55 Extra 5: The Aftermath

I love it when the army comes back to the city. They order food from every restaurant and diner in the city, so there is a lot of preparation work that needs to be done, and also a mountain of things to clean up afterwards. Eatery owners want to be able to open their stores the next day, so on days like these they are very willing to pay bonus wages.

"Hey, we need you."

I've been washing dishes for hours now. All the dirty dishes, pots, and pans from every restaurant and diner was moved to one single location to speed up the cleaning process. There are a couple of others sorting out which item belongs to which establishment, so my only job is to stay in one place, do some repetitive stuff, and get paid twice as much as normal.

"You're needed right now."

My regular job pays very little, so I have to wash dishes as part time work in order to make ends meet. I thought that my colleagues at my daytime job would laugh at me at first, but it turns out almost all of them also worked some odd jobs on the side in order to earn some extra money. We've asked for a bigger budget several times before, but were told that maintaining the army was too costly for them to fund the city's services more.

"Sir, are you listening?"

Someone suddenly waved his hand in front of my face.

"Huh? What? Is something the matter?"

"Sir, you need to come with me right now."

"Why?"

"An urgent case just happened."

"Eh, I'm sure that could wait until the morning."

"No, I'm afraid that can't wait. You have to go now, sir."

"But I don't want to! They pay me almost twice as much just for washing dishes!"

"They city council will give you a full day's wage as a bonus if you go handle the case right now."

"Full day's wage? Why didn't you say so sooner? Come on, show me the way!"

"…Right. Follow me, sir."

I am Jigu, Mitana city's chief of police by day, and part-time odd job worker by night. I'm curious about what kind of case would be considered urgent at 3 o'clock in the morning, but I hope I can resolve it quickly. That way, I can get paid a large bonus wage and still have enough time to go back and wash some extra dishes for even more money.

* * * * *

"…This place?"

"Yes, sir. That's why it was urgent."

I am now standing in front of the front gate of the governor's mansion.

No, wait, that's not entirely right.

I am now standing in front of the front gate of what used to be the governor's mansion. Right now, the only thing left on that huge plot of land is a mountain of burnt rubble. There were a couple of people being carried out by stretchers: the governor Denato, some two demihuman girls, a human boy, a soldier, and somebody covered by a white sheet. My condolences to whoever that was that passed away. Out of all the ones being carried out, only the governor looked somewhat conscious, so I ran over to him as his stretcher was brought through the gate.

"Governor!"

"Hm? Jigu? What is it?"

"Can you tell me what happened?"

"There was a big fire, as you can see."

"Do you know where and how it started? And who passed away?"

"I can't recall. You'll have to investigate what happened."

"…Yes, sir."

Well, it looks like I'll be stuck here for a while.

Walking into the premises, the one thing that stood out the most was a large crater in front of the mansion. Was someone trying to keep the fire under control? The governor looked injured and fatigued, so did he do this? Or maybe it was that other soldier. I heard there was someone in the army with abnormally high power but would lose all of his strength if deprived of breathable air for an extended period of time, and the soldier on the stretcher looked very similar to what the rumors said. That said, he could endure just about any attack, but submerging him in water or soaking him in oil and setting him on fire would result in him instantly losing a fight because he wouldn't be able to breathe normally. In any case, I seem to have digressed too much.

"Oh, good evening chief!"

Having seen me coming, one of the investigators greeted me from afar, then walked over to where I was. He shook his head as he approached.

"There's too much rubble to dig through, so we haven't found anything significant yet…"

"Really? Well, get back to digging, then!"

"Certainly, sir."

I turned over to the subordinate that came to the scene with me.

"Go to the land office and get the blueprints for the mansion."

"Roger that!"

Knowing the mansion's design would help with figuring out good places to search for clues, after all.

* * * * *

Apparently we managed to randomly dig up something that was probably once an indoor aquarium. The water in the tanks prevented the fish from turning into ashes, so the other investigators and I got to snack on some grilled fish while waiting for my subordinate to come back with the mansion's blueprints. I don't know how he managed to even get a hold of this, considering how nobody would be on duty at the land office this late at night, but I praised him for being so capable.

