Chapter 109
*
After finishing dinner with Julian.
Led by Charlotte, Jenny headed to the Kaberdak clinic they had already examined.
“Jenny. If I'm right, the Kaberdak procedure tools would have been a breeding ground for germs.”
“Didn't you check them the last time you investigated?”
“As I always say, observation is about choice and focus. It's not about cramming everything into your head, but the things that seem important.”
“You mean you weren't all that interested in the procedure tools back then?”
“Back then I only looked around the storeroom to check the materials.”
The two arrived at the first Kaberdak clinic after chatting idly.
The owner of the clinic in the academy's back alleys greeted the two with bandages wrapped around his head.
“Y-you... you two are....”
“We've come to check once more.”
“Th-the storeroom is over there....”
A huddled Kaberdak pointed to the door leading to the storeroom.
His bruised, swollen cheek looked rather pitiful.
But Charlotte shook her head despite Kaberdak's kind guidance.
“This time, what we're going to look at isn't the storeroom but the procedure room.”
As soon as she finished speaking, Kaberdak's face went deathly pale and he blocked the procedure-room door.
“Absolutely not!”
“We're only going to look at the tools.”
“That's exactly what I mean by no! Even if they're not as sacred as mages' grimoires, the structure of the room used for procedures and the magical tools are the lifeblood of Kaberdaks!”
“Didn't I tell you last time that I wasn't interested in your trade secrets?”
Charlotte answered calmly and headed for the procedure room.
But Kaberdak was just as stubborn.
“Even if I showed you the materials, the magical tools and the room itself are absolutely off-limits! Ask any Kaberdak in this domain—those are the one thing we can't allow!”
“...”
Charlotte stared at the tearful Kaberdak for a while.
Before long, she shook her head and took a step back.
“All right.”
“Uh...?”
“If the procedure room is like a mage's grimoire, then I should respect it too.”
Charlotte withdrew from the procedure room.
Jenny followed after Charlotte, tilting her head.
“Why don't you just hit him and make him move like last time?”
“That was because we were searching the storeroom. A Kaberdak's storeroom isn't as sacred an area as a mage's grimoire, so there was no need to respect it. And....”
Charlotte's eyes turned cold as she recalled what had happened then.
“That man sexually harassed us first.”
“...He did, yeah.”
Jenny remembered that too, and looked at the clinic with a disgusted gaze.
“Come to think of it, that pisses me off. We should've hit him more back then. Aren't you angry, Charlotte?”
“I hit him enough to get it out of my system, so I'm fine.”
“You really are something.”
The two, having backed away from the procedure room, headed to the next one.
— “I'm sorry, little lady. The storeroom is fine, but the procedure room is not.”
— “The procedure room is infused with the family secrets passed down through our line for generations.... Sorry.”
— “You want me to show you the surgical tools at least? Hmm....”
Most of the Kaberdaks refused.
Even the Kaberdaks refused when asked to at least show their surgical tools.
But after persistent inquiries, the last Kaberdak agreed to show them his surgical tools.
“Well.... I'm going to retire soon anyway, and I don't have any children or disciples to inherit it.... Fine. If it helps our future hero, I suppose I should show you.”
The elderly Kaberdak led Charlotte into the procedure room.
The detective duo stepped into the procedure room with pounding hearts.
And then, the scene the two faced was....
“Huh?”
“Why... is it clean...?”
A clean, well-kept procedure room.
Blood, rust, mold.
No matter how hard they looked, the things they'd imagined were nowhere to be found.
“May I ask why the surgical tools are so clean?”
“Ah, this?”
Picking up a gleaming engraving razor, the Kaberdak explained.
“Some Kaberdaks think the blood and rust that seep into their blades are signs of experience, so they don't sharpen them much, but perhaps because I'm old, if I don't keep the edge well maintained, engraving becomes terribly difficult.”
The old man cackled, proudly showing off the razor.
Even after that, he kept explaining the magical tools and the procedure room, but Charlotte couldn't find anything particularly problematic.
“Thank you for the explanation, sir. This is your fee.”
“Right. Would you like to see another procedure room?”
“Is that possible?”
“I can introduce you to the procedure rooms of people I know.”
“I'm truly grateful.”
After that, the two examined the procedure rooms the old man had introduced them to.
Some of the procedure rooms were, as expected, soaked in rust and blood, while others were as clean as the old man's.
As they inspected those procedure rooms, Charlotte's doubts only deepened.
“Something's odd.”
“What do you mean, Charlotte? Germs are invisible anyway, aren't they? Even in those clean-looking procedure rooms, germs can still spread.”
“If that were the case, then everyone would show the same symptoms regardless of the engraving or the procedure location. But all of the victims had received the <Toxic Immunity> engraving. Isn't that strange?”
“Come to think of it, it is....”
