3 bar menu

The Dead’s Statement – Part 03

“I’m guessing you’re asking Victorique, not me. Victorique, you don’t have to answer this albatross-looking guy.”

“No one asked you, Kujou.”

“You always do this. Asking her for help, then taking all the credit.”

“Who’s the culprit? It’s obviously Gideon,” Victorique groaned.

Kujou and Inspector Blois paused their squabbling, and turned to her.

“What? Gideon’s the culprit?” Kazuya asked.

Inspector Blois watched Victorique nervously.

Victorique popped a chocolate bonbon into her mouth listlessly. “Yes.” She chewed. “Did you not realize it when he was giving his statement?”

Inspector Blois wiggled his body around like a master escape artist and broke free from Kazuya’s grasp. He then sprinted out of the room, his drill-shaped hair glinting, leaving Kazuya and Victorique alone once more.

“He didn’t seem like a bad person,” Kazuya mumbled, perplexed. “He looked like a normal college student.”

“This just means that crimes are not always driven by evil.”

“What do you mean? If not evil, then what?”

“Probably by something that everyone harbors in their hearts. Weakness. But we must never succumb to it.” Victorique gave a big yawn. “It is not evil, but weakness that can drive people mad and make them lose what is precious to them forever.”

“Precious? Like what?”

“The things we love. Pride… And beautiful memories.”

Inspector Blois returned with rattled footsteps. He had brought Gideon Legrant, the Lumberjack, with him. Gideon entered the room with a surprised look on his face and, following the inspector’s instructions, sat down in a chair.

Inspector Blois fixed his gaze on the young man. He glanced at Kazuya. “Go ahead, Kujou. Solve the mystery.”

“No way. I can’t do that. I don’t know anything. Ask Victorique instead.”

“Ask her for me, then. Bow to her, cry rivers of tears as you accept all the humiliating conditions she imposes. Beg for her help like it’s the end of the world.”

“Now, look here…”

Victorique chuckled.

Gideon watched them curiously, wondering what was going on. “You’re the famous Grevil de Blois, right?” he asked. “Admired by many, featured in the papers for solving several difficult cases. So why are you asking this little Gray Wolf for help?”

“Don’t sweat the small stuff.”

“Wait, don’t tell me…”

“No! Well, it’s a bit of a long story.”

Victorique spoke not to the jittery Inspector Blois, but to Kazuya, who watched her curiously.

“It’s too much effort, but I will solve the mystery to clear your name. You should thank me, with tears in your eyes. If you’re arrested, you’ll be thrown into prison, where rats will chew on you, and you will end up looking like cheese with countless holes. You will spend every day wailing and crying, calling out my name.”

“Hmm… Yeah, I can see it. I’ll feel lonely and call your name. While being gnawed by rats.”

“Of course,” Victorique declared proudly. “First of all,” she began, “recall the time when the Orphan was poisoned. The key to this case is the ‘seawater in the sky’ that the Empress mentioned. How did the poison get into the victim’s mouth? The Lumberjack did not poison the raisins. And the Dead did not poison the brandy. Therefore, the order of the game had nothing to do with the murder. And it goes without saying that the Empress deciding the order holds no significance in the case.”

Her low, husky voice reverberated in the room.

Gideon himself was listening closely to Victorique’s reasoning, as though entranced, his face betraying an unconcealable curiosity. He watched the little girl present her deduction with great interest.

Inspector Blois, on the other hand, was restless, a doll sitting on his lap, anxiously wondering if anyone would return to the room.

“The poison was not in the raisins,” Victorique said.

“Then where was it?”

“Think back. Three adults drank wine and two kids drank water. The Orphan ate a raisin and took a sip.”

“Uh-huh.”

“What’s poisoned… was the glass of water!”

Inspector Blois inclined his drill. Restlessly smoking his pipe, he said, “How? Kujou drank the same water.”

“Yes. He did drink the same water. But he had a different glass.”

