Shirou and the Train Case / Detective Shirou Takes the Case ...

Therefore, Shirou always believed that there was some special meaning hidden in the death of Olga Marie.

That's why, at the Singularity, the soul of a girl already destined for death was placed into the observation sphere.

The girl here at the time was only around 12 or 13 years old.

However, he carries the honor of being one of the twelve families of the Clock Tower, as well as the pride and self-esteem to prove himself.

Her governess was urging Marie on.

The girl gracefully finished the food on her plate with her knife and fork. When she saw the green peppers, a flicker of sadness crossed her eyes, but she still tried her best to finish eating.

The girl, as if she had completed a great task, put down her knife and fork, wiped her mouth with a gorgeous cotton handkerchief, and looked triumphant and imposing.

Shirou nodded to them in greeting.

Chapter 1220 Shirou and the Train Case

The astronomy family members, who seemed particularly aloof even inside the Clock Tower, usually observed the stars at the observatory on the mountaintop. Perhaps they were used to such heavy snow and rarely ventured out so far. So it's not surprising that they attracted some attention.

"Hmph!" Olga Marie haughtily tossed her head and walked out, while her governess, Miss Teresa, nodded to Shirou and then followed him out of the dining car.

The morning was long and busy, and a few people, including Shirou, were still in the dining car. At times like these, being together made the time pass a little better.

He heard a lot about Old Boss Li's daughter and grandson, as well as the lifelong habits of his late wife, from eating cereal for breakfast when he got up in the morning, eating meat at noon, to drinking a glass of milk before going to bed at night.

Just as Shirou was listening to the Swedish pastor rambling on about how cruel and terrifying vampires were, a train conductor walked into the dining car and stopped beside him.

"Excuse me, Mr. Emiya."

"What's up?"

"Mr. Frederick asked if you would like to come and sit with him; Mr. Velvet is already there."

"Certainly."

Shirou stood up, apologized to everyone, and then followed the man out of the dining car.

This wasn't the blond train conductor from his own carriage, but a tall black man.

Shirou followed his guide, passing through the aisle of his own carriage and then along the aisle of the next one. The man knocked on a door, then stood aside and let Shirou in.

This is the train conductor's cabin, the only place on the entire Mystic Train where Magecraft can be used smoothly. Therefore, the space here is very spacious, like a living room, furnished with a luxurious red sofa and a coffee table. It seems that a space-expanding Magic Circle has been cast on it.

Mr. Frederick himself sat on the sofa opposite. In the corner by the window, Mr. Waver rested his chin on his hand, looking out at the snow with a furrowed brow, appearing to be suppressing his anxiety.

Shirou knew very well that this was the expression on his teacher's face when he was in trouble.

Standing to one side was a tall man in a red uniform, who was the train conductor, and the other was the train attendant from Shirou's car.

"Ah, Shirou," Mr. Frederick exclaimed, "Please come in. We've been waiting for you."

Shirou sat down in the chair next to Mr. Frederick.

Mr. Frederick's expression also lacked its usual cheerfulness, and as he was trying to convey, it was clear that something unusual had happened.

"What happened?" Shirou asked.

"Hmm... First of all, because of the rampaging spirits on the ancient road, the snow outside is raging wildly with immense destructive power, forcing us to stop here and set up a protective barrier. And now..."

He stopped, and an uneasy gasp emanated from the train conductor.

"What's wrong now?" Shirou asked.

"Now another passenger has been found dead in their sleeper berth."

Mr. Frederick carried a somber air that silenced the surroundings.

Which passenger?

"A Romania, named... named..." He glanced at the paper in front of him and his notebook. "John ... um, is it John?"

"Yes, sir," the train conductor replied, his voice choked with emotion.

Shirou looked at him. His face was deathly pale, like a bloated corpse.

"Let him sit down," he said, "Otherwise, he's about to faint."

"Please sit down," the train conductor said.

The train conductor plopped down on the sofa, burying his face in his hands.

"Hmm..." Shirou said, "It seems things are serious!"

"This is serious, of course. First of all... murder itself is a major incident. The Mage's Association has been notified and is on its way. They will take over the train without explanation, and will find a pretext to search the control room, taking the opportunity to steal the Mystic Train's technology, causing huge losses to the company." Frederick said through gritted teeth. "Those bastards who abuse their power for personal gain!"

