Editor 75
by CristaeOpera Theater Murder Case (2)
Cleio poked Arthur in the side.
“To think the day would come when I’d get a lecture from you about a prosecutor’s duty….”
Thanks to that, Fran’s impression of Arthur seemed to have improved a bit, but it still wasn’t something easy to get used to.
“Ray, what do you normally think of me?”
“Do you want me to tell you?”
“Hmm, no. I think I’d rather not hear it.”
In the middle of the drawing room, Fran and Ishiel sat exchanging serious opinions. Right beside Ishiel, Chel had taken a seat.
Arthur was behind them, and Cleio, who wouldn’t be of much help in physical tasks, was leaning against the wall next to Arthur.
Fran was marking red dots on the map of Lundane spread out on the table without hesitation.
These were the places where bodies had been found.
It was impressive that she had gathered all that information by herself. Moreover, it was surprising how accurately she remembered the locations.
‘This girl must really be a genius, a true genius.’
As Cleio admired the map, he realized he could do the same thing himself, and felt a little embarrassed.
There was a bit of a gap between the perception of a born genius and an ordinary person who relied on the “promise” of item buffs.
“All the bodies were found around the opera theater. Judging by the degree of decomposition, the timing of the murders roughly coincided with the performance dates. After the last performance ended, no more victims have been found. The victims confirmed so far are a flower seller, an usher, a stagehand’s assistant, and a dressing room cleaner.”
Pointing one by one at the red dots scattered around the Royal Opera, Fran wrote down the time each victim went missing.
“Even the usher seems to have been killed only between acts. I heard testimony that she guided the audience before the performance, but didn’t appear during intermission.”
Ishiel replied coldly.
“If so, it’s highly likely that the perpetrator is a theater staff member or an audience member.”
“I think the same as you, Kishion.”
Chel smirked.
“So something’s happened every performance? This guy sure loves opera.”
“Maybe that’s why, but since the next production is being prepared and there are no performances right now, there have been no more suspicious disappearances or bodies found.”
“That’s a relief to hear, but that means….”
“It means that when the performances start again, the murders will start again too.”
Fran pulled the opera theater’s blueprints out of a tube and spread them next to the Lundane map.
“The opera theater has east and west entrances. The east door leads to the ground floor seats, and the west to the second floor. Actors and staff enter through the stage door on the south side.”
“Is it enough to just watch the doors? What if the culprit sneaks in through a window?”
“The opera theater was built during Absalom II’s reign, so the walls are thick and the windows are narrow. So anyone has to pass through one of the three doors. I plan to monitor those entrances around performance days and track ether reactions.”
Chel whistled in admiration.
“That’s a good idea. The police can’t sense ether anyway, so even if they’re mobilized, they’d be no help.”
Ishiel was closely examining the map and blueprints the whole time.
“In my opinion, besides the three doors, we should also check the auditorium and backstage.”
“Ishiel is right. We’ll have to enter the auditorium to look at the dressing rooms and hallways as well.”
“We can get backstage or into the staff corridors with help from opera staff. My colleagues will help.”
“But Francis, to carry out this plan, you’ll need more manpower. Even if one person watches the stage door, the busy west and east entrances will need at least two people per team to be thorough. Is there anyone else with ether sensitivity who can help?”
For the first time, Fran’s face showed embarrassment.
Even at just level 1 affinity, people with ether sensitivity made up only 0.025% of the population.
Among those around them, the only people they could recruit to use [Ether Detection] were from the Capital Guard Academy.
Cleio keenly felt his mistake for not stopping Ishiel’s careless remark.
‘Ah, Ishiel, she doesn’t have any friends at school….’
The next day, Monday.
It had been two weeks since they left Mnemosyne’s Gate.
Cleio, after observing the morning’s basic swordsmanship class, slept the rest of the day. Then, dragged by Chel, he barely managed to eat dinner and sat in the drawing room.
Thanks to Chel’s efforts, the other kids also gathered smoothly.
Chel, Ishiel, Arthur, Cleio, Lippi, Leticia, and Fran—seven in total—made the drawing room quite crowded.
