro said.

Embla’s eyes widened a little before smiling. “Tell them that they’ll see me steal victories from every other competitor.”

Kojiro smiled and nodded. He said no more and left the holding cell of the precinct.

----------------------------------------

The party quietly walked out of the precinct, following Mizore closely. Yuki was at the head of the group and was right on her mother’s heels. The Empress of Alfheim spared them no glance and continued walking. The air was ripe with tension and weighed down heavily upon the other members. It was clear to them that just having Mizore and Yuki in close proximity with one another was enough to create this tense situation.

Yuki stared at her mother’s back as they walked. Her eyes were filled with turmoil and confusion. Despite denying it, there was a part of her that was happy to see her mother once more. But that part was overshadowed by her anger and confusion. She opened her mouth to speak but her mother had cut her off.

“Before you say anything, don’t thank me. I was merely getting you and Red out of jail. Your other teammates are of no consequence and are lucky to have been there,” Mizore said.

“Wow… rude,” Pandora whispered.

“I think she can hear us,” Cal said.

Pandora looked towards Mizore and saw a lone piercing blue eye looking directly at her. She squeaked in fright as she moved behind Embla. Embla shivered as she stared into Mizore’s eye. It was like being caught in the gaze of a powerful predator or being standing in front of an impending storm.

“Yuki, I question your choice of friends,” Mizore said.

“They’re the only friends I have that you can question. I didn’t have many friends my age growing up because of you and Dad,” Yuki retorted.

“We never barred you from making friends,” Mizore said.

“Yeah, because anyone in Alfheim can enter the Imperial Summit as they please or think that they can befriend Australis and Eschamali’s daughter. Or maybe handle the fact that my mother, the Empress, is currently breathing down their necks,” Yuki said.

“I told you before that I didn’t do anything to him,” Mizore said, massaging her temples.

“Whatever. We can get home from here. We need to get some rest for the tournament,” Yuki said as she stopped.

Mizore stopped walking after hearing her daughter’s steps come to a stop. She turned around and gazed at her daughter with some longing in her eyes. After a few second stare-off between Mizore and Yuki, Mizore nodded and turned around. As she was about to leave, she said something that caught Yuki off-guard.

“Whenever you’re free, come have some tea with me where I’m staying,” Mizore said.

“Y- Yeah,” Yuki said, watching her mother walk off.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“I can’t believe that Eschamali of all people bailed us out of jail. Having Yuki in the party can be pretty handy sometimes,” Pandora said.

“Yeah. Watching the family drama unfold was kind of tense,” Embla said.

“So what now?” Cal asked. “Sir Kojiro said that law enforcement was investigating our crimes to determine whether we’d be held responsible for William’s death. Celestia hasn’t reached out to us so we don’t know how they’ve reacted. I’m sure that they’ve seen it already though, right?”

“With newspapers and surveillance crystals to record things, I doubt there’s anyone in this city other than us that’s heard this before,” Embla said. “But come on guys, I’m tired. We just beat that monster that used to be William. Why can’t we just relax and do some light training before the tournament starts.”

“Fine, fine. I guess we could. It’s not like we have much to do at the moment. Everything is being handled by law enforcement and the military police,” Red said.

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“Sir Kojiro.”

Kojiro jumped at the mention of his name. He turned around to see Mizore and Samuel standing behind him. He sighed and breathed a sigh of relief. He was sure that Embla would have followed him back to the scene of the crime.

“Am I interrupting something?” Mizore asked, tilting her head in confusion.

“No, I was just combing over the place where Embla and the others were the day of the attack. I need to find the link between those things and what Embla and the others fought,” Kojiro said.

“Unfortunately, with all this damage done, I doubt we’d be able to find even a single drop,” Samuel said.

“It’s not the drop of the serum we’re looking for.”

The three turned around to see Valentina walking towards them. She had a small glass vial in her hand filled with a thick black ooze. The three narrowed their eyes as she held it out for them to inspect. “Draugr blood.”

“Are you sure it’s not oil?” Kojiro asked.

“Hmm. I’m positive. It’s found in all the places where the draugr crashed during its fight with Em’s party. Not to mention that it has the same viscosity and weight as draugr blood,” Valentina said. She swirled the vial around a little. Her blue eyes drifted from the vial to Mizore. “Your Highness, it appears that this is the work of the same people who supplied the Idunn serum through your Health Minister three years ago.”

