Chapter 53Lantern Festival (6)

Translator: Kimmy

Editor: NA for this chapter

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Marco the ‘Giant’, also known as Baron Calder and the chief of the Central metropolitan police department, wished all this was a dream.

Or else, none of this made sense.

He couldn’t believe that ‘the’ emperor was sitting in front of him as a witness.

Ha, what a terrible nightmare.

Marco turned to the person next to Karlos.

The famous swordmaster was here too.

Ha, this truly is a horrifying nightmare.

He didn’t become the chief of the police department just because of his size so he was fully aware that he had to fill out a report of these two ‘high’ people.

But it made him really uncomfortable because of their ridiculously high status.

He hesitated for a short while but Marco had to ask.

“…So, what were you doing there dressed like that, Your Majesty?”

Marco scanned the young man in front of him.

He was dressed like a middle-class commoner and had a leather bag–why is he holding it so dearly?

Karlos avoided Marco’s half curious and half suspicious eyes.

Marco cocked his head wondering why the emperor’s intimidating aura wasn’t as intense as it was when they met last time.

It lessened to the point Marco didn’t recognize him at first.

“I was… Enjoying the festival.”

“…With the dead body?”

“…Of course not.”

Karlos couldn’t say out loud that he was watching a paper play that was overly praising him.

Brigitta, who knew about the whole thing, snorted beside him and then cleared her throat to hide that she just almost bursted into laughter.

“Huh…. Well, it doesn’t matter. It seems like you just found the body later anyway.”

“Wait… Shouldn’t you still write a report?”

Marco answered sarcastically to Karlos’s worrisome remarks.

“Even if you did kill someone, how could I dare write that I interrogated the emperor? To begin with, according to the Imperial Law, emperors are never charged with murder. Do you even remember that you are the one who gave me this position?”

Guessing by the 5 years of indifference seems like you forgot.

Marco complained internally.

It seemed like the emperor got involved with this when he sneaked out of the palace and Marco had no balls to disrupt whatever plan the emperor had.

I should release that young lady as well then.

Marco smirked.

Ah, yes the ‘young lady’.

“I didn’t know that you were this ambitious, your majesty.”

“What?”

Karlos cocked his head.

Ambitious? Is sneaking out of the palace and ending up in a crime scene ambitious? I don’t think so.

Brigitta understood what Marco was implying and grinned along with him.

Karlos looked at the two and wondered.

Why are they smiling like that all of a sudden?

“…What are you talking about?”

“Oh, your majesty.”

Brigitta smiled like a villain and elegantly crossed her legs.

Karlos felt like something bad was going to happen.

It wasn’t as sharp as the Chancellor’s but Karlos also had a keen sense.

“The chief here is saying that you hid the fact that you are an emperor just to hang out with an innocent commoner young lady and even held her.”

“Oh, hold? You are more skilled in dating than I expected, your majesty.”

Brigitta and Marco giggled evilly as Karlos sat there dumbfoundedly.

Well, Karlos’s face was scowled like the real villain here from the shock but no one in the room bothered.

“I, I, I never did that?!”

“Oh, my honorable emperor. I definitely saw you hold Eva in your arms, running towards me.”

Karlos froze as soon as Brigitta finished her words.

Marco watched the frozen emperor–whom he knew had no interest in woman–with entertainment.

Oh, this would have been even better with popcorn and beer.

To Marco who was buried under months of paperwork, this was like a rare moment of amusement.

When will I ever get to see the mighty Rumilesa freeze like that out of shock?

“Uh, uh, oh my. Uh, no. no, I did. But no. It’s not like that!”

A hint of red started rising from his neck.

Oh, gosh. I held a person, a woman, without consent!

It wasn’t only Eva that was not in her right mind in that chaotic square.

Karlos too panicked internally under that mask of emotionlessness.

So before Brigitta brought him back to the real world, he didn’t realize or remember anything.

He didn’t realize that Eva brushed his chest–to defend her, she didn’t do that on purpose; Her hands just happened to be there–or that he wrapped his arms around his beloved author’s waist and held her up.

And the effect of that realization was great.

Karlos buried his face in his palms.

Brigitta cackled up as if she was laughing her whole life’s worth of laughing but Karlos couldn’t hear any of that.

.Something in his heart scorched up and heated his skin from head to toe.

Karlos mumbled in a depressed tone.

“I’m trash…”

*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*

“First of all, Karl did nothing wrong.”

Eva commented.

It was the truth.

Karlos only tried to bring her out of the square as soon as he heard the scream.

He just got involved because she insisted that they should go to Bri.

Eva crossed her arms and puffed her cheeks without meeting eyes with investigator Billford.

“Why did you bring us here? All the people who were watching the play heard the scream as well.”

“We are aware of that, Miss Evangeline. But we have to follow our protocol. Also, the man you were with is strangely taking a long time for identification….”

“We are not the first witnesses anyway. Can you do this to an innocent citizen like us?”

“Again, we are aware of that…”

Billford was having a hard time.

There was a report so the police department had to investigate.

It bothered him that the person that reported it was Lockhart but he couldn’t do anything. Billford was a mere investigator and if he didn’t follow the set protocol, he would be punished by his superiors like Alex, Alex, or Alex.

However, it was also true that Eva’s group was there around the same time the first investigation unit arrived.

The field investigation unit complained about them contaminating the crime scene and demanded sweets and coffee but the alchemist of the analysis team was skillful.

According to the analysis report of the footprint there, Eva and her companions were innocent.

They were just really really unlucky to be involved with Billford’s investigation.

How can they be this unlucky?

Billford sighed stressfully.

His sigh contained a small complaint about his current state as well.

The Chief of the police department took the swordmaster and the other man who can’t be identified.

Billford was left with the remaining person which was this small novelist.

Perhaps that terrifying-looking man is a noble? Since Marco the Giant took him to his office.

This naive-looking young lady used her right to remain silent to the fullest and as a result, the report was full of blank spaces.

I am definitely getting scolded for this one.

Billford made a tearful face.

“Shouldn’t you be looking for the first witness instead of interrogating us?”

“We would do it if we could but there are no clues of who that may be….”

The paper play was a popular attraction that gathered crowds every year.

It was because the tales of Josef the 2nd were popular and because the troupe’s skills and stage props were getting better and better.

The tourists that came around the Harvest Festival increased consistently ever since the 5 years after the war.

So, it was close to impossible to find the one person that screamed among that huge crowd especially when even the gender of the first witness could not be identified.

This interrogation which was more of a question-and-answer session was just to temporarily block the media until the analysis results are out.

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