The storage room.
If any place concealed a large number of murder weapons, the storage room would undoubtedly be the armory of the killer. The rope used to tie Kevin must have been taken from here.
The killer could even get the spare key, so the storage room door certainly wouldn't stop Him.
Lin and Aponia's first reaction upon entering the storage room was vigilance, as this could have been where Kosma was murdered, and the killer might still be hiding here.
So, after entering, they first searched every place a person could hide. Only after confirming that no one was concealed did they cautiously approach the window.
Lin leaned out. This spot was directly above where Kosma landed. The uncleared bloodstains were a stark, shocking red on the snow.
"…" Lin pulled his head back. He looked around the storage room. It was a very ordinary place piled with various杂物 (miscellaneous items). He could imagine how most of the things here could be used for murder, but based on the results, the killer seemed to have only used rope, a lighter, and gasoline…
Wait a moment, gasoline?
After checking the area near the window sill, Lin suddenly remembered something important.
He hadn't seen any gasoline in the storage room.
And Eden probably didn't have a habit of keeping spare gasoline at home. This meant the gasoline used to burn Kevin was not taken from here.
So, where did the gasoline come from…
"The cars…" Lin murmured.
"What did you say, Lin?"
"The gasoline in our cars has probably been drained," Lin shook his head bitterly, clutching his head. "Even if the blizzard stops, we'll have to walk to leave, and at that time, it's very likely…"
They were completely isolated in this villa.
Furthermore, Lin discovered some things in the storage room, but they were irrelevant to Kosma's death itself. There were no signs of Kosma struggling or fighting.
This meant that Kosma was likely not pushed from here.
The only place higher was the roof, but how could anyone possibly push Kosma from the roof? There was no direct passage to the roof in the villa, and Kosma wouldn't climb up to the roof for no reason.
Did he miss something? If Kosma didn't fall from here, what other place was high enough to cause a fatal fall?
Wait a minute… was Kosma really killed by a "fall," after all?
Among their fourteen, only Su was a doctor, and he was the first victim. This meant the remaining people had no way to immediately determine the cause of death.
Was this also the killer's strategy?
However, following this line of thought, the crime scene was probably not here, but…
Lin took Aponia to the second floor. Sure enough, by the window here, he found some small traces and bloodstains, and the murder weapon was a decorative statue nearby. There were still some bloodstains on it.
Kosma's true cause of death was blunt force trauma, and the killer had also brutally broken some of his joints to create the false appearance of death by falling.
The killer's purposeful deception was likely due to the necessity of following the murder methods written on the paper, the "Thirteen Paths of Fate." But from this incident, Lin noticed a problem.
While the final outcomes of Kevin's and Kosma's deaths both conformed to the Thirteen Paths of Fate, Kevin had no other external injuries and was burned alive, whereas Kosma died before he fell.
This inconsistency made Lin speculate.
"Let's go. Let's tell them this information."
Lin said to Aponia. Elysia and Vil-V were downstairs, so they should also have some new discoveries.
…
Lin walked downstairs. They still hadn't returned to the villa, so they should all still be investigating the backyard. Only Pardo, who was inconveniently wearing the mascot suit, was lying by the sofa.
Wait a moment, why was Pardo here?
Pardo was the most fearful person. Shouldn't she be afraid of being alone in the main hall instead of following the others?
"Pardo?" Lin called out hesitantly.
The mascot suit was motionless, only the internal bulk suggested there was someone inside.
He immediately walked up, knelt beside Pardo, and patted her head inside the costume, "Pardo?"
"…"
The dead silence made Lin pupils shrink.
He reached out a trembling hand and pulled the zipper down the back of the mascot suit.
"Plop."
A pale, pained face dropped out.
Aponia had arrived behind Lin by now. She covered her mouth, stammering in disbelief, "Pardo… is dead?"
"Four, the hidden shall suffocate beneath the cloth."
Lin couldn't bother with anything else. He didn't even have time to feel grief and immediately examined Pardo's body.
Her face was purple-blue, her eyeballs were protruding, there were no strangulation marks on her neck, and her conjunctiva was bleeding…
Lin was not a professional forensic pathologist, but he had seen the signs of death by suffocation in some works. Pardo's cause of death was very typical of suffocation.
Smothered inside the mascot suit?
Who did it? Who among those who went out did this?
"Bang!"
The main door was violently pushed open. Lin turned to look and saw Elysia standing in the doorway, her face utterly pale. When she saw Pardo's body, the last bit of color drained from her face.
"Lin… Sakura is dead…"
In the span of a few minutes, two victims appeared one after another.
…
With the combined effort of the group, all the victims' bodies were moved to the main hall for investigation.
Kevin died from burning. No other traces could be found on the body, which was almost a charred mess, so it was impossible to deduce whether he had died before being set on fire, but Lin tentatively concluded Kevin died from the burns.
Kosma died from blunt force trauma. After re-examining Kosma's wounds, Lin confirmed he did not die from the fall.
Pardo died from suffocation, which had already been investigated.
And finally…
Lin silently approached Sakura wide-eyed corpse.
A gleaming short knife was plunged into her chest, right up to the hilt, killing her instantly by piercing the heart. Judging by her confused expression, she didn't understand what had happened until she died.
"Five, the fearful shall hang themselves upon the blade."
This was another method of death that differed from the Thirteen Paths of Fate, because the fearful person in the Paths of Fate was supposed to die by "hanging," while Sakura was killed by someone else.
So far, there were two cases that followed the Thirteen Paths of Fate and two that did not.
"Sakura went around the corner of the villa when she was investigating the footprints. We were a step behind her, and then we saw her…"
"You didn't see who did it?"
"No, the killer was too fast. We don't even know where He went. There were no footprints left in the snow…"
This time, no footprints were left?
"…Then what about the previous footprints?"
"We can confirm that those footprints were a woman's; a man's feet couldn't be that small."
Different methods of death, traces in the storage room, inconsistent footprints, victims appearing simultaneously…
"Are there two killers…"