Because of the Sea God in her words, Jiang Xia's thoughts briefly wandered. But he quickly came back to himself, refocused on the case, and took out his notebook.
"You'll probably understand the killer's motive after hearing this—from the list we have, the deceased Mr. Kayama's full name was Saburo Kayama, Mrs. Kayama was Seiko Kayama, the journalist was Shinkai Yumura, his assistant was Sayuri Kawanishi. In addition, the man killed on the first night was Kurata Soichi, the painter was Kobayashi Seiji... and Teacher Kaibe Shigeru, who asked me to attend this resort experience in his place.
"All of their initials are 'S.K.'"
Several Experience Participants blankly spelled out their own names in kana. "It really is..."
"Hmm? Wait." Suzuki Sonoko suddenly noticed something. Thinking of her deceased acquaintance, she said, "Senior Toyono was a participant too, but his initials were 'E.T.'... Did he have another name?"
Jiang Xia shook his head. "His initials don't match the others because he was never among the intended victims—he was the true culprit behind this string of murder cases."
"..."
"???"
After hearing the detective's conclusion, everyone first wore their habitual expressions of sudden realization. Then they came to their senses and found something wrong. "The killer was Toyono? But wasn't he dead? His body is still buried by the lake. When we found it, it was already starting to bloat from soaking in the water!"
Jiang Xia pointed at the person on the ground, who was still trying to throw Hattori Heiji off. "Whether it's him or not, we'll know once we take off the mask."
"!" The person on the ground had still been struggling, but at those words, he instantly froze and began pressing his face into the floor.
"Things have already come to this, and you're still hoping