After searching the kitchen for quite some time, they found only a single clue—the missing knife.
With a frown, Xiao led the group toward Jade's tool room.
At this point, Jade's suspicion was the highest by far. Naturally, her work area couldn't be ignored.
The moment they pushed the door open, a faint but unmistakable scent hit them.
Blood.
"…Hm?"
Having endured countless battles and slaughter over the years, Xiao was intimately familiar with that smell.
"Search," he ordered coldly.
Without hesitation, he strode inside.
This was the maid's tool room—filled with cleaning supplies, mops, buckets, and various odds and ends. It was cluttered, almost chaotic.
But the room itself wasn't large. Searching it thoroughly wouldn't take long.
Less than a minute later, Xiao straightened up, holding a bloodstained dagger pulled from the corner.
"Ohhh?"
Furina instantly brightened.
So you were still pretending all this time?
Now you're exposed, aren't you?
"And I found something too."
Right after Xiao, Raiden Ei reached into the bottom of a storage box and pulled out a bloodied jacket.
"…This…"
Jade's lips twitched uncontrollably.
The looks everyone was giving her now—those weren't looks of suspicion anymore.
They were looks reserved for a murderer.
Only Herta glanced at her calmly before speaking.
"There's still one investigation left, isn't there? We might as well check another location."
Xiao nodded.
"I agree."
They were allowed three searches per day—wasting one wouldn't hurt. Even though Jade's suspicion was sky-high now, it was still better to be thorough.
The group moved on to Furina's storage shed.
This time, however, they found nothing at all.
With no new clues, everyone returned to the main hall.
Valerius glanced at Jade with an amused smile.
"Alright. Three locations have been inspected. You may analyze the findings now. After that, let me know whether you wish to initiate a vote."
With that, he stepped aside, clearly content to watch the show unfold.
"There's nothing to analyze," Furina declared immediately. "The killer is Jade."
In her view, this wasn't even a debate anymore. The cards were completely face-up.
The others all turned their eyes toward Jade as well—one unspoken message:
Explain yourself.
"…Hah."
Jade exhaled deeply.
She didn't feel good at all—but she still forced herself to speak.
"First of all, I'll say this again. I'm being framed."
"The dagger and the bloodied clothing were most likely planted by the real killer to mislead us."
Raiden Ei immediately shook her head.
"You have the keys."
That was Jing Yuan's dying clue. Raiden Ei believed that if someone had gone so far as to leave a message in blood, then he must have known who the killer was.
"I do have keys," Jade admitted calmly. "But who's to say I'm the only one with keys?"
"And more importantly—are we sure that message was written by Jing Yuan at all?"
That single sentence froze the room.
…Right.
Everyone had fixated on the bloodstained words, but no one had actually considered the possibility that the killer wrote them.
And right after that, they'd conveniently found the murder weapon in Jade's room.
Wasn't that a little too convenient?
"Heh."
Just then, Furina let out a confident chuckle, lips curling upward.
"Stop struggling. You're the killer."
Her expression was brimming with assurance.
Who was she?
The Hydro Archon of Fontaine.
She'd presided over more trials than she could count. Compared to those courtrooms, this kind of trickery was amateur at best.
Seeing how confident she was, the others stopped arguing and all turned to her.
She was enjoying this—thoroughly.
She'd already decided.
Right here, right now, she was going to deliver a decisive judgment.
"First," Furina began, raising a finger, "you're the maid. You can enter everyone's rooms freely."
"So yesterday, you must have already memorized the layout of every room. That's why, when you assassinated Mr. Jing Yuan, he was completely off guard and never even had a chance to resist."
She raised a second finger.
"Second, also because you're the maid—you used the excuse of washing dishes to secretly take the murder weapon from the kitchen and hide it on your person."
The others nodded repeatedly.
That logic was sound.
"No," Jade said quickly. "When I washed dishes in the kitchen, I didn't take any weapon. Mr. Valerius can prove that."
She remembered clearly—after washing up, she'd seen Valerius still sitting in the hall.
He could vouch for her.
But Valerius immediately waved his hands.
"Don't look at me. I'm not participating, and I won't testify for anyone."
That response left Jade stunned.
The one person who could prove her innocence… refused to get involved.
"I still don't see how I could've left my room," Jade pressed on. "Xiao was guarding the door all night. If I went out, he would've noticed."
"Heh."
Furina smiled—the smile of someone who already held victory in hand.
"You never needed to use the door."
"…What do you mean?"
At that moment, Furina stood up, her smile radiant and triumphant.
"I'm the Gardener. Last night, I thoroughly inspected the outside of the castle."
Her gaze swept across everyone.
Relax, it seemed to say. Just lie back and let me carry you.
"Outside every room's window, there's a water pipe about as thick as a bowl."
"You could've climbed down from your own window using the pipe, moved along the exterior, and then entered Mr. Jing Yuan's room the same way."
"There's something like that?!"
Herta was genuinely shocked.
She wasn't the Gardener—she'd had no idea what the exterior looked like. Hearing this now sent a chill down her spine.
Thankfully, the killer hadn't targeted her.
Otherwise, even with Xiao outside, she might not have survived.
"It's settled," Raiden Ei said firmly. "The killer is Jade. No doubt about it."