“That was awesome!” Minzfel shrieked. “I’m so pumped!”

“Yeah, cool,” I sighed. “So what was different about the dances?” I already had an idea myself, but it would mean a lot more coming from this asshat. Oops, I meant Prince Asshat.

“Oh, yeah! I can’t believe it!” Minzfel was practically convulsing. “Violetta, you were doing all the main parts!”

“I guess I was, wasn’t I?” Violetta giggled. “I didn’t even notice.”

“That’s awesome!”

I hated to interrupt his fangasm, but I needed him to say it. “Interesting.” I made eye contact with Lyili. “Prince, who was it that had the main part before?”

“Huh?” Minzfel sounded like I had just asked him to do his homework and get to bed. “It was Goldie, duh. Goldie’s always had all the main parts…”

“Bingo. I think we have our motive.”

Lyili slammed her open hand onto the table. “Ridiculous. No one would kill just because they lost their part in a dance.”

“Assuming that’s all it was that she lost, yes,” I said. I was on a roll. Victory was so close, I could taste it. “Think back to Volk’s office. What were those scraps of paper doing there, exactly? They certainly weren’t used to set off the alarm, you already proved that.”

Lyili narrowed her eyes. “What are you suggesting?”

“Let’s take a step back for a moment. Goldie never needed a key to get into the office. All she needed to do was to get Volk to let her hide under his desk with the promise of oral sex.”

“Y-You can’t prove that, you filthy man!”

“Whatever. It doesn’t really matter why he let her in,” I sighed. Come on though, why else would she be under there?

“The point is, he knew she was under there. During his meeting with Violetta, he talked about the new dance routine, something that Goldie already knew about.”

“Sir Allard, I fail to see how any of this is relevant to the point I raised.” Lyili whipped her hair back, fire in her eyes. Like, literal fire. How the hell did that not hurt?

“I’m getting to it, just let me do my cool deductive reasoning thing!” I snapped. Jeez, could I just look cool in peace?

“Deductive… reasoning?” the king asked. “I believe that’s part of the trial you haven’t informed us of yet…”

“It… it just means that I’m putting the pieces of the case together to arrive at a conclusion.” I assumed that’s what it was. I just wanted to sound smart. “Anyway, that doesn’t matter. Can I just explain where I’m going with this?”

The king narrowed his eyes, sinking back into his chair. “…Sure.”

“Thank you.” I cleared my throat. “Now where was I? Oh yeah, Goldie had planned to kill Volk from the start.”

“And you’re saying it was for more than just the loss of her place in the dance?” Lyili asked.

“I believe it has to do with the burned paper,” I said. “If Goldie was the leader of the group, a change like that had to mean that there was a reason for it. It means Violetta was getting more popular than Goldie was.”

“Of course she is!” Minzfel yelled. Was he even capable of speaking any other way? “Every fan knows that Violetta goods have been outselling Cyana’s and Goldie’s for months.” Really? Every fan knew that?

“And so you believe that paper was a contract that would make her the leader of the group? Lyili asked.

“No, I think it was bigger. I think Volk was intending on letting Violetta going solo.”

“W-What?” Violetta practically fell out of her chair.

“Solo.” I turned my gaze to the talkative blonde who had suddenly gone silent. “Something you must have been working toward yourself. Something you wanted so badly, you were willing to sleep with you manager to get it.”

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Goldie gave me a death glare like no other. The crowd started whispering.

“A solo contract. That’s what you burned.” I wasn’t going to let up now. “Cyana, you were aware of this change in the group, weren’t you?”

Cyana’s eyes drifted over to Violetta. “Yes... I knew about it.”

“Why did you hide this information up until now?”

“I… thought it would just put suspicion on me,” Cyana said, desperation coming through her voice. “I tried to tell you all though! Goldie cut me off when she told everyone about the affairs…”

“So in other words, Goldie tried to keep that quiet,” I said, ironically cutting Cyana off while she was still finishing her sentence. I looked back at the blonde. It was time to hammer my point in. “After you killed Volk and burned the contract, you stood by the door, sent a fireball at the sprinkler, and in the confusion of the moment, you slipped out of the office and into the dressing room. Everyone thought you had been there the whole time.”

This got the reaction I wanted. The crowd burst into chaos. Goldie was clenching her teeth. I had her and she knew it.

“Silence!” Lyili yelled. Flames burst from her body, covering her in a raging inferno. Holy shit, Brad wasn’t kidding when he said it would melt.

“M-Ms. Lyili!” The king panicked. “Please, be careful!”

