322 – The Culprit is Among Us – 3

[Q. Why is deduction necessary?]

Interlude, I crouched in a corner, talking to the crazed mage.

He was still maintaining his pitch-black state. Even though no battle was taking place right now. Perhaps he was preparing, worried about when “The Goat” would reveal its true nature? To kill it immediately then?

Anyway, I have a question.

The crazed mage could force people to be truthful, and according to him, he was looking into their inner thoughts. So then, why is deduction necessary?

Wouldn’t it be enough to have them repeat, “I am the culprit,” one by one?

I asked plainly.

“Isn’t it just… about seeing through them?”

“That’s the point. You’ve hit a pretty good spot, Watson.”

Who’s Watson?

The crazy mage’s eyes drew an arc. He seemed to be smiling, but the pupils that briefly showed under his eyelids were too terrifying for it to feel like a smile.

But despite that feeling, my mind was strangely calm. Could it be that the crazy mage was protecting me?

“I’m looking intimately into the hearts of our seniors and juniors. Skimming even the contours of their souls. But I haven’t apprehended『The Goat』. Do you know what that means?”

“……..”

“It means they have a sophisticated disguise or some other… tricky means operating within the uncharted black box that is the soul. In my opinion, it’s 100% the latter. If it was the former, they would have turned evil long ago.”

A disguise that even this man can’t penetrate. Then, is it even possible to find the culprit?

“Of course. There are no secrets that cannot be revealed, no tricks that cannot be solved in this world.”

The crazy mage gave me a hint.

“Let’s say they’re cleverly hiding their personality. After committing the crime stealthily, they return to the innocent ‘me’ who knows nothing. In this case, even if nothing is visible inside, the outside is different.”

“……..So then. Even if they claim to be innocent, there would be suspicious aspects to their behavior.”

“That’s right, behavior. Catch the one whose behavior is off. A guy who acts unnaturally for 『The Goat』 even though they’re not 『The Goat』. That’s the culprit.”

I see.

Then I don’t need to believe the voices pleading innocence, nor the frustrated gestures. I can point my finger at the person moving most suspiciously and call them the culprit.

This is my chance. My chance has come.

My teacher, as 『Hypnotic Detective』, helped many people. Now, I will inherit that righteous name, and after unraveling every secret in the detective’s way, I will point at 『The Goat』 as the culprit and have my revenge.

This is what I’ve been dreaming of for a long time, since the moment I inherited the desire for revenge. I clenched my fist tightly. It’s time to resume the mystery.

“Hey.”

“……..?”

The crazy wizard lowered his voice and spoke. As if he was about to tell some important story, I listened intently, but.

“A hypnotized person… doesn’t know they’re hypnotized. Same with the character on stage. Only the audience can distinguish the role.”

“….What are you talking about?”

“Don’t panic or get scared. Detective.”

It was utter nonsense, and judging by the look of it, he had no intention of explaining it either. So, I just tacked a question mark onto the end and resumed my deduction.

–

[Interrogation: Who turned off the lights?]

“Not raising your hands means, you’re claiming you didn’t touch the power system panel at all. Is that right?”

“……..”

“……..”

The suspects exchanged glances, sizing each other up. The fact that the lights went out remains, but no one is claiming to have turned them off. It doesn’t make any sense.

But… the crazy wizard is quiet.

If it were a lie, he would have given them the ‘Penalty’. All of the suspects did not turn off the lights. At least, that’s what they believe.

This is an important clue.

In other words, when the lights went out… up until that point, they existed as ‘Goat’.

They must have finished turning off the lights and releasing the familiar, then hid somewhere with the memory of doing so. If that’s the case, all I have to do now is observe their actions.

An uncomfortable silence lingered, then, taking the lead, Lorei carefully began to speak.

“…But, truly, no one touched it. Specifically, it was a situation where we *couldn’t* touch it. We were.”

“Give your testimony.”

“I told you before. I stopped Charlie-sunbae from trying to mess with the system panel. And after that too. I believed no one should touch the panel… so I took everyone’s hands and led them to the corner.”

The corner?

Charlie cut in, midway. Charlie and Lorelei spoke in turns.

“Yeah, that corner of the room where you and our hoobae were whispering earlier. Lorelei-hoobae led everyone there. Lorelei grabbed my hand and Luche’s, and Melverton went to the corner on his own.”

“Right after that, the central control room lights went out. It was so dark you couldn’t see anything. But everyone was holding hands. There was no way we could physically reach the system panel.”

“Then, we heard something scratching against the wall… and the lights came back on. Everyone was still in the corner.”

“……”

The ‘scratching sound against the wall’ Charlie mentioned at the end, must have been the result of the crazy wizard reverse-brainwashing 『The Goat』’s familiar and sending it back.

Due to Lorelei’s decision, the power within the room was such that the system panel couldn’t be touched. And then, the central control room lights went out…

For that reason, Lorelei insisted she was not involved in cutting the power.

