She is not an investigator.

"I was sketching, and the weather was just right; the scenery here is quite nice."

You're empty-handed.

"No one says you can't sketch empty-handed."

Momokawa gave Olivia a mischievous smile, but Olivia only felt something was off.

All her movements seemed unnatural. Whether she was smiling or distressed, her expressions seemed to be deliberately staged, failing to represent her true emotions. She was merely expressing the feelings she was supposed to through a fixed procedure.

Like a monster.

"You're a bit hard to describe, but Igris seems to like you a lot, and I wouldn't mind if you two became friends, but I really should get to work."

"Isn't Olivia planning to talk to her much?" Although she could have tried to ask her for clues about the place to see if she had discovered anything, Olivia didn't do so.

Just like she said, she was a little creeped out.

"You seem a little afraid of me. I'm sorry, I was just trying to be friendly."

Momokawa rubbed his face and forced a smile, but it was still so fake that Olivia couldn't bear to look at it.

"so?"

“I guess Igris won’t feel comfortable letting you investigate alone, so I can go with you.”

Olivia remained silent for a moment, neither agreeing nor directly refusing.

She was thinking about it, considering its feasibility and the benefits.

Perhaps she does need help, which is the main reason she recruited an assistant, but because of Igris's health condition, she is temporarily alone again, so having a temporary helper is not a bad thing.

But Olivia couldn't trust Momokawa, not because she felt Momokawa might hurt her, but because she trusted her abilities.

Igris trusted her, and the two were indeed good friends, so Olivia had no need to doubt her motives. But not everyone can do the work of a detective, and the same goes for an assistant.

If she accidentally destroyed any clues, it would probably make the normal investigation more difficult, and Olivia didn't want to cause herself any trouble.

She might need to prove herself.

“I can agree, but I need to know if you will do more harm than good. After all, an assistant is not a necessity for me. Before Igris joined, I was used to conducting investigations alone.”

Although it was only a short period of time, Olivia had already taken on all sorts of cases, big and small, and was capable of handling them on her own.

She was confident, but this confidence wasn't blind arrogance; rather, it stemmed from trust in her abilities. That's why she was certain that if Igris was truly willing to give her a chance to try, then Igris would definitely choose to believe in Olivia.

Momokawa can prove her strength; after all, she can wander back and forth between cult rituals and anomalies and escape unscathed, so she must have some special talent.

Iglesias had said before that she was really suited to be an investigator.

"What do you need, intelligence or force?"

Taochuan stood there nonchalantly, seemingly confident and unconcerned about everything.

But as an assistant, Olivia values ​​intelligence more than physical strength.

After all, direct conflict is rare, and bullets can compensate for insufficient force to some extent, but if you're not smart, nothing will work.

"intelligence."

"I do not have."

"...?"

This was the first time Olivia had heard such an answer from someone else; after all, it was tantamount to the other person admitting that they were an idiot.

But Momokawa did it, and not only did he do it, he was also quite proud of it.

Do Iris like to be friends with these kinds of weirdos?

"So, you mean you're better at fighting?"

Looking at Momokawa's physique, which is almost the same as Igris's, I always felt that she could be blown away by a slightly stronger wind. She didn't seem like someone who could fight well at all.

But Olivia knew that appearances can be deceiving, and at least Igris was quite capable in combat.

No, not at all.

"You mean you're not only mentally challenged, but also physically unwell?"

"..."

Momokawa suddenly frowned, as if he was thinking about something, but in the end he nodded solemnly.

She admitted it.

So Olivia had to believe that she really wasn't thinking straight.

"But I can help you."

"I do not believe."

Olivia felt that she might have some personality flaws, and in any case, it was not a good idea to work with her.

"I knew you wouldn't believe me, but it's okay, I'll secretly follow you."

If you say something like that, it can't be considered secretly following someone, right?

"If you really want to cause me trouble... I might be able to use some force to get rid of you."

Olivia's meaning was very clear: either she had to leave, or Olivia would help her leave.

Although Olivia is indeed not very good at fighting, this guy in front of her clearly doesn't seem to be either.

Olivia even felt like she could lift her up with one hand.

"Oh...are we going to fight?"

