After a man and a cat had crouched in the roadside grass for ages, the main group at the scene finally finished collecting evidence and returned.
“You’ve worked hard, Chief!”
The team members saw their chief sitting in the grass, having the time of her life playing with a cat and paying them no attention at all. They could only steel themselves and go over to greet her.
“Oh, you’re done? Perfect. Forensic examiner, come over here. These two are yours.”
Itefeil pointed at the two mangled corpses on the ground.
“The investigation team also collected the items scattered around the area and put them all in this little bag. Take it with you and submit a report to the chief superintendent’s office later.”
With that, Itefeil stretched, showing off a figure that wasn’t exactly impressive…
“All right, let’s wrap it up! Good work today, everyone. I’ll definitely treat you all to dinner next time. Definitely!”
“…………”
Everyone was at a loss for words.
It wasn’t that they were counting on their chief to treat them to a meal. It was just that she often said she’d treat them, but somehow her promises never came true… By now, whenever she said something like that, the team usually let it go in one ear and out the other.
“Meow, meow…”
(Ahhh…)
As the squad headed back, La Luna was nestled in Itefeil’s arms as they rode the dragon. At first, she’d thought it would be a perfectly smooth start, but then the mount suddenly burst into speed, and the body behind her cushioned the back of her head.
“Meow, meow, meow!”
(This feeling is…!!)
Suddenly, she felt the kind of pushback you got from a supercar—with a genuine leather seat behind her!
Meow!
(This is awesome!)
This was the very stuff of men’s romantic dreams. He’d gone street racing when he was young, too, but once he got older, his body and reflexes couldn’t keep up. He’d grown more and more level-headed, and hadn’t touched anything like that in years. Now, with a younger body (?) and much faster reflexes, La Luna could feel her adrenaline surging!
After running for a while, the bipedal dragons gradually slowed down, and the outline of a gigantic city came into view before the cat.
Sville, the Empire’s westernmost city.
“Meow…”
(Whoa…)
The city before her was beyond anything La Luna had ever seen—even its outer walls were beyond the limits of what she could imagine.
When the bipedal dragons reached the city walls, the cat felt as if she were standing at the foot of the Empire State Building. The walls might even have been taller than it. And when she looked to either side, she couldn’t see where they ended. Since it was nighttime, lights glowed atop the walls, but at that immense distance, they looked so tiny.
(Oh, right. I’m nearsighted now…)
The cat snapped out of it and stared at the massive city gates slowly opening. Once again, she was stunned.
If they’d built walls this tall, what kind of enemies were they defending against…?
For an instant, a towering, exposed figure flashed through La Luna’s mind.
“Meow…”
(Damn, they don’t have those things here, do they…?)
Once the gates had fully opened, the members of Itefeil’s squad filed through and entered the city. The passage through the gate showed just how incredibly thick the walls were. Even moving at a slow pace, the bipedal dragons took quite a while to make it through.
Even at night, the city was still brightly lit, and all kinds of people were out on the streets.
“Meow…”
(So this is a big city? It’s completely different from that little town…)
The town where La Luna was born sat near the coast, a little way inland. In a town like that, by around eight in the evening, there were hardly any people left on the streets. By nine, the only building still brightly lit was the trading company, and even the guard booth at the town entrance had closed for the night.
La Luna guessed it was around nine at night now, but this entire city showed no sign of settling down.
(No curfew, and night markets all over the city?)
The few people on the road moved aside when they saw the squad. Itefeil and the others made it back to the police station without a hitch.
“All right, good work today, everyone. Go get some rest.”
“Yes, sir!!”
After returning the bipedal dragons to their stable, the team members went back to their respective break rooms.
Once they were inside, La Luna’s cat head kept turning as she looked around. This was the public security bureau of this world, but the police station here was around seventeen stories tall—practically a skyscraper. A wall enclosed a courtyard in front of the entrance, and a badge-like emblem hung over the doorway. Itefeil and the other team members wore the same emblem on their chests. There was another emblem, larger than the police badge. La Luna guessed that might be the national emblem.
Itefeil carried La Luna out through the police station’s entrance and around the corner.
“Meow?”
As Itefeil walked farther and farther from the station, La Luna grew confused. The other team members seemed to live in the station building. Did the police here have on-campus residents and commuters, too?
Itefeil didn’t walk far before stopping in front of another building. This one didn’t have the larger emblem over the entrance—only the police badge, with several neatly printed characters beside it.
“Meow, meow… meow?”
(Senior Superintendent Residence??)
Damn classism!
“Beep. Please present your personnel identification.”
“Beep. Identity confirmed. Itefeil von, welcome back. Please confirm the identity of the living being accompanying you.”
“Beep. Identity confirmed. Pet. Species: feline. No immediate danger detected. Itefeil von, you have zero remaining slots for animals in this residence.”
“Meow??”
(What’s this, an AI???)
