Contempt

Bauhinia Federation, capital.

Inside the Presidential Office.

A blizzard howled outside the windows. Inside, the heating was turned up to its highest setting, making it feel as though the room were being steamed by waves of heat.

Outside the secretary's office, a middle-aged man in a black trench coat, with a stern face and an appearance of about thirty or forty, waited nervously.

"All right, how many times have I told you!"

A few hours later, the door opened and a presidential secretary came out. "The president is very busy. He doesn't have time to listen to a little Detective Inspector like you give a special briefing! You should go to your superior!"

"I've already tried!"

The middle-aged man's eyes were sharp as an eagle's, but now they were clouded with anxiety. "But our chief won't listen to me at all. He's completely ignoring the intelligence we got in exchange for so many of our brothers being killed and wounded. Mal, you're my best friend. You believe me, don't you? Look..."

He hurriedly held up a thick stack of documents. They were all about paranormal incidents, or terrifying destruction that had occurred during criminal pursuits. The very first page bore reports of the Three-Eyed Cult and the Lion Monster, along with a photograph of the lion's corpse.

"Lucius, you really are my best friend. Otherwise, do you think you'd be able to sit here in peace?"

Mal shook his head, speaking in a rush. "But you have to understand, I have a bright future ahead of me. Putting in a word for you with our secretary-general is already the limit of what I can do. What do you want me to do? Go straight to the president and say there's a guy who wants to tell you about some 'non-human