Shin and I stood behind Raghav as he looked down at the man's body lying in the alleyway.
"So he died before you entered the alley."
He asked in a monotone voice.
"Yes, he was standing with his back to us, and when I placed a hand on his shoulder and tried to turn him around, he fell."
I answered truthfully as he hummed in response before squatting down and putting on a plastic glove on his right hand, and began examining the body.
"This was a very drastic change in physiology; there are changes in the biological structure as well. Normally, I would say it was a curse or an acquired illness, but both of those cases take time; this happened within seconds, perhaps..."
He stopped talking all of a sudden, and I thought he had found something, but instead, he asked a question.
"Did you find something in his possession?"
Oh, right, the syringe. I immediately reached into my coat and brought out the syringe, holding it past his shoulder so he could see it without turning his head.
"He had this in his chest."
Raghav took the syringe from me and looked down at it, his eyes burning holes in the syringe, more specifically, the fluid that was within it.
"Hold onto this syringe, if it is what I think it is, we could have a problem."
He handed the Syringe back to me and then began to cover the corpse with the cloak and stepped back.
Then he reached behind himself, and I could see he had tucked all the files in the band of his pants.
I thought that it was really resourceful, keeping his hands free while carrying the files effectively. He pulled three blank pages out of the files, followed by a pen from the pocket inside his jacket.
I watched him in awe as he placed the pages flat on the wall, and on the first page, he drew the deceased man's sketch; it was exactly how he had looked before injecting himself with that blue liquid.
It was amazing seeing him draw that from memory, and that too when all he got was a glimpse for a few seconds.
Then he wrote something on the second page, hiding it from us, and once he was done, he quickly folded the paper four times.
Lastly, he took the third page and closed his eyes as he exhaled through his nose.
"What did the woman look like? I did not look at her."
Before I could answer, Shin beat me to it.
"Short black hair, like a wolf cut, sharp hazel colored eyes, thin eyebrows, a small forehead, the nose was thin at Dorsum Nasi but big and round at the apex with small nostrils. Her lips were small, very thin and dark like a smoker. Her face was small, about the size of my hand. Flushed cheeks and a square-like jaw. Also, her ears were small and close to her head."
Just as Shin finished describing the details of her appearance, Raghav finished drawing the profile, and I had to say it was accurate.
Opening his eyes, Raghav placed the two sketches in my file and handed it to me with the folded paper pressed outside the file.
"I will go and take the body to the Sham Shan. I want you two to go back to the City Hall and give this folded page to The Duke and the Syringe to An, do not read it, nor let anyone other than those two read it. Give the sketches to Commander Opus and tell him to find the man's family and inform them of his end, and that they will find him at the Sham Shan. As for the woman, try to find her identity while also issuing a high alert notice regarding her."
Heeding his words, I took the folded page and placed it inside my pocket and kept the file close to myself.
With that, Raghav gave us a nod and bent down to carry the body in his arms.
As I watched him stand up, I felt a weight in my chest. I had been avoiding this for some time, but the last two days, I was not behaving like myself; I had somehow reverted to the way I was before coming to Paneria. I was making jokes constantly, and I was slacking off in my job.
Was it the pressure or something else?
"Once you are done with that, come meet me at the Dhobhi Ghat, the report says there is an establishment there. The only one of its kind in Istreid."
With that, he began walking away. I did not feel like watching his back as he walked away, so I was looking down at the ground.
"Oh, and Jacob."
Suddenly, I looked up to see Raghav looking back at me with a gentle smile.
The way my heart started to beat again, free from the pain that filled my chest until just now.
"We will talk about it later."
Was he able to read my thoughts? Can he even do that?
I got no answer to the questions plaguing my mind as he walked away, and I felt Shin slap my arm.
For some reason, I had a feeling I was going to regret looking at him, but I felt like testing if my feelings were correct.
And God damn, I was right.
The moment our eyes met, he was smirking.
"Wallahi, I'm finished. Did you really say that when faced with death? Those would have been some famous last words."
"UGH!"
I rolled my eyes while turning away from him and walking out of the alleyway, while he chased after me.
"Relax, I mean it was a really funny moment, especially for me, because you know I was watching the Lobotomy Kaisen reels last night, there was one where a fan does incredibly accurate English dubbing of the characters. In one of them, a character's life is in danger, and his final words are 'Wallahi, I'm finished.' So imagine my reaction when I hear someone say that same line in a similar situation."
All right, now I had to stop and ask him a serious question.
