Chapter 483: Narrowing Down the Suspects
At night, Saint Felis Academy was as peaceful as ever.
In a chaotic world, this place seemed like a slice of paradise.
But suddenly, Yuliya’s eyes popped open again.
Here we go again.
The time was a bit off from yesterday, but it was still in that dead-of-night zone.
She carefully sensed her surroundings—still in the same spot as yesterday.
Good, mission accomplished.
Roll over, hit the pillow, and snooze away.
Meanwhile, Euphilia was heading out.
On the way, she ran into the Security Team.
The members of the Security Team were wearing expressions as if they had just eaten a whole plate of flies.
Their daily grind was getting nauseating.
With such strange happenings, it was their duty to check things out, or they’d be in trouble.
If this turned out to be something serious and they didn’t investigate, it would spell disaster—a serious dereliction of duty.
As long as the mystery remained unsolved, they wouldn’t have a good night’s sleep.
Then they saw Euphilia and instantly felt a boost in mood.
“Is Headmistress Euphilia heading to the student dorms? Did she discover something?”
“Did she find the problem?”
“I caught a slight hint using some means, thought I’d come take a look,” Euphilia replied simply.
The others didn’t press further and hurried on.
Less chit-chat during work hours, please!
Euphilia wasn’t in that much of a hurry—she just strolled along at their pace.
When they arrived, the odds were still low for anything new and exciting.
Otherwise, Euphilia would’ve zipped right over.
Triggering the alarm was fine, especially with her status—it gave her an air of authority.
But both she and Yuliya couldn’t pinpoint an exact location, so they opted for a quieter approach and chose to walk.
Euphilia was just there to confirm a few hidden traces.
Once they reached the building, Euphilia took a moment to assess the situation and pointed at the Security Team, saying, “The alarm was triggered inside this building, pretty much the same spot as I sensed the first time.”
Upon hearing this, the Security Team dispersed, starting their thorough search.
Some even considered heading upstairs to question people, but Euphilia stopped them.
Not suitable for late-night interrogations, plus the area was way too broad—it needed to be narrowed down.
First, they would rule out the Magic Academy students in the building.
There weren’t many of them, and with Riya having knocked earlier, a lot of them were present at that time.
Given her popularity, what she said would spread like wildfire.
Those Magic Academy students were the obvious minority, and if someone was up to no good, they’d likely lay low for a bit.
From the previous patterns when the culprit went silent, she was very keen on picking up on the slightest disturbance.
Now that the culprit was acting brazenly, it indirectly cleared those Magic Academy students from suspicion.
Next, Euphilia had three samples to work with—by overlapping the three detection ranges, she could slightly narrow things down.
The key part was the very first observation; the alarm’s range had once shifted.
In other words, after triggering the alarm, the culprit didn’t immediately cut off the magic but moved a distance before doing so.
Retracing the path of movement would be crucial for narrowing down the suspect pool.
Finally, she was personally observing carefully that night.
The academy’s dorm buildings were uniform; one side faced the sunrise while the other had windows looking at the sunset.
After some time, Euphilia turned around and called the others, “Alright, let’s head back. I’ve got a judgment. I’ll prepare a list for you to interrogate the corresponding people tomorrow and just report back the results.”
The members of the Security Team were utterly bewildered.
You’ve got a judgment already? How on earth did you figure that out?
They all glanced back to Euphilia’s previous spot, seeing nothing out of the ordinary.
But then it hit them…
Well, of course, they couldn’t see anything!
If they could, would they each be as brilliant as Headmistress Euphilia?
It’s fine that they’re clueless; as long as the great Euphilia has a plan, all is well.
Praise the Headmistress!
Euphilia then went with them to the student council room.
She pulled up the student list for that building, and—surprise, surprise—it was a girls’ dorm.
Then she circled some rooms.
“These people need to be questioned one by one to find out what they do each night.”
“Remember, individual inquiries. Oh, and please ask one final question: do they usually sleep with their windows open or closed?”
These dorms had apartment-style layouts, but each girl had her own bedroom.
Windows…
A light bulb went off in many heads; it seemed like they discovered a blind spot.
But after a moment of reflection, they thought better of it.
With so many rooms, some would have their windows open while others would keep them closed. Someone might even open their window one night and close it the next!
Finally, the leader couldn’t hold back and asked, “Headmistress, could you explain the reasoning behind that?”
Euphilia smiled slightly and replied softly, “Nope.”
“…”
Just kidding! We’re still in the conjecture phase; there’s no way she’d reveal it!
What if something went wrong, and they ended up finding no one? Talk about awkward!
The answers must wait until the mystery is fully unraveled.
“Just follow the plan; if all goes well, you should be able to zero in on the suspect by tomorrow.”
With that, Euphilia bid them adieu.
After a long night, she was exhausted and ready to sleep.
A mere half-hour after leaving, she returned to her research room to take a big, fat nap.
The next day, the Security Team was up bright and early. By noon, they delivered the inquiry results to Euphilia.
She quickly flipped through the findings.
Honestly, most of the investigations were meaningless; the answers were predictable.
What were they doing? Either sleeping or studying.
Did they notice anything unusual? All voices chimed in a chorus of “no,” or just some half-hearted ramblings.
Alarm sounds? Too quiet to hear! Whether they didn’t hear it or they didn’t care didn’t matter.
Euphilia was only interested in that last question.
When sleeping at night, were their windows open or closed?
A few responses didn’t match what Euphilia had observed the night before.
“Did any of these people show odd behavior when answering this question?”
“Odd? It seemed so! Sometimes they’d say open, other times closed, and they weren’t very clear about it.”
“And what about the ones who said they’d left their windows open?” Euphilia pointed to them.
“They all seemed fine.”
After pondering for a moment, Euphilia stood up and headed out.
“Headmistress, do you have any discoveries?”
“Just head back for now; I’ll get back to you later.”
