I'm Completely Innocent

Jiang Xia turned around and, unsurprisingly, found that Conan had pinpointed the corpse in the exhibition hall.

He had even shone his flashlight on it.

The two girls standing outside the exhibition hall froze in unison as they stared at the corpse suddenly illuminated by the beam.

A second later, two overlapping screams rang through the corridor. Their piercing, glass-shattering pitch was even harsher than an alarm bell.

Mouri Ran and Suzuki Sonoko huddled tightly together and looked at Jiang Xia. Remembering the blood on him, they stammered, "Y-you-you..."

"It wasn't me," Jiang Xia said.

The two girls across from him clutched their chests and simultaneously breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, we thought so too..."

Before they could fully relax, Jiang Xia suddenly looked at them thoughtfully. "You believed me just because I said so?"

Mouri Ran: "..."

Suzuki Sonoko: "..."

That sounded far too much like something a good guy would say right before revealing his true colors.

Two pairs of terrified eyes snapped back toward Jiang Xia. "!"

"It wasn't me," Jiang Xia patiently repeated.

Yet this time, Mouri Ran and Suzuki Sonoko still looked horrified, with a hint of suspicion mixed in.

Jiang Xia studied them and found his two classmates' reactions rather amusing.

Sure enough, the more often people got fooled, the more guarded they became...

After having enough fun, Jiang Xia softened his tone. "What I said just now—'You believed me just because I said so?'—was merely a simple question..."

Mouri Ran and Suzuki Sonoko: "..."

Seeing Jiang Xia's "innocent" expression, the two pure and kind-hearted girls could not help silently reflecting on themselves.

"..." True enough. Thinking back carefully, shouldn't Jiang Xia's "You believed me just because I said so?" have meant something like, "You believed me just because I said so? You trust me that much? I'm touched"...?

At that thought, Suzuki Sonoko cleared her throat in a transparent attempt to cover herself. She walked back over, grabbed Jiang Xia's hand, shook it vigorously, and declared firmly:

"We were just joking! Of course we believe you."

...Ah, his hand really did feel nice.

And it was different from what she had imagined.

It was not cold at all.

It was actually rather warm to the touch. Maybe he could moonlight as a hand warmer in winter.

At the entrance to the exhibition hall, while Suzuki Sonoko was engrossed in shaking hands with Jiang Xia—

Conan returned from beside the corpse.

He first reminded Mouri Ran to call the police, then looked at Jiang Xia.

"We believe you didn't kill him, but you were the first to discover the body, so the police will suspect you first. Think carefully about your itinerary today. It'd be best if you can find an alibi. Also, did you see anyone suspicious on your way here?"

Conan did not blindly trust Jiang Xia's character.

It was simply that the corpse in the exhibition hall had died too horribly, with blood splattered everywhere.

In other words, if Jiang Xia had just killed the man, he could not possibly have been this clean.

Besides, Conan had seen Jiang Xia beat people up before—he swung a stick again and again, like he was playing Whac-A-Mole at a game arcade.

But what had happened in the exhibition hall—imitating an oil painting and nailing someone to a wall... It had a strong Sense of Ritual and was rather complicated.

It did not look like Jiang Xia's style at all.

Therefore, Conan figured that Jiang Xia had probably passed by, entered the exhibition hall for some reason, taken a look around, and accidentally stepped in blood.

As for why Jiang Xia had not turned on the lights, screamed, or called the police...

...Perhaps it had something to do with his personality.

After all, everyone reacted differently when they saw a corpse.

Conan truly could not imagine Jiang Xia screaming as he fled outside.

"..." Thinking about it this way, Jiang Xia's calm emergence from the exhibition hall earlier seemed fairly reasonable.

And theoretically speaking, Jiang Xia's condition was already... somewhat unstable. In short, unusual behavior seemed more reasonable when it came from him.

Conan: "..." Speaking of which, Jiang Xia took more than ten days of sick leave and skipped more than ten days of school every month. Had he actually been going to the Psychosomatic Medicine Department to see a Doctor?

Thinking of this, Conan could not help reviewing the Jiang Xia he had observed in daily life. It seemed to consist entirely of street racing, beating people up, and visiting exhibitions...

Conan thought wearily that the answer was probably no.

The exhibition hall was not far from the Metropolitan Police Department.

The high school students stood outside the Hell Exhibition Hall and waited for the police. Some of the four were scared, some were deducing, and some wanted to Collecting Ghosts... Before long, the police arrived.

Inside the Hell Exhibition Hall.

The large ceiling lights were switched on, instantly flooding the room with light.

Inspector Megure and the officers from the Forensics Department entered the hall together, searching for clues. He also sent several subordinates to question the witnesses.

Officer Sato came out on orders. With one glance over the four people, her gaze stopped on Jiang Xia's back.

In her experience, there was a considerable chance that the killer was among the first people to discover the body.

Compared with the two pale-faced high school girls who kept avoiding the corpse, and the Elementary School Student who was not even as tall as Sato's legs, Jiang Xia's suspicion level immediately shot up.

But when she approached, Jiang Xia turned around, and Officer Sato froze upon seeing his face.

...She had just seen this person in the office not long ago.

