81: A Series of Serial Killings

"Good morning. Today marks the imperial calendar..."

Having concluded the afternoon tea gathering at the Count Flametanbo's estate, a new day had dawned.

During the night, I continued working on the task requested by Memoqui, while Memoqui herself was busy adjusting today's schedule and conducting her own investigations.

Then, Virijanila casually woke up and suggested, "Shall we go have breakfast together?"

"A new incident has occurred. Early this morning, a man was attacked and killed on the streets of Flarendapadi, the capital of Planet Flaretanbo. The victim had both eyes removed,"

"!?!"

"…Eh…"

"……"

The news of another series of gruesome murders broke through the television, which I had left on as one of my information sources.

"Vee-sama, Sata-sama. I apologize, but breakfast will be moved inside 'Pumpkin Witch.' There will be a briefing about this morning's incident, followed by an explanation from Joharis-sama."

"……Understood. Let's head there."

"Got it."

It seems there's information we're supposed to receive.

After checking out of the hotel, we boarded the 'Pumpkin Witch,' where we had breakfast in a physically and electronically completely isolated environment, while being briefed on the incident that reportedly occurred around 2 a.m. today.

"Alright, we'll go in order. As expected, there are details not covered in the news, so please handle them with care."

"Understood."

Here's an overview of the incident.

The site in question is Flaretanbo's capital system-wide and the central district of Planet Flaretanbo 1—Flarenpaddi, the very town we're in right now.

More specifically, it's a street in front of the Spefana baronial residence, a moderately busy road with a few shops nearby.

As for the victim... following Vilijanira's account, he was an Imperial Army intelligence operative keeping watch on Meglinia Spefana.

I'm sorry. It's my opinion that has led to this loss.

There's no need for Lady Vilijanira to burden herself. We're the ones who decided whether or not to heed her advice. If you still have thoughts on the matter, then please find something meaningful—so that his sacrifice won't have been in vain.

Understood.

The section describing the victim's circumstances is far more detailed than anything covered in the news reports.

It includes the person's name, age, and past background, but that's about as far as it goes—nothing particularly noteworthy there, really, just standard information one might expect from a rookie.

According to the account, he was walking along the road in front of the Spafarna baronial estate, checking the signal status from Maeglinia's room at the time.

Yeah, it seems someone else was monitoring Maeglinia's room and hacking into information terminals.

Neither effort yielded any results, though.

"A single blow to the back with something like a chainsaw. Yet no one saw the perpetrator. Or rather, the killer wasn't even present at the scene at all?"

"That's highly likely. There were citizens who saw the moment of the slash, but there was no one nearby who got splattered with the rebounding blood."

The situation continues.

The victim was suddenly slashed in the back.

The wound resembled multiple cuts made by a fine, circular blade, repeatedly tearing through the body and reaching all the way to the heart.

Naturally, this caused a massive gush of blood...

According to witnesses, the blood spurting from the victim's back seemed to fly through the air without hitting anything, scattering across the street.

In such a situation, the scene would quickly descend into chaos, and a call to the police would be made immediately.

Moreover, due to the presence of other intelligence operatives nearby, only a limited number of people had approached the victim before the police arrived, and those individuals—specifically those attempting rescue measures—were confirmed to have exhibited no suspicious behavior.

Yet, suddenly, the victim's eyes were gone.

Incidentally, the victim was a member of an intelligence unit, and he had a miniature camera that recorded his surroundings and a tiny microphone for recording audio.

Information collected from these devices was stored in memory units located in his abdomen and legs, with an automated system set to transmit the data upon his death or if the memory units were destroyed.

However, the camera showed no suspicious activity, and the microphone had not picked up any unusual sounds.

"Could the method used have been a mod that remotely controls objects?"

"Logically, that's what it appears to be. Breaking through a military-grade shield mod and delivering a fatal blow wouldn't be possible with a normal output mod, though."

"Plus, while it's described as something like a chainsaw, no small fragments of blades have been found. The method used to remove the eye is also unknown. Quite troublesome, indeed."

"Remote manipulation of the object... Well, if we're only looking at the phenomenon, that does seem like the most plausible explanation..."

Let me examine it a bit more closely.

The victim was about 180 centimeters tall, but judging from the wound, the blade appeared to have been swung down from a diagonal upward angle.

If the attacker had been directly behind, it would have required a person around 200 centimeters tall.

Then again, based on the trajectory of the splattered blood, the attacker was almost certainly not behind them.

But then, what if we were to use a remote object manipulation mod...?

"Difficult. There are indeed mods that allow cutting tools to continuously move at high speed along a specific trajectory. But those produce significant wind and vibration noise. And the mod must be applied to the rails, not the blades—which need frequent replacement. Yet here, there are no rails, not even a blade in sight. It's as if a silent, invisible chainsaw had suddenly swung down. Besides, such mods aren't feasible in this setup due to lack of structural room..."

"So, you're saying it's impossible with regular mods?"

Not only is it not ordinary, but I doubt it even reaches the cutting edge. I can't even figure out how they managed to remove the eyeballs like that.

It's impossible within the scope of my knowledge.

Such a thing—spinning a silent, invisible blade at high speed to shatter a shield mod, ignoring the recoil from the destruction, and killing the victim instantly—was impossible.

Even when altering reality through mods, you still need a source and a target, and there's a limit to how much you can pack in.

According to Seiryō Corporation's standards, it would be highly unusual if there weren't at least minor event collapses occurring at the scene given how heavily the mods are layered.

Yet neither sweet scents nor unpleasant odors have been reported.

That means, in this location, no event collapse is taking place.

"Then... could it be the mysterious mastermind we're after?"

"...I can't really say it's impossible anymore."

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"Master Johalis. The note will explain."

But in the first place, such an act couldn't be carried out without mod technology.

That means the only possibility left for us is the culprit behind the scenes—the one who possesses mysterious technology capable of even creating fake alien monsters.

11/06 Typo corrected