Chapter 1: The Clumsy Detective

CASE 1. The Clumsy Detective (1)

Damp air, thick with moisture, seeped into my lungs. Under a pale sky that looked ready to pour rain at any moment.

Tap—.

My cane slipped as it struck a wet stone block.

“Ah.”

I wobbled along with the cane before narrowly catching my balance.

“Whoops! Careful there, Sir. The road isn’t in very good shape, likely because of the weather.”

In response to the warning from the man walking ahead, I gave an embarrassed smile.

“Yes. I’ll be careful. I haven’t had this cane for very long, so I’m not quite used to it yet.”

In truth, the cane wasn’t the only thing I hadn’t adjusted to.

The gentleman’s attire of this world, the title of ‘Sir,’ and the goodwill and expectation filling the man’s face.

Every single thing was something I simply couldn’t get used to.

‘Still, I have to get used to it. That’s the only way I’ll survive.’

The world I had fallen into was by no means an easy place. I braced myself and moved forward again, leaning on my cane.

“Anyway, really, I’m saved because you’re here, Sir.”

The man wearing a wool hat suddenly spoke.

Did he call that a flat cap? Well, to my eyes, it just looked like a newsboy cap.

“Since this is such a small town, we haven’t had a single detective here until now.”

The man in the newsboy cap sighed.

“With all my life savings stolen, what would I have done if you hadn’t happened to be staying in our village, Mister Detective?”

“Well… as the one who accepted the request, it’s a bit awkward for me to say this, but.”

I cautiously raised a reasonable question.

“Usually, in times like this, don’t people look for the police first instead of a detective?”

“Hahaha!”

The man laughed as if he had heard a very funny joke.

“Do you think the Emperor’s dogs care about things like this? They probably wouldn’t even look twice if I died.”

“Hmm…”

“Well, it might have been different if this were the capital or if I were a noble… but for commoners like me, when trouble strikes, we have no choice but to desperately seek out detectives.”

“That is quite unfortunate.”

“Haha, unfortunate? Even if those heavy-bottomed fellows did move, what difference would it have made? At best, they’d just yell at the culprit to surrender. But detectives are different, aren’t they?”

The man turned back to look at me, his eyes shining.

“Overwhelming deductive reasoning! Extraordinary intuition! The skill to instantly grasp the truth of an incident and find the culprit with a sharp eye! That’s what a detective is!”

“Uh… is that so?”

Deductive reasoning, intuition, a sharp eye.

Did I have even one of those?

“Surely, you must be seeing the world in a way that an ordinary person like me could never imagine, Sir. Just a moment ago, I thought it was just an empty road, but you saw something else, didn’t you? A critical clue invisible to the eyes of a commoner! A trace of the culprit! Otherwise, would a healthy adult really slip and fail to handle a cane properly just because of a little rain?”

Is this a compliment or an insult?

More importantly, he told me to be careful because the rainy road was slippery so nicely earlier—was this what he was actually thinking?

I pondered for a moment before answering honestly.

“Well, as I said before, I slipped because I’m not used to the cane yet. And I was lost in thought.”

“Haha! You’re so humble!”

It seemed he had no intention of listening.

“Since you are a great person, Sir, you will surely find my precious money without difficulty. And every single cent of it, before midnight tonight! Haha… Actually, that wasn’t entirely my own money, so if I can’t find it, I’ll be in real trouble.”

No, was it that he wasn’t in the right state of mind to listen?

“Anyway, I’m not worried. Because as soon as you see the scene, you’ll figure out who stole my money and find them for me! So there’s no way I’ll end up on the streets. Haha, hahahaha!”

My stomach began to ache at the sheer pressure he was putting on me.

‘Will I really be able to find that money?’

I understood what he expected, but unfortunately, I wasn’t a proper detective.

I was a so-called fraud detective, playing the part with an ability I gained after suddenly falling into this world.

Of course, the ability I possessed was quite remarkable, but it wasn’t omnipotent. That ability was—.

“Ah, we’ve arrived, Sir.”

My thoughts were cut short by the man’s words.

“Is it here?”

At the end of the stone-blocked road, a modest wooden house stood. Flowers bloomed neatly in a small yard, and a large, leafy tree with a small doghouse beneath it caught my eye.

“I see you keep a dog?”

“No. I used to. It’s already been almost a year since Alex died. If that clever fellow were still around, there’s no way a thief would have entered the house…”

“Aha.”

“Well… if you look, can’t you tell it’s been a while since a dog was here?”

Looking again, the paint on the doghouse was all peeled off and several wooden planks had fallen away.

“Certainly seems so.”

I nodded and scanned the surroundings once more.

“Ah. The flowers against the fence are crushed and sunken. Didn’t the culprit break in through here?”

“No. That’s a mark from when I fell over about a month ago while I was dead drunk.”

“Aha.”

Indeed, the area of the crushed marks was far too wide for a thief to have caused it. To leave that much of a trace, one would have to roll around in that flowerbed.

Besides, seeing as the flowers were all withered, it seemed some time had passed. Just as the man said, it must have been a month.

As I raised my head with that thought.

“Cough, ahem!”

I choked and coughed in embarrassment.

The expression on the man’s face as he looked at me was not good at all.

‘…Did I sound too much like an amateur?’

Damn it, I shouldn’t have opened my mouth so hastily.

Since every deduction I made was wrong, he was starting to look suspicious.

‘But it can’t be helped. I’ve never even tried doing deductions before!’

I hurriedly added more words to try and fix what I had said, even if it was late.

