第７６９堀：治安の問題 (Part1)
Chapter 769: Security Issues
Security Issues
Side: Tori
"Ugh... isn't today supposed to be a day off?"
That’s Riel, coming at me with that.
She doesn't seem very motivated today, likely due to the "sweet potato" incident from yesterday.
Well, everyone laughed and said it was "so like Riel," so she isn't exactly hurt, but she’s still sulking a bit, perhaps out of embarrassment.
Even so, there’s no way we can just take the day off.
"The day off is still a ways away. We need to protect the peace in Weed. Especially now, with the Intercontinental Exchange Festival in full swing."
That’s right. On such an important day, I can’t have Riel—our most agile asset—just lounging around.
"Wait, don't we have any meetings? Kaya isn't here, is she slacking off?"
Riel suddenly notices Kaya’s absence and asks, but there’s no way she’s slacking.
"Kaya is currently in a meeting with people from the If Continent regarding agricultural matters."
"Are we not invited to anything else?"
"We have to go to the If Continent’s delegation later as well, in our capacity as generals."
"Ugh, really? It’s pretty obvious they hate demi-humans, isn't it?"
"I know how you feel, but the whole point is to smooth over those kinds of grudges. Yuki-san told us to cooperate. Besides, we’re still the lucky ones. If they acted like that while interacting with the likes of Rogali or the New Continent..."
"Ah, true. The princesses of Gartz are all beastmen or elves. And in the New Continent, beastmen are spirit priestesses. That could get messy, huh?"
"Exactly. It seems they want to weed out the idiots before that happens. That’s one of the reasons Kaya was called in alone."
"Ugh... they’re going to make Kaya angry."
"She doesn't talk much usually, but when it’s time to work, she’s incredibly efficient. Kaya is, anyway."
It’s true—even the other wives don't really know this, but when Kaya is in "work mode," she actually speaks quite normally.
That quiet, mumbling demeanor is reserved only for those close to her.
Oh, wait, is that right? Actually, when she’s working, she’s sharp and strict.
Normally, she’s just doing farm work, dealing with the soil, so there isn't much to say. But when it comes to farming schedules, budgets, or giving instructions at the police station, she goes all in.
Well, because of that seriousness, I have Kaya handle the training of new recruits and periodic audits.
Usually, diplomatic negotiations are left to Yuki-san, but since this time they specifically called for agricultural expertise, Kaya’s "work mode" is going to be in full effect.
I just hope they don't anger her enough to have the If Continent people cut back on trade goods.
As we were talking about this, we arrived in front of the police station.
"Good morning!"
"Morning. Keep up the good work on patrol today."
"Yes, ma'am!"
"No, no, Riel. They’ve been on the night shift; they’re about to be relieved."
"Oh? Was that right?"
"Whew. Thank you for your hard work since yesterday. You’ve only got a little time left, but please stay sharp until the end."
"Yes, ma'am!"
After hearing the two gate guards give their energetic salute, we passed through the gate and entered the station.
"Oh, good morning, Chief."
"Good morning, Special Duty Riel."
The female officers at the reception desk greeted us brightly.
"Sigh, the Chief is Poni, you know."
"Ahaha, sorry. I still can't get used to calling her Chief Poni."
"You have to be proper about that. I am the Vice Chief. If you can't respect the hierarchy, you won't get promoted, and you won't be trusted. Understood?"
"Yes. I’ll be careful from now on."
I still have to give warnings like this.
Well, Poni is short and still has that child-like impression, but if we’re talking about height, Labyris is small too, so that’s no excuse.
...Though, even if Labyris is small, she can be more seductive than us sometimes...
While I was thinking that, Riel was chatting with the staff at the desk.
"Morning, everyone. How’s it going?"
"Oh, it’s been tough. We haven't had any major incidents, but the number of reports is nearly three times the usual."
"Yesterday, some adventurers were causing a ruckus, so we had to request backup from the Adventurer's Guild. Milly-sama was quite irritated, too."
"Ahaha, now that you mention it, Milly was pretty annoyed."
During this festival, in addition to managing the Adventurer's Guild and the Adventurer District, Milly is suffering from a massive headache caused by adventurers visiting from other countries who don't know the common sense of Weed.
"The biggest source of friction is the fine for the toilets. It’s free if they clean it up themselves, but there are idiots who don't even want to do that and refuse to pay."
"So it really is that, huh."
"It’s quite a struggle to teach them what a 'toilet' is."
Because there are idiots throwing trash and relieving themselves everywhere, we’ve been mobilizing the children of Weed and the adventurers to warn them, but the number of incidents is still rising significantly.
Well, we expected the numbers to increase as the population grew, and we did increase our staff to handle it, but we still couldn't keep up.
I’ll have to use this failure as a lesson for the future...
"Riel. That’s enough chatting. Let’s head to the office and get the report."
"Oh, right. Got it. See you later, everyone!"
"Please keep up the good work today, everyone."
"Yes!"
The staff at the reception responded with energy.
Looking at their faces, they don't seem overly exhausted, so the shifts seem to be rotating well.
After that, we greeted the officers we passed in the hallway and arrived at the Chief’s office without stopping.
Inside, Poni had already started her paperwork.
"Morning, Poni. You’re early."
"Good morning, Special Duty Riel, Vice Chief Tori."
"Yes, good morning. But as Riel said, you are early. Was there a problem?"
"No, there are no problems. However, the number of incidents has increased, and many officers are busy processing them. I’m just out here because of that."
"Ah, I heard at the reception desk. A lot of people aren't using the toilets."
"But why would Chief Poni have to come in early just to deal with that?"
Processing such incidents isn't the Chief’s job. It shouldn't be a reason for Poni to come in early.
"Ah, no, I’m just here on my own initiative. The reason we can't keep up with the processing is that most of the cases are caused by adventurers and tourists from other countries who don't know about Weed’s toilet system. Well, I’m sure there are some idiots who do it on purpose, but the reports show that most violators willingly help with the cleanup on the spot and are happy to use the toilets once they know they exist. In other words..."
"It means our efforts to inform everyone were insufficient."
"Yes. All entrants are supposed to go through immigration, which is under our jurisdiction. The information regarding the toilets wasn't conveyed perfectly there."
"But wait, aren't we explaining the toilets properly?"
"Even if we explain it, it’s only verbal, so there’s a possibility it isn't being conveyed properly, or people are just letting it go in one ear and out the other. In fact, most of the violators say they didn't know about the toilets."
Poni handed us a document with a graph showing the reasons given by the violators.
1st place: 43% - Didn't hear about it / Didn't know.
2nd place: 22% - Didn't know where the toilets were.
3rd place: 12% - Didn't understand why they had to use a toilet.