As usual, there was a meeting. The meeting progressed calmly as usual, but there was a heavy atmosphere pressing down on all the attendees. The kidnapping incidents showed no hint of stopping, and they had been personally ambushed now. Yet, they still hadn’t found the criminal. Therefore, Zich’s next words were especially impactful.
“We found someone who is likely to be the suspect.”
At that moment, everyone’s faces were quite a sight to see. Everyone’s eyes seemed to pop out of their faces as if someone had hit the back of their heads. On the other hand, Lyla, who already knew everything, looked like she was thinking, ‘He is finally telling this now?’
Yet, Zich seemed indifferent to all their piercing gazes and took out a portrait and profile from his belongings and placed them on top of the table.
“Condel Siede. He is the guy running a casino in Janmalpi. He is still just on the suspect list, but personally, I am sure he is the culprit. Thus, I would like to request the Count to do a forceful interrogation inside his mansion and casino.”
“Um, wait a moment.” As if he was failing to keep up with the flow of the conversation, Joachim raised his hand and stopped Zich from speaking.
“Are you saying that this person seems to be the culprit?”
“Yes, sir.”
Joachim peered into the profile. “He is not one of our most likely suspects.”
“Yes, although he is listed as one of the suspects, he was missing one of the traits we thought our culprit had. So, he wasn’t included in that list.”
“What was he missing?”
“He didn’t have a lover.”
“Hm.”
As if Joachim had already shaken off his sense of surprise, he stared down at Condel’s portrait with cold eyes.
“Well, his face certainly looks like a culprit.” Joachim tapped Condel’s portrait with his index finger. “However, I’m sure Sir Zich didn’t narrow him down as the culprit for just that. What is your reason for thinking that this man is the culprit?”
“Yes, please tell us. We are a bit taken aback that you are suddenly bringing up a person who doesn’t fit the descriptions we have already decided upon.” Glen also intervened. His face was filled with puzzlement since a criminal only he should’ve known was revealed. Yet, his puzzled face also looked just as astonished that Zich had put up a person the group hadn’t expected as the main culprit.
“Specifically, it wasn’t that he didn’t have a lover. It only seemed like it.”
“…We have to hear your explanation in more detail, sir.”
“Of course, sir.”
Then, Zich began to slowly explain why he thought Condel Siede was the culprit. Of course, he added a few extra garnishments to the story to spice it up since he had to exclude the fact that he was suspicious of Glen. As Zich continued his explanation, people’s jaws dropped open, especially when he reached the part where Condel Siede eloped with Sia Ruebrent. Even Evelyn couldn’t help but let out a shriek. Once he finished his explanation, a heavy silence filled the room for a bit.
“…So, to summarize your words, Sir Zich, Condel Siede is the servant who eloped with lady Sia Ruebrent, and to hide that fact, they acted like siblings.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And that was why people didn’t know that he had a lover.”
“If they had already made sure people thought they were siblings, nobody would’ve thought that they were anything but close siblings. That is, unless they showed overt affection to each other.”
“Do you have any evidence?”
“I am asking for your permission for a forceful investigation to collect some, sir. Also, it’s not like I have no evidence.” Zich took out another portrait. It was the portrait of the shadow human whom he had fought. “This is the portrait of the monster that I fought. I questioned the people in his surroundings with this portrait. Since he kept his younger sister a secret for so long, not many could recognize her face.”
As if he had suffered a lot, Zich shook his head exaggeratedly. “Thankfully, we were able to find a priest who made a prayer on the day Condel Siede’s sister died. He said the sister’s face looked similar to the one in the portrait. Isn’t this enough to warrant a compulsory investigation on him?”
“That is true, but…” Joachim’s words trailed off, and a shadow loomed over his face. He didn’t look pleased, but there seemed to be an underlying emotion even greater than that. It seemed like he couldn’t comprehend why Zich hadn’t told them of such important information.
‘It’s the same for Evelyn.’
Evelyn’s eyes turned upwards as she glared at him. It looked like she was repressing her desire to grab Zich’s collar this instant and shake him up. She might have also felt a sense of betrayal since she had been the one to give them information about Sia Ruebrent.
“It is as you said,” Joachim said. “It’s something worth looking into. I will request a compulsory investigation. I’m sure it will go through with this much evidence.”
Afterwards, Zich and Joachim continued their conversation a bit more. Around the time they finished going over the decision to investigate Condol Siede, Evelyn asked with a chilling voice, “Then, is the conversation over?”
Although Joachim had witnessed all kinds of horrific things to save his falling family, he flinched in response to Evelyn’s pressing question. Although her face was smiling, the chill that her beautiful smile exuded seemed like it would freeze her surroundings instantly.
Unfortunately the target of her chilling smile, Zich, only had a carefree thought. ‘Oh, she seems like her old, succubus self right now.”
“Mr. Zich.”
“What is it, miss?”
“We exchange our thoughts and opinions during our meetings, right?”
“Yes, miss.”
“Then why did you keep such important information from us, Mr. Zich?” As if she was quite enraged, her tone sounded sharp.
Joachim’s eyes darted towards Zich. Even though he didn’t show his rage like Evelyn, her thoughts weren’t that different from hers.
“Because there could be a spy among us,” Zich said lightly. The weight of his words was on a completely different level than everything he had said before.
Zich glanced at the people around him. No, to be more specific, he pretended to glance at everyone while focusing on Glen who also made a very surprised expression. However, his face didn’t look overly shocked; it was an appropriate expression for a person who heard Zich’s words for the first time might make.
