"Are you sure you saw Wesley himself just now, and not someone with a similar silhouette?"
Isaac frowned as he asked, his gaze repeatedly sweeping the corners of the room. Clearly, he too had realized how strange this was.
Charlotte nodded, pointed at the half-eaten loaf, and explained:
"I followed him all the way from the newspaper office to this residence. I watched him carry the bread into the room and leave wearing a coat ten minutes later. Only then did I sneak inside to search the place."
"After advancing to Sequence 8, Sheriff, I became able to accurately recognize people I'd encountered before. Ordinary disguises or people with similar appearances simply can't fool me."
"Sequence 8... To think that you've fully mastered the power of an Arbiter so soon after becoming a Beyonder, and even had the opportunity to obtain the next potion... I hear Roselle is the same. Heh, it took me five years to pass the review and receive permission to advance to the next Sequence."
Hearing this for the first time, Isaac spoke with a somewhat strained expression.
So he really is Sequence 8 as well. Otherwise, he wouldn't have come alone to search a suspected Cultist's residence in the Old District... Charlotte gave an almost imperceptible nod and continued:
"Then either the Wesley I saw or the one whose death you learned of must be a fake... I'm inclined to think it's the one I saw, because there's no point in deliberately disguising someone else as Wesley and then killing them. Killing the real Wesley and impersonating him, on the other hand, would serve to mislead people."
"For example, misleading official personnel like us while secretly carrying out other plots?" Isaac said in sudden realization. "In that case, the 'acquaintance' who killed Jacob might also