Ke-style law enforcement officers

Chapter 3 Bail
"You bunch of bastards, you never give me a break. You even managed to cause trouble with this stupid job of standing guard on the street. I'm warning you, stay away from my Milo from now on, and don't take him out to cause trouble!"

At night, on a wet city avenue, a burly middle-aged man wearing a trench coat jogged along.

Following behind him was Yan, who had been scolded the whole way.

As night fell, a thick fog enveloped Nanwei City, and the two of them were covered in condensed water droplets, looking like drowned rats.

“My goodness, Uncle Kang, this time it really isn’t my fault. This morning the law enforcement officers were on duty, and we guards were called over to keep watch. Who knew your little Milo would have such a brain fart and insist on barging into the crime scene? I don’t even know what he said before he was taken to the law enforcement office. It really has nothing to do with me.”

Yan shook his head of wet, gray hair, his face full of annoyance.

He had been restless all day. He couldn't figure out why the murder case was so similar to Milo's dream, but he could only attribute it to coincidence and there was no way to explain it clearly.

"Shut up! I know that brat's character perfectly well. He's got no skills whatsoever. It must be you, you little bastard, who gave him some crazy ideas. I work myself to the bone in the alchemy workshop and finally get off work, and now I have to clean up your messes. Damn it!"

Uncle Kang had a cigarette dangling from his mouth, wiped the dew off his bald head, and looked utterly miserable.

An old man and a young boy arrived at the law enforcement office, cursing and swearing all the way.

……

The lobby of the law enforcement office.

As soon as Uncle Kang and Yan entered the gate after completing their real-name registration, they saw a large group of fully armed law enforcement officers rushing out. The leader was shouting something like, "Quickly check every road leading to the church."

They made way for the hurried law enforcement officers, and only after they had all left did they go to the center of the hall and explain their purpose to the officers on duty:

"Here's the thing, we're here to bail out someone named Milo, Milo Valrocan, who was arrested by you this morning."

……

"Valrokan?"

A civilian law enforcement officer behind the counter, wearing a shirt and vest and glasses, raised his eyelids and glanced over the two wet men in front of him, then turned his head to look at the two black footprints they had left in the clean lobby, and frowned.
"That Valrokan family in the royal city?"

"Ah, no, no, it's just a coincidence that we share the same surname. We're not the famous Valrokan family. We're just ordinary citizens and can't be associated with those big families..." Uncle Kang chuckled awkwardly and waved his hands repeatedly.

“Milo Valrocan, is that right?” The law enforcement officer withdrew his gaze, completely ignoring the rest of what Uncle Kang had said, and flipped through the documents in his hand.

After adjusting his glasses, he shook his head:

“You should go back. He’s now considered a key suspect by his superiors, and bail is impossible.”

"This...how...how could this be?" Uncle Kang's rough face twitched.

Yan leaned forward, wanting to see the document in the officer's hand: "Impossible, there must be some misunderstanding, sir. Milo is a city guard like me, how could he be a suspect?"

The officer slammed the documents down on the table, glancing coldly at Yan's uniform: "Can't guards commit crimes?"

"Uh..." Yan was speechless for a moment after being rebuked, but he still managed to suppress the urge to swear and forced a smile: "Hey, you're right. I just wanted to ask what happened, that's all."

"Yes, my son has a rather strange temper. I heard he forced his way into the crime scene this morning. If he offends any of the leaders in the station, could you give me a heads-up? I'll go and put in a good word for him, okay?"

Uncle Kang was, after all, a seasoned shrewd man who had been in the underworld for many years.

He lightly patted the officer's forearm, seemingly a simple gesture, but in reality, he had already slipped two large denomination banknotes into the officer's rolled-up shirt sleeve.

Yan stood to the side and squinted, secretly feeling a pang of heartache: Good heavens, two hundred runes were already handed over before even seeing the person.

However, the effect of spending money is immediate.

The law enforcement officer adjusted the frames of his glasses on the bridge of his nose.

