It was actually funny that neither Haru nor Akira had come to Era before since the day they joined the Rune Knights, and yet, they have been promoted twice already. While they did officialise most things in Crocus before the mini-war at the capital, it still required them to be present at the Headquarters for the ceremonial traditions. Despite it being a shorter journey compared to the several others the duo had undertook, the one-day walk towards the mountain from the capital and then the trek uphill was a lot more tiring than usual.

“You think I’m growing old already?” the nineteen-year-old healer asked his partner, with no hint of sarcasm, as he panted for breath. Thankfully, they had reached the top of the mountain and the headquarters was now in full vicinity. “At least we made it…” he added, as the view took away what little breath he had. The buildings on the valley looked like toys from where they stood and a faint silhouette of a large building adorned at the horizon, which couldn’t be anything but the Mercurius.

As he stood there admiring the view, Haru heard rushed footsteps behind him. He turned to see who it was and found a rather pale looking Rune Knight messenger. “Please! You must come immediately,” he said urgently without any further explanation. As usual, Haru didn’t ask why or what, but nodded and followed the man, eager to help.

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The red-headed swordsman was rather surprised at the philosophically deep response he got for his question. “True!” was all he could say to that. But on a more serious note, he nodded very approvingly to her suggestion of adding trekking to their every day routine. Even if they aren’t near a mountain, there were always stairs to climb.

The messenger took the duo straight towards a restaurant, and even opened the door for them to enter. Haru smiled and thanked him before entering. The inside was a lot more crowded than one would have expected. There were several Rune Knights, surrounding a rather shifty looking bunch of suspects. The teal-haired middle-aged Lieutenant, who seemed to be in-charge there, quickly walked up to the duo and offered his hand for a shake. “Lieutenant Marin. You two must be Akira and Hatsuharu,” he said, nodding. Before either of them could ask the man how they knew of them, he would go on and speak urgently in hushed whispers.

Taking the two away from the suspects, he spoke as softly as he could. “Listen… I know you guys are here for your promotion ceremony. But I’m desperate here. A child is missing and these guys are the culprits. Can’t glean any info out of them because they know my men too well. Maybe you two will have better luck? Help me out here,” he said. The lieutenant was sweating even though the temperature on top of the hill was much lower than normal. It was a clear sign that he really was desperate. Of course, Haru did not need to know that to say yes. “Of course Sir,” he said, all too eager to help.

The lieutenant smiled at the two and immediately ordered his men to exit the restaurant. “I’ll leave you two alone with the suspects,” he said, walking out with his men.

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Interrogation wasn’t the red-headed Knight’s strong suit. He wasn’t good at asking questions, let alone ask them in intimidatingly enough for the suspects to give up any information. He could attempt being friendly, so at least the ones who actually didn’t commit the crime and are innocent could feel a little comfortable and share their alibis. He watched as the Rune Knight squad washed their hands off and walked out of the restaurant, leaving the two newcomers to deal with investigating the case. Haru did not exhibit any sign of displeasure, for he knew the culprit could pick up on it and use the little friction between the Knights to their advantage. Instead, he smiled softly and walked up to the five of them.

First and foremost, he needed to apologize to those who might be innocent among the five. “I apologize to those of you who had nothing to do with the child missing, but are stuck here. But I hope you can cooperate for the sake of the safety of the child,” he said. And without waiting long for any of them to respond, he quickly added a “Thank you!” Clearing his throat, he looked at each of the five suspects in front of him.

The five of them couldn’t have been any different from one another. An oblivious old man, an upset young woman, an extremely cooperative young man, a suspicious old woman, and a very shifty young man stood in front of the duo. Haru wasn’t a veteran investigator to look for their body language and guess who the culprit might be. So, he chose to go the more conventional way. Turning towards the old man, he spoke politely, “Sir! Why do you think you are a suspect? Did you meet any young girl this morning?”

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The polite Knight paused for a good few seconds, waiting for the old man to respond, but he got nothing from him. Not even an acknowledgement that he was being addressed. But it would soon be brought to his attention that the old man was hard of hearing, which explained why he seemed so oblivious to his surroundings. “Ah!” Haru said, realizing why he got no response. The eager young man began talking loudly, repeating the healer’s question, but was shut down pretty quickly by Akira.