“Well, even if that is a mark from your fall, we cannot say for certain that it isn’t a trace of the culprit’s intrusion. You see, what I mean is, from the culprit’s perspective, since the mark was already there, it would have seemed easy to hide their own traces. It would have looked like an easy place to break in.”

“That could be possible. Uh, but we always leave our front gate open? Why would they bother climbing over the fence…?”

“…Right! Shall we go inside and talk in detail? I need to see the crime scene first.”

“…”

The man stared at me with dubious eyes for a while, but fortunately, I wasn’t kicked out before entering the house.

“…Please, come in for now.”

Creak—!

I passed through a thin door that didn’t look very secure and entered the man’s home.

‘The front door looks fine. No signs of forced entry.’

Worried I’d be wrong again, I only thought it to myself this time.

The inside of the house was modest in size, just as it had appeared from the outside. A typical layout consisting of a small living room and kitchen, a bathroom, a child’s room, and a master bedroom.

However, something else caught my eye much sooner than the structure of the house.

“Are these the culprit’s footprints!”

Clear muddy footprints started from the entrance, crossed straight through the house, and stopped in front of the couple’s bedroom.

It was evidence that couldn’t be clearer.

I leaned down and examined the footprints closely.

“Hmm, the footprint size is small. It seems to be a culprit with a small frame. There’s a possibility it’s a woman. The stride is wide compared to the footprint size. If they walked with such big steps, they must have entered confidently, certain that the house was empty.”

Good. Let’s show a professional attitude. I looked at the footprints once more and shouted confidently.

“They didn’t even look elsewhere and moved in a straight line. It seems highly likely they already knew where the money was. There is a very high probability that the culprit is someone you know!”

It was a perfect deduction, more detective-like than anything!

As I turned around with full confidence….

The man was looking at me with a grim expression, more dubious than ever.

“Those are my wife’s footprints.”

“Pardon? Uh… does your wife usually wear shoes inside the house…?”

“Didn’t I tell you when I made the request? When she saw that I had been robbed and I screamed, my wife was so startled that she came running into the house. These are the marks made then.”

Wait, you didn’t tell me your wife ran in wearing shoes back then!

“Well, ahem! Now that I look closer, the footprints are in the shape of boots. Boots are hard to take off quickly. Just by looking at these footprints, I can vividly feel your wife’s urgency, having no choice but to rush in with muddy feet because the situation was so dire. Haha!”

“……”

“Haha, ha…”

It was no use. I couldn’t feel any warmth in his gaze.

The man in the newsboy cap spoke in a cold voice.

“Now that I think about it, I haven’t asked you something important.”

“Ah, well, that’s right. We haven’t talked about the commission fee. The fee is at a very reasonable price—”

“Mister Detective.”

The man cut me off and asked.

“What is your experience?”

“It’s been… about 3 months.”

In fact, it had been about two and a half months.

“How many cases have you solved during that time?”

“Uh, let’s see…. About 3 cases, I suppose.”

In fact, it was 2.5.

Two clearly solved, one vaguely solved.

Somehow, even after rounding up, the numbers seemed pitiful.

“Is your name on the detective rankings?”

“Well, not yet…”

“Ha…”

The man looked up at the air for a moment, then spoke.

“Please leave. I’m sorry, but some urgent business has come up.”

“Pardon?”

“I need to prepare some clean stationery and practice my handwriting. I should write my final words neatly, shouldn’t I? I’ll also need to prepare a sturdy rope. I hope my wife and children won’t be too shocked…”

“N-no. How can you lose hope in life so easily! It’s too early to give up!”

“Oh.”

The man looked at me with surprised eyes.

“Did you understand what I meant?”

Damn it. He’s treating me like a complete idiot.

“Now, Sir. There’s no need to jump to conclusions. It’s true that I made a few minor errors. But isn’t the important thing catching the culprit?”

“I wonder. Can you even catch the culprit? With such pathetic deductions?”

“Of course. Even if my deductions were a bit lacking, why does that matter? Deductions, they’re nothing! I’m a detective, but my specialty isn’t deduction.”

The look that treated me like an idiot grew even stronger.

“If a detective’s specialty isn’t deduction, then what on earth is it?”

Just as I was about to answer.

“Honey? Who is this person?”

Someone opened the front door and walked in.

“Ah, Evelyn. Don’t worry about him. He’s someone who’s leaving soon anyway. More importantly, what did the others say?”

“They say our house is the only one that was robbed. Mr. Tribull said he saw a suspicious person loitering in the vacant lot near our house, but—”

“My specialty is!”

I cut her off and shouted.

“Catching the culprit!”

“Ah, enough already, so just be quiet for a moment. Let me listen to my wife.”

The man grumbled in a rude tone he hadn’t used before.

“Good grief, what a fraud. A detective saying deduction isn’t important, what kind of nonsense is that? And you say you’re going to catch the culprit…”

But I stubbornly continued my words. It was because of the undeniable evidence that had just entered my field of vision.

Undeniable evidence that couldn’t even be compared to something like muddy footprints on a wooden floor. I had witnessed the truth whispered by the world, something that could never be mistaken or confused.

“The culprit!”

My finger pointed directly at the person who had just opened the front door.

The person who was likely my client’s wife. Her name was Evelyn, and she probably had the appearance of a middle-aged woman. She would have a small frame, and perhaps she was wearing boots.

But in my eyes.

She appeared as nothing more than a black shadow.

“Is you!”

[Possession Perk: Mystery Manga Reader’s Vision]

[Until the culprit is revealed, their appearance will be obscured by a black shadow.]

I am a detective who doesn’t know how to deduce.

But I can see the culprit.