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The moment they went inside of the archive private room, Kazuto didn't waste time to ask why she suddenly asked for the soldiers personal data from Yanyi. "Why did you ask for the data from Yanyi?"
Irene stopped from her track and sat down on one of the sofas available in the room. They had already requested for the data for all the nannies and construction workers to be brought over.
"Because something suspicious happened the moment our case began yesterday." Her smile is somewhat unnerving and weirdly creepy. Kazuto shrugged it off as another weird habit of hers.
"May you explain why?" He asks, taking a chair opposite of the girl.
Irene — "Think about it. The only people who would only know of the location of the orphanage are only a few. Your family, our friends, us, the children, the nannies, the workers and the police and that is because a crime was reported."
Kazuto — "But the soldiers suddenly appear out of the blue like they knew the location of the area."
Irene — "Not only that. The fact that they insist on coming inside without even knowing that there;s actually a crime is already something off to me. I started to ponder last night. No one would know of the location of the crime unless they are somewhat involved in it."
Kazuto — "At the very least one of them is. I doubt it is General Cinth. He is highly trusted by almost all of the elite noble family heads. Yanyi trusts him so he would be out of the list."
Irene — "Same with his right hand men. Their reaction from me giving Kairene testimony seems a bit shocking. Like they felt unreal about the current situation. So we can rule them out."
Kazuto — "So you want the document to check who amongst the remaining others could potentially become the suspect. But what of their motive? If they work far in Ashrin, how come they have something to do in Kinsel? A murder out of all things."
"That's where we need to find out. We can find the motive from the archive. But for now, we need to establish a solid timeline first." Irene pulled out a piece of paper and put it on the coffee table in between them.
She started to lay out their current evidence and what they had discovered throughout the entire day yesterday. While waiting for the documents and data to be brought in they both constructed the timeline based on what they have.
This is what their current theory is running on.
It begins with the entrance to the orphanage. There can be two possibilities. One is whether this person has the key to the gate which doesn't explain the broken tool shed door. Or a more plausible answer is that someone had let them inside. Someone that didn't have the key to the shed.
Perhaps the nanny that died.
That's aside, the suspect had at some point injected the nanny or let her consume something that has a sedative property. Causing her to fall asleep and bringing her to the second floor bathroom.
They tried to open the tool shed with the key that the nanny got but failed. Frustrated with out of rail plan, they break the shed's lock and stole Niclas drill. That explain the missing drill and the broken shed's lock.
Upon returning to the second floor bathroom, they lock the door and proceed to do the unthinkable crime to the nanny. It is only after this whole murder did the involvement of Lazar come into place.
By this point in time, he would've woken up and went down under the tree already. He assisted on the escape and went back to bed. The culprit ran towards the cliffside to which he would've likely fallen causing the drill to be left in the mud. While falling the drill's mouth must have caught onto his socks and tore a bit of its fabric off.
That is their current working theory.
"Now all we need is the buyer's intel from Hira and the motive of this suspect. To do that we can get from the nanny's personnel data to match what we can find on others." Irene explained. Just in time, the door to the room opened and Adin came in with a stack of data that he had found.
"Here is the data that you have requested. I've also got the call from Lady Yanyi that the data for the soldier will be given via Lumi Data Device. I'll place it here so that you both can access it whenever you want." Adin receives a thank you before leaving the room for Kazuto and Irene to work.
They start with detailing the things with the victim. Apparently she was from a merchant family in Kinsel who had a fairly normal life. She had however discovered that she was a Rin-Sil quite late into her childhood. She wasn't really aware of who her Rin-Sil is and decided to just live a rather smooth and simple life.
Fairly simple if you ask me.
She studied at a normal school. Had a decent social life and devoted to the Aurils due to her constitution.
"Nothing out of the ordinary for her childhood days it seems." Irene commented. Haven't yet flipped to the other side of the data.
