“Commissioner Arrietti,” Commissioner Arrietti spoke to himself, weighing the words with his tongue. He was sitting in his office with only his desk lamp providing light. The sun had fallen, leaving the room with only a halo of light around his desk. He was looking down at the mock-up business card he had specially made the prior day. “First Responder of Kharon.”

It was truly a cool title for a Class. One he was quite proud of, despite the… difficulty in the transition process. Setting the business card down on his desk, Arrietti leaned back and released a sigh. Still though, he knew the act of making these business cards was useless; how often was he in a situation where he would be able to hand out business cards? People around Kharon simply recognized him on sight. Those who weren’t from Kharon saw his Kharon Police uniform with all the stripes and commendations and leapt to their own, probably accurate, conclusions about who he was.

He was a man who did not inspire the least bit of curiosity in an onlooker. It was honestly quite depressing. Especially when he had finally found a part of himself that was so idiosyncratic.

It would probably be a bit too much to get my office’s nameplate changed to say Commissioner, First Responder of Kharon… Arrietti thought as he rubbed his chin. Then he released another explosive sigh and let his body sag backward into his comfortable leather chair. What it should say is Commissioner Arrietti, 51, eternal bachelor…

The man who inspires no curiosity in the opposite sex...

This troublesome train of thought had started earlier today. In the day-long break between the rounds of the duos tournament, Kharon had hosted its first random selection of representatives. The police force and the Order Ducis had been working tirelessly through the night and early morning in order to make sure that nothing went awry with this first election. They had carefully monitored the surging flow of individuals coming in an out of the city, looking for anything suspicious.

Riding high on the capabilities of his new Class, Arrietti had been a man possessed. When he wasn’t apprehending someone for questioning, he was hurrying across the city to intercept someone else. His new Skills related to Kharon gave him subtle tip-offs when rogue elements entered the city. Combined with his growing sensitivity toward images, the representative selection had gone off without a hitch.

Well, that wasn’t exactly true. As Tatiana had feared, a foreign business owner had attempted to have themselves nominated as a representative, even though they weren’t a citizen of Kharon. Luckily, Kharon’s image had reacted almost immediately with a powerful wave of hostility. With the support of the crowd, the new Kharon Council had passed a few laws regarding who could sit on the Council, and also a security value in that removing a Council member required an affirmative vote from 70% of Kharon’s population.

Just like that, things were back on track for the Wandering City. The council excitedly began deciding their itinerary for the next two months. But in the wake of the political excitement, Commissioner Arrietti had been looking forward to finally having the break that he deserved. He had walked through the busy thoroughfares around the arena, waiting to receive one last report before he clocked out for the day. And when he walked around the corner to the agreed-upon meeting place with Derek Moss…

...He found Derek Moss locked in a gentle embrace with Gertrude Collins. Needless to say, their mouths were touching.

Commissioner Arrietti froze. He wanted to look at anything else, but the place they had chosen was the service delivery side of the food court. At this time of day, it was completely deserted. There was a broken wooden pallet a few meters behind the couple, but focusing on that made them just vague, seething blobs in the foreground of his vision. That made it almost worse.

Et tu, Moss…? The First Responder of Kharon eventually couldn’t stand anymore and turned to walk briskly away. His slightly frazzled brain decided he would walk around the food court once or twice, looking for any suspicious activity, and then come back. Hopefully at that point, this… public display will have ceased and they could speak professionally without any distractions. Which was the way that police officers should be.

Not that Derek is a police officer. But this lack of professionalism is certainly…. Ahem. Commissioner Arrietti had coughed lightly into his hand and glanced around at the people chatting happily about the tournament bracket. Although there weren’t any matches today, it seemed people were out in force just to enjoy a meal and soak in the festive atmosphere.

As Arrietti walked around, most of the discussion he overheard centered on the fact that most people believed the side with Alana and Hank was much stronger than the other portion. But overall, it seemed that most people were quite happy with how the tournament had gone.

Gradually, Commissioner Arrietti’s eyes had narrowed as he walked around. The more he looked… the more he realized that there were small signs of affection everywhere that he looked. A woman with her hand on the arm of the man next to her. A man nudging the man next to him with his elbow, exchanging a heavy glance and a secret smile. Two cats scampering excitedly underneath a funnel cake stall.

And then, right in front of him-

“If you don’t like it, pull your hand away,” Delilah announced, dragging the Moss boy confidently behind her.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

The Moss boy rolled his eyes. “How many Strength Stat points do you have anyway? I don’t think I could overpower you even if I wanted to.”

“A lady never tells. Ohoho” Delilah laughed exaggeratedly, hiding her mouth behind her extremely small hand. Then the two walked away, laughing and joking. Commissioner Arrietti could only reach up and wipe a small tear from his eye.

Of course, the kid probably didn’t think of their involvement as romantic at all; there was too much age difference between them. Yet wouldn’t this someday be the base setting of a heartwarming romantic comedy? In comparison, Arrietti’s recent interactions…

I’m swimming in professional respect, Arrietti said to himself in an attempt to inject some cheer, but what did that really matter? The more he thought about, the more he realized how much work had consumed him for the past several months. So he had staggered around the food court like a zombie, met an obnoxiously cheery Derek Moss for the report, and then returned to his office to consider the problem. Yet the more he thought about it, the more depressed Arrietti became.

