Myoukou looked rather concerned. "Don't worry" I said, "I was just as worried about going back there too, but we didn't have a lot of choice in the matter." At that moment Hornet came in with a box of biscuits.

"You 'right there rookies?" she asked "Sorry it took so long, I had trouble finding the box, would you like a biscuit?" Edinburgh was frantically squirming in her binds and rocking the chair slightly in an attempt to escape, unfortunately it rocked so far back that the chair that she was bound to ended up falling backwards onto the floor with a loud 'bang!' The three of us just stared at each other for a couple of seconds. "Eh, she'll be fine." Hornet shrugged, much to the slightly annoyed muffled cries from the clumsy maid "So what part did you get to then?"

"The part where we were searching the old radar station" I replied.

"Oh good, we're almost to the good bit!"

I gave a sigh as I stared at the solid square concrete lump in the middle of the woods that was originally an old radar station. This place didn't have pleasant memories for me, the last time we came here it was to save the commander from an obsessive aircraft carrier*. To be honest, it still gave me the chills, but we had to get this over with sooner or later, and preferably sooner, I volunteered once again to be the scout for our little group, seeing as how I was the only vanguard ship to compose of this group, I could react better than the battleships and aircraft carriers that made up the rest of our group, only this time instead of coming in after a couple of minutes, I was to scout the area and call back if I found anything or not, which made me feel better about running in there, I still remember almost getting choked out last time. I rushed in, foolish, but there was no time for hesitation here, the quicker I was the quicker we could find, or even catch this culprit, and if they were still in her I could get the upper hand with the element of surprise. I ran through the doorway, rolled along the floor and fired a couple of rounds into the walls, I then used my giant arms to slam into said walls. "ALIBI! SHOW YOURSELF BEFORE I TEAR THIS BUILDING DOWN!" yes, it was a mistake to say the word 'I', indicating that I was alone, but in some ways this might be beneficial, possibly luring out any malicious kansen with a taunt. The silence was overwhelming. I made a quick sweep of the room, firing a couple more rounds into the roof before yelling "All Clear!" My boss and the queen cautiously making their way down into the room, Warspite staying on guard outside, in case this was a trap.

"Found anything rookie?"

"Nothing yet boss!" The queen gave a snort

"Amateurs!" and strode off towards the far end of the room. Hornet gave a sigh.

"Alright rookie, you check this side, I'll check this side." I gave a nod and made my way towards one side of the wall. I wasn't exactly sure what I was looking for though, how and where would we find a clue in here, the first was written on a piece of paper, the next on a blackboard, I was at a loss as to what the next clue would be written on, that is until I heard a loud whistle from the other side of the room, I turned around to see my boss waving her hat in the air, I made my way over to her and…well, to be honest the composition of the next clue did take me by surprise somewhat. It was carved onto one of the concrete pillars, this clue was also a lot shorter too:

A round peg

In a square hole

The annoyed clicking of shoes indicated the queen's arrival.

"That's no way to treat royalty" she moaned "I take it you somehow managed to find the next clue"

"A lucky guess, your majesty" Hornet replied

"Well, naturally, you don't think you'd have found it by yourselves if you were trying" she snorted, I wanted to punch her "Anyway, what does it say here then?" The queen pushed me out of the way to get a better look, before giving a hum of satisfaction "Well for a start, it's the wrong way round. The correct phrase is 'a square peg in a round hole'. Which means something that doesn't fit, if you couldn't figure out."

"Right…" I muttered, forcing myself to not sound annoyed by her

"So what is on this base that doesn't fit…the commander's office perhaps, it's where the only male or human spends most of his time" The queen surmised

"I don't think so" I interrupted "Considering that it's the wrong way round, it might have the opposite meaning, something along the lines of…what would you normally find on a naval base?... the docks perhaps…?"

"Huuuh? And just where could you hide 400 bars of gold in the docks?" The queen rebuked

"And how could someone hide 400 gold bars in the commander's office without him noticing?" I fired back. The two of us stared daggers at each other, both of us convinced we had found the way forward.

"Actually…you're both wrong…" We turned to look at Hornet

"Excuse me?" The queen snarled, unhappy at being contradicted.

"It's rather simplistic, if you just look at the clue in the right way…" And with that Hornet dashed out of the room.

"Hey! Wait for me boss!" I yelled trying to keep up with her.

"Where do you think you're going!" The queen yelled after her "What's all the rush?" Hornet turned her head back to face the queen not saying much other than.

"No time to explain! Hurry up hurryupHURRYUP!"

Exhausted, we had finally caught up with Hornet, stopping to catch our breath. "Now…hah…can anyone tell me…hah…where we are…?" She asked, waiting for her answer as me, Queen Elizabeth and Warspite all caught our breaths.

"Well…obviously we're in the plaza…" The queen huffed.

"Why…why did you bring us here?" Warspite asked. I realised why she had brought us here.

"Well, what can you see…?" Asked Hornet, Queen Elizabeth stood up and looked around her surroundings.

