"Life is quite bitter, don't you think? That is why I like my coffee sweet," the man known as Dex dropped two ice cubes into his coffee and began to stir with a stirrer. The line was actually enough to make Houren turn red, as he could vaguely recall saying something similar to someone not very long ago; now that he heard those words coming from this man's deluded mouth, he could only think of how stupid he must have sounded back then. But it was normal, he supposed, to look back on old memories and be very ashamed because of something you might have said or done. Dex, known around town as the zany detective continued his musings about life, mentioning the many crimes that he had managed to solve thus far, but complaining that no matter what he did, or how many 'criminals' he put behind bars, it was never enough. This world would never be free from injustice, and as such, he would never be allowed to rest, although that was the one thing he wanted to do more than anything else. Houren wanted to make a comment about taking a room up in the local madhouse, but ultimately decided against it, when he remembered their previous ordeal down by the river with that blue orb of light; Houren had yet to receive any message from Dacol Lubex was to what it had been, and that was primarily one of the reasons why he had accepted this request from Dex.

He began to eyeball Houren a little bit and murmured something under his breath along the lines of ''is this really the guy I hired?''. After asking some nonsensical questions that were incredibly subjective in nature, Dex seemed satisfied to accept Houren as the person that he had contacted to shadow him and to become his successor should anything happen to him, because he was pretty certain that there was a shadowy organization out there that was interested in taking his life. Houren had his doubts about that though. He sipped the rest of his coffee, mentioned that he was now investigating a murder and ordered Houren to come along with him during his investigation. Immediately after they left the coffeehouse, Dex began to eyeball one of the people who was walking towards them and just before he could pass them, Dex was all in his face, cross examining him as though he were a judge talking to a defendant who had already been convicted and was just being given a trial for show.

"You did it, didn't you? Just admit it and we might give you some time off your sentence!" he was incredibly forceful in the way that he spoke, and had this entire encounter taken place in a more courtly seting, and Houren was unaware that Dex was more or less a completely deluded individual, he might actually have been fooled into thinking that this fool was some sort of lawyer or judge. Of course, they were not in a court right now, they were outside a coffeehouse and hew as shouting like a public and personal nuisance rather than a judge of the law. The innocent man continued to deny it, but Dex was relentless as he insisted that this person was the culprit. When he did not admit his guilt, Dex began to repeat quickly in an incredibly annoying voice. 'Where were you on the night of the 15th? Where were you on the night of the 15th? wherewereyouonthenightofthe15th????" it was so bad that eventually the man simply walked away but Dex shrugged and turned to Houren with a bemused look on his face.

"It looks like it wasn't him?" Dex said, as he went over to interrogate a dog that was taking a leak on a nearby fire hydrant. Of course, the animal had much less patience for Dex's antics than a high functioning human being and promptly decided to finish its pee on Dex's shoe before skipping off happily into the distance. The phony detective inspected his shoe and said that he would take this ''yellowish'' substance back to his lab for testing, before asking Houren as to whether that would be a good idea or not.

The Fairy Tail mage decided that it would be best if he just played along with the man's delusion for now. "I think that would be best. Perhaps it will help us identify the culprit in this murder case?" Houren asked, but Dex simply tutted and said that things were never, ever that easy. In that moment, Houren regretted having made the choice to actually conform and play along with the man's charade. Still, Houren saw something in the man, a sort of happiness that he was actually being acknowledged as a detective instead of a wacky guy, and that made Houren's resolve even stronger; he would play along with this man's fantasies no matter how deluded they became, simply because there was a certain amount of pity there. Besides, this guy was paying him, so why crush his dreams without good cause? Dex seemed like he really wanted an apprentice he could teach and nurture, and Houren was being paid to play that role, so it would have been better for everybody involved if he simply stuck to it.

He just had to think of this farce as a play, where every man has a role to play. If he thought about it like this, then he could easily allow someone like Dex talk down to him, by believing truly that this guy was some sort of maestro when it came to deductive reasoning. By the end of the day, Dex seemed so pleased with himself that he didn't actually want things to end. Once the clock chimed for midnight though, he knew that there as nothing more that he could do, and paid Houren for his service. He didn't break character even once though, and mentioned something about reporting at a certain time tomorrow for more lessons. Houren simply laughed and wished Dex a good night.

1015/1000