In a Different World with a Smartphone Chapter 379: The Second Murder, and Securing the Suspect.
“The poison is called Yulonifred. It’s a vicious poison that can be extracted from Yulonis.h.i.+a’s roots-no. If ingested orally, it would react with the person’s internal magic power which is present in his saliva, and would corrode and destroy his digestive tract in an instant, leading to a swift death-no.”
The above was the a.n.a.lysis of the poison that was in the tea, given by Flora who came here from the [Alchemy Building].
“And that Yulonis.h.i.+a…”
“A plant that only grows in the treacherous mountain ranges in northern Yulong. You can find some from time to time in Demon Kingdom Xenoas.”
It was Sakura, instead of Flora, who answered my question. She seems awfully knowledgeable about this.
“This poison was used in Xenoas too. Since the death is gruesome, it’s often used to threaten or warn others, is what I heard.”
I see. Since Sakura is the child of the demon king, she must’ve been taught about these kinds of dangers. Still, poison form Yulong, huh. As expected, there’s some Yulong elements in this case.
“Is the Eastern Sea Marquis someone under Yulong’s flag-degozarou ka?”
“It’d be easier to understand if he had hired a.s.sa.s.sins from Yulong, though.”
No matter how rotten, he’s still one of the Four Marquises of Horn Kingdom. It’s unlikely for him to become a henchman working for the Yulong remnants. It’s more natural to think he’s the one using them.
“Master. About the deceased here. Besides the poison, there’s also traces of a strong sleeping medicine in the body-no. I believe the victim had been put to sleep first before being forced to drink the poisoned tea.”
“Ha?”
Make him fall asleep first before poisoning him? Why the h.e.l.l would the murderer do something so troublesome?
The conference ended -> the Southern Spring Marquis asked for the room to be changed -> he was put to sleep -> the poison was administered -> he died. Is the flow of events something like this?
Before that, if he was made to drink poison after falling asleep, that would mean that someone was indeed in that room back then.
Maybe, the culprit was hiding in the large closet, and waited until the Southern Spring Marquis came back from the conference before making him fall asleep and then poisoning him… What the h.e.l.l. This doesn’t make any sense.
Or maybe it’s like this. The culprit was expecting to kill the prime minister, but when he came out of the closet he found the Southern Spring Marquis instead. He made the marquis go to sleep for the moment, but since his face was seen he eventually decided to kill him, or something like that?
“…… I don’t understand.”
In the first place, if you’re gonna wait for him, just use a knife. Why poison? Is it his policy or something?
“Isn’t the culprit already confirmed to be the Eastern Sea Marquis-degozarou? We’ll know everything if we just catch him and make him confess-degozaru.”
“You’re saying things the no-good police from some mystery drama would…”
“Mister…? Who is that-degozaru?”
I smiled wryly at Yae who made a questioning expression. What Yae said isn’t exactly unacceptable. To be honest, that’s probably the fastest method to resolve this.
Still, that way of doing things has a lot of problems too. The target is tentatively one of the tops of a country we don’t have diplomatic relations with, after all.
We can do it if we get permission from the country’s leader, but right now we’re in the middle of deciding that leader, so.
The judgment using mystic eyes wouldn’t become conclusive evidence. Although I don’t believe Her Holiness the Pope would lie, it’s something only the person herself can confirm after all; it’s lacking in authenticity.
We need some conclusive evidence, in the end.
As I left the room once again and entered the hallway, I saw the Ferzen king walking towards us from a distance away.
“Oh, you were here, Brunhild sovereign. I was talking with Prime Minister-dono and Ganossa- dono just now, and it was decided that we would hold the succession rights conference again tomorrow. We would be staying here for the night; what about you?”
He’s asking whether I would return for the time being with transfer magic, I guess. Returning is fine too, but I’m worried about the possibility of something happening while I’m gone, so I decided to stay here as well. Also, we’re technically counted as suspects as well. Even though we don’t have any possible motives and also have alibis.
“What about the other marquises?”
“They all have villas in the capital, but it’d be foolish to let them return in this situation. They’ll be sleeping in rooms prepared for them tonight… Of course, we’ll be keeping an eye on the Eastern Sea Marquis as much as we can.”
The Ferzen king spoke in a low voice.
Still, I understand nothing about this case, huh… Like why the Eastern Sea Marquis would kill the Southern Spring Marquis. It’d be easier to understand if he committed the murder for a personal grudge instead of something related to the succession rights problem.
