“Madame Moss’s party has become a mess,” I said, pointing toward the area below the stage.
Despite the culprit’s best efforts, the atmosphere in the first-floor hall was far from relaxed. Even with repeated explanations, people consumed by lingering anxiety were slowly trickling out. The party’s mood had long since been shattered, and the floor was a complete disaster thanks to the glasses broken and drinks spilled by panicked guests.
Those who remained did not look like they were interested in the continuation of the party; rather, they seemed like reckless thrill-seekers intrigued by the bomb threat.
Was this the party Madame Moss wanted? Surely not. So why had she still not shown her face?
“Please do not misunderstand,” the culprit replied in a voice devoid of emotion. “Madame is doing her absolute best to resolve this incident. She has simply not made an appearance; she is on the front lines even now. She has merely left the matters here to the detectives.”
“What? That’s just a—”
“I believe Master Jaguar was delegated this task by Madame. Is that not correct? Therefore, there is no need for Madame to be here.”
It was sophistry. The only task I had been delegated by Madame was to find the detective. How was I supposed to know the situation would escalate into a bombing?
However…
“Ms. Daisy, do you consider me the one in charge of this case?”
“Yes, I do. Madame delegated everything to Master Jaguar in preparation for any potential incidents.”
I actually liked that statement, even if she was just shifting the responsibility.
“Fine. Then I shall act like the man in charge.”
“Yes. Then, regarding the pursuit of the culprit—”
“No. Let’s check the confiscated firecrackers first.”
Tracing the culprit now wouldn’t lead to Daisy’s tail.
‘I need to figure out her trick first.’
It was clear she was up to something, but I hadn’t grasped even a hint of what it was.
‘Then I should check the most dangerous thing first.’
The firecrackers could explode at any moment. I had to be certain about them.
“I want to examine these firecrackers to see if they truly are dangerous explosives.”
“As you wish.”
I was almost surprised by the culprit’s surprisingly compliant attitude—at least until she spoke again.
“However, rather than inspecting them here, it would be better to send them to the police station for forensics.”
“And why is that?”
“There is no proper forensic equipment here.”
“Is that so?” I let out a smile as if I had been waiting for that. “Who told you that?”
“…?”
“Um, Mr. Hayes…?” Charlie spoke up with a troubled expression. “If you’re talking about the explosives inspection kit I brought, we can’t use it right now. The nitrate reactor is the core component, and without it…”
“Is that right? Then there shouldn’t be any problem.”
“What?!”
I smirked. “I found it. That nitrate reactor you mentioned.”
Actually, I had spotted it the moment I stepped onto the stage. It was so blatantly right in front of us that I wondered how others had failed to notice it.
‘No. Actually, I have a rough idea.’
While it might be hard for others to find, it was plain as day to me. I raised my index finger and pointed straight up.
“It’s right here. Directly above my head.”
A particularly brilliant chandelier illuminated the stage. In its center sat a massive glass bulb that was not lit. It was an elongated, streamlined glass sphere with a brass body underneath. It was undoubtedly the nitrate reactor I had heard about.
“Wh-Why is that there?” The detective’s jaw dropped. “Who on earth put a nitrate reactor up there?”
“I-I’m so sorry!” Someone approached in a panic. “I had no idea that was what it was!”
The man who approached was one of the burly men in black suits who had brought the firecrackers earlier. He scratched his head, bowing repeatedly.
“It was just sitting in the prop room, and since it looked so complicated and strange… I thought it was another one of those light bulb things!”
“Can’t you tell it’s much larger just by looking at it?”
“I just thought it was something bigger and brighter…”
‘I knew it would be for that reason.’
The chandeliers in this party hall were fitted with light bulbs. They were items I had never seen before in this world.
‘I’m sure they were unfamiliar to the staff as well.’
So, they must have assumed the nitrate reactor—which had an unfamiliar and somewhat similar appearance—was just another type of bulb and stuck it onto the chandelier.
‘People seeing a light bulb for the first time wouldn’t have been able to tell whether it was one or not.’
