Chapter 738 The Case of the Murdered Seed 7
To the onlookers, it looked as if the Head and the King of Lanthanor were appalled because something horrendous had happened.
Yet…for the life of them, they couldn't understand why that was the case.
And as for Luther, who was looking at everything through a display trinket that was set up so that he could see everything as if he was seeing through Daneel's eyes…he was ecstatic.
"Well done, My King! Forget what I said before! You do have a knack for this!"
As the King heard this and cracked a smile in amusement, the spell that seemed to have been cast over the atmosphere finally broke, because Dave, who was actually still in one piece, had woken up and was groggily looking around.
"Wh-what? I-I felt the most terrible pain! I was burning into ashes…right?"
"Wrong."
As Daneel triumphantly said this, the Head pointed a finger, and Dave fell unconscious.
After this, he turned to Daneel and said, "I must admit that even though I knew that something was fishy, I couldn't have pulled that off."
"Oh, don't shortchange yourself. It was your idea to use the property of the human brain to see what it believes. You made him believe that he had the knife even though anyone with even a peanut of a brain would have taken it away, and his brain believed that it could use it. So…we managed to confirm our hypothesis. Dave…is being manipulated using Mind Control, and he was clearly ordered not to have his mind scanned, and if it was imminent, he was told to kill himself to stop it in any way possible."
As Daneel said this, those of the investigative department widened their eyes and looked at him as if they were seeing him in a new light.
He…had planned whatever had happened, and he had also managed to confirm something that they hadn't even begun to suspect?
Either they were dumb, or he was smart.
And if Daneel knew that they were asking themselves that question, he would have said that both were right.
It had all started when the Head had asked Daneel to leave with the intent to check if the five had been Mind Controlled.
At that time, Daneel, who had a lot of experience in Mind Control, had realized that whoever was behind this must have thought of this possibility.
If one's mind was skimmed, it was possible that their identity could be found out. Hence…anyone would want to take precautions, and here, that precaution had a probability of being that those who were going to be scanned would kill themselves.
If this happened, it could be proven beyond doubt that it was Mind Control, and hence, Daneel had told the Head to simply…act dumb.
The idea was that if the Head left some sort of avenue for the person in question to kill themselves, if a command did exist, it would be triggered.
He had explained this, and it had been the Head's idea to use a form of Mind Control that was very subtle, and didn't require forcefully breaking into one's mind. In fact, it could almost be called a simple illusion spell, and hearing of it had made Daneel recall the so-called magicians back on Earth who also used misdirection to fool people.
Daneel's job was to push whoever was chosen by the Head into a corner, and he had done that by acting like that before. It was possible that he could have let something slip, so, he had taken the ultimate precaution of asking the system to erase his own memory of putting this in place.
He had trusted the Head to take his own precautions, and that was what had resulted in them looking so genuinely appalled.
In fact, because they had been fooled, too, by the Head's spell, they had even thought for a moment that Dave was really burning up.
Only, it was momentary, and after that, Dave could be seen shaking while his empty hand which still believed it held the dagger was poised over his body, as in his vision, he had succeeded in pricking himself with it.
All in all, by now, it was clear that the culprit had placed all kinds of precautions, and because this was the case…Daneel got a suspicion.
As the Head walked to him, he said, "Wait, wake him up for a moment. I just thought of something that could be possible."
"Hmm? We agreed that its best to keep him unconscious as more precautions could be present, right?"
"Rather than that, it makes sense to place something more…permanent. Just wake him up and ask him what he remembers regarding the past month."
Not totally convinced, but still listening to Daneel, the Head did so, and the look of confusion on Dave's face gave the clear answer.
All of his memories in the last two months had been wiped.
Unable to believe it, the Head went ahead to skim his mind anyway, as there was no longer a need to stay vigilant.
And a few seconds later, he got a frustrated expression on his face when he sent Daneel the message that they were completely gone. He could find no trace of them, and even the most skilled in this domain would be hard-pressed to recover anything at all.
Hence, Daneel called the Head over and gave him his conclusions regarding the case so far.
