*
Among the people gathered in the center of the village lay the innkeeper’s corpse.
"Damn it..."
"Who the hell is the culprit...?! If we kill them all, will the bastard show himself? Huh?!"
This was quite different from when the old woman had been sacrificed.
There were no embellishments like flowers or poisonous herbs. She was merely lying there with her hands clasped as if in prayer.
"..."
If there was one thing that stood out as particularly strange—
‘That’s really something.’
It was that the victim was smiling faintly.
Just like the nun’s smile I had seen at dawn.
"Inspector... You really need to make some kind of decision now..."
Thud—
Heavy footsteps sounded behind the village chief’s troubled voice.
The blacksmith had a long object wrapped in cloth slung over his back.
And beside him was the kid, clutching what I had given him a little while ago to his chest.
Tap!
"Hey, is this really all you need?"
"Yeah, that’s enough."
I nodded at the boy’s quiet whisper, then turned my gaze toward the blacksmith.
"Thank you for hearing me out."
"...You haven’t been confirmed as the culprit yet. If what I heard earlier is true... I’ll reconsider then."
I snickered at his calm response and approached the village chief.
"Village Chief, it’s time to reveal the culprit."
"...! You found the culprit?!"
The village chief looked at me with expectant eyes.
The villagers’ gazes all focused on me at once.
"Yes. Hans."
"Y-Yes...?"
"Would you come forward?"
"..."
Trembling with fear, he barely managed to take several steps toward the center of the villagers.
"Every other night, you dream of killing villagers, don’t you?"
"H-How did you know that...?!"
"You wrote it in your diary. The person you kill in those dreams dies for real that very day."
"Why did you read that without permission...! No, that’s not it... It’s just a dream!!!"
He had been about to protest to me, but upon sensing everyone’s eyes on him, he hurriedly shook his head.
As he tearfully insisted on his innocence, I opened the wiki and continued.
"You had another dream today too, didn’t you?"
"T-That’s true, but..."
"You killed the innkeeper in that dream as well."
"..."
The moment I tapped the [Single-Use Footprint Tracker] Wiki had given me, a selection window appeared on my phone screen.
When I selected the farmer, it showed traces of him leaving his house during the night and traveling to and from this spot, where the corpse lay.
‘The farmer definitely was the one who carried out the murders.’
My conviction had become solid circumstantial evidence.
He had not merely dreamed it. He had actually committed the crimes.
"I didn’t do anyth—"
"It’s all right. You’re a victim too."
"What...?"
"You were being controlled. Every night, according to someone else’s will."
"What are you..."
The farmer’s eyes widened.
The villagers tilted their heads in confusion, while at the edge of my vision, I saw the nun’s eyebrow twitch.
"The dream you had was, unfortunately, reality. Now we need to catch the real culprit and hold them accountable."
"R-Reality..."
"You said you went to sleep early every night, yet you also said you heard the sounds from the forge."
"Yes..."
"I tested it. You cannot hear that sound in your sleep from your house. Which means you wandered outside at night, and that sound remained in your subconscious."
When I turned to the blacksmith, he nodded toward the farmer, confirming that it was true.
"And your fingernails. Most of it has faded, but there are still black marks underneath them, aren’t there?"
"That’s just dirt—"
"Yes, that’s right. It is dirt."
"What...?"
Swish.
At my subtle glance, my assistant approached, carrying a flowerpot and a small ceramic bowl.
"The dirt in this bowl was taken from Hans’s field."
"I-I think that’s right, but..."
"Would you try putting it beneath your fingernails?"
"The color... is different...?"
Yesterday, I had checked it out with the kid just in case.
I visited his field to get a rough idea of whether what was under his fingernails was dirt or bloodstains.
And after putting the dirt beneath my own nails, I realized the colors were quite different.
‘So I thought it might be bloodstains.’
But when the old woman died, there had not been any bloodstains at all.
If enough blood had splattered to stain under his nails, the crime scene could not have been so clean.
And if the bleeding had been minor enough to stop within a few hours, it would not have gotten beneath his nails either.
"Then, a-are you saying this is blood...?!"
"No, it isn’t."
Whoosh—
As I denied the farmer’s words, my perceptive assistant tipped over the nun’s flowerpot and spilled out its dirt.
