Trash. Let's Clean It Up.
"No mistake."
It was the day Selene rescued Leonia from Demian.
"That guy is the one. No doubt from the circumstances."
Brika came to the academy carrying another set of documents.
"So do we dispose of him right now?"
"No. Risk he might run. I'll move myself tomorrow."
Having realized the full truth, Leonia stripped the protective magic from her sword.
The victims share one common trait: all are noblewomen from wealthy families. Most are widows or current family heads. While they lack the political power of central nobles, they have amassed considerable fortunes.
Because each death was ruled a suicide, the cases were not filed as homicides. However, many investigators assigned to these matters recorded several points of suspicion.
First. Prior to each incident, all victims were reportedly engaged in romantic relationships with the same man. As is typical of noble secret affairs, the partner's identity remains unknown.
Second. All suffered from a similar unidentified illness characterized by extreme chills. Their personal physicians could not determine the cause. Most cases were dismissed as psychiatric. These diagnoses provoked strong resistance from the victims.
Third. The secret romances appear again here. Witnesses state the chills were dramatically alleviated during time spent with their lovers. This led to the mental-illness diagnosis. The victims obsessively sought their partners. Some testimonies describe them as addicted to the symptom relief.
Finally. They ultimately failed to cure the illness. Each left a lengthy will before ending her life. Shockingly, every victim transferred her entire estate to certain companies shortly before death. Tracking revealed these companies no longer exist. They absorbed the vast wealth of the deceased noblewomen and then dissolved. The location of the enormous funds remains under investigation.
Due to these circumstances, several investigators have reclassified the cases from suicide to suspicious death. The imperial family has sealed details of the romantic elements while treating the matter with utmost seriousness, issuing a special order. If all circumstantial evidence confirms a single perpetrator, the culprit may be summarily executed by the assigned investigator or any person delegated such authority.
Criteria for sufficient circumstantial evidence to identify the culprit are listed below…
"Guh?!"
Demian staggered back the instant his throat was sliced open. He immediately cast freezing magic on the wound to staunch the bleeding.
"What… the hell are you doing?"
"You already know exactly what this is about, don't you?"
"Urk?!"
Once he'd finished healing, Demian lifted his head. The freezing spell he'd tried to plant on her moments ago was now hovering in Leonia's hand.
"Thanks for handing over such solid evidence without a fight."
"What did you say?"
"Demian Cromwell. The Cromwell family was already wealthy, but it grew explosively over the last few years. You're their son."
"......"
"Did you really think erasing all the fake corporations that stole the noblewomen's assets would let you launder everything cleanly?"
"Fake corporations?"
"If you can predict the destination of the money in advance, tracing the flow becomes easy. I just confirmed that the fortune missing from the noblewomen's suicides ended up in your Cromwell family."
"How did you…"
"In a country full of secrets, cases marked 'closed' are often not truly closed at all."
"Urk?!"
Demian trembled as he glared at Leonia.
"An arrest warrant for your family just came down. I made sure to receive this bounty notice first in the empire so you couldn't run."
Serial manipulation and murder of noblewomen via mind-control and freezing magic. Embezzlement of entire estates through fraudulent corporations.
"Thanks, Vice Student Council President. That amount will keep our family from collapsing."
"Don't you dare laugh!"
With a metallic ring, Demian snatched the sword hanging beside the student council room and charged. Leonia blocked it effortlessly.
Slash.
"Aaaargh!"
She swung again, carving into him. Crackle. The wound froze over as Demian hurriedly applied healing magic.
"Just as Professor Selene said—your recovery magic is actually decent."
"Selene…"
"If you'd gone into healing instead, you might have become an excellent healer. Don't you think your current state is just pathetic?"
"Shut up!"
The same scene repeated. Slash.
"Gaaah!"
This time Leonia severed his wrist. Demian thrashed in agony while casting recovery spells.
"Why! Why are you fine?!"
"Why? Is there some rule that says I shouldn't be?"
"The freezing magic is one thing, but the paralyzing poison was nearly lethal! A normal person would have been fighting for their life for a week—no, an entire month!"
"It was rough, I'll admit. Never expected you to stab me in the back. But what can you do? Professor Selene removed the freezing magic and extracted the poison from my body… huh?!"
Leonia, who had been speaking gruffly, suddenly froze mid-sentence.
"W-wait… that day. Professor Selene definitely…"
Only now did the faint memories of yesterday sharpen clearly in her mind.
"Eh? Hyaa?! W-wait… then I… with Professor Selene…"
Her face flushed crimson. She covered her mouth with both hands.
"My… first kiss… was with a girl…"
At that exact moment—
"Aaaaaaargh!"
Demian's face twisted in rage as he screamed, gathering magic power into his remaining hand.
"If I can't have you… I'll kill youuuuu!"
A freezing aura bloomed like a flower from his grip. Massive chunks of ice began to swallow the student council room. His breath turned to visible frost. The temperature plunged to lethal levels no living thing could endure.