"This makes it all both murkier, and clearer. What we have established is that someone Mind Controlled all five of them, and placed precautions to make sure that their identity wouldn't be revealed even if the minds of the five were checked. There are multiple layers of precautions, with some that were made so as to hide the fact that there is even anyone who has Mind Controlled them in the first place. After all, if you really had been dumb enough to let him die, even though it would have been suspicious, we wouldn't have been able to prove, beyond a doubt, that there was the hand of Mind Control behind this. If all else failed, the go-to strategy was to erase all traces, like someone who has first tried to push their murder on someone else, before changing that attempt to making sure that the investigators won't find any clues. Now that we have proven it, the only task that remains is to find who might be behind it. Who would want to kill Letitia and make it look like an assassin had done it? What motive could there be? While I get on to figuring this out, I think what you need to do is clear."
After saying that last line, Daneel nodded in the direction of the Head's hand, which held the real dagger that Dave had wanted to use.
Nodding, the Head replied, "Yes, I'll get started on finding the origin of this thing, and the means with which it was concealed. It was a close shave. The dagger was hidden so well that I could only detect it after it was unsheathed. If it weren't for a recent breakthrough, I would have failed in stopping it. I daresay that any one else on this continent would definitely have failed, and a pile of ash would have been all that would have been left by Dave. What about his story, though? Could he have really loved Letitia, and become jealous?"
Thinking for a bit, Daneel answered, "I'll have to talk to the others regarding this. Like I said, I gather that you woke only him up, so that the others won't know that they are about to have their minds scanned?"
"Yes."
"Good. Then separate them all, and tell them that it is for their own safety. It seems that asking questions is fine, so maybe I'll try that route. Even if I don't…just keep them separate, and make sure that no information passes on to them."
Almost as if he was his subordinate, the Head dutifully nodded and teleported away, and Daneel had to admit that he quite liked that.
Luther interrupted his thoughts.
"What do you plan to do next, My King? I think it is best for me to take a backseat in this matter, because I couldn't have known Mind Control well enough to think of that possibility before. I guess I'll keep watching, and jump in if I have some suggestions."
All right, Dr. Watson.
Saying this in his mind and smiling again, Daneel replied, "It's all very fishy, but there is one thing that I keep suspecting. I didn't know how how the Head would react if I said it to him, so I kept it with myself."
"Do you mean the possibility that the one who was killed might be the one behind all this?"
Daneel couldn't help but chuckle as he heard this.
"Exactly. Why do you think so?"
"It was just in my list of possibilities, because the victim turning out to be the culprit is something that happens far too much in many cases I've seen. You, My Lord?"
The chuckle turned into a laugh on hearing Luther's answer.
Indeed, it was a cliche even in the books back on Earth, but that wasn't a reason for Daneel to ignore it.
It was possible that it could still be the case, and if it was, because of the unique method of using Mind Control, the whole thing might still prove itself to be a pretty unique incident.
"Oh, I just hate that sect, and suspect all who are associated with it of treachery. Well, hate is a strong word. Let's just say that I never want to find myself in a position where I have no choice but to trust them. Anyway, although the suspicion is fine, we first have to go see if that's even possible. And that…means going to a place I really did not want to go back to anytime soon."
…
A minute later, Daneel was back in the place which had given him such a bad memory that just seeing it again made him feel on edge.
He had been allowed in right away, and a second after he had been escorted into the same cave as last time, he saw the Sect leader arrive and shout, "I MISSED YOU!"
Like a lovesick girl who was seeing her boyfriend again, she ran toward him with open arms, and as Drakos appeared between Daneel and Erin as it looked like the latter would go ahead and just hug Daneel if he didn't show up, she caught him in a vice-like grip and kissed him as if they were alone in the room.
If Daneel hadn't averted his gaze while shaking his head, he would have seen Drakos blush before pulling himself away.
Even after that, she stayed in his arms and turned to Daneel before saying, "Hey, Cockroach."
If there was a weapon that could instantly decimate Empire Spirits, Daneel wouldn't have thought twice before using it.
Yet, consoling himself by the fact that she had been fooled just like everyone else who was watching, he got straight to the point.
"Is there any technique in your sect where one can grow stronger by dying?"
After Daneel asked the question, there was silence for a few moments, after which Erin actually burst out laughing.
The answer she gave after controlling her laughter made Daneel widen his eyes, while once again wishing for the weapon he had just dreamed about.
"Do you forget that we are all about Life and Death, honey? Of course there are such techniques, but I can't tell you about them, unless you are accepted into the sect. I can't even tell the Head, for that matter. But if this is about Letitia, I can promise you one thing: if she's behind this, and I say 'if' because I can't be sure, either, then there will be more deaths soon. However…you'll never be able to catch her, Cockroach King."