Steampunk Era: Mad Abield
Chapter 47: Forty-two - s: Freshly Baked Investigator

Chapter 47: Forty-two Chapters: Freshly Baked Investigator

Below the abandoned fortress, someone had slaughtered everyone, and Colin had no idea what this mysterious figure’s intentions were—after all, he could not regard two thousand gold pieces as mere dirt, much less pull out any Thanan and expect them to view money as worthless.

Did they want to maintain a sense of mystery? Or was it inconvenient for them to show themselves, or perhaps, was this merely the most boring infighting imaginable?

Let’s not joke around, Colin was merely a Priest who enjoyed detective novels, not the Divine Detective from books; this brain-burning task should be left to the friends from the Church of Justice.

As he stepped out of the underground area, the young man lit a cigarette for himself; his recent craving for tobacco had grown, uncertain if it was the influence of the novels he read or his own haze about the future.

Margaret has been his childhood friend, growing up together in the Church—a privilege no one could take from him. However, as they grew older, Colin often wondered, could an orphan without a father or mother like him truly find happiness?

The cry of an eagle came from the sky. Colin raised his left hand, allowing the Church’s messenger to land on his arm, then he pulled a message from the small tube attached to its leg—a message from his mentor.

The content was brief, its essence was to have Malin see blood... This made Colin reflect on himself. Several years ago, when Malin was about his age, during an incident of Chaos infection, his mentor had asked him to lead a team to handle it. Due to his improper handling, it resulted in three deaths and one injury: two Punishers and one Proxy, all fathers with beautiful families.

Just because he had shown a flash of compassion for the Chaos-infected young had led to their untimely deaths.

It was precisely because of that experience that Colin understood, mercy differs depending on who it’s for.

He ignited the letter in his hand, allowing it to scatter in the wind, and glanced at the Punishers nearby, setting up a defense perimeter.

Being paranoid was the way to survive; with Chaos, one could only cut it down without mercy... Malin, you must perform better than your useless senior brother.

.........

Malin paid a visit to the Church of the God of Justice, the Church of the Wisdom Goddess, and the Church of the War God—the three major Churches in Carterburg.

To Malin’s visit, their leaders didn’t show much surprise, as if Chaos was but a dessert at afternoon tea.

The Church of Justice sent a half-elf maiden and a squad of twelve Paladins wearing plate armor, wielding large-caliber shotguns, enormous war hammers, and an extensive list of Blessing Spells—Malin felt that this squad alone could brutalize through the local small churches’ territory in Carterburg.

The Church of the Wisdom Goddess sent not many people, an old Mage and an Apprentice Mage.

Truth be told, it was Malin’s first encounter with a living Mage—before this, such native vocations could usually only be found within the pages of books.

In this age of rapid technological advancement, a finely crafted revolver after forty hours of labor, a 200 gold anti-magic bullet marked with inscriptions, and an ordinary person trained with 500 normal bullets could easily result in the instant death of a Mage who had studied Spell Formations for almost fifty years.

Malin let out a sigh, feeling that Mages of this age truly were born at the wrong time.

However, looking at it from another angle, the old Mage was easy to talk to, and his attire didn’t appear to belong to that of a typical Mage—leather armor, a long coat, crisply ironed trousers, and leather shoes.

Moreover, both Mages had revolvers hanging at their waists.

Alright, it seems times really have changed, Mage.

As for the Church of the War God, they didn’t send many people—this morning, the Punisher troops of the War God Church had gone to the abandoned fortress, probably now happily hunting in the wild; another part departed yesterday for Skal Town in the North, where a slight problem had reportedly arisen: countless impish creatures had come down from nearby mountains, forcing one of the Church’s adjuncts to take the remaining Punishers and most of the Apprentices there.

Considering the combat strength of these creatures, Malin thought the chance for these youths to encounter bloodshed was laughably low, but the sheer number of imps gave them an advantage, raising fears of a messy battle.

So, upon seeing Malin, the Church of the War God grudgingly assembled a small team made up of higher-grade students.

All were in their eighth or ninth year, including one Duke’s daughter.

She must be a pretty young lady, Malin thought, but when he saw her, he was deeply impressed by her arms, which were thicker than his waist.

Sara Brice, granddaughter of a Frost Giant, a crossbred giant, stood two meters forty tall, with fists larger than Malin’s head.

And she was stubborn, too, wanting to overthrow Malin without a word, completely ignoring the words of her Bishop from the Church of the War God.

"Cut it out, Sara, Bishop Mingdong told us to follow Lord Malin’s lead," her classmate, a young man with delicate features, said, although he too harbored some doubt about Malin, he clearly remembered what the Bishop had instructed.

"What good is this little thing! Even using him as a shield I’d find him too small!" the Duke’s daughter declared to her friend.

"You shouldn’t judge a person by their appearance! Or do you see us as what? Bigger shields?!" the young man frowned.