Haru was glad Akira took over, frankly. He had no idea how to interrogate and these guys seemed like a rather odd bunch. He simply nodded and sat beside her, but was surprised when she said she wanted to order food first. Again, despite his reservations against it, he did not wish to have an argument about it in front of the suspects. So, he sighed softly and called for the waiter. The typical pretty, blonde waiter walked up to them a broad smile and awaited their order. Haru shook his head and pointed at Akira, showing that he was not interested in eating right then.

While the waiter noted down Akira’s order, the suspects began introducing themselves as demanded. “Kevin,” said the eager young one before the rest could even make up their mind as to whether they wanted to give their name. After a long pause, Kevin turned towards the old nearly deaf man, waved his hand in front of him and yelled, “NAME!” The old man squinted his eyes at the two Rune Knights, like that was going to help his hearing and spoke unintelligibly. It sounded like the old man said his name was ‘shit’. “Sorry… What?” Haru asked, truly curious. “Sid, I believe,” Kevin clarified. The other three way too wary to even utter a word; it would seem they needed more prodding.

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The waitress stood way too close to Haru than necessary. So much that he kind of had to move closer towards his partner, almost sitting hip-to-hip with her. “What will you have, handsome?” the waitress asked Haru in a very flirty tone. The embarrassed healer buried his face into the menu, making it seem like he was having a hard time trying to choose what he wanted, but he was barely reading the menu and was mostly concerned about remembering to breathe. Assuming the young man needed help choosing, the waitress bent and began pointing at some of her personal favourites, recommending him to pick one of them. With her face and curves that up close, it was rather difficult to keep his eyes on the menu.

In all this, he had completely missed the interrogation that was still going on and was only brought back to reality when Akira asked if he made a decision as to what he wanted to eat. “Umm… Yeah, this,” he said, randomly pointing at a dish on the list. If Akira saw what he chose carefully, she would immediately see it was a meat dish, which should raise a red flag as the man was a strict vegetarian. If she pointed it out to him, he would smile a little nervously and pick a vegetarian one.

When the order was given and the waitress finally left his side after gracing her fingers ‘accidentally’ across his scarred cheek, Haru would return his attention to the suspects. “I’m sorry… What did you say your name was?” he asked. The lady was only more annoyed that she had to repeat herself and retreated further into her defensive stance. “This is police brutality,” she exaggerated, scaring the poor healer.

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Since Akira didn’t notice what he picked, the waitress noted down the original order and walked away; it would be quite a surprise to the healer when he actually gets his order. After ordering, it was time to get to business. A girl was missing and he can’t possibly be sitting around eating leisurely. For some reason, his partner seemed rather patient with the suspects. While Haru could understand that they were unhappy about being suspected, if it was true that the girl was kidnapped, then someone must have done it and it was their duty as civilians to cooperate. The healer frowned at the woman who refused to give her name and spoke in an authoritative tone, which was a rarity.

“I’m sorry! Do you think we are playing games here? A small child is missing and we need to find her as soon as possible. If you guys don’t cooperate, I will charge you with obstruction of justice even if you had not done the crime,” he said, the crease between his brows deepening with every word he uttered. The woman tried her best to not show any expression of fear, but it was obvious that she was rattled. “Selena,” she muttered, finally giving in.

Then he turned to Marco, who was way too keen on leaving the restaurant. “What’s the hurry? Is it you? Did you kidnap the girl?” Haru asked, rather bluntly. The shifty looking man’s eyes widened. “No! NO! I never saw any girl since the morning. I swear,” he said, shaking his head violently.

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The healer wasn’t fond of having a weapon on the table to intimidate them, but he didn’t mind the effect it had on the five. All of them, including the old man, straightened up a bit and seemed more willing to answer their questions. Once the duo finally knew all the suspects’ names, it was time to make them spill what they knew. Thankfully, at least one of them was eager enough to talk; but according to Haru, he talked too much and half of the things he said was irrelevant.

