Inside the vast Soaring Theater, the performance continues. Under the host’s coordination, various acts take turns on stage—plays, magic tricks, dances, and songs. The dazzling performances win waves of applause from the audience.
Although the performances on stage are captivating, the audience’s enthusiasm gradually wanes. The applause grows weaker with each act, not because the performances are lackluster, but because the theme seems to have strayed.
This show was marketed around the famous dancer Adèle, but after her opening act and a second dance in the fourth act, she hasn’t appeared again. Her absence has left many audience members, who came specifically to see her, feeling dissatisfied. Soft murmurs of discontent occasionally ripple through the crowd.
"Strange... It’s been several acts now... Why hasn’t Miss Adèle come back on stage?"
Sitting in the front row of the audience, Nephthys murmurs as she watches the performance. She then turns to look at Dorothy beside her.
"Miss Dorothy, it’s been a while since Miss Adèle appeared. Do you think something’s wrong?"
"Something wrong? Maybe... But the show isn’t over yet. Let’s wait and see."
Dorothy responds casually, her expression indifferent as she continues to watch the performance. Seeing Dorothy like this, Nephthys thinks to herself.
“Miss Dorothy seems a bit distracted. Is she also finding the show less interesting now? I hope Miss Adèle comes back on stage soon…”
Nephthys thinks this to herself, but Dorothy’s main focus isn’t on the stage. Instead, her attention is on Maria’s room in the living quarters behind the theater’s backstage. Through Ed’s vision, Dorothy is staring at four letters on the table—one of which was written by Maria’s true murderer. “What’s the most cost-effective way to divine the true culprit?”
Looking at the four envelopes through Ed’s eyes, Dorothy ponders. If she doesn’t come up with a suitable divination method and instead tests each letter one by one, she might end up exhausting her resources without finding the answer.
Lantern spirituality is precious, and Dorothy isn’t at a point where she can casually waste it.
“Perhaps I can divide them into two groups... Perform divination on each group, then further divide the problematic group and perform another divination. That way, I can solve the problem with two divinations... But two divinations would still cost at least two points of Lantern. Can I reduce that further?”
Dorothy considers this first plan, but it would still consume two points of Lantern. She feels she might be able to reduce the cost even more.
“Let me think... Maybe I can lower the cost further if I find a better method…”
“For example, could I directly divine ‘which of these letter writers harbors malice toward Maria’... No, that would directly involve the culprit, and the anti-divination protection would cause the divination to fail.”
Dorothy realizes that under anti-divination protection, any divination targeting the protected individual would fail. Asking which of the four letter writers harbors malice would directly target the culprit, making the divination impossible.
The reason Dorothy was able to use the wand to locate the hidden letters earlier was because the divination target was the letters themselves, not the writers.
“If the divination target involves the culprit, the divination will fail... So... What if I do the opposite and divine which letters ‘aren’t’ written by the culprit?’”
Following this line of thought, Dorothy ponders for a while and suddenly comes up with an idea.
“Got it... What if I do this…”
Thinking this, Dorothy has Ed pick up a pen and paper. She first has Ed number the four envelopes as 1, 2, 3, and 4. Then, she writes down all possible combinations of three numbers from these four.
This results in four combinations.
Next, Dorothy has Ed cut these combinations into small strips of paper, each containing a three-number combination.
After cutting the strips, Dorothy has Ed crumple them into small balls and place them in a pen holder. She then has Ed take out a piece of paper with a divination array drawn on it, placing the pen holder with the paper balls on the array. Finally, she places a gold coin on the array as the spiritual cost.
This is the preparation process for a lot divination.
Once everything is ready, Dorothy begins the divination. She silently recites the divination phrase in her mind.
“Among the writers of the four letters numbered 1, 2, 3, and 4, those who harbor no malice toward Maria Dokana are…”
After reciting the phrase, Dorothy has Ed draw a paper ball from the pen holder. At the same time, the gold coin on the array loses its luster.
Ed unfolds the paper ball and reads the numbers: "124."
According to Dorothy’s divination phrase, the writers of letters 1, 2, and 4 harbor no malice toward Maria. Therefore, the only one left with malice is number 3.
