The only people who knew Glen in the meeting were Zich and Lyla. It was Joachim and Evelyn’s first official meeting with Glen. Joachim got up from his seat and stretched out his hand towards Glen.
“Nice to meet you. I am Count Joachim Dracul. I saw you a couple of days ago.” Unlike the way he addressed Zich, Joachim talked to Glen semi-informally. This was the way of this world where class and status dictated every aspect of life. Joachim only used formalities when speaking to Zich because of all the tremendous favors that Zich had done for him. Furthermore, although there was usually no need for Joachim to even speak semi-formally to a peasant, Glen wasn’t a mere peasant.
“I heard that you are a Karuwiman Honorary Knight like Sir Zich. I look forward to working with you.”
“I feel the same way, sir. I hope I will learn a lot from this experience,” Glen politely responded. He showed respect to his addressee by lowering himself, but not overtly so that he remained classy. Joachim was impressed by Glen’s attitude.
“I am Evelyn Rouge. Although I am still lacking, I am also part of the team.”
“I am Glen Zenard. Nice to meet you, miss.”
“Lady Rouge is the Marquess’ daughter of the neighboring estate, Rouge,” Joachim explained.
“Is that so?” At Joachim’s explanation, Glen’s eyes widened as if he was surprised. It looked as if he had found out Evelyn’s identity for the first time.
Meanwhile, Zich had a strange feeling as he watched them. ‘I can’t believe I am seeing the three of them shake hands with each other.’
Before the regression, Zich and his subordinates including Joachim and Evelyn had fought each other to the death with the hero, Glen. In the end, they all lost their lives under Glen’s hands. Yet, they were now all grabbing each other’s hands to collaborate. Of course, Zich was looking at Glen suspiciously while Glen was sharpening his blade inside his mind. However, they did not make this scene any less peculiar.
As the greetings came to an end, people got to their seats.
“Let’s share the information we have with Mr. Zenard.” Zich handed Glen a couple pieces of paper. On the papers, there was information about the victims, day and location of the incidents, and the clues they had gathered about the culprit. However, the information about the culprit was much more lacking in comparison to the other information.
Glen read the papers carefully. Then, he said, “It seems like not much information has been revealed yet.”
“Yes, it’s quite embarrassing,” Joachim said.
“No, you don’t have to be embarrassed. If only I hadn’t interfered when Sir Zich had the opportunity to catch the culprit, we might have more information. I’m the one who should be embarrassed.” Glen’s voice sounded guilty and sorry.
‘He’s not showing any suspicious signs right now,’ Zich thought.
Glen exuded goodness right now; as if he was proving Zich’s suspicions to be wrong, he looked much more fitting to be Karuwiman Honorary Knight than Zich. Yet, Zich wasn’t fazed at all.
‘If he really is a hypocrite, he would have fooled the whole world then. He won’t show his real self for something like this.’ On the other hand, it would’ve been even less fitting if Glen jumped up and down in anger right now.
Then, Glen also shared the information he knew. The information he had was even more lacking than the one Zich and his companions had. Still, no one blamed Glen for it. As an individual, Glen couldn’t have gathered more information than Zich and his companions who moved as a group through the city’s support. Furthermore, according to Glen’s story, it hadn’t been long since he had arrived in the city. Yet, everyone thought that another Karuwiman Honorary Knight in their group would be an extra benefit. Thus, no one objected to Glen joining the group.
The meeting officially commenced. They spread out a map of the city on a large table and exchanged their opinions.
“The incidents seem to take place in back alleyways or places near there. However, the different areas seem to share no commonality,” Glen said as he pointed out each of the places the cases had taken place.
“Yes, the culprit is using the whole city as if it’s their own backyard. The guy is uselessly hard-working,” Zich responded.
Like that, they exchanged their opinions back and forth.
“What kind of person is the culprit, Mr. Zenard?” Zich asked.
“I can’t say for sure since we don’t have much information, but…”
“Yes, I know. I just want to try hearing your opinion.” Zich sounded peaceful like he didn’t want Glen to feel pressured. However, that was simply his façade, and he craned his ears to hear Glen better.
“Then I would like to make some guesses,” Glen stated after a couple of coughs. “First of all, I’m sure the culprit is someone who knows this city really well, especially the back alleyways.” Glen tapped the map on the places that were marked. “The places where the incidents happened were in back alleyways. The culprit probably chose those places to avoid people’s eyes and use their complicated paths as an escape route. Having seen the shadowy appearances of the culprit before, I also don’t think it would be strange for them to have a special ability.”
People nodded their heads. They had made the same guesses.
Glen continued, “There’s also a high possibility that the culprit could be someone with a lot of influence even in these alleyways. After all, cases have happened all over the city. Even if the culprit is someone who knows the alleyways well, no could possibly cover such a wide scope. It’s hard to believe that the culprit is working alone.”
“Do you think they are working in a group?” Joachim asked.
“Even if the culprit is not a group, I think it’s at least someone who has the power to gather multiple forces. Otherwise, I don’t think they’d be able to have such a good grasp of the whole city like this. I bet even the people in this city don’t know their back alleyways well,” Glen said to Joachim.
Joachim nodded. “Yes. So even if they are a group, I suppose criminal organizations that are more connected to back alleyways are more likely suspects.”
“I agree, sir,” Glen nodded. “And we also have to see the time these incidents occurred. Most cases happen after the sun has set, late in the day. We need to find a person without an alibi at this time.”