He switched the position of his hands, retracting the forearm that was holding the money, and his tone was much gentler than before:

“It’s not that I don’t want to help you, but the Milo you’re talking about has offended someone. The case he’s involved in is very complicated. Recently, there have been five consecutive murders in the suburban villages. Including the one this morning, that’s the sixth. I don’t know the specifics. Both the law enforcement agency and the church are watching this case closely. The higher-ups are putting a lot of pressure on us to solve it. You should just go back and wait for news.”

After saying that, he flipped through the documents in his hand again, and held up five fingers to Uncle Kang and Yan, saying:
"Forget about bail. I just did a rough calculation for you two. The bail amount is at least this much, and it's the kind where even if you pay the money, you're not guaranteed to get the person home, understand? That's all I can say."

"5000 Runes?" Yan was dumbfounded.

The law enforcement officer squinted at Yan: "Add another zero."

"Depend on!"

After holding it in for ages, Yan finally let out the curse.

……

...

Two minutes later.

Uncle Kang and Yan were both kicked out of the law enforcement office on charges of obstructing official business, and squatted by the roadside, smoking with gloomy faces.

"Serial murders? What does this have to do with anything? I'm speechless..." Uncle Kang kept slapping his forehead.

“50000 runes, that’s enough to sleep with all the girls in the Pirate Bar, tsk tsk tsk.” Yan exhaled a puff of smoke into the air, then turned to Uncle Kang and said, “If you ask me, you should just pretend he’s not your son and have another one.”

"I'm going to your mother!"

With a curse from Uncle Kang, Yan and the cigarette in his mouth plunged into the puddle by the roadside.

Yan knew that the old man was extremely annoyed at the moment, so he didn't dare to talk back and got up and slunk away.

On the entire street, only this bald old man remained, squatting by the curb, silently smoking.
"50000 runes... hiss... if we hand it all over, what will happen to Emma's medical treatment..."

……

A tattered cloth was laid on the sidewalk across the street from the gate of the law enforcement office.

Kneeling on the tattered cloth was an old woman with a wooden cane and a hunched back.

She was skin and bones, wearing a dark red cloak with a hood covering her head, obscuring her face except for a few pale strands of hair hanging down.

She gazed at Kang, who looked distressed in the distance, and murmured to herself:

"Calamity...I see calamity, you will all fall into the abyss..."

...

This is the madwoman known to everyone in the surrounding parish. No one knows when she first appeared in Nanwei City. All that is known is that she wanders aimlessly through the city's corners, spouting nonsense that no one can understand.

...

Deep inside the law enforcement office, in a small, dark room.

Upon receiving the message, the female law enforcement officer looked at Milo with suspicion: "You have family in this city? Then why can't I find your file?"

“Uh…” Milo was also taken aback.

“Your father just came to bail you out.” The female bailiff stared at Milo.

Milo immediately understood, but didn't explain: "Do you think my family situation is more important right now, or finding little Daisy?"

"You don't need to worry about that. I've already sent people to look for him. You should explain how you found out that the child was sent to the church." The female enforcer crossed her arms and looked down at Milo.

Clearly, she didn't take Milo's earlier words seriously at all.

"If you're not in a hurry, then I'm even less in a hurry."

Milo shrugged and leaned back in his chair, intending to mimic the other man's arms-crossed pose, but he quickly realized his wrists were locked to the table, so he reluctantly gave up and tried to change the subject:

"Can I make a small request?"

“We don’t serve coffee here,” the female law enforcement officer said coldly.

“No, no, no, I want a map of Nanwei City that covers the outskirts of the city, and a pencil would be even better,” Milo said calmly.

"You might as well just say how much sugar you want in your coffee," the female law enforcement officer shook her head.

"Is that not allowed?" Milo shrugged, then said, "Then let me ask you something simpler. I'd like to know what time it is. Is that okay?"

The other person impatiently took out a pocket watch and waved it in front of Milo.

Milo glanced at the hands on the pocket watch dial.

At this time—10:13
Having confirmed this, Milo casually closed his eyes and stopped talking nonsense.