"Freeze and die! I'll admire your frozen corpse for the rest of my life!"
Demian charged Leonia, surrounded by the arctic cold radiating from him.
"Go ahead and strut around as the Empire's Sword! In the end this world is ruled by magic!"
Screaming, he closed the distance. Anything the extreme cold touched shattered like glass.
"Die!"
But the moment only two steps remained between them—
"Huh?!"
Demian sensed something strange.
"Why… is she fine?"
Instead of exhaling frost, Leonia was actually sweating. The area around her remained untouched by the cold, perfectly normal.
"What the…"
The instant his hand could have reached her—
"Warm…?"
He felt intense heat.
"No. It would be 'hot.'"
Whoosh.
A massive blaze erupted from Leonia, condensing into her blade. The longsword instantly glowed red-hot, radiating fierce heat.
"M-magic swordsmanship… and that heat… you've even awakened a special ability?"
"Did you honestly think I held the student council president seat with nothing but basic swordplay?"
"Damn it?! But… I never heard that you had awakened any special ability…"
"Why exactly…"
Hiss.
Leonia slowly raised her sword. The cold melted rapidly wherever the blade passed.
"…would I need to tell you?"
Boom!
Enormous flames engulfed Demian and exploded. The student council room was instantly swallowed by fire.
"Aaaargh!"
Demian writhed in searing agony. He tried to stop what he was doing and flee the room.
Boom! Boom!
He couldn't. His body refused to obey. The giant flames and the explosions they created hurled him around like a ragdoll. The burning pain never stopped. Every time he tried to move, his body bounced back toward Leonia.
"Aaaaaargh! Stop!"
Demian screamed. With a heavy thud, his body shot into the air and crashed down.
"Guh?!"
He slammed into the floor.
"Uuuuurgh?!"
Even though he was charred black, pain flared from every limb.
"Ugh?!"
"I left your head intact. We still need to confirm the culprit's identity, after all."
"Uuuuurgh?"
When the massive flame storm finally subsided, the student council room reappeared. Astonishingly, even amid those huge flames Leonia had perfectly controlled her magic swordsmanship so the room itself suffered no damage. The only things broken and scattered were the results of Demian's own actions.
"Uuuuurgh… I… you…"
Slash.
Demian tried to say something, but never finished.
"I have no interest in hearing your filthy confession."
Leonia cleanly severed his head, ending his life once and for all.
"It's over."
Leonia sighed and reactivated the protective magic on her sword.
"Leonia."
"Hyat?! Professor Selene?"
Leonia jumped in surprise at Selene, who had appeared behind her without the slightest presence.
"W-what? Since when were you—"
"(tilts head?) Leonia. Since you started work."
"N-no, I didn't sense any presence at all?"
"(tilts head?)"
Watching Selene stare at her with that adorable head tilt, Leonia felt her face grow hot again.
"Leonia. Might get hurt."
Selene quietly picked up a piece of cloth and covered Demian's corpse with it.
"Huh? Me? You were worried about me?"
"(nods)"
"T-then does that mean Professor Selene actually likes women—"
"(tilts head?)"
"…Ahem. N-never mind. Haha! Worried about me? Did you think someone like me would fall to something this trivial?"
Creak.
"You almost did fall, that's why I came, you idiot."
"Ugh. I-instructor Brika. This is…"
As if she'd been waiting for the right moment, Brika stepped into the student council room and examined Demian's body.
"Good. No mistake. As an investigator, I certify this. The credit for capturing or eliminating the culprit in this case belongs to Leonia Valteria."
"Haa…"
Leonia let out a sigh of relief.
"Congratulations. Now the Valteria family can stand on its own whether it's the Empire's Sword or not. Without relying on donations from other houses."
"…Yes."
"Feel refreshed?"
"Not yet. I still have business with that curved-sword murderer."
"That was just asking for advice. They didn't assign you the investigation. It's different from the Demian case."
"No… that is…"
Leonia squeezed her eyes shut. Anxiety flooded back and the color drained from her face.
"Hey, feeling bad again?"
"I…"
Some unpleasant memory seemed to flash across her mind. Leonia staggered.
"Student Council President."
Selene approached and gently supported her.
"Professor…"
Leonia looked at Selene with a bitter expression.
"You've been through a lot lately no matter what. So stop worrying about all this and rest."
"......"
"Besides, the swordsmanship tournament is right around the corner, isn't it?"
"It is."
"The murder case is my responsibility. You focus on the tournament."
"…The swordsmanship tournament."
"Yes."
"Well… now that we have money to maintain the family, it wouldn't matter even if I lost the title of Empire's Sword, right? Haha…"
Leonia forced a smile. But anyone could see the true feelings hidden behind that expression.
"Leonia."
Selene spoke to her. Her face was still expressionless, yet serious.
"Want me… to lose?"