Chapter 230.2: The Chief Detective's Past (Part 2)

Considering his line of work, it made sense for the detective to quickly catch on to what Mira was explaining. Aktarka's test held the secret to measure Fuzzy Dice's power.

「Yes, that's precisely it. Aktarka's test is rather straightforward though, and within lies its difficulty.」

Mira appreciated how quickly the detective was catching up, before delving into more details about that test.

A spellcaster needed to have the necessary fortitude of mind and body to obtain spells, and the various tests given by sacred beasts tested that. Some of those tests were difficult even for the top players back in the day.

One of those difficult tests was Aktarka's.

The sacred beast Aktarka looked like a moose more than ten meters in length. Its fur was black, with pure white antlers, and its majestic figure was certainly suited to be called a sacred beast.

Aktarka was incredibly intelligent, capable of speech and communication with humans. It also had a wealth of knowledge, especially about medicinal plants, and there was a famous alchemist that revered it as a god in the past.

It lived deep within the forest, and would always wander from one place to another, so it had no specific spot where one could find it, and all encounters would be left to chance.

Its white antlers were also a valuable medical material, and if someone went to search for it to treat someone gravely ill, and happened to meet the sacred beast, it would always gladly give some once told about the situation. Those lost in the forest who ran into Aktarka would also be accompanied outside by the beast.

Aktarka was really kind and generous to those intelligent enough to talk and find mutual understanding.

But it showed no mercy to those hostile, though it also had a side that enjoyed friendly combat.

And when it came to fighting, Aktarka was powerful enough to easily trample Earl Devils.

That also led to the test it gave to those who wanted to learn its spell with Forbidden Arts. It was a very simple one-on-one duel.

「So in other words, the baseline for Fuzzy Dice is being able to win against Aktarka on his own.」

After talking her heart out, Mira completed her explanation and took a sip of tea. Voicing all her thoughts also helped her reaffirm her hypothesis in her mind, confirming that Fuzzy Dice was more powerful than she expected.

「I always felt like he moved around like he owned the whole place, but to think he's that powerful...」

Even the detective was lost in thought at the realization of the thief's power. It was easy to assume that Fuzzy Dice was putting everyone to sleep to avoid a direct confrontation, but now it was obvious he could easily hold his ground against the ten rank A adventurers.

On top of that, he was likely armed with many other Forbidden Arts no one had seen in action yet, as it made no sense for Paradise Fog to be the only one he knew.

「I guess any sensible approach is out the window now then. Seriously, I can't believe he's so ridiculously strong.」

Just how could one capture an enemy like that? The situation had suddenly blown out of proportion, but the detective was still laughing. He would not give up, and rather seemed even more enthused by the challenge.

「Your face belies your words, do you happen to have a strategy in mind?」

Seeing how entertained the detective looked, Mira assumed he still had a reserve plan, but his response was the complete opposite.

「I have no clue. Honestly, at this point, throwing in the towel might be the better option.」

The detective finished up his pancakes as he nearly raised a white flag in surrender.

It was like the sudden truth had pushed him to the brink of insanity. Seeing that, Mira turned to look at Julius, slightly worried, but he just smiled without care. Apparently moments like these put the detective in his best mood.

Julius then mentioned that when the detective was an adventurer, his rank had peaked at high A before retiring, and his request success rate was 99%. He had accomplished that by being duly aware of his own limits, and only picking those requests that suit him without taking any risks.

He had been a really skilled but also careful and reliable adventurer.

Then again, it was not exactly a rare way to be an adventurer. That line of work could get very dangerous very fast, so being cautious about everything was the best way to proceed. In a way, the detective had just been the ideal adventurer.

But the detective's thoroughness was even better than ideal. Somehow he knew exactly what requests would put his life at danger or had a high likelihood of failing, and avoided all of them properly.

「How do I put this...somehow that's hard to imagine seeing him now...」

Mira grimaced nervously. So far she had seen the detective slide down handrails, crash on the floor, talk dreamily about books, stuff his cheeks with pancakes, and gloat about his past exploits. Somehow that was a stark difference from the image Julius' story painted.

「I also felt that way at first, he really doesn't act the way the stories say.」

Julius nodded vaguely, knowing well how Mira was feeling. He had also been shocked at the contrast when he began working as the detective's assistant. Everyone described the detective as careful and thorough, but that image shattered in less than a month for Julius.

「He's basically the opposite of how he used to be. The way he puts it, he wants to embark on actual adventures now.」

Julius said that with a slightly resigned voice, and glanced at the detective, who then replied with a 「Well, that was back when I was young,」 and taking it as a cue to talk at length again.

When the detective retired, he gained a lot more free time for himself. It was then he came to a realization. The younger adventurers that came after him would often laugh and talk fondly of their past work, regardless of its success or failure.

That got him thinking, were requests really something that allowed such lighthearted comments? At first he was confused, but slowly he came to understand that sometimes even the strangest or most trivial requests could lead to fun encounters. Or rather, he was made to realize that.

「Back then I only thought of requests as a means to earn money. I know this might sound conceited coming from myself, but I have a pretty good eye at discerning my own skills. And I can tell when something is possible or not.」

Every time he took a request, he already knew he would be able to complete it, as he would skip any he deemed failures. That was all he focused on as an adventurer, success and failure.

That extended outside of his work though, as it was how he based his entire lifestyle at the time.

「But because of that I never really felt any sense of accomplishment. Success was always guaranteed, and there was no joy in it. It took me too long to really notice though.」

That seemed to bring him some rough memories, as he stared into the air with a vacant look. But it only lasted for a short moment, as he soon looked at Mira again with a smile.

「But then I was pulled out of that emptiness by my wife and daughter...」

He spoke fondly of them, showing just how much he appreciated them. First he had met his wife, with whom he had a daughter, and the two of them taught him how to enjoy life.

Raising a child was a chaotic and unpredictable time, which really turned the detective's ideals upside down and led to his change.

He had tried to arm himself with the necessary knowledge before his daughter's arrival, asking those with experience, reading books on childcare, and did everything he could to cover his bases. But when she finally arrived, nothing went to plan. She would start crying out of nowhere, act completely erratically and he could never look away from her, and it was impossible to anticipate what would happen next.

That left him confused, so he ended up going to talk to those with experience again, but they just shrugged, asking what the detective had expected. All of the advice and books they had suggested were all just general information, raising a child was an unpredictable process, and nothing could be anticipated properly.

That left the detective horrified. Raising a child was like one of those requests he would have definitely avoided as an adventurer. All of his life experience so far told him that was something he should not get involved with.

But now it was something he could not abandon anymore. So he began to fail, and failed many times more, but he stuck with his wife through everything. Then one day his daughter grew to the point of being able to express how much she loved her father, and for the first time in his life he felt a sense of accomplishment that surged from the bottom of his heart. That was the moment he understood that emotion.

At the same time, it vastly broadened his horizons.

「My obsession with determining the success rates of everything blinded me from everything that wasn't a certainty. But overcoming a challenge filled me with a joy I had never experienced before. That was also when I realized this is what made those younger adventurers feel so proud of their work, and at the same time I was finally able to see the world as a whole. It really made me want to go out on adventures again, regardless of my age.」

As he concluded his story, he grinned like a child as he mentioned how it did not make sense for him to become an adventurer again, and so he became a detective.