Charlotte had a point.
If ordinary germs were the issue, it made no sense for the problem to occur only with that engraving.
“Then maybe it's a side effect of that engraving?”
“The <Toxic Immunity> engraving is an old one. No side effects like that have ever been reported.”
“Ugh....”
Jenny pressed her fingers against her temples as she pondered.
“Then how about giving your fiancé one more hint....”
“...”
“Sorry. I guess your pride won't allow that.”
The two put their heads together for a while, trying to figure out the reason.
“For now it's late, so let's check tomorrow.”
In the end, they put off uncovering the truth until tomorrow and returned to the dormitory.
By the time the day was over and Jenny was just about to fall asleep,
Murmur, murmur.
“Charlotte. We can just sleep and check in the morning.”
Mumble, mumble.
“Charlotte?”
“Yeah!”
“Jeez!”
Charlotte suddenly sprang up from the bed.
She put her coat back on and said,
“Jenny. Tomorrow morning I'm not waking you up, so get up on your own!”
“No, what is that supposed to mean all of a sudden...?”
“I have something to look into!”
After saying her piece, Charlotte left the room.
Looking at the door she'd disappeared through, Jenny muttered with a dazed expression.
“Let me sleep already, you little brat.”
*
The next day at lunch.
Jenny ate lunch face-to-face with a familiar person in a familiar place.
“Thank you for inviting me, Sir Julian.”
“I'm the one who's more grateful.”
Clatter.
A braised scallop dish with white basil and a beef tongue steak was placed in front of Jenny.
As he had the previous evening, Julian took the seat of honor and said,
“Thank you for keeping Charlotte company in my place. Today's invitation is meant to thank you not as a professor, but as her fiancé personally, so please don't feel pressured.”
“That's unexpected. From what I heard from Charlotte, you're not the kind of person who gives special treatment inside the academy.”
“Because I have a life on weekends.”
Julian pointed to the calendar.
Today was Saturday.
“Maybe not on weekdays, but is inviting a close acquaintance to your home on the weekend also special treatment?”
“When you put it that way, I have nothing to say.”
Yum.
Jenny savored the food on her plate.
“Do you often make dishes like this for Charlotte as well, Sir Julian?”
“Whenever we meet and I have time, I usually do. If I weren't an academy professor, I might even have packed her lunch.”
“Charlotte is lucky. To have such a kind fiancé.”
“It's only a hobby, after all. That's rather embarrassing.”
Clatter.
“So, the reason you called me was...?”
“To ask about Charlotte's recent situation, and to make a personal request.”
Julian wiped the corner of his mouth with a napkin.
A gentle voice came from beyond the napkin.
“Is Charlotte making friends well?”
“Yes. The first year is almost over, and of course she's made plenty of friends.”
“About how many?”
“I'm sorry for lying.”
Julian gave a wry smile.
“How's the investigation into yesterday's incident going?”
“Actually, yesterday she ran off saying she'd figured out the reason.”
“Then we'll have results within a day or two.”
Julian glanced at the calendar briefly.
Before long, he nodded.
“It looks like Miss Charlotte will reach the truth before the investigation bureau does. I spoke with the bureau chief this morning, and he was still suspecting the black mages.”
“Come to think of it, I do have something I'd like to ask, Sir Julian.”
Jenny raised her hand cautiously.
“Judging by the atmosphere, isn't this more of an accident than an incident? In the end, it should be about an undiagnosed illness, so I can't understand why Charlotte is taking it this seriously....”
“Do you really think so?”
“Huh?”
At Julian's voice, which somehow seemed amused,
Jenny lifted her head and looked at him.
A man smiling as he swirled a wineglass.
His smile somehow looked suspicious.
“You say this seems more like an accident than an incident.”
“What do you mean by that...?”
“Let me tell you something interesting.”
Julian picked up the knife lying in front of him.
Running his fingertips along the sharply honed meat knife, he said,
“Miss Jenny. There are no coincidences in this world.”
“...?”
“If this were a simple illness caused by an accident, then recently several people wouldn't have been found in the alleyways in that state 'all of a sudden.' If it had been happening steadily for ages, perhaps.”
“...Ah.”
“Miss Charlotte probably thinks the same way I do. Of course, it seems she only reached that conclusion starting last night.”
“Then, Professor... do you know who the culprit is?”
“No?”
Julian shook his head.
“I know how to find the culprit, but I don't have the time to run around myself, so I can't identify them. That's Miss Charlotte's job.”
“Why don't you catch them yourself, Professor...?”
“I told you. Because that's Miss Charlotte's job.”
Julian picked up a fork and a knife.
“You can use a knife like a fork. You can use a fork like a knife. But in this world, everyone has their own assigned role.”
