“Miss Zhuge. You’ve arrived. Sorry for rushing you.”
It didn’t take long for Miss Zhuge to reach the mansion after my urgent summons.
“It’s fine. I have to help Master Kang if he’s struggling all alone.”
Her naturally sweet smile eased my previously tense mind for a moment.
“Ah, Hyang. What a disappointment. I’m here too.”
“Ah…! When?! I-I’m so sorry! Ugh! What was I thinking?!”
As Miss Zhuge looked at Jeon Gil-san, who appeared to be sulking, she panicked and kept bowing her head. I didn’t need to apologize since I was practically doing the work of two people.
“Why are you getting so down about that? By the way, why did you suddenly call Hyang?”
Jeon Gil-san chuckled lightly and looked at me curiously.
“Because it’s a murder case, not a suicide.”
“What?!”
“What? Are you sure?”
With just a casual remark I threw out, the two looked at me with wide eyes.
“I’m sure. I found evidence.”
“Evidence? You actually know how to investigate? You’re not just pretending to put in effort, right?”
As I pointed to the corpse in the back, Gil-san questioned me incredulously.
“I know the basics.”
“When did examining bodies become basic?”
“I’ve been friends with the most famous constables across Joseon for over 20 years since elementary school.”
“Ha ha! They say Master Kang was dubbed ‘Seloohyunjo’ because he followed them around dangerous places to record their behaviors and sayings!”
Miss Zhuge certainly has a sharp memory! I didn’t think she’d remember something I said in jest.
Proudly, she continued to explain, “So you’re not just called a famous constable for nothing! You even had a nickname!”
“It was just a playful joke among friends.”
I’ve loved mystery stories since I was a child. I was so frightened by the dead bodies in comic books that I returned the ones I borrowed on the same day but got curious about the next story and borrowed the next volume the following day.
Even after graduating university and becoming a working web novelist, I didn’t write mystery stories but enjoyed reading them.
“What evidence did you find proving Brother Yang-baek was murdered?”
“There are so many things to point out… Miss Zhuge, could you take a look at the body? There might be something I missed.”
“Sure. I’ll check it out.”
Finding evidence is more important than talking. As I carefully removed the cloth covering the corpse, Miss Zhuge began to examine the body without hesitation.
I showed it slowly in case she’d be shocked. Miss Zhuge truly is a person of the Martial Arts World.
“Please pay special attention to the abdomen. It’s crucial.”
“Why the abdomen?”
Just wait a moment. I have nothing to do while she looks.
I’ll explain it right away.
I started a rather bland explanation, not needing a tranquilizer gun for this. It’s not like I’d face my grandfather’s wrath if I got it wrong.
“Look at the abdomen that Miss Zhuge is examining. A skinny person’s belly protrudes like a tadpole, right? Especially in a drowning case.”
Yang-baek’s corpse looked like an alien about to burst out of its face.
“A drowning victim probably drank a lot of water, right? What’s weird about that?”
Right. A person who drowned takes in water. That’s a simple thought. But think about it.
“When do they drink?”
That’s misleading.
“Huh?”
“Imagine you fell into the water. When do you drink while drowning?”
“Since you fell, you’d gulp a mouthful right away!”
“As the water comes in, you’d instinctively hold your breath. After that?”
“You’d hold it until you can’t anymore, right? Oh?!”
Did you finally realize something’s off?
I thumped my chest to help the bewildered Jeon Gil-san understand.
“Exactly! A drowning person doesn’t gulp enough water to make their belly swell. The water enters the lungs, not the stomach. That’s in the chest area!”
“Wow.”
“Whoa….”
I hadn’t even started yet, but the two are looking at me with such admiration that it makes me feel pressured.
“But why did the detective insist on drowning as the cause of death?”
I nodded my head and continued to explain.
“When a body begins to decompose, the internal organs are the first to rot. Naturally, decomposition concentrates in the abdomen where water is trapped, leading to abdomen swelling. That’s the usual reason a drowning victim’s belly appears bulging.”
“Then, the detective was correct, wasn’t he?”
“Look at the body. A drowning corpse shows skin that has turned white and swollen after being in water for just a day or two. But Yang-baek’s skin is not discolored. That means the time of death and discovery are not far apart. So, the belly swelling we see now is impossible.”
Estimation of time of death—one of the common premises used in mystery novels—is where the detective’s findings were right in content but wrong in consideration of the timeline.
“Wait a second. So what’s that supposed to mean?”
“Right. It doesn’t mean he drank water. The abdomen’s swelling happened before decomposition even began, which is strange, don’t you think?”
“Then…”
“The cause of death might be drowning, but the signs indicate otherwise. What could that mean?”
I had to pause my deductions regarding the abdominal swelling.
To find out more details, I needed to conduct an autopsy. But making incisions on a corpse is taboo in this world.
I’m not a forensic scientist, and there’s no reason for me to go poking around either. Hence, I need a more skilled expert to find evidence.
For example, someone from a prestigious family trained specifically in martial arts.
“Master Kang, I found a scar!”
That someone is Miss Zhuge.
———
“There’s a puncture wound from Mingmen Point to the navel in a single strike.”
“Mingmen Point? You mean the Zhixinyuan Point near the lower back?”
The opposite side of the navel. A puncture wound at that point disrupts both the vital energy and intestines simultaneously. But where exactly was the wound?
“Yep. Look here. If you open the navel…”
As Miss Zhuge carefully pulled the navel open, a distinct hole became visible.