“So, I think what shut off the tower’s lights must have been something that happened externally. Like they messed with the power plant supplying energy to the tower.”

“Could you have extended your magic to manipulate the system panel?”

“You need physical force to manipulate the panel. Like pressing buttons or turning levers… I heard it was designed this way to prevent remote hacking.”

Physical force is required, huh.

Then there was definitely some validity to their argument. They were already away from the panel before the lights went out, even if they had kept a distance after the room went dark. On the surface, they seem innocent…

But there’s a blind spot. We need to address it.

“I just need to confirm one thing. Is there anyone who knows exactly when the lights went out in the central control room?”

“Hey, detective. We’re not monsters like our hoobae. We don’t walk around with a precise biological clock in our heads, nor are we cold and meticulous enough to check the time during such a chaotic moment…”

“I, I know. I know the time.”

“⋯⋯⋯⋯?”

It was Melberton. As he rolled up the sleeve of his purple mage’s tower robe, a watch, clearly luxurious and intricate, a very expensive-looking wristwatch, was revealed.

“Something I bought when business was good… it does everything from timekeeping to voice recording, even has a jukebox function. Back then, research funds were overflowing, but how did I end up with my pockets completely empty now? God.”

*Buying shit like that’s why you’re broke.*

“Then, when the central control room lights suddenly went out. I was startled and tried to turn on my watch’s light. It even has built-in light magic… but no matter how many times I pressed the button, it wouldn’t turn on. I was panicked. Then I accidentally hit the stopwatch.”

“Our Crispy did something useful. Let’s see it.”

“…Ah, you can’t confiscate it. Senior, this is really precious to me….”

“Who’s taking it? Just gonna look at it for a sec and give it back. Jeez, c’mon.”

The mad mage analyzed the wristwatch’s time record, compared it to his own biological clock, and then stated definitively.

“The times are different. The lights in the central control room went out first, and then the tower’s lights went out 10 seconds later. They got caught by the neck, right?”

“⋯⋯⋯⋯!!”

The time the ‘central control room lights went out’ and the ‘time the tower lights went out’ didn’t match.

“Ha, but… how could they have turned off the central control room lights? If they did, everyone would have noticed.”

“Crispy’s watch worked perfectly. The light magic too. But you couldn’t see the light. That’s because…they didn’t turn off the lights, they unleashed ‘darkness’.”

Right. When I was climbing the stairs with the mad mage, the streams of light tracking 『The Goat』 had lost their light within the darkness. It’s a phenomenon that can’t be explained by simply switching off the tower’s lights.

『The Goat』 must have unleashed that spell in the central control room first.

Then in the darkness, at a time when no one could see, they secretly manipulated the system panel. And at the same time, along the magical power lines connected to the panel… they spread ‘darkness’ to the stairwell where the mad mage and I were.

Charlie, his chin in his hand, pondered carefully before raising an objection.

“…That hypothesis doesn’t hold up for two reasons. First, we were all huddled in the corner, holding hands. Even if the lights went out, we wouldn’t have let go. It’s impossible to manipulate anything without stretching your arms really long.”

“⋯⋯⋯⋯.”

“Secondly, if they’d cast that kind of dark diffusion magic, we would’ve felt the flow of mana. Whether inside or outside… we’re innocent. Lorei, Luce, and Melverton, all of them. They’re excellent juniors working hard. So, that’s enough, junior. It’s sufficient, isn’t it?”

He spoke persuasively, looking at the mad mage, as if to shield his juniors. But the mad mage’s ominous gaze didn’t waver in the slightest.

Because Charlie’s words contained a flaw. I pointed it out immediately.

“That’s wrong, Mage Charlie.”

“…Where exactly is it wrong?”

“Then, and even now… the mad mage’s great magic was covering the entire tower. In the face of a relatively large magic, smaller magic is difficult to notice. With ‘The Goat’s’ skill, they could have hidden the activation.”

And.

“Since everyone was holding hands at the corners, they were distanced from the panels, which narrows down the suspects. Someone who can manipulate the system panels from afar. Someone who can summon illusions with physical force.”

“… …!!”

“It was clearly written in the materials I received from the mad mage. The ‘Hologram’ magic is, uniquely among illusion magics, the only one with physical force— therefore, the one who turned off the lights is Luce, you!”

“I, I, I…!!”

–

[Argument : Is Luce the culprit?]

Whirr-!

With a flick of the mad mage’s finger, a black stream of air spiraled around Luce’s body. I didn’t know what the specific effect was, but I could discern its ability to restrain and bind.

“Mph, mph…!!”

Luce couldn’t even speak. It had blocked her incantation.

To be cautious, I asked him.

“Mad Mage, can we look into Luce’s past? If she’s a being disguised by ‘The Goat’, there will definitely be gaps in her past. An uncertain origin, for example.”

“Aha… playing the police officer here. I have a former omni-directional bureau agent I know. I’ll call and ask him right now. He’ll let us know quickly.”

“⋯⋯What’s a phone?”

