Chapter 12
Chapter 12
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 12
Chapter Title: Only the Corpse Knows (2)
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It wasn't that I thought Arthur was suspicious from the very start.
Of course, I was startled by his sudden first appearance, but I figured that was just because Theodor was with us, and my worry for him overshadowed everything else.
The moment I actually started finding Arthur's behavior odd was precisely after our first meeting, when I entered his dorm room.
"Shirley."
"Yes?"
"With your level of physical ability, do you think you could copy out scripture identically in the middle of the night with the lights off?"
"Scripture? With the lights off? Not sure, but one thing's for certain."
"One thing?"
"Anyone who does something like that isn't worth associating with. They'd have to be a psycho."
As she said that, Shirley earnestly added that while sensing an enemy's presence in the dark might be easy for her, reading letters would be another story.
For me, the latter seemed easier than the former, but in any case, I couldn't bring myself to answer Shirley's question about why some lunatic would go to such lengths.
That was because I still hadn't grasped the exact reason Arthur had lied to me.
*-It's dark, so please excuse that. I don't want to give away that I'm awake right now.*
That was what Arthur had said just yesterday, as he cleared away the copying tools spread out on his desk in the darkness.
This was the first time I felt something off about his behavior.
Arthur Usher's room gave off an impression of being especially dark compared to the others.
Walls coated in dark silk, an even darker wooden floor, a desk and bookshelf in similar tones...
Wasn't it awkward to have copying tools—not anything else—laid out in that darkness?
Especially for Arthur.
*He has a compulsion for tidiness.*
It might have been because I, someone he wasn't close to, was in his room—an irritating situation—but based on my observations over the half-day we'd spent together, Arthur was the type with a cleaning obsession.
Not a speck of dust on the bookshelves, which could gather it easily if you looked away for a moment, and he'd tidied up the messy items during the short time I was in the shower.
It was hard to accept that someone with that personality would leave things scattered on his desk.
"Uh, but this is..."
Shirley, who had been poking around the altar after wiping off the blood, stared intently at one corner where the blood had soaked in deeply, turning it black, then wiped it with her glove.
"Senior. Take a look at this."
In the spot Shirley pointed to was a small mound of candle wax that had dripped multiple times, protruding like a sharp stalactite in a cave.
At first, I had no idea what she was pointing at, but upon closer inspection, at least two drops—no, one in particular—stood out.
It was starkly different.
"White candle wax."
The candles used for rituals in most chapels are yellow beeswax ones—long-burning and bright, but expensive and hard to come by.
In contrast, the white wax on top of the yellow was from a high-end candle as well, likely made from whale oil.
Candles made from pig or sheep fat, the standard issue, don't burn brightly.
The only candles bright enough to carry around at midnight and that drip white wax are the expensive whale oil ones—and I'd seen those high-end candles in Arthur's room.
*He really did deceive me and Theodor.*
It wasn't quite right to say Arthur had lied to us outright.
He'd simply omitted what he knew.
Only after seeing this trace did I finally understand the cause of the stinging wound left on the magic circle.
*He must have brought the candle close to inspect the magic circle.*
The mark left on his chest was a burn from the wax.
I'd been too focused on the magic circle to think it odd at the time, but looking back now, it was clear.
"Is something wrong?"
At that moment, Enoch Clark—who had been watching us circle the altar—stepped closer.
I waved him off to stop him, then spun around.
"It's—"
"Nothing's wrong."
"Huh? But Shirley Spencer—"
"Senior says it's nothing, right?"
Shirley clearly had no clue what was going on with me, but she brazenly took my side.
Enoch looked flustered by her sudden pivot.
"It's really nothing. I was just surprised because there was more blood splattered than I remembered. By the way, did you leave the blood analysis to a mage?"
"Oh, no. We used a familiar."
"Ah."
I recalled the various tests we'd done right after enrolling at the academy to check for proxy admissions via forged identities.
There are occasional cases where parents insert a talented proxy in place of their child to manipulate grades for the diploma, and they get caught.
We all submit a freshly redrawn detailed portrait, a blood sample, and a lock of hair upon enrollment, with family blood ties cross-verified for academy admission.
The blood we submitted back then is imprinted on familiars raised from birth exposed to mana—and thanks to that procedure, they'd easily confirmed that the deceased cadet was Kail Ace.
"Got it. There's clearly nothing left to verify in the chapel now. Can we move on?"
Enoch said nothing more and fell back behind us.
He did glance toward the altar beyond, clearly still concerned, but since his duty was surveillance, he didn't linger there as we left the chapel.
"Senior~ Are we just gonna keep wandering around looking for the body like this?"