‘Dirt completely soaked with water.’
Dirt that was noticeably darker than the dirt taken from the farmer’s field.
Of course, perhaps it was simply a different variety of soil, since she used soil good for flowers. Either way, it did not matter.
I found it while looking around as the nun had suggested last night.
It had bothered me that the flowers she looked at often enough to hang by her front door were withering.
I scooped out some of the dirt to check, but the soil itself was wet.
The flowers were shriveling up, yet the soil was wet?
And not just ordinary soil, but soil that might have been specialized for growing plants?
‘She only swapped out the flowers.’
Scrape, scrape—
"This looks fairly similar, doesn’t it?"
"I-I suppose it does... But whose is this...?"
"It came from the nun’s house."
After packing the spilled dirt beneath my nails, I picked up a flower on the verge of withering and smiled.
"Has anyone here ever received or grown the red flowers that were on Masa’s corpse two days ago?"
"..."
Silence. Everyone only turned their eyes away and looked at one another.
‘Of course not.’
The kid had said from the beginning that it was not a common flower. A rare flower that no one but the old woman, an herbalist, would have seen.
A villager who had received a flower meaning ‘welcome,’ such a precious flower.
‘The nun who happened to arrive here a year ago.’
Swish.
"W-Why is everyone looking at me...?!"
Everyone’s gaze naturally turned toward her.
The old woman had brought her here when she was on the verge of death.
There was no way the villagers had forgotten the self-proclaimed nun who had appeared on a rainy day, wounded all over.
‘Even assuming the old woman gave her the flower while they were alone...’
There was ultimately only one person in this village who could have received that flower.
"Then... all the dreams I had were... because of the nun...? D-Did I really kill people... kill the villagers...?"
"Yes, most likely."
"How? When did that happen...? Why me of all people...?!"
"Well, I’d like to ask you that. Is there anything that comes to mind? Perhaps you spent time alone together over the past year, or you visited her separately and spoke with her regularly?"
I immediately asked back about the part of the farmer’s story that had puzzled me.
Why had she chosen the farmer? Because he was the most softhearted?
Because he looked easy to exploit? Because he would make a convenient scapegoat if she got caught?
"Ah..."
"Did something come to mind?"
"Last year’s harvest was completely ruined... I wondered if things would get better if I prayed to God, so I prayed with her every day..."
"Then that must have been the starting point."
I did not know how she had moved the farmer, but if they had spent time together alone all year, that was more than enough time to prepare.
Perhaps that was why she had quietly spent a whole year here.
"Wait a moment... Are you saying I’m the culprit, Inspector...?"
"Nun... Why me...?"
"Y-You can’t treat me like the culprit over something so little, can you?! Hans is much more suspicious...!!"
"Of course, if this were all there was, it would be insufficient. Nun, could you show us the scripture you normally read?"
"Why would I...? Besides, I don’t have it with me right now..."
I shrugged at the nun’s cry and continued.
I knew she would say that. I had seen her leave it behind in the first place.
"Then I’ll bring it myself."
"N-No... I’ll go get it—"
"Here it is, Sherlock Holmes."
"Nice assist, Timi Watson."
Of course I had it brought beforehand, you dumbass.
I told you to look around as much as you wanted.
When I held out my hand, the kid handed me the scripture he had carefully kept in his arms.
‘Actually, this isn’t complete certainty.’
The various pieces of circumstantial evidence told me that woman was the real culprit, and I had simply assumed she was not truly a nun, naturally enough.
Neither the kid nor I could read this scripture. It was written entirely in unknown letters.
Of course, perhaps the kid could not read it simply because he was young, and I could not because I was not from this world.
Naturally, this alone could not serve as evidence, but...
"S-So what does that prove? It’s only an ordinary scripture! For praying to God—"
"Philip."
"H-Huh?"
"As someone who travels around the capital, as someone who buys and sells goods, you must have passed near churches now and then. Or perhaps you have seen people carrying scriptures themselves."
"Ah..."
I trusted that merchant to testify whether that woman pretending to be a nun from the capital was lying.
‘Though it wouldn’t matter if he couldn’t.’
Of course, he might not remember.
He was only human, and it was not something he had paid any particular attention to.
But because he was human, because this situation had been created.
