Episode 24
Translator: RaidenTL
Episode 24
She glanced at Lucian, who staggered into his partitioned space like the hero of a tragic romance and collapsed on the floor, then muttered to herself.
“A grown man, crying his eyes out in the open like this? How pathetic.”
“Someone like you wouldn’t understand, but I’m finished. If I don’t make a name for myself at my first Art Festival, I’ll be buried.”
Now that he was in an enclosed space, the man seemed to feel no need for restraint and began to sob uncontrollably. Elysia, at a loss for how to console a man of his size, fidgeted for a moment before deciding to just leave him be.
She tossed the visitor log she was holding onto an empty easel and slammed the screen shut with a deep sigh.
She had no talent for comforting crying people. She briefly considered raising a hand to pat his back, but then clenched her fist with a horrified look on her face. Whatever, cry yourself to death for all I care!
“Are you done crying yet? I swear, I’ve seen some disgusting things in my life. Anyway, pull yourself together and think hard if there’s anyone who holds a grudge against you. This was clearly meant to mock you, so it must be someone who despises you.”
“...There are many.”
“What?”
As she stared at him in disbelief, Lucian mumbled.
“There are too many to know...”
“Well, aren't you proud!”
She exclaimed, exasperated, then straightened up and gazed at the large windows visible between the partitions. She recalled the size of the canvas she had seen that morning.
About two meters long, and the canvas is tough. Elysia calmly organized her thoughts. First, they must have used a sharp tool. Even with a tool, it would be difficult to tear it from the center without considerable strength, so the culprit must be quite strong...
But the most crucial point was this: how did they carry such a large canvas from the Art Hall to the Main Building’s entrance without being seen by the guards?
“Hmm...”
Lost in thought, Elysia suddenly caught a scent—one that was terribly familiar, yet one she hadn’t encountered in a long time.
Frowning, she sniffed the air and quickly walked over to the window.
She roughly threw open the blue curtains fluttering in the wind and swiped her index finger across the stone railing. Then, she brought it to her nose and sniffed. With a short, humorless laugh, Elysia bit her lip crookedly.
SYSTEM: You have discovered a small amount of Crea.
“This crazy son of a bitch...”
Growling, she spun around and kicked the thigh of the man who was still crumpled in despair. With a solid thud, the man, who had been face down, toppled over sideways.
The young master, who had never been treated this way in his life, wore a thunderous expression, but unfortunately for him, Elysia’s was even more menacing.
“Ha, this bastard... Hey, are you high? You’re so busted. Who’d you buy it from? It was that guy, wasn’t it? The one I missed?”
“Did you... just kick me...? And what do you mean, drugs—?”
“I saw it, you lunatic! The windowsill is covered in Crea. You dropped it, didn’t you?”
Lucian, rubbing the spot Elysia had kicked, shot up indignantly and protested.
“What in the world are you— I smoke cigars, but I never touch drugs! How dare you kick me? Have you no fear?”
Elysia studied his genuinely aggrieved expression with suspicion and asked again.
“...You don’t use?”
“Relying on such things is not true art. I don’t know how much further you intend to insult me.”
As Elysia looked into his stubbornly artistic eyes, a glint appeared in her own.
Oho, is that so?
Reaching into her clothes, Elysia pulled something out and grinned with interest. Lucian, seemingly frightened by her sudden change in demeanor, flinched and took a step back.
Ignoring him, Elysia rolled her shoulders, looking pleased, and muttered.
“So you’re saying the drugs were a trace left by someone else, not you? To be honest, I don’t like you much, so I was just going to let this be an unsolved case. But if that’s the situation, things are different.”
As she put on the round, silver monocle with a crack in its lens, a glitching system window appeared in her vision.
SYSTEM: Active Skill ‘Observation’ has been activated. (Duration: 15 minutes)
Still, to think I have to come all the way here to do this. My life is such shit...
Elysia ground her teeth and scanned the inside of the partition. Words flickered chaotically wherever her gaze landed.
➤ Artwork Sketch: Obsessively clean lines.
➤ Brush: Neatly organized by length and type. All new. (See Material Analysis)
➤ Palette’s Paint: The spot for the red paint is empty.
The red paint isn’t here? At that moment, she remembered the red letters on the canvas, which looked as if they had been smeared with a finger, not a brush.
Elysia’s face contorted in puzzlement, but she soon nodded.
So they took the red paint from here. As some kind of trophy?
➤ Painting Knife: Used for a long time. Handle shows +10 years of use. (See Material Analysis)
Elysia picked up the painting knife, which looked like a dull blade, and brought it close to her eyes to inspect it.
After running it across the back of her hand a few times, she sighed in disappointment and tossed it carelessly onto the workbench. It might be called a knife, but it had nothing in common with an actual blade.
