Interrogation (1)
Right after the practical evaluation was halted, we found ourselves detained.
It wasn’t just us. Every student and supervisor who had been on Stellarium that day, along with the tourists who had stopped at the planet for a holiday, had their feet nailed to the ground. The entire world was sealed off.
“Detective here for questioning. Please cooperate.”
The investigation had begun.
Among the students, I was the first one dragged off for interrogation.
There was no deeper reason for earning the top spot.
“You’re seriously claiming it wasn’t you?”
Because I was Idel von Rheinland.
The family’s discarded, good-for-nothing maniac. The trash who, thanks to the damned Federation laws, had to live on the same ship as everyone else whether we liked it or not. The kid closer to the juvenile affairs officers than to his own father…
That kind of guy.
So being suddenly summoned by the local detectives who knew my face had been well within expectation.
Of course, I was indignant.
“Even so, would he really have lost his mind and done something like that?”
“Fair point.”
Detective Terence of the Galactic Southern District Police Department stared at me steadily, a cigarette clamped between his teeth. He was the officer in charge of juvenile crimes in this area and had clashed with me plenty of times before.
This time, even he seemed to think the accusation was absurd; he kept letting out dry, helpless laughs.
“Don’t you know the presumption of innocence?”
“I do, you little punk. I just called you in because I wanted to see your face.”
Detective Terence rubbed his stubbled chin and sighed heavily. Under the interrogation room lights, his face looked pale and exhausted.
“We’ve secured all the CCTV footage. The prosecutors say the chance of you being the perpetrator is extremely low. There are plenty of other, far more suspicious characters… Anyway, I have a few questions for you. That’s why you’re here.”
“Ask away.”
“Calipers.”
I nearly shot out of my chair.
“…That old tool, right? The one they used way back when. Your figure holding one was captured on the surveillance camera.”
“Ah, that thing…?”
“Where did you get it?”
A chill crawled down my spine.
“I was told personal items were strictly prohibited inside the exam venue…”
I was screwed.
Or rather, it was incredibly awkward.
If I told the truth—that an Outer Deity had given it to me—I would be hauled straight to a mental hospital (euphemistically known as the Galactic Monster Containment Facility). On the other hand, claiming a Constellation had handed it over would trigger immediate further investigation. Once they confirmed I had no backer, I’d only attract even more pointless suspicion.
Besides, the crude inspection methods of humanity couldn’t detect an Outer Deity’s presence anyway.
After running every variable, I reached a single conclusion.
There was only one path left.
“I don’t really remember.”
“You, you, you—pulling that crap again, huh?”
“What am I supposed to do if I honestly don’t recall?”
I decided to play dumb until the bitter end.
“You need to understand something. That, uh… you know…”
“That I’m past the juvenile offender age limit?”
“Y-yeah, that. You know your stuff!”
Detective Terence spoke as if issuing a warning. In plain terms, he was reminding me I could now be held criminally responsible, so I’d better stop lying.
But what was I supposed to do about it?
Did he think I’d fold just because he said that?
I remained perfectly composed.
“At some point I noticed I was holding something. Calipers? I didn’t even know what it was called—I just grabbed it and swung it around.”
Anyone listening might have burst out laughing in disbelief.
A sixteen-year-old kid (C-rank, sure, but still) smashing monster skulls with an antique tool and resolving an incident of this magnitude?
Yet what could they say?
Idel.
That single name completed the entire chain of probability.
If he was crazy enough to try burning down an apartment building just because someone mildly annoyed him, then charging at a monster with a random tool also made perfect sense. The fact that he could have smuggled such a tool in was equally plausible.
Still, since they had performed a thorough body search before we entered the practical exam site, there was no way I could have hidden a forearm-sized caliper. The logical assumption was that it had simply been there from the start.
Fortunately(?), Terence nodded at my explanation.
“Well… it is you.”
“Yes. It is me.”
At times like this, my reputation was remarkably convenient.
“Even so, let’s not meet again over something like this. It’s exhausting for both of us. What even is this?”
“Aren’t you in charge of juveniles, Detective? We should be saying goodbye soon, shouldn’t we?”
“Thanks to you, it looks like I’ll be transferred to the violent crimes division any day now.”
After that, Terence tossed a few more questions my way. Several were directly or indirectly related to the calipers again.
But what could I do? The person involved claimed he didn’t know.
I kept up the act until the end.
Since this could negatively affect my future admissions, pretending ignorance until the absolute last moment was the smarter play. On top of that, the lucky fact that I had been standing in a CCTV blind spot the moment the caliper appeared in my hand worked heavily in my favor.
In the end, Detective Terence had no choice but to release me without any meaningful gains.
After Idel left, Detective Terence continued questioning the other students one by one.
“I don’t know.”
That was the answer he received from Seti, who was infamous for her terrible relationship with Idel.
“…I’m not sure.”
The girl named Rustilla—who had helped subdue the monster on site—gave a nearly identical reply.
“Do you know where that tool, the calipers, went?”
“I don’t know. I can’t remember.”
Nobody knew.
Not a single person.
The whereabouts of the calipers.
Detective Terence crossed his legs.
An ordinary person might have wondered why it mattered. But Terence had sharp instincts.
