BWDC:SDDK Chapter 131: Do People Bitten by Vampires Become Vampires Too?
The room remained shrouded in pitch blackness, but for a fleeting moment, an imperceptible flicker of light appeared.
Shunsuke Tadokoro jerked his head up, staring toward the doorway.
A dark shadow, its identity completely obscured, stood there at that very moment.
A low, rasping voice drifted through the air:
"It's time for you to turn yourself in."
"In a 'Blizzard Manor' scenario like this, there is absolutely no possibility for a killer to escape the villa. It can only be one of the people inside Dracula Villa. If you don't surrender..."
"Who do you think should take the fall for your murder?"
At that instant, the room suddenly flooded with light.
Ren Ichimonji had already pressed the light switch.
His gaze fell upon Shunsuke Tadokoro, who was clutching a blood-stained wooden stake.
Then, his eyes moved to Daisuke Torakura. The man was still wearing his Count Dracula costume cape, a wooden stake driven ruthlessly into his chest. He was slumped beneath a crucifix, his eyes wide and unseeing in death.
---The situation was clear at a glance.
Shunsuke Tadokoro had killed Daisuke Torakura.
Earlier, while Ren Ichimonji was speaking with Fumio Doi and Shuichi Hamura, he had already learned a fair amount about Shunsuke Tadokoro. Naturally, he knew about the death of Tadokoro's younger sister a year ago and how rapidly her condition had deteriorated.
He didn't even need to think twice to guess the motive behind Tadokoro's desire to kill Daisuke Torakura.
Therefore, Ren Ichimonji simply repeated himself:
"Shunsuke Tadokoro, you should turn yourself in."
"If you surrender, your sentence could be reduced from the baseline. Combined with the circumstances regarding your sister, perhaps the presiding judge will sentence you on charges of revenge killing or a crime of passion."
Ren Ichimonji watched Shunsuke Tadokoro, who held the stake and seemed to be wavering, before continuing:
"Of course, you have another choice."
"Come, kill me. Then follow your original route to escape this place. Gamble on whether you can make it out through this heavy blizzard given the wilderness terrain around here."
"As long as you don't perish in the freezing cold of the storm, you might have a chance of getting away with it."
---There was a certain sense of "reaping what one sows" in Daisuke Torakura's death.
Etsuko Torakura had been manipulated into marriage; Daisuke Torakura had used her family's company as leverage to coerce her. Meanwhile, Fumio Doi had been a collaborator, conspiring with Daisuke for years to steal and defraud others of their manuscripts.
The only reason this guy had survived for so many years was that he hadn't bought a house within Beika City.
Otherwise, if Daisuke Torakura had stepped outside one day and been spotted by a student whose work he had stolen, being stabbed to death in a back alley would have been a perfectly normal plot development---
In truth, Ren Ichimonji found it a bit strange. He was curious why Shunsuke Tadokoro was so stubborn.
Why choose to strike Daisuke Torakura on the very night Mouri Kogoro and he arrived at Dracula Villa? Do these people with' murder on their minds really have so much confidence in their methods that they think they can use a detective as their most reliable witness?
One could only say that those who are good at swimming are the ones who drown.
If Shunsuke Tadokoro had spent less time reading Daisuke Torakura's horror novels, he could have just waited for a day when Etsuko Torakura and Shuichi Hamura were out on a date. He could have thrown a sack over Daisuke's head and tossed him off a nearby cliff.
The police wouldn't find the body in a lifetime. Why bother with all these complicated theatrics?
"What is your choice?"
Ren Ichimonji asked again.
The door to this room had already been locked from the inside.
Although the soundproofing was so good that no noise from outside could be heard, Ren Ichimonji didn't need to listen to know that the people outside must be asking what was happening to him in the room.
Time was running out for Shunsuke Tadokoro.
Sweat was breaking out on Tadokoro's forehead.
He had devised a plan that would have allowed him to get away with the crime perfectly. However, he never expected that someone would burst onto the murder scene immediately after the act, before he even had a chance to leave.
Ren Ichimonji's arrival at the scene was simply too fast.
It was so fast that he couldn't make any targeted adjustments to his plan; he simply gripped the wooden stake in his hand instinctively.
---Shunsuke Tadokoro's will was being tested.
He loathed "vampires" like Daisuke Torakura.
However, if he were to attack an innocent person just to escape the consequences of killing Daisuke, then how would he be any different from the vampire he hated most?
Tadokoro gripped the stake and slowly stood up.
He looked at Ren Ichimonji and asked one final question:
"How did you know I was going to move against Daisuke Torakura at this exact time?"
He was baffled.
Even if Fumio Doi and Shuichi Hamura had mentioned outside that his sister passed away a year ago...
This person shouldn't have been able to link his sister's death to a plan to murder his mentor, Daisuke Torakura!
Under normal circumstances, shouldn't this person think that since Daisuke provided money for his sister's treatment, he should be filled with gratitude—even if she passed away—and be willing to "die for the one who recognizes his worth"?
Ren Ichimonji did not speak.
He simply reached out and pressed his hand against the nearby wall. Then, with a faint zip...
Right in front of Tadokoro, he removed a nearly imperceptible wiretap and tucked it into his pocket.
Seeing this, Tadokoro's pupils contracted.
---He realized a major problem.
However, Shunsuke Tadokoro did not say it aloud.
He only asked one last thing:
"Who exactly are you?"
Ren Ichimonji already knew what he intended to do.
Therefore, he answered calmly and with certainty:
"I am Ren Ichimonji."
——————
The door to Daisuke Torakura's room was finally opened.
However, the sight inside caused everyone to cry out in shock.
Daisuke Torakura, dressed in his Dracula costume, had actually been treated like a vampire and staked to death!
And the person who had killed him was none other than Shunsuke Tadokoro, who stood right next to the corpse!
This student, whom everyone believed was Daisuke's most valued protégé, spoke in a low voice:
"I killed Daisuke Torakura."
---The words were like a massive boulder dropped into a crowd, sending out shockwaves.
A look of relief appeared on Etsuko Torakura's face; there was hardly any trace of sorrow.
Beside her, Shuichi Hamura frowned at Shunsuke Tadokoro and sighed inwardly.
Fumio Doi wanted to grab the briefcase in the room.
However, seeing Mouri Kogoro nearby, he didn't quite dare to move.
He had heard that before becoming a detective, Mouri Kogoro was a criminal investigator for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.
If he acted now and Mouri Kogoro noticed something fishy about that briefcase, he would be finished. It was better to gamble that Mouri Kogoro would be as dazed as he usually was in his "sober" state and fail to notice the bag.
After all, the killer who murdered Torakura had already confessed, right?
"W-what happened?"
Mouri Kogoro's eyes were wide with bewilderment as he asked.
In the time it took me to read the newspaper, the client just died?
And in the three minutes it took to walk over here, the killer already confessed?
Who's running a speedrun and skipping my plotlines???
End of Chapter
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