After running several minutes chasing after Jenna Lionheart, I’ve finally catch up to her after jumping off the class building from the balcony and safely landed on the ground. I only did that because I know I can do that. I’m not trying to show off or anything but that’s that, I guess. In any case, Jenna finally stopped running away from me after I successfully trapped her. She finally surrenders as we made our way to the café that was near the lift. We sat at one of the available tables and begin the interrogation.

I started the conversation with a simple question, “Alright then…first thing first. How’s your day, Jenna?”

“…I’m fine…” She wasn’t looking at me as she said that.

From what I have learned, you can tell someone is lying when they don’t even look at the other person’s eye as they were talking. She’s probably still uncomfortable with me. I have to calm her down before I’m able to get something out of her.

“Before we go to the main topic…I want to ask you something. Are you hungry?”

“…No…” she said that but then her stomach decided to grumble at the right time.

“Well then…let’s eat first, Jenna.”

At first she was unwillingly following me from behind but after seeing a bunch of options that was available at the café, her mood swings to a positive note. We decided to eat first before we begin the questioning. I believe that making sure her stress level isn’t high will make the questioning be less complicated than it should have. After few minutes have passed and our foods were halfway finished, I figured that it was best for me to begin asking her about her involvement to the incidents.

“So…why did you run away from me?”

She remained silent for a moment but she finally responded afterwards by telling me that, “I’m afraid that you might put the blame on me. The fact that I’m the first person to find Tera in a locked door sounds too obvious.”

“It’s alright, Jenna. I’m not pointing fingers at anyone without solid evidence. I’m just here to know your story. So can you tell me what did you do after the meeting last night?”

She nodded and told her story, “After the meeting, I talked a bit with some of my friends including Tara at the balcony. Then out of the blue, Tara said that she needs to hurry up because she said that someone was waiting for her at another classroom. I didn’t mind about it at all because how should I know what would happen to her later. As I continued to talk with my friends, I suddenly had the urge to go to the ladies room. And as you expect it, I had to pass by where Tara was. It was the meeting room that we were in half an hour ago. And out of curiosity I tried to peek in and then I screamed in terror as I saw Tara was lying on the floor in the dark. The story then goes as you already know.”

“But why did you run away afterwards?”

“I already told you that I had to go to the toilet at the time. So that’s what happened. But then I realized that running away from you may just increase my suspicious level. That is why I kept away from you throughout the day until now that is…”

“Well…at least you were being honest.” I sighed and said, “But still…how can Tara have the same injuries as Hunter…”

“Same injuries?” Jenna seems to have an idea and said, “Are you sure about that?”

“What do you mean, Jenna?”

“What kind of injury did Hunter get?”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

I answered her, “A hard blow on his forehead with a small bruise on his hand. Tara also had that.”

“I don’t think that’s what Tara had, Shiro.”

“What are you talking about? Her hands was bleeding. That’s from the blow on the head, right?”

Jenna got nervous all of a sudden and whispered to me something that I never expected at all.

Hearing that totally caught me off guard, “Wait what?! She’s on her pe-“

“You don’t have to say it out loud over here, idiot! Yes. She’s been like that for a few days already and the problem here is that every time she sees blood, she will faint. I think that’s what happened.”

“So…why did you screamed again?”

“Because it was dark. I thought she was attacked or something. But I guess it’s just business.”

“Well then…how the heck did I not notice that?” I was disappointed to find out the truth that I believed to be getting closer. “Then…how can I remember that she had the same injury as Hunter?”

She shrugged, “I don’t know. Maybe you just have a bad memory? That’s why you keep believing what you only want to remember. Seeing something like a girl on her time of the month is not a good memory for you to remember. Maybe that’s what happened…”

“I believed what I only want to remember…wait…I think you’re on to something here, Jenna!”

“Did I say something?”

I got up from the table and announced, “I solved the case! Gather everyone from our class to the meeting room, Jenna! Now!”

“Uh…okay?”

