Bertus, a member of the royal family, had come to investigate an incident that had occurred within the palace. We ran into him at the entrance.
Fortunately, without needing much explanation, Harriet and I were able to enter the sealed magic department building with Bertus.
"You want to investigate?"
"Yeah. I want to try and help in any way I can."
At my words, Bertus tilted his head. It seemed he didn't quite understand why I was insisting on getting involved in this case. However, he glanced at Harriet standing beside me and nodded.
"I heard that Saint Owan was conducting research in the magic department. Could it be...?"
"Yes... The culprit was the librarian in charge of the reading room where I used to visit."
"Is that so?"
Bertus nodded as if he hadn't known that fact. He furrowed his brow and sighed.
"It must have been a shock. Were you close to the culprit, or...?"
"No, not exactly close... We just had a conversation yesterday... It seemed a bit strange yesterday. I've already informed the royal magic department about it."
"Alright, I'll get the information from them."
Bertus crossed his arms and surveyed the magic department.
"Having more brains to think about it can't hurt. Let's go together, for now."
Bertus didn't seem to believe we would find anything useful, but he allowed us to join the investigation.
—---
It seemed that Bertus had come to the magic department only after it was clear that the area had been secured following the incident.
I wondered if Charlotte, who had stayed at the dormitory yesterday, was aware of what had happened.
Together with the attendants Bertus had brought, we headed to the magic department's research archive, where the incident had taken place.
"I don't mind, and Reinhardt should be fine as well. What about you?"
"Me? What do you mean...?"
"Seeing the corpse."
As the crime scene was preserved, he was asking if we could handle seeing a gruesome sight from now on.
"Ah, um... Yeah, I'll be fine."
Harriet seemed slightly taken aback but nodded as if she could endure it.
Harriet may not have had a strong resistance to such things, but she had seen a chimera at Aaron Mede's mansion before. Moreover, she had seen the countless chimeras' remains that Ellen had cut apart.
Even if she didn't have resistance, witnessing a horrifying scene wasn't entirely new to her.
"Alright, let's go then."
We moved towards the magic department's research archive.
An attendant briefed us on the incident, making sure Bertus and we could hear.
"The estimated time of the incident is around 2 a.m. last night. The suspect, Roswin, is believed to have killed three on-duty personnel - Aryelka, Sadman von Grinthes, and Rinea Wenson - who were working on classifying and reading newly arrived magic books, and fled with the books."
The research archive was located deep underground in the magic department. The locks were currently disengaged, but it was clear that it wasn't a place anyone could enter casually.
At present, it is estimated that Roswin hid in the research archive room without leaving work and committed the crime targeting the early hours when only the guards were left.
The summary of the incident is that he waited for the number of people in the research archive room to be minimized, killed the magicians on guard duty, and then stole the magic tomes before escaping.
"How on earth did he manage to get through this security?"
"…For now, we don't know."
At Bertus's words, the attendant nodded.
The security was still enhanced, but the magic department's research archive room must have been thoroughly prepared for problems, including theft.
Of course, there was something similar to a search station like the Temple Gate, and there must have been guards stationed as well.
Not understanding, Bertus gave an additional explanation to Harriet and me.
"Roswin is the only suspect because he is the only one without a record of leaving work. And although he committed the crime, there is no one who saw him leave the magic department building, nor any record of it. Of course, there is no record of leaving the palace either."
"…What?"
"So, Roswin might still be somewhere in the palace, or even hiding somewhere in the magic department building."
At those words, both Harriet and I swallowed hard.
"It's not like any crude disguise magic or invisibility was used. We have all the countermeasures in place for that. So the problem is, we don't know if Roswin is still in the palace or how he escaped if he did."
This incident could be more dangerous than Harriet and I had thought.
"Haha, why are you so scared?"
Seeing Harriet and me looking a bit intimidated, Bertus laughed.
"I wouldn't have come in person if the magic department wasn't safe, right?"
So Bertus tried to reassure Harriet and me that we didn't need to worry about what might happen inside the magic department building.
"As long as there's someone who can kill three people in the magic department's research archive room and escape without getting caught, life is always at risk."
"Hey, if you want to reassure us, just do that, and if you want to scare us, just do that."
"Nothing is certain yet."
"What are you trying to say?"
"I'm just saying."
It was just a normal conversation like the one we had at the temple.
I felt the attendants around me staring at me like I was a monster.
Oh, right.
He's the prince, isn't he?
The fact that I spoke so casually and Bertus accepted it so calmly must have seemed like an impossible event to them.
That's right.
Isn't this a friendship between the top 1% and the bottom 1%? Even if I am the champion of Als.
The deeper you go, the more absurd the situation becomes.
Anyway, amidst the shocked admiration of the attendants, we soon arrived at the scene of the crime.
"Ah!"
As soon as Harriet saw the scene, she covered her mouth.
"I heard about it… but I didn't expect it to be this bad…"
Frowning, Bertus let out a short sigh.
They had expected to find a corpse.
"What... is this?"
However, they couldn't have imagined finding one with the eyes gouged out, fingers and toes brutally mutilated, and the innards grotesquely spilled out.
"As I've already reported, all three victims... were tortured for a long time before being killed..."
