In front of a lamppost stood a figure who scrutinized the missing poster stuck on it.
There was a photo of a chubby black cat that was in the danger line of morbid obesity. Below it was its information such as name, last seen place and finally the address of the owner if anyone ever finds it.
"Mr. Tickles, I choose you to start off my career as the best detective in the world!"
A solemn declaration was made and the missing poster now rested on his hand. This person was naturally Russell who had just joined the police department and reported in for duty after lunch with Chief Constable Walter Howard.
He wore the police uniform of dark robe with purple star patterns on the collar. On his chest rested his silver badge with written content on it signifying his rank, Patrolman! Just a rank-and-file officer, nothing special about it.
He had a bluish white pearl bracelet on his left wrist, which was an arcane artifact called Calming Bracelet that helped in regulating the mind from making any rash decisions or overlooking something due to negative and intense emotions.
He also sported a Magic Hat which was actually a storage artifact.
Neither the hat nor the bracelet was part of the uniform though. These two artifacts were widely used by mages for their practicality. Of course, these two were pretty expensive so only those with a bit of wealth can barely afford them.
It just so happened that he had inherited a vast sum of fortune from his late mentor. This Magic Hat and the Calming Bracelet was naturally among them.
Most of his inherited fortune had been stashed away inside the hat. He held the same belief as all mages in general, the safest place to keep your wealth is on you since wealth that can't be quickly accessed in a critical moment will become a source of worry in the future.
Russell quickly headed towards the last seen location of Mr. Tickles.
As a Patrolman he was part of a patrol team commanded by a Patrol Captain. During the introduction it was quite nice to see the "wonderful" expressions of his teammates and captain when Chief Constable himself condescended to preside over it.
Russell figured that it was his way of showing that he was the backer behind him lest his subordinates bullied his deceased friend's only apprentice. Of course, with the chief as his backer he didn't act recklessly but politely got along with them.
The convenience of this situation was that he could freely detach from the patrol team's assigned route whenever he wanted and could carry on with his own affairs without any repercussions. After finding that continuing to be a private detective was off the table he decided to make the most of his current profession.
Since he was basking on the glory of Walter's prestige then he might as well solve cases and accumulate merit to further strengthen this connection with the chief. After all, it would be awkward when his initial concern and attention for Russell has been exhausted but he didn't have enough achievements under his belt to prove worthy of his care in the first place.
There's no such thing as boundless benevolence without any reciprocation!
Furthermore, the wealth he inherited will be at one point consumed completely and if he didn't find an alternative channel to stably acquire resources to aid his arcana attainment then he would probably have to suffer a lot of hardship in the future.
"Solve cases, accumulate merit, exchange for resources, increase the arcana attainment, get promoted to a higher rank, and then repeat."
Russell muttered his future goals which he had thought about carefully.
The monthly wage and social benefits of a rank-and-file Patrolman was truly too meager. To rely on it completely to support his required resource consumption was a pipe dream.
He needed to climb up the rank, tightly clinging on to his backer till he eventually surpassed the backer to walk a path of his own where he could be completely carefree.
To walk this path his special power called "Eye of Inquiry" would play a critical role. He was born with this pair of hawk-like eyes that had an unbelievable power that remained unknown to others, even to his late mentor who attributed his exceptional assistance as a natural talent in the field of investigation.
The longer something or someone stays at his line of sight the more information would be unraveled. It's divided into five stages of progression.
Name, age, and identity at the first second.
Realm, grimoire, and spells at the first quarter of the hour.
Arcane craft proficiency, mage qualifications, and carrying arsenal at the second quarter.
Thorough details of grimoire, spells, and arsenals at the third quarter.
All information from birth till present at the one hour mark.
This special power was what shaped his unruly personality. After all, when you know pretty much everything about the person before you it's difficult to feel any wariness or reverence.
He has been like this since his childhood at the orphanage and he had still remained to this day after leaving the orphanage at fifteen to make his own living and perhaps even in the future as he now became part of the official system for law enforcement in the kingdom.
Russell stopped pedestrians for questioning as he showed them the missing poster of Mr. Tickles. Without any surprise, they all replied in negative.
He stroked his chin and thought for a solution, "It will be a waste of time if I run around without any clue. Ignoring my advantage to stubbornly tread the old fashioned way would be ridiculous. So, let's use that trick again."
Russell looked around and found a corner at the roadside where he wouldn't block any vehicle or a pedestrian from either side. Then he took off his hat and reached into it.
A wooden stool was brought out which he placed down on the spot to sit first.
He reached into the hat again and took out an art canvas stand. After placing it in front of him he continued to take out a white canvas, painting brush and colors. While setting everything in order he noticed that people were crowding around him to observe his action.
"Tsk! Are you watching a monkey show!? Be on your way, don't you know that if I deem you as interrupting my duties I can arrest you on the spot? Scram!"
With his loud rebuke and the deterrent of the dark robe of a police officer the crowd hastily dispersed. As for whether he would offend any reckless fool by being harsh with his words, he was now even more fearless of such incidents.