"Right, let's check areas where a fire could start."

After studying the blueprint, I sent investigators to areas of the building that had fireplaces, furnaces, or heaters. As for myself, I checked the kitchen area.

"Hm? What's this?"

The pots and pans seemed to be sturdy enough to not get disintegrated, so I managed to uncover some misshapen kitchen appliances after digging up around that area. Unexpectedly, there were some small articles underneath some of the pots.

"Hm… This tastes like salt, sir."

"Oi, you can't just put random things on the ground in your mouth."

"…And this is crispy burnt flour."

"What did I just tell you!"

Aside from the fact that my idiotic subordinate was randomly running his finger along the ground and tasting the unknown stuff, it looked like the kitchen floor was littered with food crumbs and spices.

"Why is there food spilled all over the floor? Didn't the soldiers just have a banquet earlier?"

The army ordered food from every single restaurant and diner in the city, so it was unlikely for the soldiers to not stuff themselves full. The mansion's kitchen definitely didn't prepare any of the food used at the banquet, so the fact that food crumbs and spices were spilled all over the floor meant that someone unaffiliated with the army must have been trying to make food before the fire started.

"Look around for bodies. I think I have a good idea of what happened."

"Yes, sir."

The other investigators found nothing out of the ordinary in their search regions, so they came over to help me search the kitchen area. Unfortunately, we didn't uncover any bodies after digging around for fifteen minutes, however…

"How has nobody ever had food poisoning here?"

"Maybe they train their endurance this way?"

We uncovered at least half a dozen large rats, instead. They were all at least forty centimeters long.

"Well, they did say the food served in the army was bad."

"Maybe they never fell ill since they can't stomach the food in the first place!"

"Or maybe they just throw up before they can digest the food!"

"Hahaha!"

"Be quiet! Let me think!"

"Roger that, sir. We're sorry."

The investigators ceased their banter immediately after I shouted at them. I closed my eyes to concentrate on piecing the clues together.

"Hm…"

Those giant rats are heavy, so they could easily move things around the kitchen or flip some switches.

"I think I've figured out what happened here."

The investigators all looked at me and attentively listened.

"There was a large banquet hosted elsewhere in the city earlier in the day, so that means nobody cooked in this kitchen earlier in the evening. Because of that, the giant rats must have felt very hungry because there was no food lying around for them to consume. As a consequence, they rummaged around the kitchen, knocking over food and spice containers in the process…"

"Yes, that makes sense."

"Very good deduction, sir."

"That sounds plausible."

"…Afterwards, one of the rats probably fell on top of a fire-starting mechanism in this kitchen. These rats are large, so they should definitely be heavy enough to accidentally trigger such mechanisms. Another rat probably knocked some cooking oil jugs over, resulting in a large fire starting here…"

"I agree with that chain of events."

"Me, too."

"Likewise, but how did the fire spread, though?"

"…And because some jugs of cooking oil were knocked over, there were probably a couple of rats soaked in it that caught fire. Those rats would most likely have run around in desperation, so I suspect that one of those rats ran towards the carpeted hallway. As soon as that happened, the carpet would have caught fire and quickly spread to the rest of the building."

"That explains why we couldn't find anything suspicious in other areas!"

"Our chief is such an amazing investigator!"

"I can't believe we're getting paid a full day's wage for two hours of investigating, all thanks to the chief!"

The investigators all clapped their hands and thanked me for coming up with a conclusion to how the fire started so quickly.

"Alright, we're all done here. Can I trust you all to write up the investigation report?"

"Of course, sir! You can count on us!"

I saluted my colleagues and left the site, then returned to the restaurant I was working at a couple hours prior.

"It's half past four already, huh. I guess I'll wash dishes for another hour, and then go home to rest. I hope they don't give me another case in the morning…"