Her face was haggard. Maybe it was from having all her energy sucked out of her, but she was sweating, her makeup had smeared, and dark circles had appeared under her eyes. But we had to keep going.
“Let’s move on to the last piece of evidence,” I said, and started heading toward the back of the pile of rubble. “Shiro, please begin!”
“Yes, Master!”
Head maid Shiro began ordering the rest of the maids around her.
“Dig up the area Miss Judge has indicated!”
“Yes ma’am!”
The beast hybrid maids, over thirty of them in total, gathered.
“Wait. Just what do you think you’re doing?” the high priest demanded.
“Examination of evidence. To see through lies and falsehoods, for the sake of the world.”
“Lies and falsehoods? To what do you refer, exactly?”
“Will you confess to what you were doing in the building before the collapse?”
“…Whatever are you talking about?” The high priest’s eyes scanned the scene nervously and landed on Shiro, who was giving commands. “Ah, if it isn’t the Royal Watchdog. Didn’t you get fired from your court duty?”
“Regarding the head maid’s status…” Tsukasa staggered to her feet. “I’ve reinstated her as of yesterday.”
“Tsukasa, you should rest—”
“I don’t want to be the kind of judge who sleeps during the examination of evidence. I’m okay. I drank this.”
She was holding a bottle labeled ENERGY POTION.
“What the heck is that?”
“I drank these to stay awake for those seven days. One more day won’t kill me.”
“This has got to be taking years off your life.”
“I’ve already gotten to go back to age fifteen, so what’s a little time off my lifespan? It’s no big deal.”
Yeah, it is.
“Oh. I understand now.”
The high priest spoke again, watching closely as Shiro worked.
“So you’re digging up the site of the building collapse in hopes of finding some trace of evidence that could exonerate Princess Ecstasia. I see the bitch is very devoted to her master.”
His last-ditch effort to obstruct our investigation verged on verbal abuse. Shiro remained expressionless.
<<Shiro, hang in there just a little longer.>>
<<I am fine, Master. I feel nothing but scorn toward a man like that.>>
Her telepathic message was tinged with emotion as she continued digging through the rubble.
“Japan is at a constant risk of earthquakes due to its geography.”
Tsukasa stood up and began speaking to the surrounding onlookers.
“An earthquake occurs when our planet’s crust suddenly shifts. Japanese buildings are built under strict safety regulations, of course, and we have developed technology to withstand the shaking…”
She explained in a way that even citizens of another world could understand. Her imposing tone of voice was befitting of a judge.
“Furthermore, the people of our world also developed a method of investigating the true reason for building collapses. Using a high-precision building collapse simulator, the court was able to identify an abnormal area in relation to the collapse.”
Apparently, she had used computing software developed by a certain research institute.
“That part is what we have now unearthed: the building’s round pillar which faced the church branch!”
Shiro and her maids had finished. Within the small hill of rubble of the collapsed building, there was a space with a radius of about fifteen feet that was the same height as the ground.
I walked away from the high priest and entered the hollow. Within it…
…mud, mud, and more mud. There was nothing in it but mud.
I heard the people of the gallery start to speak up.
“What? There’s nothing there…”
“It’s all muddy from yesterday’s rain.”
“So there wasn’t any evidence after all?”
And among that chatter, Shiro sent me a telepathic message with a certain piece of information in it.
“…Hmph. Where exactly is this evidence of yours?” the high priest said mockingly. He looked relieved. “There’s nothing here. All I see is mud, stirred up by the rain!”
“You seem happy, Gilvert.” I turned around and stared back at him. “That’s exactly the face I wanted to see.”
“Huh? What are you—?”
“There used to be a three-foot round pillar here.”
Tsukasa continued her explanation, and I backed her up by opening the relevant windows.
“This is…”
Everyone was now looking up at photos from the inside of the building, taken at the time of Gobta’s case.
The floor looked the same as the one I stood on now. And standing there, surrounded by mud, was a thick, gray pillar.
“This photo was taken approximately three weeks before the collapse. You can clearly see the building’s round pillar there. It’s made of steel-framed reinforced concrete. Around it, you can see mud that’s the same color as the pillar…”
The info Gobta told me was being put to good use.
“We were in the process of investigating this mud in relation to another case. Owing to a certain juvenile’s testimony, we learned that there were originally nine arcade game machines in this spot. And that a certain group of people had trespassed onto this property and used a forbidden material transfiguration spell which turned the machines into mud.”
The mention of forbidden magic shocked everyone into silence.
“According to the simulation’s calculations, the building’s collapse was caused when this round pillar suddenly disappeared. If we weigh the amount of mud piled here, it will become clear that it corresponds to the volume of the round pillar plus the volume of the nine arcade game machines.”
Tsukasa had done the calculations in her tent and checked the actual measurements over and over at the scene.
“Well then. I suppose you will have to look for a mage who uses forbidden magic as the real culprit,” the high priest said with an icy expression.
Now it was my turn to try cornering him.
“Many people witnessed the building’s collapse. Magic wasn’t used at that instant.”
“Then perhaps it’s simply an unsolvable mystery. Perhaps the culprit used both material transfiguration and time manipulation magic together. No one will be able to figure it out in that case.”
“That’s not true.” I approached from a different angle. “Our Shiro was able to figure it out. And you, you sent your followers to try to obstruct our investigation, didn’t you? Until the rain came.”
“…I don’t know what you’re talking about. Perhaps they were simply angry at Miss Judge for making a mess of their beloved church. Please don’t blame me for what my disciples do out of their own free will.”
“Your disciples’ ‘free will’? Now that’s a bad joke if I ever heard one, Gilvert.”
I opened up a certain window, copied it, expanded it, and lifted it so everyone in the area could read it.
Record of Statement
Lyra Boucher…
It was like a huge electric billboard, illuminating the scene of the collapse below the Scales of Judgment.
“When did you…?” The high priest was dumbfounded as he read the window’s contents.
The gallery started to whisper as they finished reading through it themselves.
“The two victims weren’t at the branch building?”
“So it was a lie that the high priest saved them?”
“Brainwashing?”
“Scary…”
“Compost? So that means…”
“They were getting rid of dead bodies.”
“That’s horrifying…”
The weight of Lyra’s statement spread across the crowd like a wave. I went on.
“I have photographic evidence of the dead bodies and their disposal. Those who don’t want to look, I want you to at least hear about it from others.”