"All the required people have been summoned, Your Highness."
"Very well. You may bring them in now."
His Highness Aven Shine settled all the preparations for me. It's time to make Duke Douglas pay for his crimes!
...
The mini-court has been seated with Clarence Power, the Eld couple, and the Duke. When I arrived with His Highness, all of them stood up to greet us, except the Duke.
I feel pretty nervous. I feel very nervous.
Hey, I may be a detective, but I can get nervous too, you know!
I'll just suppress this nervousness for now. Think of Eta! You have to make the Duke pay, Tris Asher!
I did some breathing exercises to calm my nerves, and stepped up.
...
"Clarence Power. Did you or did you not commit the crime of the serial killings?"
"No, I definitely did not, sir! I just so happened to be there on that day! Please, it's not me!"
"Oh? You are saying you just so happened to be at a park for couples alone, with no motivations whatsoever, and that you just so happened to see someone following the couple?"
"Eh? Ah? Uh, that, that is..."
Duke Douglas has a detestable smirk on his face. I'll wipe it off you soon enough, just sit still. I'm not done yet.
"Clarence Power. You didn't simply happen to be at Lovers' Park on that day, did you? You were out there with a motive--to commit a crime."
"W-Wait! But I-"
"The crime, however, is not the serial killings. It's robbery, isn't it?"
Clarence fell silent. It might look as if he was calm, but his shaking cane betrayed his feelings.
"I don't know about any robbery cases, sir. Please stop slandering me."
"Stop lying, Mr. Power. You have something in your coat pocket, don't you? The way it sags is too suspicious."
A constable took out the item inside of Clarence's pocket. It's a butterfly knife.
"Oh? I wonder why you would need to carry this around?"
"H-Hey! That doesn't prove anything! I just carry it around because it makes me feel safe! Besides, the robbery cases had the victims knocked out, right? I can't exactly knock them out with this knife!"
"Unfortunately, I think not, Mr. Power. Your extraordinary knowledge of the case details aside, there's something else on you that can be used to commit the crimes."
"O-Oh? Show me what it is then! I definitely don't carry anything of that sort!"
"...your cane seems a little bigger than a normal walking cane, doesn't it? Must be pretty hefty carrying that thing around, even if it's for style. I wonder why else you would carry such a large cane around, other than to use it as a weapon?"
...Clarence Power looks like a deflated balloon now. His Highness gave the signal and he was escorted away.
"Now then, with that minor detour finished, let's talk about the serial killings in more detail, shall we?"
All three of the seated people seems shaken by my performance. Even the Duke seems to be a little uneasy.
Well, there's still plenty more where that came from, and I'll let you have it!
"Sein and Fealty Eld."
Both of them seemed to be inside another one of their flirting streaks. Well, your act ends here!
"You can both stop your acting now. It's pretty obvious that the two of you do not really like each other and instead hate each other. I'm not sure what exactly happened, but Mr. Eld being kicked out of the house and spending the night at Lovers' Park is clear evidence. Furthermore, although your pretence might fool others, I can see how you both are actually staring at each other with a flicker of anger, not love."
The Elds stopped their flirting and both stared at me. After my long explanation, Fealty Eld took the initiative first and moved her chair away from Sein Eld. They both turned their heads away from each other in disgust.
"So what, Mr. Know it all? We just want to keep up appearances, that's all."
Sein looked at me and broke the silence.
"...you are the murderer, aren't you, Mr. Eld."
The Elds look surprised while Duke Douglas keeps up his poker face. I can see a glint of a smirk on the corner of his mouth, however.
"What makes you think so?" After the initial shock, Sein Eld seems to have recovered and asked me calmly.
"There's many reasons. First, your wife is cheating on you, isn't she?"
"Hey! How dare you-"
"Silence! Let the detective speak." Fealty Eld was about to have an outburst, but was immediately shot back by His Highness. She sank into her seat a little.
Nodding to His Highness to show my thanks, I continued.
"Next, the victim seems to have wrote something in blood, but it was erased away. However, it means that the victim has to have known the person. You would make for a good prime suspect, given that you are also a merchant, and you two are probably acquaintances, so if Edmund Smiths were to see you, he would have been able to write down some clues."
"Finally, we have the motive. Your wife cheating is not just the start of you losing your rationality, it also gives you the motive. You probably hate the lovey-dovey pairs hanging out around Lovers' Park, don't you? Your own marriage being a failure, seeing other people enjoy their relationships probably just added fuel to your fury."
"Which is probably why you did it, isn't it, Mr. Eld?" After pausing a bit to catch my breath, I looked at Sein Eld right in the eyes and said to him.
