Chapter 82: CASE 0. Start the Exam! (5)

“What? What do you mean…?”

Lure stammered with a dazed expression.

“Last night, you told me that I needed to send the materials in the lab to the academic society, didn’t you?”

“There is no way I said that.”

Professor Tophus cut her off flatly.

“I am not currently conducting joint research with anyone else. Why would I send basic data, which isn’t even a finished thesis, anywhere? And to an academic society, of all things? That’s preposterous.”

“B-but, you clearly…”

“Furthermore, you brought the exam papers to my lab yesterday evening. I would never have let a student come and go in a place where exam papers, which require absolute security, are kept. Didn’t I explain to you that the supplementary lessons were being held in an empty classroom instead of the lab for that very reason?”

“Huh? No, I never heard — “

“I never imagined you would take those words as a hint to sneak into my lab and steal the exam papers.”

“Wh-what…?”

Lure’s mind went blank.

This was impossible. She wasn’t lying.

This time, she had confessed the absolute truth.

How could it be denied like this?

“Pr-professor. Why are you telling such a lie…?”

“Sigh…”

The professor let out a deep sigh.

Then, looking at Lure with pity, he spoke.

“I wish I were lying, too. Even now, my heart yearns to just call it a lie and protect you. You were the student I cherished more than anyone else since Jayden. But this is the Department of Criminal Investigation. No matter how excellent a student you were, I cannot cover up a crime.”

Lure was speechless at the professor’s brazen lie.

When she hurriedly looked around, the expressions of her fellow students watching were also cold.

Lure desperately appealed to the students around her.

“No. Guys. You know I wouldn’t do that! The professor is lying!”

However, even those who usually liked Lure and badmouthed Professor Tophus by calling him an octopus head did not take her side this time.

Ursula spoke with an expression filled with a sense of betrayal.

“Why would the professor do that?”

“Huh?”

“Lure. I want to believe you. If I weren’t an investigation major, I might have just closed my eyes and decided to trust you. But why on earth would the professor tell such a lie? He has no motive!”

Lure’s mouth twitched, but she couldn’t say anything.

‘That’s right. Why?’

Why did the professor trap me with such an absurd lie?

It was something even Lure herself couldn’t understand.

“This exam was written by Professor Tophus. Why would he steal the exam questions he wrote himself? There’s no reason at all for him to create such a commotion!”

Ursula snapped as if screaming.

“Then, did he do it to frame you? But there’s no one who doesn’t know how much the professor cherished you. Even if the professor secretly hated you, there are plenty of other ways to torment you. There’s no reason at all for him to go through the trouble of delaying the academic schedule and rewriting the exam just to make you a criminal!”

“……”

“The professor has no motive for doing this. On the other hand, you have plenty. Lure, you’re an orphan, aren’t you?”

Cruel words poured out from the friend she had trusted.

“Didn’t you say both your parents were murdered by a criminal when you were young? You’ve been alone since you were a child, and you said it’s hard to even cover your living expenses with part-time jobs. That’s why you said it’s difficult to even maintain your student status unless you keep your grades up and get a scholarship.”

“Please, Ursula…!”

That was a secret she had only shared with her most trusted friend.

In fact, it was also the reason why she had wanted to help Hayes after hearing his story.

Because Lure Poiren had also experienced losing everything in a single moment.

“Last night, after hearing the professor’s words, you realized the exam papers were in the lab. It was late at night, and the school was empty. It’s not that unnatural for you to have felt the impulse to steal the exam papers from the lab you frequented.”

“Please! Ursula, you know me! You know I wouldn’t do that!”

“That doesn’t count as evidence, Lure.”

Ursula spoke with trembling eyes, yet her voice was cold.

In fact, Lure knew it, too.

It was something she had heard until her ears were sore in her investigation classes.

An investigator must not be swayed by subjective factors like friendship or morality.

Judging solely by motive and physical evidence, the culprit was clearly Lure Poiren.

All the excellent students of the public university’s Department of Criminal Investigation were accepting this fact.

“I’m disappointed. I thought you were a friend.”

Ursula said.

“I disliked you, but I didn’t think you were the kind of kid to do something like this.”

Shelman said coldly and turned around.

“I’m sorry, but as of today, you are no longer my student. You are expelled.”

As if marking the end, Tophus made the declaration.

— Dong, dong!

As if it were a play, the school bell rang at that very moment.

The professor led the rest of the students out of the lounge, excluding Lure.

“Ugh, uuu. Wahhh!”

Left alone, Lure wailed.

Everything had collapsed in an instant.

No one believed her words.

It felt as though the brilliant future she had dreamed of her whole life had left her forever.

But then, a heavy hand touched Lure’s shoulder.

“…Are you okay?”

It was that detective.

