Chapter 270 – 253 Mitarai Kiyoshi

“Eh, Ara-unnie… Ara becoming younger is not actually a penalty for lack of magical power… Uh, so… My sister is not my sister… “Uh, huh?”

Oh, really? Are you younger than me? Has it been that long?

You said you were a child? That was such an adult way of speaking?

Plus, I often drink soju and beer… I’m looking for soups that even adults would like…

That Ara was actually a girl?

Umi’s mind is spinning.

“You seem confused. Well, of course.”

Ara turned her head to Joo-hyuk, who was sitting next to Umi, who looked confused.

“Joohyuk… Oh, you don’t seem that surprised… “What?”

“What… I see.”

Joo Hyuk nodded his head.

“When I heard that Ara had intended the idea of ​​a magical girl, I was skeptical because she didn’t originally fit with Ara’s mature image of her. What’s more, she was a child, and it was unclear to me that being younger was a penalty due to her lack of magical power.”

“… Maybe he’s better suited to be a detective than me… Yo. This. Ha… It’s kind of hard because speaking informally is a habit. I’m sorry, but is it okay if I speak in my usual way?”

“I don’t have any problem. Because that’s what we’re more familiar with.”

Ara smiled as if satisfied with Joo Hyuk’s answer.

“Was Ms. Ara’s image of a great detective also intended to cloud our perception by using a catchphrase from a famous Japanese cartoon, ‘Her body may have become smaller, but her brain remains the same?'”

Joo-hyuk’s words reminded Woo-mi of a little detective character with a red tie.

“The phenomenon of turning into a child due to lack of magical power is only a penalty… To solidify the prejudice that the main body will be a mature body?”

“No. That was an unexpected effect. “I didn’t intend to become that way in the first place to deceive, and I myself only recently came to realize this fact.”

Ara closed and opened her eyes and continued speaking.

“And what I said when I brought up the story related to my cause of death was not a lie. I was born as a genius with perfect memory, and was raised as a gifted child who attracted people’s attention. It was thanks to him that I was able to go to university at a young age.”

“Perfect memory ability…”

“The Eye Library I went into with Umi. It was a space similar to the Mind Palace, which was part of my perfect memory. Ironically, when I became a magical girl, I lost my memory and became separated from my body.”

A sigh flowed from Umi’s mouth at Ara’s words.

No matter how much of a detective I was, I thought there was a need to gather so much information. It felt like a layer of the secrets of the Eye Library had been removed.

“The university I entered after skipping a grade was a place where I could make full use of my sponge-like memory, but it was a difficult place to soothe my young mind that needed to play with my peers. “It was amazing to be ahead of my better sisters and brothers with a better memory than others, but at the same time, I was also a girl who wanted to watch magical girl dramas on TV.”

“Ara unni…”

“I received a lot of cuteness during my college life where I had no time to catch my breath… On the other hand, I think I also received a lot of jealousy. Me who remembers even things that would otherwise be overlooked in everyday life, and me who can recite academic books that need to be memorized after studying day and night… Regardless of how great it was, there were also people who felt as if they had received a blessing that they did not receive.”

However, perfect memory was not as big of a blessing as I thought.

Remembering everything means not being able to forget even what you want to forget.

Ara had no choice but to keep in her mind the strange current of people who treated her like a machine.

“In the meantime, there were people who approached me with pure expectations of my abilities. That’s it… People from the mystery novel club.”

For Ara, studying among older sisters who are still like adults is unfamiliar and difficult.

One of the members of the mystery novel club, who had a friendly expression on his face, brought a novel.

‘A challenge to readers… ?’

‘Okay! Mystery novels are nothing short of a fair battle between readers and writers! In particular, this style of mystery novels presents all the clues and information needed for reasoning on the front page of the challenge sheet, so that even non-detective readers can point out the culprit using the same logic and reasoning as detectives!’

‘Well, but what does that have to do with my memory?’

‘This novel… The clues are scattered all over the place, and it is very difficult to organize and read them all. The information you passed over may be a key point in your reasoning, but if you try to guess it, you may not remember it. … But since you have a good memory, wouldn’t you be able to remember everything and put it all together? How is it. Doesn’t it stimulate your sense of challenge?’

‘… If you remember everything in the book… ‘Do you think it would be much more advantageous?’

That was the beginning.

Ara’s memory began to attract attention from other aspects.

‘What about suspect A? I think it would have been possible to create an alibi for the third murder by acting in the morning, before the fire alarm went off and people gathered, when you could avoid people’s eyes.’

‘No. In the daily life section on page 82, there is a description that other people were having a conversation in the hallway where suspect A had to pass. And when you think of the drawing of the building plan drawn on the front page, it must have been difficult to avoid the eyes of the people in the room next door.’

