Deduction Part 3: “You Are the Culprit”
“I know who the culprit is. Please gather everyone in this great hall immediately.”
“Everyone’s already here.”
“…… Indeed.”
I really wanted to do that classic mystery thing where you gather all the suspects… but oh well.
“Now then, the mystery has been completely solved.”
“You know who the culprit is!?”
“Y-yes, so please calm down.”
Pressed by Count Moriarty’s fierce glare, I felt a bit intimidated, but I still opened my mouth.
“Then, without further ado, let’s start with the person who caused this incident.”
And the person I pointed at was…
“The culprit is you──
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──Salvia Nocturne!!”
A witch who possessed the power of a Saintess.
“……… Me~?”
“Is that… really true?!”
“Salvia-dono is the culprit…”
“H-how could that be… why, for what reason!?”
At Ale’s words, everyone present was struck with shock.
Then, to those bewildered faces, Ale began to explain his reasoning.
“First, what caught my attention was where the culprit escaped to. After Jack-kun was killed, Jeanne-san arrived at the room immediately. And yet, she didn’t even see the culprit’s shadow.”
Rising from his chair, Ale spoke enthusiastically, wagging his finger.
“Isn’t that strange? With that many people around, not a single person saw the suspicious movements of the four suspects who could have been the culprit. In other words, the only one here who could have committed the crime is Jeanne-san… but that’s not the case.”
With a sharp motion, Ale turned around and pointed at Moriarty, questioning him.
“By the way, Count Moriarty, didn’t you find the scream that echoed throughout the entire mansion strange?”
“Strange?”
“… The cause of death was suffocation, you know? He couldn’t breathe. Even if there were gasps, do you think Jack-kun could have let out a scream loud enough to echo through the whole mansion?”
“Y-you’re right…!”
“Whether by magic or likely a curse, if the cause of death was suffocation, the victim wouldn’t have been able to raise his voice. Then why, in reality, was there a scream? It’s because Jack-kun screamed before he was suffocated. And the conclusion drawn from that is that the dead man was alive… that’s what it means.”
“That’s ridiculous!?”
“What are you saying…!”
“Big Brother is alive…?!”
“Incredible…!!”
“By the time everyone arrived at the room, Jack-kun had already stopped breathing. Salvia confirmed that his breathing had ceased, and after that… both Moriarty-san and Bartley-san touched the body, so you must have been convinced he was dead. Then why was he alive? The surprising method is…”
Covering his mouth with his hand, he spoke the method aloud.
“After he let out a loud scream to call people over, a barrier was created around his face to suffocate him, and then his life was barely maintained using the power of the Saintess—a reckless feat.”
It was truly a ridiculous mystery filled with nothing but supernatural abilities that could only exist in a magical world.
A parade of taboo elements that would make any mystery writer fly into a rage if they heard it.
But it could be done. With her overwhelming talent in both sainthood and magic, it was possible.
The Saintess’s healing doesn’t simply heal other people’s wounds; more accurately, it rewinds the time of injuries and illnesses. In other words, as long as the person isn’t dead, anything goes. At that time, Jack continued to live on the very brink, his breathing blocked by the barrier the entire time, sustained by the Saintess’s power so subtly that no one noticed.
The fact that Jack let out a scream despite being unable to breathe, that Jeanne didn’t see the culprit, and that while there were traces of suffering, there were no signs of resistance against suffocation…
“The culprit is Salvia. And if Jack-kun is her accomplice, then everything makes sense.”
Forcibly suffocating a resisting person remotely would be difficult even with magic, but if the target doesn’t try to escape and stays within the designated barrier, then with this method, the most advanced technique required would be creating an airless barrier in Jack’s room while talking with me.
The marks of thrashing left on the sheets were likely because Jack created a suffocating space on top of the bed so that he wouldn’t suffer more than necessary, allowing him to suffocate in a comfortable position.
There were no marks on his neck because the barrier prevented any external interference, making it impossible to touch.
And the fact that she can create barriers outside her line of sight was already confirmed when she prevented Riko’s fall at the orphanage.
Furthermore, since Jack-kun let out a scream, his cooperation was indispensable, and from the “trust” that Salvia, being a Saintess, would never kill someone…
This murder case ends with the conclusion that it was a murder with no victim.
“… That’s an interesting deduction~ Why don’t you become a novelist~?”
“Are you still not going to admit it?”
“Well, let’s see…… there’s no evidence, right~? Evidence~”
“There is evidence. And this is it.”
Opening the door, I showed the coffin I had brought back with me.
When the coffin was opened… there was no body inside.
“Jack-kun isn’t in here. And the one who declared that Jack-kun was dead was… you, Salvia, wasn’t it? This is the evidence that Salvia is the culprit!”
It couldn’t be fatal evidence on its own. But being pushed this far… my victory was assured. Winning over public opinion, that is the greatest method of finding a culprit in this world.
“Haah~… I really didn’t think Ale-san would see through it~ For something I came up with on the spot, I was pretty confident, though~”
“You’re admitting it!?”
At Salvia’s words, Countess Ratchet reacted.
“Actually, when we came to this territory, Jack-san was already under a curse~”
“… Hoh?”
“So I thought I’d try to lift it, and I contacted Jack-san via telepathy~ Then I found out he already knew about the curse~ From there, we decided that I’d help him find the person who cast the curse, and first, we should lift Jack-san’s curse~”
“Jack did such a thing…”
“But I can’t quickly remove a curse like that, so I thought I’d buy time by making him die~ Since we didn’t know when the curse would activate, I had him scream so that people would gather, and then pretend to be dead, so that the curse-caster would be found before it activated~ If the target of the curse is dead, there’s no need to bother activating it~”
Salvia spoke fluently about what had happened so far… her motive.
I see. So that’s why she wanted me to solve this case as a way to buy time… huh?
“Wait, then you could’ve just told me that. I mean, did we even need to ‘solve’ it?”
“…… That wouldn’t be interesting~”
Y-you… well, whatever. This is the truth behind the murder case, not the truth itself.
At least now I finally understand Salvia’s motive for pulling something like this. In that case, there’s only one thing left for me to do.
“… Which means, this story isn’t over yet.”
“… What?”
“Of course. Jack-kun is alive, but he was still under a curse…”
Taking a breath, I declare it.
“Then the true nature of the Noirden curse passed down in this territory, this great detective Ale will unravel that truth for you!”
What do you think about this chapter?