Using the fork and knife to cut his food, Julian said,
“My role is to figure out how to protect you all from black mages. And if it's not a black mage, then that role should be left to someone else.”
“If so, then...”
At those words, Jenny unconsciously asked,
“If you really know the method, could you whisper it to me alone?”
“As long as you don't tell Miss Charlotte.”
“There's no way she'd like that, so of course not.”
“Understood.”
Julian nodded and set his utensils down for a moment.
“The culprit is simple. The Kaberdak who treated the first victim is the culprit.”
“What? Why?”
“To explain that, I think I'd need to show you my laboratory... Would you follow me?”
Jenny nodded.
It was the weekend anyway, so she had time to spare.
Julian led Jenny to the laboratory set up in his mansion.
Along the way, Julian gave a brief explanation of Kaberdaks.
“You're a healer too, Miss Jenny, so I don't need to explain the principles of catalysts, symbols, and ritual formulas, do I?”
“Yes. I know them.”
“Kaberdaks work on the same principle.”
The ritual formula is the wording of the tattoo.
The symbol is the place where the tattoo is inscribed.
And the catalyst is the tattoo ink.
“The catalysts Kaberdaks use are the ingredients mixed into the ink. They can't hide the tattoo itself, but they can keep the materials and the place where the procedure is performed secret. That's why Kaberdaks have to wear blindfolds whenever they perform procedures.”
“I see. But why does that mean the first victim's practitioner is the culprit?”
“That Kaberdak figured out how to mix poison into the ink.”
“Poison?”
Julian nodded.
“When Charlotte was eating yesterday, she suspected that poison hemlock and water hemlock had been mixed into the Kaberdaks' materials, right?”
“Yes. Though in reality, that wasn't it.”
“To be precise, what Charlotte missed was that it wasn't the materials themselves that were the problem, but the substance that came along with them—the poison.”
“What is it?”
“Soil.”
“Soil...?”
Soil as poison?
For Jenny, it was hard to understand.
If that were the case, then people who handle soil every day should be showing those symptoms, shouldn't they?
As if he had read her thoughts, Julian continued his explanation.
“Soil doesn't become poison just by eating it or touching it. The germs left in that soil are extremely vulnerable to air. To survive, they need a chance to burrow deep into contaminated tissue. For example, through a knife or a nail.”
Julian thought of one bacterium.
Clostridium.
The bacterium better known as the cause of tetanus.
Tetanus, contrary to common belief, isn't contracted from rusty objects.
It's actually contracted from soil.
However, the bacteria growing in that soil are too vulnerable to air, so they can only exert their effects after boring deep into tissue through nails or knives.
‘I’d love to explain the mechanism too, but….’
It wasn't something he could explain when it still hadn't been revealed to the world.
So Julian glossed over it by saying it needed the help of knives or nails.
“This is my deduction. The Kaberdak who treated the first victim probably realized that his customer died because of the soil in the ink. So, using that, he must have smeared soil onto the materials used by the other Kaberdaks.”
“Why would he do that...?”
“If his competitors kept using that ink without knowing, rumors would eventually spread that people treated at those clinics were dying, and he'd be the only one left standing.”
Besides, even if the truth were exposed halfway through, he could still disguise it as an accident.
In many ways, it was a perfect plan.
But Jenny didn't seem to accept that explanation easily.
“There's no way. A Kaberdak who hadn't received formal healer training couldn't have known something even healers didn't....”
“Jenny.”
Julian's cool voice cut her off.
“It's not good to look down on them just because their profession is different. Observation is a talent everyone has, and some people are the first to notice it. Some dismiss it as coincidence, but I don't think of it as coincidence.”
There are no coincidences.
That sentence sank deep into Jenny's mind.
She couldn't bring herself to refute it.
“Then, if what the professor says is true....”
“Miss Charlotte seems to have inferred that much last night as well. By now, she's probably looking for evidence at the first Kaberdak clinic.”
His footsteps stopped in front of the laboratory.
“That evidence is why Miss Charlotte came to see me late last night.”
“Why...?”
“She must have thought I'd have the proof needed to be certain. And as it happens, I do.”
He opened the door.
When the door opened, white mice trapped inside cages came into view.
All of them dead, with their backs bent.
“T-those are....”
“As soon as the incident happened and the autopsy request came in, I ran the experiment. That was about a week ago, and the results only came in yesterday.”
Julian pointed to an empty cage.
“Miss Charlotte took a few mice with her last night. It looks like she intends to use them as evidence.... I wanted to be the one to uncover it first, but Charlotte is faster when it comes to action...”
Julian let out a regretful sigh.
Jenny quietly put some distance between herself and Julian.
“Miss Jenny?”
“...”
“Why are you putting your hand inside your sleeve...?”
“It's nothing.”
“...”
Feeling the revolver in her fingertips, Jenny stared at Julian with eyes full of fear.