Detective Hayes, the person responsible for pushing Lure into this hell.

“What do you mean? Are you asking if I’m okay with going to jail from now on?”

Lure shouted with a face soaked in tears.

“Of course I’m not okay! How could I be okay? I’m in this mess because of you, so how could I be okay?!”

But her outburst was short-lived as a sense of helplessness washed over her.

What was the use of all this now?

She was now a criminal. The very kind of criminal she had loathed so much.

As soon as the expulsion process was completed, she would be kicked out of school, and her brilliant future would be gone forever.

She would have to live the rest of her life with the stigma of a criminal.

‘I’ll end up living a life where I even miss that rat-infested dormitory.’

To Lure, who was losing her mind in despair, Hayes said.

“I believe what you said.”

“……?”

Lure raised her head. Their eyes met once again.

However, the detective’s gaze was different from before.

It wasn’t that indifferent eye that looked at her like she was a monster, as if no compromise would work.

It was a gaze treating one human to another, soaked in pity and guilt.

“I believe you, Lure. You didn’t steal the exam papers intentionally. It was Professor Tophus who made you steal the exam papers; you were just being used.”

Lure sniffled instead of answering.

The person she resented the most was the professor, but the next was undoubtedly this detective.

Yet ironically, at this moment, the only one taking her side was also this detective.

‘He says he believes me…’

That one phrase pierced her heart.

“…You’re just saying that to comfort me, right?”

“No.”

Hayes answered with a firm voice.

“I am a detective, and I don’t think I’ve done my job by only uncovering this half-truth. Since you suffered because of me, I will make sure to find the remaining half of the truth as well.”

Lure looked at him as if she were possessed.

They were incredibly sweet words, almost hard to believe.

“Trust me. I will expose Professor Tophus’s misdeeds and make sure your expulsion is overturned.”

But it was a sweetness she had no choice but to believe.

Lure grabbed the hand the detective offered and pulled herself up.

“…You mean it this time?”

“I swear it on the name of Hayes.”

That was Hayes’s sincere intention.

“From now on, let’s work together to figure out Professor Tophus’s crime.”

Hayes and Lure put their heads together and fell into serious thought.

“Why on earth would the professor do such a thing?”

“Well. Was there really no reason for the professor to harbor ill will toward you, Lure?”

“There wasn’t. None at all.”

Lure said firmly.

“I’m an excellent student, and I was even favored by the professor.”

No, thinking about it now, she only thought she was favored.

‘Now that I think about it, I’m getting angry. Why am I still calling that guy “Professor”?’

“I did whatever that crazy octopus head told me to do, no matter what errand it was. In the first place, the reason I fell into this trap was that I had done similar errands often, so I fell for it without suspicion.”

“Then… we could think of it this way. You weren’t the target of the crime, but rather the easiest chess piece to use for the crime.”

“You mean that octopus head’s goal was for someone to steal the exam papers? But why would he want that? Even if he steals the exam questions he wrote, his workload would only double because he’d have to write the exam again. No matter how fast he works, would he really want to do the job twice?”

“It’s hard to believe, but… yes. That’s why he must have stolen the papers.”

Hayes threw out a hypothesis.

“Perhaps, reissuing the exam itself was the professor’s goal.”

“Reissuing it?”

“Didn’t you say that the exam questions were already finished and the papers were in the faculty office? And that Professor Tophus had brought one copy of the exam to his lab, saying he had something to review suddenly?”

“Ah, yes. The questions themselves were written by Professor Tophus, but other professors also review the exam questions. Since the final exam was tomorrow, the exam papers were naturally all stacked in the faculty office after being reviewed.”

“In that situation, even if Professor Tophus wanted to reissue the questions, it would have been impossible without a major reason. He would have needed a special justification.”

“So… you’re saying he staged the exam theft to create that special justification?”

Lure frowned and thought about it.

“But why? Was there a reason to go that far just to reissue the exam questions? What could he possibly want, even if it meant throwing one person’s life into the abyss?”

Moreover, if simply reissuing the questions was the goal, there were simpler ways.

“At any rate, this exam was under Professor Tophus’s authority. If he wanted to reissue the exam questions, he could have just insisted on it.”

“But that would have attracted the attention of other professors.”

“Without attracting others’ attention… he wanted to naturally reissue the exam?”

If he had gone as far as taking such a risky move for that…

“It seems something major is hidden in the original exam papers.”

“I think so, too. I believe a secret so fatal to Professor Tophus that he had to plot a scheme to reissue the exam is hidden inside those papers.”

The gazes of the two people turned to one place simultaneously.

They looked at the brown envelope that Shelman had thrown down a moment ago.

“Perhaps what is inside there is Professor Tophus’s downfall.”

A flame ignited in Lure’s eyes.

“Let’s check it.”