Forget a thickly painted canvas, you couldn't even cut bread with this thing.
Pointing to the now-empty easel, she asked.
“The painting was on this, right?”
It was a rhetorical question, so she didn’t even wait for an answer. Elysia crouched in front of the stand, staring at the floor and feeling it with her fingertips. Immediately, text shimmered along the outline of her hand.
➤ Scratch on the floor.
A scratch? A look of interest crossed her face as she lay flat on the floor, searching for the mark. It didn’t take long to find a crack in a tile, as if it had sustained a heavy impact.
She scraped the inside of the cracked part with her fingernail, then rubbed the hard, crystal-like substance on her finger before bringing it to her nose to smell it. A sticky scent. A system window immediately popped up.
➤ Dried paint.
Hm? She tilted her head, stretched her arm out, and swiped a different finger across a spot further away, then stared at it intently.
➤ Clean.
The other parts are clean, but there was dried paint stuck only in that spot. Elysia recalled the way the canvas had been torn.
From top to bottom, diagonally from right to left. And assuming it was on the easel, the starting point was about the height of my forehead.
Standing in front of the easel, she slowly raised her right hand high and swung it down diagonally, estimating the motion. A scene constructed from her deductions flashed before her eyes.
The culprit, holding a sharp, hard weapon, raises their right hand and tears through the canvas with the full weight of their body. As the canvas rips, they lose their balance and drop the weapon.
The weapon falls, cracking the tile, and the paint on the blade from tearing the canvas gets stuck in the crack.
Snapping out of the vision, Elysia fixed her eyes on the cracked floor tile and backed away.
So, a rough guess would be they’re taller than me, and right-handed. What the hell, why is this so fucking easy?
She turned her body slightly so the little count wouldn't see and took a notebook out of her inventory.
SYSTEM: You can now memo your deductions here.
Elysia uncapped the fountain pen with her teeth and wrote in her terribly messy handwriting on the clean white page.
「Height: Over 170cm
Right-handed
High probability of being on Crea at the time of the crime
Red paint is missing」
Alright, time for the next question.
Canvas is incredibly tough. Considering this young master’s love for splurging, his canvas was surely of a higher quality than others. Plus, it was huge. Tearing it must have made a loud noise. How did they not get caught?
With this question in mind, Elysia glanced back at Lucian and immediately spotted him, his face flushed, reading the visitor log she had put down earlier.
I thought he was just crying his eyes out. When did he get up?
Then again, crying was probably exhausting. Having shed his tears, the man seemed to have found something else to do instead of just lying there.
Attaboy. The thought of praising him vanished as soon as she heard him mutter.
“Reve...”
“...What about her?”
“It was her. That woman, she’s trying to ruin me...”
Elysia snatched the log from his hand and carefully scanned the names written on it.
Sure enough, among the many names, Siene Reve’s was there... at the very end.
Elysia recalled Siene’s poor financial state, which forced her to sell paintings in the plaza, and tilted her head.
Could someone like that casually tear up a work of art worth 120,000 Gold? Besides, drugs sold on the black market are incredibly expensive. Can Siene afford such a luxury?
Elysia asked Lucian, who was trembling with barely contained rage.
“But is she the only one who holds a grudge against you?”
“...”
“I doubt it. Honestly, haven't you been a real pain in the ass until now? The other students are all from prominent families, too. Don't you think plenty of people found it pathetic how you always had to be in the lead? I mean, for one...”
The words were sharper than any knife, but Lucian didn’t flinch, continuing to mutter Siene’s name. Elysia was inwardly impressed.
If mental gymnastics were an Olympic sport, you’d conquer the world.
To get his attention, Elysia waved her hand in front of his glazed-over eyes.
“Don’t you remember where the tear started? It was at a height only someone taller than me could reach. Is Siene taller than me? And she tore and carried a two-meter canvas with those slender arms? Be realistic!”
“I’ll just have to ask her myself.”
What is he talking about? Flabbergasted, Elysia clapped her hands loudly in front of his face.
“Snap out of it! Can’t you think straight? Use that thing on top of your neck! Hey, hey!!!”
Unfortunately, it seemed he really couldn’t think straight. His vacant eyes wavered endlessly before he turned his back and stormed out of the painting room.
Goddammit, I should have brought Adrian!
A wave of belated regret washed over her. Because of his height, the man disappeared in an instant. Having lost sight of the unpredictable man, Elysia ground her teeth, gave the painting room one last hasty glance, and bolted after him.
Something feels really off. Something in that room is bothering me, but what is it?
Ah, screw it. I'll knock that ticking time bomb out or kill him, then I'll think!
She ran, almost breaking the heels of her shoes.
“Hey, you crazy bastard!!!”
The man, with no time to piece his shattered mind back together, kept running like a madman despite her curses.
His face was a mask of murder.