Go Big To Go Home: A Kaiju-Fighting Isekai LitRPG (Book 1 Complete!)

Lord Sang Gwandaehan Leishun regarded the three visitors to his office with the most tightly controlled expression that Mikayla had ever seen. The family resemblance between him and Geum was obvious; he had the same flaming red skin, large and curling horns stained a brilliant gold, a thick and greying mane tied back into a braid and rich crimson-and-gold robes swaddling his muscular frame. A large wooden desk was between them, and yet he loomed over the three students.

"So. You three have been here for one night, and one of my most trusted confidants is murdered,"

"We're innocent. I swear," Mikayla immediately burst out. "There - there's gotta be some kind of magic lie detector, right? A truth telling Technique? We'll do whatever we have to to prove our innocence!

Ow!"

Nya withdrew her foot. "Firstly, do not interrupt the Honoured Lord when he is speaking. Secondly, do not make such open-ended promises! Have you learned nothing from me?!" she hissed.

"Enough," Sang intervened, and all eyes returned to him.

He sat down in the ornate chair behind his desk and buried his face in his hands, remaining silent for a moment.

Mikayla drew breath to speak, and Nya stomped on her foot again. Taking the hint, she remained silent, waiting for their host to give them some clue as to what he was thinking.

"Early this morning, one of the maids smelled blood, and discovered that the throat of the head maid, Jinsil, had been cut while she slept. You met her yesterday, and you are quite familiar with her son, Sekki," Lord Sang scrutinised them for their reactions.

The blood drained from her face as Mikayla processed that, and she had to swallow a mouthful of bile. She'd thought she'd gotten used to death being a prevalent part of this world. But . . this wasn't just death. This was

murder.

It seemed that her reaction had pleased Lord Sang, because the lines in his face loosened. "I did not get where I am today by being a fool," he finally said, raising his head. "I do not believe you or anyone in your party is responsible for this murder,"

Mikayla breathed an audible sigh of relief, then flinched when her action drew the man's gaze. "Um. Good. Thank you. May I ask why not?"

"Jinsil was not a reputable figure. She held no titles of true significance. A newcomer to the estate seeking to wreak havoc on my operations would not know to target her. And yet in reality she was probably the most important person in my household. Losing her is a blow that I don't know how to recover from,"

He slammed a fist down on the table with such force that the wood cracked. "This was premeditated. Whoever is responsible for this must have been planning it for some time, waiting for an opportunity,"

"But what would they hope to gain from killing her?" Mikayla wondered.

"Mm, precisely the question," Lord Sang folded his arms, tail lashing behind his chair. "But discovering that is

my

duty, and it is not relevant. There is still the matter of our audience," He raised his eyebrows expectantly.

"The Noble House of Han is at your service, Lord Sang," Nya declared with a curtsy.

"In light of recent events, I have not the patience to indulge this little game. I acknowledge that I erred by attempting to invite your retainer to join my household. I won't deny that I would normally attempt to seduce you into joining me with fortune and prestige, but given I apparently cannot promise that my people will not be murdered in their beds . ." Lord Sang let out a noise somewhere between a sigh and a growl. "Let's just dispense with that,"

"I have no objection to that, but we were here at the behest of your lordship. We do not have any other business to discuss with you,"

"Nor I with you," Lord Sang sighed, suddenly seeming incredibly frail and tired. "I certainly have more pressing matters to deal with,"

"If it, um, pleases your Honoured Lordship, would it be easier if we simply returned to Cloudscraper? Stayed out of the way?" Mikayla suggested.

Lord Sang cast her a look, and somehow the 'you're-an-idiot' expression looked much worse on his face than it ever had on Keldryn or Nya. "I cannot simply send you away," he denied. "On paper, Jinsil was a mere maid, despite her unofficial importance. If word got out that I allowed something so insignificant as the death of a servant to cripple me, it would ruin my reputation,"

Mikayla had to stifle the urge to roll her eyes. Reputation again, was it?

"No, you must remain, at least for the duration of the weekend. Explore the city. Have some fun," Lord Sang said in a tone that brooked no compromise. "Now be off with you all. I have matters to attend to,"

<=====}—o

"Right, so how shall we conduct this investigation?" Nya turned to her classmates expectantly after they'd left.

Both of them stared at her uncomprehendingly. ". . What investigation?" Mikayla mustered.

