Mir was about to squeeze the mustard he carried around right up this woman’s nose.
Xia Ye stopped him before he could turn the thought into action, dark mana gradually gathering in her hand.
“Madam Jela, you carry a mana signature, yet you won’t say a word. That makes it very hard for us not to suspect you. If you won’t tell us where the signature came from, we’ll have no choice but to treat you as a suspect for now.” Xia Ye’s voice was oddly calm, not at all like a greenhorn who’d only just stepped into this world.
The socialite was frightened by the dark mana on her and immediately cried out, “I’ll talk! I’ll talk!”
The mana on Xia Ye gradually faded.
She stared straight at the scantily dressed woman, waiting for what came next.
Jela took a deep breath and, as if steeling herself, said with a red face, “The mana signature on me isn’t my own, and it isn’t from any item I’m carrying. It’s… probably the magical residue left after I… did certain things…”
She didn’t put it very clearly.
Xia Ye—an ice-beauty on the outside but a country bumpkin within—didn’t quite catch it; Mir—a blockhead on the outside wrapped around a ditzy little girl within—didn’t quite catch it either.
But Aisha, being an adult, got the gist.
The other two suspects also wore slightly odd expressions.
“Oh~ I see…” Aisha blushed a little too.
She set the compass on the ground in front of Jela.
“Then could you please stand on it for a test?”
Aisha finally understood why this woman had adamantly refused to explain the signature.
It turned out that during certain games only grown-ups get to play, some implements had left mana on her—and whoever had been playing with her had apparently gone far too hard, for it to be strong enough to register.
Once Jela stood in place, the magic array on the compass gave off a faint blue glow, so faint you couldn’t make it out unless you looked closely.
Aisha sighed.
Blue light was indeed the response of a civilian magic item; such items generally gave off very faint signatures, the kind that would be overlooked even if detected.
Yet this woman had actually been flagged by the officers—she must be at it every single day…
At the thought, Aisha shuddered. New chapters come out on g.com first.
Better stop thinking about it—this woman was terrifying beyond belief!
Aisha turned to the last suspect carrying a mana signature.
“I-I’m Angela, the owner of the flower shop next to Ana’s.” This girl still had that timid look.
“Relax. First just answer the questions I put to the other two.” Aisha soothed the girl, who seemed a bit nervous.
“I only moved to this city last month. When I first arrived, Ana took very good care of me. We quickly became good friends, and normally we had no conflicts at all… Why did something like this have to happen, Ana…” Angela grabbed at her hair, half-crouching down in anguish.
“It’ll be all right, miss.” Mir’s manner toward this rather pretty young lady was worlds apart from how he’d treated the socialite.
“You want the culprit who killed that… the deceased miss… brought to justice too, don’t you.” He’d completely forgotten the deceased’s name, which he’d only just heard.
After Mir’s comforting, Angela seemed to pull herself together a bit.
“Ever since I came to this city, I’ve often received love letters that come with gifts—and sometimes threatening letters with terrifying things attached… I think it must be those that left a mana signature on me.”
Hearing Angela’s explanation, Aisha pinched the bridge of her nose, getting a headache.
This was going to be tricky.
If things really were as the girl said, then all sorts of mana from all sorts of spell formulas would be clinging to her, and the compass wouldn’t easily determine which type of magical item she’d been in contact with.
“We need to take a look at those magic items.”
“Of course.
My flower shop isn’t far from here.”
Aisha nodded and said to the other two suspects, “Sir, madam, please wait here a moment.
We’ll go check something and be right back.” That said, she shot the two officers beside her a look.
The two nodded and walked over to the suspects.
“If you two would come rest with us for a bit.”
Seeing the pair led away by her subordinates, Aisha said to Angela, “Please lead the way.”
Xia Ye took the chance to slow her pace and fall into step with the cat girl at the back.
“Miss Berti…”
“Just call me Berti.” The cat girl smiled at her, with easy familiarity.
“…Berti, was there any detail about the Black Silhouette you saw earlier?”
“Huh? No. He was just all black.” The cat girl was a little puzzled by the question.
“I don’t mean his appearance. I mean, did he have any habitual gestures or the like?” Xia Ye’s pretty face was very serious—in mystery novels, this kind of habitual gesture was often the key to cracking the case.
“Habitual gestures? I don’t know. I was too busy running for my life at the time… he chased me for two whole kilometers! Even if he had some habit, I wouldn’t have gone out of my way to memorize it!”
Fair enough—
Xia Ye felt her question had been a bit stupid.
“That question really was dumb as hell—” This line, of course, came from Mir again, and the moment it left his mouth, the embarrassed, exasperated Xia Ye promptly smacked Mir on the back of the head.
Xia Ye rubbed her stinging palm and went on, “So how did that little girl save you back then? What features did she have?”
Hearing this, Mir seriously considered the feasibility of physically induced amnesia.
Berti thought back.
“Back then? Back then that little girl suddenly appeared behind the Black Silhouette and gave him a slap, and then the Black Silhouette vanished. Was he scared off, maybe?”
Just as Xia Ye was about to keep asking, the group ahead came to a stop.
“We’re here. This is my flower shop. I keep the things in the storeroom—I’ll take you over. Watch your step, don’t tread on anything.”
The flower shop looked quite big—big enough for two teams to play basketball inside—and it was packed with all kinds of potted plants.
You couldn’t imagine how Angela managed to tend so many flowers every day.
“A flower shop this big and you don’t hire a few clerks? Can you manage all this on your own? If you don’t mind, I could be your shop clerk~” Mir narrowed his eyes, teasing her flirtatiously.
“Because business here isn’t very good. What people want is special goods; very few care for ordinary flowers that are only good for looking at. Hardly anyone comes by in a day, so even if you wanted to help, little Mir, I couldn’t pay you any wages~” Angela seemed to have recovered somewhat from her grief.
Little sister?
Mir silently lowered his head and looked at the stockings on his legs.