"Ah! You're Potter!"
On the other side of the bookshelf, Molly caught a glimpse of Sulu's face through a gap and jumped in fright. Stammering, she greeted him, "H-hello!"
Is she afraid of me?
Sulu frowned, puzzled. "Come here!"
"No! Don't!"
Molly's voice was already thick with tears. She turned and tried to run.
"Am I really that scary?"
Sulu touched his face and hurried to block Molly's way. "Molly, why are you running?"
"Wah..."
Molly's little face was full of fear, and tears nearly spilled from her eyes. "Molly's been good... Molly didn't say anything!"
In the library, the silence had been like a still lake. Now it was as if someone had thrown a boulder into it.
Countless students studying nearby turned to look. When they saw what looked like a bullying incident, several of them could no longer sit still.
Damn!
From any angle, this looked like a story about a shameless bully picking on an innocent schoolgirl!
"Hmm?!"
Sulu hadn't learned combat for nothing. He immediately sensed the many hostile gazes and swiftly looked around.
He had to admit, he already had a fierce air about him. Combined with his 1.6 Spirit stat, he could be pretty intimidating.
At least, when a few guys in thick glasses, who'd just worked up the courage to play hero, stood up, they realized the "bully" in front of them didn't look easy to handle.
Even Molly stopped crying.
"Come with me!"
Sulu had no intention of starting a fight with everyone. After scaring off the people around them, he gave them an apologetic look and called out, "I'll take responsibility for the baby!"
"Huh?!"
The people around them looked away. So it was just a lovers' quarrel. They had no reason to get involved.
Sulu seized the opportunity to grab Molly and hurried out of the library, finding a rooftop to talk.
"You... Potter, what are you talking about? I don't have a baby!" Molly's eyes were red as she hurried to explain.
"First, tell me why you're afraid of me."
Though he felt a little reassured, Sulu was still on guard, worried that the girl in front of him might suddenly turn evil and unleash a mass of shadows.
Molly had no idea that, given their current positions, if she made any threatening move, Sulu would immediately attack with Tiger Style and follow up with a Python Style chokehold.
"Wah... Beatrice... Beatrice is missing... It's been two days... The police came to see me today!"
Molly broke down completely, tears streaming down her face. "I didn't mean to tell them about you!"
"So... you did tell them about me. When you said in the library that you hadn't, you were lying to me!"
Sulu's face darkened. Damn this world. Even a girl who looked so innocent had learned to lie. Couldn't they all just get along?
But he didn't really care about that. His date with Beatrice was bound to come to light. Plenty of people at the White Tower Cafe could vouch for it.
He already had a plan for what to do next, so he didn't care about that.
What concerned him was the mastermind behind it all!
But as things stood, Beatrice's disappearance seemed to have thrown the culprit off. Had they chosen to lie low and watch for now?
Or... was the other person a fellow enthusiast of the occult, like me, without any real spellcasting ability unless they used life force instead?
"Wah... I'm sorry. I'm so sorry!"
Molly clutched her head and crouched on the ground, sobbing in anguish. "I just... I was just so scared!"
Looking at the girl crouched with her head in her hands, Sulu felt helpless.
I get it. In a civilized society, ordinary people haven't killed anyone, let alone a chicken. Seeing someone disappear would obviously leave them panicked. But the problem is, this world is about to become anything but ordinary!
No—even in the age of Twilight of the Gods, the world had retained a degree of mysterious power for the supernatural.
This world had always belonged to the supernatural and the occult!
Sigh... girl, how are you going to face the increasingly brutal reality of the future like this?
"All right, all right. Don't cry, don't cry!"
After taking a great deal of effort to comfort Molly, Sulu finally asked the question he most wanted answered. "That day... the note you gave me. Did Beatrice hand it to you herself?"
His trip to the White Tower Cafe with Beatrice hadn't been his own idea. The mastermind had tricked him into going there!
That was the key to solving the case!
"Yes... Yes. She gave it to me herself, in Instructor Catherine's lab!"
Impossible!
Sulu shook his head inwardly. Unless... the mastermind had manipulated Molly, or... she was the real culprit!
If it was the former, then that hidden hand was even more dangerous than he'd thought. If it was the latter, given Molly's acting skills and talent for staying hidden, Sulu felt the world owed her an Oscar.
"Listen, Molly. I don't blame you, and I'm not the one who caused Beatrice to disappear!"
Sulu lied with a perfectly straight face. "After our date that day, we went our separate ways. The waiters at the cafe and the people I met afterward can all vouch for me. I'll tell the police the same thing if they come by! So... don't worry. I'm not going to silence you!"
"R-really?"
Molly took off her glasses, revealing her big, watery eyes, and sniffled.
"I promise! But Beatrice told me that day she hadn't asked me out. She said she'd received a date invitation from me, so she went to the White Tower!"
Sulu looked into Molly's eyes.
"That's impossible... She definitely—she handed it to me herself!"
Molly sniffled, her tone utterly certain.
"All right... Looks like the police will have to keep investigating this."
Sulu handed her a tissue. "Wipe your tears... I believe Beatrice will be all right!"
If she'd been an ordinary Corpse Princess, she might have started rotting by now, after being away from her caster for so long without replenishing her magic.
But Beatrice, who'd been created by that bizarre ritual?
Sulu didn't think it would be that simple.
"Is that really so?"
Molly lifted her head, a little hope suddenly showing on her face.
"I think... that's definitely the case."
Sulu answered with certainty.
He'd made Beatrice himself, after all. He knew what he was talking about.
He could already imagine the police showing up at his door any minute to ask questions.
After all, Beatrice had been missing for two days, counting from that night. That was long enough to open a case.
The White Eagle Federation's detectives were no slouches. Only the tax authorities, with their own private army, were a cut above them.
Good thing I'd prepared an alibi in advance. Otherwise, they might have taken me for a murderer! That hidden hand... I won't let them get away with this!
A cold glint flashed in Sulu's eyes.
Before you continue