"Check more. Apparently her early adolescent life is quite interesting." Kazuto states which prompts Irene to give it a read. My god is it nearly a 180 degree turn.
She had travelled around the state and had encountered a few people. Some bad experiences, some good experiences. This bad experience eventually got reported to the authorities, basically claiming that she is being stalked.
For what reason she is being stalked? Didn't mention it anywhere.
"Now that's a roller coaster turn of events. Well at least we can rule out that whoever we are looking for is someone who is involved in her early adolescent life." Irene stated, writing down the interesting info that they could gather from the victim's data.
Next they move to the various different data from the soldiers. Irene insisted on clearing this one first as the data from military personnel cannot be kept more than 12 hours in the LDD. So they did.
This continued on for quite a while. She finds a few peculiar, interesting and outright disgusting things about these personnel. Oh how she would put them all to jail if she could.
Some had old records of robbery.
Some had old records of substance use.
Old records of unwanted behaviour.
A lot really.
Most of them had served their punishment under the law so most of these are seen as past mistakes. That's why they are allowed to join the military if they pass the test.
This continued for the entire day.
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The next day. The last day.
Irene was awakened but a gentle shake from her shoulder. "Irene. Wake up." The familiar deep voice caught into her eardrums. Her eyes slowly flutter open.
Her emerald green ones met with a pair of baby blue ones. Kazuto had woken him up. The birds are chirping outside of the window.
They had fallen asleep in the archive.
He placed down a cup of coffee on the table and a plate of croissant berries. "Breakfast. Eat first before we continue with our hunt." He said, taking a sip of his own cup of coffee.
They had spent the entire day and night looking over the data over and over again. Trying to match the timeline they have. Some fit, some don't. Unfortunately there is one person who fits the story like a glove.
Niclas.
The person which the drill came from.
His old records match the one that happened on the victim's personal data. They have a record of creepy behaviour recorded in Ashrin before coming to work in Kinsel. Though he isn't that wealthy to own a piece of rare fabric, it could be obtained from acquaintances.
If the record from Hira shows no name that belongs to anyone in their small pile of suspects then it would be without a doubt that Niclas is the culprit. But the two refuse to believe in this narration.
They had personally known about Niclas and he is nothing but a hard working and honest guy. He had turned a new leaf from his past. There's something inside them that just refuses to believe Niclas is the culprit.
Knock! Knock!
Adin opens the door slowly. "Lady Irene, Young Marquess. A document has come from Hira Kiran for you both." Kazuto took the document and thanked Adin.
He opens it and skim through it quickly. "Wow. Jackpot." He said with a smirk on his face. He is quite amused by what he is witnessing before his eyes.
"What did you find?" Irene asks. Her coffee is still warming her hand.
Kazuto laid down the document on the table and his fingers pointed towards the buyer's catalogue from 2 months ago. A name that is in their suspect list. Rippley Lennart. A soldier in the current Xue's escort here.
"He's a buyer for one of those fabrics and what do you know? He made it into a pair of socks too." Like a light bulb, something just clicks to Irene.
"How am I so stupid! The Xue's soldiers are required to wear navy blue socks during their working hours! Each military personnel has different coloured! It ties to him even more!" She yells, taking sips of her coffee from time to time.
This even lined up with his data. It did say that he is from Kinsel that had migrated to Ashrin. They had an old record of odd behaviour in Kinsel and Ashrin. However due to his family having a bit of a wealthy background they basically buried it.
Not fair in my opinion.
"Now we have to make a document and send it to Yanyi!"
BANG!
A slam from their room door got them startled. Max had apparently appeared out of the blue into the archive. He takes a deep breath before shouting the following. "THEY ARE EXECUTING NICLAS AT THE XUE'S VILLA!!!"
I can't explain how fast they drove there.
Even lighting can't compete.
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Yanyi and Luyao are standing on the side of the row of soldiers in the empty field of the villa. They had apparently submitted their documents yesterday before the sunset. Irene didn't return home and so she didn't get any update from her.
