She Professed Herself The Pupil Of The Wiseman (WN)

「Ah, there you are. Sorry to keep you waiting, Mira.」

After a few minutes of waiting in the lobby, Julius appeared at the top of the stairs, and once he found Mira he bowed respectfully.

「Ohh, so it’s you he told me about. I apologize for the delay.」

There was a man next to Julius, who also apologized while smiling a little. It was easy to conclude he had to be the chief detective that Julius had mentioned. His appearance revealed his past as a veteran adventurer, having a rugged face and quite toned body. His eyes shone with intelligence though, showing he was a man well versed in both combat and science, leaving very few gaps in his knowledge.

But Mira’s eyes were drawn the most to the fact that he was sitting on a wheelchair. The wheelchair itself also had its quirks, the main frame being identical to those used in hospitals with large wheels the rider could manually turn, but with the seat switched out for a more comfortable reclined chair.

「O-Ohh! Then you must be Chief Detective Wolf. It’s a pleasure to meet you.」

He looked like the perfect picture of what Mira imagined a detective to look like, which made her heart skip a beat. While there were many stereotypes for such a character, the way he leaned back made her think of a detective relaxing on his chair. On top of that, he had the rugged appearance and age Mira looked up to, filling her with admiration as she stood up.

The detective was atop the stairs, and on a wheelchair, so it made sense for Mira to go up.

「Oh, it’s alright, Mira. Could you wait there for me?」 But then he stopped her.

「What? But…」 Mira really could not bring herself to make someone in a wheelchair do that. Just when she was about to refuse to comply and go up anyway, the detective beamed a confident smile.

「I mean, we’re the ones who brought you here, so it’s only fair courtesy for me to meet you down there.」

As soon as he said that, he placed his hands on the chair’s armrests and propped his body up. It was a rather vigorous movement which many people nearby noticed, and they gasped with surprise.

But his legs could not support his weight, a pained groan leaving his mouth as his body collapsed.

The momentum from the way he stood up still remained as well, leading to his body tipping forward and bending atop the stairs’ handrail like a piece of cloth hung to dry.

There was another audible gasp from the onlookers, this time a more concerned one, as the detective’s body began to slide down the rail.

「Ghah!」

Eventually he reached the end of the stairs and his body was launched into the center of the lobby, his body producing a louder groan when he hit the floor. But he was still a former adventurer, so regardless of the worry displayed by the onlookers, he turned around and sat up like nothing happened.

「Oh dear, I deeply apologize for that shameful display. I really thought I’d be better by now, but I guess I miscalculated.」

Sitting on the floor, he laughed awkwardly. The way he spoke made it seem like his legs were not fully paralyzed. He tried moving them again, but quickly grimaced in pain, before turning pensive and muttering 「Did it get worse..?」

「Chief, you haven’t recovered yet precisely because you keep pulling stunts like that. Didn’t the doctor and saint mention that resting was paramount?」

Julius then spoke to him, sounding slightly frustrated as he went down the stairs while holding the wheelchair. This seemed to be a rather common occurrence though, as he did not sound worried.

「Well, that didn’t quite work out, did it…」

The detective chuckled to himself as he took Julius’ hand as support to get himself back on the wheelchair. The way he laughed while being slightly embarrassed made his sagely appearance from earlier vanish, overtaking it with a more whimsical and endearing one.

「Hmm… That was quite a fall, are you sure you’re alright?」

He did not seem to be hurt in the slightest, but it was hard to tell whether that was truly the case, so Mira decided to ask that just in case.

「Oh, I’m sorry for making you worry, but as you can see I’m perfectly fine!」

Saying that, he began moving all his limbs, and even the legs that made him groan just by moving them a little were kicking up energetically now. At least the pain had subsided there.

Mira looked at that in wonder, so the detective grinned as he revealed the secret. It turned out that a certain pain dulling spell had been imbued onto his wheelchair, so as long as he was sitting in it he could move however he wanted.

「Please try to let your legs rest.」

Julius quickly stepped in to chastise him for acting that way though. While that spell dulled the pain, it did not mean his legs had been cured, so moving around like that would only hinder their recovery. Then again, Julius had told him that many times already.

「Ahh, right, right. Don’t worry I’ll stop now.」

The detective gave in to Julius’ anger and stopped, though his shoulders slumped a little.

Mira watched all of that with a slightly nervous smile, realizing that her initial impression of the two had turned out to be rather inaccurate. At the very least they were not of the hard boiled detective kind.

「By the way, may I ask what happened to your legs? Depending on the type of injury my summons might be able to heal them.」

There were some giggles coming from the surrounding onlookers, but they did not come out of mockery, and rather pleasant innocence. Amidst that, Mira asked that to the slightly embarrassed detective.

「Ohh, so there are summons who can heal as well? That really sounds like an all-purpose class.」

The detective seemed surprised to hear of that, but he also mentioned that treating his legs was not so simple. The root of the pain were remnants of an injury he had sustained during his time as an adventurer, which had flared up considerably.

He also mentioned it was a fierce and magnificent fight though.

「He should be able to make a full recovery, if only he’d keep still…」

Just when the detective was about to get distracted by narrating his exploits as adventurer, Julius scolded him again, before reeling the conversation back on track.

The two had already predicted the escape routes of the phantom thief. In the past, he would always enter unseen, but once he accomplished his goal, he would hop off the building’s roof to escape. That was a common trend the pair had noticed recently.

After that revelation, they had gotten to work on determining which escape routes he could take in this city. Chasing him down would become much easier by knowing that, and it also opened the possibility of setting up ambushes and blockades.

The detective was certain that the only way to capture Fuzzy Dice was to act preemptively, so he had gone up to the rooftops to analyze the city’s layout, and even went as far as to test them to see if they were viable escape route, trying to jump from rooftop to rooftop just like the thief did.

「And you can already see the result of that…」

Julius sighed as he looked at the detective. Sure enough, he had fallen from the rooftops.

Then again, strong people in this world were resilient like boars. Even Arlon who Mira worked with in the past could easily jump down from ten meter heights without batting an eye. The detective clearly also had a strong body, so maybe he just missed his landing. Mira tried asking about that, and she was told that the detective had made a wrong jump, striking a wall head on, which left him dizzy and he tumbled down to the ground.

The injuries he sustained from that were quickly healed by a saint that was accompanying them, but the excessive stress on his body had awakened those old injuries, so now he was bound to his wheelchair.

Saints could heal all sorts of injuries and ailments, but they were not omnipotent. Sequelae were something out of their expertise, and nothing could be done. That also applied to the healing summons Mira wanted to show off so badly.

「Hmm, I see. That’s a rather complicated situation…」

Considering Mira had reached the summit of all summoners, being one of the Nine Wisemen, she would be much better at healing than a regular saint, though that was not enough to heal such an injury. Mira muttered that with a disappointed voice, which Julius noticed.

「Look, chief. I think you should try to accept someone’s kindness before you start talking about proper manners or what have you. Otherwise you’ll just end up causing them even more unnecessary troubles.」

「Hrngh…」