Neighbors Are Better Liked The Less Seen
Millim Takki Atsa dragged Dirant, socially and not physically even though her Battler Muscle surely sufficed for such a maneuver, into a side room that displayed the furs of beasts Hewwikke Satvo Sau had probably not hunted. “More likely these were gifts from patrons of hopeful authors,” Takki guessed.
“Is that how . . .” Dirant caught himself. The Todelk milieu included a large number of daughters receptive toward jabs against their fathers, it was true. Even so, he knew to refrain from Todelk habits when it came to matters such as speaking respectfully to his supervisor. Perhaps he had another circumstance of that sort before him. “Is the publishing industry in Pavvu Omme Os run in that fashion? I must admit to knowing nothing of that world even within my own country.”
“Everything used to be run that way. There's nothing wrong with holding onto a few traditions in the modern age, if they're sensible. But don't you think there's something wrong in this house?” She peered at his face, which was an effort in itself given their relative heights.
“Is it your expectation I will agree with your fervent insistence on investigating the matter of the false report? I do.” Takki relaxed and smiled. “Our host is either to be made a victim or is else the perpetrator, and in either case it is a guest's obligation to act to preserve his reputation. That is to say nothing of the obligation we share to frustrate criminals when convenient, though if there is some otherworldly cause is behind this occurrence, convenience must be far out of reach.”
“I'm glad I wasn't mistaken about the attitude you would take, Mr. Dirant. The only edit I want to make is that there's no way the culprit is otherworldly.”
“What is the evidence pointing to that?”
“It's the modern era.”
“Ah. And so?”
“The rest goes without saying.” Takki had already departed the conversation in spirit. She hopped, squatted, swayed, and stretched one leg nearly straight up while she pondered the mystery and her proper course. Perhaps Ommes stored their brains in their feet. “Our options are limited. We will must tell the suspects to show their status so we can be sure none of them has some class possibly relevant to the scheme such as, well, you know the ones, don't you?”
From the way she almost tipped over during that last sentence, even a recent acquaintance could detect some anxiety, and an acquaintance who happened to be a Ritualist no doubt had a hunch what sort of class she had in mind. “It may be that I am an authority on one of them. As to the others, what are they? Not Battler, I presume.”
“Oh, no. Battlers uncover the truths of the world. Everyone knows that.” She was back to her comfortable one-legged contemplation.
Dirant attempted some exercises of his own in case they might help him anticipate the philosophical jumps his warden was making. “Up until now, the consensus so far as I knew it categorized Battler as a class that excelled in physical confrontations.”
“That part usually comes after the truth is uncovered. There's always someone who doesn't like it.”
Dirant concluded the calisthenics thing worked, since that claim sounded plausible enough to him. “Then, are there undesirable classes aside from Ritualist, or?”
“I didn't say undesirable, did I? If I did, it was unintentional. My Adaban is only Intermediate, but I'm working on it. Ritualist is an excellent, praiseworthy, elite class, as are Reciter, Symbol Knight, Distorter, and Subjugator.” Sincerity shone from Takki's honest face, and Dirant liked being categorized as elite, so any ill-feeling was avoided.
“Ah. Subjugator, you say?”
“Yes. This scheme probably required at least two people to pull off, and nobody is better at running a conspiracy than a Subjugator. Unless you know of one? I might be missing a few. Right. The other first step, we have two feet after all, will must be to ask everyone what his motive is. The reason for that,” she hurried on before Dirant could doubt her intelligence, “is to compare their answers against ours in order to ascertain what they think is worth hiding and what's worth admitting. It's a test of their, um, the way they think of themselves or rather how they believe others see them.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“Image?”
“That's it!”
“I see. And what of physical evidence?”
“I saved the report before Hewwikke burned it. That's about all we can hope to gather before we question the servants, don't you think? We're still on step zero, so let's not get antsy.”
“I will try,” Dirant promised, and with that they started the investigation of the suspects.
Takki opted to question the least-promising people first in the hopes of a startling revelation that would turn the entire case on its head, those being Oppo Imlakke Pau and Silapobenk Rikelta in her opinion. Dirant agreed with her choices and agreed even more with the idea of watching somebody order his eldest brother to flash his class, so much so that his walk had almost as much vim as hers despite his inferior physical stats.
