I! Cleaner!

"Sure, it's a bit much..."

Leon observed the towering stack of dishes in front of him and nodded silently. The female police officer, still eating from Leon's plate, leaned in and whispered conspiratorially,

"Leon, you know that big scandal from a while back? The Secret Investigation Bureau has finished looking into it. It was probably those radical Rebels!"

A while back?

"You mean the Marquis who drowned himself?"

"Go back further!"

If I think further back...

Leon felt a slight twitch in his heart, then cautiously responded,

"Do you mean..."

"Of course, I'm talking about the Boarding Tower being set on fire! Haven't you read the newspapers?"

"..."

"You really haven't read them!"

The female officer looked at Leon in disbelief and couldn't help but chide,

"Even though that's not exactly our department's business, you're still part of the police force. Surely a subscription to 'The Police Gazette' is a must?"

"..."

It's not about subscribing—it's because I was the one who set the Boarding Tower on fire. The artificial intelligence inside the Sky Clipper is even now collecting dust in my Mirror World.

And besides, you had something to do with it too. After all, the counterfeit documents and uniforms I used to get past the defense lines were obtained from the unlisted stock in your police department.

"Forget it, if you haven't read it, you haven't read it,"

Unaware that she was part of the Boarding Tower attack, the female officer shook her head. She abandoned attempts to explain the importance of newspapers to Leon and decided to bring him a subscription the next time she got one, then gravely added,

"If you don't know about the Boarding Tower incident, just know that it was set on fire, and a very valuable special Sky Clipper was lost too. The Crolock Kingdom heard the news and was extremely angry. They applied direct pressure on the Kingdom through the ambassador, demanding results within two months. Even if they couldn't catch the criminals, they at least had to recover the core components of the missing Sky Clipper."

"So... this task was dumped on your shoulders?"

"What did you think?"

She dug into a large spoonful of rice pudding, taking a few vengeful bites before the tired-looking female officer said helplessly,

"Who else would they turn to for finding criminals and retrieving things other than us in the police department? The leeches in the finance ministry?"

"Leon, did you know? After the Crolock Ambassador sent an official note saying that economic relations would be severed if no results were seen within a month and the Sky Clipper transportation routes would be temporarily shut down, the top brass in the Capital City panicked! The Princess, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Defense, the Foreign Minister, the Minister of Finance... For the past few days, the upper echelons have been taking turns exerting pressure. Except for the Princess, who offered some help, everyone's tone has grown more severe. In just a few days, the Minister of Public Safety's hair has turned grey with worry... You should hurry up and eat while listening to this. If you don't, your food will get cold!"

"Oh, oh!"

Sticking a piece of fried cod into his mouth, Leon chewed thoughtfully as he frowned,

"No wonder there are so few officers coming to eat recently, and they all look like they haven't had a good night's sleep in days, just like you. Have they all been dispatched?"

"Yes, exactly!"

Taking a piece of apple pie from Leon's plate, the female officer said dispiritedly,

"Especially our Secret Investigation Bureau, since we've always been the ones dealing with the Rebels, we've been scolded the most. The new bureau chief is being yelled at every day by the Minister of Public Safety, and he comes back covered in spit to yell at us... Look over there!"

As she spoke, she pointed with her fork to their side. Following her motion, Leon saw a police officer with even darker circles under their eyes than Yisha, hunched over at the dining table, lifelessly poking at mashed potatoes with a spoon, nodding off now and then.

Honestly, watching that chicken-pecking rice way of eating made Leon seriously doubt if he knew where his spoon was. He seemed ready to shove it up his nose at any moment.

"He was on duty with the external affairs team yesterday, and just returned this morning after finishing a patrol. Once he's done eating, he still has to go back for a meeting..."

Looking sympathetically at the weary colleague who seemed on the verge of death, the female officer said with a full look of dread,

"He is on the third round of patrol duties, which is already much easier. Those of us who went on the first round of patrols haven't slept for over 70 hours. We ran through most of the Capital City, and when we finally came back, we felt like we were going to die... I really can't believe it! Those Rebels must be out of their minds! With all that free time, why not take out the Minister of Finance? Even attacking the Royal Palace would be better! Why did they have to attack the Boarding Tower? Honestly, I'd rather they went back to trying to assassinate my dad as they did before than going through this kind of overtime... Over 70 hours, I don't even know how I managed to survive!"

"..."

Oh, well... Sorry, when I planned the attack on the Boarding Tower, I really didn't know it would lead to this...

"Hey... Yisha..."

Seeing the female officer gnawing on a fish bone in a mix of anger, ready to curse the "Rebels" at any moment, Leon—mastermind of the Boarding Tower incident and cause of the whole police department's overtime—sheepishly said,

"What was that help you needed from me?"

"Oh right, almost forgot..."

Unladylike, she spat out the fish bone and raised her head, looking at Leon with hopeful eyes,

"Does your Purification Bureau have anything that can find people, or... anyone who's really good at finding things? Although there's more than a month before the Crolock Kingdom's maximum deadline, I'm going for the fourth round of patrols tomorrow. If we don't find anything, we might have to do eight or nine more rounds... boo-hoo..."

After swallowing a huge mouthful of stewed beef, it was hard to say if she was more scalded or tortured by the foreseeable hellish overtime of the next two months, as her eyes filled with rare tears and she pleaded,

"Please Leon, could you give me a hand? Even if you can't find the criminals who attacked the Boarding Tower, retrieving what the Crolock Kingdom lost would be enough! At this rate, I'm worried I really won't hold up..."

"..."

I'd like to help you, but the problem is that the culprit who attacked the Boarding Tower is the very person sitting across from you, eating, and the thing the Crolock Kingdom wants is right in my cufflink... I can't exactly arrest myself and hand me over, can I?

"Sorry, I don't think I can help with that..."

Apologizing silently to Yisha, who was unwittingly caught up in the fallout, Leon—knowing she'd never find the answers no matter how hard she'd try—cautiously suggested,

"How about this, I'll get our director to write a note saying there's a special situation requiring cooperation. Then you could use the note to take a break, sneak into my office, and rest for a few hours, just to take a breather?"