Rogue gulped, then dropped his gaze. And instantly regretted it. He braced himself for what she’d say next, but she said nothing further. Not pressing this point. But also not about to leave.
The only sound was their breathing. It felt like time was moving slowly, and that soon got to him.
“……No real reason,” Rogue said. “That’s how things turned out.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I got nothing. No wishes. Just doing the job I got.” He got off the bed, standing up. “You can be a detective without some grand motive. All you have to do is show up to work. Now, we’ve got an early morning tomorrow, so let’s wrap this up.”
“Detective,” Catherine said, standing up and moving toward the door. With her hand on the knob, she finally smiled. “I’m on your side. If you find a wish, just say the word.”
With that, she left.
Three days later.
The whiteboard in the briefing room was now covered in gate routes and victim photographs. Occasionally tapping the board, documents in his free hand, Rogue was busy getting the cooperative witches up to speed.
Miseria was in the front, while the others were leaning against the wall or spinning in office chairs. They were all over the place. They might not have looked like they were taking this seriously, but they were lending an ear, and that was oddly satisfying.
“We’ve ruined the bulk of the gates in town. Beat cops are watching their lairs. If this isn’t enough…then the Lifetaker is just better than us. Even then, we’ve definitely got them on the ropes,” he concluded.
The witches began filing out. Humafu was still nodding off on her chair, but Catherine grabbed her hand, hissing, “Get up. On your feet!” so no problems there.
“You’re on a roll, Rogue,” Miseria said.
“Let’s hope so.”
“A loaded statement.”
“You just ended my ‘roll.’”
“That can’t be! My presence is comforting!”
“Don’t make me puke.”
Rogue turned to Angene, who was lurking in the corner. She’d been standing there the whole time, like a ghost, but that was comparatively harmless. She was a ghost who did her job. A hundred times more reliable than Miseria.
“I take it you’re done?” he asked.
Angene nodded, her gaunt frame swaying unnervingly.
“Tee-hee-hee-hee, I looked into it. Care to hear?”
“Lay it on me.”
“Hee-hee-hee-hee. The imperial database shows no one with golden irises.”
“No one?” he repeated.
“Not a one.”
“……Right.”
“Tee-hee. Hee. But that’s according to the database. It doesn’t mean no one living here has them. There are people who haven’t registered their eye color. Tee-hee-hee. Hee-hee. Good news, yes?”
“Hmm, tell me, Rogue, do you have any friends with golden eyes?” Miseria asked.
“I don’t think so. As far as I know.”
He dug through his memories, but nothing rang a bell.
“Not even one?”
“No. I think I’d know. Detectives are trained to remember faces. If we were waiting for our check and a wanted criminal passed us by unnoticed, we’d be the laughingstock of the force.”
“What a coincidence. I’ve lived a very long life and have never once seen anyone with golden eyes,” Miseria said. “Isn’t that curious?”
She was acting like this was profound.
A vein throbbed on Rogue’s forehead.
“‘Curious,’ huh? You got a point to make?”
“Clever boy. Shall I extol your virtues?”
“No, thanks. Spit it out.”
“Ha-ha, as you wish.”
Miseria took the dry-erase pen from the whiteboard and began drawing something. In less than a minute, she had a picture of a droopy bulldog.
“The Lifetaker is still on the run. The lairs we’ve found may not be all they have. That brings us to this man! Let us interview him once more.”
Miseria was very confident.
“Who is he?”
“Gasp!” Miseria tapped the bulldog with her pen. “You can tell at a glance!”
“Never seen him before.”
“Y-you’re kidding, Rogue?! Do you have amnesia?!” Miseria had never looked this distraught. “Zack Knoll! The first man our investigation discovered! Can you not tell? I drew this myself!”
“Oh? This creature’s meant to be him?”
“Huh?” Miseria froze.
Does she not know?
Rogue finally figured it out.
“Do you think…you’re good at art?”
“N-no, R-Rogue! How could you say that?!”
“Tee-hee-hee-hee. A chimpanzee could do a better sketch,” Angene muttered.
“See?”
“N-nooo! I refuse to accept this! If I don’t, then I can remain a good artist in my mind!”
Rogue would have loved to rub more salt in the wound.
“Doesn’t matter.”
“You beast, Rogue!”
“You think Zack Knoll’s gonna talk?” he asked, lowering his voice. “He seemed ready to take his secrets to the grave.”
The grim note in his voice made Miseria quiet down.
“He’ll talk,” she said, narrowing her eyes.
“Why?”
“You’ll have me with you. Trust me, Rogue. I can get him to spill the beans even without magic.”
Zack Knoll’s residence was old, even by Sixth Ward standards. No elevator, only stairs. Bathed in the flicker of a dying fluorescent light, they ascended.
“Think he’ll resist?” Rogue asked when they stopped on a landing.
“I doubt it, but it can’t hurt to be careful.”
Zack Knoll’s room was the third from the stairs on the second floor. At least it wasn’t all the way up.
