The blue light of the memory crystal hovered in the room’s space for a few more seconds, then Morcan’s final image shattered like dust of light in the air, and everything fell back into a heavy silence.
A silence that this time was born not from calmness, but from the weight of a truth known only to two people in the entire tower.
After leaving that house, they had returned to the guest room, and after the first time, they watched the recorded footage again and again to see if they could extract any additional details.
Unfortunately, the result was the same each time. No extra details that could help them in any way.
Serys was still staring at the same spot where Morcan’s image had been visible moments ago.
Her hands trembled slightly.
Her mind still couldn’t connect all the events that had happened in the past few minutes.
Lioran...
The murders...
The only living founder...
Everything was so unbelievable that for a moment she felt she might be hallucinating.
She knew Lioran was behind the murders; that was known to her. But the founder? The only living founder of the tower?
Why? Why would he support those murders and the killer? What reason could there be?
But Daniel didn’t remain in shock for even a second.
He slowly reached out and picked up the memory crystal from the table. The crystal’s transparent surface still held the warmth of the mana recorded within it.
Daniel turned it in his fingers for a few moments, then placed it into his storage space.
The crystal silently disappeared inside it, and the rift closed immediately, as if it had never existed.
Only then did Daniel take a quiet breath.
"From this moment on... pretend this crystal never existed." His gaze turned from the window back to Serys.
Serys looked at him in disbelief.
"What? But this... is the best evidence we could have found. This is Morcan’s direct confession. If we show it to the tower leader right now, everything will be over."
Daniel shook his head slowly.
"No. This isn’t the best evidence. This... is the final evidence."
"What do you mean?" Serys frowned. She couldn’t understand the logic behind this. Daniel had said these words before leaving that house too.
In her view, they just needed to show this to the leader. Then it wouldn’t even matter how popular Lioran was; he would definitely be convicted.
How could he possibly cover this up any further?
Daniel quietly walked to the window. From up there, almost the entire tower was visible. Guards moving through the courtyards.
Professors hurrying between buildings. Students still reeling from the shock of recent events.
The entire tower had become like a beehive that had been struck with a stick.
Everyone was moving, everyone was searching for answers, but no one was asking the right question.
"If we show this crystal now... Lioran and whoever is behind him will know exactly how much of the truth we know."
"Then... all remaining traces will disappear. All remaining witnesses will vanish. All evidence we don’t yet know about will be erased forever. Are you going to convict a founder with this evidence?"
"A Demi-God? The most powerful being in the tower? Even if you convict him and everyone believes it, what will you do then? Can anyone do anything?"
"Before all of this, we first need to understand what that founder’s goal is. Why he supports Lioran. There must be a reason. And after that, we stop that support."
Serys slowly lowered her head. The more she thought about Daniel’s words, the more she realized he was right.
Although this crystal showed the truth, it still wasn’t enough to defeat Lioran. And more importantly, if the founder was involved in this story, he would surely suppress everything and free Lioran.
No one can convict a Demi-God or say they should be punished for their mistakes. The best they could do was stop the founder’s support for Lioran.
Then catching Lioran would be easy.
Daniel sat back down on the chair, his eyes closed. He reviewed all of Morcan’s sentences one by one in his mind.
He was in no hurry to conclude. On the contrary, like a chess player calculating ten moves ahead, he placed each word together repeatedly.
He had many questions.
Why did Morcan betray? Why would he betray Lioran and risk angering a Demi-God? Was he unhappy with his end? Revenge? Or another reason?
He was really curious to know the reason for that founder’s support for Lioran. Surely it wasn’t without reason. Such an ancient being certainly had their own reasons.
He also doubted that the founder would suppress evidence and news. Rather, he felt the founder would do something to keep hidden the method by which Lioran suppressed evidence and news about the murders.
Suddenly, his eyes opened.
"Protocol Three..."
He whispered this sentence very quietly, and Serys raised her head.
"What?"
"From the very beginning... doesn’t it seem strange to you? Morcan never said what Lioran would do after being exposed."
"It’s as if he was sure such a situation had already been anticipated."
He was silent for a few seconds.
"Then that sentence... ’someone always fixed everything.’ Evidence would disappear, cases would be closed, witnesses would be silenced." Daniel tapped his finger quietly on the armrest.
"This isn’t the work of one person. Not even two. This... is a structure. A network. A system built over years to protect Lioran. Built by himself, but hidden and supported by the founder."
The room fell into silence again.
Serys felt that every sentence Daniel spoke made the dimensions of the conspiracy larger.
Daniel continued quietly:
"We can first find and dismantle this network, effectively cutting off Lioran’s arms."
For the first time, Serys felt this case was no longer just a murder investigation, but a battle against something that had grown in the darkness for years.
"So... what should we do now? Do you want to use your Fallen to find them?"
"We’re not bringing the Fallen into this part." Daniel answered without the slightest pause.
Serys was surprised.
"Why?"
"Because we still don’t know exactly what abilities Lioran’s supporter has."
"If a Demi-God is really behind this, constant use of the Fallen might attract their attention."
"Instead... we’ll use something the tower leader himself gave us." Daniel thought for a moment and then said.
His gaze fell on Serys’s insignia.
"Authority. With this insignia, all the tower’s archives are open to you."
"I want you to compile a list of everyone who has been allowed access to the tower’s depths or the founder’s residence over the past four or five years."
Serys thought for a bit.
"You think the founder himself gives the orders directly?"
Daniel shook his head.
"No."
"If he really was involved... he would never enter the game directly. He must have had an intermediary. Someone who delivered the messages. Someone who moved without attracting attention."
"And that person... is probably the biggest missing piece of this case."
After all, the intermediary might still know why the founder supports Lioran.
At that same moment, kilometers away, in the deepest part of Lioran’s private quarters, a heavy silence reigned over his massive library.
Countless bookshelves stretched to the ceiling like silent soldiers.
Lioran stood by the window.
His gaze wasn’t directed outside. In fact, he wasn’t seeing anything at all. All his focus was on a sentence he had heard minutes ago.
A voice that had echoed in his mind from the depths of the tower, from a place few were even allowed to approach, delivering news to him.
"Morcan... may have left something behind."
That was it.
No further explanation, no location, no indication of what it was. Just this brief warning.
Lioran’s eyebrows furrowed slightly.
He knew Morcan better than anyone. If he had truly decided to betray before his death... it wouldn’t be surprising if he had hidden something for a rainy day.
But the more important question was something else. That thing... whose hands was it in now?
He stood in silence for a few moments.
Then he quietly rang a small silver bell on his desk.
Less than a few seconds later, a man in black entered the room and knelt silently.
Lioran didn’t even look at him.
He only said one sentence:
"If Morcan left something behind... find it. Anything. Anywhere. Before anyone else gets to it."
The man in black, without asking even a single question, lowered his head.
"It will be done."
Then he disappeared in silence.
Lioran was alone again. His gaze quietly fixed on the darkness outside.
For the first time in a long while, he felt the chessboard was no longer completely under his control.