The first interrogation ended up including an unexpected bonus on account of a discussion about currency conversion the Stadeskosken representative was carrying on with Hewwikke Satvo Sau, a man interested in both sides of the border. An important yet not pressing subject which Millim Takki Atsa felt less compunction about breaking up than all the bones of adversaries she presumably had broken or would break during her Battler career, if she did not go into popular history.
“We're curious about your status,” she said in both Adaban and Usse. “Just the capital, if you don't mind.”
“Many are.” Hewwikke flashed his with a smile.
Colorist
Priest of Dwai
LV 24 894/1000
The banker shrugged in clear apathy toward his own stats or what others thought about them. He already had money and professional respect quite apart from them, after all.
Warm Body
Priest of Nifk
LV 21 70/1000
Silone watched all that with the discomfort of a student sure he will soon be called upon to read a passage in some famous literary work, One Mile Past That for example, and thereby reveal his accent he never believed to be embarrassing before his father took a better job in a different state. He glanced at this brother, who tilted his head a moment to indicate he might as well. So he did.
Pinpointer
Priest of Vkit
LV 23 210/1000
“I really appreciate your cooperation.” Takki curtsied to back up her statement with physical evidence as well as verbal. “Next we'll gather up some less concrete information. What would your motive for the crime be, if you had one? I'm not saying you do, of course.”
“You'd better not, even if you are Takki's daughter,” Hewwikke warned.
Imlakke cooperated so far as the Adabans could tell, but in a subdued tone accompanied by apologetic body language. Takki thanked him and reported the only motive he could conjecture was an impulse to act out during his vacation away from his professional responsibilities which included conducting himself with appropriate gravity at all times.
“That's the best he can do, as much as he wants to help us. I believe what he says, even if I may not be the judge of character our host is.” Takki was able to say that without the hint of mockery Dirant or Silapobenk would have either added or been thought to add by dint of a large body of precedent.
“You're making good progress though,” Hewwikke assured her. “Not toward solving this prank, which isn't worth solving anyway, but you might become a judge. Although.” He had been speaking from a sense of amused tolerance, but his latest thought inspired in him the sort of solemnity bankers usually displayed. “A Tiger Knight. He crosses the country investigating crimes alongside his comic relief tiger sidekick. I'd better get someone to write that serial right away.”
“Oh!” Takki almost bounced in place as she said something or other in Usse. Hewwikke laughed, and from the way he looked at Dirant, the latter got the feeling he had just been likened to the proposed tiger. He kept the accusation silent until he could gather more evidence to support his position when he confronted the culprit.
When Takki asked again for Hewwikke to supply a motive, he instead continued elaborating on his Tiger Knight detective idea. The same problem impeded her interrogation of Silapobenk as well.
“Dirant, answer Miss . . . answer Takki for me while I listen. This premise interests me. We may steal it.”
“It is a privilege for me to do so.” Dirant addressed the interrogator. “His motive is simple in concept. By discrediting Kekket Ittame, he creates an opportunity. Whether the intent of is to compete with that company or to tender an offer for the firm as a whole in order to convert it into a local imprint of Stadeskosken's own publishing wing so as to avoid anti-Adaban sentiment may not be determined at this time.”
“That makes a lot of sense,” Takki said.
Silapobenk interjected without diverting his attention from Kekket Ittame's owner, who by then was pretending to write a thrilling tale on an imaginary aerial page. “You would be doing me a kindness to explain what doesn't make sense about it, Dirant.”
“That is well understood. The advantage Stadeskosken brings to matters such as this is the magnitude of its resources. It would be a simple matter for Mr. Silapobenk to print up thousands of fake publications complete with Kekket Ittame trade dress and distribute them all over this town, or rather the entire country. By the time Hewwikke cleared up the doubts around the fakes, the controversy would already have damaged his reputation. Compared to that, what is the use of releasing a single copy in the intended victim's own home where he is best able to suppress the scandal?”
“Very convincing. Mr. Dirant, are you sure you haven't done this before? Pardon us, gentlemen. The investigation continues.”