The Southern Spring Marquis… He seemed like a good-natured person, though. I definitely didn’t think he was the type of person who would earn someone’s hatred. Well, n.o.bles are people who always garnered some degree of ire to begin with.
Since it’s come to this, should we go with Yae’s plan after all…? Sneak into the Eastern Sea Marquis’ room at night, force him to confess about the murder case, then erase his memories… No no, as expected that should be left as the final option.
Since we already know who the culprit is, things should become clear as long as we don’t let him escape… I think.
“Was what I thought, but…”
“We let him escape-degozaru na…”
I, together with Yae, opened our mouths with a sigh. Just like we said, the Eastern Sea Marquis had splendidly escaped. To where, you ask? The world beyond.
Beside our feet, being bathed in the evening sun, lied the dead body of the Eastern Sea Marquis. Of course, we didn’t do it.
Earlier, while we were discussion our future plans in the room we were a.s.signed, a ghastly pale Ferzen king rushed in and conveyed to us the news of the Eastern Sea Marquis’ death.
The location was at the room the Eastern Sea Marquis was supposed to be staying in; two hours ago, saying he wanted to rest for a while, he had apparently shut himself inside the room.
When a female servant entered the room together with some guards in order to confirm the menu for dinner, the Eastern Sea Marquis had already drawn his last breath, or so I was told.
On a side note, this isn’t suicide. A scarf could be seen tied around his neck as he lied p.r.o.ne on the floor next to the bed.
“This time, it’s an easy-to-understand strangulation, eh.”
“Betrayed by the a.s.sa.s.sin he hired-degozarou ka?”
“Not an impossible theory.”
Still, this scarf… It’s not a regular scarf. This silkiness and smooth touch… It should be quite the expensive article. There’s also a crest sewn onto this; this is…
The lines of sight of the others, who were looking at the dead Eastern Sea Marquis, converged on one woman in this room.
“Western Forest Marquis. Isn’t this scarf your belonging?”
The sharp eyes of Prime Minister Schwein pierced through the Western Forest Marquis. That crest is apparently the Western Forest Marquis… The Suile marquis house’s house crest.
The Western Forest Marquis, who had gathered everyone’s eyes, slowly shook her pale face sideways.
“N, no. I mean, that scarf is indeed my belonging. However, I had lost it somewhere yesterday… It’s the truth!”
“You had a fierce argument with the Eastern Sea Marquis earlier. Could it be…”
“That’s not it! And in the first place, there’s no way the Eastern Sea Marquis’ guards in front of this room would’ve let me in anyway!”
That’s true. And besides, using a scarf with your house crest on it as a murder tool is beyond stupid. And even if she did, she should’ve taken it back with her.
Flora was using a variety of magic tools to scan the Eastern Sea Marquis’ body, and confirming various information. The one she’s using now is a portable tool with [a.n.a.lyze] applied to it using [Enchant]. Its appearance resembles that one tool used by the medical staff in a certain SF television drama. It’s a western drama set in s.p.a.ce.
Flora, who was holding that tool in her hands, tilted her head slightly.
“What’s wrong?”
“This is weird-no.”
I asked Flora to explain to me the incongruity.
Eh? … I see, that really is weird. It doesn’t add up.
“Could the tool be malfunctioning?”
When I asked her, Flora began to manually check the body, doing things like turning it over, before making her decision.
“There’s no mistake as I thought-no. The body doesn’t lie-no.”
“That means the Eastern Sea Marquis back then…”
An effect achieved using magic, or some unknown tool, I suppose? If Flora is right about this…
If such a magic was used, then we mustn’t let the perpetrator escape. Since there was an order not to let anyone out of the castle, it should still be fine.
Hah… In the end, I’m doing what Yae suggested we do earlier. I can’t call the police from some mystery drama no-good anymore.
Guess this just means I can’t solve cases by logical reasoning like those great detectives. I can only find the culprit and make him confess through the brute force approach.
It’s forceful, but let’s go with the fastest method. If we let him escape, things would get troublesome. There’s no need to hold back against a group of a.s.sa.s.sins.
I gathered divinity in my eyes and activated [Divine Eyes]. After that, I slowly looked over each person in the room.
Prime Minister Schwein, Ganossa, the Western Forest Marquis, the Northern Mountain Marquis… Not them, huh. While it may be obvious, the Ferzen king and the Ramissh pope aren’t too.
“Y-your Majesty the Sovereign King? Is there anything wrong?”