"I can see a fountain, a couple of benches, some trees-"

"Haven't you realised yet…?" Hornet interrupted; the queen gave a confused look.

"Realised, what?" she asked.

"Don't you realise where you are?"

"We're in the central plaza" The queen snapped.

"And another name for a plaza is…"

"…A square…"

"And what is the most prominent round feature within this 'square'?" All eyes turned towards the fountain, sellotaped to the base of the fountain was a piece of paper, the next clue. Hornet snatched the note from the fountain, the rest of us crowding round her to see what the next clue would say, it was shorter than the last one:

All that glitters

"And just what is that supposed to mean?" The queen fumed.

"I guess it means that this trail is over" Hornet replied.

"You mean they were never planning to give us the gold in the first place?" Warspite questioned.

"That lousy, good-for-nothing thief!" The queen cried.

"I don't think that's the case." My boss turned to me. "Want to show them rookie?" I walked back towards the fountain, gazing into the reflection in the water for a bit.

"What is this about?" the queen scoffed.

"This water may glitter…" I said, before plunging my hand into the bottom of the fountain, managing to get a grip on something long and heavy before pulling it out of the water and triumphantly holding it in the air. A gold bar. "…But it's not gold!"

We sat on the benches overlooking the docks, the queen had ordered us away while Belfast and the Royal Knights got to work on transferring the gold from the fountain. We had planned to grab a cup of coffee from one of the shops to commemorate a job well done, but considering how late it was, (By now it was the early evening), most of the food stalls had shut up for the day as the canteen was preparing the evening meal. The lack of any good coffee made us more irritable, especially considering the fact that we had just worked something out. "Boss, we're not getting paid, are we?" I said.

"Noooo~" Hornet sighed, her head in her hands.

"Couldn't the queen give us at least 1 gold bar for our hard work?"

"I reeallllllly doubt it, rookie…" my boss sighed again. We just sat there with miserable expressions on our faces, we had wasted an entire day working, with no reward to ease our financial problems, not even a good cup of coffee to make our situation at all bearable. A quiet 'ahem' sounded to my right, I almost let out a groan, I really didn't want to deal with the Royal Knights at this moment. Luckily, Hornet got up to her feet, with a smile on her face, very likely forced considering how we were feeling, I followed suit. "Your majesty…Warspite…" My boss greeted "I suppose all the gold has been accounted for?" The queen gave a satisfied smirk.

"More than that, actually. In total there was 500 gold bars in that fountain. Perhaps that's what our mysterious assailant meant by a 'reward'?"

"Quite possibly, your majesty" I commented.

"What about the mysterious 'X'?" Hornet asked

"We're making enquires…" Warspite explained

"But it's not on the top of 'things to do'" Explained the queen "This felon has shown that they can be taken for their word. Besides if they plan to cause any more trouble for us then we can always root them out!" Ah, yes, there was the Royal 'we' that we were used to.

"I see…" mumbled Hornet "Well, if that's the case then, I don't suppose you can give us permission to give the good news to the prisoner?" The queen looked confused for a moment, before she realised who we were talking about.

"Oh! Edinburgh! Sure, do what you want." The queen replied nonchalantly, walking back towards the Plaza, Warspite giving us a nod before following her queen. Hornet waited until she was out of sight, before she gave a frustrated sigh, turned on her heels and walked towards the jail, with me a few steps behind.

It took us a while for us to explain to Southampton that the queen had released Edinburgh and that we were not attempting some sort of jailbreak. Eventually the three of us reached her cell. The clumsy maid ran to the bars. "Ohhh, Miss Hornet, you've got to help me, I didn't do it!" she shrieked.

"…Yes, we are well aware…" I muttered after recovering from the Edinburgh's screech.

"You're free to go!" added Hornet, as Southampton unlocked the cell door, freeing the prisoner.

"Really~?" Edinburgh cried as the cell door opened "Oh~ Thank you so much!" she yelled as she jumped on me.

"Get off me" I muttered.

"Oh! Sorry! I'm just glad that she no longer thinks that I stole the gold! I wonder if it'll ever be found?"

"We found it this afternoon." I said. Edinburgh paused for a moment.

"Oh…well…that's good then!" she exclaimed.

"Yes, the 400 gold bars that were stolen, plus another 100 as a little 'gift'" my boss explained.

"Oh…I see…" the maid commented.

"Now then, about our fee…"

"O-of course! If you'll just follow me…!" Edinburgh stuttered, walking back along the hall with one hand on the wall, Southampton close behind. The two of us however stayed put, I turned my head to look towards my boss, my boss turned to look at me, I wanted to say something, and she knew I wanted to say something, so I went ahead and said it.

"Hey boss…is it me, or did Edinburgh look a bit…"

"I see you noticed it too rookie, don't worry though, I'd give it at least 5 minutes." There was a faint 'crash' from somewhere up the hallway, and about 30 seconds later, Southampton came rushing back.

"Can one of you give me a hand and call Vestal? Edinburgh's fainted!"

*see The Case of the Captive Commander Part 4