"When did you have the time to scroll through brain-rot memes, and more importantly, how?"
He just blew some air through his closed lips and sighed, shrugging his shoulders.
"Raghav has a phone and a laptop, where he has a backup of nearly everything on the internet. Besides that, I have a shitty sleep cycle. I wish I could go to sleep before midnight, because every day, I'm sleeping tomorrow, like yesterday, I slept today."
As he was telling me about his sleep cycle, his hands were pointing all over the place as he mentioned things.
The funniest was when he was nearing the end, just as he said yesterday, he used his thumb to point behind himself over his shoulder, and when he brought up today, he used the same hand to point down at the ground, while also flaring his elbow up in the air.
Honestly, I like it when people are this expressive.
Then I looked forward, and I could see the protestors pass us by; they had peacefully dispersed.
It was hard to believe, but I had no choice as it was happening before my eyes.
"I had totally forgotten about this. How did Raghav manage to do this?"
Shin chuckled, hearing my awestruck question.
"Raghav is loved by the people, both here and in our world. When he speaks, people just can't escape the pull he has."
Huh, now that I think about it, even Leanor mentioned that Raghav had a divine glow around him, similar to the Rishi and Sant Jan she had met last year.
Perhaps, he also has a similar connection to the divine, which would explain why I felt all those different emotions every time I thought about him or was in his proximity.
By now, the court must be in session; would we be allowed a moment with the Duke?
"Who should we visit first? Miss An or The Duke?"
"The Duke will be here all day, An, however might step out with her team at any given time, we should meet her first."
Shin answered my question, and I had to agree with his reasoning.
So with that decided, we made our way to the command room, hoping she was there.
The moment we opened the door, we were greeted by almost all the Chiefs and the three members we were looking for.
"Back Already?"
Eldrain questioned as I shook my head.
"Not quite, only here to share some information and evidence."
I then turned to An and extended the syringe towards her along with the note.
She looked up at Eldrain, then down at the items, taking them from me, and immediately opened the note.
Her lips were slightly parted as she read the note, slowly closing as she read through it, her eyes closing as she finished it and folded it before handing it back to me.
"Tell Raghav that I will get to the bottom of this."
I gave her a nod and turned towards Shin.
"Let's get to the Duke, then."
"We will be heading to the Dhobhi Ghat if you need us. Start looking over there. If you can't find us, just flare up your Mana, and we will come to you."
Shin informed them as we made our way out of the room, when we heard An call out to Amar, before we began walking towards the court, and the voices died down.
It was the Count's Council, the only difference being a confession stand and two tables, one for the defence and the other for the prosecutor, which were added in the room on either side of the long table.
Were someone to ask me if there was a place that I despised, it would have to be the court, and it was not because the court is slow or loud; it is neither of those things.
It was because of one singular man, and I could hear him on the other side of the door.
Loud and clear, his voice entered our ears.
"Prepare yourself, and don't lose your calm when interacting with Ace; he is the attorney who prosecutes the criminals."
I felt a great disturbance in the cosmos as I quickly turned to Shin and saw that he was on the brink of making another reference, and raised my finger to my lips.
"No jokes, please; that man alone is enough for now."
Now, Shin was annoying, but he was understanding and nodded as he opened the door.
Then there he was, standing at the prosecutor's table, pointing directly towards the confession stand.
Dressed in a blue suit and blue pants, with a white shirt underneath, his black hair combed back.
"My Lord, that man, Akrar, right there. Is lying; he was nowhere near the Parma Bakery the night the abduction of Joane took place, as his alibi states. We have eye testimonies from various shop owners that they saw him near the Ghat."
Ace paused for a moment, looking up at Lord Galreid, who was looking at us.
Following his gaze, the man turned around to look at us, and oh boy, was he not happy when he saw me, and I could say the same about how I felt about him.
"Ah, if it isn't Jacob Smith!"
He definitely put extra effort into Smith.
"We would be honoured if you would join us."
A question that was obviously meant to be sarcastic at best.
"The court session is being put on hold for five minutes and will continue upon my return."
Lord Galreid announced as he stood up and gestured towards us. "Jacob and Shin, please join me in the back room."
Without waiting for any response, Commander Opus opened the door behind The Duke's chair, and the two entered the room, leaving the door open for us.
I nodded and passed a grin to Ace.
Oh, heaven's above, the look on his face was gold, pure gold.
I wish I had a phone right about now. I would make this my wallpaper.