The brief words of the investigator explained the horrors that had unfolded at the scene.
—---
It was unclear whether it could be considered a clue, but something similar had been added.
Roswin hadn't just killed the guards, he had tortured all three of them before ending their lives.
Why had he tortured them?
Harriet could no longer bear to look at the gruesome and appalling sight, turning her gaze away from the scene and covering her mouth.
Even I, who had developed a certain degree of tolerance for such ghastly sights, felt nauseous.
"The guards who were analyzing the grimoires were all high-ranking mages belonging to the Royal Mage Corps, possessing the combat capabilities of the best Battle Mages. Moreover, they were veterans of the Great Demon War, familiar with combat."
"So, these skilled individuals were killed by a mere office worker?"
"...Yes."
Mages, too, have different fields of expertise.
Being members of the Royal Mage Corps and even having participated in the Great Demon War, they would have been among the top professionals in the world of mages.
And Roswin, the suspect, may have been skilled but had been working in a non-combat position.
"He must have been hiding his abilities."
The only conclusion was not that the victims were incompetent, but that Roswin was not an ordinary mage from the very beginning.
A spy planted by Cantus Magna in the royal court.
I couldn't help but focus more and more on that possibility.
"It is believed that Roswin had considerable knowledge of dark magic. Not only were the corpses affected, but we also detected a significant amount of dark magic in the air. Of course, it has since been purified."
"Dark magic?"
"Yes, it's conjectured that he used a Regenerate spell from the dark magic series, which has similar effects to healing."
Upon hearing the word 'healing,' Bertus furrowed his brow.
"Healing?... Oh, you don't mean that."
Bertus looked at the wretched corpses.
"It seems he drove them to the brink of death, forcibly revived them, and then tortured them again."
"That's... impossible..."
At Bertus's words, Harriet's lips turned pale blue, and she trembled.
"The Regenerate spell of dark magic grants powerful regeneration but causes the target immense pain. Think of it as exchanging pain for healing."
"Rather than healing, it's more like a spell for torture."
"Yes, it is actually known as a spell created for that very purpose."
I thought only religious zealots would torture in such a way, but dark mages apparently used the very process of healing to inflict even greater agony.
The sound was spine-chilling. Hearing that the deceased had been tortured, forcibly revived, and then tortured again before being killed in a horrifying state of agony, Harriet couldn't help but tremble.
An emotion could be felt in Harriet's eyes.
Rage.
Harriet was more than just sad and scared about what Roswin had done – she was furious.
"If the goal was to obtain the magic tome, they could have just killed them. What could they possibly have been trying to find out by torturing them…?"
"I… I know…"
Harriet answered Bertus's question.
Harriet had been the last person to speak with Roswin before he committed the crime. He had disappeared, and Harriet had given a confused explanation to the investigators.
"He wanted to find out the origin of the stolen magic tomes…"
Seeing the torture scene, Harriet seemed to have finally grasped what Roswin truly wanted.
—---
Ellen and Charlotte were able to reach their destination soon as they walked through the Aligar shopping district.
"Here it is. If I remember correctly."
A shabby shop that had been reachable by the boy who saved her.
"It seems like no one's around."
"Indeed."
It felt like it had been closed for quite some time. The owner of the scroll shop had also disappeared at some point as the Demon King revealed himself.
-Thump, thump
Ellen approached the door and pulled the door handle, but as expected, the door was locked tight.
Charlotte muttered dejectedly.
"Even if we get in, there probably won't be much to find…"
"True."
Charlotte had forced her way into the shop before, but finding any trace of the vanished owner would have been difficult.
She knew that they wouldn't be able to get any useful information from the only clue they had. However, knowing that and actually realizing it were two different matters.
It was too late.
If only they had gone to the Demon King's castle a bit earlier. If only they had discovered the truth sooner.
If only she had been more persistent in questioning the shop owner.
Then, the world wouldn't have needed heroes, and Ellen and Reinhardt wouldn't have been in such danger.
But ironically,
The Demon King's existence was still saving Charlotte.
The presence of the Demon King made people feel the need for heroes, and as a result, Reinhardt and Ellen supported Charlotte, ensuring her safety.
If the times hadn't been so suspicious and gloomy, the world would have had a cold response to the relic's owners. Consequently, the heroes' positions wouldn't have been as strong, and Charlotte wouldn't have survived through their protection.
In the end, the Demon King still acted as a force keeping Charlotte alive.
Ellen tilted her head as she looked at the firmly closed shop door.
"Still, you never know. Should we break in?"
Without even asking the building owner's opinion, Ellen casually suggested that. Of course, they could just pay for the repairs later.
"Right, there's no reason not to check it out now that we've come this far…"
"Misses, that shop closed down quite a while ago."
Someone spoke up from behind the two of them.
As Charlotte turned her head, she saw a middle-aged man with a bushy beard wearing an apron.
There couldn't be anything left inside the abandoned shop. But it wasn't over yet, and there was no reason to give up.
'Yes… that's right.'
"Did you know the owner of this shop?"
"Hmm? I saw them occasionally."
There was still one last resort – inquiry.
"Could you spare a moment to talk about it?"
She was grasping at straws.
And Charlotte had found a straw to grasp.
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