A Shattered Mystery

At the present time, Xander had officially opened his business for the day and it didn't take long at all before he received his first client for the day. Despite the number of crimes in Fontaine, he was rather glad he didn't receive case after case without any time to rest.

His personal limit was around two or three cases he'd accept per day, any more and he'd probably go insane with how busy he'd be, not that he wasn't already. In any case, Xander was sat face-to-face with his client as they were sat on two opposite couches with a coffee table in between.

His client this time around was a young woman, perhaps in her early or mid-thirties at the most. The woman had long brown hair tied into a side ponytail, and was wearing a relatively expensive-looking yellow dress.

"Very well, I shall take this case then." Xander nodded his head simply as he looked down at the notes he had written down. "I assume the Gardes have already locked down the area, and if that's the case, I hope you don't mind if we leave immediately."

"Of course, detective!" The woman, whose name was Elaine, immediately responded as she stood up from the couch. "I'm sure that with your help, my husband will be able to move on peacefully after you get the evidence to have that scoundrel sent to the Fortress of Meropide!"

"You have too much faith in me, I'm still green after all." Xander waved his hand in response to the words. "Let's not waste too much time though, every second matters when it comes to cases like these."

With that said, Elaine followed as Xander exited the room. The case that he had just received was a rather straightforward one, apparently the shop this woman and her husband owned was broken into in the middle of the night.

Some shit went down and Elaine had lost her husband to the hands of the intruder who had broken into their shop, her husband perishing while having tried to fight back against the intruder.

This world didn't function the exact same way his old one did when dealing with crime scenes, they didn't have forensic teams, and the collecting of evidence was entirely up to the Gardes or an officially approved detective, an example being Xander.

On top of that, even both a prosecutor and an attorney can investigate the crime scene if they so wish. It wasn't like back in his old world where they'd need permission from the police and/or judge.

As Xander walked towards the front entrance to the building of the RFS Detective Agency, he soon received a notification that appeared in front of him.

『Weekly Case has been detected』

『...』

『Case generation complete』

.

『Weekly Case』

➢ Case Name: A Shattered Mystery

➢ Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆

➢ Difficulty Criteria: [Danger: ★☆☆☆☆] [Sanity: ★★☆☆☆] [Duration: ★★☆☆☆]

➢ Hint: A cold face may deceive, but its broken reflection speaks only the truth

➢ Completion Reward(s): [300,000 Mora] [Tier-1 Prize Box (x3)] [Tier-2 Prize Box]

➢ Current Evidence: [None]

.

Over the numerous cases he has completed, he has come to understand the meaning behind each criterion that determined the overall difficulty of the case given to him. Depending on the star rating for each criterion, those decided the overall difficulty.

Danger referred to, obviously, how dangerous the case would prove to be. More specifically, how dangerous it would be for him. Let it either be due to potential confrontation with a murderer, or perhaps due to other reasons, all of them could either lower or boost the rating.

Sanity was one he hadn't encountered above the first star rating, and if his assumptions about it were correct, it'd probably be referring to how mentally stressing the case would be. Either due to how utterly messed up it could be or if it was challenging his ability to think, they both contribute to the final star rating.

Duration was an interesting one, it pretty much determined how long he had to solve the case. The more stars this criteria had, the less time he had to solve the case. If it's a case with five whole stars, he wouldn't be surprised if he had to solve it in a day or less.

In any case, this mission was evaluated to be at an overall 2-Star Case.

'Lies and truths, the bread and butter of all crimes.' Xander knew how useful these hints on each case could be. They were essentially clues that could make or break his ability to solve a case depending on how well he understood it. 'I guess I'll just have to see when I get there.'

✦----------------✦

The RFS Detective Agency wasn't too far away from where the couple lived and worked, so the walk didn't take any more than a few minutes. Upon arriving at the scene, Xander had noticed how the Gardes had blocked off anyone from getting too close to the shop.

Of course, humans were naturally curious beings, so a rather large number of people who were passing by through the street either stopped to see if they could see what was happening or stopped to look for a moment before continuing on their way.

