Chapter 15 : Chapter 15
Chapter 15
I had visited Mr. Draksan’s home several times before.
When his condition had been especially severe, he had been unable to go outside.
Even the gaze of others, a light bump of shoulders, or the whining noise of a child was enough to trigger an explosive surge of anger.
Fearing that he might truly beat an innocent person to death, Mr. Draksan had shut himself inside his home.
Still, treatment could not simply be stopped, so I continued therapy by visiting his house myself, counseling him there and delivering his medication directly.
Now, retracing those memories, I was on my way to Mr. Draksan’s home once again.
I hoped that his condition was not too severe.
If possible, I wished it were like back then.
That is, rather than being unable to come to the counseling office due to self-harm or a suicide attempt, I hoped that his condition had merely worsened enough for him to isolate himself in his room.
I did not bring Erisa with me. Instead, I prepared medications and readied myself for combat.
It was in case Mr. Draksan’s rage suddenly turned toward me.
I was heading out after finishing all of the day’s consultations, so it was already evening.
The sky was tinged with an eerie violet, where orange sunset blended with deep blue night, and the streets reflected that light faintly, creating a rather mysterious atmosphere.
The streets of Lumiere, awash in countless colors, were crowded with people heading home from work and merchants closing up shop, fitting for the time of day.
Among that crowd, I spotted a familiar face.
“Ms. Nyxle?”
“Oh? Instructor Kain!”
Ms. Nyxle, who had seemed to be walking somewhere in a hurry, broke into a bright smile when she saw me.
“Instructor, have you been well?”
“As always. Are you heading home from work, Ms. Nyxle?”
“No, I am still on duty. There is someone I need to arrest. And you?”
“I have finished work and am on my way to see a client privately.”
“I wish I could get off work already too.”
Ms. Nyxle gave a self-deprecating smile.
I returned it and inclined my head slightly.
“Then I will be on my way, Ms. Nyxle. Please be careful with the arrest.”
“Yes, you too, Instructor. Stay safe!”
After exchanging farewells and resuming my walk toward Mr. Draksan’s home, Ms. Nyxle followed after me.
At first, I thought we were simply heading in the same direction, but even after entering an alley, she continued following me.
I stopped and turned to look at her.
“Do you have some business with me?”
“No, I am heading this way as well.”
“I see. Same direction.”
“Yes. What a coincidence.”
Then came a fork in the road.
Once again, Ms. Nyxle chose the same direction.
“…You said you were going to make an arrest?”
“Yes.”
“What kind of crime did the person commit?”
Ms. Nyxle fell silent for a moment, as if considering whether she could say. Then, deciding it was acceptable, she spoke carefully.
“There was a fight in the entertainment district yesterday. Between drunkards.”
“A fight?”
“Yes. But it seems it was no ordinary fight.”
It was said to be closer to one-sided assault than a mutual fight.
The tavern staff and even the owner had fled without daring to intervene, and the violence had escalated further.
“So investigators were dispatched, but instead of restraining the assailant, three investigators were beaten severely.”
“So the assailant was not an ordinary person.”
“They said he was a little over two meters tall, with a build like a bear. His fighting ability was extraordinary. And apparently, he was a former hunter.”
“That is why you are handling it personally. An ordinary investigator could not manage him.”
“Yes, exactly.”
To the southwest of the Kingdom, beyond the border, lay the demonic regions, areas dense with an energy called demonic energy.
Prolonged exposure to it damaged human health, sometimes fatally. Animals exposed to it grew larger and more ferocious, becoming monsters.
These monsters sometimes crossed over into civilian areas and killed many people.
Those who specialized in hunting such monsters were called hunters.
Hunters were all large and immensely strong.
Those who were not had already been hunted and killed by monsters.
To arrest someone like that, Ms. Nyxle, who was far stronger than most human races, would naturally have to step in.
As I listened, something came to mind.
“Come to think of it, the client I am going to see is also a former hunter…”
“…That is quite a coincidence. It is not as if there are many former hunters.”
