Today, Kazimierz experienced an unprecedented 'great quake'.
Two of the Chamber of Commerce's top council magnates, along with four magnates of the next rank down, were dead.
They died in a villa.
And their deaths were incredibly gruesome. Every single one was decapitated, their heads fallen to the ground. Even in death, their eyes remained wide open, unwilling to close, as if filled with endless resentment that could not be expressed.
If it were just the boss of an ordinary company, it might not have caused such a 'quake'.
After all.
Kazimierz has no shortage of companies. No one would care about an ordinary boss. Besides, even third-level magnates have been assassinated before, let alone a small-time owner.
But this time was different.
Assassinations of third-level magnates were usually internal cleanups by the Chamber of Commerce itself.
After all, the Chamber of Commerce is also made up of people. Wherever you have a lot of people, there will inevitably be differing opinions. Magnates who went against the Chamber of Commerce's will would be purged. But this time was different... these two council members held positions in the Chamber of Commerce that were not low; in fact, they could be described as quite high.
Taylor Upton, the current chairman of the Upton Munitions Group. Upton Munitions is one of the largest arms groups in all of Kazimierz, with a market value in the hundreds of billions of Lungmen Dollars.
Corbett Asavis, chairman of the Hitton Financial Group. Hitton Financial also had a market value in the hundreds of billions of Lungmen Dollars.
Even within the Chamber of Commerce, these two major figures were high-ranking council members with significant influence. As for the other four, the company with the lowest market value was still worth tens of billions.
Six major figures dying at once, and not at the hands of the Chamber of Commerce—this was no small matter.
Furthermore, because there was no surveillance in the private room, even Kazimierz's finest police investigators couldn't find anything after looking into it.
At this moment.
Inside Corbett's villa.
A middle-aged man with an ashen face stood beside a middle-aged noblewoman with a full head of blonde hair.
The middle-aged man was average-looking, appearing to be in his early sixties. The wrinkles on his face were quite pronounced, but his features were sharp. Paired with his current ashen complexion, the oppressive aura of a superior was on full display. This middle-aged man was Galahad Barton, the third-level magnate who held the highest status in the Chamber of Commerce besides the fourth-level magnates, and was also the public face of the Chamber of Commerce.
As for the other blonde noblewoman, she was the leader of the Kazimierz Supervisory Commission, the current Grand Knight Commander, Ioletta Russell.
Galahad Barton's expression was incredibly grim as he looked at the already-coagulated bloodstains on the carpet. The bodies were still where they lay, untouched. Although his relationship with Taylor and the other man wasn't exactly good on a daily basis—they weren't even friends—no matter what, they were both council members of the Chamber of Commerce. For them to die so obscurely, anyone would feel uncomfortable.
Grand Knight Commander Russell, however, looked much more relaxed.
She was the leader of the Supervisory Commission, representing the knight class. The Supervisory Commission and the Chamber of Commerce had always been at odds. The deaths of two council members and four second-level magnates was only beneficial, not detrimental, to the Supervisory Commission. Grand Knight Commander Russell had come purely to see who could have killed these two Chamber council members.
Having reached their positions, they were already extremely conscious of their own safety.
Whether out or at home, they were surrounded by bodyguards. If they could be assassinated so easily, they would have been dead long ago.
Nearby, Roy, a Kuranta man with blue hair, a handsome face, and a perpetually enigmatic smile, was carefully investigating the surroundings. He was a Lazurite of the Armorless Union. Beside him was Monique, a Feline with short, light-blue hair, also a Lazurite. Compared to Roy, Monique was much more serious.
As for the girl investigating on the east side, dressed in a white jacket and shorts, looking like a pure white pegasus, she was the Platinum Azurite of the Armorless Union, Centaurea.
Because this matter was so significant.
The three Darksteels of the Armorless Union had dispatched their only two Lazurites and one Platinum Azurite to investigate the truth behind the deaths of the two council magnates and four members.
"Oho~ Perfect! Absolutely perfect!!"
Roy's lips always curled into a faint, ambiguous smile, making him impossible to read.
Barton, the public face of the Chamber of Commerce, frowned and inquired.
"What do you mean? Did you find something, Mr. Roy?"
The Armorless Union and the Chamber of Commerce were partners, not master and servant.
The highest and most mysterious ranks in the Armorless Union were the three Darksteel Azurites. The status of a Darksteel was comparable to the true controllers of the Chamber of Commerce, the fourth-level magnates. Roy, a Lazurite, was equivalent to a third-level magnate. Therefore, Councilman Barton questioned Roy in a tone of equality.
"Before today, I always believed that a perfect crime couldn't exist in this world. As long as something happened, it would leave a trace. Even if it was just a tiny trace, it was still indelible. But today, I might be changing my mind. Perfect crimes really do exist in this world."
For some reason.
Roy's tone seemed just a tiny bit... happy.
Councilman Barton's expression turned even uglier.
"Why do you say that."
Grand Knight Commander Russell also crossed her arms with interest, looking at Roy.