Sein Eld's face was a complete calm. But what he did next was shocking.
"HAHAHAHA! Excellent work, detective. It is just as you said. My wife is a cheating bastard. Furthermore, the other couples can't seem to be able to stop displaying their shitty love all the time. I've had enough, so I did it. After that, it felt great to be able to play around with their bodies. Heheheheh. How do you love-birds like that, hahahaha, HAHAHAHA!"
His Highness gave another signal and Sein Eld was dragged off after being placed in handcuffs.
What a madman.
"Hmph, is that all, detective? Why was I called here then? Did you simply wanted to waste my time?"
The comment came from Duke Douglas. As impatient as ever.
"Don't worry, your judgement comes now, Duke Douglas."
"My what? You had better watch your mouth, detective!"
"...Duke Douglas. Respect the detective's authority and let him speak. Tris, care to explain what you mean?"
"But of course, Your Highness. Remember when I said that Fealty Eld was cheating? The person she was cheating with was none other than Duke Douglas. Furthermore, he was probably the one who led Sein Eld on the path of the serial killing, with the power he holds."
"Nonsense! I have nothing to do with this woman! I don't even know who she is!"
"Oh? But I have evidence that you should at least know this woman."
"Hmph. Show it before you continue with this ridiculous reasoning!"
It's finally time.
Time to bring the evil Duke to justice!
I take out the ring I found at the Eld family's house.
"Do you recognise this ring, Duke Douglas?"
"...t-t-t-that is...that is..." All of a sudden, Duke Douglas seems to be stuttering. Serves him right.
"Your Highness, why not you take a look and tell us what exactly this ring is?"
His Highness took the ring. An audible gasp escaped from his mouth.
"This emblem...Duke Douglas! Isn't this your ring?"
Duke Douglas seems to be having a bit of cold sweat at this point.
"N-No way! That must be a fake! That's right! That has to be a fake! See, I'm wearing my ring right here!" He held up his right hand to show us a similar ring on his pointer finger. Seems to me that he prepared well for this.
Good thing I have prepared for this, too.
"Duke Douglas. I remember you saying that your ring is one of in the whole world, isn't it? That it was made with rare metal that dropped from the sky?"
The things I asked during our conversation on that day became handy.
"That's right! That means even more so now that the one you are holding has to be a fake!"
"I would beg to differ. Rather, I can now safely say that the ring you are wearing now is the fake. If you would please take it off, we can do a comparison."
A constable took the ring from the Duke's hands and placed it on the table in the middle of the room. I also placed the ring I found beside it.
"Now. Notice any difference between the two?"
"Hmph. The difference is that mine is the genuine article!" All the people present shook their heads while the Duke simply scoffed at me.
"Well. If you were to look carefully, you would notice that one of the rings has scratches on it. Now, that would be the ring I found."
Looking at the Duke's face, it's slowly turning white. What a pushover.
"You must be thinking inside, 'So what?'. Well, this means that the ring that the Duke is wearing is brand new while the ring I found has already been through some times. Now, which one do you think would be the ring that the Duke would be wearing around him all the time?"
Everyone gave out an "Oh..." as they understood the meaning behind my words.
"Now that we know that the ring I found is the real ring, the next question to answer would have to be 'Where was this found?'. I found this ring together with Her Highness in one of the least expected places--the Elds' home. I wonder who was it that said earlier that he never even knew Fealty Eld?"
Fully confronting the Duke now, I asked him sarcastically while holding up the ring.
The Duke's face is now flashing between red and white. Whew. What a lightshow.
"Now, why would your ring be found at the Elds' home? I can only think of one thing with all the facts uncovered so far--to cheat with Fealty Eld. Your Highness, if you can recall, Duke Douglas has already been caught cheating with others' wives before, so this wouldn't even the the first time. Given how he has lied about not knowing Fealty Eld, along with evidence to suggest his involvement in the case, I believe we can at the very least convict the both of them with adultery."
By now, Duke Douglas has slouched onto the chair, and Fealty Eld is busy wiping off her sweat.
"Y-Y-Your Highness. Please have mercy on us. I...I...-"
"The law is absolute, especially given the tragedies born from your affairs, I can't just let the both of you off lightly." Fealty Eld tried to plead with His Highness, but was shut down.
...
Looking at the two cheating criminals being taken away by the constables, I finally let out a long sigh.
It's finally over.
Someone lightly patted me on the shoulder.
"Great job, Tris. Eta would be proud of you."
With that, His Highness exited the room.
Eta, eh?
I wonder...
Comments (0)
See all