"But..." The eldest sister-in-law gritted her teeth. "But it was already very late when my husband went to the Audio-Visual Room, and the snow stopped not long after that. If he really went to the side chamber later, the freshly fallen snow wouldn't have had time to cover his footprints—so he must have stayed in the Audio-Visual Room the whole time! The murderer killed him, then forcibly put him in the armor to frame him!"
The police officers said, "Hmm..." That did sound fairly reasonable...
Daimon Yoshirō and his sister-in-law could not convince each other. Seeing this, the old lady beside them shook her head helplessly.
"You're both wrong. This really was the Vengeful Spirit's Curse—at midnight last night, I saw a samurai in armor walking step by step from the side chamber toward the Main House.
"That enormous body, that ghostly, staggering gait... I could never be mistaken. It was General Shuyū from five hundred years ago!"
The police officers said, "..." That also sounded... No, no, no, that one was absolutely impossible. Even if someone had crossed the courtyard then, it could not have been some ancient vengeful spirit. It had to have been the murderer, wearing armor to disguise himself as one.
They were about to correct her when Jiang Xia thoughtfully followed along with the old woman's account. "Was that vengeful spirit holding a weapon?"
The old lady thought back carefully. "He was standing sideways to my window. I only remember that he wasn't holding a knife in his left hand. As for his right hand... perhaps he wasn't holding one, or perhaps he was, but his body blocked it from view."
Officer Sato did not know why Jiang Xia had asked, but she carefully wrote down every detail the old lady had provided.
She flipped