Splitting Up to Investigate

After Young Miss briefly explained the situation to Teresa and her maid, we split up to take action.

Strictly speaking, Young Miss usually wouldn’t ask others for help. But with just the two of us for the search, it was indeed a bit stretched.

Still… I had thought she’d prefer to ask Margaret.

After all, Margaret wasn’t part of the student council, had a better relationship with Young Miss, and most importantly, she was really free.

“What’s wrong, Eileen?”

As if noticing my confusion, Young Miss turned around to ask.

“It’s nothing very important… I just thought you would have asked Miss Margaret for help first.”

“Ah, about that… Actually, that was my original plan, but Miss Donix offered to help first, so I agreed. Of course… I’m also planning to go find Margaret now, just taking this opportunity to ask relevant students for information along the way.”

Saying this, Young Miss suddenly stopped, took my hand, and looked into my eyes.

“Actually… more importantly, if it were just the two of us, we’d have to separate now… I want to spend more time with Eileen.”

Smiling, she looked both cute and captivating.

Her feelings, along with her body heat, were transmitted from her fingertips to my heart.

“Young Miss…”

The atmosphere seemed to turn pink…

“Ah! That’s the slanderer’s roommate!”

But the wonderful atmosphere was instantly shattered by Young Miss herself.

“He might know something! Let’s follow him!”

“…”

I felt a mix of regret and relief.

“Young Miss, wait for me!”

“…”

“Hm? About that guy? Honestly, he’s somewhat gloomy. I didn’t talk much with him…”

“Anything? Well… if anything, maybe that guy pissed off someone he shouldn’t have during the day? I heard he did something bad that morning and provoked someone… was it you?”

“Ah, sorry, sorry for bothering you!”

“You’re asking about Knight~? I don’t really know~”

“Just say whatever you know? Oh my~ that’s so demanding~”

“Let me think~ At that time, it seemed she had done something wrong~ During the day she looked downcast~ And then at night she was attacked~”

“That Oris guy? This I actually know a bit.”

“That guy pulled rank in the morning and extorted a平民 student! A lot of people saw it!”

“Oh yeah, don’t tell anyone I told you! He holds grudges! If he finds out, I’m done for!”

About four hours later, we gathered in Margaret’s lab and exchanged the information we had collected.

But among it, there didn’t seem to be anything particularly useful.

“I’m sorry, Miss Anis… We didn’t find any useful information.”

Teresa bowed her head deeply, looking very dejected.

Calu was comforting her on the side.

“Miss Teresa has worked hard enough! Here! A candy as a reward!”

The way she comforted… was like treating a child.

Well… after eating the candy, Teresa’s expression eased a bit.

At least it was somewhat useful.

“We didn’t get any useful info either?”

On the other hand, Margaret sat on her chair, leg crossed, looking incredibly proud.

Same as always…

But perhaps this was her unique way of communicating…

Or rather, her unique way of lightening the mood.

“Well, same for us, so don’t worry about it.”

Young Miss added.

With the comfort from the three of them, Teresa finally cheered up.

“However… this information isn’t completely useless. At least we know the commonality among the victims.”

Margaret, the sharpest among us, spoke up.

“Commonality?”

Teresa tilted her head.

“Obviously, all of them did something bad during the day and were attacked by the mysterious figure at night. Moreover…”

Margaret pulled out her notes and analyzed carefully.

…She even took notes? Neither Young Miss nor I had done that!

She, who seemed the most carefree, was actually the most diligent…

“Even if multiple victims appear on the same day, the order of attacks follows the sequence of their misdeeds during the day.”

Saying that, she showed us her notes and guided our gaze with her pen.

Both Young Miss and I recalled, and it seemed that what Margaret said was true…

“It really seems that way…”

“Is that so?”

Only Calu was still out of the loop.

“But since you both say so, then it must be true!”

…This girl was too naive.

“But with only this information, there’s no way to pinpoint the culprit’s identity…”

“Then let me ask you, why must we pinpoint the culprit’s identity?”

Leaning back with her hands behind her head, Margaret stared at Young Miss while still crossing her legs.

“In fact, haven’t all the victims suffered any real harm? At most, they’ve been left with psychological fear… And that fear will subtly prevent them and other students from doing evil. Isn’t that a good thing?”

She did have a point, it had to be said.

Young Miss had to fall silent…

But surprisingly, Miss Teresa stepped up to argue:

“That’s wrong! You can’t force obedience through fear! Even when executing justice, you must use appropriate means! Like the law!”

A very “righteous” statement.

But Margaret scoffed.

“Hmph, if everything could be solved with the law, the world would already be a place where everyone is happy… But has that happened?”

Saying this, she grabbed her sister’s hand.

…Elizabeth had indeed suffered inhuman treatment, and the perpetrator had never received proper punishment.

In this world, there were indeed many criminals the law couldn’t touch.

That was probably why she supported the culprit?

However… her outburst made the entire lab atmosphere awkward.

“Ahem…”

Young Miss could only clear her throat, trying to change the mood.

“…Regardless of what the culprit did, the fact remains that they harmed students. The purpose of the student council is to ensure that students in the academy can study in peace… So we still need to find the true culprit.”

Seeing this, I quickly echoed Young Miss.

“Young Miss is right. Also, we don’t know if the culprit will always keep this modus operandi. Who knows if one day they’ll suddenly change and start attacking ordinary people.”

“…”

Margaret didn’t agree or disagree with our words.

After a long while, she finally sighed.

“Fine, since I agreed to help you, I might as well see it through…”

Then, she pointed us toward a new avenue of investigation.