‘How about suspect B? According to my inference, the weapon was an ice pick, and the reason the fire alarm was set off was to force a fire to hide the weapon. B is the only person who would hide such a long object.’

‘The reason why B cannot be the criminal in another case is proven in the content on page 237, a narrative with the detective who is the narrator and protagonist. So, unless it is an individual murder rather than a serial murder, B is probably not the culprit.’

Ara can remember everything up to the challenge page sent to readers.

Her ability was adept at instantly verifying each and every inference made by the members of the mystery club without opening a single page of a thick book.

‘… Ahhh… This person wasn’t the criminal… !’

‘It seems that remembering everything and tackling the problem are different from using reasonable logic to do so.’

Even though Ara’s own reasoning wasn’t very likely.
It seemed like even if she remembered everything, she wouldn’t necessarily be able to identify the culprit.
But.

‘… The next book.’

‘Hoo. Burning?’

It is an age when the desire for recognition is at its peak,

For Ara, who had difficulty forming a consensus with other college students.

Her mystery novels and mystery novel club her were like an outlet to another world for her.

‘The ability to remember all the evidence as you see it… You may not be a great detective, but I think you can be a great Watson.’

‘… ‘Why can’t I become a detective?’

‘Because detectives are mine.’

Among them, there was one man that Ara was paying attention to.

The one who led Ara to her mystery club for the first time… That man.

Even though she sometimes surprises Ara with her original reasoning and brilliant thinking.
He is a man who took care of Ara, who was still young, like her own younger sister.

“That person … Ah, her older sister liked it …?”

In response to Umi’s question, Ara nodded her head with a shy expression.

Umi recalled the time when she was talking about ‘Umi’s paradox.’

If Ara, who fell in love with her at a young age, was an ordinary student at her university, there would have been a significant age gap.

Then, I understand the meaning of Ara’s words her, ‘It didn’t work out.’

Perhaps it was just her unrequited love that Ara secretly harbored.

“Unfortunately, I don’t remember the exact name… What comes to mind instead is… In the afterimage of the last tragedy left behind. “It’s just the nicknames we used on our trips with our club members.”

“A nickname?”

At Umi’s question, Ara stood up and walked towards the bookshelf behind her.
When I first came here, it was a bookshelf with countless mystery novels on it.

Ara worked hard and pulled out a book.

“… “What about that?”

“Murder of the ten angles (十角館の殺人). “It is a representative work of new Japanese mystery and the debut work of Yukito Ayatsuji, who put a lot of effort into tricks and twists.”

Was this the book that was there when you first came to Ara’s villa? Umi tilted her head.

“The reason I brought this book out is for no other reason. That’s because the trip we went on imitated the concept of this novel.”

“Nickname… Also?”

“That’s right. The characters in the novel Murder in the Ten-Gakkan were nicknamed after the names of mystery novel writers they admired. ‘Poe’ from ‘Edgar Allan Poe’, or ‘Ellery’ from ‘Ellery Queen’.”

Edgar Allan Poe, who wrote [The Murder of Mordga], Known as the beginning of the mystery novel, and Ellery Queen, who wrote [The Tragedy of Y] And [The Name of a Nation Series], One of the three major mystery novels.

However, in Umi’s situation, it is just an unfamiliar name.

“We used something similar. Instead of the mystery novel writer, we decided to call each other by the name of the ‘detective’ from ‘Favorite Work.'”

“Unnie Ara… Do you remember what alias you used?”

“Well. Among the female detectives in classic masterpieces, my favorite is ‘Miss Marple’ from ‘Agatha Christie’s novel, but I think it was probably used by another member of the club. “I think it probably wasn’t because it was a funny situation for me, the youngest member, to even have that name.”

“Then… What was the name of the man that Ara had a crush on?”

Ara raised her head at those words and turned her eyes towards her tall bookshelf.

“… [Mitarai Kiyoshi].”

It’s an unfamiliar name. I thought a famous name like Sherlock Holmes would appear.

“I guess he’s not a famous detective?”

“No. In a way, it’s a very famous detective work. Although it cannot be found in this study.”

“Huh? Not even among these many books? What is the title of that novel?”

Ara narrowed her eyes at Umi’s words.

“It’s unfamiliar, but I’m sure you’ve heard it at least once. Like the ‘Murder in the Decagonal Pavilion’ shown above, this novel is a work that opened the door to a new generation of mystery novels in Japan, but it is a familiar title to us in a different sense.”

“Eh, eh… Is that so… ?”

Umi scratched the back of her neck at Ara’s words. At best, I’ve only read Keigo Higashino’s works.

I wondered what difference it would make if a familiar title popped up here.

But the title of the novel that came out of Ara’s mouth.

“The title of a novel in which a detective named Kiyoshi Mitarai is active… It’s the [Astrology Murder Case]. “

“… Yes?”

It completely betrayed Umi’s expectations.