“Have a good rest, you two,” Grimace waved the pair of girls to bed as they entered their room.

  “Thanks for treating us, Grimace!” Anise said with the ever-so cheerful smile on her face. Rumia seemed to smile a little bit looking at her. The glowing girl shot a look back at Grimace though.

  The two of them exchanged that look for a while, before the door closed and shut behind him. He was going to go straight home after this, because he didn’t want to stick around here for too long. Sleepless nights had become all too common for him, and it wasn’t like they were gonna stop anytime soon.

  He walked out of the hallway, and out to the front garden. The judge took one glance at the window that he knew Rumia came from last time. He stood there, and waited. Not for more than a few minutes. He then saw a glow approach the window, and before Rumia leaned out. She looked to the left, and then to the right. That is when their eyes met once again.

  Grimace looked at her, but then walked away. He had more important things to do than worry about something that hasn’t happened yet. It wasn’t worth wasting the brainpower on staking this out. It’s not like he had room in his mind to spare.

  Home. Grimace had decided to walk home, instead of taking a car. He would’ve had to have been driven by PASCAL and he wasn’t in the mood for dealing with that right about now. The issue is, that walking home would mean he would have to meet PASCAL head-to-head regardless, so he was only delaying the inevitable.

  He opened the front door, and he was greeted by the polite sounding voice of the young girl who spoke immediately as he stepped in.

  “Good evening, Grimace.” The completely neutral tone irked him for some reason. It was difficult to explain, considering PASCAL was created to be as inoffensive as possible. Who could possibly get angry at a small cute girl that listened to everything you said?

  “Evening, PASCAL. You can power down now.”

  “Entering surveillance mode, then.”

  Grimace gave that order without giving the bot much attention otherwise. He took a seat at a desk and began to take out a book. A journal. Something to catalogue all of his thoughts, and something that only he could see.

  There was simply too much he had to think about. More than a single head could possibly contain. Having a place where the thoughts could stay and not bother him helped. Even if they would resurface sooner or later.

  The princess. What an awful thought. He couldn’t tell anyone, but he hated thinking about the fact that she was out there. That he let her go, but he had to. He kept on telling himself that, but he could only hope it was true.

  But that didn’t compare to Rumia, who he very much did not have to let go. Whatever she was doing, it was of concern. So why couldn’t he bring himself to tell anyone about that encounter? That fateful day. He needed to get his mind off of these things, but what could? What possibly could?

  Evaine. That was still something that nagged at him. No matter how long he waited, or put it off. It just couldn’t escape his mind. This wasn’t something he let happen, it wasn’t his own justification. It was something he was forced to let go, and why? Why was he made to drop this case? What progress has Rebecca even made on the investigation so far. She never talked about it, so it was hard to believe she was investigating at all.

  Grimace slammed the table in frustration. PASCAL appeared behind him as if on call.

  “Do you need any assistance, Grimace?” The girl innocently asked.

  “...I’m going out, PASCAL. Personal reasons,” Grimace said.

  “Hm? You do not seem to have any meetings or appointments booked for this hour.”

  “Personal. Reasons.”

  Grimace left the AI with that, before getting up and walking away. Out of his house, and to the center of the city.

  The judge stood in front of a tall building, not exactly in the castle but pretty close. This was a place he was familiar with. The architecture matched the castle’s own gothic build, but the building itself stood long and wide. The Criminal Records and Management Department.

  As the Judge of Oscur, this was his second home. But it was one he hadn’t been to in a long time. It was of lesser importance to his duty than babysitting that glowing child, so the department had to take care of itself in the meantime.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  He entered, and it was mostly closed down. The only people who worked at this hour were people who messed up their common time enough to work the graveyard shift. He wasn’t very familiar with those people, so he simply strolled past anyone he didn’t recognize.

  Into the building, through a few halls, and standing in front of the hallway of records. The physical records of every citizen in this city. He had the authority to enter this, but he was then greeted once again by a familiar face.

  “Greetings, Grimace. Is this the personal business you claimed to attend to?” PASCAL appeared in front of him.

