555 Range
Using the method of faking a m*rder scene, Doro successfully obtained the cooperation of the cruise ship’s crew members, allowing the zombie puppet Ed to act as a detective and mobilize the crew’s resources. Since Doro had already conducted surveillance and investigation on these crew members from the beginning, she could roughly determine that there was no connection between them and any hidden agendas, making their utilization safe.
Doro recognized the ashes on the carpet in room 417, knowing that it was a type of cigar typically smoked by men. Then, by meticulously comparing the slight deformation traces on the carpet, she confirmed the owner’s footprints, inferred the height from the footprints, and finally found a male zombie puppet of similar height, stripped it of its identity, and threw it into the room to pose as the body, guiding others to discover it.
Fortunately, the captain of the ship, William, was a Prit, and he had heard news about Detective Ed, so Doro could directly gain the captain’s trust under the name of the famous detective. Speaking of which, Ed’s reputation spread quickly largely due to his association with Adele; following the events at the Rising Theater, Ed rode on Adele’s stardom and became a well-known detective in Tivyán.
After formally obtaining the investigative authority of the case from Captain William, Doro controlled Ed to feign a simple examination of the scene, then sent Ed to the doorway to inquire of the anxious waiter waiting on the other side.
“What is the name of the owner of this cabin? You should have it on record.”
“Yes, we do. The guest in room 417 is named Nicodo Rizzo. He boarded in Russo, and his ticket’s destination is Moncala.”
The waiter relayed the basic information of the room’s owner to Ed. After hearing this information, Doro fell into deep thought, recalling the location of Russo; in her impression, it should be a coastal city in the northern islands of Conquer Sea, belonging to Cassiri.
After pondering, Doro let Ed look towards Captain William and then spoke.
“Captain, I now need to conduct comprehensive inquiries on those related to the case. Please prepare a separate room for me and notify the guests surrounding room 417 to gather at the door of that room. Also, call all the waiters responsible for this floor. I need to question them one by one.”
Ed instructed the old captain, who responded promptly.
“No problem, detective. I’ll take care of it right away.”
Then, the old captain efficiently arranged a control cabin for Ed on the same floor as 417. After Ed entered the cabin, he immediately summoned the crew to find and arrange the guests around 417 and all the waiters on that floor to gather at the door of the cabin prepared for Ed. In this way, Doro controlled Ed to conduct face-to-face inquiries with one passenger after another and the waiters.
“What? You want my impression of the person living next door?”
Inside the cabin, a middle-aged woman from Faraluo, dressed in a long skirt, sat opposite Ed. Upon hearing Ed’s words, she began to think back and eventually answered.
“To be honest, I don’t have much impression of him. Although he lives next door, I’ve never seen him. Every time I went out or came back, the door of 417 was always closed. I initially thought no one was there, but who knew that at night, there would be sounds coming from there.”
“Sounds? What sounds?”
“It’s a disgusting noise, like someone is drowning and screaming. It’s really annoying. I’ve stayed on this ship for five days, and for three of those nights, he would make those sounds for a while. Sometimes it felt like he was scratching the walls with his hands. My goodness, if he hadn’t been quiet enough last night, I would have changed cabins.”
The middle-aged woman said to Ed, and after silently noting her testimony, Doro began the next inquiry.
…
“Night sounds? Oh… yes, that annoying strange cry. Occasionally I could hear it at night. I thought he was going crazy, a lunatic. But it turns out he could argue; he’s a normal person.”
A northern Ufeiga man, dressed in a long robe with slightly dark skin, responded to Ed’s words, sharing his evaluation of the neighbor. Upon hearing this, Doro’s expression subtly tightened, and then she had Ed immediately ask.
“Arguing? Did you hear someone arguing with the occupant of 417? When did that happen?”
“Well… that was yesterday morning. I was going back to my room to get something, and I heard arguing coming from that room. It was two men, and it sounded like they were really heated.” The northern Ufeiga man replied to Ed. Listening to the man’s words, Ed continued to inquire.
“Do you remember what they were arguing about?”
“Uhm, I can’t remember that for sure. I couldn’t understand what they were saying; it was in another language for me.”
“Do you know what language it was?”
“Uhm… sorry, I don’t know either.”