Shirou felt that this loss was nothing to Mr. Frederick's family. A train and a helicopter were probably like an ordinary family losing a bicycle to them.

"Has the time of death been determined?" Shirou asked.

"Waver has been to the scene and believes he died around one o'clock in the morning," Mr. Frederick said.

"Because the deceased's room was as cold as an icebox, I couldn't pinpoint the exact time of death," Waver said. "I can only confirm that he was killed between midnight and 2 a. m."

"When was the last time you saw this old man still alive?" Shirou asked.

"It was around 12:40, when Old John rang the bell and spoke to the conductor," Mr. Frederick said.

"Yes, that's right," Shirou said. "I heard it with my own ears. Someone said they pressed the wrong bell. Was he the last known person to have contact with the deceased?"

"Yes."

Shirou then looked at Waver.

Waver continued, "The window of Mr. Old John's private room was wide open, making one wonder if the murderer had escaped through that route. However, the open window was clearly an illusion."

At that time, no one could leave from there; the train had already deployed a protective barrier. Rushing out and forcing your way in would definitely leave traces of damage.

"What if someone could ignore the barrier?" Shirou asked again.

"That's impossible. In this desolate, snowy wilderness, a person's magic power simply cannot last that long. They would run out of magic power halfway through, freeze into an ice sculpture, and then be sliced into sashimi with ice by the raging blizzard," Waver said coldly.

"When did the incident occur?" Shirou nodded, then asked.

"Hartless!" Mr. Frederick called out a name.

The train conductor stood up; his face still looked pale and terrified.

"Tell this gentleman exactly what happened," Mr. Frederick ordered.

The train conductor Hartless, stammered, "Mr. John's servant knocked on the door several times this morning, but no one answered."

Then, about half an hour ago, the waiter arrived. He wanted to know if the gentleman wanted lunch. It was eleven o'clock.

"I tried to open the door for him with my key. But the chain was engaged, and it was locked. No one answered; it was quiet and cold inside."

The window was wide open, letting in the cold air. I thought, perhaps the gentleman had fainted. I went to call the train conductor. We cut the chain and went inside. He was already... Ah! How terrible!

Hartless covered his face with his hands again; he was terrified.

Chapter 1221 Detective Shirou takes on the case

"The door was locked, and it was chained from the inside," Shirou said thoughtfully. "Could it be suicide?"

The train conductor asked with a cold, mocking laugh:

"Are there people who commit suicide by stabbing themselves more than a dozen times?"

"So... the killer was quite cruel," Shirou said.

"It's a woman!" the train conductor said, speaking for the first time. "Based on that, it's a woman. Only a woman would poke like that. And if it were a woman, even just calling someone by the wrong name could result in being torn to pieces, like something like 'Red...' or something like that."

And what about some old woman, right...?

Shirou nodded in agreement.

Waver rolled his eyes in disdain and muttered:

"The other person had to be a very strong woman," he said. "I don't want to go into technical details—that would only complicate things—but I can assure you that one or two of the cuts were quite powerful, piercing through the bone and the tough ligaments in the muscle."

"Clearly, this is not a scientific crime," Shirou said.

"There's something even more illogical," Waver said. "So many knives seem to have been stabbed randomly. Some were just grazed, barely causing any damage. It's as if someone closed their eyes and then frantically stabbed and stabbed blindly."

"That's a woman," the train conductor said again. "Only women are like that. When she's angry, she's very strong." He nodded, speaking with such seriousness that everyone could tell he had experienced it firsthand.

Judging from the train conductor's tall stature, his wife must be quite formidable. Perhaps if his wife were here, he would point at the other man and say, "Look, this is what the murderer looks like."

"I might know something about it that I can offer for your consideration," Shirou said, recalling his previous experience. "Mr. Old John spoke with me yesterday. He told me that his life was threatened and he was in danger at any moment. And when I returned to my room last night, I happened to see him sitting on the bed, nervously staring at the door."

"You mean this is a murder case?" Mr. Frederick said. "Then it's not a woman. It's a 'robber' or a 'killer'."

The train conductor sat down, and his reasoning was refuted.

"If that's the case, then this assassin wasn't very professional."

Shirou disagreed in an expert's tone, saying that no assassin who had received even the slightest weapons training would make such a mistake.

