Only then did Lynch realize that there were problems with him everywhere, and he hadn't noticed a thing. On the contrary, he'd been happily running around with Klein. He really had a ridiculous amount of luck.
Still, he quickly calmed down.
It would take Upton some time to go back and inform those people. Given his situation, they would surely need to discuss how to deal with him.
So if he sent someone to catch Upton now, was there a chance he could take them all down at once?
Of course, if they were all Beyonders, he'd just have to accept his fate.
But as long as they weren't Beyonders—or were even just Low Sequence Beyonders from the Cowardly Trio—they could be subdued by force.
Naturally, he had to be wary of whether they had divination abilities.
But if they had divination abilities, they would know he wasn't dead yet.
Get them!
He couldn't wait any longer. He didn't want to leave those people around to cast a terrifying shadow over his life now.
But who could he ask for help?
Lynch's first thought was Dunn, but he immediately abandoned the idea.
Dunn was a good man, but telling him about this would likely mean Dunn found out Lynch had died once.
Like Klein, Lynch didn't want anyone to know they'd come back from the dead.
Of course, he could also tell Dunn he knew nothing, just like Klein had, and pin it all on someone else.
But he was clearly different from Klein.
No one had seen the scene of Klein's suicide, but someone knew about the original Lynch's shooting.
And there was the original Lynch's pledge.
The original Lynch had a copy himself, and the Big Meat Church might have one too. If it was found, that would be practically fatal.
Lynch thought about it and shook his head helplessly.
He'd thought the original Lynch had been kindhearted and deliberately behaved well in the dream. Now it turned out he'd done it for a reason, which made his behavior in the dream seem terribly fake.
Dunn could even deduce that he'd been conscious in the dream and hadn't been under anyone's control.
With a grim expression, Lynch thought for a moment, then immediately lit a candle and burned the paper to ashes.
He didn't want to leave himself any trouble.
But there was clearly no guarantee that this was the only copy of the pledge.
And the church had to be wiped out.
He pondered for a moment, and an idea came to him.
Inspector Mountbatten!
Lynch gathered up the original Lynch's belongings in the room and left.
Then he took a carriage and reluctantly handed over one soli.
"Take me to a shop that can make a custom banner. Hurry!"
About two hours later.
The police station.
When Inspector Mountbatten came in for his afternoon shift, Lynch arrived by carriage. He got down, put on the original Lynch's bowler hat, and, in front of everyone, presented Inspector Mountbatten with a banner, his expression sincere.
"Inspector Mountbatten, I've finally found you! You helped me so much!"
He raised his voice, making sure everyone nearby could hear.
To make Mountbatten look even better, he loudly repeated the inspector's promise and went on to tell the story of how Mountbatten had helped them get their exorbitant medical bills reduced.
As Lynch told it, Mountbatten became a public servant of the people, an exemplar of the age, and the finest officer in the police station.
In short, Mountbatten grinned from ear to ear, though he pretended to scold Lynch for bringing the banner at such a time and disrupting everyone's work.
Lynch apologized, telling everyone he'd just gotten carried away and hadn't realized he was wasting their time. He promised not to do it again, and so on.
After a string of pleasantries, Mountbatten finally invited Lynch into his office.
He'd initially wanted to talk to Lynch about becoming an auxiliary police officer, but Lynch soon produced the Seventh Action Group credentials Dunn had given him.
The Seventh Action Group was a confidential unit. Its members could generally give direct orders to police officers like them.
Mountbatten was dumbfounded. He couldn't understand how this ordinary clerk he'd met before had suddenly become his superior.
For a moment, he even thought Lynch had come from above to investigate him. Fortunately, Lynch said he really was there to investigate a case, but he absolutely wasn't investigating Mountbatten. He just needed some help, and if Mountbatten did a good job, Lynch thought he'd be better suited to become the chief of police.
Compared to a righteous Beyonder like Dunn, Lynch found Mountbatten far more useful.
Sure enough, all he had to do was briefly mention that Upton had come by that day to say Lynch was dead, and Inspector Mountbatten immediately thumped his chest and promised to help Lynch bring the man to justice.
Even when Lynch told him not to bring Upton back to the station if they caught him, but to write Lynch a letter first so he could interrogate him, Mountbatten had no problem with it.
Mountbatten even came up with an excuse for Lynch.
He said Lynch was conducting a secret investigation.
He even suspected Lynch was investigating their chief. After all, Lynch had hinted that Mountbatten had a good chance of becoming chief himself.
Their chief was in his forties, still a long way from retirement.
It was incredibly difficult for Mountbatten to become chief—unless the man was suddenly transferred or caught doing something that got him stripped of his position.
So, if his help proved useful and the chief was successfully forced out, Mountbatten could rise straight to the top.
Ha!
He was in!
Inspector Mountbatten solemnly vowed to do his job properly. Once everything was done, he wouldn't ask for the chief's position; deputy chief would be enough.
He wasn't greedy, and he definitely wouldn't put Mr. Trance in a difficult position.
Lynch: ...
Well, he had meant to imply something when he said that, but had this guy really started fantasizing about becoming chief or deputy chief already?
"Haha, deputy chief would be a waste of your talents. If you can be chief, then be chief!"
If that organization had the means, they would simply kill Inspector Mountbatten. There was no need to worry about what kind of chief he was. He could just make promises.
If things really worked out, Lynch would help Mountbatten become chief. But that would take time—maybe a year or two, maybe decades. They could just wait for the current chief to retire!
If all else failed, he could hire the Fool to assassinate Mountbatten through the Tarot Club.
If he couldn't handle Mountbatten's chief, surely he could handle Mountbatten himself.
Lynch thought through all this while pretending to kindly warn him about the danger, hinting that the matter was risky. Hearing that only made Mountbatten feel more confident.
How could forcing the chief out not be dangerous?
He'd make sure to bring all his lackeys along!
"Don't worry! I'll get it done!"
"I'm sure you can handle it!"
Lynch spent a while more buttering Mountbatten up, then left the police station.
After that, he pretended nothing had happened and strolled home, swaggering along.
It was as if Mountbatten's efforts to contact people and lead a team out from the station had nothing to do with him.
On the way home, Lynch didn't feel as if he was being followed. Of course, he might have been mistaken, or the other party might have been very skilled.
Still, most people could sense when they were being followed.
The flowers, grass, and trees along the road all seemed strange, and he kept looking back, feeling uneasy.
Lynch felt nothing of the sort.
Could Upton really have just wanted his money?
How was that possible?
He shook his head, returned to Klein's home with his belongings, and put away his luggage. Then he began to think about where he would sleep that night.
After all, Benson was coming back tonight. Klein couldn't exactly share a bed with Benson...
Well, whatever!
He'd already latched onto Klein. He was only taking up one room, and not for more than a few days anyway.
Still, for once, he felt a little awkward.
Before, he'd felt perfectly justified in making Klein pay. After all, he'd thought the original Lynch had kindly pulled Klein out of the way, only to get beaten to death for it. It had been terribly unfair.
But now, it seemed the original Lynch's death had little to do with Klein.
Instead, because Klein lacked those memories, he'd ended up saddled with a debt of one pound and ten soli, and had to cover Lynch's lodging and meals for the next few days. What a stroke of bad luck!
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