Due to her promise she is bound to continue with it. The case shall be handled the way they wanted to. That also means Yanyi would have to return back to Ashrin.
Her hands that had been crossed from the very beginning are holding tight around herself. Cinth is standing on her left side. He sees her uneasy manor and whispers a small "I'm sorry my lady." He genuinely feels bad for the girl beside him.
"I guess my trip ends here…" The person on her right is clenching his fist tightly.
Before them, Niclas, the person that these soldiers had convicted to be the killer had been tied to a pole. They shall execute him with three shot ways. One to the head. One to the heart. One to the neck.
The punishment of the traitor of Xue. They brought it over.
"Soldiers! Take your AIM!" A presumed leader yelled from the top of his lungs. Guns raised from the ground as they took their position.
"FIRE!"
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Before a single bullet could shoot out, all of their guns were displaced by a bullet each. "Who did that?!" The leader shouts in anger.
Looking to where the bullet had come from, he was met face to face with the 'enemy' of Xue. Kazuto had used his signia yet again to displace the gun out of the soldier's hand.
"YANYI! WE HAVE IT HERE!" A yell came from behind Kazuto who quickly moved to where Yanyi and the others were situated. Irene had apparently made a rough version of the documents and included the date that she had technically stolen for a short time to Yanyi.
Yanyi, Luyao and Cinth read the document that she had compiled. Irene was no longer patient and blurted out everything she had summarised to everyone there.
"The one who had murder the nanny is him. Rippley Lennart!" All eyes into his direction.
He is the so-called leader of the group. The one who had yelled for the fire.
Irene — "All of the evidence and data we had collected from the archive and military personnel data had pointed to him. Not only that his involvement with the victim is tight, that is the motive of murder!"
Rippley — "Stop talking nonsense! What concrete proof do you have on me!"
Kazuto — "The fact that one of your socks had a hole from a tear right?"
Unconsciously, he lifted his pants to reveal indeed a tear from his navy blue sock. One that he had no clue happened that night.
Rippley — "That's no concrete proof! It could have torn out anytime!"
Kazuto — "You want true concrete proof? Okay. Yanyi, ask a question under the oath of truth they pledge."
Rippley's face turns white. The oath of truth is an oath that every military personnel of the Elite Noble is required to take. It's basically an oath where you can't lie to the question asked by the direct lineage of the family's blood.
If you didn't lie, nothing would happen to you.
If you did.
Blood will ooze out of one of the orifices on the face. Indicating a clear lie.
Yanyi didn't budge from the document for a sweet 3 minutes. She looked over to Cinth who nodded. She didn't want to wait any longer.
"Under the oath of truth. Rippley Lennart. Are you the one who rape and murder the victim in this case?"
"..."
"Are you?"
"...No…"
Drip…
A blood trickle down onto the ground where Rippley stood. It came out of his eye socket. It is now loud and clear.
He had lied.
He is the killer.
"Arrest him!" Yanyi shouted to which the rest of the soldiers were hesitant to move. But they don't even have to, the two right hand men belonging to Cinth had already put him in hand lock before besieging him from any weapon.
All of the others? Yeah they let out a sigh of relief way too quickly.
"Under the order the direct descendant of the Xue. All you standing before me, with the exception of General Cinth and his two right hand men, are to resign by force the moment you arrive in Ashrin!"
All eyes are wide open. Some tried to argue back but all is deaf ears to her. She had seen enough arrogance from them. She had made her decision.
"If any of you tries to run away, go on. But remember that your life will be in constant fear and chase. You will be regarded as an enemy and traitor to the state head! So, either you come back peacefully and live a normal life afterward with no ties to the Xue. Or live your life as a fugitive forever."
Silence.
They accepted their fate.
The case comes to a close.
Cinth placed a hand on Yanyi's shoulder before saying a gentle "Thank you Little Lady. And of course, they pass with flying colours."
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