It was safe to say that at least in Little Clover Town as long as he doesn't do something that breaks the law in front of public eyes his big backer, Chief Walter would dare to shield him from wind and rain.
Not to mention he was no longer a dullard but a dignified Two Symbols Novice Mage. Though it was only the first realm of arcana attainment it was still countless times better than being among the population of dullards who are the bottom strata of this kingdom's hierarchy.
He at least knew some spells and had some magical items for self-preservation unlike them who could only gamble on other's nature to decide their fate. Though the royal law protected them, there were countless injustices that went unanswered in this society.
Pushing aside those heavy thoughts Russell focused on his work.
He skillfully drew an outline of the scenery with a pencil and after getting a feel for it he started painting with colors. He intentionally kept the entire place within his line of sight from that angle.
All the people, objects, trees and even insects scurrying about weren't spared from the powers of his Eye of Inquiry. Line after line, and words after words appeared in the illusory page.
Time ticked by and soon an hour had passed.
Russell didn't hurry to check the unraveled information but quietly admired his art for a moment.
A street lined with shops on either side of the wide main road, a horse-drawn carriage was rushing ahead with dust kicked off from the horse hooves trailing behind it, people wearing robes or shirts and pants distinguished themselves in the complexity of social divide.
"Let's call this one 'Differing Lives', people's lives are starkly different from each other despite living in the same society."
After feeling a bit philosophical he finally checked the long list of information that has been sorted into separate categories of human, object, plant, and insect for better organization. He trained in this way for years to achieve such automatic sorting ability.
He checked the human category first and sure enough he got to read all sorts of gossip and ghostly stories. He had grown numb from it so it no longer garnered any lingering glances from him.
The amount of information he had read in his short nineteen years of life had long since tempered him to be aware of the evil of the human heart and also of excessive kindness from gullible fools.
From the outside it appeared as if he was scrutinizing his painting with a focused gaze but in reality he was checking the collected information. This was also one of the many reasons why he chose to become a painter to make a living in the streets instead of looking for odd-jobs to eke out an existence.
It provided way too many conveniences to use his powers without having to deal with any suspected questioning.
This decision proved to be even more correct when he later learned from his mentor that there exists an arcane craft called Arcane Painter which can capture much information from an art work to help assist in investigation and can even be used in combat as a summoning apparatus.
Though it was more troublesome as it required many expensive items such as special canvas made of hide of some monsters, painting brush from a special magic beast's furs, colors from herbs or monster bloods as well as learning specific spells and runic arrays to unleash those aforementioned effects.
In his opinion, it wasn't worth the effort but since he needed a cover to serve as the smokescreen he nonetheless delved into it. After a month of effort, his craft proficiency in this had shockingly reached First Rank Late Stage.
He seems to be especially talented in this!
Or maybe it was just the accumulation of year long painting practices?
This recent painting of "Differing Lives" naturally wasn't worth becoming a magic painting so it was only a casual art piece.
Russell finally found the clue he was looking for in the human category.
A barbershop owner had seen Mr. Tickles four days ago in the morning. He apparently saw it heading towards the alley behind his shop. He didn't check any further as his first customer for the day had come.
After finding this clue he naturally stood up and put away all the items back in his Magic Hat before walking in large strides towards that alley.
"Hmm?"
He keenly sensed something amiss. Without any hesitation he slightly shook his right hand and a gray wand dropped from his sleeve pocket to his outstretched palm.
Ether in the air, that was white mist-like upon stimulation, fluctuated as the wand appeared.
"Airflow Detection!"
He successfully casted a perception-type spell after uttering the spell name, effectively displaying a Casting-level proficiency for this spell. He twirled his wand and the surrounding ether slightly converged to his eyes. His eyes showed a chaotic flow of light and in his vision the air became perceivable.
Russell carefully searched the alley for that feeling again. Sure enough, he found a wall in the near end of the alley that showed irregular airflow. Air was entering through the wall which seemingly showed no signs of cracks at all.
"Ah-ha! Hidden door in the unknown corner? What secret are you hiding?"
He didn't rush towards it but focused his gaze to let the Eye of Inquiry unravel more information from the distance. Anyways it only takes a second to glimpse the preliminary information as long as he saw the object clearly.
[Name: A Mistfill Door]
[Age: 2/148]
[Identity: The front door for the sixth hideout of Million Beast Mountain in Little Clover Town]
Russell froze for a second before his face turned pale. He quickly turned back and returned to the front of the barbershop, his mood very unpleasant.
"Damn it, Mr. Tickles!"
Without dilly-dallying he slightly shook his left hand and a red stick that looked like a fireworks rocket fell from his sleeve before landing on his palm. With a slight stream of ether injected it lit up the tail and rushed towards the sky with a blur of speed.
Boom!
A black flower bloomed on the white sky and a deafening noise resounded throughout the entire town. Its duration wasn't a few seconds typical of ordinary fireworks but it instead rapidly grew brighter in color and expanded in size as time went on.
The signal flare has been deployed and reinforcements are coming.