Right, I understood that much, but…
“You said this was in the prop room?”
“Yes. It was sitting right next to the giant pumpkin.”
The worker’s words bothered me strangely. I felt like I was missing something. I felt like I could figure it out if I just thought about it for a moment…
“Fine! I must immediately conduct the test I couldn’t finish last time!”
“Whoa! Detective Baron, stay calm! You’re not even fully recovered, so how can you try to climb the chandelier?”
“If you wish, shall I retrieve it for you?”
I snapped back to reality at the culprit’s words.
“No. I will get it.”
I couldn’t let the culprit pull any tricks. I lowered the chandelier and removed the nitrate reactor that had been plugged into it.
*Sizzle!*
I ended up touching a scorching incandescent bulb during the unfamiliar task, but regardless, I managed to safely retrieve the nitrate reactor.
“Damn it. The ignition device is broken.” Detective Baron clicked his tongue after examining it. “It looks like they drilled through the base just to plug it into the chandelier.”
“I am so sorry. Truly!”
“Forget it. It’s not like you did it on purpose.”
Despite saying that, his expression was full of regret.
“This makes it impossible to check the flame reaction again. Dammit, if only I had kept my eyes open at that last moment…!”
Detective Baron blamed himself instead of others.
“You should be blaming the culprit, not yourself, Detective.”
“But look at the residue inside the lamp. The powder is all clumped together. The lamp definitely activated back then. If only I had seen the color of the flame properly, everything would be certain…!”
“Man, that’s really too bad. You didn’t see anything before you passed out? Not even a split second of an afterimage?” Charlie asked out of curiosity.
“No. Until the very last moment, I didn’t see anything like a flame coming from the lamp.”
I was just as disappointed. “Then there is currently no way to identify the firecrackers.”
Damn, this was frustrating. I really wanted to confirm it right now if possible.
“No. A flame test is certainly out of the question, but…” Charlie spoke up as he inspected the nitrate reactor. “Another test might be possible. If you’re that disappointed, would you like to try something else?”
“Something else?”
“Yes. The nitrate reactor has two purposes: testing the color of the flame and testing components using a reagent.”
Charlie touched the surface of the nitrate reactor’s lamp and nodded. “The ignition device may be broken, but it’s warm enough since it was sitting among the incandescent bulbs. It’s enough to check for a reagent reaction.”
Even if he said that, what would I know?
‘I don’t know much about chemistry.’
Still, if there was something we could do, it was better to try, right? As I nodded, Charlie moved immediately. He took a small amount of the powder from a firecracker, dropped it into the nitrate reactor, added a few drops of reagent from his inspection kit, and closed the lamp door.
Detective Baron, who was watching, began to nag.
“Tsk. What’s the point of a reagent test now? You need to see the flame reaction to distinguish whether it’s a firecracker or a bomb. Doesn’t a reagent test just tell you whether there’s gunpowder inside or not? You won’t be able to learn any…thing… at… all…”
The detective’s eyes widened.
“What’s this?”
“What is it?”
“Why isn’t the reagent changing color? If there’s gunpowder inside, shouldn’t the color change?”
“Y-You’re right?” Charlie scratched his head, looking dazed. “Was the nitrate reactor not warm enough?”
“…No. That’s not it.”
In that moment, I suddenly realized something.
“Detective Baron.”
“Hmm?”
“You said for certain that you didn’t see any flame, right?”
“That’s right. I was attacked before I could confirm the flame.”
“What if that wasn’t the case?”
What if he didn’t miss the flame reaction because he was attacked, but because there was no flame to begin with?
‘All those firecrackers… are fakes.’
I had been under a massive misconception. I assumed that if the contents of the firecrackers had been swapped, they must have been replaced with something else dangerous.
But the culprit’s objective was the gunpowder itself.
“Even if they’re just firecrackers, it’s still gunpowder. If you gather that much, it would produce incredible explosive power.”
In that case, where did the culprit hide all that gunpowder?
