Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 23: Mysterious Silhouette

For Levi, this case could be described as quite troublesome.

According to the interviews with the victim’s classmates and teachers, Levi learned that the victim had been in a very good mood recently.

Especially after the Courtesan Killer case was solved, his mood had improved a lot———hmm, maybe this guy had been afraid that Emilia would crawl out of the grave to seek revenge on him?

After all, that surgical instrument had been provided by him.

Moreover, Edwards was currently writing his graduation thesis, and had even already decided on his career path after graduation.

In this situation, he naturally had no reason or motive to commit suicide.

Then came the cause of death.

It could be almost confirmed that Edwards had died of exsanguination———after all, during the autopsy, his corpse was found to contain almost not a single drop of blood.

In the words of the coroner responsible for the dissection: “It’s simply like a pig that had been washed completely clean.”

So the question was, where had Edwards’ blood gone?

This was not a matter of simply making a wound and letting the blood flow out by itself.

That was absolutely impossible.

Therefore, there were two possibilities.

First, a real vampire had attacked the victim and sucked the blood dry from his body.

Second, someone had used some kind of invented device to drain the blood from the victim’s body———don’t say this was impossible.

After the Courtesan Killer incident, Levi felt that the people of this world had practically no limits when it came to their mania for technological inventions.

What was worse was that, in this era, moral standards were not particularly high.

At least, if you dragged a death row inmate to conduct experiments on, no one would oppose it.

It would not cause national outrage, nor shock allied nations, nor cause people to cry about human rights violations and so on.

Hmm, like today’s newspaper that Levi read, which even published on the front page the latest scientific method for curing those violent mental patients: cut out their frontal lobes, turn them into obedient and docile good people, and even displayed “experimental results”———two patients who had undergone the frontal lobe surgery and become obedient.

In such a world, if you spoke about scientific ethics, the result was………hard to say.

Who knew what else this group of taboo-free, mad scientists might come up with.

However, Levi did not believe that this was just an ordinary case.

Setting aside the strange phenomenon of the victim’s blood vanishing, there were several aspects that felt very familiar to Levi, giving him the same impression as the Courtesan Killer case.

Both of these cases shared one thing in common———the perpetrator seemed to very much want others to see what they had done.

Whether it was killing courtesans, or killing Edwards, this trait was displayed.

The perpetrator could have killed secretly, silently, without anyone knowing, and then hidden the body.

In this world without surveillance cameras or particularly advanced technology, one could hide a corpse for a year or more without anyone discovering it.

Or simply toss it into the river, where the thick, filthy waters would swallow it like a bottomless swamp.

No one would be willing to dive in and retrieve it.

Therefore, in Levi’s view, the commonality between these two cases looked more like a display!

If Levi guessed correctly, then before long, another similar vampire-like case would very likely appear!

He was somewhat certain that this case should be related to the organization behind Madam Clattie.

The reason was simple: up until now, Levi had not received any mission from the system concerning this case.

Either he had not yet found a useful clue, or———this case itself was part of the mission.

After all, the mission’s goal was to investigate Madam Clattie’s true purpose.

Although she was already dead, and Levi did not know necromancy, so it was impossible to pull the dead up for questioning.

But considering the commonalities between this case and the Courtesan Killer case, he somewhat suspected that Madam Clattie’s true purpose might be related to this.

And then there was that girl………truly strange.

After thinking through the case, Levi recalled the girl named Betty.

She looked exactly the same as the girl he had seen in his dream.

And after waking from the dream, he had immediately encountered her in reality?

What exactly was this situation?

That dream itself had also been very strange.

Unfortunately, Levi could not find Freud here to interpret it for him.

Hmm………it seemed the trouble was still ahead.

“Knock knock.”

The sound of knocking on the door rang out.

Levi looked up and saw Officer Fletcher walk in carrying a stack of documents.

“This is what you wanted, detailed information about Madam Durex’s accounts.”

“Mm………thank you.”

Levi pulled back his thoughts and opened the file to look through it.

At the same time, he sighed that having a difference engine was indeed wonderful, allowing this era of the Industrial Revolution to enjoy the conveniences of the Information Age.

He had previously submitted a report to investigate Madam Clattie’s accounts and real estate information.

Although Levi was not sure whether she would have records in this area………where a goose passes, it always leaves traces.

He did not believe that he could find nothing at all.