Kevin began telling stories about how he had witnessed each and every one of the other suspects with the missing girl, but none of his stories were consistent when asked to repeat the details. Haru found it extremely suspicious that in every version of his story he was always the most noble character, while one of the other four the culprits. Whenever he insinuated that someone was the kidnapper, they began retaliating and it started to become a loud argument where everyone spoke and no one understood the other. The healer had to stand up and bang his hand on the table several times to make them stop.

The only person who never spoke was the old man, but that was probably because he never heard anything well. Haru turned his attention to the oblivious man and asked his version of the story, talking a little loudly so that the man could hear him.

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The entire interrogation seemed useless and Haru almost gave up. If the madness went on for any longer, he would have probably just walked out and began searching the whole town for the missing girl. Maybe his partner sensed his impatience, she finally asked everyone to stop talking and came up with a more reasonable plan. The blonde waitress was called again and Haru felt her hand rest on his shoulder gently as she responded. This was very new and odd to the healer; thanks to the big scar he had on his face, he seldom attracted the attention of any girl.

Thankfully, she was dismissed rather quickly, and the entire bunch stayed quiet until the blonde came back with a bunch papers and few pencils. She also brought in whatever Akira and Haru had ordered, and much to his surprise a plate with a meat dish was place in front of the healer. His eyes widened and he looked up at the waitress. “I ordered this?” he asked. “Yes, honey! And you are gonna love it,” she said, smiling even wider. “Umm… Thanks!” he replied, smiling nervously. There was no way he was going to eat that, but he didn’t want to make the lady sad.

The waitress walked away, leaving the Rune Knights to eat and deal with their business. Haru pushed his plate to the side and handed the papers to Kevin, asking him to distribute it to the rest along with the pencils. The five of them began writing, some thinking a lot and some not so much. The healer noticed that the waitress was watching him and so began playing with his food to avoid any confrontation.

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Haru was extremely grateful for the thoughtful gesture from his partner. She must have realized he had accidentally ordered something he didn’t intend on and gave him her vegetarian dish. He was actually surprised she ordered vegetarian, considering how much the girl liked her meat. “Thanks,” he muttered, hoping the blonde waitress had not witnessed the exchange. But no such luck; she saw the entire thing, frowned at him, and walked away from where she stood, into the kitchen, rather dramatically.

The healer shook his head and took a bite out of his dish while Akira ordered the five suspects to go somewhere else while they wrote their alibis down. Haru couldn’t believe how long they took to write down their activities since morning. He was half way through his food when he saw Kevin peek into what the others were writing and he lost it. “HEY!” he yelled at him, and the eager boy slinked back into his seat like nothing happened.

A good ten minutes went by and not one of them came to them saying they were done. To top it off, Akira’s question made him wonder if any of these men were even worth investigating. If he knew the Knights well, they had the habit of catching anyone and everyone to make it seem like they are doing work. So, realizing there was no point to this exercise, he got off the chair and stormed out of the restaurant. “I’ll be back,” he said.

He hoped to find the Captain who set them to this task, but there was no one in the vicinity. Did they just ditch us into a goose chase? he wondered. Just as he was about to go back in, he heard a faint cry. Walking towards the source of the sound, he realized it got louder and louder as he made his way towards the alleys at the back of the restaurant. Turning around a corner, he found a small girl standing in the middle of the alley, crying. He had a feeling what this entire thing was all about. Rushing to the girl, he quickly took her up in his arms and tried consoling her. Soon, she settled down and just a few simple questions revealed that it was the girl who was supposedly kidnapped, but in reality, she was just lost.

Shaking his head, he took the girl towards the restaurant. As he was about to enter, he saw the captain and his men rush towards him. “Oh there she is! Where did you find her?” the captain asked. “She was just lost in the back alleys. No one kidnapped her,” Haru said, a little annoyed. The captain laughed embarrassedly and took the girl from him. It was apparent that he did not wish for the five supposed suspects inside to know of this embarrassing information. He quickly peeked into the restaurant while keeping the girl away from everyone’s vicinity and ask Akira to come out. “Thank you both! We’ll take care of it from here,” he said, handing them their reward. Haru rolled his eyes and walked off.

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-Exit-