Probably growing uneasy due to suddenly being stared at, Her Holiness the Pope called out to me.
“I’m sorry. I was just confirming something.”
While apologizing to Her Holiness the Pope, I headed out of the room and scanned through the waiting soldiers and knights, as well as the female servants who were present in the hallway.
There!
I walked in a straight line towards the target.
In front of me stood a young man with short brown hair, whose appearance is that of an ordinary soldier’s no matter how you look at him.
He has a mild-looking face that gave off a sense of harmlessness. He’s wearing Horn Kingdom’s standard armor, with a sword on his waist, and a spear in his hands. He’s probably one of the guards in the castle.
“Wha, what is it?”
The young man opened his mouth with a somewhat forced smile. Towards him, I flashed a nice smile while placing my hand on his shoulder.
“It’s a shame.”
“Ha?”
“[Gravity].”
“Gufuu!?”
The young soldier crumbled on the spot due to the sudden gravity magic applied to him. Unable to move his body, his eyes looked upwards at me. There were surprise and hatred swirling around inside his eyes.
“Y, Your Majesty the Brunhild Sovereign! What are you…!”
Prime Minister Schwein called out to me as the rest of the group rushed out from the room. A soldier belonging to his own country had just been apprehended by another country’s king. There’s no way he wouldn’t panic.
“I just caught the suspect, is all. Please wait just a moment. I’ll peel off his fake skin right away.”
I bound the soldier’s limbs using metal wires taken out of [Storage]. Since [Gravity] would be released too, I need to make sure he can’t run away beforehand.
“Alright, then. [Absorb].”
“W, what!?”
Using the absorption magic [Absorb], I took in the layer of magic power that was covering the soldier. I’ve already seen through the fact this this guy has some sort of magic enchantment covering his entire body with [Divine Eyes]. Since the [Gravity] magic was also absorbed, the weight increase effect on him disappeared as well.
The young soldier’s appearance changed. The brown hair turned black, and the length also increased. The plain-looking young man’s face turned into a foxy face coupled with sharp eyes, the round-ish chin also turned rugged with some stubble growing out. No matter how you see him, he’s not a young man but someone in the prime of his life. His body shape also seems to be a bit bigger than before.
“T, this is…!?”
Ganossa opened his eyes wide and muttered.
The one lying on the floor over there was no longer a harmless-looking young man, but a suspicious man who was looking at his surroundings with murderous intent in his eyes.
“Magic to change your appearance, huh. A perfect tool for undercover work. Is it non-attribute magic? Or is it an artifact?”
“… How did you know…!”
“The presumed time of death was clearly abnormal-no.”
Instead of me, Flora was the one who answered. Yep. It was due to that discovery that I managed to figure out what the culprit had done.
“From the degree of magic power depletion after death, the time of death was estimated to be around 5-6 hours before-no.”
“If so, that would mean the Eastern Sea Marquis had died at around the same time the Southern Spring Marquis was killed. If so, who was the Eastern Sea Marquis who talked with us, and shut himself inside his room two hours ago? Of course, it would have to be an imposter. And given the high quality of the disguise, it must be something magical in nature. Since n.o.body was allowed to leave the castle yet, I figured that you might still be around here while disguising yourself.”
“Ku…!”
It’s possible that he was planning to kill even more people after this in order to fan the flames for the civil war. Otherwise, he should’ve escaped as soon as possible.
While grinding his teeth, the man glared at us. There’s hatred and anger in his eyes. Those emotions didn’t come from having his disguise seen through; they were due to something else, and were directed at me personally.
“So you’re part of [Kurau]’s remnants, huh.”
“!”
The eyes, tainted with hatred, had shock registered in them for an instant. I bent down and fished around in the bosom of the immobile man, and soon enough a Chinese opera-ish mask fell out. As I thought.
“What is the former a.s.sa.s.sination corps of Yulong plotting in Horn? Is your goal to trigger a civil war in Horn? Things like killing the Southern Spring Marquis while making it seem like you were aiming for the prime minister, you did quite a bit, didn’t you?”
“Kukuku… [Kurau] will never break. There’s nothing I would say to you. Go ahead and kill me. This country’s already done for. Eventually, the rage of Yulong will make its way to you—”
“Right, I don’t really care about that, so. [Come forth Darkness, implanted false memories, Hypnosis].”
“Wha!?”
The hypnosis magic I casted easily robbed the agent of his consciousness. If you’re an agent, you should work harder on your magic countermeasures.
Now then, time for you to spill the beans.
– Pixel