Among the crowd, there were a number of reporters who were trying to get as much information as possible. Xander was honestly amazed that he didn't see Charlotte amongst them, that girl was probably the most terrifying and persistent of all reporters.

"Monsieur, I'm afraid we cannot allow you another step forward!" As soon as Xander walked up to the small tape barricade, one of the guards stepped in front of him. "This is a crime scene, so we must ask you to stay back."

"I'm a detective, I'm here to do some investigation."

Xander responded calmly before taking out what looked to be a small card and handing it to the guard. This card had information that showed that he was an officially licensed detective here in the nation.

"Hmm..." The guard looked over the card before nodding his head in approval, to which he then gave the card back politely to Xander before giving a small bow. "I apologise, detective. Feel free to take a look around."

"Thank you." Xander nodded his head. "By the way, has a prosecutor or attorney come to investigate yet?"

"A prosecutor has, but no attorney has yet to show up."

"I see, thank you."

Even though Elaine was the owner of the property that was broken into, she had no choice but to stay outside as Xander made his way to the entrance door. He didn't enter immediately though, instead looking around at the outside.

'Alright, let's get started. System, begin the investigation.'

『Scanning Area』

『...』

『Scene Detected』

『Investigation Start』

『Available Evidence: 4』

'First of all, I should go back over what Elaine told me.' Xander thought to himself as he crossed his arms over his chest. 'Supposedly, the break-in occurred around midnight, the criminal entering by smashing through the front window.'

Xander walked a bit to the side before inspecting the large window frame that took up the majority of the wall next to the front door. The window must not have been too sturdy considering that aside from a few pieces that were still connected to the edges, a majority of the glass was scattered onto the ground.

'Elaine said that the front door is always locked before nightfall. This obviously gave the robber no choice but to forcefully make their own way in, which either means they're stupid or were confident no one would hear the sound of shattering glass in the silence of the night.'

Walking closer to the window, Xander looked inside to see a number of guards who were all looking around for evidence just like he was. Looking down, Xander saw what he assumed was most likely a corpse that was being covered by a large blanket.

'Elaine and her husband had been woken up due to the glass shattering, and when the husband went down to investigate, he most likely came face to face with the criminal. That was when the criminal attacked him, thus inciting the husband to fight back. Unfortunately, though, he died at the criminal's hands before Elaine quickly came down to see the criminal standing over her husband's corpse before running back out the window.'

Xander looked around before holding his chin in thought.

The reason that Elaine came to Xander was for him not to look for the criminal, but to gather evidence needed to have said criminal sent to prison. Evidence was what mattered the most here in Fontaine, they weren't just going to believe a simple statement, even if from Elaine's mouth.

'They apparently also have the supposed criminal currently in custody, so I'll have to go and see if I can speak with them later to get some more information. For now though, time to check the body.'

Xander carefully stepped into the building, avoiding as much glass as possible before stepping inside. He quickly confirmed his identity with the guards inside, so he was given permission to look around just like they were.

Walking next to the covered corpse, Xander frowned before lifting a small piece of the blanket to see the fresh corpse underneath. Xander obviously didn't know everyone in the nation, so he didn't find the man familiar.

"Do you have any specific details about him?"

"Yes, detective. According to the information gathered, his name is Maxwell Garnege." The guard who was standing next to the body with Xander responded. "A fisherman, age thirty-two, and the husband of Madame Elaine. From what was inspected, his cause of death was a strike to the head, most likely using a blunt object due to the lack of any stab or slash wounds."

『NEW EVIDENCE: Autopsy Report - Maxwell Garnege』

『...』

『A Shattered Mystery - SCENE: Elaine and Maxwell's Shop (1/5)』

➢ Evidence 1: [Autopsy Report - Maxwell Garnege]

"Using a blunt weapon, huh? Do we know what was used?"