Because anyone could see the nun was under suspicion, and someone called an Inspector was openly pressing her right in front of him.
"R-Right...! I’ve never seen a scripture like that!!"
"That’s what he says."
"That can’t be...!"
"A forbidden text! I’ve never seen writing like that!!"
He would probably say that.
That was how human psychology worked.
Maybe he really did remember it.
"What are you talking about right now?!"
‘Then, the final step.’
Swish.
I opened the wiki once more and used the [Single-Use Lie Detector].
With the nun designated as the target, I approached her with a smile.
‘You were fucking confident last night.’
"..."
"Nun, I’ll ask you just one thing. Are you the true culprit behind all this?"
"Of course I’m not...!!"
[Lie]
I smiled faintly at the red letters appearing on my phone screen.
Game over. Arrest the whole damn lot.
"You’re lying."
"On what grounds...?"
"It is an ability granted to me by His Majesty the Emperor. Do you require further proof?"
"That’s ridicul—"
"Or shall I explain it all to you one by one? Starting with how you controlled the farmer?"
"..."
At my words, the nun’s expression slowly stiffened.
Grin.
All the evidence was gathered.
The audience was already completely absorbed in me.
"Ahem."
Before everyone, unable to utter a word, I smiled faintly at the village’s representative.
"Village Chief, the culprit is that ‘fake’ nun."
"B-But..."
"You can’t believe him, Village Chief...!! It was all staged by that man!!"
"I stake the honorable title of Inspector, bestowed upon me by His Majesty the Emperor, the Sun of the Empire. If that woman is not the culprit, I will personally lead the Empire’s forces to find the real criminal. Oh, and I’ll kill myself too."
I was making reckless claims left and right, but it did not matter.
That woman was the real culprit anyway.
As long as I could obtain the villagers’ agreement, I would have nothing to worry about afterward.
It was a game I won as long as I bluffed hard enough to make them trust me.
"I-I will believe you... Does anyone object to the Inspector’s judgment...?"
"..."
"Why... Why do you all believe that man’s words?!"
At the village chief’s question, the villagers shook their heads.
They looked less certain that the nun was the culprit than hopeful that she was.
They all wore expressions of people desperate to escape this damned village.
"Thank you for your wise choice, everyone."
Seeing that there was not a single opposing vote, I awkwardly offered a greeting as though I were some nobleman.
"Now, Nun. I hereby confirm you as the culprit. I intend to deal with you under my delegated authority of summary execution. Do you have any last words?"
"..."
The nun, who had been shouting just moments ago, lowered her head deeply.
I did not know whether she had no intention of making excuses, or no confidence left to deny it.
‘Do I have to kill her? It’s not clearing.’
There was no way she was not the culprit, so I wondered for a moment why it had not ended.
"...Hehe, all right."
I frowned at the sound of the nun’s laughter.
"That’s right, I’m the culprit... Every time I closed my eyes and prayed, I controlled his body as I pleased."
"..."
"But it doesn’t matter anymore."
Fwoooosh—!!
A purple aura spread around the nun.
As if staining everything around her in darkness, space itself began to discolor from where she stood.
"The souls I gathered from the capital, and the souls I gathered here..."
"W-What is that?!"
"I’m still a little short, but this should be enough as a sacrifice."
"A sacrifice...?"
"Hehe, it’s a gift for my master. The holy knights of the capital tried to kill me, calling me a demon worshipper, but..."
"...A demon worshipper?"
Was she actually some kind of dark mage?
...Like a nun from the demon race or something?
Flash—
KRAAAAAASH!!
"I merely walked the path of suffering for everyone’s peace, you know?"
Light flashed across the village, and black lightning began crashing down.
"...Whoa."
The sky turned black. A magic circle made of bizarre letters began spreading beneath the nun’s feet.
A magic circle written in letters identical to those in the scripture.
"O great Lord Ziberk!! No matter what it takes... I will force the gate open for you!! Using myself and that man as sacrifices!!"
"Why me?!"
No, what the hell is this?
This development is suddenly way too weird.
At the sight of the nun clawing at her own face as though possessed by a demon, I hurriedly pulled the kid into my arms.
"Uwoooooooo—!!"
"Fuck!!"
The nun’s voice abruptly changed, and just as I picked up the kid to run—
Fwoooosh—!!
