"Miss Aozaki."
Wayland's voice cut through the quiet observation of the others. He looked toward Touko Aozaki, who had been leaning against a tree, watching the 'detective drama' with a look of detached amusement. "Would you be so kind as to perform an examination on Karina?"
"Oh?" Touko's lips curved into a playful smile. "And why should I do that?"
"Because you were the one who performed the magical modifications on her."
"Are you certain of that?" Touko tapped her temple with an inquisitive finger. "Perhaps my memory is beginning to fail me in my old age? I have absolutely no recollection of such a thing."
"A simple check will confirm it," Wayland said, gesturing toward the body.
Touko shrugged, pushed off from the tree, and walked over to Karina. As she began her examination, the amusement slowly faded from her face, replaced by a dark, unreadable intensity.
"This is indeed my work," she murmured, her voice dropping an octave. "But why do I have no memory of doing it?"
Wayland's gaze shifted to Byron Iselma, who was visibly sweating now, his complexion turning a sickly pale. "Lord Byron, perhaps you could summon your pharmacist, Miao? Lord Byron?"
He had to repeat the name before Byron snapped out of his daze. With the eyes of the two Great Lords fixed on him, Byron had no choice but to nod.
A few minutes later, Miao arrived. He walked with his head ducked low, his entire posture screaming of a deep-seated insecurity and anxiety.
"Miao," Wayland began. "As the specialized pharmacist for the princesses, your skills must be exceptional. Tell me: is it possible for you to create a potion capable of blocking or altering specific memories?"
"...I... I can."
"So," Touko said, her eyes lighting up with interest. "I was contracted to perform work and then made to drink a memory-suppressing elixir? How fascinating."
"Miss Aozaki, does this ash look familiar to you?"
Wayland didn't answer her directly. Instead, he produced the sample of grey ash he'd found in the Golden Princess's room and handed it to her.
"This?" Touko rubbed the powder between her fingers. "This is... the residue of my magecraft."
"Specifically, it is the residue of the Bodhi Leaf catalyst that Lord Byron spent a fortune to acquire," Wayland added.
"What?!"
Byron's cane slipped from his grasp, the thud muffled by the damp earth. He stared at Touko in disbelief. "Miss Aozaki... how? Even if...!"
The words were as good as a confession.
Wayland looked back at Touko. "Miss Aozaki used the Bodhi Leaf to craft a replacement 'Golden Princess',that replacement being Karina, the girl who appeared at last night's banquet. The original Diadra had already died due to the fatal backlash of Lord Byron's excessive modifications. To hide the death and proceed with the high-profile banquet, Lord Byron contracted you to create a temporary substitute. The memory-blocking potion was likely a part of the contract to ensure the secret remained buried."
"Ha!"
Touko burst into a sudden, genuine laugh. "Hahaha! I see it now. It was 'Cinderella' magecraft!"
"The Bodhi Leaf, having been bathed in dragon blood, is famously resistant to traditional alteration," Wayland explained. "Lord Byron and Miss Aozaki must have used an extraordinary method to refine it. But judging by Lord Byron's reaction, he wasn't aware that Miss Aozaki had reduced the precious catalyst to ash."
"If it were me, that's exactly how I would have handled it," Touko said, her voice full of a prideful, artistic satisfaction. "Using a catalyst of that caliber for a 'Cinderella' transformation? It's a magnificent concept. In the legends, Siegfried was a man who transformed into an immortal hero. Cinderella was a commoner who used 'makeup' to transform into the most beautiful princess in the world. The compatibility for a ritual of rebirth and metamorphosis is perfect. I actually regret not remembering the moment I thought of it."
Silence fell over the clearing.
"Why?!" Byron shouted, his voice cracking with desperation. "Miss Aozaki, why did you have to do something so unnecessary? All we needed was to get through that single night...!"
"My deepest apologies," Touko said, offering a smile that was as brilliant and fleeting as autumn sunlight. "But that is simply the kind of person I am."
***
Her arrogance was breathtaking.
Aside from Inora, who merely wore a look of weary resignation, the rest of the group was left speechless by Touko's admission.
