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"Every holiday season, Mr. Masakage would lead visiting guests into this corridor. He would first turn off the lights, then switch them back on to make a holiday tree suddenly appear before everyone's eyes, as though he had conjured the enormous tree out of thin air."
Jiang Xia looked at the magicians. "Only someone standing beside the mechanism room could control that device and make the corpse appear or disappear at will. In other words, when we mentioned 'Christmas Tree Magic' earlier, Mrs. Masakage and Mr. Iida already knew who the murderer was. That was why their expressions changed, and why they immediately cut off the conversation."
"I see..." Inspector Megure finally understood why this group of magicians were all Riddlers who only ever spoke half their minds.
Then he suddenly remembered something else. "But I recall you saying that Mr. Iida was the one who suggested gathering here for a meal... Could he and Mr. Hoshikawa have conspired to murder a fellow disciple?"
Jiang Xia shook his head. "When he suggested the gathering, Mr. Hoshikawa probably hadn't developed any Killing Intent yet. What truly made him want to kill was likely the magic trick the victim mentioned after arriving here—'Witch Resurrection.'"
"What Witch Resurrection?" Hoshikawa Togo suddenly spoke up, snorting coldly. "That trick should have been called 'Demon King Resurrection'—that was the name Master Masakage gave it."
Inspector Megure had no idea what sort of trick that was and listened in confusion.
The two high school girls beside him, however, remembered it clearly. They said in surprise, "You mean that trick wasn't created by Miss Himegimiya, but was actually devised by Mr. Masakage?"
"Of course." At the mention of that fellow disciple, Hoshikawa Togo frowned in disgust.
"The moment I heard her description, I understood everything. 'Tying herself