A silver harpoon that looked at least a meter long shot past my side.
The blacksmith, who had been carrying that long cloth-wrapped object, was aiming a massive crossbow at the nun.
‘Right, I asked him to do this.’
I had figured out the culprit, but I did not know what kind of being she might be.
So I had asked him to help just in case, using the tools he had made until now.
"K-Keugh...!!"
When I hurriedly turned around, a harpoon was lodged in the nun’s chest.
Fwoosh!
The blacksmith reloaded another harpoon and fired his crossbow once more.
The harpoon flew like the wind and buried itself in the nun’s body, making black blood burst out.
"Guaaaargh...!!"
Swish.
"...Don’t look, brat."
"I need to watch if I’m going to get revenge."
"Still no."
Thud.
I covered the kid’s eyes and watched for a while. After screaming and groaning repeatedly, the nun finally collapsed.
The color of the sky and the scenery around us returned to normal.
Among the villagers, who had been enveloped in silence for some time, the hunter cautiously stepped forward.
Poke.
"She’s dead."
He frowned at the nun and muttered quietly.
"Did we get her?"
I tried casting the line, meaning for her to hurry up and revive if she was going to, but she did not get back up.
It was probably over. She had admitted she was the culprit herself, so wouldn’t I soon return to where I had been?
"Th-Thank you...! Thank you for saving my village, Inspector...!!"
‘His village, huh...’
I gave a hollow laugh at the village chief’s words and nodded vaguely.
Swish.
"Thank you for helping."
"...I do not know whether I made the right choice."
The blacksmith, who had approached at some point, held out a hand and helped me up.
He probably said that because he had lacked the will to live so badly that he had built his own coffin in advance.
Snicker.
"At least those who left before us will be happy."
"...It will take a long time to meet them again."
He looked bitter, but the words that came from his mouth were positive.
I smiled lightly, shrugged, and looked at the message floating in the center of the village.
[Culprit Apprehended]
[60 Seconds Until Return]
"Finally..."
It seemed I had succeeded. As the reality of it finally began to sink in, I stared at the sky and laughed hollowly.
"Thank you, Inspector. Thanks to you, we can finally leave this place."
"Haha, no. Thank you."
I shook my head casually at the merchant’s words.
Whether he had meant it or not, his testimony had allowed this to end cleanly.
"You’re an Inspector from the capital, so you probably know this, but the name ‘Ziberk’ belongs to a notorious evil god. She must have been one of his worshippers. Maybe she infiltrated this place somehow?"
"Ah, yes. Probably."
I see. No wonder she had been giving off such an ominous voice and aura.
She said the holy knights of the capital had tried to kill her, so perhaps she had fled and hidden in this village.
‘They did say she was nearly dead when they first found her.’
It was probably just setting, but I felt like I had figured out all the major secrets of the story.
"Thank you, Inspector... Thank you for saving me... Thank you for breaking my curse...!!"
"No, you’ve been through a lot."
"Hmph, I just did what I had to."
"Haha."
I smiled vaguely at the farmer and hunter’s words.
Without fear, the village chief was dragging the nun’s corpse away and cleaning up his village.
The widow... was still glaring at the village chief, so I could not bring myself to talk to her.
She was scary in the first place, too.
[23 Seconds Until Return]
"Hey, brat."
"...Sherlock Holmes."
Pat.
"You did a great job."
"..."
With little time left, I called out to the boy waiting for me.
I put my hand on his head and ruffled it roughly with a snicker.
"Whatever you do, you’ll become someone great. Keep living confidently and sharp, just like you are now."
"Hey..."
Whether he was fake, whether he would disappear.
Regardless of any of that, I spoke sincerely to Timi, the boy who could think and feel in this very moment.
[5 Seconds Until Return]
"Thanks. Without you, I would have been in serious trouble."
"Thank you. Goodbye."
"Yeah."
I smiled at the kid as he took a step back and waved—and then—
"Because you don’t belong in %#!@."
"...What?"
I frowned at what the kid said next.
"Wait, what do you mean by—"
The moment I tried to ask what he had just said, what it meant—
[0 Seconds Until Return]
Flash.
"...!!"
The pitch-black space I had seen on the twentieth floor spread out before me.
