Deduction

Nirpendra had suspicions on the overly abusive guard from the beginning. He kept kicking the woman and abusing her, purely because of her lower caste birth. Such discrimination didn't sit right with Nirpendra. 

He couldn't enter this house because it was of lower caste. If he did, the people around them would most likely question him. So he needed to think of a way to prove this murder without entering the murder scene.

Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and focused on his inherited memories. Images depicting various feelings, emotions and memories appeared inside of his head like a movie tape. Focusing on a specific part of his memories, he narrowed the large array of messy memories down to only the memories including magic.

'Lets see… I need a magic spell that helps me solve this problem.'

He thought while checking each memory one by one. He'd originally been from earth, where magic is non-existent. But it didn't mean it was entirely foreign to him, magic was shown in fiction, afterall. One thing shocking Nirpendra found out was that the magic in this world was less magical than shown in fiction. You couldn't even call it magic, rather it was simple and neat tricks to make your daily life easier. Such as lighting fire for light during the night or lighting fire for warmth during the cold. Whereas, fiction on earth depicted magic as powerful means of battle.

Or at least, he concluded that much from his inherited memories. Perhaps Nirpendra and his tutors were simply not skilled at magic to an extent of using magic for war. He should investigate it properly next time.

After a few minutes of searching around his memories, he finally found something useful. It was a magic spell for detaching the vision of the person. In simpler words, it was basically a way to astral project your vision. From his memories, he could see a young Nirpendra using this spell to see through the walls to where his father and his concubines were having sex for material to masturbate to.

'That's a pretty creative application of this spell, actually.' Nirpendra remarked internally before turning his focus to casting the spell.

This was his first time using any magic so truth be told, he had no clue what he was doing. But purely guided by his memories, he repeated the exact actions the young Nirpendra had done: Closing his eyes in focus. 

"Everyone, move out of the way." Mahipatendra advised the others, "He's casting magic."

All of the guards, including the Finance Minister, looked a bit curious at this moment as they took a few steps behind with Nripendra in the center.

After that, Nirpendra focused on a certain force from within the body. It was a warm sensation as the force emerged from his middle and traveled to the area around his eyes. With a bit more effort, he was able to sort of pop his eyes out with the help of that warm force which he named Mana.

'Alright, the spell is complete.' 

When Nirpendra turned around, he saw himself standing still like an AI robot without orders. When he tried to move, his body didn't respond–rather–his perception of the world moved.

'Woah!'

It was a bit hard to control but after struggling for a minute or so, he was able to get the hang of moving his vision freely through space. 

He soared here and there at great speed, it felt incredible being able to move like this unrestrained by gravity, or any laws of physics for that matter. He could almost imagine the air passing through his hair as he soared into the sky.

After having enough fun testing out this magic, he returned to the house and entered it with his vision only, his body still standing still without moving.

Around five minutes later, Nripendra relinquished the mana from the area of his eyes, which simultaneously returned his vision to his body and returned his access to move his body around. 

With the control of his body, he nodded with a hand on his chin as if he were conforming something.

"Brother, did you find anything?"

"Yes, I may have something to prove this murder with."

"Oh, that's good!"

"But first, I need to ask the woman some questions."

Everyone's eyes turned towards the woman. The woman's wound on her face had already clotted and the blood was frozen. But her state was still the same as she meekly looked up with chains around her arms and legs.

"What is your name, woman?" Nirpendra started the questioning.

"Purnima Kasai, your highness."

"Then, Purnima, when did your husband die?"

Everyone behind him amused and Nirpendra could overhear a guard gossiping:

"What? His highness calls an untouchable by name?"

"No way… That's impossible right? I don't even call them by name." 

"Is he perhaps…"

But their whispers were suddenly interrupted by Mahipatenra Malla as he spoke loud and confident as ever:

"Aha! Older brother, how magnanimous of you to call that thing by its name during its final moments in life! Truly befitting a king of your status!"

The guards who were gossiping previously gasped in realization, almost like they wanted to apologize. 

"That's right, I don't care how lowly of a creature one is, be it a Kasai or a pig, when I'm delivering justice, everyone is equal in my eyes."

Nirpendra breathed a sigh of relief internally. He couldn't simply go against the social norms in this period as a single being. The society would most likely find a way to oppress him if he tried abolishing the Caste System and Sati Pratha right now. For the people in this era, this was the norm, and going against it would provide the people a target, be it a king or not.

That being said, these customs were undoubtedly wrong and he was planning to remove them. But it would take time because people couldn't turn around a new leaf all of a sudden. 

