The two of them leave Lord Fujioka's office, the guards following closely behind.
They make their way through the streets of the capital until they reach the investigation bureau.
When they enter, the first thing they see is a young man behind a desk, reading something that was placed on it.
"Good day, do you wish to report a crime, provide any evidence or…"
The man stopped talking as he looked up, seeing Lord Fujioka.
"You."
Said the man.
"Yes, me."
Said Lord Fujioka.
Reiji's expression turned into a confused one.
"You two know each other?"
"Yes, he wants to know too much."
The man behind the desk answered, referring to Lord Fujioka.
"I need to know about the collapsed court."
"The investigation is still ongoing."
Said the man behind the desk in a swift manner, looking back down at the papers on his desk.
"I'll pay for whatever you know."
"Ugh, follow me."
The man rang a bell on his desk, and a young woman came shortly after, sitting behind the same desk as the young man left with Reiji and Lord Fujioka.
The guards also followed them.
They walked through multiple hallways and down an endless number of stairs before they reached a certain room.
"Your guards cannot come."
Said the man, causing Lord Fujioka to signal for them to guard the door.
The room they entered was filled with rows of shelves and a desk in the middle with candles on it.
There were a lot of papers on the desk.
The man walked up to the desk, picked up some papers and handed them to Lord Fujioka.
Lord Fujioka read through the papers.
They were eyewitness reports made by on sight investigators.
"We know that it was definitely an explosion that happened about 40 minutes ago. The whole building went down in seconds."
Lord Fujioka looked up with a surprised expression that turned into slight terror.
"No dead bodies have been recovered, yet. We don't know who did it or why."
"That's enough, how much?"
Asked Lord Fujioka in a hurried manner, taking out his wallet.
"One gold coin for each of you."
Lord Fujioka sighed and gave the young man two gold coins.
"Now go, if anyone sees us, I'm fired on the spot."
Said the young man.
As Lord Fujioka and Reiji were about to leave, Lord Fujioka stops and turns towards the young man.
"One more thing. Have there been any unexplainable deaths in the area?"
Asked Lord Fujioka.
"For another golden coin I'll spill all mysterious deaths all around the kingdom."
Lord Fujioka walked back to the man and handed him another gold coin.
"Your services are expensive; I might have to file a complaint."
Lord Fujioka joked.
"Knowledge is power, I'm being generous for not charging you four in total because of him."
Said the young man, pointing at Reiji.
As the two of them walked to where classified death reports were, Reiji had a look around.
He took a candle and calmly walked in between the shelves, grabbing a random scroll and opening it.
PORT SABOTAGES
Those two words were written at the top of the paper Reiji grabbed.
With the current border arrangement, this kingdom, Solindrath, is landlocked, which forced us to buy ports in the neighbouring kingdom of Estravar. The frequency of sabotages of these ports has gotten to the point that importing goods from overseas has been cancelled.
"This looks like it has been written by a single person."
Muttered Reiji to himself while he read the text.
These sabotages were arranged by the Estravar queen herself, robbing us of our capital. The king is aware of this fact and has made it clear that the public will not be informed about the cancellation. Taking action could ultimately lead to a war.
Reiji saw that the text he read was just a fraction of what was written but since he didn't care that much, he rolled it up and put the scroll back where he found it.
I guess the new type of danger oldy was talking about is other people.
Reiji thought to himself before walking over to where Lord Fujioka and the young man were, putting the candle down along the way.
"You guys done already?"
Asked Reiji.
"That should be all of the reports. They're kind of recent but we get interesting information everyday so I doubt anyone will notice that they're missing."
Said the young man.
"Thank you."
Said Lord Fujioka before walking to the door with Reiji and leaving.
The man stood there for a moment before leaving as well, locking the door behind him.
When he got back to his desk there was no sign of Lord Fujioka, the guards or Reiji.
"Back to the office?"
Asked Reiji as they walked through the streets.
"Yes."
Answered Lord Fujioka.
As they got to the entrance of the building Lord Fujioka stopped Reiji.
"Just so I don't happen to waste your time."
Lord Fujioka handed Reiji a paper from the stack of papers he was holding.
"What's this?"
Asked Reiji.
"It's where you'll now be going to investigate."
Reiji read the paper before looking back at Lord Fujioka.
"So, the village of Hollowmere in the northeast? How will I even get there?"
Asked Reiji.
"The carriage will take you outside of the walls and little ways further before dropping you off. I'll give you a map."
"Wait, why won't it just take me there? And I'll need a survival knife too."
Reiji asked.
"Because, I have to visit certain people. You lived in the wild for years, didn't you?"
"...Fine, but I want a gold coin if I come back with any injuries."
Said Reiji.
"That's a deal. I'll go get the coachman."
Said Lord Fujioka before entering the building.
He looked like he died inside when that guy said the building collapsed about 40 minutes ago. I know you're hiding something.
Reiji thought to himself while waiting for the coachman.
After a moment the coachman arrived, and Lord Fujioka handed Reiji a map and a survival knife.
"I hope everything goes well."
Said Lord Fujioka before Reiji got into the carriage.
"Where to?"
Asked the coachman.
"As far as you can take me beyond the north gate."
Answered Reiji while looking at the map.
The carriage started moving and Reiji realized he probably should change into his red, sleeveless kimono and red pants.
He opened a compartment under the seat and found his red clothing.
He shamelessly put it on, not caring that anyone might see his naked form.
He put the survival knife in between his obi and kimono.
He then folded the suit up best to his ability and put it into the compartment under the seat.
Much better.
The carriage got through the north gate and a little way beyond it before the coachman stopped it and Reiji stepped out onto the side of the road.
"Come back in one piece."
Said the coachman before riding off, probably going to make a loop around on the road so he could return to the capital.
"Silly me, thinking that I would live a different life."
Said Reiji before looking at the map and starting to walk to his destination.