"Into the true culprit of the murderer, obviously,"

"Nya," Mikayla raised her hands. "We're monster hunters. Not private detectives. Do you know anything about investigating a crime scene? Because I don't,"

"You're a beastkin, can't you track the killer by scent or something?" Nya addressed to Keldryn.

He folded his arms, tail bristling. "Firstly. That's racist. Secondly, do you know how many different people's scents will be all over this place? How am I supposed to know which one is the killer?"

"Wait, you actually

can

track people by scent?" Mikayla blinked disbelievingly.

Keldryn rubbed the back of his neck. "It's a skillset that I don't have but could learn," He shrugged. "Y'know. If I expected to ever need to track things that don't leave

house-sized footprints,"

"Alright, fine, but - but we cannot simply do nothing!" Nya burst out. "Do you know what being embroiled in a scandal like this will do to our reputation?!"

"Again with the starring reputation," Keldryn rolled his eyes, and Mikayla resisted the urge to echo the sentiment. "Why do all you noble types care so much about it?"

"I cannot let it be thought that I engage in recreational murder! Even the suspicion would be damning! We must at the very least find the culprit and accuse them to demonstrate that I am blameless,"

Mikayla considered that. ". . You're going to do this regardless of if we help or not, aren't you?"

"Naturally,"

She sighed. "Well, it'll be more interesting than sitting around and waiting for our problems to solve themselves. And hey, given how my life works these days we

might actually

find the murderer,"

"Which would not be a good thing. Because he would kill us," Keldryn reminded her.

"He can

try,"

Nya snorted. "We have not a second to waste! Come! To the scene of the crime!"

<=====}—o

A bit of quick asking around brought them to Jinsil's bedroom and confirmed that she had been murdered in her sleep. The corpse had been removed, but otherwise the crime scene had not been disturbed, and Mikayla grimaced when she saw the splatters of blood on the bedsheets.

She'd gotten used to fighting, to killing. She'd even killed

people

, back in Cliffwatch, and somehow made peace with that. Or at least pushed the memories to the back of her mind amidst a prison of promising herself that it would never happen again. But this was different. This was raw, cold-blooded

murder.

"Who's there?" Mikayla jumped as someone straightened from behind the bloody bed, and it took her a second to recognise Sekki.

"Ah. Good morn . . um," Nya caught herself as Sekki's gaze sharpened. "What, um, what brings you here?"

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

"I could ask you the same thing, except I can already guess. Someone got killed under your nose and you want to help prove you aren't the culprit," Sekki accurately determined. "As for me? Someone murdered my mother. What in the abyss do you

think

I'm doing?"

"If you're looking for the culprit too, please tell me that you have an actual plan. Unlike someone," Keldryn side-eyed Nya.

"Of course I do. I'm half beastkin, and I've been trained to track people by scent. I'm trying to identify the killer," Sekki summarised.

Mikayla blinked, casting a sidelong look at her friends. "Well. That's convenient,"

"It's a useful skill for a manservant," the mixblood yaoguai testily defended himself. Mikayla had half expected him to say something jokey or snarky, but their classmate just looked determined and more than a little upset. She rebuked herself for expecting anything else. His mother had just been killed. Obviously he wasn't going to laugh that off.

"Unfortunately, whoever the killer is, they covered their tracks. This entire place reeks of perfume. It doesn't quite cover the smell of blood, but any more subtle scent trail has been drowned out," Sekki shook his head.

Keldryn sniffed and grimaced. "He's right. That's foul,"

Mikayla leaned in to take a whiff, and grimaced. The scent was cloying, like peaches on the verge of rotting.

Nya held up a hand. "Hold on. I recognise this scent. This is Orchard In Blossom, it's one of the premium perfumes for noble ladies. My mother uses it quite frequently,"

"That's true. I think Lady Sakhalin, Lord Sang's wife, uses it on occasion too," Sekki frowned thoughtfully.

"Something upmarket like that, you couldn't get it just anywhere. There'll only be so many places in Leicheng that sell it," Mikayla reasoned. "Could we talk to this Sakhalin? Ask her where she buys her perfume?"

"No point, as if Lady Leishun would buy her own perfume. We're better off finding whoever does her shopping for her," Sekki argued. "I think I know who she trusts with that. Come with me,"

<=====}—o

A brief chat with a maid turned up two sites of interest, both high-profile cosmetic shops. The first of these was a shop decorated with reliefs of attractive women adorned with flowers, combs and other beauty products.

Mikayla just couldn't get enough of Guili's 'function follows form' architecture.

