The Answer Is a Knuckle Sandwich

Chief’s office, Central Police Headquarters.

I squinted at the dog beastman rising from his chair — Byorn, Chief of the Central Police.

I’d heard about him, but seeing it in person was something else.

The moment Lang Ei came through the door, his eyes swept her from head to toe and didn’t stop. That look had a texture to it — something slow and deliberate and deeply unpleasant.

The man was practically broadcasting his desires.

“Young master, that’s the Chief of the Central Police.”

Garul offered, helpfully.

“I know. But is it standard practice for the Chief of the Central Police to look at an Empress like that?”

“……Well, he is being rather obvious about it.”

Even Garul, not normally one to pick up on subtleties, could see it. Byorn wasn’t even trying to hide it.

The subject of all this attention — Lang Ei herself — was busy fussing with her hatbrim and hadn’t noticed a thing.

Byorn and I locked eyes.

Heinkel stepped forward.

“Pardon the intrusion. You are Chief Byorn of the Central Police Headquarters, yes? We are accompanying the Second Empress. I am Heinkel. The human gentleman is Rigen Librata, and our escort knight is Garul.”

“Rigen Librata, you said.”

Byorn’s gaze shifted to me. Something in it recalibrated.

He’d know the name. The Railway Military Police officer who’d dealt with the Kedrik affair.

I nodded once.

“Right. Now stop staring and have a seat.”

“……”

Byorn dialed back his expression and sat down.

Even so, his eyes kept sliding back to Lang Ei’s legs, covered by my jacket or not. The man apparently had some variety of long-range vision.

Lang Ei was beautiful. I’d noticed people stealing glances on the tram the whole way here.

But the way Byorn was looking at her was something else — an obsessive hunger.

“Hey, here.”

I shrugged off my jacket and dropped it over Lang Ei’s shoulders.

Lang Ei didn’t protest. Heinkel and Garul exchanged glances.

I was aware, objectively, that the way I was treating an imperial consort was roughly how you’d treat a longtime friend at a bar. But that was a problem for another day.

“……”

The look Byorn gave me was sharp enough to draw blood. Not offended on Lang Ei’s behalf — marking me as an obstacle.

I scratched my chin and gave him a smile.

“We came to talk politics, and it feels like you’re trying to change the subject. Should I flip to a different channel?”

“You’re speaking to me informally.”

“Should I be formal? I’m a Railway Military Police special officer. You’re the Chief of the Central Police.”

Different organizations, different jurisdictions — the hierarchy wasn’t clean.

Arsen commanded every Railway Military Police officer across the empire.

Byorn commanded the Central Police, which was the crown of law enforcement in the capital — but ultimately a regional body.

Nationally, Arsen outranked him.

Where did that put me, as special officer of the Railway Military Police? Clearly not above Byorn, but not neatly below him either.

“……State your business.”

Byorn let it go.

I got to it.

“Simple enough. The Central Police have been making noise about the Kedrik resolution, and I hear you’ve already seized evidence from the Kedrik estate. I’m not here to demand you hand it over. But the situation is serious — the terrorists have hit us in waves, and now they’ve reached inside the twelve houses themselves. It’s chaos.”

Byorn held my gaze.

“What exactly are you proposing?”

“We form a joint investigation headquarters. Railway Military Police, Central Police, and the imperial military, all in one room. Stop fighting over the kill and actually work together.”

Three organizations clawing at each other over jurisdiction while the terrorists ran free. Switch to a shared investigation and everyone gives a little, but—

“What does the Central Police get out of this?”

“……”

I stared at him.

Then I laughed, though there wasn’t much warmth in it.

“Are we playing soccer now? Counting goals scored?”

“The Imperial Military isn’t here, so no.”

For the record, soccer was a popular sport in Karakas. It had existed before my reign; I’d modernized the rules and helped it spread.

I exhaled.

“So if there’s nothing in it for you, the Central Police won’t cooperate with a terrorism investigation?”

“Don’t put words in my mouth. I simply think this proposal overreaches.”

“The situation demands it.”

Lang Ei had been listening. She spoke up.

Byorn’s eyebrows twitched — glad she’d joined the conversation, furious she’d sided against him.

Lang Ei continued.

“The Railway Military Police’s use of force at the Kedrik estate did exceed proper procedure. But if they’d followed procedure, they wouldn’t have stopped Luke Kedrik in time. The casualties would have been far worse.”

“Which is exactly why we can’t trust the Railway Military Police. If they’re capable of actions this significant, why wasn’t the Central Police consulted beforehand?”

“Would you have listened if they asked?”

I cut in, flat.

During my reign as Emperor the same turf battles had played out between organizations endlessly.

They all followed me personally, but old racial grudges and competing interests never went away.

Organizations that overlapped in jurisdiction always had bad blood with each other. That was just how it worked.

Byorn fired back.

“That’s self-serving logic. ‘We didn’t ask because you wouldn’t have listened.’ You’re actually saying that out loud?”

“Moooo~.”

“……”

I made the sound. Garul burst out laughing. Heinkel’s shoulders shook. Lang Ei quickly pressed a hand to her mouth.

Byorn’s face curdled. The clean rhetorical point he’d scored had just been turned into a punchline — and Lang Ei had laughed at it. That was clearly the part that stung the most.

I pressed forward while I had the momentum.

“Alright. The Central Police have a legitimate grievance. So here’s what I’ll offer: Arsen formally apologizes to the Central Police, and agrees to give prior notice before any similar operations in future. That’s a significant concession from the Railway Military Police — their commander is bowing his head, even though the Railway Military Police were the ones who actually resolved the incident. That’s going to go over like lead with every officer in the organization. Arsen would normally never agree to it.”

I paused.

