Led by Amae-san to the reception desk, we found a middle-aged woman sitting there who looked utterly, blatantly suspicious.
"Hyah-hah-hah-hah! I’ll tell ya aaaanything you wanna know."
She was a nurse, seemingly in her fifties.
Her perm looked straight out of an Osaka auntie catalog.
What was her deal? Did she commute here from Osaka?
"Course, that’s assumin' ya give me this. Heh-heh-heh."
The woman rubbed her fingers together in a coin gesture, her shoulders shaking with laughter.
Honestly, I didn't expect much, but tossing her enough for about three days' worth of meals would probably loosen her tongue. I pulled a few Gleefia bills from my wallet.
"Ah, Walker-kun. I'm sorry. Let me—"
"No, it's fine. It'll go on expenses."
Cutting off Philie-san as she reached for her own purse, I handed the money over.
"Mighty kind of ya," the woman said, taking the bills and slipping them into her breast pocket before any other staff could notice.
"You're askin' about the baby, right? Well now, that little tyke was brought in around the second week of June, roughly eighteen years back."
The clinic director had said something similar.
Having two separate witnesses gave the claim a bit more credibility.
"Then that white-haired person who might've been Filie-chan's mother really existed, huh."
At Amae-san's murmur, the woman furrowed her brow in confusion. "Haaah?"
"A white-haired woman? Nah, nah, it wasn't anything pretty like that. The one who showed up was a giant of a man draped head to toe in a robe. It was pourin' rain. He carried in a brown-haired baby real tender-like. Yeah, must've been about six months old."
Brown hair...?
I was pretty sure the clinic director said both mother and child had pale blonde hair.
"If the baby had brown hair, maybe it was a different baby altogether?"
Just as I was about to nod in agreement with Amae-san, the woman cut in again.
"Don't know who you're lookin' for, but hair color changes all the time while a kid's growin' up."
"Is that true?"
"Yep. Especially around Temcha. A biological pigment called roumelanin gives off a white sheen and paints right over the original color."
A white sheen.
Like the glow of a fluorescent lamp—pretty much the exact shade Philie-san had right now. If that were true, the woman's account didn't necessarily contradict the director's.
"Philie-san. When you were little, did your..."
Sensing my question, Philie-san quietly shook her head.
"As far back as I can remember, it has always been this color."
So even her earliest memories were of having white hair.
In that case, the only person who might know what came before was Director Magnolia.
"Well, that's just one possibility," the woman added, shooting a piercing glare at Philie-san. "Plenty of folks never see their pigment change a lick from infancy to adulthood....Hey, you're Magnolia's little girl, ain'tcha?"
"...You know the director?"
"Just an old acquaintance."
Brushing the question aside, the woman let out a massive yawn.
There was definitely a discrepancy between her testimony and the clinic director's.
A young woman bringing in a pale-blonde baby.
A giant man bringing in a brown-haired baby.
The only common thread was that someone had brought an infant here.
And that infant was almost certainly Philie-san.
"Just so we're clear, that was the only time a baby ever got dumped on us out of nowhere," the woman said, cutting off my train of thought before I could even voice it. "As if we'd get two of somethin' so rare! Right after the war, maybe, but that was eighteen years ago. A whole mess dropped on us in the middle of a peaceful night—the entire clinic was in an uproar."
She'd shut down the alternative before I could even consider it. Fair enough. Having two abandoned babies brought in back-to-back was practically impossible.
"Thank you very much for sharing such valuable information with us."
"Come on back anytime ya got questions. I'll tell ya whatever ya wanna know."
I'd written her off as shady, but since she gave us specific timeframes, her testimony was surprisingly solid. In fact, it was more concrete than the director's in some ways.
Still, I didn't think the director was lying either.
If he only cared about saving his own skin, he could have played dumb indefinitely.
The fact that he came clean... was it because he genuinely felt guilty toward Philie-san?
Something didn't add up.
"So, what's next?"
Amae-san's whisper pulled me back to the present.
"Personally, I think we should start from what the clinic director said and track down that Oswald guy. That might lead somewhere."
