The Square Where the Coronation Was Held
As Yujun looked over the square where the coronation had been held, a familiar System voice sounded in his ear.
It was a message from Atradeon. Yujun widened his senses and swept them across the players, but nothing unusual stood out. He had known nothing of the culprit to begin with; searching by feel alone was never going to tell him anything.
He made for where Atradeon stood. The lockdown was over, so clues came first, and the most promising source of one was the player who had last spoken with Sertiphs. Atradeon had just found her. Yujun meant to go with him and hear what she knew.
The instant his feet left the dirt, his body vanished. A moment later he was standing at Atradeon's side, as if he had cast a teleportation spell. Atradeon, midway through questioning a player, sucked in a sharp breath.
"Announce yourself before you appear. You gave me quite a start."
"Did you get anything?"
"This woman was the last to be with Sertiphs."
At those words Yujun turned to the celestial woman, whose face was tight with confusion.
She did not seem an ordinary celestial. The items she wore were of a markedly high grade, and something quietly noble seemed to hang about her features. It might have been his imagination.
"She is the niece of the Third Archangel. Her name is Repdia."
"Blood ties matter quite a lot in Heaven too, I see."
"And where, pray, do they not?"
"Fair enough."
"Shin Yujun? You're Shin Yujun?"
Repdia's eyes went wide as she looked at him.
"You know me?"
"Of course I do. You're the hottest name in Heaven right now. I've seen so many recordings of you."
"...I did always feel like a broadcast orb was following me around."
"It wasn't just one. You were going out live across dozens of screens at once."
"That's an invasion of privacy."
"What's that?"
The look in Repdia's eyes said she was asking because she truly had no idea. Well, it was too much to hope the Tower of Infinity possessed any such notion. However many outlandish spells filled the place, however it overflowed with powerhouses who could have a lion, a tiger, and a bear steamed and still call it dinner, its civilization lagged far behind Earth's.
"Why did Sertiphs go into the building? Wasn't he supposed to stay at the coronation the whole time?"
"He must have taken a short rest. As you know, Sertiphs wished to draw the coronation out. Days such as this scarcely come, so I understand him, after a fashion."
"So it wasn't some player who just wanted the coronation over with... Yeah. Figures."
"The culprit was most likely laying plans even before the coronation began."
For a moment he had wondered if Yenil had killed Sertiphs simply to get the ceremony finished. Even he had to admit it was a ridiculous fancy. Still, just in case, he asked.
Yujun fired the messages off without much care and shut the messenger. Yenil was not what mattered now.
"Did you go into the building with him?"
"They spoke, I am told, while walking up to the building. She did not go in with him, however."
"You're sure?"
"In fact, there were no footprints of Repdia's alone in front of the building."
Yujun nodded. Even winged celestials would not have held a conversation while flying through the sky, so her account was unlikely to be a lie.
"Is everyone who was at the coronation gathered?"
"They are."
He saw not only celestials, but several mercenaries as well. His own party had gathered with them.
"Yujun, what in the world is going on?"
Do Jiyun asked, plainly curious.
"Murder... or is celestialcide the word? Anyway, Sertiphs is dead."
"Sertiphs?"
Do Jiyun's eyes flew wide. She was not the only one shocked. Everyone present began to murmur. Was Sertiphs not the very heart of the coronation? And that man was dead—murdered?
"Who killed him?"
"That's what we're trying to find. It's why everyone's been gathered. So no one can run."
"And if they've already run?"
"Then we'll have to form a pursuit party out of people we can trust."
"So that's why the air feels like this..."
Atradeon turned to face the celestials.
"Did anyone see someone other than Sertiphs enter that building? If so, speak."
A brief silence. Then one celestial cautiously raised a hand.
"Yes. What is your name?"
"Fetis, sir. I saw something strange earlier."
"Go on."
Fetis stepped forward, gave a small nod, and began.
"A man wrapped in a cloak from head to toe climbed up onto that roof."
"Why are you sure it was a man?"
"He was large."
"You said he stepped on the roof. Were there wings on his back?"
"I... don't think so. The cloak hid him, so I could not see clearly, but the shape was smooth, without any bulge."
"Then the one who killed Sertiphs may not be a celestial."
"I, too, thought he might not be."
"Why?"
"I examined the traces left at the scene. Several black hairs had fallen on the floor."
"Hair's common enough, isn't it?"
"You did not know, I see. Black hair does not grow on a celestial."
"...It doesn't? What about you, Atradeon? What's that beard?"
"White, as you can see."
"So celestials only grow white hair?"
"Grow old, and one may end up as I have."
"...And when they're young, none at all?"