“Indeed…”
I replied stiffly. I had a bad feeling.
Surely not.
The Mr. Draksan I knew was not someone who would assault people at random. If anything, he was gentler than the average person.
But Mr. Draksan suffered from Intermittent Explosive Disorder.
No matter how gentle he usually was, once his rage erupted, he became uncontrollable.
There was no guarantee that Mr. Draksan had not committed the assault.
I wiped away a cold sweat unconsciously.
I wanted to ask Ms. Nyxle the assailant’s name.
Just as my lips parted to speak, Ms. Nyxle asked first, her expression uneasy.
“May I ask… the name of the client you are going to see?”
“…Well.”
“Yes?”
“Could you tell me first?”
“That is a bit… If you could tell me first…”
In the awkward silence, I finally spoke.
“Mr. Draksan.”
“Ah…”
Confusion crossed Ms. Nyxle’s face.
I was just as shaken.
Her expression made it clear that the assailant was indeed Mr. Draksan.
A swirl of indescribable emotions welled up within me.
Pity, despair, and anxiety all at once.
I had no idea what to do.
I could not even begin to guess what condition Mr. Draksan was in now.
“Instructor.”
As I struggled to steady my thoughts, Ms. Nyxle spoke.
“Assaulting an investigator is a serious crime.”
“Yes. Assaulting an investigator is…”
Even in my previous life, assaulting the police had been a grave offense. And the authority of the Kingdom’s Public Security Bureau was stronger than that of the police back then.
It was no lesser crime.
I understood perfectly why Ms. Nyxle brought this up.
“Under other circumstances… I would have let you meet him. I owe you a great deal, Instructor… but…”
“I understand what you are saying. Arrest comes first, correct?”
“That is right. Thank you for understanding. But why are you walking faster… Instructor Kain?”
“Walking faster?”
“You are speeding up. No, Instructor!”
She was right.
I was no longer just quickening my pace. I had started to run.
“In-Instructor Kain? Instructor! Wait…!”
Ignoring Ms. Nyxle’s desperate calls behind me, I broke into a full sprint.
I intended to reach Mr. Draksan before she did.
“You cannot do this! Instructor, the law—!”
“I am only going to check his condition. Just his condition first!”
“Arrest comes first, Instructor!”
A strange chase took shape.
Ms. Nyxle was fast. As a werewolf, she possessed superior physical strength, and she was a capable investigator. It would have been strange if she were slow.
But I was not slow either. In terms of physical ability, I did not fall behind anyone.
Moreover, the chase favored me from the start. I had set off first. And so I arrived at Mr. Draksan’s home before her. I pounded on the door.
BANG BANG BANG!
“Mr. Draksan, it is me! Please open the door!”
There was no response.
No answer, no sound at all from inside.
Surely he did not take his own life…
In the long silence, a chilling thought crossed my mind.
I remembered Adjutant Sigrid. If we had arrived even a little later back then, he would have died.
Before I could think further, my body moved on its own.
CRACK!
“Mr. Draksan!”
I broke down the door and called his name.
There was no response.
“Mr. Draksan, you are under arrest for assaulting an investigator…?”
Ms. Nyxle’s voice, arriving moments later, echoed hollowly through the empty room.
Mr. Draksan was nowhere to be seen.
“D-did you perhaps hide Mr. Draksan, Instructor…?”
“Of course not. I am not insane. And there is nowhere to hide him anyway.”
Mr. Draksan lived in a one-room residence. There was no place to conceal someone.
A man of his size could not possibly be hidden in a wardrobe or under a desk.
“Then…”
Ms. Nyxle’s face turned pale.
I struggled to maintain my composure as well.
Damn it.
Mr. Draksan was missing.
“We need to find him.”
This was no time to stand around stunned.
As always, the problem was how.
The Lumentea Kingdom did not have surveillance cameras everywhere like in my previous life.
“Does the Public Security Bureau not have a technique to locate missing persons?”
“There is a method that tracks a person’s unique magical signature to find criminals or missing persons, b-but…”
“It takes a long time.”
