Chapter 51: Goblin Is Innocent
Jellal and the children walk along a street near the wall as they make their way to the orphanage the children are staying at. In his bag he's carrying a few good size pieces of wood to use in the manufacturing of his chair.
'That bear was really something else. Based on how the business is still open despite her being the one running it I can only assume someone else is helping her to manage it. If no one was interfering she would definitely end up constantly losing money after all.
I wonder how they're doing it. Are they adjusting the prices they buy and sell at when they're there or are they straight up lying to her? With how trusting she is it would be easy to claim you're paying a higher price than you are so she'll sell things for a profit unknowingly. To whoever's stuck with her as a business partner you have my sincere condolences.'
The back road they take on their way to the orphanage is covered in holes and rocks. It's painfully obvious how few carriages move along the seemingly deserted road.
The entire area gets increasingly dilapidated as they walk down the street. Unlike the main road where buildings look well built and maintained the houses in this area seem as if they could collapse under their own weight at a moment's notice.
Holes in the roofs are a common sight for the houses along this road. Broken or missing windows and doors are such a normalized look you would be forgiven for thinking it's some kind of hip trend everyone's using to fit in.
Occasionally people can be found hiding in their houses or scurrying around the streets. Their appearances are just as varied as the people found on the main road with all of them having one feature linking them all together: they're covered in dirt and look like they haven't taken a bath in days, if not weeks or longer.
Even with the run down appearance of the area the smell isn't as bad as you would expect. It isn't sunshine and rainbows, but at least it doesn't smell like sewage.
Up ahead is the largest building in the area, the orphanage. The building has definitely seen better days with its busted windows and roof. There are even holes in the siding allowing line of sight inside the building despite being outside.
Inside the building consists of one large main area surrounded by a number of rooms along the walls. Each side has a staircase leading to a second floor which forms a ring around the main hall. The walls of the second floor are also lined with rooms like the lower level, while the walkway around is bordered by a rail to keep people from accidentally falling down to the main hall below.
When they walk in the elderly caretaker and her assistant glance at Jellal suspiciously, but ultimately don't make a fuss about him being there. The rest of the orphans also notice him and temporarily stop their playing around.
The boy's room is on the second floor with the rest of the older kids, while the younger children are relegated to the first floor for safety reasons. His room is filled with wood chips and carvings he's built up from his hobby.
Finding an empty space Jellal sets the wood for his chair on the floor so the kid can get to work on his chair. With his business taken care of and no reason to stick around he decides to take off.
Walking out of the orphanage he's confronted by a group of guards. By now the blaze at the lumberyard has been extinguished. It managed to cause a massive amount of damage before help from the guild arrived to put it out. Over half of the stocks of wood as well as the buildings on the premises were destroyed leaving them with a massive financial loss. Even the help they received to put out the fire cost them money since it was an emergency commission from the guild.
The foreman immediately blamed Jellal for the fire when the guards arrived on the scene. As it turns out, not many masked men wearing dark clothes and a fur cape can be found roaming around the city. His conspicuous appearance tipped the guards off to the suspect which led them to seeking him out.
[Is there something I can help you with? I may not look busy at the moment, but I have a lot of things to do in the near future.]
Before the day started all the guards in the city were informed by their superiors about Jellal's presence in the city. For them he's listed as one of the few extremely troublesome people to watch out for and try not to hassle.
Thanks to his previous displays he's been listed as highly dangerous. Unfortunately this incident has been linked to him so they have no choice other than investigating him. With his reputation among the guards they first checked with locals to ensure the accuracy of the foreman's claims before they made a move on Jellal. As luck would have it, multiple reliable witnesses spotted him in the area prior to the fire breaking out so they were left with no choice but to question him.
[According to eyewitnesses you were present at the lumberyard immediately preceding the business catching fire. You've also been accused of intentionally causing the fire due to a disagreement over the price of lumber with the foreman. The owner of the company is filing a report and has insisted you be arrested in connection to the incident. As such we'd like to invite you to the guard station to discuss the series of events you experienced leading up to, and during the fire.]
[Whether I'm going or not will depend on the station's location. I've already mentioned being on a schedule, so I don't want to be somewhere I can't keep an eye on how things develop when the time comes. You can already count your blessings I'm planning on observing some people in the near future and can do so from afar. If I couldn't I wouldn't bother giving your request any thought.]
