Chapter 15 : Chapter 15
Chapter 15: The Killer Is You, ↗↘↗↘!
As for the issue from the previous chapter, it has already been corrected. It was originally just an offhand line, meant as a teasing label joke, but I did not expect it to make everyone sound the alarm.
This story will not have any “wings getting tangled” elements. It may be my first time writing, but I still have that much common sense, so please rest easy.
【Nikaido Hiro】: All of our earlier discussion was based on the premise that “the victim died twenty minutes before the body was discovered,” correct?
【Hasumi Leia】: Correct. Hikami Meruru’s time of death was probably somewhere between twenty minutes and one hour before the body was found, but taking everyone’s testimony into account—especially Hanna’s call record—it seems that Hikami Meruru was still alive at the twenty-minutes-before-discovery mark, so the actual time of the crime was probably around then as well.
【“An-An”】: I organized the alibis... roughly like this.
The long-haired, white-haired, sleepy girl in the fluffy lace dress, who had not spoken at all until now and whom Chang Rong had almost thought might actually be asleep, raised the board in her hands. Written on it were everyone’s alibis.
{Leia, Coco, Hanna, Milia} had remained in the small underground prison room the entire time and had not come out.
{Sherry, Arisa} had stayed in the drawing room the entire time and had not moved.
{Noah, An-An, Emma} had stayed in the second-floor recreation room, after which Emma went to the infirmary.
{Nanoka, Margo} saw Emma in the infirmary thirty minutes earlier, then met up in the drawing room and returned to the prison.
(I do not really get it... but in simple terms, Hiro had no alibi for the entire time, while Emma had no alibi for the thirty minutes before the body was found.)
(So “Margo” was the name of that strong-looking purple girl?)
Chang Rong glanced at “Margo,” and she noticed his gaze immediately. At once, she gave him a teasing smile and lightly waved her right hand, clad in a black silk glove, in greeting.
Chang Rong did not yield either. He simply smiled and nodded in return.
After all, setting aside his identities as “Leia’s number-one fan” and “Hanna’s guardian knight,” he was also currently “a suspected mastermind sage.” He had to keep his composure and not lose face. That was the spirit.
【Sawatari Coco】: You lured that girl into the prison, then killed her. Then, twenty minutes later, because we heard the sound of glass breaking in the prison, we rushed over and found Meruru’s corpse. Isn’t it already crystal clear?
【Nikaido Hiro】: That logic is completely absurd. Are you idiots? Sorry, I should not have phrased that as a question. You are idiots.
【Shidou Arisa】: Hah!?
(That was a very cool line, and seeing her slap Keycap Coco across the face with it felt great, but could you maybe spare a thought for the fact that you are currently the number one suspect? Stop hissing at everyone, lady!)
Watching Hiro’s performance in the Witch Trial, Chang Rong finally understood why someone who looked so much like the class representative, core-of-the-team type could still end up with the deluxe stomp-the-sewing-machine package.
Chang Rong could even make a direct judgment now: if she were left alone, sooner or later she would pull off some earth-shattering one-hiss-versus-twelve stunt.
【Nikaido Hiro】: First, “we rushed to the scene after hearing the sound of glass breaking” is itself strange. If I had killed Hikami Meruru, then that sound of shattering should have come twenty minutes earlier as evidence of a struggle.
【Shidou Arisa】: Then you smashed it after killing Meruru.
【Nikaido Hiro】: That makes even less sense. After I killed Meruru, I also fell unconscious. So in a room where no one was able to move, why would the sound of glass breaking ring out twenty minutes later?
【Kurobe Nanoka】: ...Indeed, I have my doubts as well. Based on our earlier discussion, it is difficult to find a suitable explanation for that “sound of shattering.”
【Tachibana Sherry】: I know! Hanna must have accidentally used levitation magic to float a bottle up near the ceiling and then forgotten about it, and after the magic wore off it fell down all by itself~!
【Tono Hanna】: My magic is not that convenient or that long-lasting, desuwa!
【Nikaido Hiro】: Second, the reason I lost consciousness is strange too. In the crime scene photos, there were no signs of any struggle whatsoever. Even the footprints on the ground showed no signs of a scuffle or dragging. Those glass fragments cannot have been the weapon
Meruru used to counterattack either. Do not forget, the “sound of shattering” only reached your ears twenty minutes after her death.
【Hasumi Leia】: Mm... uh, I think I understand. It really is kind of strange!
(She did not understand.)
【Nikaido Hiro】: In that case, how did I lose consciousness? Ah, and leave the matter of the sleeping pills aside for the moment. The important point is that, as things currently stand, Meruru had no means whatsoever of retaliating against me.
(Sleeping pills? What sleeping pills? When that word came up, Hiro looked really awkward.)
【Sawatari Coco】: Well, maybe after killing Hikami Meruru, you accidentally tripped and knocked yourself out or something?
【Nikaido Hiro】: Do not treat me like some idiot such as Sakuraba Emma.
