Ke-style law enforcement officers

Chapter 359 Opera House

night.

The law enforcement officer, the chief law enforcement officer, and two children of different ages, in this strange group, strolled around the streets and finally went into Mrs. Apoo's restaurant, a place exclusively for law enforcement officers.

The last time Milo and Rebecca were here together, Nero was still there. It was shortly before they set off for Icom, and they were still investigating Karl's death. If I remember correctly, Rebecca was eating a lot of that mushroom sauce then, and afterwards she vomited it all up...

Mrs. Ap's restaurant was originally an abandoned monastery, a type of building that became ubiquitous after the Great Plague, as the people's faith suddenly became unified, and all other religions and social classes lost their place in the world, leaving only these unused monasteries.

However, compared to last year, Mrs. Ap's restaurant has been relocated and has undergone some renovations. But the new location is no longer as close to the South City Law Enforcement Office as before. If Milo and his friends want to come here for a meal, they have to take a long detour and walk for at least 40 minutes to get there.

So while they were eating, they could always hear other law enforcement officers at the next table muttering complaints about the new governor.

This is because the newly appointed governor of Nanwei City was determined to eradicate the ills of the city after he entered the city – the memorial buildings were surrounded by city ditches filled with garbage and sewage, the dark and narrow alleys bred criminals and unstable elements, and the underground sewers were in disrepair and would become blocked every time it rained heavily.

It's not hard to see that the cuts to the law enforcement system gave the governors the confidence to implement sweeping reforms in various other areas. Also evident is the discomfort of the young governors from newly established northern cities with an "old" city like Nanwei. But for the people of Nanwei, they've long been accustomed to their boots being perpetually damp and smelly from walking on the muddy city streets…

The monastery where the restaurant used to be located has now been demolished, along with several old buildings around it. This has created a relatively spacious planned area, and scaffolding and protective fences were quickly erected, with construction lasting for nearly a year.

It is said that this will be the most outstanding building in Nanwei City in the last hundred years. Whether it is the depth of the design or the exquisite decoration, many scholars from various colleges who have seen the design drawings have praised it highly.

According to the city hall, the building was initially planned and designed to be a landmark building in the future Nanwei City.

The consul wanted to offer the city something it had lacked for so long—opera.

Thus, after rounds of competition and lengthy refinement procedures, the final version of the opera house's blueprints was delivered for construction.

It's worth mentioning that the designer of this drawing is just an unknown 35-year-old.

It's worth noting that the competitors in this project were a group of old-timers who designed a series of Anglican buildings, including the Church Bridge and the Starry Bell Tower.

But this young man from the Northwest still won the favor of the city hall with his superb knowledge.

If I remember correctly, Milo seems to have met that young designer before.

His name is quite easy to remember—Carter Garnier.

At the time, the workers discovered an undiscovered underground river when the initial infrastructure work began. The river flowed directly beneath the construction site, and the resulting flooding prevented the construction from proceeding smoothly.

Carter Garnier quickly organized a team to conduct a survey, and then revised and redesigned the architectural drawings.

Therefore, a large pool nearly 10 meters deep was built under the original building structure. Once the pool was full, the water was pumped out and drained away through underground waterways to ensure the safety of the upper building.

Milo met Carter because some strange things happened during the construction of that underground pool.

Initially, construction workers would often see strange figures darting by in the murky water seeping from the underground river. These things were much larger than fish and could remain submerged for long periods of time without a single bubble rising to the surface.

At night, the workers on the construction site could always hear low, muffled sounds, like someone speaking through a muffled drum. Everyone knew deep down that the sounds were coming from beneath the water, but no one wanted to admit it.
Under this sinister atmosphere, construction continued for two months.

As construction progressed, disappearances began to occur at the construction site.

Milo got involved and started the investigation around that time, and that's when he met Carter.

He was the most scholarly person Milo had ever met, and one of the very few whose personal etiquette and manners were impeccable. Compared to this young designer, even the usually debonair Dillacio seemed insignificant.

He was not the kind of person who was bound by tedious and ancient aristocratic etiquette. In fact, many of his ideas and thoughts were much more advanced than those of his contemporaries. He even reserved equipment rooms for power transmission and wiring channels behind the gorgeous decorations in the opera house building, and asserted that mankind would enter an era of widespread electricity in the future.

In some ways, he felt more like a modern person to Milo.

Because of his exceptional ability to accept things, at least after the workers went missing, his first reaction was not like that of other construction workers who thought that evil spirits in the underground river had dragged the people away, but rather he focused his thinking on the possibility of murder.

Therefore, he went to Milo specifically to explain all his thoughts, including some inferences about the case.

Carter's analysis was extremely comprehensive; he even considered the funding sources needed for the opera house's construction and whether there were certain individuals in the city hall who were unwilling to see it built. In short, he was the most genuine materialist Milo had ever encountered in this world.

Carter didn't even consider the slightest possibility of those folk tales.

So much so that after Milo found the perpetrator downstream in the underground river by following the route of the ghoul herd, he didn't know how to explain it to Carter.

Because what Milo found was a "burrower".

They are a group of worm-like creatures, about the length of a human and the width of a human thigh.

It has many tiny, translucent wings that vibrate in pairs on both sides of its body.

They have no eyes, and their mouths are huge with shark-like teeth.

Milo had never seen such a bizarre creature before, but he learned from the Scarlet Witch that these kinds of creatures actually live in groups in the deep sea, and this one was most likely lost in the crisscrossing underground rivers and couldn't find its way back to the ocean.

Regarding the "Underground Diggers," the Scarlet Witch also mentioned another name for them—the Visitors of R'lyeh.

In short, the case is solved.

However, the story wasn't completely solved, because the official explanation was that the missing workers at the construction site accidentally drowned and were eventually swept away by the rapid current of the underground river.

The good news is that after Milo took over the case, no one heard any more strange noises coming from the groundwater at night.

……

Until last month, the opera house announced that its roof had been completed.

After the scaffolding and mesh netting were removed, the facade, which intertwines classicism and Baroque styles, was finally fully revealed to the people of Nanwei.

Rick, in the underground morgue, was the only person in the law enforcement agency, and indeed the entire law enforcement system, who was excited about this.

As everyone knows, he is a classical opera enthusiast.

As for the other enforcers, including Milo, the bronze dome of that magnificent opera house and the gilded bodice of the Victory statue inside were, in essence, just pure runes siphoned off from the enforcement team.

The new governor wants to create an elegant urban atmosphere on the existing classical outline of Nanwei City during his term, and he wants joy and peace.

But only those wearing black trench coats know that the evil hidden in human nature is the oldest characteristic of this city, and no one can change that.

According to the seasoned veterans in the law enforcement office, "They would rather spend money on so-called art than have another new person in our department who can inform our family members of their deaths when necessary."

……

That's the gist of the situation.

The completion of the opera house meant that law enforcement officers had to travel a longer distance even for a simple meal, but fortunately, the food in the restaurants remained unchanged, as delicious as ever.

Finn smacked his lips, wolfing down the roast meat on the plate, then shoved crispy slices of bread into the sauce dish, coating them in sauce and vegetables, stuffing them into his mouth, mumbling indistinctly:
"Brother, this mushroom sauce smells so good."

That simple sentence successfully killed most of the appetite of the other three people at the table.

In this matter, Rebecca was more sensitive than Milo and Kay. At least the latter two calmed down and were able to continue eating the food on their plates, while Rebecca stopped eating altogether.

"I told you that bringing him along wasn't a good idea."

Milo glanced at Rebecca with a smug look.

……

(End of this chapter)