Torimaru Naoko had not expected Jiang Xia to know all that, or even to name keywords like "manipulation" and "stage play."
Her hand trembled at once, and a terrifying thought flashed through her mind. ...Who exactly are you!?
Could Jiang Xia be that terrifying mastermind?
Jiang Xia seemed to hear the complex emotions in her words and laughed. "You mistook me for him? Looks like you know even less than I thought."
Torimaru Naoko bit her lip tightly, her thoughts racing. "..." Indeed, although Jiang Xia had used words like "stage play," he had described it as "boring and pathetic"—hardly how a murder-theater enthusiast would speak of his own work.
It sounded more like... the complaint of an audience member who had been forcibly dragged to one performance after another.
—More importantly, the ages did not line up.
The tragedy that had befallen her had begun so long ago. If Jiang Xia had truly done all that, wouldn't it mean that the mastermind behind this "stage play" had only been an elementary school student at the time?
That was far too absurd. Impossible. Absolutely impossible.
In any case, everything now pointed to one fact—Jiang Xia was not the planner. He had merely seen through the truth behind these cases with remarkable insight.
Even so, those few brief words had overturned Torimaru Naoko's understanding. "You actually knew someone was manipulating these cases from behind the scenes?"
Leaning against the chair back, Jiang Xia touched the spot where the Anesthetic Needle had struck him earlier, as though he regarded her as that person's accomplice as well.
"All criminals are equally arrogant and foolish. Just because I have no evidence and don't say it aloud doesn't mean I'm unaware of everything—you think your actions were well concealed? Those webs of malice and crime