Mm, the account transactions recorded above were all very clear, thanks to the fact that the difference engine had been widely used throughout the Empire many years ago………hmm?

Levi started from the beginning, flipped toward the back, and then discovered some issues.

That was, after both of her sons had died, Madam Clattie’s account showed several large fluctuations.

According to the records, these were used by Madam Clattie for investments, purchasing several properties.

And one of them was the Pink Lady.

Of course, at that time it had not yet been the Pink Lady, but rather 【Property No. A392, White Birch Street】.

In addition, Madam Clattie had purchased several other properties.

Levi glanced through roughly: there were warehouses, factories, and even an apartment building.

He did not know whether these were meant as misdirection, or whether those places had problems too.

He planned to investigate each of them in the coming days, observe the situation, and then decide what to do.

But for now, it was better to focus first on this vampire case.

Levi set aside the supernatural elements of the case and considered the normal factors.

Whether it was a vampire or a murder, one would at least have to approach the victim to achieve it.

So he first visited the victim’s classmates and friends, asking about the victim’s recent situation.

“Edwards’ situation?”

Faced with Levi’s inquiry, a man who had been in the same research group as Edwards frowned and began thinking.

“Hmm, he didn’t show any unusual behavior recently. Graduation is near, and he was busy writing his thesis. Actually, all of us were about the same. After all, this directly relates to our career prospects after graduation, so everyone was busy……….”

The Royal Master Academy was a place that provided elite talents for the government.

Although many tuition and other expenses were waived here, the price was that after graduation, one could only accept the Academy’s job assignments.

And the graduation evaluation was closely tied to the department one would work in.

If the evaluation was high, one would be sent to an important and promising department.

If the evaluation was low, one would be “dispatched” to poor and remote regions.

As a side note, because of the contract, even if one was dispatched, resignation was not allowed.

Otherwise, the only option was prison.

“Have you seen anyone around him recently?”

“If you ask that, yes. There was a very beautiful young lady, probably his classmate.”

When it came to this topic, the man could not help but show an expression full of envy, jealousy, and resentment.

“Really don’t know what was so great about that guy. There were always beautiful young ladies around him………sigh……….”

“Oh? Very beautiful?”

“That’s right, that young lady was as beautiful and charming as an angel in a painting.”

“Can you describe her appearance in detail? For example, her hair color?”

“Hmm, of course I can……………”

At this point, the man paused, showing a puzzled expression.

“I can’t remember……….”

“Didn’t you say she was very beautiful?”

“Ah, mm……………”

Faced with Levi’s question, the man looked equally surprised.

“Very strange. I clearly remember she was beautiful, but when it comes to describing her in detail, I just can’t recall what she really looked like………sorry, maybe it’s because I’ve been busy with my thesis lately, mentally a bit exhausted. But you can ask Edwards’ other classmates. I think such a beautiful young lady wouldn’t be completely unnoticed.”

“…………………”

Levi stared at him, silent for a moment, before asking another question.

“Then, do you remember roughly when this young lady first appeared by Edwards’ side?”

“Hmm, let me think………ah, it should have been not long after the Courtesan Killer case was solved. Because I remember that after that case was solved, Edwards relaxed a lot. Before that he had looked somewhat fearful and uneasy, maybe worrying about some courtesan lover.”

“Oh………alright.”

Levi nodded, closed his notebook, and stood up.

“Thank you for your cooperation.”

After that, Levi went to Edwards’ class and asked his classmates.

“Edwards’ situation? He was busy writing his thesis recently, running around every day. Basically he was either in the library or in the laboratory. We rarely saw him. But speaking of which……………”

At this point, the classmate showed a thoughtful expression.

“I remember a few times when I went to the library, there was a very beautiful young lady sitting with him, appearing very close. Maybe she was his research group partner. That guy sure was lucky.”

A beautiful young lady.

Levi calmly glanced at him and asked again.

“Very beautiful? Can you describe what she looked like? For example, her hair color?”

“Of course, she……………”

The classmate opened his mouth, then after a while scratched his head awkwardly.

“Sorry, I only have the impression that she was very beautiful. Maybe because I didn’t interact with her, I don’t really have any memory of her. But such a beautiful young lady should be rare in the research group.”

“…………………”

Levi looked down at his notes, then stood up.

“Thank you for your cooperation.”

Now it seemed, the problem had been found.