As Wei'en walked into the Secret Investigation Department, he noticed the guards at the entrance giving him a strange look.
'What's going on?'
'Has my charm grown so powerful it transcends gender?'
Wei'en shook his head, hastily dispelling the thought. 'How horrifying.'
He then went up to the third floor, arriving at the door to the office for Logistics and Investigation Department One. He let out a breath, straightened his uniform, and then pushed the door open.
"Morning, everyo—huh?"
The vast office was completely empty.
'Am I early? It's almost nine.'
Wei'en glanced at the wall clock and scratched his head.
He didn't think too much of it, though. In his previous life, he'd changed jobs a few times.
Starting at a new company meant facing a new environment and getting to know new colleagues... It was perfectly normal to occasionally run into a few who had no sense of punctuality.
With that in mind, he walked straight inside, found an empty desk, and put his things down.
After sitting down, Wei'en took a moment to carefully survey the office.
He had to admit, the office was comfortably furnished. It was clean and tidy, and the air was fragrant. He believed working here in the future would be a pleasant experience.
In the nearly 200-square-meter office, six desks were arranged near the entrance. The desktops were large, all crafted from nanmu wood, giving them a classic, weighty feel.
An openwork carving of the Secret Investigation Department's gun-and-fire emblem was set in the center, specially painted a dark green.
The chairs were high-backed, padded with soft backrests and cushions.
The same design was carved into the chair backs—what looked to be the landmark of the Caster City State: the City-State Assembly Hall.
His predecessor had been there a few times. It was right next to Krimms Cathedral, in the central district of the Caster City State.
In addition to these six sets of desks and chairs, two sofas were placed by the window at the back of the room, with a small coffee table between them.
It was likely a reception or lounge area, as he also spotted a cabinet in a nearby corner.
On top sat a complete tea set, coffee-grinding tools, a few glass jars, and... a photograph?
Wei'en got up, walked over, and picked up the photograph.
'Lisi, Roger, a white-haired girl, a goofy-looking young man, and the one in the middle... I'll just call him the old-timer for now.'
It was a group photo of five people, likely taken a few years ago. In it, Lisi and Roger both looked several years younger.
Judging by the smiles on their faces, they were all in high spirits.
Well... except for the white-haired girl—she was expressionless. Or maybe just stone-faced?
Wei'en got a strange feeling as he looked at her.
It was as if the girl hated the entire world; her gaze was just too hollow.
'I never would've guessed Roger is actually pretty handsome when he smiles. What a shame.'
A shame he's a Spiritual Polluter, and on the verge of losing control at that.
But what surprised Wei'en even more was that the photograph wasn't in black and white, but in full color.
This suggested that this world's level of technology was surprisingly high, at least in the field of optics.
Of course.
'Then again, maybe it wasn't technology, but Magic... I can confirm that later.'
Additionally, several oil paintings hung on the office walls.
The largest and most eye-catching painting was of an old man wearing a monocle. Below it was a signature: Ales Kilibali, 13th Director of the Secret Investigation Department.
Hm?
Wei'en walked over to double-check, then opened his system panel to look for the notification.
[You have been scanned by Ales Kilibali's Spirit Perception. Reward: Survival Points +1.]
'So he's the one who hit me with that Spirit scan the other day. The Director, no less.'
He recalled seeing the Director's office building yesterday on his way to the Property Management Department with Lisi. It was an unassuming little building next to the Detention Area.
'A Director who likes to spy on his subordinates. Tsk!'
Wei'en returned to his desk, sat down, and glanced at the wall clock again.
'It's nine o'clock already. Seriously?'
He knew that if there was only one outlier in a group, it meant the majority was in the right.
'The workday doesn't start at nine!'
'No wonder the guard at the entrance gave me such a weird look...'
Wei'en felt a little annoyed after coming to this conclusion.
'If I'd known, I would've spent more time studying those parchments...'
'Oh, well.'
'Since I'm early, I'll just consider this the first lesson the Secret Investigation Department has taught me.'
He then opened the file folder Lisi had given him yesterday, ready to familiarize himself with the work of Investigation Department One.
SLAP!
Wei'en had just opened the first file to the first page and taken a quick glance before snapping it shut.
'That's... intense...'
He checked the file's cover again: "The Feast at the Liszt Manor."
'That's right, the name looks so ordinary.'
It wasn't like the other files—"The Living Sacrifice of the Eternal Slumberer," "Assassination of the Storm Church Bishop," "Lilith's Doll"... cases that sounded horrifying from the title alone.
'But why, why is there a picture like *that* on the first page?'
'What the hell does this have to do with a feast?'
Wei'en wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. The thought that he'd be dealing with cases like this regularly in the future made him grit his teeth and open the file again.
'Fuck, it's still terrifying!'
The first page of the file held a photograph of a magnificent banquet hall.
Of course, the location wasn't the focal point of the picture.
It was the "people" in the banquet hall.
The vast and opulent banquet hall was littered with severed limbs. Blood stained the carpet, the walls, and even the enormous chandelier.
And beneath the chandelier was a "Pyramid" built from human heads.
The photograph was so clear that the initial sight of the scene had made Wei'en jump.
The expressions on the heads were simply too bizarre.
The heads belonged to men and women, the elderly and children; it was clear they had all been participants in the feast.
Every face wore the same expression. It wasn't a grimace, but a stiff and "radiant" smile, with the corners of their mouths pulled wide.
Meanwhile, their eyes were deathly pale and hollow, devoid of any mirth.
Paired with the surrounding gore and scattered limbs, the entire image... could only be described as utterly bizarre!
Finally, in the bottom-left corner, Wei'en noticed a line of black ink: "November 3rd, New Calendar 1577, the Liszt Manor, 66 Roland Street, Caster City State."
'A case from last year?'
He glanced at it a couple more times before he couldn't take it anymore and flipped to the second page. The scene was simply too much to bear.
'God damn it, the cases in this world are on a whole other level of terrifying.'
The contents of the second page were much more normal, detailing the investigation of this deceptively pleasant-sounding case.
"The Feast at the Liszt Manor: Over 113 victims, including 32 members of the Liszt Clan. Faruk List, a substitute council member for the Caster City State, was also killed."
"Investigation determined the event to be a sacrificial ritual of the Eternal Life Association—'Bloody Eternal Life.' The presence of a creature from the Abyssal Depths—a Skeleton Knight—was also detected at the scene."
"The case was ultimately solved by a team led by Lisi Jeannece Montoya of the Secret Investigation Department's Investigation Department One, who killed the Eternal Life Association member responsible for this massacre—Bloody Boras!"
'The Eternal Life Association?'
'A Skeleton Knight from the Abyssal Depths?'
Wei'en found no relevant information in his predecessor's memories. He shook his head and moved on to the other files.
Needless to say, just like the Liszt Manor case, the crime scenes in the other files were just as shocking.
They were either bizarre or bloody... none of them were normal.
However, they all had one thing in common: Captain Lisi was the lead investigator on every case, and the perpetrators never met a pleasant end.
'So she likes to keep files on the cases she's handled? What a tsundere.'
Wei'en put the file down and smacked his lips. 'It's like watching a horror movie...'