"For the most part, yes."
"What about the hair on their heads?"
"The color of one's head, as you have surely seen often enough, is somewhat more varied. Even so, there is no black."
"Huh. Now that you mention it, there really aren't any black-haired celestials..."
"Which means the culprit is very likely of another race."
Yujun smiled at that. Then picking out a suspect would be far too easy. The better part of the players here were celestials.
"But there is something we must treat with care. It is not impossible that the culprit scattered the black hairs on purpose."
Atradeon murmured it at his ear.
"But they said there were no wings."
"That, too, may have been shown to someone on purpose."
"Hmm..."
If the culprit had staged the scene, as Atradeon suggested, the investigation would be back where it started.
"Even so, just in case, let's not rule out a mercenary of another race."
"Who spoke of ruling it out? It will prove to be another race's doing."
"Which one is actually true? Pick one."
Yujun said it with a straight face, and Atradeon answered just as seriously.
"I am only urging caution. After killing Sertiphs he would have had to leave in haste, so a celestial is hardly likely to have brought black hairs along and scattered them one by one."
"Let's gather the other races."
"All of you who are not celestials, gather here!"
Word of Sertiphs's death must have struck hard enough; the other races assembled with scarcely a protest. Standing all in one place, it was suddenly plain how few of them there were. Twelve, and no more. If the culprit was still in the square, it was one of them.
Yujun slowly studied their eyes, then the rest of them—their clothes, the way they carried themselves. Three beastkin, two humans with unfamiliar faces, and the remainder dark elves and elves. Heaven did seem to have an unusual number of elves. Honestly, he had no idea why. He could ask Atradeon later.
"You've all heard, haven't you? Don't hide your faces. Let me see every one of them."
They were players, so some wore hoods and others helmets, and that had to be dealt with. Even so, the other races cooperated—whether because a person of importance had died, or because they were under the celestials' killing stares.
"From here, you take it, Atradeon. Interrogation isn't my field."
"Very well."
"How do you mean to go about it?"
"Hair color alone will sort them easily. That already narrows it to three."
"So it does."
Yujun left it to him and closed his eyes, extending his senses to see whether the barrier had any gap.
The barrier's fine.
If the player who had done this had already slipped outside it, he doubted a pursuit party would have any real chance of catching them. They had to settle it in here, if they could.
"I really didn't do it."
"It wasn't me."
"Yujun! I'm Korean! I've never even seen Sertiphs's face!"
Three players had black hair. Two Koreans, and one black-haired dark elf. An odd assortment, but they were the only ones. The rest of the other races had hair so light they might as well have bleached it, and there was no black-furred beastkin to speak of.
There is a beastkin with slightly ashen fur, but I can see exactly why Atradeon left the beastkin out. A beastkin's fur would never have fallen in so small an amount. Had one of them, covered head to toe in it, been the culprit, the inside of the building would have been thick with shed hair.
"Hmm..."
Atradeon looked deep in thought as well. Two of the names on the list were human, of all things.
The moment it's a Korean who killed Sertiphs, the whole thing gets a lot harder to believe.
That left the dark elf. Yujun caught him by the wrist.
"W-why are you doing this?"
"There's something I need to check. Hold still."
"......"
Yujun read the dark elf's mana and strength, measuring whether the man had anything like the power to kill Sertiphs.
Something's off.
The measurement came easily, and Yujun tilted his head. Had Sertiphs really been careless enough to fall to a player of this level?
"Atradeon."
"Speak."
"Did Sertiphs happen to have been drinking?"
"He did, yes, but a few bottles would hardly have changed a powerhouse of Sertiphs's measure."
"Yeah... I suppose not."
Either the dark elf was hiding his strength by some means Yujun didn't know, or the culprit was one of the other two Koreans. Yujun scratched his head.
No matter how I look at it, it isn't the dark elf. His senses were far too sharp for anyone to fool. The dark elf belonged off the list.
If that face is an act, he should be on a stage.
His gaze shifted to the two Koreans. One man, one woman, and neither was a face he knew. If they were top rankers and still unknown to him, they simply weren't widely known. He called his party over.
"Does anyone know those two?"
Kim Yohan and Dokgo Minsu shook their heads without a word.
"What about you, Jiyun?"
"I don't know them either."
If even Do Jiyun, master of the Shrine Guild and the best-informed among them, had no idea who they were, they were not famous players.
"Atradeon. Everyone who works in that building is a celestial, right?"
"They are."
"Good. Then we can match it against the length of the hair. Bring it here."
"I shall."
The length of the black hair found on Sertiphs's corpse would decide the fate of the two Koreans who had turned up at the worst possible time.