Supremacy Games

1464 Being Pressured To Drop The Case.

Sometime ago...

Captain Charleson felt a mix of emotions as he approached the double door leading to High Inspector Nolvar's office.

He was called a short moment after he sent his squad to start their investigation, which raised his curiosity. He rarely gets called to his superior office since he almost never makes mistakes.

He gave a single knock and a voice, a bit scuffed and irritating to the ear, beckoned, "Enter."

Inside, the spacious room was bathed in a soft, ambient glow. Dominating one side was a massive desk made of dark, aged wood, carved with symbols that represented the spirit realm's justice codes.

Behind the desk sat High Inspector Nolvar, a tall figure draped in robes of deep green and gold, with discerning silver eyes that always seemed to be thinking several steps ahead.

"Captain Charleson," Inspector Nolvar began without preamble. "Please, sit."

Captain Charleson, used to the Inspector's direct manner, took the chair opposite him. "You asked to see me, Inspector?"

Inspector Nolvar leaned back, steepling his fingers. "I've been notified that you have accepted a new case."

"Yes, it's related to memo..."

Before he could finish his report, Inspector Nolvar waved his hand and requested, "You must halt your investigation on this case immediately."

"..." Captain Charleson remained silent for a few moments before asking him in a composed manner, "May I know why? You never intervened in my cases before."

"Your work is, as always, commendable. However, this case is related to a much bigger one and we already have a special task force to close it. Delving further might compromise its integrity and potentially put many more spirits at risk." Inspector Nolvak shared, "Unfortunately, I can't tell you the details as they are classified."

Captain Charleson's eyebrows drew together, his sense of justice flaring up. He felt like there was something fishy going on as he had never heard of special task forces being assigned classified cases.

In the law enforcement department, all cases were open and shared with everyone to further facilitate their closures through indirect help.

"With all due respect, Inspector, I have already accepted the case and met with the victim. My consciousness won't be clear if I just dropped him without giving him justice." Captain Charleson shook his head, "I don't know about the other case, but as long as I don't get its details and understand the situation fully, Arion's case will remain under my jurisdiction."

Inspector Nolvar sighed, a rare show of emotion. "Charleson, we both know that I can't force you to drop the case. So, if you want to continue with it, go ahead. Just know that this order didn't come from me but from the higher-ups."

"Higher ups?" Captain Charleson was somewhat taken aback by his statement.

He ought to feel this way. The higher-ups above inspectors were Grand Arbiters.

High Inspectors' duties were to keep the squads and their captains in check by inspecting their cases, their success rates, their failure rates, and their problems, assigning emergency cases, approving resources, and such.

Each High Inspector had more than ten squads under their supervision and Inspector Nolvak was responsible for Captain Charleson's squad and all other squads with the trainees from the examination.

This was the reason he was assigned as the qualification stage supervisor.

The Grand Arbiter above Inspectors were much feared and respected even though they were rarely involved in day-

to-day matters.

That's because they have the power to overrule any decision made by lower-ranked officials and could convene a council of High Inspectors when necessary.

When it came to authority, they were only lower to the Law Enforcement Supreme Chief, who was also an ethereal elder in the council.

"If you value your career, it's best to fold a little."

"I am not doing anything wrong and as long as I follow the rules, my conscious will stay clear." Captain Charleson asked calmly. "Is that all? My team awaits me."

Taking a long gander on his solemn face, Inspector Nolvak could only shake his head and excuse him with a wave of a hand.

When Captain Charleson left the office, Inspector Nolvak's expression turned cold all of a sudden.

'Not even an Arbiter scared him away. This stubborn stickler to the rules. It will take him an actual order from the chief to drop the case and the chief will never get himself involved in such petty cases.'

Inspector Nolvar stood up and walked around the office, deep in his thoughts on a method to resolve this issue peacefully like always.

'This news must not reach the duke. He is already stressed out with the slow pace of our operation, he can't find out that an outsider is investigating us.'

Inspector Nolvar was one of the many duke's loyal servants who were raised for the sole purpose of entering the government and taking key positions to help him in his goal.

Ever since Inspector Nolvar got promoted to this position, he worked on the clock to bury any case related to fallen spirits caught by the law enforcers.

In fact, even the swift protocol to conclude such cases was introduced and pushed by him in the inspectors' council.

'Damn it, if only that bastard rookie didn't accept the mission right away.' Inspector Nolvar narrowed his eyes coldly as he envisioned Felix.

He had his own underlings making sure not a single case related to the fallen specters ever got exposed.

None of them were faster than Felix when the case first appeared.

To make matters worse, Inspector Nolvar wasn't informed about this until too late as his subordinates believed that Felix would follow the protocol.

After all, it was a simple case and as a rookie thirsting for points, it shouldn't have taken them less than a few hours to finish.

Alas...Felix had other plans in mind.

'If I can't make them stop, I need to alert all of our operation handlers and make them pull back.'

Inspector Nolvar decided to make the sellers and other staff lay low for a while. In the meantime, he would start his attack on Captain Charleson's squad by relocating new tough cases to them.

While he couldn't force any squad to take or drop a case, he could most definitely offer them unresistible cases.

'Let's see if you will stay stubborn when you keep losing great cases that can help your squadmates' careers.' Inspector Nolvar sneered.

...

Back in the squad's office, Felix and Ravager were seen sitting in front of Captain Charleson. Hazel and Nidam had also returned as they were called for an emergency meeting.

All of them were awaiting his response silently after Felix presented all the data they had collected in the archives.

Just like them, Captain Charleson could smell foul play all over those cases the moment he read their details.

It was too rare for ten cases to end in the same manner and have the same data, but over a hundred? It wasn't right.

'This must be the doing of an Inspector. Only they possess such authority to oversee similar cases from multiple squads. Arbiters rarely get involved and the chief's movement is too large to go unnoticed.' Captain Charleson narrowed his eyes at the image of Nolvar.

It was understandable for him to suspect him first since he was called the instant he accepted the case and was even pushed to drop it.

Still, it was a mere suspicion.

"This case has turned out to be much bigger than any of us has anticipated." Captain Charleson uttered with a stern tone, "We have to be extra careful."

Everyone nodded in understanding.

"Do you have any updates?" He asked Hazel and Nidam.

"I have contacted Arion's master and found out that his information was limited to the seller." Nidam shared.

"It seems like they are a reclusive circle and not even their clients know much about them." Hazel commentated.

"They wouldn't have remained hidden for so long without being this careful." Captain Charleson stated, "While they received support from someone in the department, those cases were mere anomalies. This means for the past three decades, there must be hundreds of thousands of servants with the same condition, working in utter silence akin to brainwashed slaves."

"The more I think about it, the more unsettling it gets." Hazel felt shivers down her spine. "How can Lord Hades allow this to happen under his watch?"

"Lord Hades involves himself only in matters related to situations affecting the spirit realm as a whole. As for such problems? It was up to the law enforcement department to manage it." Captain Charleson explained, "What's the point of having us if his hands were forced to get dirtied in our matters?"

Felix nodded in agreement.

He had already come to this conclusion when he realized that the heavenly plane wasn't so 'heavenly'.

True, Lord Hades had the power to shut down all the darkness within the heavenly plane and make everyone live in peace and harmony.

But this was never his goal.

He created a plane and tried to replicate a society like in the living world, not create an actual paradise where everyone was happy and chummy with each other.

Whether it was an experiment or he did it out of boredom, he had no interest in involving himself in the spirits' matters unless they were related to the living world or the unigins.

"Let's concentrate on what we can do." Captain Charleson ordered, "I need you to capture the seller right this instant. He is the key to keep this investigation moving forward."