"I told Elisa she couldn't let anyone find out about us."
Mr. Morris was frantic. Under the gun barrel, he could no longer keep up the lies.
"I even gave her a large sum of money. I never expected her to actually give birth to the child!"
"Things were about to be exposed. I had no choice but to do what I did."
"No, please!"
Faced with the cold-blooded killer, Mr. Morris chose to kneel.
"I'll give you however much money you want!"
"Take your money and repent in hell."
Mr. Morris closed his eyes, bracing for death.
But the bullet never came.
The shot had deliberately missed.
"I am Chevreuse, Captain of Fontaine's Special Patrol Team. I am arresting you on suspicion of murdering Elisa."
As Chevreuse spoke, the professional camerawoman Lumine and Paimon popped out from the corner.
Mr. Morris looked around in confusion. His mind was a complete mess—he had no idea what was happening.
[Very cool, but can this kind of evidence actually be used?]
[What's the difference between this and a sudden memory restoration technique?]
[Let's see how Neuvillette rules on this.]
In the darkness, someone let out a disdainful "Tch."
Then she raised the revolver without hesitation. No matter how many times she pulled the trigger, nothing came out.
"Huh?"
"Looking for this?"
The camera followed the voice. Mu Yang stood beside Veronique, crushing the bullets that should have been in her gun into powder…
[So cool! I bet your gun has no bullets!]
[Freezing the gun directly is one way to do it.]
[She probably swapped the bullets and froze them at the same time, otherwise the weight would feel off.]
Chevreuse drew her own gun and turned around. "You're also under arrest, props master Veronique. Or should I say—the second musket shooter."
"Eh—?!" Paimon, still holding the Kamera, didn't know who to film.
Yoimiya, who had been lying on the ground, was also stunned. "What's going on? What's going on? The script didn't say anything about this scene!"
"Put the gun down," Mu Yang said calmly. "And don't bother reaching for that old musket either. I already took it apart while I was at it."
"…Why? Why are you stopping me from killing this monster?!"
Chevreuse chambered a round. "You'd better listen to him. Put the gun down. I won't say it twice."
Surrounded by everyone, Veronique had no choice but to lower her weapon.
Mr. Morris voiced the question on many people's minds—what exactly was going on here?
"Still don't understand, Morris? Everything that just happened was a performance staged to make you confess on camera. Except for our uninvited guest, of course."
Chevreuse looked at Veronique.
Veronique closed her eyes and chose to remain silent.
"Uh, Chevreuse, you only asked us to help act out a scene. You never mentioned anything about a second musket shooter."
Paimon was still completely lost.
Chevreuse explained that until now, everything had only been her deduction. She had asked Yoimiya to fetch the Special Patrol Team members and reassure the rest of the crew not to worry. The matter was resolved. Neither the film nor the criminals needed to be worried about anymore.
After Yoimiya left, Chevreuse turned back to the still-collapsed Mr. Morris. "Interested in recalling what happened twenty years ago? My patience is limited. Don't force me to take you back to the interrogation room—I bet you wouldn't last a minute in there. With the footage we just recorded, you have zero chance in court. Cooperating now is your only remaining advantage."
Mu Yang was somewhat doubtful whether this kind of evidence would hold up. But for breaking down Mr. Morris's mental defenses, the line was more than enough.
"…Fine. I'll talk."
Mr. Morris admitted it. He had killed Elisa.
Elisa had once been a maid in his household. She was young and beautiful, and over time, Mr. Morris had taken a liking to her.
[That wasn't love. That was your lower head controlling your upper head!]
[Mushoku Tensei much?]
[Don't say that—she really was pretty.]
[After all, it's drawn, not modeled. The modeling team at miHoYo is too lazy to bother. They definitely gave you some random NPC.]
[Pure lazy dog behavior, I'm telling you.]
"We kept it secret from everyone and were together for a while. But… not long after, she became pregnant."
"If my parents had found out, they would have stripped me of my inheritance and kicked me out of the family…"
Elisa had insisted on keeping the child. She wanted Mr. Morris to leave with her so they could start a new life together far away.
Chevreuse's voice was laced with sarcasm. "She actually believed you truly loved her."
"…I had no choice." Mr. Morris looked as though he had suffered a great injustice.
"I gave her a sum of money and told her to leave the household and not give birth to the child. Who would have thought that years later she would send me a letter containing portraits of two children, hoping I would find time to visit them?"
[Two children. So this really is adapted from a true story.]
[Is it possible the writer wanted to expose everything through writing, but realized it had no effect, so Veronique decided to use force instead?]
[One with words, one with weapons—unstoppable. No wonder the writer took the blame for her.]
Even so, Mr. Morris hadn't actually needed to resort to murder. He could have simply pretended not to see anything. But that wasn't how he saw it.
At the time, he had been planning to marry another wealthy young lady. If anyone discovered even the slightest trace of this matter, his situation would be exposed.
"I had no choice!"
"…No. You didn't have no choice. You simply chose wrong again."
Mr. Morris had no reply.
Veronique stepped forward and questioned him. "…Do you know what it feels like to watch your own mother be murdered right in front of you?"
"My brother and I—two children who had only just begun to remember things—were lying under the floor, clutching each other's hands so tightly we didn't even dare breathe."
In her memory, their mother had fought the assassin bare-handed to protect her children… and was killed. She fell.
The killer searched every inch of the house. Only after nightfall the next day did the two children dare crawl out from under the floor. Their mother had already grown cold and stiff…
From that moment on, the siblings had sworn to reveal the truth and take revenge.
Veronique confessed. She was the one who had committed the second murder. Her writer brother had nothing to do with it.
Chevreuse had known all along. She had never believed Baptiste's confession from the start. After returning to the Special Patrol Team, she had thrown the musket buried in the backyard in front of Baptiste. The man knew nothing about firearms—he couldn't even figure out how to reload the gun.
From that moment, Chevreuse had been certain there was more than one culprit. Baptiste had confessed only to draw attention away from the other person and create an opportunity for revenge.
So Chevreuse had decided to play along. As long as Mr. Morris was left alone, the second musket shooter would definitely appear. And that second shooter would already know of Mr. Morris's existence. Using her position as props master, she could purchase musket parts under the guise of the film crew.
Following that lead, Chevreuse had investigated the orphanage where Baptiste grew up. Veronique's name appeared right below his.