Against All Reason

"Don't think I don't know! Out of all of us, you're the one who wanted June dead the most!"

At those words, everyone's eyes turned toward the blue-haired woman.

Seeing that she had been exposed, the blue-haired woman sighed helplessly, a trace of sorrow flashing through her eyes.

"My name is Modi. July is right. To be honest, when I saw June's body, I was actually pretty upset."

"What upset me was that she had died just like that."

As she spoke, Modi seemed to remember something deeply painful. She covered her face and began to sob quietly.

But Modi's words only made the already strange case even harder to understand.

So far, two people had spoken.

One had once been close to June but now pretended she barely knew her.

The other had hated her enough to want to kill her.

Yet both insisted they hadn't killed June. July even claimed she hadn't seen her since yesterday.

Just then, Hisoka suddenly pointed at the two women and said,

"One of you two~ is lying~"

At those words, July and Modi both lowered their heads.

Cordis, who stood beside Hisoka, was left speechless by this move.

Modi let out several strange laughs, laughing so hard that even her arms trembled.

When she raised her head again, her face was covered in tears.

Choking back sobs, she explained to everyone,

"I've been here since I was a teenager. In a place like this, I'm one of the longest-serving girls, so naturally the clients knew me best."

"I've always used the money I earned here to pay for my mother's treatment. I was planning to quit once she got a little better."

"But a month ago, that June actually poisoned my makeup, leaving my face covered in sores for an entire month."

"Then she stole most of my clients. I couldn't earn any commission, and in the end, my mother suddenly had a fatal attack."

At that point, Modi couldn't even stay on her feet. She collapsed to her knees on the floor, weeping.

Once Modi had calmed herself down, she continued.

"A month after my mother died, shortly before June's death, I put poison in the water she usually drank. But I don't know whether she actually drank it."

That statement undoubtedly gave the whole case a new lead.

Cordis thought for a moment before speaking.

"Could June have drunk the poisoned water, then happened to die from the poison while heading to the river? She fell into the water as a result and drowned?"

But Cordis soon rejected that theory himself.

June was a prostitute. Leaving aside why she had appeared at Heavens Arena, what reason would she have to suddenly go to the river?

While Cordis was still puzzling over it,

the fish overhead let out another beep, then said,

[Discussion time is over. Would you like to identify the murderer in this round?]

Just then, two buttons appeared on the table in front of each person.

They were labeled,

Yes and No.

After exchanging glances, everyone chose No.

As the buttons slowly sank away, another five-minute search period began.

Seeing this, Cordis climbed onto the table again, crouched in front of June, pried her mouth open, and began sniffing.

There was none of the bitter almond smell he had expected from someone who had died of poisoning.

It seemed June hadn't drunk that cup of poisoned water.

The case, which had finally seemed to be going somewhere, was plunged back into uncertainty.

Just then, Hisoka came over to Cordis.

He placed a hand on June's abdomen.

Then he felt along her inner thigh, and a large amount of blood came away on his hand.

Casually wiping the blood from his hand onto Cordis's arm, he curled his lips into a smile.

"Looks like she was pregnant~ And the child's father doesn't seem to have liked the baby very much~"

Cordis had taken out a handkerchief and was wiping the blood off his arm.

When he learned that the bleeding had been caused by a miscarriage,

he tossed the handkerchief aside in disgust.

Following Hisoka's hand with his gaze, he saw a distinct bruise on June's lower abdomen.

It looked horrifying.

"Maybe this was a good thing for the child. Someone like her didn't deserve to be a mother."

Cordis murmured as he stared at the bruise.

Hisoka looked at Cordis beside him, whose brows were furrowed in disgust, and gave a thoughtful smile.

"It looks like June's lover was probably the murderer."

Hisoka shook his head at that.

"Not necessarily~"

Just as Cordis pricked up his ears to hear more, Hisoka chuckled twice and walked away from the round table.

He found a random spot and began playing with the deck of cards he carried around.

Seeing this, Cordis stuck his tongue out at Hisoka.

After cursing him a few times, he went back to examining the body.

Unfortunately, he still hadn't found anything by the time the fish told them to return to their seats.

With a beep, everyone returned to their places.

Having found nothing, Cordis had no choice but to return to his seat.

While Cordis fretted over what to do,

the fish floating in midair spoke again.

[Next, a special guest will be joining us.]

The lights converged on an empty spot once more.

A man who bore some resemblance to June appeared in the space that had been empty a moment earlier.

The man seemed to have been brought here without warning as well.

But he soon recovered.

He looked around at everyone, took a deep breath, and said,

"I'm... June's younger brother."

Cordis genuinely hadn't expected that. He had thought it would be June's lover.

But why was it her younger brother? Shouldn't it have been someone connected to the child in June's womb?

An idea surfaced in Cordis's mind.

But that idea went rather against all reason.

Just as Cordis was trying to convince himself that it was impossible,

the man's next words lent further weight to his suspicions.

"My name is Sao. I work at Heavens Arena. June, the woman you've been talking about, is my biological older sister. We've never been particularly close or particularly distant."

"But I was still shocked when I learned she'd died."

Just then, Cordis slammed his hand onto the table, pointed at Sao, and shouted,

"You're lying! I saw her earlier today! She was covered in bruises! Why would she go to Heavens Arena for no reason? What else could she have been doing there besides looking for you?!"

"And did you know June was pregnant? Tell me, did that child have anything to do with you?!"

Looks like nobody's been asking for updates today.

In that case, I'll post a little less.

I'm off to the King's Canyon to play with my dear Sun Ce.

If you want to blame someone, blame Sun Ce. It's got nothing to do with me.