I am lonely. He couldn’t deny it any longer. And everyone always said that you don’t look for love, it comes and finds you. But he had been working tirelessly to make Kharon a great city and during that time love had conspicuously given him the cold shoulder. Even worse, Arrietti felt like there was nothing that he could do about it now; after working so hard for so long, he wasn’t even sure how he would go about trying to meet someone.

In addition, Arrietti understood that his current attitude was the wrong one to have. If he wanted to change his situation, he needed to first adjust his attitude. With a grimace, he stood from his comfortable chair and walked to the cabinet along the far long. He took one second to drag a finger across the beautifully stained wood and then opened the door to his private liquor supply. He should not seek out companionship just for companionship’s sake… he should wait for the right person to appear and then turn his attention gradually to a relationship. But dammit, he had been waiting for so long-

Commissioner Arrietti’s eyelid twitched. His bottles of liquor were empty. He carefully shut the cabinet door. Was it Wolfram…?

“A walk,” Arrietti announced to the room. “I’ll take a walk. The greatest skill a man can learn in the pursuit of a mate is legwork. Never stop walking.”

No one answered his pronouncement; there was no one in the room to here his pearls of wisdom. He could have said anything at all and nothing would have changed with the lack of answer he received. When no one heard, no one would ever respond. That feeling of powerlessness stung.

The feeling of being adrift grew stronger.

With his sadness steadily deepening, Arrietti took his coat off the hanger and slipped into the heavy wool garment. He actually liked this coat quite a bit. The bottom was quite long, but buttoning it made him feel vaguely like a private eye. Which, his sour mood was quick to point out, was the sexy version of a police officer.

It also was so heavy that if he closed his eyes, he could just image that its weight on his shoulders was a lover’s arms. Needless to say, that thought very quickly turned sour as well.

Releasing a deep sigh, Arrietti swept out of the precinct. Fellow officers that were finishing up their shift or writing up reports stood at attention and nodded to him as he passed by them. Obviously this was a show of respect, but it only served as a display that made Arrietti more bitter. The space between him as Commissioner and the average officer couldn’t be more clear.

Then he was out the door. Luckily, the cold wind of the outside world blew away Arrietti’s mood. In a way, the implacable seasons were reassuring. It wasn’t currently snowing, but the steely sky above Kharon made it seem like that lack of precipitation wouldn’t last much longer. He pulled up his collar and put his hands deep within his pockets, fishing out his expensive leather gloves.

Then he strode purposefully through Kharon’s streets, wondering where he was going on this walk.

Thankfully, his feet eventually answered that question simply by virtue of continuing to carry him forward even while his mind was elsewhere. So as he considered his limp prospects of meeting new people, he arrived at the residential district of Kharon. Then he kept walking past the tall apartment buildings into the wealthy section along the edge of the city, which currently provided great views of the Orchard below.

The street ended rather abruptly, and there was a small, sloped park along Kharon’s edge. Two people sat hunched over a stone table on the left side of the park, but otherwise, the area was completely deserted. The speed of his strides slowed, but Arrietti quickly made it right up to the edge. He carefully positioned his toes flush with the sharp drop off. The wind whistled past him, warning him of the great expanse below.

Arrietti breathed in and then breathed out, released a lung full of air that was cloudy with the cold. He could just barely make out the shapes of people below, walking through the different pathways that had been constructed for the tournament. Farther to the South, Arrietti could see the construction crews putting glass panes up in the windows of the new development, in preparation for people to begin to move into the area. His eyes automatically followed their methodical assemblage of the building.

Sometimes it felt like witnessing something allowed him to be part of it.

The day was turning to evening and the light from the sun peeking between the clouds was perfectly angled to reflect off of the completed windows. They glowed golden, like the eyes of a cat at night. So for a while, Arrietti stood and watched as these workers gradually heaved the glass upward and opened the eyes of this massive apartment monster, one by one.

Arrietti shook himself as a bout of laughter from the couple at the stone table woke him from his strange trance. As he had suspected, the cold and the exercise did a lot to alleviate his dreariness. In fact, he was starting to feel better already. Even though that couple-

Wait… I recognize these voices… Commissioner Arrietti thought, glancing over his shoulder. Then his eyes widened.

“A good game,” Huang Shou said with a small smile on his face.

Miranda Hamilton shrugged her shoulders. “I lost.”

“Few can lose with such grace,” Huang Shou consoled, but from his tone it was clear that he took immense pleasure in his victory. Even to Arrietti’s eyes, he was quite self-satisfied. “Shall we play again?”

“Of course. The game of life is long… and really, I suspect I only have to win once in order to shatter your smug attitude,” Mrs. Hamilton began to grumble toward the end of her sentence, but overall… the feel between the two of them was slightly…

The corners of Arrietti’s mouth sagged downward as he turned and began to walk back toward his empty apartment.