Chapter 2125: Deduction
Miss Malone’s story ends here, Shard blinked, feeling as if he were listening to some erotic novel. Meanwhile, Miss Malone’s face had turned red as if about to bleed, but Miss Teresa, nestled against Shard, seemed quite interested:
"You said you didn’t steal anything, so did that pretty girl with you take something?"
"Of course not, she was with me the whole time!"
"I think what Miss Teresa means is, is that blue-eyed girl truly the owner of the room?"
Professor Ivins, who was nearby, asked, and Miss Maxim, the maid, also nodded:
"The jewelry box, clothes, notebook, sketch pad, dressing table, it’s said that in the lady’s room where items were lost, all these things were tampered with, isn’t this just... The lady who lost items was traveling alone, without a companion in the room. It shouldn’t be such a coincidence that the same things were tampered with in the two first-class cabins."
Miss Malone pursed her lips; although she was the only ordinary person, she remained stubborn:
"She couldn’t be a thief!"
Shard then asked:
"Speaking of it, what is the name of that blue-eyed, blonde girl?"
Miss Malone was taken aback and then lowered her head:
"I don’t know."
"What?"
Miss Teresa, hugging Shard’s arm, was puzzled and then blushed:
"Then, when you were... on a date, how did you address her?"
"Darling... sweetheart."
After saying this, she looked towards Shard again:
"My matters with her have nothing to do with the sinking of the ’Radiant Messenger.’ I’m very sure about this, we were together the whole night the ship sank, why are you pressing me like this?"
Shard indeed wasn’t pressuring others to speak of their private affairs out of interest:
"From the current situation, it can be assumed that you have nothing to do with the sinking of the ’Radiant Messenger.’ Let’s return to the main topic, ladies."
Miss Teresa, Miss Maxim, and Professor Ivins had no objections; the professor even comforted the sobbing Miss Malone, who still looked at Shard with tear-stained eyes:
"You promised, I answered your questions, now you have to protect me on this vast sea."
Hearing this, Miss Teresa immediately tightened her grip on Shard’s hand. Shard nodded again:
"Of course, I promised, I swear on my honesty, it’s an honor. But please allow me to ask one last question, have any of you heard the name—Angie Illustrious?"
The girl Miss Malone described had blonde hair and blue eyes, differing from the black-haired, blue-eyed girl Shard encountered in Moon Bay of the Sixth Era. However, for Transcendents, changing hair color is a simple task.
All four ladies shook their heads, and Shard, having just asked out of curiosity, wasn’t holding high expectations. He wasn’t disappointed, as apart from hearing Miss Malone’s private affairs, he seemed to have gathered no other information after spending this time.
"Everything I just said was the truth!"
Miss Malone’s voice again drew Shard’s attention. She clutched the hem of her skirt, her mental state seeming better:
"We really did see the First Mate and Captain moving things on the ship, it’s true, we really saw it. Although we did use this topic to distract you earlier, this information is not wrong."
Seeing everyone’s attention on her, she blushed again:
"Moreover, not just that, we encountered many strange things that night.
During dinner, a sneaky sailor entered the busy kitchen, he was dressed in a chef’s outfit but was definitely not a chef; in the steam engine room at the bottom of the ship, we saw someone had drawn strange patterns on the wall; the casino on board had fewer guards tonight, fewer than any night since setting sail; and also, the Boatswain, who watched performances in the ship’s theater every night, was absent tonight."
"You really visited a lot of places..."
Shard sighed, then was glared at by the blushing girl.
"So, you’re saying, on the night the ship sank, the Captain, First Mate, and Boatswain were plotting something, and some guards on the ship were their accomplices; someone entered the kitchen, seemingly to poison the food... wait a minute, only you four survived, isn’t it because of this?"
Shard looked at the four ladies:
"Miss Teresa, Miss Maxim, Professor Ivins, you are witches, your resistance to drugs is far stronger than ordinary people. As for Miss Malone, you didn’t eat dinner that night, so you’re fine... but were you the only one who didn’t have that meal? That doesn’t make sense, right?"
"No, it makes perfect sense."
Miss Maxim, the maid, said:
"That night, to celebrate reaching the halfway point of the voyage, both the first-class dinner and the steerage supper were lavish, with free ice cream provided, and the sailors even announced there would be a performance during dinner. As far as I know, the vast majority of passengers went to the restaurant that night, and only a few dozen did not. Those who jumped ship to escape needed luck too, as Miss Malone was the only one among those who didn’t have dinner who survived, which makes sense statistically."