Though Sato Miwako was not an officer from the Forensics Department, she had dealt with so many Murder Cases that she had gained some experience.

—She could tell approximately how long a corpse had been dead.

And based on her rough estimate... when Boss Manaka had died, Jiang Xia had been sitting in their office reporting a case.

"..." It seemed that, this time, the killer was not among the earliest group to discover the body?

The police quickly finished their questioning.

Unfortunately, the witnesses could not provide many clues.

But soon, Inspector Megure made a delighted discovery: there was actually a surveillance Camera in the Hell Exhibition Hall, aimed directly at the Crime Scene.

Inspector Megure happily waved a hand. "Go get the Surveillance Footage!"

Five minutes later.

After seeing the Surveillance Footage—

Inspector Megure was no longer happy.

The Camera had indeed recorded the murder.

But it had failed to capture the killer's face—the killer wore a suit of Western knight's armor, with an iron mask covering his face completely.

While the police watched the footage and sighed—

Nearby, Jiang Xia silently fiddled with his phone.

There was now a new recording on it, one he had secretly filmed earlier.

—A moment ago, while everyone else had been watching the surveillance footage, Luohe, the Librarian of this exhibition hall, had crouched down and pretended to tie his shoelaces.

While crouching, the White-bearded Old Man had secretly used an intact pen to replace the pen Boss Manaka had used before his death—a pen that could not write—with a working one from the floor.

This was part of Luohe, the Librarian's murder plan.

A few hours earlier, he had donned knight's armor to conceal his identity and deliberately killed someone beneath the Camera. During the process, the old librarian had not killed Boss Manaka in one strike. Instead, he had left him some room to act—and as expected, while being attacked, Boss Manaka realized he would not survive. He reached for a sheet of paper on the nearby table, picked up the pen lying there as well, and intended to secretly write down the killer's name.

However, that sheet of paper had actually been placed there in advance by the old librarian. Another employee's name had already been written on it.

Furthermore, the pen in Boss Manaka's hand was broken. It could not write at all.

The Hell Exhibition Hall was dimly lit, making it difficult for the Camera to distinguish such tiny details.

Therefore, as long as Luohe, the Librarian promptly replaced the broken pen Boss Manaka had used with a normal, working pen afterward—

The whole matter would become, "Before his death, Boss Manaka took advantage of the killer's inattention to write the killer's name on a note."

But in truth, that name belonged only to an employee being framed.

While the police pondered over the surveillance footage—

Jiang Xia skipped every step of the deduction and walked over to the old librarian.

Luohe, the Librarian stood with his hands behind his back, gazing deeply at the oil painting on the wall—at the painting opposite the corpse, where a knight slew a demon but was splashed all over with filthy Fresh Blood.

In the librarian's eyes, the newly arrived Boss Manaka had broken his word. He had supposedly promised to keep the exhibition hall running after buying it. Yet now, he suddenly wanted to tear it down and turn it into a restaurant.

That was why Luohe, the Librarian did not regret killing him. He was punishing Manaka, who had defiled art.

Thus, the librarian felt that the blood-soaked knight in the oil painting was very much like himself.

—Dashing, tragic, sacrificing everything to purge evil.

...A true man should be like this.

Just as he was lost in emotion, a quiet voice suddenly drifted over from beside him.

"The Knight of Justice subdued the demon, but at the same time, he himself was tainted by evil blood... Is that what you think?"

Luohe, the Librarian: "!"

Startled, he abruptly turned to look beside him.

The young man who had first discovered the corpse had somehow walked to his side.

"..." Recalling Jiang Xia's words, Luohe, the Librarian felt they carried an implied meaning. He stiffened guiltily for several seconds.

A moment later, he stroked his waist-length beard and forcibly calmed himself.

—He must have been overthinking it.

There was no way this perfect murder plan could be seen through so easily.

This little brat in front of him was probably just discussing the oil painting.

Yet Luohe, the Librarian had barely reassured himself when—

The next second, Jiang Xia's topic veered completely away from the painting.

Jiang Xia suddenly said in a low voice, "You should know that when signing a land sale contract, the seller can place restrictions on the land's future use—for instance, by writing 'the exhibition hall must continue operating and may not be converted to another use' into the contract."

Luohe, the Librarian froze.

Jiang Xia continued, "Of course, such restrictions would drive away many buyers. In other words, once restrictive clauses are added to the contract, this plot of land becomes very difficult to sell.

"—Judging from things now, your former boss did not put any agreement restricting the land's use into the contract.

"Promises that are not written into a contract cannot be trusted. Even rookies who have only been working for a few months know that, let alone your former boss..."

At that, Jiang Xia raised his eyes and looked the librarian over, seeming to hesitate before speaking. "Then again, you are already quite old and have spent decades navigating the workplace. You are also a librarian, so you must have signed plenty of contracts—surely you never failed to consider that, did you?"

Conan, who had slipped nearby and silently eavesdropped for quite some time: "..."

Though he did not understand the full context, from Jiang Xia's words, it sounded as though he suspected the librarian was the killer.

...Why?

And how did Jiang Xia know so much about the exhibition hall?

Could the girl at the Ticket Office have told him?