When we were inside the back room, Commander Opus closed the door.
"Where's Raghav?"
He asked the moment the door closed completely.
Instead of answering him directly, I held out the pages meant for him. "He took this man's body to the Sham Shan. We were chasing after him, and he died in some unknown manner. Raghav has asked you to locate and inform his family, and put out a high alert for this woman; she was involved somehow."
Sigh
A weak sigh escaped his mouth as he took the sketches from me and nodded, lowering his eyes.
"Anything for me?"
Lord Galreid asked as he poured himself a glass of water.
"I do, Raghav sent this note for you and An only, she has read it."
The note rested in my hand, stretched towards him. He kept looking at it as he chugged the water down his throat.
Once the glass was empty, he placed it on the table and turned around, taking the note from me.
In haste, he opened it and began reading it, the colour leaving his face as he read more and more of the note.
Upon reading it in its entirety, the stress was visible on his face, and he was completely devastated.
Just what was on that page?
"Thank you for bringing this to me. You two may now go and meet Raghav at the Ghat."
Not questioning anything, I simply bowed and began walking out of the room.
Shin followed quietly after me.
Just what could that sheet of paper contain that got such a heavy reaction from Lord Galreid?
Not just him, but Miss An as well; she was also affected by the message Raghav sent for her.
"Thinking about the note?"
My companion asked as we made our way out of the courtroom.
I was so lost in thought that I hadn't even realised it; all I could do was nod.
"Yeah, I will ask Raghav about it. I hope he tells us."
"May I ask something?"
The sincerity in his tone made me take a look at him; he, for some reason, was acting differently right about now, since I met him last time, he had been a goofball to say the least.
But now, he was serious about something, so I nodded and gestured for him to ask his question.
"Do you like to say the n-word often, like how we are shown in the media, or is that just forced?"
I couldn't believe that he would ask something so, so... I don't remember the word I was just thinking, but how can he ask that with all that is going around?
"How can you ask that with such seriousness and sincerity? For a second there, I thought you'd start to behave more like Raghav and help."
Shin shook his head as he sighed, taking the lead, fully serious.
"Jacob, don't take my jolly and carefree attitude as me not taking this seriously. I do all the thinking inside my mind, but I never let it overwhelm me. I am focused on the task at hand. I joke around because it keeps me in check. If I stop joking and venting, I get angry and trust me when I say, my anger knows no equal."
For the first time in my life, I was wishing for a man who I was wishing would stop joking, to just tell me he was joking.
All my wishes fell apart when he turned his head back, and our eyes met. I knew he meant every word he said, so I nodded and then presented my own reasoning as well.
"I apologise, but it is just that I too am thinking about a lot of things and you suddenly joking threw me off more than once."
Hmmm
He thought about it as he hummed before speaking again.
"I too apologise for my actions, I had no intention of throwing you off, I was just trying to ease your mind, because I know that you are overthinking, instead you should think about the work we are about to do, your mind is too scattered changing topics constantly, forget about that paper, or what Raghav told Lord Galreid and An to do, focus on what you have to do for you are only in control of what you can do."
There was wisdom in what he said, I can't deny that, and he is right, for the past few days, I have been getting lost in thoughts and spacing out randomly, my chain of thought keeps spiralling out into random places.
I couldn't help but smile at his words.
"You are quite wise for a man who jokes around a lot."
He chuckled before spreading his hands out, and in a stern and heavy voice, which is typically seen in old and wise men in different media, he delivered a line that just worked.
"I have unlocked stupidity so advanced, it loops back to wisdom."
"Damn."
That was all I had to say in response. How do you even respond to that? It's beyond me.
By now, we had reached the front gates, and Shin opened them for me as we stepped through.
"So yeah, answer my question though, do you say the n-word?"
"Haven't said it in a while, honestly, the portrayal is a bit exaggerated, why do you ask though, you want the pass?"
I looked back to see him shaking his head.
"Nah, just curious, you're the first black man I ever met, so I thought I'd ask, anyways, before we part ways, say it at least once like they say it in the movies."
Looking up at the clouds that passed us by, I licked the underside of my teeth as I gave his request a thought.
Once I considered it, I stopped and turned around to give him an answer.
"Tell you what, something extremely crazy happens, I will say it."
A smile spread across his face as he asked me something more.
"With a hard r?"
"Don't push your luck."
I quickly shot that down with a smile as I then nodded towards the road.
"Enough with the jokes, it's time to get serious, so let's regroup with Raghav."