“Yaaawn, it’s nice to gather, but why my dorm?”
“Boys can’t enter the girls’ dorm floor, you know.”
“Then Arthur’s room….”
Chel, unusually, put on a serious face.
“Have you ever seen what that guy’s room looks like?”
Now that he thought about it, he’d never been to Arthur’s room. That guy always came over first.
“Don’t go. Ray will get sick.”
“You’ll faint the moment you go in. It’s a dust pit.”
Lippi and Leticia shook their heads vigorously, as if they had already seen it. Their ponytails whipped through the air.
“Hey, but still, people live there, it can’t be that bad….”
Arthur tried belatedly to cover for himself, but it was no use.
“There’s a staff member who comes to clean, isn’t there? How did it get like that?”
“Uh, well, I don’t let the staff in because they might lose something very important if they come to clean.”
“What’s so important….”
“Ah, do I really have to spell it out?”
Fran just clicked her tongue, thinking Arthur was spouting nonsense, and revised the manpower plan with Ishiel.
Cleio, watching Arthur fail to read the room, sighed inwardly.
Even if they didn’t send assassins into the school, there was no guarantee how long Aslan would keep following the rules.
‘Something important. Yeah, if you’re human, your life is the most precious. He must be trying to avoid unnecessary victims.’
Of course, this was all Arthur’s fault for always acting so nonchalant and making people forget he was actually thoughtful.
Meanwhile, Chel slung an arm over Fran’s shoulder and struck up a conversation.
“But Fran! There are quite a few people with ether sensitivity in the capital, so how will you recognize the killer’s ether?”
Ishiel nodded as well.
“Even if the suspect has ether sensitivity, they wouldn’t walk around using ether in public places. Even with [Ether Detection], it’s hard to distinguish anyone below level 5.”
With an uncomfortable look, Fran slipped out from under Chel’s arm and pulled out a sketch she seemed to have drawn herself.
“You don’t have to worry about that, Kishion. The ether left on the bodies was incredibly strong. The suspect’s ether sensitivity is definitely above level 5. The color of the ether is also very unusual. Like in this drawing, it’s a sticky, viscous red glow.”
The sketch, colored with red paint, depicted the ether lingering in the victims’ bodies with a fair amount of realism.
“From the ether?”
“How?”
Lippi and Leticia raised their voices in surprise, and above their heads, Arthur, Cleio, and Ishiel exchanged glances.
Red ether.
The assassins who attacked them during summer vacation also wielded red sword energy.
Even after that, the assassins who came after Arthur all had red eyes.
‘At this point, you don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure it out. It’s like they’re waving a flag saying, ‘I’m related to this’…’
“Normally, ether’s presence lingers in objects or the air for just a few minutes. But if there’s still clear ether left in a body several days after death, it’s likely that the suspect can’t fully hide their presence.”
“Ho, red ether. Never seen that before!”
“Even so, we’re still short on manpower. If only we could borrow one more pair of hands….”
It was at that moment.
Bang!
Cleio’s housemate, Nebo Jarvi, stopped in the doorway.
The boy, soaked in sweat after evening training, hesitated awkwardly, towel and practice sword in hand, surprised to see the crowded drawing room.
“Uh, what are you all doing here?”
Lippi and Leticia simultaneously snapped their heads around.
Cleio grinned at the two girls’ meerkat-like reaction. But only for a moment—soon, the two girls, with a predatory air, dragged Nebo over.
“Fran White, good news. The manpower problem is solved.”
“Here’s one more.”
“Ether level 3, member of the safety patrol.”
Suddenly the center of attention, Nebo flailed his arms in confusion.
“W-what, let go of me and say it!”
A few minutes later.
After hearing the explanation, Nebo was even more fired up than the others, pumping his fists.
“My family has lived in Lundane for generations. Our family owns the biggest stationery shop in the Kato district. The opera theater is right in front of our house. There’s no way I can stand by and let something like this happen!”
Ishiel, looking at the enthusiastic Nebo with an expressionless face, raised an important question.
“The manpower problem is solved. Then, when is the next performance?”
Chel answered quickly.
