Crossing the dimensional gate and following Hayasaka's footsteps, they arrived at the snow mountain villa where the offline gathering was being held.
"!?"
Everyone's pupils shrank the moment they arrived.
It wasn't due to the scenery, but because there was a corpse lying flat in front of the villa.
The body was deathly pale, its eyes wide open, as if filled with unresolved resentment.
"This isn't exactly unexpected."
Ren, who had already predicted this outcome, didn't show any surprise.
As he had mentioned before, many cases were triggered by Sonoko's various invitations.
"It's like Final Destination."
Kaguya shook her head slightly, her gaze toward Sonoko changing subtly.
She scanned the surroundings. There were no footprints near the body, and the corpse wasn't buried in snow. From what she recalled, the snowfall on the mountain had stopped just before dusk yesterday. Which meant this person likely died before that time.
"There are no tracks around the body. It's hard to imagine how it ended up in the middle of this snowy area."
"Yeah, it really is hard to imagine."
Nagi nodded lightly and quickly began her analysis.
"There's no sign of disturbance around, and no snow has settled on the corpse. This means it was moved here after the snow had stopped."
"There are no trails nearby, and there's no large equipment like a crane either. Under normal circumstances, moving a body more than ten meters from the villa without leaving a trace would be nearly impossible."
"An adult male weighs around 70 kilograms. For an average person, tossing such a weight more than three meters would already be pushing it. Throwing it over ten meters is simply impossible, even from a higher elevation."
"Also, the body is laid out cleanly on the snow. If it had been thrown, there would be obvious marks or rolling indentations."
"Unless it was someone like us, this would be an impossible crime."
After finishing, Nagi turned her gaze outward.
Roughly thirty meters away from the snow villa was a dense forest, but there were still no footprints between the trees and the villa.
"The surroundings are all forest, and judging from how dense it is, I doubt they could have brought in any large equipment like a crane."
"And something that obvious would have stood out anyway."
Ren's gaze swept across the distant forest. His fingers tapped lightly on his thumb. In this spiritually active area, he detected two abnormal black points, their positions rather delicate.
He turned to look at the highest window of the snow villa, the one directly aligned with the corpse.
In his mind, he connected those two points and the window, forming a triangle. Including the corpse's position, he roughly deduced how it had been moved there without leaving any footprints.
"What if it was like this?"
"Bang!"
Several colored lines appeared in the air, connecting the two forest points with the villa's window, forming a stacked triangle. Two thin lines at the pivot points intersected precisely at the spot where the body lay.
The clear layout instantly made everyone understand the method used.
Hayasaka immediately went to where the lines connected. Following the direction, she found two arrows still embedded in the trees.
"The arrows are still here, and there are no footprints around. They probably didn't get a chance to retrieve them."
By now, everyone had a clear idea of how the corpse had been transported.
"There's no visible trace of ropes here... Could it have been carried while flying?"
Sakuya glanced toward the thick forest.
"This method would explain how the body got here, but those arrows are the most damning evidence. Leaving them behind would be risky, wouldn't it?"
"Sakuya, I noticed there's a gorge along the road leading to this snow villa. Judging from the layout, directly opposite the villa is that very gorge. If someone aimed in that direction when firing the arrow, they were probably targeting the far end of the suspension bridge."
Maria reminded her.
"You mean... the suspension bridge was destroyed?"
Sakuya immediately caught on.
"To plan and prepare something like this, the intent was clearly murder."
Then she turned to look at Sonoko with a complicated expression.
"Sonoko, don't tell me you joined that chat group because you knew something was going to happen?"
She hadn't forgotten that Sonoko had nearly attended the offline gathering of that so-called magic chat group.
"???"
Sonoko blinked, full of confusion.
"Sakuya, do you think I'm someone who doesn't understand the basics of danger?"
"It's exactly because I know there are unknown risks when dealing with strangers online that I don't join offline meetups. I think chatting online is fine, but going offline is unnecessary."
"If I had known something like this would happen with that group, do you think I'd have stayed involved?"
"Fair enough."
Sakuya scratched her head. She had received similar risk education and understood that logic.
"It really just comes down to bad luck, Sonoko. You casually joined a chat group and something like this happened."
Yeah... even Sonoko was beginning to suspect her luck. She had only chatted online for a bit, and now the group's offline meetup had turned into a murder scene.
Looking at the corpse frozen in the snow, it was hard to imagine what kind of hatred or madness had led to someone setting up such a scheme.
"Don't overthink it. Sonoko encountering this isn't a coincidence."
Ren flatly denied the idea that this was just chance, defining the situation as an inevitable result of fate.
"Even if the choices differ, similar fates will crash into us eventually. That might be the exact nature of the Key of Light I'm seeking through destiny."
"Still, that's not necessarily a bad thing, especially for us right now."
Everyone nodded slightly in agreement.
They could no longer afford to relax like before. Now that they knew they would face a quasi-deity in the future, they had to grow stronger as quickly as possible.
(To be continued.)