Seeing that Milo had no intention of cooperating with the investigation, the female law enforcement officer slammed the door and left with a cold face.

……

However, this time Milo wasn't in the mood to sleep.

After putting his eyes on, he quickly started to calculate in his mind.

As seen in the dream, the carriage involved in the accident was not on the road to the church at all, because the road surface that Milo saw in the dream was made of mud and sand, while any road from the city to the church was a stone road built by the municipal department.

Moreover, in the thick fog, the carriage was facing completely away from the distant church bridge, whose towering top piercing through the sea of ​​fog was the most iconic building in Nanwei City. Even in a dream, Milo would not mistake it.

Those foolish law enforcement officers, no matter which road they took from the law enforcement office to the church, would never be able to find the carriage that had run into trouble.

"But without a map, I can't pinpoint the exact location of the accident..."

Milo frowned.

However, he was certain of one thing: this was his only chance to clear his name. He needed to find the carriage and, if he was lucky, follow the clues to bring Daisy back. Otherwise, he would never be able to clear his name.

"The speed of a horse-drawn carriage... roughly speaking... starting from the law enforcement office..."

Milo secretly calculated in his mind based on the existing conditions, and kept recalling the scenes he saw in his dream, not daring to miss any clues.

"Yes, it's mostly clear now, we just need one more piece of information."

……

boom!
Snapped!
While Milo sorted everything out.

The door to the small dark room was kicked open, followed by a map of Nanwei City and a pencil slammed onto the table in front of him.

Milo looked up and could just see the two mountain peaks.

The female law enforcement officer said fiercely, "You better get some results out of me."

……

Clearly, the officers who went out had brought back news, just as Milo had said: no trace of the carriage had been found on any of the routes.

That's why the female law enforcement officer rushed to Milo with a map and a pencil.

She was truly desperate and was trying anything as a last resort.

Milo, on the other hand, remained calm.

He picked up a pencil, located the law enforcement office on the map, and then looked up and asked, "What time did the carriage depart?"

“9:15,” the female law enforcement officer replied.

At this moment, she still harbored doubts about Milo.

I gave him the map just to see what tricks he was up to.

But as time passed, her gaze gradually shifted from doubt to confusion, and then to astonishment.

……

"Then... the time you showed me earlier was 10:13. Subtract the time we spent talking nonsense, let's just say it was exactly 10 o'clock."

Milo roughly estimated the timeframe during which he watched the live broadcast in his dream.

"A 45-minute journey, that's roughly the radius..."

He muttered something to himself, glanced at the map scale, and then simply drew a circle on the map with the law enforcement office as the center.

"Fortunately, Nanwei city is big enough. It only takes 45 minutes. If the carriage were to drive around the city, it would be impossible to get out. So there is no possibility of driving around. That leaves this, this, this."

Several points were quickly marked on the huge circle that covered the city.

These locations are all intersections of rural roads and circular roads that run in the opposite direction from the church.

……

The calculation process was very rapid.

The search area was narrowed down from finding a needle in a haystack to just four locations.

But just as the female law enforcement officer was anxiously waiting for Milo to continue narrowing down the search area, Milo suddenly looked up, tapped the map with his pencil, and said with a smile:
"Can I state my terms now?"

"Speak," the female law enforcement officer said helplessly.

"Take me to the scene."

"Okay!" The other party replied without hesitation.

After receiving a prompt answer, Milo turned his attention back to the map, quickly crossing out several points with his pencil:
“After removing the paths along the water, the paths that cross the villages, and the one with the highest pedestrian traffic, this is all that’s left.”

He pushed the map in front of the female law enforcement officer.

On the map, the intersection of a small road called "Lin Yin Road" and a large circle is repeatedly marked with messy pencil marks.

The female law enforcement officer picked up the map.

She had no idea how Milo determined the location, and her eyes were full of doubt and a little confusion as she looked at Milo again.

Milo returned the look with absolute certainty, tossing aside his pencil:
So when do we set off?

(End of this chapter)