The guard lets out a dry laugh as he tries to explain the guard station's location. For the sake of convenience there are multiple stations throughout the city, with a couple groups of guards based out of each depending on where they're patrolling for that particular day.
The closest one, which these guards are working out of, is located near the gate. This station is mainly used by the guards monitoring the gate and the area in its immediate vicinity.
Since he's already going to be hanging around the gate, waiting for the former prisoners to arrive, going to the station isn't out of the way. Knowing he's complying with their request lets a huge weight off the guards' shoulders, but it doesn't alleviate the tense atmosphere they experience during the trip.
The journey back toward the gate is characterized by an abnormal silence. Jellal has nothing to discuss with the guards so he doesn't bother interacting with them, while the guards are nervous and don't want to accidentally get on the bad side of one of the most dangerous people in the city.
Along the way he controls the vines in his mask to block the eyeholes, reverting his mask to a state where it lacks any visible eyeholes. By hiding his eyes he can make himself more mysterious and difficult to read, granting him a slight psychological upper hand in the interrogation.
The station sits on the opposite side of the gate as the lumberyard and is sidled up against the wall. The guards monitoring the gate constantly run in and out as they process the entrants, while others are carefully inspecting carriages and people before they enter.
The front of the building has multiple entrances, each with their own purpose. One door is specifically for processing entrants and has cabinets full of paperwork and secretaries going over the detailed procedures at work at all times.
The door Jellal and the escorting guards are entering is used by the area patrol. Inside are four separate rooms and a small holding cell for criminals. Under normal circumstances the suspects are asked to wait for interrogation in the holding cell to prevent them from trying to escape, but that isn't exactly viable for Jellal so they instead lead him to an interrogation room to wait. This is usually not done so the interrogator has the mental edge when the suspect is led to the room, but letting him into the room to wait is better than him getting annoyed and leaving so they can only choose to compromise.
In the interrogation room, Jellal sits in one of the provided chairs. In typical Jellal fashion he rocks back and puts his feet on the desk so he can comfortably wait. The guards' faces say they want to protest his actions, but ultimately none of them speak up. Considering his track record their complaints would've fallen on deaf ears anyways.
One guard stays in the room to keep an eye on him while the others go to find their superiors. Given who the suspect in the case is, they aren't qualified to interrogate him. For high profile suspects it's natural they have high ranking personnel handle the situation.
Interlocking his fingers behind his head, Jellal patiently waits for whoever they're bringing to arrive while keeping an eye on gate in chorus. Coming up on the line in the distance he finds his targets of interest, the former captives he released earlier.
Since they're still on their way and he'll still be able to see them for a while after they enter the city he doesn't rush to leave. In fact, the guard station is a decent place to hide away and wait for them to pass by before following them.
While he's keeping an eye on their progress toward the city the guards are also returning with a couple of new people in tow. One of them is his good friend Kite, who's wearing a gloomy expression, while the other is a new face he hasn't seen before.
As they walk into the room light reflects off the new man's bald head thanks to its reflective sheen. The man has a large scar running partially across his neck and down his chest giving him a distinctive look. His guard uniform is in perfect order other than the top few buttons being undone to show off his chest.
Seeing Jellal's feet on the desk Kite's head drops and he sighs. On the other hand, his superior is livid, and it shows as his whole head starts turning red. Taking a few deep breaths he tries to calm himself as he moves along to the questioning.
[According to what I've been told you were in the vicinity of the fire before it started. Is this true?]
[Depends on what you mean when you say vicinity. If you mean the general area around the lumberyard, then I was. If you're talking about being in close proximity to the origin of the fire within the lumberyard, I wasn't. The foreman was extremely persistent in not allowing us to do business with them after all.]
[Noted. The foreman and other workers claim you and the aforementioned foreman were arguing over prices before the fire broke out. After arguing you threatened to burn their business down before rushing to the back to start a fire. Is this accurate?]
[Oh? That's an interesting spin they put on things. First off, as I mentioned before, we were never allowed to enter the yard. The foreman immediately refused to have any sort of business dealings. The moment he noticed us coming close he ran up to us and demanded we leave. At no point did we get into an argument over price, only entry.
