On the second floor.
Lieutenant Max finally welcomed the people from the Church of Evernight.
He saw four gentlemen and ladies, dressed in either trench coats or formal attire, coming up the stairs.
The man in front had a square face, a large nose and ears, and faint nasolabial folds.
He had pronounced forehead lines, deep-set eyes, and black-framed glasses.
"I'm Lewis."
The gentleman introduced himself and habitually ran a hand through his brown hair, which had an increasingly receding hairline.
Max nodded. "We were investigating a murder. The victim was a soldier under my command."
"I followed the clues here and thought the person in this apartment was the suspect."
"But now it seems he was a victim himself."
"The situation inside is very strange. It's beyond what we can handle, so we'll have to leave it to you."
Lewis nodded.
Max left two soldiers behind to assist them. Everyone else, including himself, withdrew from the apartment.
"We've only just arrived on the Southern Continent, and there's already work to do."
"I thought we'd at least get a couple of days to rest."
The only woman among the four spoke.
She was only about twenty-three or twenty-four, beautiful, with long, wavy auburn hair.
She wore a shirt and trousers, giving her a capable air.
But the top two buttons of her shirt were undone, exposing her deep cleavage.
"Stop complaining, Martha."
Behind her, a short, pale-skinned man entered the room. "We're not here on vacation. We need to resolve this as soon as possible. We still have to go to the front."
The woman called Martha seemed to be chewing candy. She shrugged at the last man beside her. "He certainly is eager, isn't he, Warren?"
The man called Warren was about the same age as her.
He had