I did not faint and wake up like last time, but my head throbbed and my eyes burned.
My body was rejecting it as though it were a place I was not supposed to be.
"Ha..."
What the hell was going on?
Had that kid sent me here?
‘...I need to get even a little information.’
My mind was a mess, but I forced myself to frown and look around.
I stepped around and swung my arms desperately, trying to learn anything at all.
BEEEEEEP—!!
-What the % kind of $@ thinking!@##
-Then are you going to &% kill #@# them with @#^&!?
-How the #$@ did &# they sur#vive @$(!@...
‘My ears...!!’
Then, suddenly, voices loud enough to burst my eardrums rang out.
The sounds echoed crazily in my ears. They were so loud that it felt like my ears were rupturing from the inside out.
I had never experienced anything like it in my life. Even when I covered my ears, the noise came through, and it felt as though my head would split apart.
After listening to that meaningless conversation for what felt like ages, my consciousness began to blur.
-I $ won’t just sit & still for this @...#!@%
And with those final words, I lost consciousness.
*
"...I’m back."
As I blinked through my daze, I found myself back inside the pitch-black tower.
Judging by the open door in the distance, this must have been the interior of the fiftieth floor of the Tower of Wisdom.
Sway...
Clutching my throbbing head, I barely got up and started walking.
There was nothing inside the tower. It was empty, as though that suspicious village had been everything.
『Tower of Wisdom』
-50-
I gave a hollow laugh at the featured-post ticket I had not seen in quite a while and took a verification photo.
Thinking that I needed to return to the hideout and lie down as soon as possible, I staggered through the dark passageway.
-1-
[Apocalypse 339:19:44:21]
[Section 2:19:44:21]
[90 / 28]
‘Exactly about one day passed.’
I had spent three days inside the fiftieth floor, so perhaps the ratio was around three to one.
Or perhaps no matter how much time passed inside a tower, it was fixed at one day outside.
Click!
‘My head feels like it’s going to explode.’
After taking a picture of the communal timer, I headed straight for the hideout.
What exactly had that kid said at the end?
Why had that black space appeared again, and what were the words I had heard there?
There was a lot to think about, but perhaps because my body felt so heavy, I just wanted to lie down first.
Creak—
Ding! Ding! Ding!
The moment I barely managed to drag myself into the hideout, my phone notifications began going off one after another.
Wondering what this was about, I checked and saw three notifications on the [Internet] app.
[Tower of Wisdom Floor 50 Cleared - TP + 5,000]
[Tower of Wisdom Floor 50: Bonus for Receiving Everyone’s Support - TP + 1,000]
"...!"
The moment I checked the notification previews, a thrill powerful enough to blow away my headache surged through me.
Five thousand just for clearing the fiftieth floor, plus a bonus on top of that.
[TP Held: 15,073 TP]
"My heart is swelling..."
The hardship of the past week came rushing in as tears.
The overwhelming feast of TP made it feel as though fireworks were exploding in my head.
This was what it meant to live like a miser.
This was what they meant by joy after hardship.
‘Wait, what’s the other one?’
I had confirmed from the preview notifications that TP had come in, but one was still left.
A red number one still stood clearly over [Internet].
‘Could this be...?’
Remembering when Starpang first became available for TP use, I immediately tapped Internet.
[Gallery] [StarWiki] [Starpang] [???]
"I knew there would be more."
I smiled at the new icon that had appeared beside Starpang.
Tap.
-This function is currently restricted. Once the conditions are met, ‘???’ will become available.
[Tower of Trials 20/50]
[Tower of Wisdom 50/50]
[Tower of Mindscape 10/50]
[Tower of Fate 10/50]
I laughed hollowly at the conditions that appeared.
Wasn’t the fiftieth floor too far away? The first requirement had been the tenth floor, and now the next was the fiftieth.
‘Still...’
It had taken only a week to climb from the eleventh floor to the fiftieth floor of the Tower of Wisdom.
The Tower of Trials might be another matter, but I could not imagine the other towers taking very long.
Thinking of the tenth floor as the baseline, I might be able to climb them absurdly quickly.
‘I’m looking forward to it.’
Gallery, wiki, shopping.
I was already excited to see what came next and what kind of useful scam tool it would put in my hands this time.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register