Chapter 1459 (1/2)

“Commissioner Arrietti,” Commissioner Arrietti spoke to himself, weighing the words with his tongue. He was sitting in his office with only his desk lamp providing light. The sun had fallen, leaving the room with only a halo of light around his desk. He was looking down at the mock-up business card he had specially made the prior day. “First Responder of Kharon.”

It was truly a cool title for a Class. One he was quite proud of, despite the… difficulty in the transition process. Setting the business card down on his desk, Arrietti leaned back and released a sigh. Still though, he knew the act of making these business cards was useless; how often was he in a situation where he would be able to hand out business cards? People around Kharon simply recognized him on sight. Those who weren’t from Kharon saw his Kharon Police uniform with all the stripes and commendations and leapt to their own, probably accurate, conclusions about who he was.

He was a man who did not inspire the least bit of curiosity in an onlooker. It was honestly quite depressing. Especially when he had finally found a part of himself that was so idiosyncratic.

It would probably be a bit too much to get my office’s nameplate changed to say Commissioner, First Responder of Kharon… Arrietti thought as he rubbed his chin. Then he released another explosive sigh and let his body sag backward into his comfortable leather chair. What it should say is Commissioner Arrietti, 51, eternal bachelor…

The man who inspires no curiosity in the opposite sex...

This troublesome train of thought had started earlier today. In the day-long break between the rounds of the duos tournament, Kharon had hosted its first random selection of representatives. The police force and the Order Ducis had been working tirelessly through the night and early morning in order to make sure that nothing went awry with this first election. They had carefully monitored the surging flow of individuals coming in an out of the city, looking for anything suspicious.

Riding high on the capabilities of his new Class, Arrietti had been a man possessed. When he wasn’t apprehending someone for questioning, he was hurrying across the city to intercept someone else. His new Skills related to Kharon gave him subtle tip-offs when rogue elements entered the city. Combined with his growing sensitivity toward images, the representative selection had gone off without a hitch.

Well, that wasn’t exactly true. As Tatiana had feared, a foreign business owner had attempted to have themselves nominated as a representative, even though they weren’t a citizen of Kharon. Luckily, Kharon’s image had reacted almost immediately with a powerful wave of hostility. With the support of the crowd, the new Kharon Council had passed a few laws regarding who could sit on the Council, and also a security value in that removing a Council member required an affirmative vote from 70% of Kharon’s population.

Just like that, things were back on track for the Wandering City. The council excitedly began deciding their itinerary for the next two months. But in the wake of the political excitement, Commissioner Arrietti had been looking forward to finally having the break that he deserved. He had walked through the busy thoroughfares around the arena, waiting to receive one last report before he clocked out for the day. And when he walked around the corner to the agreed-upon meeting place with Derek Moss…

...He found Derek Moss locked in a gentle embrace with Gertrude Collins. Needless to say, their mouths were touching.

Commissioner Arrietti froze. He wanted to look at anything else, but the place they had chosen was the service delivery side of the food court. At this time of day, it was completely deserted. There was a broken wooden pallet a few meters behind the couple, but focusing on that made them just vague, seething blobs in the foreground of his vision. That made it almost worse.

Et tu, Moss…? The First Responder of Kharon eventually couldn’t stand anymore and turned to walk briskly away. His slightly frazzled brain decided he would walk around the food court once or twice, looking for any suspicious activity, and then come back. Hopefully at that point, this… public display will have ceased and they could speak professionally without any distractions. Which was the way that police officers should be.

Not that Derek is a police officer. But this lack of professionalism is certainly…. Ahem. Commissioner Arrietti had coughed lightly into his hand and glanced around at the people chatting happily about the tournament bracket. Although there weren’t any matches today, it seemed people were out in force just to enjoy a meal and soak in the festive atmosphere.

As Arrietti walked around, most of the discussion he overheard centered on the fact that most people believed the side with Alana and Hank was much stronger than the other portion. But overall, it seemed that most people were quite happy with how the tournament had gone.

Gradually, Commissioner Arrietti’s eyes had narrowed as he walked around. The more he looked… the more he realized that there were small signs of affection everywhere that he looked. A woman with her hand on the arm of the man next to her. A man nudging the man next to him with his elbow, exchanging a heavy glance and a secret smile. Two cats scampering excitedly underneath a funnel cake stall.

And then, right in front of him-

“If you don’t like it, pull your hand away,” Delilah announced, dragging the Moss boy confidently behind her.

The Moss boy rolled his eyes. “How many Strength Stat points do you have anyway? I don’t think I could overpower you even if I wanted to.”

“A lady never tells. Ohoho” Delilah laughed exaggeratedly, hiding her mouth behind her extremely small hand. Then the two walked away, laughing and joking. Commissioner Arrietti could only reach up and wipe a small tear from his eye.

Of course, the kid probably didn’t think of their involvement as romantic at all; there was too much age difference between them. Yet wouldn’t this someday be the base setting of a heartwarming romantic comedy? In comparison, Arrietti’s recent interactions…

I’m swimming in professional respect, Arrietti said to himself in an attempt to inject some cheer, but what did that really matter? The more he thought about, the more he realized how much work had consumed him for the past several months. So he had staggered around the food court like a zombie, met an obnoxiously cheery Derek Moss for the report, and then returned to his office to consider the problem. Yet the more he thought about it, the more depressed Arrietti became.

I am lonely. He couldn’t deny it any longer. And everyone always said that you don’t look for love, it comes and finds you. But he had been working tirelessly to make Kharon a great city and during that time love had conspicuously given him the cold shoulder. Even worse, Arrietti felt like there was nothing that he could do about it now; after working so hard for so long, he wasn’t even sure how he would go about trying to meet someone.