The tavern murder boiled over the Sky Voyager like a pot kicking into a rolling, hissing frenzy.

It was a half-closed world, so news flew like wind through rigging; within an hour, papers with the headline hit the hands of all twelve thousand passengers.

It was dinner hour, and idle talk flowed like steam after tea. Clusters of three and five formed, heads close, trading the afternoon’s blood-tinged rumor.

“I heard there was a murder at the Red Tavern—the killer’s the waitress!”

“That scary? A tavern waitress would murder a guest?”

“I’ve been there. Thought that waitress was a good person. Didn’t expect…”

“Don’t swallow nonsense! It’s not settled. She’s just a suspect…”

“And I heard the barkeep’s suspicious too! The police got control of the waitress. She’s in holding…”

In the wide dining hall, rumors buzzed like gnats over a pond. The chorus swelled, and no two voices agreed.

But in the shadowed corner, a blue-haired girl sat like a lone lantern on a foggy pier. She spread the paper flat and read every line with careful, quiet intent.

“Shocking! Murder at Red Tavern, Waitress Believed Prime Suspect!” The title shouted like a red stamp.

The body of the article offered little—just bare-bones facts from the scene. It smelled like early-stage investigation; the police wouldn’t spill much. But the line naming “the waitress” as prime suspect made the girl’s brows knit, like ripples tightening on still water. She studied the description, baffled by the paper’s leap.

“My lovely lady, may I share dinner with you?”

She was mid-sentence when a blond man sidled in, all smile, like a gull eyeing bread.

Her face was fine-cut, sweet as first snow. Those wide blue eyes looked like sky-stored sapphires, full of free wind and clean air; they washed the gaze like rain.

Sitting alone in a corner, she drew would-be heroes like moths toward flame.

“Mm…”

Annoyance rose first, sharp as a pin. She lifted her head. She fixed him with those azure eyes, their light deepening like a sea trench, and met his stare without a blink.

“Is my luck turning? Great—tonight’s about to get wild…”

In his mind, that stare melted into soft spring water. She was delicious. She was a ripe peach in reach.

He didn’t notice his body shift. A blue gleam bloomed at his chest like a sudden star—then he flew, trash jettisoned from an airship.

Whoosh—clatter!

He slammed through tables in a clattering spray of paper cups and tablecloth, and crumpled into a sofa across the hall.

“Oh dear, sorry.”

She didn’t rise. She only smiled, bright and guileless, like a bell.

“A mage!”

The watchful diners gasped. Casting without a chant or tell—few adventurers could pull that off. Seeing it from a young girl? Rare as a qilin’s hoofprint.

“At least pro-level. Don’t mess with her.”

Hungry eyes dimmed like embers doused. The room quietly shelved its plans.

Inside, she winced. It had been a while; her control felt rusty. He was only a tool for her goal, but she’d hit too hard. Hopefully he wasn’t hurt.

Tap-tap-tap. Footsteps drummed in order from the corridor, like a baton signaling the downbeat. Right on cue, the police arrived.

“Who cast a spell in the dining hall?”

They charged in hard-faced, raising lantern-like devices that swept the air in slow arcs. They were mana detectors; like gunshot residue after a trigger pull, spells left unique fingerprints in the air.

The detector pinned her in a blink. Officers closed, a tide pushing to shore.

“It was you, right? You know magic’s banned in the dining hall!”

On a flying liner like this, public casting was off-limits for safety. Hidden detectors tripped alarms, and scenes like this followed like thunder after lightning.

“Oh my—magic isn’t allowed here?”

She clapped a hand over her mouth and made a perfect picture of surprise.

“Of course! You’re a passenger on this ship, aren’t you? Come with us to the station.”

“I’m sorry…”

“Move!”

An officer took her by the arm, ready to escort her to holding and ask questions at leisure.

“It wasn’t her fault! I asked her to do it!”

Somehow, the blond man she’d launched staggered to the doorway and planted himself in front of the police like a scarecrow against a gale.

“Who are you? Don’t obstruct an investigation.”

“I’m the victim—no, I’m the one who begged her to demonstrate magic!”

“So you’re involved.”