“…Are you saying that you suspect us?” Evelyn’s voice was mixed with discomfort. She was expressing an emotion that she had never shown before.
Zich answered her firmly, “No, miss,” but he secretly thought, ‘Except Glen.’
Zich put his hand up to stop Evelyn from saying whatever she was going to say and continued, “I was going to tell you this anyway, but we were ambushed recently, right?”
“Yes,” Joachim replied on behalf of Evelyn, who was too agitated.
“Why do you think we were ambushed?”
“Isn’t it because we were investigating the culprit?”
“We weren’t the only ones investigating the culprit. The whole city was basically trying to find the culprit. From an outsider’s point of view, we’re merely one of the many collaborators hired by the city. Moreover, we only have a small number of people on our team. Why did the culprit specifically attack us?”
It was strange now that Zich pointed this out. Joachim and Evelyn’s faces turned serious.
“Was it because it was too difficult to attack the mayor or the city’s armed forces, who were the main forces of the investigation? If the culprit doesn’t finish off the main forces, the investigation won’t stop. By attacking us, the investigation speed wouldn’t decrease much either. Was it to scare the city’s force away? The leaders of this city wouldn’t be spooked by something like that. Instead, they would become more agitated and stir up to find the culprit.”
“Isn’t it because we gave various suggestions that were useful to this investigation?” Evelyn’s voice was now back to normal.
“I also think the same way, but how did the culprit find out that we were the ones who made those suggestions?”
“From rumors…”
“Lady Rouge, that can’t be it.” Joachim denied her words. “Rumors wouldn’t have spread. When we make plans based on our suggestions, the plans aren’t carried out with our names attached to them. The city just sends out its orders, and there’s no reason for the city to spread information about who suggested certain plans.”
“…Then, are you saying that there aren’t many people who know that we were the ones who made those suggestions?”
“Yes. The only people who would know about it are people specifically investigating this matter—not because it’s a confidential matter, but because it’s not information that is necessary for others to know.”
“Yes,” Zich agreed. “Despite what I said, I don’t think the person is some kind of amazing spy on a super-secret mission. I think the spy just received money to steal useful information from our team.”
“Even that is bad enough.” Joachim’s voice was full of disgust. As a person leading a noble family and estate, a subordinate that could be bought with money was no better than a parasite. No, emotionally, he abhorred people like that.
Zich said, “That’s why I kept this information a secret until now.”
“You could have at least given us a hint.” Evelyn’s attitude had softened immensely; she realized that she had misunderstood Zich’s intention in hiding information about Condel Siede from them. However, her face looked a bit disgruntled.
“I like doing a thorough job when I’m hiding information. It’s childish for me to say things like, ‘Since the people around me are trustworthy, it’ll be alright.’”
Evelyn and Joachim could at least understand this part. Yet, their views changed when Zich continued, “Well, it was also bothersome for me to share this info.”
“…Mr. Zich? Can we have a talk with just the two of us next time?”
“Hahaha! Lady Rouge, I will have to politely decline, because I might be paralyzed by your beauty and not know what to do.”
“Something like that will never happen to you!”
“You never know what might happen.”
The atmosphere of the meeting room was slowly easing up. People were beginning to exchange jokes, and a small smile appeared on people’s faces. However, there was one person who was different. Glen Zenard was also smiling as if the sight in front of him was funny. However, like oil dropping into water, he was unable to mix in with the warmth of his surroundings.
* * *
Zich said, “Finally, this incident is slowly coming to an end.”
The meeting ended and everyone had gone back to their places. Like always, Lyla was the only one who stayed behind with Zich.
Lyla asked, “When Joachim comes back with the search warrant, are you going to immediately barge into the casino?”
“Yep. I’m going to capture Condel Siede and search through the casino like a mad dog.”
“Will he obediently let himself be captured?”
“Would a guy like that ambush us? I don’t know about us, but Joachim and Evelyn are nobles.”
“Yeah.”
“Also, if he easily surrenders, it won’t be fun for me. He needs to resist a bit.”
As expected, Zich’s shitty personality was still the same. Lyla said, “Siede might not be the culprit.”
“I’ll think about that when that comes to light.” His personality was chill as usual.
“Was it necessary to tell information about Condel Siede to the person who might be involved in this incident?”
“Why, because Glen Zenard also heard our information?”
“Well, it does make me a bit uncomfortable.”
“I needed to tell Joachim anyway to get the search warrant. It would be weird if I gave out the information to everyone except Glen Zenard.”
“We don’t know what he’ll do now though.”
“I was hoping for that.”
Lyla blinked her eyes. Zich made a bright smile and said, “If he’s trying to get credit for catching the culprit, he’s probably shocked right now. Because in the end, I was the one who found out about the culprit. Then, regardless of what he does, his achievement for this incident would lessen. What do you think he’ll aim for then?”
“…Capturing the culprit?”
“Of course. But do you think he’ll just end it like that?”
“…He can make the culprit spit out more information in order to raise his achievements even higher.”
Zich shrugged. “We don’t know much about the culprit. Why don’t we use someone next to us who seems to know the culprit very well?”
After fully realizing Zich’s plan, Lyla let out a laugh of astonishment. Then, she said, “As expected, you really are a bad person.”
“Hahaha! I’ll accept that as a compliment.” Zich’s confident laughter rang out in the room.