The man who had delivered the bribe and visited the director, right?
He was very likely a real person.
Amae-san had a point.
On the other hand, sticking to Philie-san's original plan of tracing how the family registry was forged was just as valid.
"Before we do either, there's one thing I want to look into myself."
"What's that?"
"Money."
"Huh?"
"I want to trace the money. People's memories might be hazy, but financial records stay in the ledgers."
Especially with a major financial guild.
Tracking the money stood a much better chance of turning up results than hunting for an Oswald who might not even be around, or chasing alteration logs from seventeen years ago that were probably scrubbed first thing.
"But Bren-kun, what do you mean by tracing the money, exactly?"
"We look for records of three hundred million drachma moving around the dates the donation was made to the clinic."
"...Is that even possible?"
Amae-san's skepticism was completely justified.
Philie-san stood in quiet thought for a moment, then blinked as understanding dawned on her.
"...Are you suggesting we investigate the bank directly?"
"Exactly. Within the Dravena economic sphere, the Temcha Central Bank is the only candidate. If the clinic director told the truth, there should be a withdrawal record for a cash sum matching that donation."
It was only a lead, but financial trails were difficult to tamper with. If we were going to investigate, that was our best starting point.
"Wait, but a bank isn't just going to hand over account histories to total strangers, right?"
"Normally, no."
I reached into my bag and took hold of a scroll.
It was the document my aunt had handed me before we set out.
I made eye contact with Philie-san to confirm.
Professionally speaking, displaying this required the client's consent.
"Yes. If it's Amae-chan, I don't mind."
With Philie-san's nod of approval, I pulled the scroll out.
Before she could even read the text inside, Amae-san's face went pale with shock.
"...High-Rank... Magical Execu... What?! Bren-kun, why on earth do you have that?!"
High-Rank Magical Executive Authority.
In simple terms, it was a one-time mandatory investigation warrant that only those of Archmage standing could exercise. It was a power of attorney issued by Aunt Coffey, made out in my name.
Of course, using it was strictly forbidden under normal circumstances.
My aunt had given it to me as a precaution, saying, "Bluffing with it is fine." To be honest, I hadn't planned on using it even as a bluff, but since I'd taken this job, I needed to exhaust every option.
"I can't tell you who issued it."
"Right, okay, got it. You don't have to say."
I appreciated how quickly Amae-san caught on.
Time to move forward.
"...Still, can you really use near-highest-tier magical executive authority for personal reasons? Just to look for Filie-chan's parents?"
"It isn't personal. It's strictly part of an investigation into the suspected forgery of family registries and official public documents regarding Filiestra Adinson."
"O-Oh...?"
"With testimony already secured from the clinic, I have a duty as a mage to preserve public order in this country. Stumbling across an undeniable offense during my time off simply means I am acting in accordance with the Magical Ethics Code of Magias."
"I-I guess... you could spin it that way?"
"Besides, we're not actually going to invoke the authority. Exercising it by proxy requires an enormous amount of red tape. All we're doing is showing the paper."
That alone would be more than enough. In fact, actually exercising it would be a massive headache. Very few people had ever seen a scroll like this in person, so flashing it was far more convenient. No matter how ignorant someone was, they would recognize the weight of the King's royal seal.
"To keep things moving smoothly, I'll also use my affiliation with the Imperial Archmage Faculty as part of the bluff."
Given how widely my name had spread after that ambush, the effect would be immediate.
On top of that, students of the Imperial Archmage Faculty were among the very few who could legitimately be delegated executive authority, so the story held water. Flashing both a student ID and a letter of authorization would leave any ordinary clerk completely overwhelmed.
"We make four simple points. One: I am a student of the Magias Imperial Archmage Faculty. Two: Please cooperate with an official investigation. Three: I have been delegated magical executive authority by a high-ranking official. Four: I cannot disclose the details of the case. Then we bow our heads and say, 'Please.'"
We wouldn't issue commands, nor would we invoke our authority.
All we would do was prove our status and make a polite request.