【Sakuraba Emma】: H-Hiro-chan!?
【Milia】: C-Could it have been that Meruru used some kind of karate technique?
(From the earlier discussion, I seem to remember that this girl—what was her name, No-Way-to-Dodge?—was supposedly able to heal people too, right? Tea ceremony, karate... beyond a doubt, the truth was undeniable. She was a ninja!)
【Nikaido Hiro】: (Why was that idiot Chang Rong suddenly nodding so solemnly at such a ridiculous line of testimony...?)
【Tono Hanna】: No matter how you look at it, Meruru did not seem like that type of character, did she? Right, it must have been this gorilla girl! She punched Hiro unconscious, that is what happened!
【Tachibana Sherry】: Eh? So that was it?
(The people with perfect alibis had started voting each other out... What exactly was our Witch Trial going to turn into?)
【Nikaido Hiro】: Third, the room of Leia, Coco, Hanna, and Milia was not far at all from the crime scene. How was I supposed to commit murder without alerting the people right next door? Even if it were someone like Sakuraba Emma, if she were stabbed, she would at least scream. And judging by the wounds, Meruru was absolutely not killed in a single blow.
【Sakuraba Emma】: Th-That’s so mean...
【Kurobe Nanoka】: There are methods of killing in a single strike, yes, but the wounds on Meruru’s chest indeed do not quite fit the conditions for that.
【Tachibana Sherry】: I know now~! Hanna-chan lifted Meruru way up high and then dropped her to death!
【Tono Hanna】: It was you, gorilla girl, who punched straight through Meruru instead!
(Was Tachibana Sherry Akaza or something...?) How did a pure physical-build fighter sneak into a magic test?
【Nikaido Hiro】: All of these unnatural points are actually easy to resolve—I am not the murderer, but one of the victims framed by the murderer. And the true time of the crime was not “after Hanna received that phone call twenty minutes before the body was found,” but rather the “strange sound of shattering heard forty minutes earlier” from Leia’s testimony. That sound of breaking glass was the decisive testimony that determined the true time of the victim’s death!
【Sakuraba Emma】: S-So Hiro-chan really does still want to suspect me?
【Nikaido Hiro】: Of course not. Were you not in the recreation room with Noah and the others at the time? Use that foolish head of yours for a moment. If the crime took place forty minutes earlier, then who is the most likely suspect?
【Sakuraba Emma】: Uuu...
【Shidou Arisa】: In the alibi chart that Natsume An-An put together, there does not seem to be anyone who fits the conditions...
【Sawatari Coco】: I know, it’s that mastermind over there, right!
【Chang Rong】: Huh? (Vein popping.)
【Nikaido Hiro】: ...If you do not understand the situation, there is no need to force yourself to name someone. It is {Kurobe Nanoka} and {Hoshou Margo}. Their alibi only covers the point thirty minutes before the crime. They are not accounted for forty minutes before it.
【Hoshou Margo (the purple kimono girl)】: My, my... Hiro-chan, are you trying to drag more people into the mud and muddy the discussion even further? Just as you did with Emma-chan?
【Nikaido Hiro】: No. Do not forget Hanna’s testimony as well.
【Tono Hanna】: R-Right! Meruru spoke with me on the phone twenty minutes earlier. Does that not prove your reasoning, Hiro, is...?
【Nikaido Hiro】: It proves that my chain of reasoning is already complete.
(Hm... complete?)
Chang Rong frowned. Up to this point, he still did not think any real logical chain had been pieced together.
【Nikaido Hiro】: The greatest smokescreen in this case is Meruru’s time of death. As long as the culprit could conceal that point, they could get away with everything. If we take “Meruru was already dead forty minutes earlier” as the new anchor, then one piece of testimony naturally comes into conflict—and that is Tono Hanna’s call record.
【Tono Hanna】: I-I was not lying, desuwa!
【Nikaido Hiro】: No, you were not lying. The one who lied was the “Meruru” on the other end of the phone. If Hikami Meruru was already dead at that point, then that means the call must have been forged.
【Kurobe Nanoka】: Forging a phone call? If that is the case, then...
【Nikaido Hiro】: Exactly. It was not a recording. It required live back-and-forth conversation, so it could not have been prerecorded. In that case, among all of us, there is only one person with the ability to forge that phone call—
Only you, Ho↗shou↘ Mar↗go↘!
【Hoshou Margo】: ...Ara, so after giving up on biting at everyone in sight, you have decided to single out one person and falsely accuse her instead, Hiro-chan? You are very cute like this too~❤
【Nikaido Hiro】: I finally have my teeth in you, witch. The nonexistent forged phone call, the extremely faint sound of shattering, the glass-breaking sound that should never have existed, killing the victim without alerting the surrounding rooms—all of the parts that could not be explained become solvable the moment you are taken into account! That is right, your—magic!
(...)
(...Magic?)
Margo’s magic... What was it?
No wonder he had been wracking his brain this whole time and still could not solve the problem.
So half the question had not even been printed on the paper, was that it!?