“But wouldn’t our efforts become useless if the culprit was actually an organization all along…”
“Yes, Mr. Zich is right. However, it’s a different story if the culprit is leading a crime organization or if they are merely connected to an organization and are moving by themselves.”
“Yes, that’s true.”
“Moreover, I think that the culprit may be a person who lost their lover.”
“Perhaps, is it because the culprit only targets lovers?”
“Yes. Regardless of the culprit’s goal, it’s too bizarre that they only kidnap one person from every couple. I don’t have much knowledge about these matters, but in kidnapping cases, don’t kidnappers usually target children or specifically target one gender? Yet in this case, the culprit always kidnaps one person without discriminating between gender or age. From what I can see, rather than accomplishing some kind of grand goal, the culprit seems to be kidnapping people for a very personal reason.”
“So do you think that the culprit is kidnapping people out of jealousy?”
“I don’t know if jealousy is the reason why the culprit is targeting lovers, but I think there’s a very high chance that this might be why they target only lovers.”
“Is that so?” Zich fell into contemplation, and then smiled brightly. “That was a very interesting opinion. We’ve also had similar opinions.”
“Well, they’re thoughts that anyone would have, given the circumstances.”
“But it was very helpful. If there are more people who think the same way, we can be more assured of our predictions. Anyways, we received a lot of help from you. We’ll be looking forward to working with you from now on.”
“That’s the same for me, Mr. Zich.”
Zich and Glen shared a handshake. Glen greeted the others as well and left the room.
“Mr. Zenard just shared his thoughts.”
“His thoughts aren’t very different from ours.”
Joachim and Evelyn talked amongst themselves. They had already come up with many of the same predictions that Glen shared just now.
“However, it was interesting that he suggested that an organization might be involved in this incident. Since the culprit could turn into a shadow, I thought only one person with a special ability was responsible for the missing persons case.”
Zich said, “For now, we should search for the culprit by using our combined thoughts. I think that would be better than investigating random people.”
Joachim replied, “I also agree with Mr. Zich’s opinion. Lady Rouge, what do you think?”
“I also have no objections.”
They all agreed to request the city to investigate people with characteristics likely to be the culprit, and like this, the meeting ended. Joachim and Evelyn went back to their respective lodgings. However, Lyla stayed behind and stood next to Zich.
Zich distressed himself with a beer that he requested beforehand and asked Lyla, “What’s the matter?”
“Were you able to get any useful information out of Glen Zenard?”
“Somewhat.”
“Oh? Really?” Lyla was surprised. Even though she had heard the same things as Zich from Glen Zenard, she wasn’t able to obtain any meaningful information from him.
“What kind of information is it?”
“You also heard what he said. He said that the culprit is someone who knows the city’s back alleyways very well, part of an organization or a leader leading a large organization, and a person who possibly lost their lover.”
Since she was also present in the meeting, Lyla had obviously heard this information too. However, rather than feeling joyful, Lyla frowned instead. “You call that information?”
“Of course. It’s very useful information.”
“All he said were thoughts that everyone could have thought of. Most of the things were information we predicted as well.”
“Yes. But, Lyla. The person who says the information is important as well.” Zich spun the beer cup; the beer in his glass slowly spun around. Zich watched this sight in enjoyment and downed the cup in one shot.
“Aaah~!” Zich let out a refreshing sound and put down the beer cup. Then, he asked, “What kind of person is Glen Zenard in your memories?”
Lyla was slightly surprised by Zich’s sudden question. “W-well? In my memories, he’s a hero who swung his holy sword against powerful Demon Lords and Demon People to protect others.”
“Ugh, just hearing that gives me chills.” Zich roughly scratched his arms. “Anyways, even though he’s famous for defeating Demon People and Demon Lords in the Era of Demon People, he’s also famous for his deductive abilities and keen sense of judgment. He was especially skilled in finding out where Demon People were hiding by the smallest clues and was known for his analytical mind and sharp instincts. Since I’m suspicious of him, I think it might have all been a show.”
“Then, what Glen Zenard said just now…”
“There’s a very high chance that he might have just spoken the truth.” Zich calmly talked while grabbing and eating a snack. However, Lyla was not able to stay calm like him. If his words are true, they just received confirmation for many of their predictions.
“W-wait! There’s a possibility that he might have mixed in some lies!”
“Of course. However, he probably told the truth for the most part. If he lied, then it would mean that he made wrong judgments about the culprit. And that would mean that his image of a person with sharp instincts, analytical mind, and amazing judgement would be cut down.”
“…Do you really think that Glen Zenard planned his actions while calculating frivolous factors like his image?”
“Yep.”
Lyla had nothing to say. She thought that Zich might have gone a bit too far in his assessment of Glen Zenard’s personality.
However, Zich was firm in his answer, “If my suspicions are correct, he’s a person who makes people into Demon People to create a perfect hero image—he’s a crazy bastard that might even far surpass me. If he’s really a guy like that, it’s totally understandable that he would make calculations to maintain his pristine image.”
“…Then are you saying that most of what Glen Zenard said is true?”
“Yeah. Personally, I think that everything he shared is true.”
“That doesn’t align with Glen Zenard’s goal. Won’t it work against his plans if we find the culprit first?”
“Of course. That’s why I think the culprit fits all the characteristics he shared, but they must have some kind of special characteristic that we don’t know about.”
Zich looked down at his now cold, empty beer cup and said, “And we have to find that.”