Taochuan rubbed his face, the relaxation from before slowly disappearing, replaced by an unusually serious expression.

At least for now, her expression is genuine.

“I will go easy on you, otherwise you might complain to Igris.”

"That's one of my lines."

Battle is imminent.

The Gods' Fool - The Last Knight: Chapter Twenty, Revisiting the Southern Forest

"..."

"Shall we continue?"

Olivia took a deep breath, and only after the other person released her did she catch her breath and raise her hands.

"I concede."

There was no exciting exchange between the two; in just one round, Olivia was pinned to the ground by Momokawa.

She was a little taken aback, but after thinking of Igris, she suddenly felt relieved.

As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together. Isn't it normal that Igris's friends are about the same level as her? So it's not so shameful that she can't beat them.

In other words, if Rei can't beat Igris, and Momokawa is probably roughly equal to Igris, does that prove that Olivia is equal to Rei?

Thinking about it this way, Olivia felt much better, although she was still a little annoyed because she had accidentally eaten a mouthful of dirt.

"So why do you insist on coming with me? Have you taken a liking to me?"

“You do look beautiful, but I just don’t want Igris to shed tears by your grave in the future.”

Tao Yichuan speaks very directly, without any tact or subtlety. After all, she and Olivia are not familiar with each other, and if it weren't for Igris's sake, she wouldn't bother with it.

If something really happened to Olivia, and Igris knew that Momokawa saw Olivia go to investigate alone and didn't stop her, and even turned around and left without caring, then Igris would probably be even more heartbroken.

Of course, she wouldn't break off her friendship with Momokawa over something like this, since she valued her friends very much.

"This is just a routine investigation; there won't be any danger."

Olivia didn't understand why Momokawa would say such a thing, unless she had really discovered something extraordinary and extremely dangerous nearby.

But if that's really the case, why didn't she just tell Olivia directly? Olivia certainly wouldn't risk her life to investigate then.

"Just in case."

Momokawa remained unwilling to say more, and once again gave that somewhat forced smile, speaking in a reassuring tone.

"Let's go. We're wasting too much time, and the other side is probably getting impatient."

Indeed, Olivia had no choice but to prepare to go to the factory with Momokawa to conduct an investigation.

Before that, she planned to meet with the client to understand the specific situation, including the final outcome and process of the assault incident.

She was still reluctant to believe that a knight had actually stormed into the factory and injured people. According to his description, if the situation were indeed as described, there would definitely be more than one injured person. An ordinary person without weapons would have almost no chance of survival against a knight in heavy armor with a longsword. But the final result was that only one person was injured, which didn't make sense at all.

The factory owner may be lying, but there's no point in deceiving them, since they were hired to investigate and even paid to do so.

Would someone really pay to investigate something they know is fake? Definitely not, unless that person is mentally unstable.

So, putting aside the question of whether the knight exists for now, Olivia urgently needs to see the traces of the knight that the factory owner mentioned, which is evidence that he suspects the knight has returned to this place to attack him.

Perhaps this evidence is enough to prove that the Knights existed.

But Olivia also knew that there were all sorts of irrational things in this world, so not all clues could be explained rationally.

This is her advantage as a detective compared to others. She never considers whether it is realistic or not. After all, she started to come into contact with those unreal things very early on. This perspective often allows her to find clues faster and her thinking is also more diverse.

However, this also makes her more vulnerable to danger, so she will be more vigilant.

Having a bodyguard by your side might indeed be a good thing for your wife, but what's wrong with that? At least Taochuan seems willing to get along well with her.

It's also possible that it's just because of Igris.

……

As Olivia stepped through the factory gates, the roar of machinery and the noise made her frown.

This factory is clearly non-compliant, but perhaps because of its remote location or some other reason, it continues to process precision metal parts and has many workers on site, showing no signs of being shut down or seized.

But that's not something Olivia needs to worry about. She's not a police officer; she's just a detective.

"Want to guess how much they earn per hour?"

Momokawa looked at the busy workers, tilted his head, and asked Olivia.

Olivia was neither in the mood nor interested in understanding the suffering of the lower classes.

Understanding is useless; she can't help much, and it would only make her conscience bother her, since she's in a high position, not at the bottom.