  “Yes,” Grimace said bluntly.

  “You know. You could always ask me to pull up a file for you. The physical records are getting phased out, so the information may not be up to date.”

  “I know. Stop bothering me.”

  “Understood.”

  With the pesky surveillance simply just observing, Grimace walked into the hallway and began looking at the stacks. It was sorted alphabetically, and some poor intern was still in charge of doing that until this hallway was phased out. But it hadn’t been done yet, because there was one file he wanted to look for.

  The file for Evaine Onsen, the murder victim from a case that was far too long ago, yet he never got the answer to. He opened the file, and began to browse. It was all basic info. Profiles just used to catalogue a person, as well as some brief history. It wasn’t anything too interesting, but Grimace then flipped to another page.

  It was her portfolio. There were a lot of projects in here, some of which were in current development to be released upon government request. The woman was an astounding engineer, so it was a shame that she had passed. Her most common employer was the well-renowned Rebecca Esther, and they seemed to have worked on a lot of projects together. But there was something that she had in her portfolio. It seemed to be a placeholder for a to-be-announced project.

  Grimace had no idea why someone would write their portfolio like that, but it confirmed something. Evaine was a part of something big that he did not know about, and it was almost certainly connected to…

  “Strange to see you here, Grimace.”

  Grimace immediately shot up from looking at Evaine’s file, and looked for the voice. A girl with a massive ax stood on the other end of the hallway, a similarly serious expression on her face.

  “Yuzu? I never took you for the reading type,” Grimace said.

  “What are you doing here? You are not involved with any cases as of now, and I did ask PASCAL about that,” Yuzu asked.

  “I could ask you the same thing. This place is like my second home, the question is what are you doing here, even?”

  “You can’t dodge my question with your own, Grimace.”

  Grimace frowned. “Personal reasons. I am not necessitated to disclose that to you.”

  “You used your government authority for personal reasons?” Yuzu raised an eyebrow.

  “I am not necessitated to disclose that to you. You are not my superior,” Grimace repeated. “If I wanted to read, then that is none of your business.”

  Yuzu remained silent for a second, looking at Grimace. He figured that he wouldn’t be able to take these home with her here, so he slid the files back where they belonged. He had already committed most of it to memory, anyway.

  “Fine, then. I’d advise against making moves outside of your jurisdiction. We know the bureaucratic hurdles that come with unnecessary actions,” Yuzu said.

  “Did Governor Esther tell you to tell me that?” Grimace put his hands in his pockets and began to walk towards the exit of the room.

  “No. I do not know why you would assume that,” Yuzu said back, turning toward Grimace as he began to leave. “Is she on your mind?”

  Grimace stopped just before exiting the room. Perhaps there were still a few unanswered questions here that he could ask.

  “What do you think of Governor Esther, anyways?”

  “She is a strong and reliable boss. Very intelligent, and I am grateful to be in the position that I am in. I am sure that you are too,” Yuzu answered.

  “I suppose I am. That would be correct. Being the Judge of Oscur at such a young age is an outstanding honor, though I like to believe that I sharpened my mind and skills enough to be able to reach this point.”

  “I believe I have too. We are not meritless,” Yuzu affirmed.

  “Then, Yuzu. Is there anything that you know that I don’t know? We are peers after all, and in similar roles too. We attend most of our meetings together, so I am simply curious.”

  Yuzu’s serious expression became more of a frown at that question. It was as if Grimace had just taunted her. “No. We have access to the same pool of information, and I am sure she likes you more than me, considering your current mission is one of the most important in the city.”

  “I’m…” Grimace let out a sigh. “I’m sure she sees you as equally as important as well. Do not try to tell me to believe otherwise.”

  “I am simply saying what I see,” Yuzu shrugged.

  “Well. Perhaps you should reconsider my position, then,” Grimace said. The boy then opened the exit door, and left the hall. A frustrating conversation, but from solving cases, Grimace had a pretty good intuition for these kinds of things.

  Everything happened for a reason, but only very few could understand what those reasons were.