“Like, contact. I meant contacting you with the comms crystal. To keep you all talking.”

The crazy mage pulled out the crystal, trying to reach the outside world. From beyond the crystal, a woman’s voice, faint, could be heard. The same one he’d seen in his lab… the pink-haired woman.

She was a bureau agent then.

After the identity of the one who’d killed the lights was revealed, silence filled the central control room. Melverton looked despondent at the revelation his colleague was the culprit, and Lorelei quietly closed her eyes.

And Charlie… the mage with the longest tenure, stared intensely at Lorelei, then after a long pause, finally spoke.

“Detective, the story isn’t over yet.”

“⋯⋯⋯⋯?”

“The detective’s reasoning is certainly correct. Within that blackout, the only one who could touch the panel is Luce, who uses ‘Hologram’ magic, which has physical force… because they were holding hands.”

Charlie readily admitted the logic of my deduction. But then, he added a sharp rebuttal.

“But did they really, ‘hold hands’?”

“⋯⋯⋯⋯!!”

“If you got the information from your junior, you’d understand. I didn’t want to corner my junior… but at least, an innocent person shouldn’t be arrested.”

“⋯⋯I understand, Senior Charlie. To prevent the wrong person from being captured, we need to drag all doubts out of the shadows.”

Lorelei sighed deeply.

Yes, Lorelei is a user of the ‘Puppeteer’ technique. And its effect is… magic that hands over the control of one’s body to another. Therefore, its power is potent enough to penetrate most mental barriers.

Handing over control of the body means gifting all the sensations along with it.

Charlie overlapped his left and right hands, shaking them by himself.

“What if I used ‘Puppeteer’ on people to my left and right in this state, one arm each? Then the victims would feel as if they were ‘holding hands’ with the person next to them. Even though they actually weren’t.”

…Maintaining the alibi of holding hands while reaching the panel.

In the blackout, someone manipulated the device unnoticed, then returned to their original posture like nothing happened. That way, they could tamper without suspicion.

“Lorelei, wasn’t it your idea? For everyone to hold hands and move to the corner.”

“…Yes.”

“That’s strange, Detective.”

They could also pin the blame on Luce, the only one who knew how to operate the *Hologram.*

“……”

Another suspect just popped up. I thought I had figured it all out.

But it’s okay. The crazy mage is digging into their pasts. So between the two, I just need to point the finger at the one with the hazy past.

*Thunk*. As if on cue, the crazy mage pocketed the communication orb. The call must be over. He said,

“Nothing.”

“…No past?”

“No, no one has a suspicious past.”

What?

I stared at him, dumbfounded. He nodded, as if understanding my confusion, and added a more detailed explanation.

“While I was asking for a background check on Luce, I also investigated the power here. And I got data from my cop friend… Yuri Lanster. All four suspects have pretty comprehensive pasts, from birth to entering the tower.”

“……”

“They aren’t fabricated identities. They were actually born, they lived, and they drifted into the Violet Magic Tower. They aren’t disguises made by *Capra*. And Detective… I have bad news.”

“Bad news?”

The crazy mage pointed behind him with his thumb.

From the empty wall, a door was slowly appearing.

“The duration of the 『Stepping Through Doors, Ascending Realms』 is coming to an end. If I don’t expose the culprit within it, I’ll have no choice but to use a somewhat forceful method. I’ll detain all four of you and put you through a painful session.”

“……..”

“Well, Detective. Has your deduction reached a dead end?”

“….No, there’s still a part that hasn’t been discussed. The deduction isn’t over yet.”

I scan back through the timeline.

● The Mad Mage is attacked by the tower members, mind-controlled by 『The Goat』. He quickly subdues them along with an assassin.

This part.

The mind control of the tower members and concealing the assassin. This part hasn’t been investigated yet. There’s still more to go. The deduction… isn’t over.

Clickclickclick.

Creak. Squeak.

A strange sound echoes in my ear. A very small noise that oscillates between regular and irregular. Is it the ticking of Melberton’s watch? Or is there a broken wall clock somewhere?

“……..”

What’s certain is that the Mad Mage wants this deduction to continue and uncover the truth… probably.

I tapped the file I received from the Mad Mage.

“Aliv Lonto, a trainee who joined the Violet Tower a month ago. This guy was an assassin in disguise. He ambushed us on our way up, and was taken down by the Mad Mage.”

“……..”

“I heard that joining the Violet Tower requires either a recommendation from an insider or a visit from an outsider. How did this Aliv Lonto join the tower?”

This is important.

The person who put an assassin in the tower, isn’t that very suspicious? If it was either Luce or Lorei, I could almost be certain.

But the one sweating bullets while answering my question was…

“Th-there, um, I, I⋯⋯ reco, recommended it, I did.”

It was Melbourne.

Without thinking, I slammed my fist down, *BANG!!* on the desk.

Thud.

“⋯⋯How the hell are you all so suspicious?!”

Are they all in on this or something⋯⋯?