"What?!"
The burly man slammed his hand on the table the moment he heard my words. He shook his head in disbelief and asked again,
"Do you want to go to prison? Is there something wrong with Jinlus Village?"
I shielded the sleeping child in my arms from the spray of saliva flying toward us, wiped my face, and replied with a nod.
"What!? I'm sorry, but I truly don't understand why you would want to report yourself for a crime!"
"Please calm down, Officer," I said politely. "I'm merely fulfilling my duty as a citizen."
"…You? Ron Irus? So you wish to be put in chains?"
"No. Youth is far too precious to rot away in a cell. And besides, I still need to protect this 'home'—even after I'm gone."
"I'm sorry? Then what exactly do you mean—"
I slowly took out a piece of paper, as if pulling it from a book. Seeing this, the man before me sighed heavily and forced himself to read the two pages filled with text.
"…So you intend to… reduce your sentence under the Euni Act?" he said at last."But the requirements for sentence reduction are affiliation with a royal academy, a royal organization, or possession of a Tier-2 special condition. And you…"
He fell silent when a letter was placed on the table.
Stamped upon it was the seal of one of the Empire's top three academies—
Blue Light Academy.
"…I truly don't understand why you would go this far."
"Oh, it's simple," I replied. "The enrollment period has already passed, but I want to enter now. So I thought I'd take a little detour."
The policeman sitting across from me clutched his head, his expression that of a madman staring at advanced mathematical formulas while listening to my explanation. After a moment, he asked slowly,
"Then… what crime does Sir Ron wish to be convicted of?"
Hearing this, I smiled gently. I shaped my fingers into a gun and placed them against the forehead of the child in my arms.
"Charges: kidnapping, extortion, and threatening a public official. Specifically, using this kidnapped child here as leverage for extortion."
The policeman burst into laughter, tears streaming down his face.
"Oh, Sir, do you even know how the people of this village see you?" he said between laughs."A true lord. Unlike that parasite noble who clings to this land, you're the only one they acknowledge as the leader of this remote village. You've never even laid a hand on a child—and now you're claiming kidnapping?"
"Tch. You talk too much. Are you doing it or not, you loudmouthed old man?"
"All right, all right. Then what exactly do you want to extort?" he said, pulling out a report form.
At that moment, the child in my arms opened its eyes. It stared at my finger—then bit it.
"…I suppose I'll demand quite a lot of candy in exchange for releasing the hostage."
…
A middle-aged man with thick hair and beard, his large belly straining against his clothes, stood beside a carriage.
"You're late," he said.
That man was Lloyd. He had been waiting for me all this time.
"It's an honor to finally meet the headmaster of Blue Light Academy in person," I said with a bright smile."And thank you for helping me clear my charges."
I looked into Lloyd's indifferent face and extended my right hand.
"And I look forward to working with you, Headmaster Lloyd."
"…Let us hope we can cooperate smoothly and adhere strictly to the terms we've agreed upon."
The carriage wheels began to turn.
It was time for me to head to my new home.