“Do not worry, your majesty, I am in complete control of myself.” Lyili pointed a flaming finger at me. “I’m simply furious. What Sir Allard has presented is nothing but conjecture. He has no evidence. Absolutely nothing to tie Madam Goldie to the murder.”

Shit. My… theory sounded so good, though.

The dark look in Goldie’s face disappeared like she had flipped a switch. “That’s right.” She gave me a smile, fluttering her dress back and forth. “So what if I knew about Violetta going solo? You don’t have, like, any proof of anything. You can’t just go dragging my name through the mud in front of everyone like this.”

“Correct, Madam Goldie, he cannot,” Lyili said, the flames around her starting to subside. “That is why I ask that we move forward with his execution. He has wasted our time, and yet he has failed to prove that anyone besides Violetta is responsible.”

Please, no. Not the guillotine again.

“Hmm…” The king seemed like he was seriously giving her idea consideration. What the hell? What happened to all your thumbs up? In the words of Brad, I thought we were bros!

Yaika put her hand up into the air. “I’d like to say something.”

“S-Sweetheart? Are you alright?” My god, the king acted like every time his daughter said something, she had just fallen off her bike and scraped her knee.

“Ryley is a trial expert. We’re not letting him finish. He just needs to explain,” Yaika said, her dark eyes piercing into me. “Right?”

“Uhh… yeah. That’s right.” How many times had Yaika saved my ass now? I was seriously starting to lose count. “If you want evidence… I have it.”

“Then out with it!” Lyili shouted.

Fuck. I needed to think. This was my last chance. I was so close. Just one more step and I would be there.

What was out of place? What had I not considered? I had to have overlooked something. What about that tape? Was there something in that?

I thought back to the moment the alarm went off. Rayne hadn’t noticed Goldie leave the office because of the sudden noise. I remembered seeing her jump and frantically look around for what caused it. Cyana came to her desk. Then Violetta. Then Goldie.

Why had Goldie come last?

If she had just left Volk’s office, you would think she would use that moment to run up to Rayne’s desk. After all, Rayne would have just thought she had come from the dressing room anyway. Why turn the other way, go to the dressing room, and risk being seen?

Maybe… there was a reason why she wanted to go there first. No, a reason why she had to. But why would she need to go to the dressing room first? The… dressing room.

Then it hit me.

“Oh my god!” I yelled. “I… I actually have the evidence!” Yeah, not exactly the best way to cover up that I just thought of it.

“Care to show it to us?” Lyili asked, a smirk on her face.

“Absolutely.” I smirked right back. “Goldie… Please remove your dress for us.”

Lyili’s face turned bright red again. “S-Sir Allard!”

Goldie’s eyes were wide. “Excuse me?”

The king was back to sweating bullets. “T-This is highly inappropriate, Mr. Allard.”

“No, this is my evidence,” I said. “You see, when I found that knife behind the bookcase, I was convinced that it was the real murder weapon.”

Lyili looked like she could collapse. “You… You can’t mean…”

“That’s right. The blood on that knife isn’t Volk’s.” Fuck it, I was going to slam my fist down. “It’s Goldie’s!”

Everyone cheered like I had just hit a fucking homerun. I felt like I had too. I’d be lying if I said my hand didn’t hurt though.

“When Goldie bit Volk’s neck, she hadn’t expected him to be able to retaliate,” I said. “With the last of his strength, he managed to stab her with the knife on his desk. That’s why she needed to go to the dressing room. So she could put the dress over her clothes and hide the still bleeding wound!”

Lyili was holding onto her table just to stay up. “Impossible!”

“I guess we’ll just have to find out.” I pointed at Goldie. “Take off your dress and show us!”

The room went silent. Goldie stood with her head turned down. “You… You’re not even a demon…” she said. “What the hell do you know!?”

“Bro, get down!”

What? My life flash before my eyes as a huge ball of fire left Goldie’s hand, heading right for me. Before I could even tell my body to react, it hit me, exploding into… well, nothing. Okay. Kind of a lame fireball.

Goldie looked like she had just seen a ghost. “W-What?”

The king stood up from his throne. “Q-Quickly! Detain her at once!”

Lyili jumped over her table and took off running. She tackled Goldie from behind, and in a split second, she was pinning the succubus to the ground.

“Oh my god…” I looked down in front of me. The fireball had burned all of my clothes off, but my body was completely unharmed. Was it this table? Did it protect me? Was this table actually special after all?

I looked over at the throne.

“But that’s… just like mom...” Minzfel said, tears rolling down his face. I realized that Yaika was crying too. Yaika of all people.

Whatever was going on, I apparently won the trial.