Malin could feel that this young man was about to get a beating any second now, but reality proved him wrong—he was taken aback when Sara blushed and said, "Bobuka, you’re different."

Malin gave the young man known as Bobuka a once-over, then glanced at his beloved little Sara... The world was indeed too wild.

With that thought in mind, Malin took out a white dueling glove from his pocket and threw it before Sara, "Since he’s different, let’s still have a fight, you’re not scared of me, are you!"

"I’m afraid I might kill you," the son of the duke grinned as he stomped on the glove, accepting the duel in a very uncivil manner, and then pulled a mace from behind her.

Malin reached out and tore a nearby lamppost from the ground to wield it.

The old mage who had been enjoying the spectacle twitched at the corner of his eyes, while the young mage beside him spit out his tea in surprise.

The paladins who were resting nearby and laughing loudly fell into a silence as dead as that of a cat whose neck had been pinched.

With hands on hips, the Justice Maiden, who was about to stop this ’farce,’ switched to spectator mode—the members of the God of Justice wouldn’t just watch an innocent suffer, but someone who was asking for a beating certainly wouldn’t be under their protection.

"Stop fighting!" Mr. Bobuka was screaming.

...In the end, no fight ensued. Miss Sara, though impulsive, had one merit—she knew how to read the room. Seeing Malin casually tear a lamppost from the ground, she tossed aside her mace and surrendered with a proper kowtow, rather boldly acknowledging Malin’s authority.

At that point, Malin really couldn’t bring himself to pummel the girl to death, although he had been ready to do so if she had remained stubborn.

Duelling to the death was nothing unusual; if they wanted revenge, sure, they could have it. But with the Justice Maiden from the Church of the God of Justice witnessing the duel, if they were seeking unbridled retaliation, then Malin would have to sincerely congratulate the House of Brice on losing an entire household registration book.

After sending the girl off to deal with the police who came to demand compensation for the destroyed lamppost, Malin waved to Bobuka, "It looks like you’re the brains of your church team. Tell me, what should we do now?"

"Do we even need to discuss it? We gather people to storm their house and see the situation," Bobuka immediately responded.

"Alright then, their house is yours to inspect. I’ll take the two mages to the mayor’s place. As for the port district, I’ll leave it to the God of Justice’s Maiden," Malin finished, looking towards the Justice Maiden.

"No problem, my mentor told us to listen to you in everything. I didn’t understand before, but now I do," the girl smiled as she lifted her skirt to reveal several weapons tucked within—a shotgun with a sawed-off barrel and stock, a large-caliber revolver, as well as a mace and a short sword.

Combined with the belt around her waist filled with shotgun shells, the daggers at her side, and the short gun in her hand, Malin suddenly felt that this Justice Maiden of the God of Justice was like a walking armory.

Hey... you’re not going to dismantle the port district while you’re at it, are you?

...........

Despite some concerns, Malin thought that he was just the investigator responsible for looking into the Chaos contamination, not their mother. There were too many things that weren’t his responsibility to manage.

So, after assigning tasks, Malin proceeded to the mayor’s house with the two mages, one older, one younger.

Because it was a festival holiday, the mayor and his family were all at home, so when Malin and his companions knocked on the door, the mayor’s first reaction was to smile kindly at Malin and the young mage behind him, while his wife even brought out a small bag of candy.

Wait a minute, we’re not children here to get candy!

Hence, after identifying themselves and explaining the way the mayor’s brother-in-law had died, Malin could see the whole family’s complexion turn to an ashen hue.

However, they still lacked the courage to voice any opposition—It wasn’t on a whim that the Church came knocking to break windows; Malin, having obtained the investigation certificates from various churches, knew the mayor certainly had the right to kick him and the young mage out, but if he did, it was likely that the mayor’s job would be up for grabs that very day.

The old mage was in charge of checking whether the mayor’s family had been contaminated by Chaos. In Malin’s eyes, there was no issue—the family was as gray as gray could be, as blue as blue could be. Although there was no pure white to represent goodness, at least there was no pitch black to denote evil, and a bit of chaotic gray wasn’t much of a concern—chaotic good people weren’t necessarily terrible villains, even if his definition of good was somewhat questionable. In other words, as long as there wasn’t evil black or chaotic purple, it was fine.

It might sound dry, but at least Malin wouldn’t have to send the family to the gallows or the burning stake.

"No problem, they are safe," confirmed the old mage, solidifying Malin’s trust in his own judgment.

"It’s best that we can prove our innocence, but sir, as you know, I have many relatives. Which unfortunate soul has brought this unwarranted disaster upon us?" asked the mayor.

"Julian Gungel, he said he’s your brother-in-law," Malin glanced at the report the young mage had organized and looked at the mayor.

"That damned wretch!" the mayor was clearly shocked, "Why him! He hasn’t been back for a week! He hasn’t even visited my house."

"If he had, it wouldn’t have been so easy for you to get through this," the young mage said with a mock frown and a laugh, without waiting for Malin to speak.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.