"So, what patterns did you see in the steam engine room? If you can’t describe the specifics, please try to recall any clear details you remember."
Professor Ivins continued to ask Miss Malone, hoping to deduce the captain and his party’s purpose. Unfortunately, Miss Malone, as an ordinary person, didn’t pay much attention to those patterns at the time:
"It was very dark in the cabin, and I was busy at the time... sorry."
The clues seemed to be interrupted again at this point, but at least Shard now knew the direction for the investigation. Moreover, he still had one source of information that he hadn’t used:
"I don’t have much time left. Next, I will continue using the items you provided to try divine fishing; perhaps the deity will give me some more hints in recognition of my efforts."
He held Miss Teresa’s hand and looked at the remaining three ladies:
"When I use those items related to childhood wishes for fishing, I can see some memory fragments of yours. Perhaps we can thus uncover some useful information that you haven’t realized yet. I will first fish for Miss Maxim, followed by..."
Professor Ivins was indifferent to the order, still pondering the previous information. However, Miss Malone timidly said:
"Can you put me last?"
"Why?"
"Last time, Professor Ivins and this maid provided you with their past regrets. Because I’ve lost some memories, I couldn’t offer such information. So if you fish for me, you might encounter unsolvable troubles. Please give me time to think again."
She said so, and Shard then asked:
"Then what is the truth?"
"Well... I’m still not prepared for you to see the scenes of me and... her on a date. Please give me some more time. I promise to try and recall the events of the night the ship sank. Please put me last, please..."
"I understand."
Shard glanced at her and then nodded slightly. The young blonde witch beside him was a bit surprised, for she believed that Miss Malone, as an ordinary person, might have the most valuable memories among the remaining three. But since it was Shard’s decision, she wouldn’t raise any objections.
Last time, Miss Maxim provided her mother’s earrings, which were given to her because her long-bedridden mother feared she wouldn’t live to see her daughter marry and thus passed down her own mother’s jewelry in advance; Professor Ivins provided an alchemical ring, a gift from her former mentor.
These items were still with the deity, and when Shard bid farewell to the ladies intending to go fish, the other three ladies lowered their heads as if slipping back into sleep, and Miss Teresa hesitated for a moment before following Shard:
"I’ll go with you... it’s safer with you around."
"Meow~"
The cat poked its little head out from Shard’s chest and meowed, then looked toward "Miss Malone," sniffing with its little nose, catching a familiar scent. But Shard didn’t notice Mia’s act, as the cat couldn’t speak anyway.
Thus, Miss Teresa tugged at Shard’s coat hem, and the two of them crouched and crawled to the edge of the floating board. As they approached the deity again, the divine afterglow once more illuminated Shard’s body and even his clothes, which reassured Miss Teresa.
"God, please allow me to articulate the speculation about the sinking of the Radiant Messenger."
But before taking the fishing rod, Shard attempted once:
"The captain, the first mate, and others used the entire ship as a sacrifice, trying to summon and control the Evil of the Deep Sea - Seven-Tailed Player."
This was the most plausible conclusion based on the current information, and the deity in the form of a child looked at Shard’s chest where the little cat’s head was, then smilingly asked him:
"Then, what about the evidence?"
"Hmm... do I need evidence?"
"Otherwise, you accomplish nothing by just considering all sorts of possibilities here, isn’t that more convenient than you using various means to gather information?"
Saying this, the deity passed the fishing rod to Shard, along with the pair of earrings from Miss Maxim. The cat promptly extended its paw from inside Shard’s clothes, only to be immediately patted away by Shard. The deity’s expression remained unchanged, waiting until Shard had received the items before retracting the hand.
Miss Teresa cautiously hidden behind Shard, helped thread the earrings with the fishing line and secure them. Shard hesitated for a bit before asking again:
"Oh God, may I inquire about what you have fished here?"
In fact, he thought the deity probably hadn’t caught anything because nothing new appeared around, but unexpectedly the deity smilingly pulled out three colorful bubbles from the darkness before them. On this light-suppressing sea of darkness, those bubbles were even brighter than the golden afterglow on Shard.
"See, this is my harvest."
He introduced to Shard with a boastful tone:
"These are the dreams of childhood, the most beautiful things formed from the wishes and best memories of the dead who eternally slumber in this sea regarding their childhood."