Alwin

"Please accept my condolences."

Elwin took off his hat, pressed it to his chest with one hand, and offered comfort to the sobbing old woman before him.

Though he knew such words were somewhat hollow, as a clergyman devoted to Velandil, God of Wealth and Contracts, and as a local constable, this was all he could do for the moment.

Elwin turned to look at the several constables who had already sealed off the scene. Cigarette butts still lay scattered across the floor.

"The owner of this residence was a wealthy merchant from Huika. He had been staying here temporarily, and Mrs. Hega, his servant, found him dead in the study five days ago."

The constable explaining the case stiffened at once when he saw Elwin turn toward him.

"You had been investigating the Ratfolk who infiltrated the city, so the higher-ups thought you were too busy and had us handle this ourselves."

Elwin said nothing more. Seapeak Port was a free port of Walin. Though it nominally pledged loyalty to the Walin royal family, it was in truth jointly governed by five families.

They were naturally hostile toward the Church, fearing it would dilute their power.

But Seapeak Port was no longer the small harbor it had once been. It had grown too vast, drawing the attention of many ill-intentioned people.

The Council of Elders formed by the five great families understood this as well. Though unwilling to relinquish their hereditary power, they could only accept the Wealth Church in order to avoid losing that power altogether.

That conflicted mindset had naturally filtered down to those carrying out the work.

"Did he have any other family?"

Elwin looked at the deputy beside him, who was supposedly there to assist but had, in truth, also been assigned to keep an eye on him.

The other man was a green youngster, precisely what Elwin had requested. Since surveillance was unavoidable, he at least did not want to work with those who took bloodstained offerings from gangsters.

"Yes. Someone from the deceased's family has already set out, but they're still on the road and will need some time to arrive.

But he was the only one who came here to conduct business."

"A man over sixty with no class level came here carrying a large sum of money, yet brought neither guards nor trusted retainers. He even allowed someone to enter his home and kill him. That makes no sense.

What business was he in? When did he arrive in Walin? When did he reach Seapeak Port? Whom had he met beforehand?"

The young constable was left dizzy by the string of questions. He hurriedly flipped through the booklet in his hands, only to realize he could not answer a single one. The previous constables had not investigated those matters at all.

"It's fine. This isn't your fault."

From the corner of his eye, Elwin saw the young man's cheeks flush with shame. He made a circuit of the first floor, then headed up to the second.

The body had already been taken away. Because the amount stolen was enormous, the corpse had been specially preserved in an icebox, an item from some Dungeon.

"The victim was found in his study. The fatal wound was an open cut across the neck. It has been confirmed that a coachman he hired locally used a fruit knife from the house to cut it open."

"The first person to discover the victim was Mrs. Hega."

"Y-Yes."

Elwin's sudden question caught the young man off guard, but fortunately, it was a simple question he could answer.

"The current suspect—the coachman who fled—was also a lead provided by Mrs. Hega."

"He's a murderer, not a suspect.

He killed my uncle. There is no doubt about it. There were eyewitnesses and evidence as well. The constables found that someone saw him hurriedly leave this house."

The low, hoarse voice instantly pierced the room, already shadowed by death, adding an odd echo to the space enclosed in mahogany.

"With all due respect, guilt must be determined by a court here. So he isn't a murderer yet. He's only a suspect."

Elwin turned around. A man with features similar to the deceased in the icebox climbed the stairs and came before him, speaking somewhat clumsy Valin.

Sure enough, the constables had asked him to take charge here only because the family had arrived while they still had not caught the culprit.

"It doesn't matter what you call him. The most important thing now is catching the culprit first."

The young man who had come upstairs looked over the study, then turned to Elwin, who stood in the center of the room.

"Name, age, family relations, address. Give me the coachman's information—as detailed as possible."

Fortunately, the local constables had paid some attention to their only suspect. Before long, the information was handed to the man.

Elwin said nothing further. He removed the Church emblem from around his neck, clasped it in both hands, and began chanting softly. Threads of golden light appeared upon the emblem.

Everyone around him held their breath. This was a true clergyman, one capable of using divine arts.

Though clergymen were more common than spellcasters, they were still exceedingly rare compared to the adventurers found everywhere.

"Follow me."

Elwin released the emblem, and it flew toward the door.

Driven by divine arts, the emblem passed several street corners before slowly descending.

"Second floor, third room from the left."

Elwin pointed at an inn in the distance. Moments later, the constables, eager to show off before their superior, rushed toward it in a swarm.

The inn's guests did not dare resist at all. The few adventurers present feared being dragged into trouble, and under Elwin's directions—precise down to the room number—the constables burst directly into the room.

Then a dirty-faced young man was carried out by several burly men.

"I don't know anything. I don't know anything."

The man seemed terrified. He had probably not bathed for days, and the stench clung to him.

This made the victim's nephew pull out a perfumed handkerchief from his breast pocket and cover his nose and mouth.

"No, you're the criminal.

You killed Mr. Laide.

You used the fruit knife in the room, stood behind him, forced him to open the safe, and then killed him."

At those words, the man covering his nose and mouth with the handkerchief instantly revealed a flash of panic in his eyes, but he quickly suppressed it.

"You can do something like that? May I ask whether you have already entered the transcendent realm?

I heard that even priests of Aurelion, God of Knights and Nobles, could not use divine arts and a few trivial pieces of unrelated information to deduce events they had never witnessed."

Elwin's gaze lingered on the victim's nephew. He thought he roughly understood what had happened.

"The blood on the desk sprayed forward. Combined with the eyewitness account and the autopsy report, it can be inferred that the victim was sitting at the desk when someone cut his throat from behind.

Since Mrs. Hega was downstairs, the suspect had no time to commit the crime elsewhere and move the body.

Even if he had, he could not have dealt with the bloodstains.

The study safe was open. There were bloodstains inside, and all the money was missing. During the previous investigation, a constable found a bloodstained fruit knife on the first floor. Presumably, that was the murder weapon.

That completes the motive. The suspect was tempted by the money, forced the victim to open the safe, killed him, and then fled.

My divine art merely confirmed that he was the suspect.

My colleagues had actually already roughly inferred what happened. I merely came to find the killer."