“Yes. Just finding a mage and starting the pursuit takes two days.”
On average, it took about seven days to locate a missing person.
That was far too long.
Mr. Draksan suffered from Intermittent Explosive Disorder.
There was no telling what he might do while missing.
“At this point, searching directly is the fastest option.”
“Yes, j-just a moment.”
Ms. Nyxle sniffed the air.
“…His scent is still here.”
I had forgotten.
Werewolves have an acute sense of smell.
It was nothing compared to her wolf form, but even in human form, her sense of smell was exceptional.
“So he has not been missing for long.”
“Two days… at most three, I think. I am n-not completely sure.”
She was sure. She had only added that last part out of caution.
“That is fortunate. I know the labor office Mr. Draksan frequented. It is called ‘Hunter Workforce Specialists.’”
“L-let’s go!”
Since it was an office Mr. Draksan often visited, it was not far from his home.
We ran and arrived there in no time.
As soon as we entered, the office manager looked us up and down with a bored expression.
“You do not look like job seekers. Are you here to hire?”
“I-I am Investigator Nyxle from the Public Security Bureau. I have some questions.”
“Ah, um, what is this about…?”
At the mention of an investigator, the manager visibly tensed.
Ms. Nyxle rummaged through her things and showed him something.
“Have you seen this man?”
It was a photograph of Mr. Draksan.
The manager examined it closely, then widened his eyes.
“Him? Of course I know him. He came by two days ago. His hunting skills are incredible, everyone is desperate to hire him…”
“If he came two days ago, does that mean he took on a job?”
“Huh? Ah, yes. That is right. He accepted a monster subjugation request and went straight out.”
“Where did he go?”
I cut in to ask.
The manager blinked, as if searching his memory.
“Well, I cannot recall the village name, but it is a village bordering the southwestern demonic regions. There is a troublesome monster there, so he probably went to deal with it.”
“A village bordering the southwestern demonic regions…”
In the newspaper I subscribed to, there were often notices listing areas where monsters appeared, along with requests for hunters to subjugate them.
I was not a hunter, so I did not pay close attention to that section. Still, I could recall something I had skimmed before.
“Was the village called Sauhin?”
“Sauhin, yes! That is the one.”
So that was it.
Ms. Nyxle’s eyes widened.
“H-how did you know?”
“I have a good memory. This is not the time for that. Let us go.”
“Yes. I will arrange transportation…”
Before leaving, I asked the manager one last question.
“How was Mr. Draksan’s condition?”
“His condition? Now that you mention it… he was a bit strange. His eyes were bloodshot, and he did not seem to be looking at anything in particular. It was unsettling. He always looks intimidating, so I thought nothing of it, but… Ah!”
The manager suddenly opened his eyes wide, as if remembering something.
“He kept muttering something. Like a madman. That made it even creepier.”
“Do you remember what he was muttering?”
“I did not listen closely, but… Hadler…? Something like that. He kept muttering a name like that.”
“Hadler… I see. Thank you.”
When we stepped outside, Ms. Nyxle was pacing back and forth anxiously.
“His condition sounds bad. We need to hurry.”
“Yes, y-yes! I just called for a carriage via Gipone.”
“A carriage, at a time like this?”
“It was the only transport available…”
Whether it was a magitech vehicle or a carriage did not matter much.
Modern carriages were drawn by horses enhanced with magic, so their speed was comparable.
My hips would ache a bit, but that was all.
Soon, the carriage arrived. Without time to compose ourselves, we climbed aboard.
With a CLATTER, the carriage set off.
Ms. Nyxle darted her eyes around anxiously, then suddenly widened them as if something had occurred to her.
“Hadler… do you mean Hadler the Monster Tamer?”
“You know him?”
“Of course! I was the one who arrested him.”
What an ironic coincidence.
“Then why would Mr. Draksan is muttering that man’s name…?”
“Hadler is Mr. Draksan’s… well.”
Inside the rattling carriage, I chose my words carefully.
“…His sworn enemy. The cause of his Intermittent Explosive Disorder.”