“But he’ll do it if I tell him to.”

I let that sit for a second.

“That puts your standing inside the Central Police in a better position. So — does that work?”

“……”

Byorn didn’t look pleased.

He shook his head.

“Not enough. Arsen should resign.”

“Are you crazy? You’re trying to blow the whole table up?”

I dropped the light tone.

The question of Arsen stepping down had come up, inside and outside the organization.

There’d been a terrorist attack on the railway under his watch — shouldn’t the man in charge take responsibility?

In a properly functioning state, that would have happened already.

The fact that time had passed and Arsen was still in his seat was itself evidence of how fractured the empire’s internal politics had become.

And then the Kedrik affair had completely reversed the momentum — the Railway Military Police had scored enormous public credit by stopping Luke Kedrik, even if the methods were irregular.

I also needed Arsen where he was. He was one of the few people who backed me without reservation.

“You’re asking the officers who were wounded at the Kedrik party to swallow their commander’s resignation? That’s not a line anyone in the Railway Military Police would accept.”

“That’s your problem to manage.”

“So you’re telling me there’s no room for cooperation whatsoever.”

My voice went cooler.

A person naturally put their organization first. That was human — or beastman — nature. But Byorn had crossed from organizational loyalty into something else. Pure institutional greed.

“What — do you want to take over jurisdiction of all the railway stations near the capital? Hand the Railway Military Police’s investigative authority to the Central Police entirely?”

“That would be satisfying.”

Byorn smiled.

This one was done.

I’d made significant concessions and he’d waved them away. That wasn’t negotiation — that was someone who’d decided from the start that he wasn’t going to deal.

I looked at Byorn, then over at Heinkel.

“Who holds the appointment authority over the Chief of the Central Police?”

“That would be Her Imperial Highness the Second Empress.”

“Ah, so you’re saying she’ll dismiss me? But to do that, she’d need the approval of more than half the Central Police leadership.”

Confidence.

Bjorn had the confidence of a man who held his organization — the Central Police — completely in his grip.

Finding a crack would take time.

In that case——

“So the Central Police’s official position is that you’ll refuse to cooperate under any circumstances, no matter what?”

“I never said that. Only……”

Bjorn’s gaze swept over Lang Ei.

Even with my jacket draped over her, covering most of her body, his stare clung to her like something wet.

What, does he have X-ray vision or something?

“Only what?”

“I would ask that you allow me to speak with Her Imperial Highness Lang Ei alone.”

“Ah, so you want to mate?”

The moment I said it, Bjorn’s face went stiff.

I’d hauled his slimy little desire up from the depths and filleted it right in front of him.

“Who said a puppy beastman couldn’t be a cop dog? Right — you really are one.”

“Wh, what? What kind of slander is this!”

“Are you in your right mind? You want to drag a matter of national importance down to what’s in your pants?”

Bjorn’s face went crimson as he turned his glare on me.

I was past amused — I was getting angry.

I never appointed this man.

How did someone like this end up at the top of the Central Police, the guardians of the imperial capital?

“Do you actually think that’s reasonable? No — forget it. Let’s not even go there……”

That an emperor’s wife could be lusted after the moment the emperor was dead — it was genuinely beyond words.

It was a matter of authority.

Even a hundred years after my death, there were still plenty who burned with loyalty.

Arsen, for one — tell him to do something and he’d do absolutely anything.

And yet this man thought he could covet that emperor’s wife just because the emperor was gone?

Every last one of those loyalists would draw their swords over this.

“Can’t just let them handle it. I’d die of embarrassment.”

“Wh, what?”

“It’d be a family disgrace. I’ll deal with this myself.”

I exhaled slowly and fixed my gaze on Bjorn.

“Let’s keep this short and clean. You and me — one round.”

“……What?”

“You lose, you’re fired. I lose, Arsen resigns. Deal?”

Everyone went blank.

Bjorn looked like he’d just been slapped by the universe.

“Wh, what kind of insane——! There’s no reason I’d ever agree to that!”

“Scared? Arsen already said yes.”

“……”

If I ask, Arsen does it gladly.

Bjorn bit down hard on his lip and kept his glare trained on me.

“This is absurd……”

“I’m serious. You just brought up Arsen’s resignation yourself a moment ago — so you have to put your own neck on the line too. Only fair, isn’t it?”

Bjorn erupted.

“I refuse! The head of an organization settling his position through a personal duel! You have no respect for what the Central Police stands for!”

“The Royal Military Police put their pride on the line. The Central Police can’t? You’d duel if you wanted to, but you won’t? Sounds like someone’s chickening out.”

I turned to Heinkel.

“Hey, Heinkel. I’m going to need the dark elves to get the word out. The Central Police — too scared to throw down even once.”

“Now just a moment——”

“This empire was built on fighting god with bare steel to win its freedom. A little emphasis on martial culture isn’t strange at all. Hardly unreasonable.”

The empire’s founding — my founding — had come through combat. The dueling culture among nobles hadn’t come from nowhere.

Byorn’s eyes darted around.

Calculating. The position he’d clawed his way to was too valuable to gamble with. He had no interest in crossing a bridge that might crack.

“This one’s done. Let’s go.”

I’d put the offer on the table. He’d refused. Now I used that fact to shake the Central Police from the inside.

I stood up.

Then Lang Ei said, quietly,

“……Coward.”

Byorn went rigid.

He shot to his feet, eyes fixed on me.

“……Fine. I’ll duel.”

“……”

I glanced at Lang Ei, then nodded.

“No reason to drag it out. Tonight, after dinner. Arsen and the Railway Military Police officers will be there to observe — bring whoever you want from your side to watch.”

Useless people in important positions needed to be removed.

Won’t go willingly?

Then they get knocked out of the chair.