“Captain, the farmer’s guild-leader has been murdered. His head simply exploded in his office! The guild is calling for an investigation by the city,” exclaimed one of Tamako’s sergeants.

“Gather ten of the guards and the intelligence team, we will head there immediately,” announced Tamako.

Upon arriving outside the Farmer’s guild, Tamako ordered, “Sergeant, tell the men to question everyone in the area, and find out if anyone heard or saw anything.” She then entered the guild hall with her intelligence team.

“It’s nice of the captain to finally show up,” whispered one sleazy guild member.

“The only reason she was made captain was because of her father,” another said.

“She is level 19 and almost no one in the city is as strong as her, but everyone says she is a bully, only caring about how powerful she looks,” said a thin weasel looking man.

Tamako could hear all the comments, but it was nothing new. The other guards always assumed that she obtained her power through expensive magical potions and they constantly gossiped about how she didn’t deserve her position as captain. They had no idea of the brutal daily torment her father put her through growing up.

And of course, everyone in the city hated the Guard until they needed saving. This left Tamako with no one - “almost no one” - Tamako mused to herself as the thought of Jen flickered through her mind.

“Show me the body!” Tamako commanded to the guild farmer standing in her way.

Luke Rogers sneered at Tamako, “Obviously the body has already been looted.”

It was clear to Tamako that Luke was trying to establish his authority over the guild by embarrassing her and the guard. “Good, that should make it easier. We will lock off the guild and search everyone’s storage devices!” announced Tamako.

“No, no, Captain Tamako, I looted the body to make sure the guild leader’s property remained safe!” cooed Luke Rogers.

“You’re either an idiot or the killer. It is going to be very difficult to investigate the murder now! Take me to where he was killed then, or did you burn down his office so I can’t investigate in there either!” Tamako snarled at Luke.

He took Tamako to the guild leader’s office, but he could see the other guild members eyeing him suspiciously already.

Tamako and her team looked around the room for any useful information. Tamako took note that the door had not been forced. There was no sign of a struggle, and the window was open, but an open window was normal in the sweltering heat.

“The room is on the third floor with no balcony. There are very few people in Casino City who could scale the building and enter through the window, and none with that level of power, would care about this filthy farmer’s guild,” Tamako said to her team.

Jen had told Tamako that the City Lord’s cousin, Li Zhang, was mixed up with the farmer’s guild and some slimy dealings, but Tamako knew he was too incompetent to pull something like this off.

Sam also briefly crossed her mind as she looked at the scene. Jen told her that this guild leader had started harassing them. Sam was kind of a nerdy enchanter, but Tamako knew how hard he and Jen trained every day to build up their physical stats. She felt that Sam could flip a mental switch and turn into a cold-blooded killer, and she had no doubt that Sam would kill this guild leader without batting an eye, if he became too annoying.

“Martha, have you cast your spell for any mana signatures, yet?” Tamako asked the investigations team leader.

“Yes Captain. The only lingering mana signature in the room comes from him,” said Martha, pointing a finger at Luke.

“It was not me Captain Tamako. Your lieutenant senses my mana signature because I was the one that found our dear leader, just before I made sure to safeguard his personal items!”

Tamako activated her sound wave. “Sergeant, were there any witnesses, and did you find out anything?”

The sergeant and his men had interviewed everyone in the nearby buildings and on the street. “Captain Tamako, there are no witnesses. No one heard or saw anything until the guild members started screaming about their leader being murdered,” he reported.

“Take him away,” Tamako said pointing at Luke.

As they were heading to the prison, Tamako was thinking, “He may not have done it, but his greed has probably signed his death sentence. The City Lord will be happy getting to confiscate the property of the guild leader and Luke’s property as ‘evidence.’ The remaining guild members will be happy to have Luke out of the way as they fight for control. All done.”

Tamako had no intention of officially investigating Jen and Sam for the murder. She knew what horrible things the guild leader did to the local farmers, and the City Lord’s policy was for the guards to stay out of the squabbles among the guilds, so long as they did not interfere with the city or the City Lord’s business.

However, Tamako did investigate a little for her own benefit and found out from the guards on gate duty that both Jen and Sam had been outside of the city all day.