"There was a Japanese man in the car, wearing a black leather jacket, sunglasses, and with an unkempt beard," Mr. Frederick said, continuing to elaborate on his thoughts. "A rough-looking man, dressed terribly. I think he's probably a necromancer."

You know which one I'm talking about, right?

The train conductor, who had caught his attention, nodded.

"Yes, sir, that's number sixteen. But it couldn't be him, otherwise, I should have seen him going in and out of that compartment. My seat is right next to that door..." the train conductor said in a low voice.

"You might not have seen it... well, okay... but let's delve into it later. The question is: what should we do?"

After saying that, he looked Shirou up and down.

Shirou glanced back at him.

"Well, you clever lad," said Mr. Frederick. "You surely understand what I want to ask of you; I know your abilities. Waver has agreed that you will be in charge of this investigation!"

Waver, standing to the side, didn't react; he simply stated that he didn't want to get involved.

"No, Mr. Frederick, we are just travelers and need to get back to London," Shirou politely declined.

"This matter is very serious for us. I am now representing the Mystic Train Company to formally request your assistance and Mr. Waver's consent. If we can come up with a solution before the relevant departments of the Mage's Association arrive, things will be much simpler! Otherwise, it will only delay things, create more trouble, and create countless more problems."

"Yes, yes." The train conductor nodded repeatedly.

"As long as you solve this case before Snow Spirit's rampage subsides, we just need to submit the conclusion when the Mage's Association arrives. The passengers can enjoy their journey without being disturbed, and we don't have to let them search the train carriages. It's the best of both worlds," Frederick said.

"But... we're just private detectives, not recognized by the Mage's Association." Shirou wanted to refuse.

"There's no need to worry about that. As long as you, Shirou, can provide a plausible explanation, the more than twenty directors of the Mystic Train Company and the nobles scattered across more than a dozen European countries will be your solid backing," Frederick said with a confident smile.

Seeing that Shirou was still hesitating, Mr. Frederick leaned forward and looked at Shirou with deep affection.

"Shirou, my dear lad, even if not for my sake, please think of Luviagelita Edelfelt's. You should understand how much that child trusts you. And I, in truth, would be very happy to have a clever and reliable son..."

"Sir! Thank you for your trust!!!" Shirou interrupted loudly, not daring to let the man continue. Other Magecraft family valued noble bloodlines so much, so why was it completely different here?

His relationship with that young lady isn't like that at all. His most important task right now is to collect Gem Shard.

Even after collecting Gem Shard, although Shirou didn't dislike the young lady's straightforward personality, he would always be startled whenever he saw her. If this young lady existed in Europe, then what if that madwoman, even if not in Japan, suddenly popped out from some corner one day?

It would be absolutely terrifying to put these two people together!

However, Shirou really couldn't refuse now.

Shirou sighed and said:

"Okay, to be honest, because Snow Spirit went berserk and activated the barrier, this case can't possibly be that difficult. In fact, I already did a deduction last night about the good things that might happen..."

But let's not talk about that now. Although I'm not surprised that Old John died a violent death, I didn't expect such a method of assassination. Anyway, let's try to gather all the evidence and uncover the truth behind this case!

"So, you agree?" Mr. Frederick asked eagerly.

"It's settled then. Leave this to me." Shirou made his decision and stopped trying to refuse. He spoke directly.

"Alright, we'll all do as you say," Mr. Frederick snapped his fingers and cheerfully agreed.

Chapter 1222 Shirou Emiya, a Detective

"Alright! First, I'd like a floor plan of the Istanbul -London train carriages, showing who's staying in each compartment. I also want to see their registration information," Shirou said. Let's see what this case is all about.

"Hartless will give you these things."

"Yes, sir." The train conductor left the compartment.

"What other passengers are on the train?" Shirou asked.

"In the Greek carriage, Waver and I were the only passengers, and in the newly added carriage, there was only a lame old gentleman, an acquaintance of the conductor. Further back were the ordinary passenger carriages, but those were irrelevant to our case, as they were all locked after dinner last night," Mr. Frederick explained.

Waver began, "The front of the 'Istanbul -London' train carriages is only connected to the dining car."

"In that case..." Shirou said slowly, "We can only find the murderer in this Istanbul carriage." He turned to Waver.