"No, I doubt we'll find it."
"...So you don't have some ace up your sleeve?"
"Nope."
Shirley slowly pressed a hand to her forehead, her face screaming *why waste time like this then?*
"Makina probably doesn't expect me to find the body either."
I was wandering freely through the Wood Cross Crown's sponsorship areas, wearing restraint cuffs whose power had been dialed down under the pretext of investigation.
But dialed down or not, the fact that I was in restraints hadn't changed, nor had the lingering sense of dancing in the palm of Makina's hand.
Instead, I'd chosen a completely different path.
"Please tell Chairman Makina to convene a student trial immediately."
***
Half a day later, in the evening after classes ended at the academy.
Even though it was still summer with long days, twilight was beginning to fall, and the chapel was packed with upperclassmen.
This was because of the emergency student trial I'd requested, to be held here.
*-A real murder case?*
*-Arma Cruise senior...*
*-No way he'd do that...*
The defendant's seat and witness stand, temporarily set up in the chapel, faced the judge's seat where Makina sat alone.
It was absurd, but in this trial, the chancellor and professors—who held less authority than the student council—filled seats a bit removed from the judge's bench, looking uncomfortable.
And at an angle where they could see our profiles, the cadets who would have been jurors in a formal trial packed the spots densely.
The cadets of various ages, spending their adolescence on this isolated island, were buzzing with excitement over what had to be the most destructive and stimulating incident possible during their time here.
"It doesn't look like you've done a satisfactory investigation."
Chairman Makina said softly, whispering with a smile.
For some reason, that charming smile felt off-putting.
It was like poison in a holy vessel, or a blade disguised as dull—a precarious harmony playing across her face.
I swallowed dryly for no reason and glanced sideways around the room.
*Shirley..., Judith, Theodor, and Arthur. All here.*
At least the three excluding Arthur would believe in my innocence.
That thought calmed my chaotic mind a bit.
If those three weren't here, I'd be under far greater psychological pressure than just losing support from three allies.
I took a moment to gather my thoughts and belatedly answered Makina's question.
"No matter how much I pondered, there was a part I couldn't resolve."
"Then shall we let the trial decide."
Makina gave me no quarter.
A poker face on an angel's visage, unyielding—that was almost my entire impression of her.
*So it comes to this after all.*
To hide my inner thoughts like Makina did, I masked myself with a smile.
Yes, Makina and I were the same kind of person.
That was why I had a vague sense of what she was hiding with her smile and exaggerating by revealing.
"Now, then—"
Makina raised her white hand.
As if by magic, the noisy chapel fell silent in an instant, like cold water had been poured over it.
"We will begin the cadet trial."
The opening declaration was simple.
Even my palms, feigning composure, grew slick with nervous sweat.
I stared straight ahead, jaw set, trying not to let my imagination run wild with despair over what awaited me next.
"Then, defendant, swear before God that you speak no falsehoods—"
"I'm an atheist. As the son of a merchant, merchants weigh with clear value, not faith. I swear here not to perjure with false scales."
A significant number of cadets in the room reacted with startled murmurs to my declaration of being an atheist.
Had I drawn a bad hand?
But I was convinced that invoking God's name to lie in this place would be worse long-term, and I wanted to shake Makina somehow.
Makina, known as a devout follower of the Creator God Isis, responded with an unperturbed, leisurely smile despite my oath.
"God will remember that oath."
All trials at the academy differ greatly from those outside.
No, they're downright strange.
The existence of the student council, the nominal adults rendered irrelevant in this moment—all odd, but the strangest was Makina's calm demeanor with the blood-soaked altar right beside her.
The pressure of being student council president or the unfamiliar role of judge seemed to have no psychological effect on her whatsoever.
"Um, where's the cadet who claims to have found me first?"
"They requested protection and won't appear here."
Figured as much.
The one who'd muddied the case with that weird claim of seeing me in the dark—Makina wouldn't want to bring them here.
Besides, from how things were unfolding, it didn't seem she had any intention of clearing my name.
As if refusing to give me time to think, Makina immediately spoke.
"First, then. From yesterday afternoon until the time of the incident at midnight, what were you doing?"
"My condition was poor, so I left the morning theology lecture midway and was alone the rest of the time."
*-No alibi after all...*
*-Plenty of time to hide the body...*
Someone's mutter shattered the silence, rippling through the jury seats like a stone in a settled pond.
The cadets in the jury seats began murmuring.
"After that, I kept waking and falling asleep in a delirious haze for unknown reasons. So I have no way to prove my alibi."
"Murderer!"
Someone in the jury seats shouted it.