So I'm a Snake, Who Cares?

Finding corpses in the river is a common occurrence.

Most of the time, the bodies belong to homeless people or sick beggars.

So how does the Solion Impel Capital Security Force handle unidentified corpses?

They just carelessly stamp the paperwork and cremate them.

The body becomes ashes, and the ashes return to the river.

Corpses retrieved from the river return to the river.

Of course, some cases might involve crimes.

Like a drunk person falling to their death after a fight on the bridge.

Or someone killing their hated upstairs neighbor and throwing them in the river.

If the body is found intact, an investigation proceeds.

If not, they just process it as an unidentified person and cremate it.

Few people could criticize this practice.

The Capital Security Force isn't that large, and there are always murderously many cases.

Even Inspector Jabern is handling dozens of cases simultaneously.

Efficient use of administrative power is an important duty of the security force.

"Not bad, we only had minor cases anyway."

But there are always exceptions.

Cases involving 'nobles' always rise to top priority.

Jabern preferred cases involving nobles over those involving wealthy merchants.

Especially when the victim, the murder victim, was a noble.

Some might consider this a bad habit, but well.

A case where a noble dies is like a high-stakes gambling game.

If you fail to solve it properly, you'll be marked and suffer consequences, but if you solve it perfectly, a smooth career path is guaranteed.

"This hasn't been reported upstairs yet?"

"No, since we don't know who it is."

"Lock it up. Let's first figure out who it is."

And in this case, there was no risk of losing, only the possibility of winning.

Once you identify the victim and solve the case, you can visit the noble family playing detective.

And if it seems unsolvable? Just cremate it and be done with it.

Inspector Jabern's lips twitched upward.

But his assistant's expression wasn't very bright.

"Can we really find anything? Even if it's just a skeleton with underwear. It might not even be a noble."

"From what I've seen, only nobles put their names on silk underwear."

"And the name on the silk underwear is just initials..."

Indeed, that was true.

The only clue was the silk underwear, and the initials on it were just 'C.D'.

Too few clues.

A genius detective from mystery novels might immediately deduce 'Such underwear can only be made in one place in the capital! It's Victoria's See-through's limited edition men's underwear!' from the silk material.

Inspector Jabern wasn't such a genius.

But he had the savvy of a veteran.

"When you rough up all the beggars under the bridge, something always comes up. And this noble probably wasn't wearing just underwear when he died."

He gave orders while chewing on his cigarette.

"Bring in the crazy beggar who had this skeleton and all the beggars living around there."

"Yes... sigh."

The assistant sighed rather impudently.

But there was a reason for his sigh.

The beggars living under the bridge are Solion Impel's headache.

With their terrible hygiene, they always stank of rot.

Soon the interrogation room was filled with that rotten smell.

They had already thoroughly questioned the deranged old man who kept the skeleton in his tent.

Now they started interrogating the middle-aged man who acted as the king of the beggars.

He nervously rolled his eyes around.

His anxiously clasped hands were covered in fingernail dirt.

When he met the assistant's eyes, he gave an awkward "hehe" laugh.

Revealing his three remaining yellow front teeth.

The assistant frowned at the musty smell.

But Jabern, smoking his cigarette, seemed not to notice such smells.

He took his time smoking.

Just when the waiting became unbearable.

He suddenly slammed the desk hard.

Bang!

"Eek!"

"Why did you kill them?"

He suddenly asked.

The beggar king was flustered.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"Pardon? Kill who?"

"That person. The noble. Do you know who you killed?"

"I didn't kill anyone. What are you suddenly talking about?"

The beggar was confused.

He had been dragged here without any explanation.

And suddenly murder? It's understandable that he remembered rumors about the security force sometimes making beggars into culprits when they can't find the real criminals.

"The elder came. How angry must he be that his son passed away like that."

"The... elder?"

"What, want to know? Whose family's son you killed?"

"No, I'm telling you I didn't kill anyone!"

Actually, this kind of threatening approach wasn't very meaningful.

"He was alive when we pulled him out, but he already had a hole in his stomach..."

"..."

"Rather, he, I mean, that person killed one of our kids. We saved someone from drowning, and then..."

Jabern, who had been wearing a scary expression, broke into a broad smile.

He was alive at first? This feels like a clue is coming.

"Tell me everything in detail. From beginning to end. Don't leave anything out."

Then he looked back at his distant assistant and tapped his nose.

As if to say, 'See? I told you I smelled something.'

"Sigh."

The assistant sighed. Find exclusive stories on empire

What smell? All he could smell was beggar stench.

==

Obern wore a serious expression.

Amain sat before him.

Teaching magic to this student.

That was Snake's order.

These days he had fewer nightmares because he was too busy with many tasks.

Kovent, that bastard.

A sadist who had grabbed and tormented Obern's weakness, always treating Obern like trash despite just having a good family background and mediocre skills.

But no matter how much of a bastard he was, Obern had killed Kovent.

He stabbed an ice pick in his stomach and dropped him in the river, so having nightmares was inevitable.

Most nightmares were about Kovent coming back to life.

He appears soaking wet with the ice pick still in his stomach.

And declares he'll destroy Obern's life.

He told Snake about this dream.

Probably on a night when he was drinking alone.

Though he immediately regretted it, Snake had replied:

'If that bastard shows up, I'll cleanly take care of him.'

For some reason, those words were incredibly reassuring.

This chapter upload first at NovelBin.Com