"We believe so." The guard nodded before leading Xander over to the front counter of the shop. "This hammer here was most likely the murder weapon. It was found next to Maxwell's body, and you'll be able to see the obvious injury he sustained from its strike."

Xander gave a small hum as he picked up the end of the hammer, which looked to be made entirely out of metal. Since he was wearing gloves, he naturally didn't need to worry about leaving behind any fingerprints.

'Looking at the condition of the hammer, it definitely hasn't been in use for long. It's practically factory new.' Xander thought to himself as he turned the hammer around to inspect it from different angles. 'I'll have to look further into it later, I'll see what else I can find for right now.'

『NEW EVIDENCE: Metal Hammer』

『...』

『A Shattered Mystery - SCENE: Elaine and Maxwell's Shop (2/5)』

➢ Evidence 1: [Autopsy Report - Maxwell Garnege]

➢ Evidence 2: [Metal Hammer]

Placing the hammer back down, Xander looked around the room before making his way back over to the center of the room. The difficult thing was that even if something was indeed evidence, it wouldn't automatically register into the system.

He first had to identify and have a full and complete reason as to why he believed it was evidence, he couldn't just assume something was evidence and pray that he guessed correctly.

Whether or not his ideas about the evidence are correct is another story though, he could have a solid reason as to why it could be concrete evidence but end up being completely incorrect about how it was involved in the crime.

Overall, evidence that gets added to the system is only proven as evidence that is directly involved with the case, nothing else.

Looking at the system, this place apparently had two more relevant pieces of evidence for him to discover. The body and weapon itself were simple, but he needed more evidence that would help uncover what truly happened that night.

'A cold face may deceive, but its broken reflection speaks only the truth...' Xander thought back to the hint he received before turning his gaze back to the corpse. 'The cold face may be referring to Maxwell's corpse, and a broken reflection should mean the window. But in what way is it evidence? Aside from the fact that it served as the entrance and exit of the crime.'

With a heavy frown, Xander walked back over to the window before inspecting the window frame. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, and due to the state of the broken window, he couldn't figure out ho-...

"Wait a minute." Xander narrowed his eyes as he seemed to focus on one particular detail about the window. After examining it for a moment, he quickly snapped his head to the front door of the shop. 'This is... if my speculations are correct, then this case is messier than it appears.'

Glancing between the door and the window, Xander was soon greeted with another notification.

『NEW EVIDENCE: Broken Window』

『NEW EVIDENCE: Shop Entrance Door』

『...』

『A Shattered Mystery - SCENE: Elaine and Maxwell's Shop (4/5)』

➢ Evidence 1: [Autopsy Report - Maxwell Garnege]

➢ Evidence 2: [Metal Hammer]

➢ Evidence 3: [Broken Window]

➢ Evidence 4: [Shop Entrance Door]

'Oh? So, the shop's entrance is directly involved with the case after all. But whether or not my idea behind it is true or not, I'll first have to get some more information elsewhere. I'm still missing a piece of evidence...'

Looking around the shop, Xander couldn't really find anything that stood out amongst the obvious items that were involved with the crime. As he continued to look around, nothing seemed to pop up nor register to his list of evidence.

"Finished, detective?" The guard who allowed him access as soon as he saw Xander walking over. "How was your investigation?"

"Quite insightful indeed. I'll be back later on for some further investigation, I'll back soon, so please try not to alter the crime scene in any way if you can. That includes the body, so either keep it at the crime scene or allow me access to it later."

"I can try, detective. Good luck."

"Good day to you."

Xander nodded his head to the guard before walking out of the crime scene area. It didn't take long before he saw Elaine running over from another spot around the crime scene barricades.

"Detective, how was your investigation?" Elaine seemed to ask in a rather desperate and expectant tone. "Did you find anything useful?"

"I did, there was quite a lot."

"That's wonderful!"

"By the way, Madame Elaine. I'd like your assistance in something, if you don't mind."

"Hm?" With a confused look, Elaine blinked at his words before ultimately nodding her head. "Of course, detective. What do you need?"

"Nothing much, just a small favor."