Wayland couldn't help but feel a twinge of envy. 'I wonder when I'll reach a level where I can treat a legendary catalyst like a disposable prop?'
He cleared his throat, pulling the attention back to the case. "The first mystery has been solved. The killer of the original Diadra was Lord Byron himself, and the Golden Princess we saw last night was a creation of Miss Aozaki, using Karina as a vessel. That brings us to the second mystery: who framed Reines?"
Wayland looked from the broken Byron to Regina, the twin maid standing silently behind him. "I believe both of you have the answer."
"What are you talking about?" Byron stammered, stepping back. But Regina didn't move. She didn't even look away.
"Since Karina was playing the role of the Golden Princess, the only one who could have acted as her maid was her twin, Regina. When Lord Barthomeloi spoke those words at the banquet,mentioning the 'Beauty that could reach the Root',you and the Silver Princess, Estella, realized a terrible truth: you were looking at a Sealing Designation."
Wayland paused, letting the weight of the term sink in. "The Association would never ignore a breakthrough of that magnitude. Combined with Lord Byron's obsession with continuing his research, you realized that Estella was destined to follow Diadra to the grave, or spend her entire life locked away in the Clock Tower's archives.
"You decided to flee. You decided to announce the original Golden Princess's death by framing Reines, sparking a conflict between the Democratic and Aristocratic factions to ensure that investigative resources would be tied up and the Association would be too busy cleaning up the political mess to hunt you down.
"As for you, Lord Byron... after the original Diadra died, you couldn't bear to let the data go to waste, so you performed a final, clinical autopsy. When you saw the 'corpse' in the Golden Princess's room this morning, you knew Reines was being framed. But you were too busy wondering which of your own household had betrayed you,or perhaps you even suspected your parent house, the Valualetas."
Wayland finished his deduction and walked over to the natural spring. He found a piece of luggage hidden nearby.
"In the Siegfried legend, both the bath of dragon blood and the moment of death occurred by a spring. Karina came here to undo the 'makeup',to shed the Golden Princess persona so she could escape. That brings us to the final mystery: who killed her?"
Wayland set the luggage down in front of them and looked directly at Miao.
"Regina and Karina were twins; their bond was undeniable. They grew up in this tower, serving the princesses, and their mutual trust was absolute. But aside from her sister, there was one other person Karina believed she could trust with her life. You, Miao."
"You suggested another possibility earlier," Regina said, finally breaking her silence. "Karina's magical talent was mediocre at best, even with the modifications. Any competent magus could have killed her with a single strike."
"Correct. But remember where we are, Regina. This is the Iselma Workshop."
Wayland's gaze was piercing. "The Iselma house is famous for its solar and lunar magecraft, focused within the Twin Towers. But the Golden and Silver Princesses are the core of that system. Am I right, Lord Byron? For centuries, the Iselmas have bound this land to their ultimate masterpiece. Every inch of their bodies is a part of the fixed magical circuit of this place. Even with a temporary substitute like Karina, the resonance remained."
"I..."
Miao stood up straight, his face contorted with a sudden, violent rage. "What have I done wrong?! She told me she was the Golden Princess... I was so happy! Even though Diadra was dead, the Golden Princess hadn't died! That perfection... that beauty was still here, undamaged!"
He began to scream, his eyes wild and predatory, like a cornered beast. "But then! She said she wanted to run away! She was going to take Estella and Regina with her! She actually begged me for help... she said, 'Miao, please help me!'
"How could she?! I couldn't allow it! I couldn't let it vanish! Even if it meant her death, I had to make sure it stayed! That beauty... we finally saw the result! As a magus, that beauty was my dream! I HAD to do it!"
It was the typical, obsessive logic of a magus. To everyone else present, the logic seemed perfectly sound,monstrous, but consistent with their world.
Wayland merely pressed a hand to his forehead and let out a cold, sharp laugh. "Your 'dream'? Is that what you call it? If your dream was so important, did you ever bother to ask your childhood friend if she was willing to die for it?"
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]