It seemed that more than just the people involved and Okiya Subaru were following these two crime-solving news reports.
In a room at Riverside Mansion some distance away, a woman sat quietly on the edge of her bed, watching the television across from her.
Heavy dark gold curtains hung down, and the setting sun slanted in through a gap, falling on the ends of the woman's hair and tinting her light-colored long hair with a touch of vibrant orange-red.
At that moment, the screen showed an obscure local channel reporting on the Gothic Lolita murder case—although many scenes had not been filmed, a quick-handed reporter had captured the final moments when the case was solved in one go.
Chief Superintendent Lotta watched the young Detective surrounded by reporters through the screen, but her gaze seemed to pass through him and settle on someone else.
After a long while, she sighed softly. "He really looks like him."
"Looks like who?"
The door suddenly opened, and a woman whose brows and eyes somewhat resembled Chief Superintendent Lotta's, though she was a little older, walked in.
Lotta picked up the Remote Control beside her and turned off the television, frowning at the newcomer. "Grace, I told you to knock before entering my room."
Chief Superintendent Lotta, who had crossed paths with the Tokyo group on the plane, had already changed out of her crisp uniform. She wore a bathrobe casually, and her tightly pinned bun had been undone, her hair falling over her shoulders. It made her look less than half her age. Her privileged life had kept her well-maintained; when she was not deliberately making an expression, there was not a trace of wrinkles on her face. She looked like a young girl with an imposing Aura.
The woman Lotta called "Grace"