Of course, why didn’t I think of the possibility that person will use their ability on me. It is the perfect ability to make this case an unsolvable case. I know who did this but there’s only one problem…I don’t know what is the suspect motive in all of this…unless I missed something. Probably, especially coming from that person. I can’t believe I’ve been deceived just like that.

In any case, everyone in my class had gathered and was ready to hear what I had to say. Hunter immediately raised his hand and said, “Alright. I think that the one responsible for this attack was either two of you!” He pointed at Aero and Chrom.

“What?!” Aero growled. “It was you who started the fight, Hunter! Why should I be blamed for this?”

“Can we just calm down for a sec guys?” Chrom tried to stop them both.

“No you shut up!

I have had it from these three and decided to use my ghostly yell and that finally stopped everyone from arguing nonsense.

Then I began telling my findings to them, “I finally found out who did all of this.”

“Who?” Aspye wondered.

I laughed for a bit and pointed at him, “Why it’s you of course. Aspye! It was you all along.”

“What? But Aspye isn’t even in the battle royal!” Hunter was confused.

I stopped Hunter, “Now hold on Hunter, allow me to explain…”

“Did you guys remember that Aspye was in the room at the time?”

All the involved people shake their head.

“He was inside the room and you guys didn’t notice it. Even I didn’t notice it until I realized something…Aspye’s ability is called, Memory Mess. It allows him to mess around with the memories of anyone he come into contact with. He can’t change an important memory but he can indeed change insignificant things like his presence in the room at the time. Isn’t that right? Aspye?”

Aspye didn’t talk for a while. It took him several seconds until he finally laughed and said, “I can’t believe you found me out. Yes you’re right. I’ve been messing around with everyone’s memory. Including yours, Shiro. I can’t believe you found me out that quick…But…how does this relate to the locked door mystery with Tara?”

“That’s a funny story really. It was actually just a coincidence.”

“What? What are you talking about? You said that she had the same injuries as Hunter.”

“Yes I did say that. But would I believe myself after founding out that you were messing around with my memory? You only messed the memories of those inside the other room including me. You didn’t do anything to Tera or Jenna. They were too far away from your range.”

“But…Tera said she was bleeding…Isn’t that still a problem?”

“I think the girls can understand what it means when they see blood on their body…Am I right girls?”

Some of the girls nodded as soon as they realized what I meant. Some of the boys also understood it. Aspye probably knows that as well.

I continued, “So in conclusion, Tara’s incident was unrelated!”

“But…what about the locked door?! How do you solve that?”

“I believe you don’t need to ask that. You already know the answer for yourself, Aspye. You were the one who told me about the lock system that door have. I can’t believe the suspect would give away a clue so obvious. You only told me that so that you wanted to increase my trust on you. But that just backfired brilliantly…”

“Darn it…” Aspye looked around and surrenders, “Yes…I was the one who hit Hunter. I messed around with everyone’s memory including you, Shiro. And yes, Tara’s case is unrelated. I didn’t know anything about it. I just took the opportunity thinking that it might make the case even more layered. But it only backfired.”

“But why, Aspye? Why?”

“I just wanted to see them destroy themselves. That’s just it. Isn’t that how a battle royal supposed to be?”

-

And the rest was history. The Battle Royal was put on hold momentarily until further notice. Aspye has been severely punished for interrupting the battle royal. All’s well that ends well.

“I thought it was the Reflectors, Shiro.” Zero asked me.

“That can’t be. There was no mirror inside the room, remember? And plus…you were using spray that attracts monsters back then. You know that you were about to be attacked by them. Monsters only attack when they are provoked. And one more thing Zero. You lied to me about the Reflectors involvement in the battle royal. The Reflectors was one of the 12 monsters you were hunting, am I right?”

Zero laughed once and said, “Interesting. I might be able to use you for future encounter. Stay healthy my friend.” Zero left me wondered what he meant.

In the end, Zero’s involvement was just another ruse just like Tara’s case. Plus, he was also probably testing me from the looks of it. I guess that’s that. Maybe I should go and tell White about this or something…He’s probably going to laugh at my mistakes that’s for sure…Whatever…

TO BE CONTINUED