“This Friday evening, ‘The Lord of the Highlands’ premieres. Performances are every three days, for three weeks.”
“But from the backstage of the Royal Opera, you can’t really see the upper floor seats, right? I’ve been to the opera theater before with my aunt and Leticia! My aunt writes scripts! She said you have to watch from the second floor box seats to see the whole theater!”
“If Lippi is right, we’ll need to get tickets for the performance as well.”
With a look of realization, Chel smacked her fist into her palm.
“Ah, what do we do, Ishiel. There’s a problem.”
“What is it?”
“We don’t have tickets. This production is the opera premiere everyone in Lundane has been waiting for. Even the waiting list is full. Even my mother could only get tickets for VIP clients, and those are all for closing night. Fran, do you have tickets?”
With a dazed look, Fran shook her head. She had a talent for investigation and questioning, but clearly no clue about the world of performing arts.
Cleio chimed in.
“Then… just in case, I’ll ask Lady Dione too.”
“You think Lady Greyer can pull some magic trick to get tickets?”
“She’s such a great magician that I’m nothing compared to her. She’s even more powerful outside the Circle than inside.”
Without hurrying, Cleio went down to the office and called Greyer Trading Company.
Five days later, Friday evening.
After finishing class, Cleio went home carrying Behemoth.
Dione had made it a condition for getting opera tickets that Cleio had to dress up.
“The PR staff I met during my alternative service really helped me out. Apparently, if it hadn’t been for the clients of Asser Trading who canceled because they think Albion-language opera is beneath them, we never would have gotten this lucky!”
“Opera is opera, what’s the difference….”
“There are people who think that if it’s not sung in Brunnish, any opera in Pedrean or Albionese is just a third-rate musical. Since it helped you, young master, today we should be grateful for their eccentricity!”
It was both surprising and not surprising to find that this town had purists who thought Italian opera was low-class and English opera didn’t exist.
‘Yeah. It’s not strange for classical music buffs to be weirdos. Opera is probably the hottest genre at this time, so there must be even more picky people.’
Of course, thanks to that, Cleio was able to get tickets for every performance of ‘The Lord of the Highlands,’ so he had no complaints.
The job of monitoring the audience on the first day fell to Cleio, who was close to Dione. Just in case, Ishiel planned to accompany him as a bodyguard.
“You can’t sing the novel’s lyrics anyway. The great Mrs. Morgan rewrote the script in verse, so I don’t know what they’re complaining about. Well, thanks to that, I can watch the show multiple times, so it’s all good. Haha.”
“…Um, I thought you were only watching today?”
“Today’s ticket is the one I reserved, but I got tickets for other days too—why not go? Come on, stop chattering and stand up for a turn.”
“You already checked everything earlier, why look again?”
“You weren’t wearing the cape coat earlier. Come on!”
Unable to disobey his benefactor, Cleio reluctantly stood up and spun around. The ribbon brushing his neck was itchy and uncomfortable.
‘Ah, I really need to go to the barber.’
So much had happened that he hadn’t been able to worry about his hair. It had grown to touch his shoulders.
Naturally, his hair became Dione’s prey, and today, it was tightly tied with a pearly satin ribbon that looked especially fancy.
She inspected her handiwork with satisfaction.
He was relieved that he’d worn the dinner suit before, but the ‘summer conservatory cape coat’ really stood out in person despite having no decoration.
It fit as if tailored for him, the cape draped softly down to his waist and swayed as he moved.
‘Still, a magical item is a magical item.’
Though the autumn night was chilly, the moment he put it on, it was as if a heated pad was strapped to his back.
Cleio silently retracted his earlier opinion that it was just a fancy overcoat.
“The light ash color is elegant and suits you very well, young master. And it’s so mysterious. The moment you put it on, it somehow adjusts to your shape. I wonder if I can take it apart later.”
“If you can restore it, feel free.”
Dione shook her head with regret.
“I don’t think I could. If I could figure out how it’s made and copy it, I could name my price. It’s a shame my skills aren’t enough.”
Just as expected.
It turned out the reason Dione’s eyes sparkled so much as she dressed up in furs and pinned up her hair for the opera was that she was thinking along those lines.