“How the hell did we sleep through that?!”

When Oliver and Jade got up for work the next day, they were both bewildered. Especially Oliver, since he basically knew everyone involved in the incident for his entire life!

“Don’t go to the mine today.” Peridot frowned as she looked out the kitchen window to her left, “If anyone asks, just say the three of us slept through everything.”

“Who would ask?” Jade asked curiously and then saw a few black carriages with the words ‘Greenstone Mountain Sheriff’ written in bright green, “Are those… The police?”

“Yep.” Oliver sighed and nodded his head, “Peri…”

“I already moved everything into the hidden vaults. Don’t worry.”

“Thanks.”

Jade looked back and forth at the two ‘friends’ with confusion on her gray face, “What vaults? Did we do something wrong? Why do we need to hide? I don’t understand…”

“It’s better if you don’t know. Plausible deniability.” Peridot snickered and patted the surprisingly soft short black hair on Jade’s hard head.

“If they ask, don’t tell them about our mine. We’ve just been using an abandoned drift over to the northeast lately.” Oliver snickered, “Don’t tell them about your abilities or anything either. You’re just a statue. Don’t get tricked into revealing anything else.”

“Maybe they won’t even bother us?” 

Jade looked at the dozens of Deputies filing out of the big black carriages. Most of them wore black or green uniforms. Some had batons, handcuffs and even more technologically advanced equipment like walkie-talkies and radios on their belts. Others had swords, crossbows and bows. 

The actual Sheriff wore a brown cowboy hat, snakeskin boots with spurs, a leather vest over a flannel green shirt and blue jean pants. Next to the shiny golden badge on his left hip was a pearl-handled revolver, which he kept his hand on at all times. The other hand was holding a cigar that he was puffing slowly as he scanned around the village with his bright blue eyes. When he saw the strange-looking girl with stone skin and shiny yellow crystals for eyes, he smirked and pointed with his cigar.

“Search that house. Thoroughly. I suspect they might be hiding illegal contraband, heh-heh~!”

“But Sir, aren’t we here for a murder investigation?” A young blonde-haired and blue-eyed female Deputy frowned and didn’t follow the order immediately.

“What murder? This was clearly just a plague-addled lunatic and bunch of unlucky hillbillies. Since we have to come down here anyway, we might as well try to make it worth our while.”

“Sir, I will have to write this in my report later.”

“Do whatever you want.” The Sheriff laughed and waved his left hand casually, “Alright, search that house over there too… And that shop. They all look pretty suspicious.”

Aside from the woman who actually conjured up a clipboard and started writing down a report detailing everything she was witnessing. She also conjured up a simple instant camera to take some color photos of the crime scenes and the actions of the Sheriff Deputies. Whether her superiors would actually care about her reports was another matter entirely.

*Bang-bang-bang!*

“Open up! Greenstone Mountain Sheriff Department!”

*Boom-boom-boom~!*

“Greenstone Mountain Sheriffs, open up!”

Obviously the Verde Herbalist was the first to be investigated, since that was the scene of the actual crime. However, they also went next door to the Verde Village Trader and started searching the place violently. Once they noticed that Verna’s parents were both extremely sick, especially her father, they quickly escaped and the unfortunate Deputies who went inside the building had to be quarantined.

After that, they were a lot more careful. Especially when they went to the Plague Doctor’s house across the square. Emerald, the Village Chief and a ‘Teacher’ was treated pretty respectfully. She also helped make sure that nothing happened to Myrtle, who was ‘quarantined’ in the doctor’s office.

“Open up! Sheriff Department! We’ve got a search and seizure order!”

“Sure, come on in…” Oliver moved out of the way after opening the door and half a dozen Deputies immediately scrambled around in the living room. Flipping over the couch cushions, even cutting them open with knives to check for ‘contraband’ or any other ‘illegal’ and ‘dangerous’ items that might exist.

“Five gold. Ten gold. Fifteen gold.”

“Shut up! Brat!” An angry middle-aged woman actually took out her baton and threatened the ‘boy’, “Is anyone else in this house?!”

“Yes-”

“I said shut up!” She immediately swung the baton and smacked into a metal hardhat that suddenly appeared, “Shit! He’s a Miner! Be careful! I need backup!”

“What the hell is wrong with you?!” Oliver couldn’t help cursing when three other Deputies, two muscular men and a relatively fat one, rushed over with clubs and batons. He jumped backwards to avoid them, while shouting, “Run! These aren’t cops! They’re bandits!”

“He’s resisting arrest!”

“Why are you even arresting me?! I didn’t do anything!”

*Click~!*

“Stop!” That Sheriff stood at the doorway and placed his shiny silver revolver barrel against the side of that crazy woman’s head, “Delilah, Dear, I’m afraid you’ve been ‘Corrupted’.”

“I’m not! Sorry, Sir!” The gray haired and eyed woman trembled as the gun was removed from her head. The other officers quickly scattered and continued to ransack the living room. Some of them also wandered into the downstairs bathroom, checking behind and inside of the toilet’s tank. In all the cabinets. Basically everywhere. They even brought over barking dogs that sniffed around for… Something, anything really. They just ended up in the kitchen though and started raiding the fridge.

“I apologize for my Deputy’s rude behavior, Young Man.”

“Five hundred gold.” Oliver frowned, “Six hundred. I hope your Sheriff’s Department can afford to pay me for all these damages.”

“Heh-heh~!” The middle-aged Sheriff took another puff of his cigar and blew some smoke into the air, “Boy~ you need to recognize the situation you find yourself in… You got yourself a Conjuration License?”

“You don’t need a license just to Conjure shit. Don’t try to trick me.”

“That was before.” The Sheriff named ‘Saul’ shouted out the doorway, “Yarkona~! Get in here and give this boy a ticket for Conjuring without a license, heh-heh~!”

The blonde-haired, blue eyed, high-ranking Deputy created a small notepad and quickly scribbled down some things on it. When she handed it over to Oliver, he shouted, “A thousand gold?! Are you kidding me?!”

“Haaahahaaah~! Fine then, Boy, how ‘bout we skip the ticket and you ain’t gotta bring up that ‘compensation’ business, heh-heh~!”