Side Story:
Under the Wrinkled Nose
In the Capital of Valatrocitus, just outside of the slums, stands a man drenched in the rough morning rain. He stands under the front door canopy, struggling to light his cigarette, glancing up at the guards staring at him from across the street. Horses rush through the mud, as well as the ground dragons and large wolves pulling carriages, creating a loud variation of noises that irritates hum. He struggles to light his match, as everything is damp, but when he can light it, the strong wind blows it out. After another strong gust of wind, his bowler hat blows away, so he’s forced to step back into the rain to catch it.
As he does this, the second he stands in the road, he is almost run over by the horses. He steps back, slipping in the mud beneath him, coating his pinstripe suit in the disgusting sludge. Aggravated, he kicks the building behind him, smashing the bricks in. He then steps back under the canopy, still waiting. While he’s distracted, an older man holds a flame crystal right up to the cigarette dangling from his lips, finally lighting it. He’s confused, but quickly realizes his identity.
He had a fading head of white hair, small reading glasses, a thin split mustache, and a long black coat paired with a small umbrella. So he greeted the old man.
“Oh, sorry I didn’t realize it was you. Um…they call you the inspector right?”
The older man chuckles, responding in a kind and warm manner.
Inspector: “Yes that’s correct. Arthur Williams used to refer to me as a detective, but I’ve always liked Inspector more.”
The inspector pushes past the other man, rummaging through his pocket to pull out a key ring full of miscellaneous keys all the same size and color, a shining silver. As he unlocks and opens the door, he leads the other man into his pitch-black building. As he turns the lights on, the man begins to look around. It’s like a small library, with jars filled with body parts and animal parts placed on shelves and filled with a green liquid. This, along with whatever’s in the back room, creates a disgusting smell, resulting in the man plugging his nose.
Inspector: “Alright, so if I may ask, is Chester correct? Chester Humphrey of the Montgomery Company?”
The man, Chester, takes off his bowler hat, brushes back his reddish brown hair, scratches his sideburns, and smirks with his stained teeth.
Chester: “You would be correct, though with Rupert being placed in questioning, I don’t know If I’ll be with the Company for long, as it may not exist.”
Inspector: ‘Hm, we’ll have to see. And I apologize for the smell, they also call me the doctor of death you know? But a mortician is much closer to what I am.”
The inspector leads Chester into the back room, revealing it to be a small morgue with only one covered body in it. He leads him to the table holding the body, taking his coat off and replacing it with a pure white apron.
Chester: “Do I have to be doing this? The royal guards, dragon army, whatever you wanna call em’, sent me down here because they think I’m involved with Rupert's mess.”
Inspector: “You are, or where Rupert's right hand? You know how important that man is, how much he owns, what he’s doing, what he’s done.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Chester: “I promise you, I’m not.”
The Inspector takes Chester's cigarette, puts it out, and gets him to wash his hands. Chester obliges and then assists the Inspector in putting on his gloves.
Inspector: “Well if you’re not, then I won’t have to worry about ever feeling a bit of suspicion while you’re under this year-long investigation. Now, will you assist me while I try to see what happened to this young boy here?”
The Inspector takes the cloth off of the table, revealing the dead body of a young boy. His skin is chard, and whatever isn’t is gray and scaly. His hair is a deep black, and his bones are crushed to pieces. The smell that waves over the both of them alone should make anyone vomit, as well as the sight of the body may make somebody pass out, but both Chester and the Inspector aren't phased.
Inspector: “You seem to have a rather tough stomach do you not?”
Chester: “I’m kinda used to this stuff, I used to live on the street before Rupert picked me up. I mean, as the great Inspector, you should know this right?”
Inspector: “As the “Great Inspector” as you’ve kindly addressed me does know this, he also knows that most of Rupert's followers are of similar origin as well. Orson, the bear Demi-human, you know him well, yes?”
Chester: “Of course, we all called him Rupert's left-hand man. What about him?”
The inspector begins feeling the broken bones in the boy's body. He then grabs a knife from behind him, cutting open bits of the skin.
Inspector: “Well the same figure who left Rupert to the guard also gave them the location where he was found. Underneath one of his factories, in your name, no doubt was a rail system that I found to have been made from five years to a decade ago. Valatrocitus only got the new train system last November. In such a train station, miles down it, we found two trains and a few cars that were left behind. Inside one was a bloodbath, with the injured Orson inside, and the other was a bit further up, burnt and destroyed. And then, just a little bit further up, was this boy lying inside.”
Chester: “Damn? Under my building?”
Chester's bald-faced lie could be seen through the simplest of people, such simplicity may force people more intertwined with human emotion to think a bit more about it. “Is this a joke?” “Can I not understand his rhetoric, tone, dialect, or if he’s telling the truth?” All things that Chester figured would go through the Inspector's mind when he used such a sarcastic tone. But, the Inspector being as strange as he is, pays no attention to Chester's thoughtless words and continues inspecting the body.
Inspector: “His bones have been crushed in a manner resulting from blunt force, but the way the force hit him and then expelled to the rest of his body, wouldn’t result from a weapon. It could have been a small weapon being swung by a strong man or Demi-human, but I feel that it’s unlikely. What is likely, is that it was a result of a punch or kick, though the angle at which the force was distributed would force me to believe it was a kick.”
Chester: “You are good at this. But who could that have been?”
Inspector: “Yes I wonder, but you may know something about kicks right? As you’re the brother of the famous sailer Blaze are you not? So hopefully we can find out why this young boy was killed in such a way. It could be an error on my part, but I’ve never failed in any case. I’ve been at this for as long as I can remember, so this is just another step on the road.”
The Inspector is an odd subject, as he’s truly recognized and accepted like no other subject. When you kill him he returns, when you need him he appears, and all he works toward is learning and the good for man. Chester was a person who already exuded the aura of a person who would look at you and spit in your eye, so it wasn’t going to look good if he was against him.
Chester: “Look, I know I have to be here, but I don't know about all of this.”
Inspector: “I didn’t say you had to. I will be placing most of my current jobs on hold to fully open your case and expand Ruperts. I wanted to look at everything about all of it!”
Chester: “Hmp…Okay?”
Inspector: “So, continue living, just now you’ll have an eye over your back.”
Chester was surprised but thankful. In the next moment he was outside in the rain and calling a carriage, rushing away with a smile on his face. Sadly he found he was out of cigarettes though, but he always made sure to keep an extra in his sock. Grabbing it and lighting it he puffed and laughed.
Chester {Too easy. Hardest part of my day is gonna have to be gettin’ another pack, not this old man.}
Inspector: “Really now?”
Chester: “EH!?”
Jumping up and screaming was not the look Chester was used to showing off. The Inspector, noticing Chester dropped his cigarette, also noticed that it rolled through a small hole in the carriage and into the rainy street.
Chester: “SHIT!”
Somehow The Inspector had appeared and nothing had changed; he wanted to be there and there he was. Chester sat up angry and came to understand just what he was having to deal with for the next year.
Inspector: “I don’t have anything out for you. This is nothing work!”
Chester: “Yeah…yeah…”
After his attempt to uproot Rupert from his operation and take control of Valatrocitus, as well as the world's underworld, he was left completely distraught with absolutely everything. Bitter sweet as a start to a long and painful year he’s going to experience.