Mizore’s eyes narrowed. A pale white aura manifested around her as her immense mana became visible. “You’re saying that the culprits are here?”

Valentina nodded. “Though, we never got a glimpse of their appearances three years ago, the pattern of which this is starting is similar to the one back then. The only differing factor is that the Draugrism isn’t spreading through the populace. This is a focused attempt. And this isn’t the first incident I’ve investigated this week.”

“Not the first?” Samuel asked.

Kojiro nodded. “Valentina and I have been working over the past few days since the tournament started. A majority of the losing fighters have all vanished at around the same time as sightings of ‘monsters’ were spotted across the city,” he said, making air quotes with his fingers to emphasize the monsters. “We just didn’t expect it to be Draugr. We’ve already lost a good number of civvies on the first two days and we’ve managed to keep the crisis under wraps. Families were told that it was an attack from a magical beast.”

“People will start asking questions if the Grandmaster is personally investigating,” Mizore said.

“That’s why Valentina is doing it for me. No one knows that she’s back in the city yet except for me and I have yet to finish processing her paperwork,” Kojiro replied.

“In addition, I can move around more freely than Koji here for now. News of my return hasn’t been disclosed yet to the other members of the military so until then, I’m good,” Valentina said. “I’ll have more time to move around when the tournament restarts. The more we know about this the better. William’s draugrization actually provided us with good intel. Now, all we need is a who.”

“We’ll leave this to you then, little Val,” Samuel said.

Valentina felt an inkling of annoyance at the mention of her childhood nickname but bit down a retort. She nodded. Kojiro and Valentina stood there as the two sages turned around and began to leave.

“So when are you going to publish your report? Don’t you want to see Em after all these years?” Kojiro asked.

Valentina gripped the hem of her uniform and looked down at the ground. Kojiro raised an eyebrow. His eyes had caught the minute trembling that wracked her entire body. After a few seconds of silence, she sighed and raised her head.

“I’m scared,” Valentina said.

“Scared?” Kojiro raised an eyebrow in confusion. “I thought publishing that report would be the first thing you did after getting back.”

“I know but… what if she hates me for leaving her after all these years? What if she doesn’t want to see me? What if…”

“Val, you’ll be fine. She’s a big girl. She read your letter. From what I’ve seen, she understands what you’re doing,” Kojiro said, placing a hand on her shoulder. The tension in her body evaporated just a little as her breathing calmed down.

“Koji, she’s so big now. My little baby sister is all grown up and I was never there to see it. I have so much to catch up on. Things that you didn’t mention in your letters. Things that she went through,” Valentina said.

“Then publish your report and go see her. After I file it away, you’ll officially be back on normal duty and no longer need to maintain your cover as Askr,” Kojiro said.

Valentina smiled softly. “So I guess I can leave this situation to you?”

Kojiro nodded. His smile was the only answer she needed. Valentina jumped on Kojiro, wrapping him in a tight hug. “Thanks! You’re the best! I’m going to head out now and go finish my report. You! Over there!” Valentina called out to a random officer.

The soldier stiffened and ran over. He saluted the two, ignoring the fact that the Valkyria was wrapped around the Einherjar.

“Did you need anything, Ma’am?” the soldier asked.

Valentina got off Kojiro and dusted herself off. She straightened her shoulder cape and coughed into her hand. Her eyes hardened as she stared into the eyes of her subordinate.

“I want you to brief the Grandmaster on everything we’ve found so far. Something has come up that needs my attention so he will be taking over this investigation for the time being. Understood?” Valentina said.

“Yes, Ma’am!” the soldier said.

“Kojiro, I’ll see you later. Azalea has dinner covered tonight?” she asked, glancing at him.

“It’s the only way you’ll show up,” Kojiro said with a blank expression. Valentina loved his wife’s cooking. However, she ran for the hills whenever he mentioned that he would be cooking. It was something that he learned to live with being her best friend for the past decade.

“I’ll see you later. I’m sure you’ll have everything handled and shoved into the closet by the time I’m done,” Valentina said. She patted him on the back and walked off, determined to finish her report so that she could reunite with her younger sister.