I'm Not a Flame-Chaser - Chapter 202

In other words, it is highly likely that Kosma did not fall from here.

The only higher place is the roof, but how can we push Kosma off the roof? There's no direct passage to the roof in the villa, and Kosma couldn't have climbed up there for no reason.

What did he overlook? If Kosma didn't fall here, where else could he have fallen so high that someone could have died instantly?

No... In the end, did Kosma really "die from a fall"?

Of the fourteen people, only Su was a doctor, and he was the first to be killed, which meant that none of the remaining people had the means to immediately determine the cause of death.

Could this also be the murderer's scheme?

However, following this line of thought, the crime scene is probably not here, but rather...

Lin led Aponia to the second floor, where they found some small marks and bloodstains by the window. The murder weapon was the decorative statue next to it, which still had some bloodstains on it.

Kosma's real cause of death was being beaten with a blunt object, and the killer also cruelly broke some of his joints to create the illusion of a fall.

The killer's ulterior motive was probably to carry out the murders according to the "Thirteen Paths" method written on that piece of paper, but Lin discovered a problem from this incident.

Although the deaths of Kevin and Kosma both ultimately aligned with the Thirteen Paths, Kevin had no other external injuries; he was burned alive, while Kosma died first and then fell from the building.

This inconsistency led Lin to some suspicions.

"Let's go and tell them this information."

Lin told Aponia that Elysia and Vill-V were downstairs, and they should have made some new discoveries.

Lin went downstairs. They hadn't returned to the villa yet; they were probably still investigating. Only Pardo, who was wearing a mascot costume and couldn't move around easily, was lying next to the sofa.

Wait a minute, why is Pardo here?

Pardo was the one who was most afraid. Wasn't she afraid to stay alone in the hall instead of going with the others?

"Pardo?" Lin called out hesitantly.

The mascot costume remained motionless; only the internal bulges revealed that there was actually someone inside.

He immediately walked over, squatted down next to Pardo, and patted her head inside the mascot costume. "Pardo?"

"..."

The deathly silence caused Lin's pupils to gradually shrink.

With trembling hands, he unzipped the mascot costume from behind.

"Clatter".

A pale, painless face fell out from inside.

At this moment, Aponia had also arrived behind Lin. She covered her mouth and said in an incredulous, trembling voice, "Pardo... is dead?"

"The Hidden Suffocates in Cloth."

Lin disregarded everything else, not even having time to process her grief, and immediately began to examine Pardo's body.

His face was purplish-blue, his eyes were bulging, there were no marks on his neck from strangulation, and he had conjunctival hemorrhage in his eyes...

Lin was not a professional forensic doctor, but he had seen the characteristics of people who died of asphyxiation in some works. Pardo's cause of death was a very typical case of asphyxiation.

Was it suffocated inside the doll?

Who did it? Of those who went out, who was responsible for all of this?

"Bang!"

The door was suddenly pushed open, and Lin turned to see Elysia standing at the door, her face deathly pale. When she saw Pardo's corpse, the last trace of color drained from her face.

"Lin... Ying is dead..."

Within minutes, two more bodies appeared.

Thanks to everyone's efforts, all the bodies of the deceased have been moved to the hall for investigation.

Kevin died from burns. There were no other traces on his body, which was almost charred, so it was impossible to determine whether he had died before being set on fire. However, Lin would assume that Kevin died from burns.

Kosma died from blunt force trauma. After re-examining Kosma's wounds, Lin confirmed that he did not die from falling.

Pardo died of suffocation; this has already been investigated.

And finally...

Lin silently approached Ying's corpse, whose eyes were open.

A gleaming dagger was stuck in her chest, the blade reaching the hilt and piercing her heart, killing her instantly. Judging from her bewildered expression, she didn't understand what had happened until her death.

"Those the Fearful Hangs Themselves by the Blade."

This is different from the way of death in the Thirteen Paths, because the Fearful One in the Thirteen Paths died by "hanging", while Sakura was killed by others.

So far, there have been two cases each of following the Thirteen Paths and not following it.

"Sakura went around the corner of the villa while investigating the footprints. We were a step behind her, and that's when we saw her..."

"Didn't you see who did it?"

"No, the killer was too fast. We don't even know where he went. There weren't even any footprints left in the snow..."

This time, were no footprints left?

"... What about the footprints from before?"

"What we can confirm is that the footprints belonged to a woman; a man's footprints could not be that small."

Different methods of death, traces in the storage room, inconsistent footprints, and simultaneous deaths...

"Are there two murderers...?"

April Fools' Special: The Snowy Mountain Villa Hero Team Annihilation Incident Part 7)

There were two murderers.

Judging from the timing of Pardo and Sakura's deaths, it is only possible that the two of them acted together to kill Pardo and Sakura at the same time. Moreover, their methods of committing the crimes were completely different. One strictly followed the method of the Thirteen Paths, while the other simply disguised the death as the Thirteen Paths method after killing someone.