“Yes. This girl did nothing wrong. I—”

Annoyance pricked again, like grit in the eye. If she truly didn’t know the ban, she might have softened toward him. But she had come here to reach the holding cells. His chivalry was a pebble in her shoe.

“None of your business. Leave.”

She frowned and gave him a “very serious, very angry” look, a blade-thin glance that cut clean.

In his eyes, that look turned to concern—her not wanting him to take the blame. The sweet burn of a girl’s “care” made him float, and it hardened his resolve.

“Yes! I tricked her into casting on me! I’ll take—huh?”

A heavy pulse swelled at his breastbone. He looked down into that same blue light, blooming like icefire.

“Sorry. I guess I didn’t send you far enough~”

She waved, smile bright as a crescent moon. Goodbye.

======================================================================

“Spell and caster, caught together. Let’s see you talk out of this.”

“Ugh… I plead guilty.” The blue-haired girl sat small in the interrogation room, head bowed, the picture of contrition, like a willow in rain.

“You… Knowing you were wrong is good.”

If it had been a sloppy drunk, the officer’s anger would’ve found a louder vent. But it was a rare case: the troublemaker was a young beauty. Facing a fair face, his temper cooled like iron in water.

“Harassment from a stranger is just… awful.”

“You can call us. You can’t solve it with magic.” He sighed from the chest, a fatherly heaviness, and took out the keys to holding. “Anyway, Miss Yue Liuyi, you violated the Sky Voyager’s public safety rules. You’ll be detained for eight hours. Any objections?”

“Mm-hmm! No. You make a mistake, you fix it. That’s how you’re a good girl~”

She smiled. That sweet beat even made a world-weary officer’s heart skip.

“Don’t worry. Holding isn’t prison. It won’t go on your record. Do you have family or friends on board? They can bring you some toiletries.”

“No. Only a male friend…”

Yue Liuyi tapped her cheek with a fingertip. Her clear eyes whirled, as if searching shelves for a thought. “But he’s hopeless. Loves gambling, ghosts through casinos every night. Half the time, no one can find him…”

“That’s tricky. We’re out of empty rooms…”

He lit a cigarette. Smoke curled up, gray vines in the low light.

The holding block carried a faint wine-haze, an aftertaste from the drunks inside. On a ship with over ten thousand souls, lawbreakers were inevitable—boozy brawlers and gamblers losing red-eyed. They hadn’t done great evil, but they’d stagger around and stir trouble, and needed a place to sober like stones in cold water.

By night, holding always strained at the seams. Cells built for two held four or five, shoulders pressed like sardines in a tin.

“In that case, don’t put me with drunks…”

At the thought of sharing with drunkards, Yue Liuyi’s color drained like a blossom bitten by frost. She hugged her arms, shivering.

Drunks could do anything—threats, blows. The officer didn’t want a young girl hurt, so he took another path.

“Go to Cell Four. There’s one spot left. But the suspect from the murder is in there.”

“A killer?!”

She stepped back a half pace. The shock in her voice rang true as a stage bell.

“Only a suspect. And if you ask me, the culprit probably isn’t that catfolk girl.”

He drew in smoke and let it flow out slow. He spoke from within the wreath of gray. “She had the opportunity. But in that situation, how could a tavern waitress use arcane cyanide to kill? That’d be the same as confessing on the spot.”

Like sodium cyanide, arcane cyanide was vicious. Unlike it, it had no telltale smell and stayed liquid at room temperature, a hidden knife.

It was a complex alchemical brew, hard to make, needing careful hands. The officer didn’t see Zaocun as capable of it.

“Huh? If that catfolk girl doesn’t look like a killer, why lock her up?”

“Because she was the only one with the window to act… No, why am I telling you this? And why are you so interested?”

He was a real officer. Even faced with a harmless-looking maiden, his lips stayed sealed like a jar.

“Because I’m scared…”

Yue Liuyi patted her chest and let out a long breath. “I just needed to know my roommate isn’t a murderer. I’m afraid I’ll get killed.”

“Don’t worry. This is holding. We’ve got anti-magic dampeners, plus surveillance and patrols. Nothing’s going to happen.”

“Mm-hmm. Thank you, officer.”