Anti-divination only activates when the divination directly targets the protected individual, rendering the divination ineffective. This time, Dorothy’s divination phrase targeted those without malice, avoiding direct confrontation with the culprit protected by anti-divination, so it succeeded. Of course, this method isn’t always applicable, as divination works best when it’s direct. If the ritual becomes too complex or convoluted, the structure of the divination ritual can become unstable and fail. Fortunately, there are only four letters here, resulting in four combinations. If there were more letters, the number of combinations would increase, making the ritual too cumbersome to function.
By using this numbering and combination method along with lot divination, Dorothy identifies three non-malicious letters in one go, confirming that their writers aren’t the culprit. This leaves only letter number 3 as the culprit. Throughout this process, Dorothy only performs one divination, consuming one Lantern storage item.
“Finally, I’ve found you…”
Dorothy has Ed pick up the envelope labeled number 3 and thinks to herself. Without delay, she opens the envelope and reads the letter inside.
Through Ed’s vision, Dorothy skips over the love-filled content and focuses on the signature at the end. However, instead of a real name, the signature is a single letter: "B."
“No real name used to communicate with Maria? No matter, as long as I have this, everything will be clear.”
Dorothy thinks this, then has Ed gather all the letters signed "B." After tidying up the room, Ed leaves Maria’s room.
Exiting the living quarters, Dorothy has Ed go straight to Adèle. When Ed pushes open the door to Adèle’s room, Adèle, who is sitting on the sofa sipping red wine, immediately turns her attention to him.
"Well~ Detective, you’re back so soon. Judging by your expression, you’ve made some progress?"
Adèle says to Ed, who nods in response.
"Yes, quite a bit. I’ve found the letters from Maria’s problematic patron..."
As he speaks, Ed walks over to Adèle and places a stack of letters on the coffee table in front of her. Adèle picks up one, opens it, and glances at it before saying to Ed.
"So you found them... I just asked Rufus, and he said Maria’s private life was quite messy. She probably had more than one patron. I was worried you wouldn’t find the right letters quickly."
"I have my methods. Now that we have the key evidence, it’s time for you to step in, Miss Adèle."
Ed continues, and Adèle raises an eyebrow, looking at him.
"Step in? Detective, what do you think I can do to help you now?"
Hearing Adèle’s words, Ed looks at her seriously and says.
"Miss Adèle, you’re a Chalice Beyonder, aren’t you? And not a low-ranking one either."
Dorothy has Ed ask directly. A dancer... crimson... desire... and an enemy of the Wolf Blood Society... These clues make it clear that Adèle is a Chalice-path Beyonder. Given how the Wolf Blood Society treats her, her rank must be quite high.
"Yes, isn’t that obvious~"
Adèle replies matter-of-factly. After confirming this, Ed continues.
"Since you’re a Chalice Beyonder, you must know some methods to enhance your sense of smell, right? After all, smell is one of the sensory expressions of Chalice. So, I’d like you to use the common scent on these letters to track down the culprit."
Dorothy has Ed explain, a trick she learned from Bill. Back in Igwynt, Bill almost used his Chalice-enhanced sense of smell to track her down. Adèle, being a higher-ranking Chalice Beyonder in a prominent organization, should be able to do the same.
Although the letters passed through many hands during delivery, each letter has multiple scents. However, since there are multiple letters, and they were all handled by different postal workers but written by the same person and addressed to the same recipient, the common scent among them would belong to the writer. By eliminating Maria’s and Rufus’s scents, the remaining scent would be the culprit’s.
If you’re wondering why the writer, being a Beyonder, didn’t use Stone Powder to erase their scent, it’s because there are multiple Beyonders in the theater. If a letter treated with Stone Powder fell into the hands of one of Adèle’s Beyonders before reaching Maria, it would raise suspicions.
For example, when Dorothy used Stone Powder to remove the scent from the tracking sigil and gave it to Anna, the sigil, now scentless, blended with Anna’s own scent, making it undetectable to Bill. However, if the scentless sigil had fallen into Bill’s hands directly, he would have immediately noticed something was wrong, as the lack of scent itself would be a glaring anomaly.