Also, as I previously stated, I never set foot inside the yard. The claims of me rushing in to start the fire are blatantly false. In fact, I'm the one who warned him there was a fire in the back. To think they would accuse me of something they are responsible for. Their lack of integrity really knows no bounds. For Baldy McNoHair to be so easily convinced by such dishonest people is truly disconcerting.]
The man's head becomes even redder as a series of veins bulge on his forehead. He glares at Jellal, but is met with an expressionless mask with no eyes showing to stare at.
[In short you say it wasn't you and their lying. Since you claim to have told them about the fire, might I know how you were aware of it in the first place? You must know it's extremely suspicious for you to have known a fire's breaking out despite having claimed to have never set foot inside the yard.]
He narrows his eyes as his allegations continue. At this point it's obvious he doesn't harbor any positive impressions of the suspect he's interrogating.
[I knew it was breaking out the same way I know a guard just entered the building, or a merchant caravan consisting of three carriages and two dozen people just entered the city. I can wear this mask without my eyes visible because I don't need them to see what's happening around me. If you doubt the truth of my statement you can ask Kite, he's been around me a few times and can attest to it.]
The man glances over at Kite, who was brought along precisely due to his past experiences with Jellal. Kite reluctantly nods, unable to lie while doing his job despite how much he wants to deny having ever met the suspect.
To confirm his statement a guard leaves the room and runs towards the door to check, passing a guard who had just entered the building in the process. Looking outside the guard spots a merchant caravan with multiple guard teams passing by, having passed through the gates mere moments ago. After confirming his statements the guard returns to the interrogation room. Under the watchful eyes of the other guards he nods heavily in confirmation.
[If you knew there was a fire why didn't you do anything to stop it? It was eventually contained, but it could have potentially caused an enormous amount of damage to the city if it wasn't.]
[Is it my job to babysit a bunch of grown men at their workplace? Of course not. Given how disrespectful the foreman was he should be grateful I even told him about the fire. Besides, if they had properly maintained their equipment it wouldn't have failed in such a catastrophic manner. In my opinion they got what they deserved, nothing more, nothing less.
On second thought, I take that back. They deserve worse than what they got. Not only did they refuse to do any business with me despite this being our first meeting, but they even had the gall to lie after I so graciously let them know a fire which could threaten their business was brewing around their incinerator. It would've been more appropriate for their business to be destroyed in its entirety.]
[So you refuse to admit you're responsible? From all accounts you were the only one there, so it's hard to side with you on this.]
[They said I was the only one there? So the two orphans who were with me at the time don't exist? Maybe you should try finding sources that haven't been payed off next time you ask for eye witnesses. I don't know about the laws here so I don't know if they did anything illegal, but paying people to lie about events and intentionally skew the results of an investigation isn't a good look regardless. If you always believe any nonsense you're told I can only imagine how many innocent people's lives you've ruined by allowing them to be framed for crimes they didn't commit.]
While Jellal's busy being questioned the former prisoners have finally arrived at the gates. The group looks worn out yet lively, and considering what they've been through it isn't surprising.
Since the guards at the gate have already been informed about their arrival beforehand they quickly get down to processing the group. To their surprise, most of the group has some form of identification. They had originally been expecting to have to give most of them temporary passes until they could be reissued some form of id so this was a pleasant surprise for them.
The ones without any id were taken aside to get a temporary one, while the rest were processed the same way any other entrants would be. Being former captive and all, they weren't able to pay the fee to get in, but they were lucky enough to have it taken care of for them by Sionia on the guilds behalf. Of course they would be expected to pay it back, but a single copper isn't much to begin with so no one had any complaints.
After moving into the city they all stayed together and went with Sionia toward the adventurer's guild. They had been prearranged to meet with some guild staff and guards to discuss the sequence of events leading up to their capture and eventual release so none of them rushed to go home despite wanting to.
In the guard station Jellal is finishing up and the guards are funneling out to look into his allegations of the business paying off people to sway the results of the investigation. Since the yard is managed by the son of a prominent member of the city whose reputation is widespread, such a scandal can't be taken lightly.
They had previous reports of unethical actions by the manager, but nothing so overtly illegal. If his claims are true they're facing a major incident they never expected going in.