The northern Ufeiga man shook his head at Ed’s inquiry. At this moment, Ed spoke a fluent Faraluo language, and after finishing, he turned to the slightly dazed northern Ufeiga man and asked in Ufeiga.
“Did the language they were arguing in sound similar to the language I just spoke?”
“Um… it doesn’t seem to be…” The northern Ufeiga man replied somewhat bewilderedly. Doro, witnessing this scene, then had Ed say a fluent Prit language sentence before continuing to ask.
“Is it similar to this language…”
…
In the clean cabin, Ed sat in his position, attentively looking at the waiter in front of him, who was recalling according to Ed’s words.
“The guest in room 417… let me think. I do have some impressions; he likes to drink and always comes back very late from the bar. I’ve had to help him back twice, and during those times, he was always yelling…”
“Oh really… aside from that, do you remember any unusual behavior?” Ed asked the waiter again. The waiter paused and began to think seriously.
“Unusual behavior… well, it seems… not much. If I had to say, it’s just that this guest is a bit troublesome. On the first day he boarded, he insisted on changing rooms. The problem is that there was nothing wrong with his room, and the place he wanted to change to was already occupied by someone new that day. We couldn’t accommodate his request, and he made a fuss about it for quite some time. It was very annoying…”
The waiter continued to say to Ed. After hearing the waiter’s words, Ed raised an eyebrow and then spoke up.
“Changing rooms? Where did he want to change to?”
“I don’t remember that. It was almost a week ago, and we have over a thousand rooms here. I deal with several hundred guests each day. I’m sure I can’t recall which room he wanted to switch to back then.”
The waiter continued to explain to Ed, and after hearing his words, Doro fell into silence.
…
“Ah? The guest who got picked up by Bart twice?”
The staff at the bar counter on the cruise ship sat in front of Ed. After hearing Ed’s question, he fell into thought for a while and then responded.
“That guest, aside from last night, had been drinking with me for several days, and he drank a lot. He would get drunk to a certain extent every day, and on serious occasions, we had to specifically call someone to take him back.”
The bar staff reminisced to Ed. After hearing him out, Ed continued to ask.
“Was he drinking alone? No one else with him?”
“Others? Well, it seems there were others, not just one. Occasionally, other different people would sit next to him and chat, but I couldn’t understand their language.” The bar staff continued to respond to Ed, and Ed then followed up.
“Can you remember what those people looked like?”
“About their appearances… I’m really sorry, sir. I deal with hundreds of people every day, and I can’t remember everyone’s faces.”
The bar staff replied at last, and upon listening to his words, Doro silently nodded.
…
“What? Did you see any suspicious individuals around?”
A sailor in a cleaner’s uniform sat in his chair, and after hearing the detective’s question, a hint of confusion appeared on his face. Ed, observing the man, supplemented.
“Yes, during the time you were responsible for this floor, did you see anyone you found suspicious between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. yesterday?”
“Um… let me think. If I have to say there was something suspicious, there was only one. It was a young man in brown clothes, walking quickly with his face unseen, dragging a suitcase with a strong smell of bl**d…”
The cleaner narrated his observations to Ed, while Doro silently noted them in her mind.
…
Finally, after inquiring about a dozen or so passengers and sailors, Doro concluded the questioning. After gathering this round of intelligence, she had already acquired much important information, and it was time for analysis.
‘The man in room 417 frequently drank, indulged, and made frenzied sounds at night, aligning well with some characteristics of the “Cup” cultists, and his strange cries likely indicated withdrawal symptoms from Cup medicine. This cup cultist seems to be addicted but does not have enough medication with him…
‘Furthermore, this man was not alone; he should have companions on this ship. Someone approached him while he was drinking, and there were arguments from his room, confirming that he had companions with whom he could communicate, more than just one. If they could argue, they must belong to the same culture. According to the description from the adjacent cabin’s occupant, the language they were speaking might be Iwig language, and the name of the deceased in room 417 also resembles Iwig culture; they likely belong to Iwig people.
‘Additionally, it seems that the d*ath of the 417 occupant occurred after the argument yesterday morning. The argument took place at 11 a.m., while the sewage from this cruise ship was discharged at 1 p.m. yesterday, indicating that the deceased must have died within those two hours. During that time, the cleaner also conveniently saw a suspicious figure around.’