If the writer had used Stone Powder to erase the scent before sending the letters, Rufus, being a Beyonder, would have noticed the anomaly immediately, and their entire plan would have fallen apart.
Therefore, Dorothy is certain that the letters carry the writer’s scent. If she can identify this scent, she’ll have a lead to find the culprit.
Hearing Ed’s words, Adèle smiles slightly and continues.
"It seems you’re quite knowledgeable about the mysticism world, Detective. Yes, as a Chalice Beyonder, I do have the ability to deeply analyze scents. Your method of finding the culprit is feasible, but... If I were to do it myself, it would be too conspicuous. I think it’s better if you handle this part."
With that, Adèle stands up and walks to a corner of the dimly lit room. She opens an ornate box and takes out a few items. Returning to the sofa, she hands Ed three sigils and three small pieces of dried meat.
"These are Scent-Tracking Sigils. By consuming Chalice spirituality, they grant you a heightened sense of smell for a short time, stronger than ordinary Scent-Discernment Sigils. Using them, you can analyze the scent on these letters and track down the scent’s owner within the theater.”
"These are quite valuable. I only have three, and I’m giving them all to you. As for these dried meats, they’re Chalice spirituality storage items, providing the spirituality needed to activate the sigils."
Hearing Adèle’s explanation, Dorothy has Ed curiously accept the sigils and dried meat. After examining the dried meat, Ed asks.
"What kind of meat is this? It’s not human flesh, is it? If it is, I’ll pass."
"Oh~ So the noble detective has moral standards? How rare. Truly a righteous detective, aren’t you?" Adèle says with interest, feeling increasingly intrigued by the man before her.
"Don’t worry, it’s not human flesh. It’s beef. While human flesh is indeed the best choice for Chalice storage items and is favored by the follower of Blood Feast Method, not all Chalice storage items have to be human flesh.”
"Some Chalice organizations, while they do consume the flesh of living beings to accumulate spirituality, primarily consume the meat of livestock. The spirituality in animal flesh is much weaker than that in human flesh and is difficult to extract, but with the right methods, it’s possible to obtain Chalice spirituality from animal flesh. These dried meats are made by such organizations. You can try them; they taste quite good."
Adèle explains slowly. As Ed listens, he examines the dried meat but can’t determine whether it’s human flesh or not. In the end, he decides to keep it.
“Well, I’ll keep it for now. I can always use my own Chalice spirituality to activate the sigils.”
Dorothy thinks this, then has Ed store the sigils and storage items. She then has Ed ask Adèle one more question.
"Thank you for your support, Miss Adèle. Now I can finally find the culprit. But to narrow down the search area, I have one more question: What’s the maximum range of your passive ability to sense killing intent?"
"With me at the center, a radius of 137 meters. Within that range, I can sense any desire targeting me."
Adèle answers directly, and Dorothy has Ed nod in response.
Next, Dorothy closes her eyes and recalls the theater’s floor plan she saw earlier in the management office. Using Adèle’s stage area as the origin point, she mentally draws a circle with a radius of 137 meters based on the scale of the map.
This circle encompasses much of the theater, including most of the audience seating. This means the culprit isn’t within this range, or Adèle would have sensed their killing intent.
Adèle’s sensing circle immediately eliminates a large portion of the search area. Now, Dorothy only needs to search the remaining small edge areas to find the culprit’s scent.
And searching these few edge areas won’t take long.
"Thank you for your cooperation, Miss Adèle. I think... this investigation is nearing its end. Please wait for good news..."
With that, Ed prepares to leave. Just as he’s about to exit, Adèle calls out to him, her expression serious as she speaks to his back.
"Detective, if you really find that wolf cub hiding in this theater, don’t act rashly. Remember to inform me. Those people are dangerous."
Hearing Adèle’s words, Ed pauses slightly, then turns around with a smile and says to her.
"Can I take that as... you caring about me, Miss Adèle?"
"...I just want to personally deal with whoever dared to cause trouble during my performance and kill Maria. Don’t misunderstand. Of course~ If such an excellent detective like you were to die from reckless actions, I would feel quite sorry."
Adèle says with a serious tone, and Ed smiles, gives her a bow, then turns and walks out of the room.
Now, it’s time to bring the culprit to light.