There’s something here.
He would have understood if they claimed Idel had used a plasma sword to take the monsters down.
‘Sixteen swords had been placed inside the exam hall. There were no other weapons capable of killing those creatures. Yet the sudden appearance of that tool…’
His thoughts kept unfolding.
‘The monsters were swapped with golems. We still don’t know exactly when the switch occurred. And we can’t trace when that caliper appeared or where it went afterward.’
A common thread emerged.
The golems that had been swapped in were primarily metal constructs. The calipers would have been made of similar material.
Because both had gleamed. And gleaming was a typical property of metal.
Metal. Metal. Machines…
Suddenly, a spark of deduction flashed through Terence’s mind.
“Your name was Rustilla… correct?”
“Yes.”
Rustilla straightened her posture and nodded.
“When you were cutting those things down, what kind of sensation did you feel?”
“It felt like lumps of iron.”
“Lumps of iron, huh.”
Then there was something worth confirming.
“Student Rustilla, according to your earlier statement, you have a contract with a Constellation. The divine name was…”
“The God of Purity and Tenacity.”
The God of Purity and Tenacity.
A Constellation corresponding to the main-sequence star GJ-721 located in a certain sector of the galaxy cluster.
…At least, that was how scholars classified it. To the general public it was far better known by its true name: Vega.
A Constellation famous enough that its true name was common knowledge.
In a sense, one could say it had accompanied humanity throughout history. Accordingly, a great deal was known about Rustilla’s Constellation.
One of those known abilities was the skill Mind’s Eye.
“I understand you can read fragments of other people’s mental states—whether they’re good or evil, sane or insane…”
Even Terence felt slightly uncomfortable bringing it up.
Reading someone’s heart.
Of course, it didn’t reveal exact inner thoughts, only vague impressions like a blurry picture. Still.
But there was nothing he could do about it. Constellations were transcendental beings by definition, and those under their protection were treated similarly.
Every pre-Federation nation that had tried to arrest, supervise, or otherwise mistreat such individuals for political reasons had been utterly destroyed.
It was the judgment of the Constellations.
It was the scheming of the Outer Deities.
He could not show open discomfort.
“…Ahem. Anyway. Have you ever used that ability to observe the inner state of a student named Idel?”
This was as far as he could push.
Rustilla twisted her fingers beneath the desk and answered.
“No.”
Of course. Someone who had contracted with a Constellation and received such power would not use it lightly on just anyone. Constellations only approached a select few virtuous individuals, after all.
Simply possessing a backer was already a certificate declaring, “I can live without needing the law!”
There was nothing left to dig for.
“All right. That’s enough. You may go.”
After sending Rustilla away, Detective Terence sank into thought.
It was clear an Outer Deity was responsible, and he had even narrowed it down to one of the four factions, yet…
‘I still don’t know which specific entity did it, or why.’
No matter how he looked at it, he couldn’t imagine any Outer Deity being stupid enough to pull such an absurd stunt during an academy entrance exam.
Knock, knock.
Someone rapped on the interrogation room door.
“Detective, you have a visitor outside.”
“A visitor? Who?”
There shouldn’t have been anyone looking for him at this hour.
“He says he’s a newspaper reporter named Oh Pei. He wants to speak with you about the Stellarium incident…”
“…Reporters are a pain.”
Showing up without so much as an email didn’t bode well.
Send him away.
Terence was about to say exactly that when he paused.
For some reason, his gut told him he shouldn’t turn the man away.
It was the intuition he had honed over long years on the job.
“I’ll be out shortly.”
Terence trusted that instinct.
When he reached the lobby, he found a man bundled up in a thick coat and fedora, face almost entirely hidden. Terence assumed this was the reporter his subordinate had mentioned and approached him.
“Detective Terence. You asked for me?”
The man nodded and spoke.
“Do you know a student named Idel von Rheinland?”
“Yes, I do.”
“I was told you’ve known him for quite some time.”
“That’s correct, but…”
Terence shook the man’s hand lightly.
“Did you come to interview the student?”
“More precisely, I came to interview the detective acquainted with him.”
As they exchanged a few brief words, Terence caught the scent lingering on the hand he had just shaken.
…He’s not a reporter.
“You came to interview me?”
“Yes. It’s nothing too formal. I was simply hoping you could share some stories about the sort of things Idel got up to in his younger days.”
“Leaking personal information is not something a public servant should do.”
“Haha, I’m not asking as a public servant. Who said anything about criminal records?”
“……?”
“Just tell me what you know. Spin a few casual tales.”
The rather rude stranger soon removed his hat. As the brim lifted, the bright, smiling face of a handsome young man appeared.
Terence started to scowl, then let out a helpless laugh.
He knew this man.
Not just an acquaintance—a childhood friend.
“I’ll need to interview that student myself soon… but I can’t freely choose the date.”
“……”
“Could you at least let me do some preliminary scouting?”
“…Ha.”
Oh Pei. At least pick a decent pseudonym.
As far as Terence knew, there was only one friend who would show up unannounced and pull a stunt like this.
Terence laughed, utterly bemused.
“You never change, Feynman.”
The man who heard his real name laughed along with him.