Sitting in her cabin, Doro seriously analyzed the information at hand. After a while, she formulated a corresponding plan.
Doro controlled Ed, who was still seated in the original cabin, to stand up and walk to the cabin door. After opening the door and stepping out, he was greeted by the captain, who appeared slightly anxious.
“How was it, Mr. Ed? Have you finished questioning everyone? Do you have results?” Captain William asked Ed, who responded with a smile.
“I think I have some leads, Captain. I still need your help; I would like to see the passenger registration book, please.”
“The registration book? Of course, please wait a moment; I will fetch it for you right away.”
The captain replied to Ed, and then he immediately ordered a waiter to go get the item. Before long, a large and thick ledger reached Ed’s hands.
Afterward, Doro instructed Ed to return to her cabin with the ledger. After shutting the door, she had Ed place the ledger on the table and began to flip through it at a rapid pace, skimming through the information with lightning speed.
The passenger registration on the cruise ship was merely for service convenience, so the recorded information was limited, and its authenticity couldn’t be guaranteed. The valuable information consisted of three items: boarding time, room number, and passenger names—these three were more than enough for Doro.
The deceased in room 417 boarded with a travel companion, and the person who killed him was likely among those companions. Since they belonged to the same culture, it was highly probable that their itineraries aligned. This meant that Doro only needed to find passengers who had boarded in Russo and were set to disembark in Moncala, which would significantly narrow down the search range.
Moreover, since Nicodo was an Iwig person, those who could communicate freely with him, even to the point of arguing, were likely also Iwig people. Doro could roughly determine the cultural nationality based on the style of names in the registration book; after finding passengers with the same itinerary as Nicodo, she could then search for Iwig individuals among them, further narrowing the scope.
Also, according to the waiter responsible for that area, Nicodo had attempted to switch to a specific area when he first boarded, but since the area he wanted was already occupied by other new passengers, it didn’t work out. The reason for the room change wasn’t because there was anything wrong with his own room; he merely wanted to stay over there.
In facing this situation, Doro believed that Nicodo wanted to change to a room close to his companions. Generally, when a group travels together, they tend to choose rooms in close proximity for convenience during communications. However, due to the complex structure and accommodation situations of the cruise ship, it is not always easy for all companions to stay together, and sometimes they have to be dispersed considerably.
Nicodo might have been in such a situation, as he hadn’t specified any conditions regarding the room when requesting the change, but rather indicated an entire area. The area he intended to move to was also occupied by new boarding passengers, which further confirms that his companions were indeed present there.
After realizing this, Doro could focus on finding those passengers within the already delineated circle who were adjacent and concentrated in their accommodations, continually narrowing the search range.
Ultimately, Doro confirmed that Nicodo’s companions should be among the approximately one thousand tourists on this ship—those who boarded in Russo, planned to disembark in Moncala, belonged to Iwig culture, and shared closely located rooms. After Doro’s investigation, these individuals totaled about eighteen, which was already a sufficiently small search range for her.
With the general range established, Doro immediately reactivated her small zombie puppet and headed towards those eighteen rooms to begin monitoring the passengers inside. Such monitoring lasted only about an hour before Doro made a discovery.
In one of the rooms on the second level beneath the deck, Doro, using the little zombie puppet hidden in a ventilation shaft, witnessed two men quickly walk inside after abruptly opening the cabin door. Both men were dressed in ordinary, respectable attire. One was a handsome young man with neatly combed light yellow hair, appearing to be in his twenties, while the other was a slightly plump middle-aged man wearing a round hat and sporting a small mustache.
With a serious expression, once inside the cabin, the slightly plump man looked at the young man and spoke earnestly.
“What’s happening? The hallway near Nicodo is blocked by sailors, and they aren’t allowing access. Have they discovered something? Did you not clean up the scene properly? Have those common livestock discovered any traces?”
The plump middle-aged man questioned seriously, while the young man innocently replied.
“Impossible! I cleaned it up very well! That bl**d livestock was dealt with early, and I directly turned it into bl**d medicine using the alchemical sigil and poured it down the washroom. All traces were wiped clean, and I packed the bones in his own suitcase to take back. I left no belongings behind; those common livestock sailors will at most discover someone is missing. There’s no way it should come to this!”
