Episode 70
Translator: RaidenTL
Episode 70
Realizing what Cain had been aiming for with this whole charade, Elysia glared at him venomously.
When she lunged forward to choke him, he repeatedly provoked her, whispering crude taunts. His raw, unfiltered words made Elysia’s face drain of color, and she unknowingly loosened her grip. W-what is this bastard saying right now?
Outside the door, the men heard something fall and crash inside. They let out sighs of resignation and walked away.
“...Since we’re here, we might as well check it out.”
“Ah, right, right. It was the one on the right?”
Click. The sound of a guest room door opening was followed by a voice confirming nothing was out of the ordinary, and then the sound of the door closing again. The two men left the hallway without another word. Their footsteps faded down the stairs.
Once all signs of them were gone, there was a loud clatter as the two of them tumbled out of the cleaning supply closet. Elysia’s face was flushed crimson as she snapped a mop handle over her knee with a sharp crack.
She hurled the shattered handle at him like a harpoon and screamed.
“You crazy fucking pervert! I’m going to kill you today, get over here!”
“It was the only way to get rid of them, wasn’t it? And for just the tip of my finger, it was quite effective, no?”
The instigator himself was perfectly calm. He merely shrugged as if he couldn’t understand the fuss. Seeing Elysia’s face, so hot it looked like it might start steaming, he burst out laughing.
Unable to stifle his chuckles, he asked, “What were you thinking about to make your face so red?”
“About killing a pervert like you!” Elysia seethed, this time throwing a dusty mop head at him. Her earlier anxiety was gone, replaced by a look of pure amusement as Cain replied.
“I’m honored you want to kill me, but isn’t there something we need to check first?”
Elysia, who had been preparing to strike Cain with a second mop handle, looked down at him, her expression asking, what? He stood up, brushed the dust from his clothes, and pointed to the guest room with his index finger.
“The door on the right. Aren’t you going to open it?”
Ah, right… Elysia’s face went blank. The mop handle fell from her hand with a thud as she rushed toward the right-hand door.
She tried the doorknob, but it was firmly locked. Elysia scoffed and rummaged through her inventory, pulling out an item.
<Click-Clack Door opener>
Item Description: Unlocks all locks with a ‘Durability’ value of less than 100.
She inserted the lockpick into the keyhole, pressed her ear to the door, and twisted it back and forth until the door opened. After returning the item to her inventory, Elysia kicked the door open.
She slowly stepped inside, her face turning cold as she took in the scene.
The first thing she saw was the enormous amount of greaseproof paper stacked inside the room. Piled high, the papers were interspersed with neatly arranged tools one would expect to find in a laboratory. Glancing at the equipment, she continued deeper into the room.
Soon, she came to a large window covered by a curtain. It was spotless, without a speck of dust, as if it were opened and closed frequently. Without a moment’s hesitation, she pulled it open and smiled coldly at what was revealed.
The window in the room connected to the wall of a dilapidated, abandoned building across the way. A gap, wide enough for one person to pass through, had been intentionally created like a passageway.
Instantly, the <Panic in the City> system window flashed.
SYSTEM: Congratulations. You have discovered the site of <Illegal drug manufacturing>.
An unsettling feeling crept up her spine. Elysia drew the revolver from her pocket again and was about to step into the abandoned building when Cain suddenly grabbed her. She jumped, startled, and spun around.
He looked her over—empty-handed except for the pistol in her hand—and spoke in a flat, appraising tone.
“You’re too defenseless.”
“Stay out of it.”
“Aren’t you scared? How curious.”
“Something feels wrong. I have to go in.”
At her words, Cain raised an eyebrow. Elysia sensed something suspicious in his attitude and took a step back.
She had thought for a moment that the dangerous aura she was so wary of had subsided, but now she wondered if he had just been hiding it.
It was sudden, like a darkness he had briefly kept veiled now flared to life. She almost let him see her trembling fingertips. Biting her lip, she looked straight up at him and said, “I just need to confirm something, and it’ll be over. I’m not going to waste time being scared over a simple check.”
“…”
“And I’m not as easy a target as you think.”
Elysia yanked her arm from his grasp and strode forward. The man, who had been frozen as if in hesitation, quickly followed after her just as she disappeared around a corner.
Ignoring him, Elysia kept her gun held in both hands, her eyes scanning her surroundings. A long hallway, and a series of rooms lined up in a row. She entered the first room.
The floorboards creaked under her feet. Because the building had been abandoned for so long, parts of the floor had collapsed. Carefully avoiding the sunken spots, Elysia looked around the room and frowned.
It was furnished enough for one person to live in. A narrow bed stood on one side, and across from it was a bathroom where one could wash up. Elysia quickly took out her monocle, put it on, and walked to the bed.
SYSTEM: Active Skill ‘Observation’ has been activated. (Duration: 15 minutes)
The bed was cramped, too small for a grown man to lie on. The blanket and sheets were gone, as if someone had cleared them away in a hurry.
Just then, something caught her eye. As she ran her hand along the edge of the mattress, words floated up in a jumble.
➤ Bloodstain detected on the underside of the mattress
A bloodstain?
Wrapping her arms around the mattress, Elysia heaved it over. She froze when she saw the distinct bloodstain.
Her heart dropped with a thud, and a cold sweat trickled down her back. Forcing her legs not to stumble backward, she stood firm, her sharp eyes fixed on the stain. Her breath grew short, and she clutched her chest.
Calm down. It’s not the first time you’ve seen something like this.
