After leaving the airport, Rin eventually arrived in the Gard department of southern France after a long journey.
Driving the car, Rin comfortably enjoyed the scenery of the estates near the Rhône River and turned to ask Martha in the passenger seat.
"How does it feel to return to your old haunts?"
Martha rested her chin on her hand and shook her head as she watched the Rhône scenery receding outside the window.
"I don't feel much. Don't you know this river is over 800 kilometers long? I've never stayed in this specific spot, and things look completely different now compared to my time."
"Hehe, I thought you might feel sentimental or something..."
Martha didn't respond, but turned to look at Rin driving and rolled her eyes at her.
As the sun rose to the zenith, Rin drove the vehicle to her destination: a small winery located not far from the city of Nîmes.
After the vehicle left the main road built along the Rhône and turned onto a country lane, a delicate little winery stood amidst the endless vineyards.
"Halt!"
Just as she was about to reach the winery, Rin was stopped by a Magus clad in a black robe.
Rin rolled down the window, leaned her head out, and said loudly.
"I am the Clock Tower's Astronomy Branch Lord, Rin Tohsaka-Animusphere. Lead the way!"
The Magus who had blocked Rin's car was stunned. He quickly cleared the way, walked to a grape trellis to push out an off-road motorcycle, and guided Rin toward the interior of the small winery.
"Welcome!"
Shortly after getting out of the car, Rin was warmly led into the winery by several Magi. Then, a great deal of fine food and wine were served, their enthusiasm making Rin feel a bit uncomfortable.
Rin quickly grabbed a Magus who had just delivered some wine and asked.
"Hey! Tell whoever's in charge to come out. I'm not here on vacation!"
The Magus stopped by Rin nervously wiped the sweat dripping from his face, bowed to Rin, and then quickly rushed out of the small living room.
"I'll go notify them immediately!"
Rin thought someone would arrive soon, but she waited and waited, and no one came. She was just left there.
The more Rin thought about it, the more she felt something was wrong. She could no longer sit still. After cautiously applying various defensive and Reinforcement Magic to herself, she took the spiritualized Martha and began searching for the Atlas Magi herself.
In another small living room not far from where Rin was, a middle-aged woman was angrily venting her fury at other Magi.
"What were you doing! You actually lost Marisbury's body right under your noses! Do you have any idea what the situation is now!"
"But, Madam..."
"So Marisbury's body is lost. I was wondering why you dared to just leave me hanging..."
Suddenly, a voice sounded at the door of the small living room. Rin walked in, carrying an unconscious Atlas Magus.
The middle-aged woman, clearly the person in charge, stood up nervously from her chair. She showed no reaction to Rin knocking out her companion, but only explained to Rin with great anxiety.
"Lord Rin, I'm sorry, we really didn't..."
Rin casually tossed the unconscious Magus she was carrying to the Atlas Magus closest to her, then waved her hand to interrupt the woman.
"Fine, I don't intend to hold a grudge over you leaving me aside. Right now, I'm more interested in what you just said about Marisbury's body disappearing!"
Hearing Rin's question, the middle-aged woman stammered for a long time without giving a clear answer. Finally, a frustrated Rin could only have her lead the way to the crime scene where Marisbury's body had been kept.
Following the middle-aged woman, Rin arrived at a separate small building within the winery.
"Is this it?"
"Yes! This is where Lord Marisbury and his attendants were discovered. Lord Rin, as you know, a local manager like me wouldn't dare to mess around. After I was assigned by the Academy to maintain the scene and wait for the Clock Tower's investigation team, I've been carefully using magic to preserve this place. But last night, we suddenly found a problem with the preservation magic, and then our inspectors discovered that Lord Marisbury's body had vanished."
"Alright, I'll go in and take a look!"
"Yes!"
Upon receiving Rin's instruction, the middle-aged woman skillfully opened a person-sized passage in the barrier surrounding the building and led Rin inside, then carefully opened the main door with a key.
Walking into the building with the woman, Rin soon saw the bodies of two Astronomy Branch Magi lying in the entrance hall.
"Lord Rin, look, these are the attendants Lord Marisbury brought. Our examination results show they were silently struck by an evil curse, and in their weakened state without anyone to dispel it for a long time, they became so weak they couldn't even breathe and finally suffocated."
Rin crouched down to carefully observe the two bodies. Indeed, as the middle-aged woman had said, their facial expressions looked like they had suffocated, and the magical energy around their bodies indicated they had indeed been hit by an evil curse before death.
However, as Rin continued her observation by enhancing her eyes with magical energy, she noticed something slightly off. Based on the direction the two bodies had fallen and the differences in magical concentration, Rin deduced the fact that these two had actually been cursed from behind.
Rin calmly followed the middle-aged woman to the next crime scene. Two more bodies in the second-floor hallway also showed signs of being cursed from behind, and their cause of death was the same as the two in the first-floor entrance hall.
Seeing this, a suspicion had already formed in Rin's mind. 'Could it really be the Wandering Sea or Atlas? Did they pretend to negotiate, and after entering the building, take advantage of the guards' lack of preparation to sneak attack them from behind with evil curses?'
However, once Rin entered the room where Marisbury had died, she overturned her previous hypothesis. It was too clean. As one of the world's top Magi, Marisbury couldn't have gone to someone else's territory without any precautions, yet Rin searched the entire room and found no traces of a battle.
'A guy like Marisbury couldn't have been taken out in a single sneak attack like an idiot. There must be something wrong here, and the disappearance of his body now precisely proves that someone is hiding something!'
Rin then activated her reinforced Mystic Eyes and began searching the room again.
Three days after Rin went to France to investigate Marisbury's death.
A rumor spread rapidly through the magical world.
In Chaldea, two ordinary staff members were chatting as they walked down a quiet corridor.
"Hey! Have you heard? There's a rumor flying around outside that the Director's death was actually the work of the vice director. They say it was to seize the inheritance of Chaldea and the Animusphere family."
"Is that true? The vice director doesn't seem like that kind of person."
"You can't judge a book by its cover, who can say for sure? But Olga Marie is the most pitiful one regardless..."
The rumor had even begun to appear in Chaldea, located in Antarctica and only accessible via teleportation. So as for other places... Martha.jpg
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