"You killed him!"
"I saw it with my own eyes, you pushed Crispin right out of the elevator!"
"You murderer!"
Unable to find her missing colleague, Avery lunged frantically at the head of the Archive Department, Mason Derulo. A dark, beige-skinned man who possessed a body far too athletic for someone in his early fifties. She gripped his shirt, sobbing and screaming, entirely blaming him for the brutal death.
Mason looked at the hysterical Avery and shoved her away with a violent jerk, yelling, "Get off me, you crazy bitch!"
Stumbling backward under the heavy glares of the gathered crowd, he raised his hands defensively. "No, I didn’t do it! Don’t listen to her, it wasn’t me!"
Desperately searching for a lifeline among the onlookers, his eyes landed on a familiar face and called out for help, "Mark! You will vouch for me, right? I was standing right next to you the entire time!"
Mark, a senior archivist with a family of four to feed, awkwardly shifted his gaze away from our lying department head. He clearly took a silent moment to calculate his odds of finding a new job in this brutal economy before finally muttering, "I don’t know... it all happened too fast."
Avery, fighting back her tears, took a long breath to calm herself down. She realized screaming wouldn’t solve anything and decided her best move was to first secure the elevator’s internal surveillance footage before taking official legal action. However, before she could even turn away, I pushed through the front of the onlookers and stepped directly into Mason’s line of sight.
"I know exactly who shoved me, Department Head Derulo," I said, my voice deadpan and icy.
"Chrispin! You’re alive!" Mason gasped, his face paling. He tried to quickly pivot to the crowd, gesturing wildly. "Tell them! Tell them I didn’t push you into the monsters..."
He froze mid-sentence as I stepped straight into his personal space. Before he could react, I lunged forward with the speed of a newly awakened one, clamping my hand around his left wrist like a steel vise. I yanked his arm up, lifting it high for everyone gathered in the library hall to see.
Mason desperately struggled to break my grip, his face twisting in pain as he yelled, "What the hell are you doing?! Let go of my hand!"
Staring directly into his panicked, sweating face, I kept his arm locked firmly in place and asked coldly, "Department Head, if you didn’t shove me out of the elevator, can you explain why there is a torn piece of my shirt collar caught tightly in the links of your watch?"
The crowd let out a collective gasp at the shocking revelation. Meanwhile, Avery, who had been staring at me in absolute relief that I was not only alive but completely unharmed, furrowed her brows hearing the facts, shifting her fierce glare back to Mason. Her voice shaking with rage, she demanded, "Explain yourself, Department Head!"
"You two dare slander me and the library?!" Mason spat, desperately trying to silence us by weaponizing his authority. "I am going to sue the both of you for defamation! You hear me?! I will have your jobs by tomorrow morning!"
Looking at the complicated, hesitant expression that washed over Avery’s face, his threat almost worked. Unfortunately for him, I wasn’t a broke, powerless archivist anymore. I had just come into millions of denars and mana coins.
Gently pulling Avery behind me, I stepped forward into his space, my voice deadpan. "Do what you must, and I will do what I should. The elevator footage is automatically backed up in the cloud. Be prepared to hear from my lawyers."
The moment he heard about the cloud backup, the final bit of color completely drained from Mason’s face. His arrogant facade shattered instantly. Collapsing to his knees, his face quickly became a messy mask of tears and snot as he began to pathetically beg for forgiveness.
"Chrispin, I’m so sorry!" he cried out, grasping at the air. "The elevator was too crowded! The sensor wouldn’t let the doors close, and that damn Kobold monster was charging straight at us! I was terrified, I wasn’t thinking straight! I just did what was best for everyone’s survival! I did it for all of us!"
Seeing Mason pathetically attempt to use the crowd to pressure us, Avery’s jaw tightened. She was just about to call out his utter shamelessness, but I gently caught her arm, pulling her aside. I turned on my heel to leave, tossing a final, cold remark over my shoulder: "Tell it to the judge."
Mason’s desperate voice followed us down the hall, wailing, pleading, and begging for mercy, but neither of us looked back. We walked straight toward the main exit of the library. It had been an incredibly hectic day, and my mind was exhausted. All I wanted was to hit the bed and sleep for a week.
As we stepped out into the cool evening air, away from the chatter of the surviving staff, Avery glanced over at me and asked curiously, "Since when do you have a personal lawyer?"
I could tell she was deliberately focusing on the legalities to avoid bringing up the horrific details of the elevator incident itself. There was a faint shadow of guilt in her eyes, though I secretly wondered what she could possibly have to feel guilty about. It wasn’t like she was the one who shoved me. In fact, in the tightly packed elevator, she couldn’t have even reached the buttons or doors in time if she tried. I didn’t blame her.
If anything, I felt a deep sense of gratitude toward her. She had been fully prepared to risk her livelihood, face retaliation, and become a social pariah just to demand justice for me. I certainly never had a colleague that fiercely loyal in my past life.
"I don’t actually have one," I replied with a wry smile, stretching my stiff shoulders. "I need to hire one as soon as possible. Do you happen to know anyone good?"
Avery’s eyes brightened slightly as she thought it over. "I’ve heard that Smith & Holts are the absolute best law firm in the entire United Archipelagos of Audora. My friend works there as a junior associate, but I have to warn you, they are incredibly expensive."
"Money is no object right now," I replied, my voice steady. "How do I get in touch with them?"
"I’ll give my friend your number and have them contact you with a direct referral," she said, nodding.
"Thanks," I muttered, my attention quickly drifting toward the chaotic scene unfolding at the library’s monumental stairs.
A massive press conference was being held right on the plaza. Microphones were shoved into the faces of the city mayor, the police commissioner, and the imposing redhead leader of the Valorant Guild. Members of the media were shouting difficult, aggressive questions, demanding to know why the city’s primary emergency sirens had failed to ring, why the local police department had been so late to sound the alarm, and why the guild’s hunters hadn’t responded immediately to the breach, where they not clearing the monster gates as per the nation’s regulations.
The officials on the podium all parried the heat with the exact same rehearsed, bureaucratic line: an internal investigation was already underway, and nothing could be said with absolute certainty until a proper inquiry was completed. They kept smoothly shifting the blame to standard protocol while continuously assuring the frightened citizens that the situation was now fully under control and that such a systemic failure would never repeat itself in the future.