"How they choose to interpret that is up to them."
"S-So you're just using social pressure to trick some innocent clerk into making a mistake...?"
"Of course, if they refuse, we'll back off without a fuss."
I kept the thought to myself, but this approach would speed up the investigation while keeping our personal risk to an absolute minimum.
It seemed my intentions were entirely transparent, though.
Amae-san furrowed her brow, giving me a deadpan glare.
"...Bren-kun, you're awful."
As Amae-san pointed out, while it balanced self-preservation with practical results, it was undeniably questionable from an ethical standpoint. But if the gamble paid off, it would bring us straight to the truth.
In short, we needed to know which account that apparent donation came from. Whoever held that account was deeply tied to Philie-san's origins.
"That's my proposal, at least. What do you think, Philie-san?"
"Um..."
"Of course, I'll check with the guildmaster after this, but ultimately, the decision rests with you as the client."
"I... I..."
Philie-san hesitated, looking slightly overwhelmed.
Perhaps I'd made too bold of a suggestion right after everything that had happened.
We could always fall back on this approach after my aunt arrived in a few days.
Her decision, however, came surprisingly fast.
"...I understand. Let us go with Walker-kun's proposal."
"...Are you sure about this, Filie-chan?"
"Yes. I want to do everything within our power."
Philie-san's expression returned to its usual calm composure.
She wasn't one to drag her feet once her mind was made up.
"However, I will be the one to present the Imperial Archmage Faculty's name. I cannot let Walker-kun, who is only here to help me, take on unnecessary risks."
"...No, that's—"
"If your plan works, we can avoid any fallout if something goes wrong, right? Then it shouldn't matter if I am the one who takes that role."
That was true, but it wasn't a pleasant burden to bear.
Still, her resolve was firm.
We could settle that detail later.
"I'll ask the guildmaster for a final decision during our regular noon check-in. If she gives us the green light, we head to the bank this afternoon."
Amae-san and Philie-san gave quiet nods of agreement.
The three of us made our way toward the magical communication station in the Central District.
I was certainly glad I'd read Ushijima the Loan Shark in my past life.
◇
Noon.
The director's confession, the nurse's testimony, the source of the donation, and our plan moving forward. When I laid out the entire situation over the magical communication line, my aunt gave a nonchalant reply.
"Sure, go ahead."
She confirmed that merely flashing the executive authority was fine.
As a student of the Imperial Archmage Faculty, I could technically invoke it for real, but with my aunt absent, there was no need to take things that far.
"Tracing the money is the right call anyway. I was planning to check that angle eventually myself. It saves me the trouble when I get there, which works out great."
My aunt paused, then added a caveat.
"Just remember that the goal of this job is solely to identify Filie-chan's parents. Keep that in mind. Don't go trying to expose grand conspiracies or root out corruption."
"Understood."
"Only invoke that executive authority if you run into something truly impossible to ignore."
"Like what?"
"Hmm... Something involving human lives? Murder, illegal experimentation, that sort of thing."
"Ah-ha-ha. There's no way we'll run into anything like that, Auntie."
"Which is why you shouldn't need to use it at all. Honestly, getting the clinic director on record is more than enough for now. Also, I'll be busy starting tonight, so I won't be available for communications. Plan accordingly."
After exchanging a few more words, we wrapped up our scheduled check-in.
Amae-san, who had been watching from the side, spoke up the moment I ended the call.
"What did your boss say?"
"She gave us the green light."
"Waaao."
Waaao indeed.
Without realizing it, I'd settled on the very route my aunt had already mapped out. I thought she would tell me off, but she actually praised the idea.
"Well, we have permission. Shall we head out?"
"Right... Yes, let's go, Walker-kun."
Philie-san nodded, her expression tense but determined.
It seemed she had fully braced herself.
"Still, thanks to Bren-kun, the investigation took a massive leap forward. Heh, not bad."
"Well, records from over ten years ago aren't usually kept anyway."
"They're not even kept?!"
With Amae-san's exasperated comeback bringing the conversation to a close, we steeled our nerves and headed for the bank.