Chapter 148: Suspicion

Seeing that Roth ignored her, Lucy frowned and looked at Emotionless.

Noticing her gaze, Emotionless shook his head. "By the time we chased after them, the figure had already vanished."

"Moreover... that person didn't seem to come from the front of the train."

"Didn't come from the front of the train?"

Upon hearing Emotionless's words, Lucy, who had asked the question, had not yet reacted.

It was Uman, sitting on the ground, who suddenly stood up. He repeated the question, "What do you mean by saying they didn't come from the front of the train?"

His expression was somewhat distorted, giving the impression that if he were subjected to any more stimulation, his sanity might shatter in an instant.

"Literally."

Emotionless wore a flat expression as he recounted what had just happened. "By the time we rushed to the kitchen, we couldn't see that dark shadow anymore."

"Even though we knew the culprit must have escaped—"

"We still pursued them without hesitation."

"Just as we suspected, there wasn't a single soul in the passenger compartments."

"However, just as Iron-willed Guy and I were about to turn back, Roth called out to us."

"He said he had placed a strand of hair in the door seam and wanted to check if it was still there."

At this point, Emotionless paused, delivering the answer that everyone had already guessed yet refused to believe:

"As it turned out, the hair was still in the door seam."

"How is that possible! If the killer didn't come from the front of the train, could they have just materialized out of thin air?"

"We searched everywhere during the day. In this entire train, besides the front, there's no one else anywhere else!"

Uman was the first to jump up in refutation.

Irene also felt this was highly unlikely.

Because during the day, she had participated in the search along with everyone else.

If anyone had been hiding in the kitchen or the compartments, it would have been impossible for them to evade their collective search.

"There really was a hair in the door seam."

Seeing that the others didn't believe it, Iron-willed Guy spoke up to corroborate Emotionless's statement.

"Does that mean the killer is hiding somewhere in the front compartments right now?"

Lucy frowned. "Should we all go together right now and flush this killer out?"

"Agreed," Iron-willed Guy replied immediately.

However, apart from the two of them, the others did not respond right away.

The scene fell into a stalemate.

At this, Sword Rising didn't even bother to look.

His gaze was currently fixed on Roth.

Roth was now examining Lina's corpse.

An inspection thorough enough to require blurring.

"Any discoveries?"

Sword Rising walked up to him and joined him in examining Lina's body.

Their actions drew the attention of the others.

"They were all killed with a single blow. What kind of clues do you expect to find on a corpse? I think we'd better spend our time figuring out a way out instead of wasting it on meaningless things like this."

Uman glanced at the three gruesome corpses and spoke with dissatisfaction.

After finishing, he looked over at Lucy, seemingly seeking her support.

Yet the reality was that not a single person paid him any mind.

After restoring Lina's clothes to their original state, Roth stood up, stretched out his hand, and displayed a crushed, deformed necklace to everyone present.

"The culprit killed Lina with a single blow, yet they still took the extra time to destroy this necklace."

The necklace was the one bearing the symbol of the Church of Agony.

After it had been found rummaging through her luggage, Lina had hung it around her own neck.

"How can you be sure this necklace was damaged separately? Didn't you see that her neck is broken?"

"It's also possible the killer simply crushed the necklace along with her neck by coincidence."

Uman questioned.

In response, Roth gave him a look that one would reserve for an idiot.

"If it had happened to be crushed along with it, why is there only a strangulation mark on the neck?"

The necklace was metallic; had it borne the same tremendous force simultaneously, it would inevitably have embedded itself into the flesh.

Everyone directly ignored Uman. Lucy looked at the necklace in Roth's hand, bit her lip, and asked, "If the necklace was deliberately destroyed on its own, what does that prove?"

Hearing Lucy's question, Roth's composed face broke into a dangerous smile.

"It proves that the killer has a faith, and the church they worship is in a hostile relationship with the Church of Agony."

"Hostile relationship? From the Church of Holy Light? But people from the Church of Holy Light don't just kill people at random."

Hearing Roth's explanation, Irene spoke up. The deaths of the couple made her feel that this wasn't the work of the Church of Holy Light.

Hearing this, Sword Rising asked curiously, "What is this Church of Holy Light anyway?"

"The cross inside the luggage of the man who died earlier is the symbol of the Church of Holy Light," Irene explained to Sword Rising.

"Then what is their doctrine?"

"Doctrine?" Irene frowned and thought for a moment. "I seem to remember it's about banishing all darkness from the world."

Sword Rising nodded and then looked back at Roth.

Roth did not answer at that moment; instead, he walked over to the bodies of the couple who were players.

He examined their wounds.

Under the somewhat puzzled gazes of the others, he used his hand to measure and compare the sunken indents on the backs of their heads.

Then, his eyes narrowed.

He raised his head and looked at the group. "I'm afraid there are two killers."

"Two people!?"

Hearing Roth's words, astonishment appeared on everyone's faces simultaneously.

Followed closely by disbelief.

"How can you be certain?" Iron-willed Guy asked with a frown.

Seeing this, Roth pointed directly at Lina's neck.

"Look at the bruises on her neck. They aren't particularly large."

"By comparison, they're even smaller than my palm."

"And the two of them..."

As he spoke, Roth clenched his hand into a fist and pressed it against the back of Bei Yu's head.

The indentation on the back of the head was noticeably a size larger than his fist.

"With fists as large as rice cookers, you're telling me this was the work of just one person?"

Comparing the evidence, the group realized it was indeed as Roth had described, and no one questioned it further.

But...

Uman quickly reacted, terror washing over his face. "If there was only one dark shadow that escaped, doesn't that mean—"

At this point, he swallowed hard.

He swept his gaze across the room, subconsciously taking a step away from everyone else before finishing his sentence: "One of the killers is among us."

*Swish!*

Prompted by Uman's reminder, the rest of them realized the implication as well.

They distanced themselves from one another, casting hostile glances at every single person in the room.

Among them, Emotionless and Iron-willed Guy shifted their gazes toward Roth almost simultaneously.

In an instant, the atmosphere inside the compartment became tense and explosive.

Seeing this, Roth took the opportunity to observe the expressions of everyone present, hoping to glean some clues from them.

However, everyone's reactions appeared entirely natural.

This only caused his frown to deepen further.