“But the Orphan took a sip earlier and she was fine,” Kazuya countered.

Victorique put her cherry lips to the pipe and fell silent. Then slowly, she took her mouth off the pipe.

“When the Lumberjack brought the glasses, he was carrying them upside-down, holding the legs, which he couldn’t do unless they were empty. But…”

Inspector Blois turned to the corridor. It was becoming noisy outside.

“It’s not impossible to plant poison in only one glass, while making it appear empty. The key to solving this mystery is the Empress’ story. ‘Sky filled with seawater’. Only the Orphan’s glass was cold, with lots of water droplets on its surface. The only person who could decide which glass went to whom was the Lumberjack, Gideon Legrant. In other words, you.”

Gideon glanced at the corridor. Once again, he was acting restless, as though waiting for something. Waiting for help to come. Victorique watched him with narrowed eyes.

The door opened, and Gideon’s face lit up.

“Inspector Blois!” A young detective burst into the room and whispered something to the inspector.

“The witness is here? Good!” Inspector Blois nodded. Gideon looked dejected.

Inspector Blois quickly turned to leave, but then scuttled back and whispered to Victorique, “Pause on the deduction. I’ll be right back. Wait for me, got it?” He then scurried away, his footsteps fading into the distance.

Only Victorique the Gray Wolf, her vassal Kazuya, and Gideon, the killer, were left in the room.

Gideon kept glancing at the door uneasily.

“It would seem that the person you’re waiting for is taking their sweet time, Gideon,” Victorique muttered in a somewhat amused tone.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Gray Wolf. I’m not waiting for anyone.”

“I know, Lumberjack.” Victorique smiled thinly. “You’re waiting for your trump card—the king of the underworld.”

Gideon chuckled in response. “Come on. I just made that up. Went along with everyone else. There’s no king of the underworld.”

“No. You’re waiting for the king of the underworld to come and rescue you from this predicament, Gideon. You think I wouldn’t notice? The way you look at me, like I’m something horrifying, yet something you’re familiar with. I’m well aware of your situation, Gideon, spy for the Ministry of the Occult. You’re the one who killed the Orphan, a spy working for the Academy of Science, and took the contents of the memento box. You are the Jack.”

“What?!” Kazuya exclaimed.

Victorique and Gideon turned to Kazuya at the same time. They stared at him with moist eyes, as though a magic spell had been broken.

Kazuya turned crimson. “What do you mean? I thought the red box was empty.”

“This man secretly removed the contents. That’s why it was empty.”

“What? But Gideon didn’t have anything suspicious. We checked his luggage.”

“Remember, Kujou! Use that pumpkin, spider-attracting, head of yours! Listen closely. According to the Dead, a memento box is a condensed version of a man’s life. Whenever something memorable happens, the box is filled with items, and when the box is full, the man’s life ends. It’s an ancient custom, but probably still practiced in places where they live the same, old lifestyle.” Victorique took a puff. “Like for example, the settlement deep in the mountains, where people have lived in seclusion since ancient times and hold traditional festivals—the home of the Gray Wolves, the Nameless Village.”

“The Nameless Village?!”

The Nameless Village was a mysterious village located deep in the mountains, where life was the same as it was in the Middle Ages. Kazuya had followed Victorique there after she secretly snuck out of St. Marguerite Academy around summer this year. Many of the people there had golden hair and blue eyes. They were beautiful and incredibly intelligent. They were driven away from Eastern Europe long ago after losing a war, and had continued to live the same old lifestyle deep in the mountains of Sauville ever since. Victorique’s mother, Cordelia Gallo, was born in the village, where she was accused of murder and banished when she was younger, and later gave birth to Victorique.

Cordelia had hidden something under the floor of her house. Later, Cordelia’s partner, Brian Roscoe, took it out of the village and hid it in the monastery. That something was the memento box—an item that the Academy of Science and the Ministry of the Occult were fighting over.