While Nirpendra was in his thoughts, Purnima had already answered him which he missed. He asked the woman to reiterate what she'd said:

"After having breakfast, I went out at 11 AM and when I returned at around 1 PM, he was dead… But it possibly couldn't have been a suicide. We were happily living together, there's no way Pawant would kill himself."

Nirpendra Malla was thoughtful for a few seconds before asking the second question:

"Was anyone supposed to come to the house during the time you left?"

"Well… No, there wasn't anyone that I knew of."

"Then do you know anyone that might want him dead?"

"I remember Pawant had won 5 Mohar the other night in the tavern and he was really happy about it."

"Can you lead me to the tavern?"

The King's group followed the woman once again and once they reached the tavern, Nirpendra Malla questioned the owner. Ofcourse, this tavern was also considered 'untouchable' so Nirpendra didn't enter, rather the owner was called outside.

"Do you remember a Kasai named Pawant in the tavern last night?"

The tavern owner was silent for a moment, still digesting this sudden situation he found himself. 

"Yes, your highness, he was in my tavern last night. He's a regular… Did anything bad happen to him?" 

"The young man was found dead a few hours ago."

"No way…"

"Did you see anyone else with the Kasai?" 

"Well, hmm… There were four other men playing cards with him but they weren't his usual friends."

"Oh? Can you identify these men?"

"I didn't recognize the three of them but the fourth one, sure. He threw a fit after losing the game so I can probably identify him."

Nirpendra nodded at this and looked at one of the guards clad in full armor. 

"You, take off your helmet." 

This specific guard was the one being overly abusive with the woman for no apparent reason. From the testimonies he'd gathered, Nirpendra theorized that this guard lost a lot of money gambling with the woman's husband and the next day, he came to his house to get his revenge. But that wasn't enough for him so he's gone and started abusing the wife as well. 

"Huh…? Me…?!" The guard stammered behind a few steps.

"Your Highness, that is a bit difficult to do. Our guards have to hide their faces during work. It has been like this for ages, only the captain is exempt from this rule."

"Oh? You dare defy my words?"

"No, your highness…"

This was the state of the world. The custom of not taking off one's helmet during work is not widely spread throughout the society so he can easily rebuke this custom with his authority of the king and a simple threat. But the other customs like sati pratha and caste system infect the entire kingdom and probably all of the hindu kingdoms of Nepal as of right now, so they were near impossible to abolish.

"Then he can take it off, right?"

"Yes, your highness. Prakash, Under the command of your king, take off your helmet!"

"Um… That's…"

"You dare not follow the king's orders? Surely you know that you can be executed for that?" The captain berated him.

"That's right. If you don't show your face, how are we going to get to the climax of our game?" Mahipatendra added.

Even under the pressure of the king, the king's brother and his own captain, the guard didn't want to budge because if he did, it would lead to his execution. But if he didn't it would also lead to his execution.

After a few seconds of silence, the King spoke:

"Forget it. You don't have to."

'Yes! That's right, Forget it! Naive kid!' The guard rejoiced in his mind but the king continued speaking.

"Captain Of the guards, do you remember the patrolling schedule of Prakash?"

"Yes, your highness. He was supposed to be patrolling in the lower-caste neighborhood from 10 AM to 12 PM before returning to the camp."

"Is that right?" Nirpendra said, "The woman there also says that the murder must've occurred from 11 AM to 1 PM. And what—"

"No! Your highness, please don't trust what this crazy Kasai is talking about! She's gone mad! You can't trust her!" The guard was frantic.

"Silence! Who gave you permission to cut off the king?" The guard's captain was also furious, "You really must've done the murder after all!"

"No way! Please believe me, I would never do that! Why should I enter an untouchable's home!"

"How pathetic." The guard's captain spat and turned towards the king respectfully.

"Your highness, may I take him away for his execution?"

"You may."

As the captain ordered other guards to capture the suspect, he was screaming and kicking like a child.

"No! That woman has gone mad! You can't trust what she says! This is stupid!!"

Nirpendra shook his head internally while watching the despicable guard being dragged away. 

"Older brother, you haven't really proven the murder." Mahipatendra said.

"No, I know that he's the murderer. I told you that I knew a way to prove the murder before questioning the woman, right? Well, that way was to see if the guard's patrol time and the husband's murder time overlapped, and it did. But that's not all. If you look closely, the husband supposedly killed himself with a knife however, the wound on the man's chest was round and missing a chunk of cylindrical flesh. This is because he was not stabbed by a knife, but rather stabbed by a spear—the exact spear which is used by the guard."

"How incredible!" Mahipatendra commented.