Chapter 03

This is already the fifth case this month.

The killer was nicknamed "Blue Smoke" by the police. He committed the crime and disappeared without a trace. That gives any veteran investigator a headache. The common point of all five cases is that the victims targeted by the perpetrators are all from the elite.

The victim was Mr Bill Johnson, fifty-eight years old, a prominent politician preparing to run for office. He is known worldwide for his politeness and kindness and regularly does charity activities at orphanages. This case seems to add an aftershock to the already rough lake surface of the current society, especially when the perpetrator has not been caught.

"As you can see, the scene is unbelievably clean." Vincent saw Ethelbert surveying his surroundings, knowing that his focused state had been activated. Ethelbert assessed the scene once. Indeed, the killer is cunningly clever. The location was so clean that there was no trace of it but a shiny knife stuck in the victim's neck and a streak of crimson blood running down his white shirt. There was no blood on the floor. That proves that the killer inserted the knife slowly, and there was no sign of resistance from the victim to the perpetrator. That can only be explained by either the perpetrator is an acquaintance, causing the victim to accept himself obediently, or the victim is murdered when the spirit is no longer awake. The first possibility seems a bit difficult. Ethelbert favours the second.

Of course, Ethelbert wasn't here to do this. He wasn't exactly a detective, nor an investigator or a policeman. Vincent - his college friend - invited him here for another and only reason: to assist in the search for evidence related to high technology.

Ethelbert is the genius of the biology major at Yophiel, but he also has a wonderful gift for technology. Vincent - the senior of the criminology department before Ethelbert had already realised it long ago and knew how to exploit this talent in him so as not to waste it. Of course, Ethelbert is a stubborn genius who always lives by his own principles. He won't do anything he doesn't like and finds unnecessary. But Vincent is one of his few childhood friends of Ethelbert, so he sometimes makes certain exceptions for him.

"Ethelbert, come here." Vincent led him to another place, showed him the location of the camera, and then continued to lead him to a desk with a computer on it. Vincent rubbed his forehead with a tired and somewhat wistful expression, saying:

"Initially when we checked the camera, nothing unusual was detected. But then I noticed something suspicious. And guess what happened, Ethelbert? Old videos of Cameras have all been replaced by content from another day, specifically three months ago. At first glance, it looks like nothing happened, because this place is a private villa and rarely visited by people. the video is also cropped to make it look like it was just yesterday."

"But it's a video that can only be viewed once. As soon as I discovered the anomaly about thirty minutes, the video was eaten by the virus built into it and deleted." Vincent patted Ethelbert's shoulder, implying a request.

Without him saying anything more, Ethelbert knew what he needed to do. He turned on his computer, placed it side-by-side with Vincent's, and began working intently. Vincent watched him lightly and couldn't contain his silent admiration. Although having known Ethelbert since they were both children, knowing that since childhood Ethelbert was a strange and intelligent child, Vincent was always surprised by this friend. Vincent secretly feels lucky that the Gotha and Celtons have a good relationship, so he has played with Ethelbert since he was a child. He feels sorry for Ethelbert when he wasted his talent on a boring and old major - biology learn. In addition to him, although at school, Ethelbert is also famous for his good looks, impressive family background, and elite intelligence, very few people know that he is also a technological genius.

With only about five minutes of concentration, Ethelbert realised the vulnerability and cracked the key to recovering the deleted video files. At the same time, he installed an "immunity" program for these videos to protect the evidence. Ethelbert played back the tape and watched with Vincent. Indeed, at first glance, it looks like yesterday's video - if neither of them is a smart and knowledgeable person.

"Ethelbert, the victim also had her tongue cut off by the killer. Can you link the details together?" Vincent asked. He saw Ethelbert watch this boring video over and over again.

Ethelbert, on this site, did not respond to Vincent's question. He is sinking into his own world, where he is like an architect assembling and building loose materials floating in the universe together to find a new solution.

Suddenly, Ethelbert paused the video, saying to Vincent beside him:

"There are four time this video is paused for two seconds. They are 12:04:96, 03:09:97 and 11:03:00." Vincent quickly jotted down the numbers as Ethelbert spoke. He added: "Is it a code?"

"This is no longer my duty." Ethelbert closed the laptop, packed his bags, and prepared to leave.

Vincent laughed, wondering how he could forget this monstrous genius always had a way of doing things like no other. Even if there were a deadly house fire or the apocalypse outside, it wouldn't affect his inner world. Ethelbert only does what he enjoys. He did not accept any offer, even if it was negotiated for the best price. But once he received someone, it would definitely be resolved very quickly. It's just that this person is hard to understand. Being outside the content of the previous request, he was determined not to move his hand even a little.

"Anyway, to invite this genius to come here today is a great blessing for the process of solving the case." Vincent thinks so.

***

At the mansion of the Alexander family, one of the four great families of the illustrious land of Elliana - the same family that has always stood against the Celton royal family.

In the large and splendid room, a silhouette of a woman in a long black dress that touched the ground, still and thoughtful, looked at the window. The black velvet dress with the elongated fishtail and tight upper body cleverly showed off the seductive curves of the young woman. Blond blonde hair hung loosely behind her back as if emitting golden light. In the room with no lights on, only light filtered through the gap in the curtains of the window, but the girl still looked as graceful as a princess.

The sound of leather shoes tapping on the floor echoed slowly behind her. Marcus entered. He slowly hugged the woman in front of him and called her name:

"Coronis,"

The large embrace of a man enveloped her figure. She didn't respond, and her delicately decorated beautiful face was cold and distant, But deep in the eyes of the royal blue Sapphire, it seemed to contain complicated emotions.

The smell of the strange perfume that followed Marcus's intimate embrace made Coronis' heart clench a little.

"Coronis." Marcus calls out her name a second time after getting no response from Coronis. She felt the arms around her waist and her chest tightens, and his voice also increased with some cold warning and impatience.

Coronis hummed softly in response. Marcus turned her around, gently lifting her chin with his hand so he could look directly into his eyes. He locked her with warm amber eyes, but deep inside were cold rays. Strangely, in contrast to the coldness that those eyes radiated, the man kept his tone as if he was affectionately affectionate towards the woman in his heart.

"Soon, we'll have a hearty and fun party." Marcus' fingers stroked Coronis's face softly, feeling her soft skin. Marcus's eyes flashed dangerously.

"Please prepare well and attend 'enjoy' with me."