Date- 4 April 2321
Time- 10:18
Location- Central Region, Central Capital, Unknown, Command Base.
Hearing demigod Baylor declare that starting today they will be investigating the southern royal family despite it not falling under their jurisdiction just because he says so came as a huge shock to them. They were astonished that demigod Baylor dared to make claims like that.
But the smarter ones knew there was more to the story here. The last time they saw the demigod Baylor make claims so brazenly, the entire central region did not see peace for half a decade, leading to the exile and imprisonment of many high-ranking officers running a secret corrupt club within the central government.
“I don’t want to hear any excuse, do what you do best and dig up whatever you can get on the southern royal family. I want an initial report on my desk within an hour,” demigod Baylor did not give the crowd time to recover and gave them their orders before asking them to disperse, “Except for squads A, B, and C the rest of you disperse.”
“Yes, General,” the crowd said collectively before hurrying to their workstation.
Seeing the last of the crowd leave except for squad A, B, and C Gilliam asked demigod Baylor, “Sir, now can you tell us what this is all about?”
“First, explain to me the recent news about a fraud related to the southern royal family,” demigod Baylor asked instead of clearing the confusion of his subordinates.
“Sir, are you talking about the rumor where the southern emperor helped a fraudster from a third-rate city in the southern region to get a patent for a fake product?” squad A’s squad leader asked not being sure whether the General was talking about the incident he spoke of.
“I am not sure, tell me more about the fraudster in question,” demigod Baylor asked squad A’s squad leader to give more details.
“That, sir, I did not bother to…” squad A’s squad leader hesitated not knowing how to tell his superiors that he did not have the information he was looking for. As a veteran officer, he knew how to talk to his superiors but he stuttered in front of the demigod Baylor as he was his idol.
“If I may General, I have done my due diligence about this case so I think I have more to offer,” squad C’s squad leader stepped forward saving her colleague some embarrassment in front of his idol.
Squad A’s squad leader gave squad C’s squad leader an understanding nod thanking her. demigod Baylor’s gaze switched to squad C’s squad leader and he said, “Go ahead Major.”
squad C’s squad leader nodded and began by saying, “I have been following this since the first it aired in the news. I gotta say this whole incident stinks of suspicion.”
pAn,Da n<0,>v,e1 With that, squad C’s squad leader went on to explain the silver milk fraud to the crowned bring up to speed. But before she could get to her suspicion about the case, demigod Baylor stopped her asking, “How did the Southern Emperor come in contact with a random high school senior in a third-rate city?”
Squad C’s squad leader hesitated to answer but then she shyly said, “Southern Emperor is known to enjoy the company of handsome men, and from the photos of the boy he is quite the looker. So I think the southern emperor might have taken a fancy to him and the boy took it as an opportunity to pull off the biggest fraud of the year.”
“Biggest fraud of the year? From the way I see it since no money was exchanged this afraid is just another failure that managed to gain the spotlight because of the involvement of royalty,” Gilliam commented, disagreeing with squad C’s squad leader.
“Lt General, I heard after successfully gaining the patent for his game product, silver milk powder, the boy sold its entire production and distribution rights to the southern emperor for a huge sum.
You guys did not hear this from me but one of my contacts in the central reserve bank who is also investigating this case as a hobby said that she traced transactions of a huge sum of money between the southern emperor and the boy. That is not counting the private transaction they did under the table,” Squad C’s squad leader tried hard not to sound like a gossiper as the only female squad leader but this case was just that good she could not help herself.
“Production and distribution rights for a fake product? No that’s just genius but considering the wealth and expenditures of the southern family that amount of money is nothing to them,” Gilliam lamented and it seemed like he was jealous of the boy’s haul from the fraud. Considering he was a demigod his jealousy made no sense but considering that he was stuck with a dead-end job in the central government it made sense, he missed the thrill of counting a lot of money with questionable origin.
“So all the trials lead toward the boy defrauding the southern emperor?” demigod Baylor asked squad C’s squad leader with a deep frown because Ellen’s son’s crime seemed more serious than he thought they were. He would not be surprised if the southern royal family hanged him for this but it was a surprise that they did not sentence the boy to his death yet. No matter the crime, a crime against the royal family would be given the most serious sentence, so what was the hold-up in Ellen’s son’s case?
“Yes, General,” squad C’s squad leader nodded in affirmation.
“Squad C, use your contacts in the central reserve bank to get me the copy of transactions between the boy and the southern emperor.
Squad A, you guys head to the Sky Blossom city and get a status on the boy. Don’t use the warp array or teleportation array to travel through the borders, you guys have permission to use the chariot.
Squad B, get in touch with the researchers that claimed this product to be fake and assemble them in the base’s lab.”
Demigod Baylor gave the three orders their orders but never explained to them his interest in this case. Before Gilliam could remind him of that, demigod Baylor’s grimoire rang with a text notification,
[Field Marshal Henricks,
Report to my office asap.]