She had seen far worse. In an instant, she regained her composure. The bloodstain on the mattress was faint. And the sheets and blanket were gone. This meant blood that had soaked the bedding had seeped through to the mattress.
She examined the indentations on the mattress to guess the direction the stain would have been made. After feeling a particularly sunken area with her hand, she turned the mattress so that part faced down.
As she stared at the long smear of blood, as if something had been dragged, a staticky status window appeared.
Bloodstain Component Analysis Complete:
➤ Blood of a male in his 20s
➤ Type A
➤ No underlying medical conditions
! Drug test on blood sample recommended !
“What?”
Elysia hastily pulled a pair of scissors and a drug detection liquid from her inventory and cut off a piece of the mattress cover. She stuffed the blood-soaked fabric into a flask and gave it a light shake. The solution immediately changed color.
Her expression hardened as she saw the color. This color meant…
As she fumbled for an answer, the <Panic in the City> status window popped up as if offering a hint. The drug Hertz was presumed to have taken was…
[error;notfound]
It was a color even she had never seen before. The detection reagent, which turned red for Crea and blue for Voluet, was now stained pitch black.
She mentally ran through the twenty-odd drugs she had tested for as a matter of course in <Panic in the City>.
Nothing. She had never seen this color before.
Did they invent a new type of drug, or what…?
➤ A peculiar smell is absorbed into the side of the mattress
! Confirmation required !
She dropped to her knees and brought her nose to the side of the mattress. She unknowingly clenched her fists.
Most of it had already faded, but her senses, including her sense of smell, were sharp enough to detect the faint concentration. It was a familiar scent. A stench like burnt rubber.
…If you hold a Bosco cigar in your hand for too long, it leaves this smell.
“He bought a Bosco cigar. He lit it up right on the spot. Seemed like a heavy smoker.”
Her face pale, she backed away from the bed and stared down at the floorboards. Hertz had been in this room. And now he was gone, leaving only a bloodstain behind.
As if concerned by her ashen face, Cain moved as if to take a step closer. She snapped her head up and bit out a single phrase.
“You, stay back. No, just get lost for a second. No, no…”
Pacing back and forth in front of the bed in confusion, Elysia finally grabbed the bedframe and hung her head. A few seconds later, her thoughts seemingly organized, she lifted her head and commanded in a low voice.
“Close the curtains.”
Cain narrowed his eyes, observing Elysia for a moment as she stared at the floor as if trying to burn a hole through it. He did as she asked, blocking the light coming through the window. Then, he called to her with an expectant look.
“Elysia Hemming.”
“…”
“What are you going to do now?”
Swallowing hard, Elysia pulled something from her inventory. It was a glass cup that looked quite heavy. She bit her lip. Taking a step back, she muttered as if performing a ritual.
“Don’t show me anything. Please.”
With a splash, the liquid in her hand scattered across the floor. As per the item’s properties, the liquid spread evenly, and a fluorescent glow began to rise from it.
Elysia watched the scene with a face that was both expressionless and angry, as if she had expected this to happen.
She took slow steps toward the bathtub. It was her second crime-tracking item, one she had been able to invent thanks to stumbling upon a familiar substance in a chemistry textbook. It was the most basic tool of any investigation, the first thing she used whenever a murder occurred in <Panic in the City>.
<Luminol Solution>
Item Description: Detects erased bloodstains.
Areas with bloodstains will glow blue. (Bloodstain visibility time: 60 seconds)
The first thing that stood out was a fist-sized bloodstain on the wall. Elysia compared the dots of blood on the floor, which looked as if someone had been dragged out, with the mark on the wall. Her eyes narrowed. Her heart pounded in her chest.
The person who left this mark had repeatedly, almost compulsively, slammed their forehead against the wall. Which meant…
“It’s a bloodstain from self-harm…”
Caden Hertz, what happened to you in here? Elysia’s eyes darkened. Cain glanced at her grave expression and asked nonchalantly.
“Hmm, is he dead?”
Elysia flinched and shifted her gaze to the man standing beside her. In the darkness, his eyes glinted as he approached her.
She instinctively took a step back, like prey fleeing a predator. Unfazed, he took another step closer.
“That’s a significant amount of blood. Isn’t it a logical conclusion?”
Her gray eyes wavered.
That man, did he just smile? Or was he offering his condolences? Why did he follow me so easily into an abandoned building where anything could happen? Was it because he was certain that, no matter what, he wouldn’t be harmed?
Forcing a calm expression, Elysia replied, “It’s not a murder until there’s a body.”
The amount of blood wasn’t enough to be fatal. What worried her now was his mental state. What could have caused him such mental anguish that he would resort to self-harm? There were no signs of torture.
Cain glanced at her rapidly moving eyes and murmured, “As long as there’s no body, he’s alive. How optimistic.”
“It’s not over until it’s…”
Elysia, about to retort casually, froze at the sight of his eyes observing her with amusement. Cain saw the suspicion clouding her gray eyes and smiled. He lifted her chin and murmured.
“There you go, looking at me like that again.”
“Because you act like that.”
“Was I naive to hope we could get a little closer today?”
“This is close enough.”
“What a shame. I’m greedy, you see. I want to be closer.”
“Get off me.”
Cain obediently let her go and held out his hand. With a faint smile, he said, “Why don’t you take it? It’s not a hand I offer to just anyone.”
Elysia hesitated, unable to readily take it. In the end, she left the room without ever taking his hand.