Entering the salon, they found that almost every available inch of wall was filled with assorted beauty products, primarily perfumes and other liquids. There was a salon chair with a mirror at the centre of the room, and a counter being manned by an elderly yaoguai with greying hair tied back in a bun.

"Hello. We're here to ask about Orchard in Blossom," Sekki gravitated directly to the counter, impatience practically dripping from him.

"I'm sorry to say that we don't have any Orchard in Blossom at current, and haven't for a while," the shopkeeper denied.

"Huh?" All eyes turned to a younger yaoguai, who seemed to be the shop assistant. "What are you talking about, auntie? We got a whole box just three days ago. It can't all be gone already,"

As one, the students blinked at the smiling assistant, then looked back at the shopkeeper, whose expression had tightened. "Oh, yes, of course, you're right. How silly of me to forget. Come with me, Ying, we'll see if we have any left,"

Sekki narrowed his eyes. "Oi, hang on, why did you -"

"We'll be right back!" The woman all but dragged her niece through a door near the counter and closed it behind them.

"Well, that was -" Mikayla didn't even have time to say 'suspicious' before the two boys' animalistic ears visibly pricked up.

"They're running," Keldryn declared, already making for the door - but Sekki beat him to it, and Marauder wrapped around him an instant before he punched the door with enough force to break it into pieces.

"A lead already. How lucky," And then Sekki was off, Mikayla catching a faint glimpse of his enhancement spells flaring to life.

By the time the other three students had emerged into the alley behind the building, Sekki had already caught the woman and pinned her to the ground, shouting, "You have not earned the privilege of refusing to answer my questions!"

"Let go of my auntie!" the little girl shrieked, trying to charge at Sekki, but Keldryn appeared in a flash of Heel Propulsion, catching her and holding her back. His superior Strength made her struggles fruitless, though he didn't look comfortable with the situation.

"Who did you sell that perfume to?" Sekki demanded.

"I can't tell you! They'll kill us!" the shopkeeper protested, furiously shaking her head.

"And you'd deserve it for abetting in the death of my mother!" Sekki snarled, hoisting her from the ground and slamming her back down. "Now. You can either tell me what you know and hope your friends will be too busy dealing with the Leishun Estate to kill you, or you can refuse and leave me with

no reason to keep you alive,"

Mikayla liked to think that she'd gotten to know Sekki quite well in the months she'd had him as her classmate - indeed, she considered him her third-closest male friend, second only to Nocturnus and Keldryn. At no point had he ever struck her as the kind of person who would coldly execute someone just for being uncooperative. But they were all training to be hardened killers. And in his current state of mind, she didn't doubt that he was ready to do something that he would regret in future.

So she moved to his side, ready to intervene if he tried to make good on his threat.

The shopkeeper, though, misread her intentions, seeing the Cores on her wrist and flinching. "F-fine, fine, I'll tell you, I'll tell you! There's a group. Called Wave Carvers. They come around the district every month, offering 'protection' in return for money," She sneered at the thought. "One of them came in. Said they needed a lot of noble perfume for something, that they'd consider my 'debt' paid for the month if I handed over all my stock of that one perfume. I-I didn't ask what they wanted it for! Even if I had, I couldn't have stopped them!"

"Do you have any proof?" Sekki pressed.

"In my pocket. It's a token. They gave me it to scare off any small time crooks trying to take what's 'theirs'," She shuddered viscerally.

Mikayla crouched and checked the pockets of the woman's apron, eventually coming away with a token of carved wood. It had been formed into the shape of a snarling serpent's head, surrounded by sculpted waves. She pulled her phone out and used it to snap a mod-level Identify off.

[WAVE CARVER PIRATES SIGIL]

"Well," She showed off the result to her friends. "She's telling the truth. Looks like know where to go next,"

Nya raised her eyebrows. "Pirates? We have

actually encountered pirates?"

Mikayla chuckled. "Guess that makes us Ramesses the Second,"

Keldryn and Sekki cast them questioning looks. "It was an in-joke . . you had to be there,"

The foxkin's ears drooped.

"Whatever. A whole pirate cartel? Lord Sang needs to know about that," Sekki sounded pained by the admission as he straightened up, forgetting all about the shopkeeper. Keldryn released her niece, who rushed to her side. "Let's head back,"

Mikayla glanced back at the woman, who was panting and looked quite shaken, and the hateful glare her niece was throwing them. She wanted to apologise, to explain that this wasn't what they normally did. But she couldn't find the words to articulate the thought.