In that moment, an object captured my gaze. It was the giant pumpkin sculpture.
‘Ah…!’
Everything clicked in my head. I remembered what the worker had said earlier—his testimony about the nitrate reactor being in the prop room.
‘It means a staff member was in and out of the prop room.’
If Detective Baron had been left tied up in the prop room, there was no way a worker wouldn’t have seen him. That worker had no shadow. If an innocent person had seen him, they would have reported it long ago.
Then where had Detective Baron been tied up?
‘Outside the prop room?’
No. That couldn’t be it. The nitrate reactor, which belonged to the detective, had been left in the prop room. Even though the culprit, who oversaw everything at this party, wouldn’t have mistaken the detective’s belongings for props.
There was clearly a reason it couldn’t be moved. That reason was likely…
‘Because of people’s eyes.’
This party lasted ten days without a break. Workers were constantly passing the path outside the prop room, keeping their eyes on the culprit who managed the event. During all that, they couldn’t have moved something like a giant lamp. It would have been too conspicuous.
In such a situation, they couldn’t have moved the detective out of the prop room either. A place inside the prop room that could hide a person comfortably while avoiding the workers’ eyes.
‘There is only one place that satisfies the criteria.’
That giant pumpkin sculpture. The culprit had kept the detective hidden inside it the whole time.
‘Now that he’s moved the detective, he must have hidden something else in there!’
—
I jumped down from the stage.
“Whoa, what?”
“Is something there?”
“Everyone, please move aside!”
I pushed through the onlookers and approached the giant pumpkin sculpture in the corner of the first-floor hall. Ignoring its hideous face that naturally drew attention, I examined its other side.
…Something I hadn’t noticed before caught my eye. At the top of the pumpkin sculpture, a rope decorated to look like a pumpkin vine hung down.
Yes, exactly like a fuse.
“Give me an explanation, Ms. Daisy,” I asked the culprit, who had approached me at some point. “What exactly is that fuse?”
“There seems to be some misunderstanding.” Her voice was still maddeningly calm. “A fuse? It is simply a rope. I hung it there to be faithful to the meaning of the festival.”
“The meaning of the festival?”
“It is the Pharmakos festival. In accordance with its significance, everyone should light the pumpkin’s head and banish the evil spirits at the end.”
Her attitude suggested that since the festival was originally about burning pumpkins, there was nothing wrong with making it easy to burn. On the surface, her words weren’t wrong.
‘I can only be sure if I check the inside of this pumpkin.’
I had to re-examine the inside of the pumpkin’s mouth, which I had assumed contained only sawdust. I reached toward the black cloth covering the pumpkin’s mouth, then hesitated.
‘Wait…’
Something was wrong. I had definitely touched the black cloth in the pumpkin’s mouth earlier. Because of that, the cloth had been clumsily torn, revealing the bottom.
But now, the cloth was perfectly restored.
‘What? Was I mistaken?’
A strange feeling washed over me. I poked my finger into the black cloth just as I had done before.
*Squelch.*
“…! It’s different.”
Earlier, it had been fixed to a wall, but now, it pushed deep inside as I poked it. Even though the cloth had been pushed so far back, I couldn’t see the bottom of the pumpkin. The length of the black cloth was much longer than before.
‘The length of the cloth changed?’
Had the cloth been replaced in the meantime? But why?
Regardless, if the cloth had changed like this, pushing it inward wasn’t going to work. I grabbed the cloth and pulled, intending to drag it out.
However…
*Taut!*
Unlike when it pushed back without resistance, a heavy weight was felt the moment I pulled. It felt as if something heavy was pressing down on it.
“Hmph!”
I pulled the cloth with more strength, and eventually, the black cloth began to emerge from the pumpkin’s mouth.
“Gasp…!”
The onlookers screamed. The bright lights illuminated the black cloth. A liquid on the fabric reflected the light, showing its true color.
Its natural, deep-red, and metallic-smelling color.
“What is this…!”
It was blood. The black cloth was drenched in it.
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