"First... the floor isn't hardwood, it's carpet. Compared to a floor, a carpet leaves traces more easily. Generally speaking, to cut off a person's head, you definitely need to get close. If you get close, you must step on this floor. But the strange thing is, aside from the last few maids, no traces of any outsider were found on the carpet. Not just on the carpet, but nowhere else either. Although there's no surveillance inside the room, there is 360-degree surveillance outside. The outside surveillance didn't see anyone enter, and there's no question of a secret room or anything similar here."
"Furthermore, the cross-sections on the necks of these six people are incredibly smooth. An ordinary person couldn't possibly make such a smooth cut. The difficulty of this kind of wound is very, very high. It requires not only a sharp sword, but also immense wrist strength from the killer. At the very least, it would require a very strong knight. Honestly, I can't think of any way to cut off six heads so smoothly without stepping into the room."
The Lazurite beside him, Monique, asked: "Could it be a wire? A very thin wire moving at high speed could also cut."
"No, no...."
"It's clearly not. No matter how sharp a wire is, the cut mark is different from a blade's. I can be certain this wound was indeed made by a blade. Only a blade could make this cut."
Monique pinched her chin and said seriously: "They all died with their eyes wide open. This means they definitely saw something unbelievable, or someone unbelievable, before they died...."
"Can we investigate their enemies?"
Roy laughed: "Enemies? These people have, if not a thousand, at least eight hundred enemies. How long would that investigation take?"
After a while, the case still had no progress. Just then, several police officers ran over and whispered something in the ears of Councilman Barton and Grand Knight Commander Russell.
Councilman Barton's brows furrowed deeper and deeper.
"Councilman Barton, what happened?"
"You tell them."
Councilman Barton motioned for the officer beside him to speak.
The officer said: "According to our recent interrogation of the only witnesses, the attendants, they said they were serving these gentlemen in the room when, suddenly, one of them seemed to notice something and shouted, 'Who are you?' The next second, the six council members disappeared. When they reappeared, their heads had already fallen to the ground. These attendants are clean. We investigated them. Although they were present, everyone's testimony was identical, and they are ordinary people, lacking the ability to sever a neck."
"Disappeared???"
Everyone couldn't help but mutter.
Uh...
Isn't this just too absurd!
Disappeared, and when they reappeared, their heads were already on the ground.
"Could it be a special Originium Art?"
Grand Knight Commander Russell shook her head: "How could that be? I've lived this long and never heard of such an Originium Art."
Grand Knight Commander Russell's words cut off the only new lead.
The large office fell silent.
No one spoke, everyone was deep in thought, but no matter how they thought about it, this crime seemed impossible. Even the best profilers in the Kazimierz police department couldn't reconstruct the crime from the scant clues.
If we had to force a possibility, it would be that...
The enemy pulled these six people into another place, cut off their heads, and then teleported them back.
But....
Such an Originium Art is too ridiculous. It's completely impossible.
The final plan adopted was the stupidest method: elimination. Investigate one by one, starting with the people they had offended most recently, and then filter out the most likely suspects.
Although the news of the magnates' assassination was printed in every newspaper and headline, the ordinary common folk didn't care at all. These magnates were too far removed from their lives; they didn't even know them. Most people didn't even glance at the news.
On the day the news broke, the number one trending topic in Kazimierz was a new game from Yan that was playable on both PC and mobile. Nobody cared about the magnates' deaths.
Many people even gloated.
After all, even if they didn't know them, the vast majority of people enjoy seeing the high-and-mighty rich fall from grace, go bankrupt, or die. Then they can say, 'So what if you're rich? You still die. You can't take the money with you anyway.'
The world doesn't stop turning just because someone is gone.
It's the same for large corporations.
A large corporation is like a precision machine assembled from countless small parts. The chairman is, frankly, just the decision-maker giving orders. Even if the chairman is gone, it doesn't have much impact on the company. The company operates as usual. The board of directors' first reaction upon hearing the news wasn't concern for the chairman, but to immediately hold an election for a new chairman.
The company operates as usual. The old chairman is gone, and a new one will take over.
Sona had been a tiny bit scared these past few days.
Especially when she saw the news of the magnates' deaths, Sona worried even more: What if they found out she was the killer? If she were alone, it wouldn't matter; she could just run. But she had family with her.
However, this worry gradually faded after a few days.
Just as Lucas Reeve said.
They couldn't possibly discover who the real killer was, because the assassination itself was the most perfect assassination. Of course, they could guess using other methods, like investigating everyone around them, and they would definitely check Sona. But... only an idiot would suspect an Infected, who wasn't even an official knight, of killing so many magnates so stealthily.
It's like if the Demon King died. Everyone would suspect the Hero did it. No one would suspect the ordinary people tortured by the Demon King, because their strength levels don't match at all.
After confirming that they really wouldn't notice her, Sona let out a huge sigh of relief. On the fourth day, she went and bought the 150-square-meter house she had her eye on, worth 2.6 million. When she told her family, the children were ecstatic, while the elders were quite surprised. At first, they thought Sona was joking, but when they saw the actual house key, they finally believed it was real.