Moreover, one of the people was not from the villa. He had been to the storeroom, where there were signs that some of the coffee and dry food had been taken. That person was likely the one who left footprints outside the villa.

This person is the murderer who did not follow the method of killing the Thirteen Paths. Sakura remained calm throughout and was not a "Fearful One", but she still chose to kill Sakura. In other words, whoever went to the corner first would have been killed.

"Can we really still survive...?"

Vill-V's words expressed the sentiments of the rest of the group.

Even though Lin already knew that there were two murderers and had uncovered the truth behind Kosma's death, the fundamental question remained unresolved—who was the murderer?

Aponia stayed by Lin's side the whole time, so he could be sure that she had no chance to kill Pardo or Sakura and then return to him. Even so, it only eliminated one person.

Now that things had come to this, Lin had no choice but to ask the question he hadn't wanted to ask in the first place.

"Tell me what you were doing at the time..."

Ultimately, no useful information was obtained. At the time, everyone was outside investigating, and there were too many people. Moreover, the footprints of the investigators needed to be slightly separated, so even if one person was missing, it wouldn't be noticed immediately.

Lin had no choice but to go outside and conduct another search himself.

But having learned from Sakura's experience, this time he stayed extremely close to Aponia to prevent the murderer from reappearing, killing people, and escaping.

Lin arrived at the row of footprints that were almost indistinguishable.

As they said, the footprints were the size of a woman's foot and were particularly deep, otherwise they would have been covered by the wind and snow long ago. The series of footprints almost spanned the entire back of the villa.

A woman... This murderer is the same one who killed Kosma. Logically speaking, it would be difficult for a woman to take down Kosma head-on, especially since the Xiao Ke of her footprints suggests she wouldn't be very tall. So, the only explanation is a sneak attack.

Why would Kosma go to the second floor and then be ambushed? This doesn't make any sense...

Everything so far is still missing one crucial element, a key to connecting all the clues so far.

"... Is it over here?"

Lin looked at the empty space at the end of the road and shook his head, but just then, he caught a glimpse of a place out of the corner of his eye.

Strangeness...

With just one glance, Lin's attention was drawn to it, and he even compared what he saw with other similar places.

"Lin, I have something I want to tell you."

"..."

Lin glanced at Aponia, who looked preoccupied, so he casually asked, "What's wrong?"

"You...you should have...heard Chrono tell you what I...said on the day you and Mobius got married..."

"... Don't take it to heart; people sometimes slip up."

"No... what I want to say is, if you can... please listen to what I have to say patiently..."

"Go ahead and tell me."

Having received Lin's permission, Aponia exhaled a puff of white smoke and began to recount. "Back then... I was drunk... but what I said... was true..."

"You mean that statement by Mobius went too far?"

"Yes..."

"So, what did she do?"

"She violated... never mind, it's nothing... let's just consider it all in the past..."

Aponia clasped her hands together and closed her eyes in prayer.

"Lin, what I'm about to say..."

"Let's all sleep in the lobby today."

No one objected, or rather, no one dared to object anymore.

Lin didn't say anything more. He leaned back on the sofa and fell asleep, while some of the others didn't dare to sleep, while others simply followed Lin's example and fell asleep without caring about anything.

Chrono was clearly the kind of person with a rougher personality. He took the lead in going to sleep, and only when the other two men were asleep did they dare to secretly close their eyes and rest.

If it's light sleep, there shouldn't be any problems.

"Lin... Lin..."

Lin was shaken awake by Chrono. He opened his eyes groggily and saw Chrono looking anxious.

"What's wrong, Chrono?"

He felt a headache, a headache that only he experienced when he overslept or was woken from deep sleep, which puzzled him. He clearly only wanted to take a light nap, and given his alertness at the time, it was impossible for him to be in a deep sleep.

"Aponia, Aponia is gone."

Upon hearing this, Lin turned over and got up, only to find that Aponia was missing from the group of sleeping people.

At that moment, he immediately looked at the clock on the wall, which was pointing to six o'clock.

"..."

"I just woke up and found that Aponia is gone." Chrono then shook the others awake. "Get up and look for her! Where did Aponia go?"

"... It should be outside."

Lin suddenly said.

"What?"

"Jealous One freeze to death in the frost and snow." Lin said expressionlessly, turning his head. "If she is a new victim, then she can only have frozen to death outside."

"Then hurry up and go outside!"

The group immediately pushed open the door and rushed into the cold wind, and soon after, they found Aponia's body.

Her body was bound hand and foot, her mouth gagged, and she knelt on the snow in a sacred, prayerful posture.

She did not struggle before she died; she simply waited silently for death to come and then offered her final prayers for her companions.

"I've had enough! Come out here! Who is it?!"