When they reached the door, Rogue rang the bell. They soon heard footsteps, and the door opened.
Perhaps he’d been napping. Zack Knoll was rubbing his eyes.
“Gimme a sec…,” he said, then gulped. Eyes locked on Miseria, he turned pale. “……You again.”
Feeling almost sorry for him, Rogue persevered.
“I see we need no reintroduction. Got a few questions for you, won’t take long.”
“……I already told you everything.”
“You know you didn’t.”
Rogue glanced at Miseria.
“He did not. Zack, everything you hid from us has come to light. We’re simply here to verify those facts. Would you be so kind?”
She spoke like every word she said was a fact.
“……Come on in,” Zack Knoll said, waving.
“Don’t mind if I do,” Miseria said.
The interior was full of stacks of books, with barely anywhere to stand. They picked their way through, trying not to knock anything over. Zack Knoll headed to the kitchen and came back with some tea.
“It’s cheap crap,” he warned.
“Thanks,” Miseria said, taking her cup and gulping it down. “That hit the spot! Shall we get down to business?”
Zack Knoll’s brow furrowed.
“You’re protecting someone,” she said.
“I ain’t protecting—”
“No, that’s quite all right, Zack. We know,” she said, as if she was comforting him. “It’s a heavy burden for a former soldier to carry. Let me ease that for you.”
This visibly rattled him. His eyes darted every which way, as if he was searching for help, and when they finally settled on Miseria again, his voice shook.
“N-no, I got nothing.”
“It must have been hard. But that’s over now.”
“Y-you’re bluffing! You don’t know nothing!” he yelled, knocking over a stack of books.
Miseria looked ever so sympathetic.
“I know. You can’t refuse an order from nobility. You’re not to blame. It was just a bad situation.”
“______How?!”
Zack Knoll’s eyes were bulging.
“An order from the Two Great Noble Houses is like a meteor strike to the head,” Miseria said sorrowfully. She thumped her chest. “______But don’t worry! We’re here to free you from that man! I swear!”
Quivering, Zack Knoll sank to his knees, his head down.
“……He’s a devil. Not human.”
“I’m aware. His soul is black as night.”
“……I tried to get out of making all those gates. And the mana boosting drug.”
“It’s impressive you even tried.”
“……But I had to put my own life first……… Can you really arrest Chronos?” he asked anxiously.
Is that our killer’s name?
“You see, our precinct is tasked with bringing in the big guns. Criminals other stations can’t lay a finger on. Don’t worry. You’re free.”
“F-free…”
Zack Knoll buried his face in those big arms and wept. Hard to believe he was ex-military.
She really did it.
She’d pried info out of the man just by talking circles around him. He completely believed she already knew the whole story.
Miseria was gently patting his shoulders.
“We are fully prepared to place him under arrest, but we want to ensure the cleanup goes smoothly. Could you provide a list of the gates you made? The main ones alone will suffice.”
Their eyes met, and she raised her brows.
“Doesn’t have to be today. Take your time. We’ll get back to work.”
She got ready to leave, but Zack Knoll shot to his feet, grabbed a piece of paper, and put it to the wall.
“Gimme a minute!”
“Doesn’t have to be now.”
“That devil ran me ragged! I gotta get some payback!”
He began furiously writing, then handed over the notes. Miseria watched closely until it was in her pocket. Like a benevolent goddess.
“It’s safe with me,” she said. “We’ll be going now. Thanks for your help.”
“Y-your name?”
“Lillia.”
“Th-thank you, Lillia! You’ve done so much for me!”
How touching.
Zack Knoll saw them out, and they exited. On the way down the stairs, Rogue said, “Was that all a bluff?”
“More of a hunch, really. We had his identity narrowed down,” she said. “Before we arrived, I was fairly sure our killer was from the Two Great Noble Houses.”
“Based on what?”
“The lack of golden eyes in the database bothered me. We’ve been acting on the assumption that our killer was ex-military, but if he’d served, his eye color would be registered.”
“But that alone won’t get you to the nobility.”
“You remember the day Catherine was almost burned alive? I discussed that with her in detail. The Lifetaker called her a witch. And made it sound like he knew her history—but that’s very odd. Our profiles are a secret even to the bureau detectives. So how did the Lifetaker acquire this information? Why did he know she was a witch the second he laid eyes on her?”
“Because—”
Rogue remembered what Velladonna had told him before he came to the Sixth Precinct.
“The rank and file aren’t told about it. Only important people. Like me!”
Even at the bureau, only the precinct chiefs were aware of the witches. No ordinary soldier would have the intel.
“Naturally, if we’re talking status alone, high-ranking government members also know about witches, so I couldn’t completely rule them out. But…”
“The eyes?” Rogue said, feeling very stupid.
He’d seen the evidence himself in the chief’s office.
Photographs of members of the Two Great Noble Houses. Every one of them had golden eyes. He’d stood there thinking about how creepy that was.
Seeing the look on his face, Miseria nodded.