Alwin

"Please accept my condolences."

Elwin removed his hat, pressed it against his chest with one hand, and offered words of comfort to the sobbing old woman before him.

Although he knew such words of consolation were rather hollow, as a clergyman who believed in Velandil, god of wealth and contracts, and as a local peacekeeper, this was all he could do for the time being.

Elwin turned to look at the peacekeepers who had already sealed off the scene. Several cigarette butts were still scattered across the ground.

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

The peacekeeper explaining the case noticed Elwin turn toward him and immediately tensed.

"You were previously investigating the ratmen who infiltrated the city. Your superiors considered you too busy, so they had us handle it ourselves."

Elwin said nothing more. Seapeak Port was a free port belonging to Walin. Although it nominally swore allegiance to the Walin royal family, it was actually governed jointly by five families.

They were naturally hostile toward the church, fearing that it would dilute their authority.

However, Seapeak Port was no longer the small harbor it had been not long ago. It had grown far too large, and it consequently attracted many ill-intentioned eyes.

The Council of Elders formed by the five families understood this as well. Although they were unwilling to give up their hereditary power, they could only accept the Wealth Church if they wanted to avoid losing that power entirely.

Yet this contradictory attitude had also filtered down to the people who carried out their orders.

"Does he have any other family?"

Elwin looked at the deputy beside him, who was supposedly there to assist him but was, in reality, carrying out at least some degree of surveillance.

The other man was a young kid. Elwin had specifically requested that, since surveillance was unavoidable, he at least hoped not to work alongside those who accepted bloodstained donations from the gangs.

"Yes. Someone from the deceased's lineage has already come, but he's still on the way. It'll take some time for him to arrive.

"But he was the only one here conducting business."

"A man over sixty years old, with no occupational level, came here carrying a large sum of money but brought neither guards nor trusted retainers. He even let someone enter his home and kill him. None of that makes sense.

"What kind of business did he do? When did he arrive in Walin? When did he arrive in Seapeak Port? Whom did he meet before that?"

The young peacekeeper was left dizzy by the barrage of questions. He hurriedly flipped through the booklet in his hands, only to discover that he could not answer any of them. The previous peacekeepers had not investigated those matters.

"It's all right. This isn't your fault."

Out of the corner of his eye, Elwin saw the young man's cheeks flush with shame. He walked around the first floor once, then lifted his foot and headed upstairs.

The body had already been taken away. Because the stolen amount was enormous, it had been specially preserved in an ice cabinet, an object from some dungeon.

"The victim was found in his study. The fatal injury was an open wound across his neck. It has already been confirmed that a stable hand he hired locally made the cut with a fruit knife from the house."

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

"Y-yes."

Elwin's sudden question left the young man flustered for a moment. Fortunately, this one was simple enough for him to answer.

"The current suspect, the stable hand who fled, was also identified through information provided by Mrs. Hega."

"He's a murderer, not a suspect.

"He killed my uncle. There's no doubt about that. There are eyewitnesses, and there's evidence as well. The peacekeepers learned that someone saw him hurriedly leaving this house."

The low, hoarse voice instantly pierced the room, which had already been shrouded in a shadow cast by death, creating strange echoes within the redwood-paneled space.

"With all due respect, a court must pass judgment here. So he isn't a murderer yet—only a suspect."

Elwin turned around. A man with a face resembling that of the deceased in the ice cabinet spoke somewhat awkward Walin as he climbed the stairs and came before him.

As expected, the peacekeepers had sent him here to take charge only because the family had arrived, while they still had not even caught the culprit.

"I don't care what you call him. The most important thing now is to catch him first."

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

"Name, age, family relationships, address. Give me the stable hand's information. The more specific, the better."

Fortunately, the local peacekeepers had taken the sole suspect seriously. Before long, they had placed the limited information in the man's hands.

Elwin said nothing more. He removed the church emblem from around his neck, then clasped it in both hands and began chanting softly. Wisps of golden light appeared on the emblem.

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

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

"Follow me."

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

Driven by divine magic, the emblem turned several street corners before slowly descending.

"Second floor, third room from the left."

Elwin pointed toward a distant inn. Moments later, the peacekeepers, eager to show off before their superiors, surged forward.

The inn's guests did not dare resist at all. The few adventurers were afraid of getting caught up in the trouble. Guided by Elwin with precision down to the room number, the peacekeepers poured directly into the room.

A disheveled young man was then dragged out by a group of burly men.

"I don't know anything! I don't know anything!"

The man seemed terrified. He probably had not bathed in several days, and he reeked.

The victim's nephew pulled a perfume-sprayed handkerchief from his breast pocket and held it over his nose and mouth.

"No, you're the culprit.

"You killed Mr. Laide.

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

The man covering his nose and mouth with the handkerchief showed a flash of panic in his eyes upon hearing this, but he quickly suppressed it.

"You were able to deduce all that? May I ask whether you've already stepped into the transcendent realm?

"I've heard that even the priests of Aurelion, the god of knights and nobles, can't use divine magic and a few pieces of information irrelevant to the case to deduce events they never witnessed."

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

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

"Because Mrs. Hega was downstairs, the suspect could not have committed the crime elsewhere and then taken the body here.

"Even if he had, he couldn't have dealt with the bloodstains.

"The safe in the study was open, and there was blood inside. All the money had been stolen. During the earlier investigation, a peacekeeper found a bloodstained fruit knife on the first floor. I assume that was the murder weapon.

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

"My divine magic only confirmed that he was the suspect.

"My colleagues had already more or less deduced what happened. I was merely here to find the culprit."