“So that’s how the water got in.”
Having never had real experience with investigations, I hadn’t thought to check inside the navel.
“Wait. How does this even work?”
“Miss Zhuge, is it possible for a martial artist to target the Mingmen Point and kill someone without a trace?”
“It would require a skilled martial artist or specialized training.”
“A martial artist…”
There are so many uselessly skilled men in the world when it comes to murder techniques. If one learns martial arts, they should discipline their mind and body through proper meditation instead of carelessly wielding blades, which is likely why everything’s such a mess.
As I examined the back of the corpse with Miss Zhuge’s help, I discovered a tiny hole I hadn’t noticed before.
“Shouldn’t we let Aunt Nan-ok know right away?”
After seeing the found wound, Jeon Gil-san gestured toward the door.
“If the perpetrator is unknown, running out now would only let everyone in the mansion know. Would I have risked trusting only the person I can rely on most?”
Right now, it’s best that only our hastily-formed martial arts detective team knows about the potential suspect.
As I explained my reasoning, Jeon Gil-san nodded while resting his chin on his hand.
“Indeed… You called me first, which means you trust me.”
“……”
What is this guy talking about?
“Why? You said you trusted me. See? My proclamation of support paid off!”
While he was right, I strangely felt the urge to punch him. That scoundrel Gil-san was patting his chest too proudly for my liking. I stifled a chuckle instead.
Looking over, Miss Zhuge’s lips were curiously protruding.
Huh?
When she met my gaze, she furrowed her brow and bowed her head deeply.
“M-Master Kang called me first, you know.”
Her voice was filled with adorable discontent.
“What?”
“Haha! That’s right!”
She hit me back like a champion! I gave Miss Zhuge a thumbs up, and she flashed a big smile.
———
“A person who’s been missing for a month showed up dead today. So, who is the culprit?”
After a brief chuckle amid the tension of the case, I immediately resumed my paused deductions.
“Huh? A mysterious martial arts master?”
“Sigh…”
Was that really a valid answer?
“I was joking! Just joking!”
Realizing that was a painfully embarrassing answer, Jeon Gil-san hurried to recover.
“If the culprit set the stage, that’s a huge problem.”
Miss Zhuge, sensing the seriousness of the situation, said to me with a solemn expression.
“Yes, it’s the worst-case scenario.”
“Speak plainly and tell me what’s so awful. Only lovers talk like that while holding hands.”
“Depending on when he died, the suspect pool widens. That’s the absolute worst.”
“The absolute worst?”
“If we found a body that’s been dead for a month, we’d suspect someone we know. But Yang-baek has only been dead for half a day. He vanished a month ago.”
A missing person had surfaced as a corpse in the lake.
While it’s an all-too-common occurrence now and then, it indicates how difficult a case it is for notorious constables to handle.
“We can’t estimate when or where or by whom he was killed.”
The reason mystery novels often stage closed-door incidents is not without cause. Among the possibilities, the culprit must be lurking.
This case, with its month-long gap, required switching genres from mystery to detective.
“To find the culprit, I need to immediately run to the government office and mobilize the constables, but that’s also problematic.”
“Why again?”
“Because there are no witnesses.”
Nodding my head at Miss Zhuge’s remark, I elaborated further.
“Even the constables, because it’s a case involving the heir of a prestigious family, didn’t conduct a hasty investigation. Yet still, there are no witnesses, whether someone saw him heading to the lake or flailing around in it.”
“Or someone could have seen him get stabbed.”
“……”
Gil-san’s expression hardened as he finally realized how challenging this case had become.
“M-Master Kang has put so much effort into uncovering the perpetrator’s deception, and yet it’s still unclear.”
Miss Zhuge muttered in frustration.
“We must approach the truth calmly.”
“Do you have a method?”
I nodded in response to Jeon Gil-san’s question.
“How?”
Finding clues from a corpse belongs to the realm of knowledge. Finding the culprit belongs to the realm of intuition.
What I know falls under knowledge. I can’t pinpoint the culprit like a brilliant detective guided by intuition. Is there a dead end here?
The only consolation is that I know how to think and deduce.
“What’s certain is that it was a calculated murder.”
“A planned murder?”
“I don’t know the culprit’s motives or intentions, but the intent is evident. They targeted the Blood Point and killed him in one go, then tossed him into the water to disguise the crime. The fact that there were no witnesses implies they moved discreetly. This wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment murder, but a crime with deeper motives.”
I realized another fact, but I held my tongue for further deductions.
“Aunt will faint upon hearing this…”
“Should we investigate with a focus on grudges?”
“Let’s move at once.”
I had wrapped up my thoughts. Now it was time to act.
“Where are we going?”
“I’ve just thought of someone I must find first.”
“What?! Is there someone in the mansion I should be suspicious of? That servant from earlier?”
“The culprit isn’t inside here.”
“Then?”
The culprit is not in this mansion. No, I had yet to even imagine who that perpetrator might be.
However, I was certain of a key interrogator.
“The coroner.”
He is someone who might even be a suspect.
“Why the sudden interest in the coroner?”
Something just feels off no matter how I think.
“Could the coroner have not known it was a drowning case? Or did he knowingly classify it as drowning?”
I’ve figured out it wasn’t drowning, yet the coroner, who had examined so many corpses, must have missed it.
“Huh?”
“If it’s a planned crime, then it’s likely not a solitary act.”
“Eh?!”
“No way?!”
“Let’s go to the government office.”
To solve the mystery.
