The Iudex's day off

Chapter 44 - Brewing storms

Wriothesely's POV

 Well...

 This isn't good.

 I came up to the surface and quickly found Timeo who was pacing around worriedly.

 "What happened?" 

 "Ah, Your Grace! Thank the archons you're here! A shipment of gardemeks has gone missing!"

 "Missing?"

 How could something so big just go missing?

 "How much do you know at the moment?"

 "The shipment was placed in the warehouse as usual and were waiting for the Maison Gardiennage to come and confirm it and take them away. The problem started when the paperwork on their side was delayed and they requested that we hold the shipment for just another day. 

 I agreed to this as never once besides this time had anything like this happened and with the Chief Justice absent and Lady Furina busy handling affairs at court, I thought it would only be fair to give them a little leeway." 

 Wait...

 This...

 His words reminded me of a conversation I had with Neuvillette two days ago.

 "Oh dear... Wriothesely I'm terribly sorry." He had suddenly exclaimed.

 "Excuse me?"

 "I have to apologize. I've fallen somewhat behind on my work."

 "And?"

 I didn't understand why he would apologize to me about something like that.

 Especially when I was watching him continuously work through without breaks day after day.

 "It may come to delay yours. I just now realized that I sent the approval document for receiving the next shipment of gardemeks quite late. It will most likely delay the proceedings by a day."

 He looked incredibly worried and borderline distressed back then.

 I had to hold back the urge to sigh.

 "That's completely fine, Neuvillette. It's just a day. Besides, you're working continuously through your days. If someone dares to blame you for a single late document, I will personally discuss their complaints with them in great detail."

 "Wriothesely."

 "Alright, alright. I was just joking."

 I wasn't joking back then, but that's not the point right now.

 "So? Did they not show up?"

 "No, no, no. They did. They showed up at the rescheduled time and not a minute later. The problem was that when we went to the warehouse, it was empty."

 "Empty? So you're telling me that the whole shipment just evaporated overnight?"

 I didn't ask whether there were enough guards.

 Timeo knew better than to be lax.

 "I'm terribly sorry, Your Grace! If I had paid more attention-"

 "That's quite enough. No more apologies."

 I hear enough of those from a certain overworked dragon.

 "Let's go to the warehouse. Checking the scene one more time can't hurt."

 As we went towards the warehouse we met a few gardes and members of Marechaussee Phantom who too had come to investigate.