Anliena remembered the rules with crystal clarity—

After the serial killer struck down their first victim, both sides would lose their memories.

Yet hers remained.

Does that mean no kill yet?

But a merchant had died…

Of course, another reading:

The killer had two ways to kill—by their own hand, or through someone directly linked.

If the latter did the killing, would the memory not be cleared?

Because the rules were precise: memories clear only when the serial killer kills their first.

Not when someone else does the deed.

If that’s true, the thought jarred her like ice water.

Four people were already dead.

If all four were Auril’s designated targets, then Lucimia was close to victory.

Cold fear slicked her back, sweat like dew under a winter shirt.

She replayed the moment Auril revealed identities.

White light bloomed on the table, stark as frost, spelling three bold words: Investigator.

Back home, she dissected the rules, scalpel-steady.

She judged the Investigator’s early game overwhelming.

She used the Imagerecording Stone to fix her identity, then stayed with her teammate in the bedroom, doors shut.

She didn’t believe Lucimia could, after one kill, pinpoint every named target off a mere hint.

Even if she could, the hint would be blatant.

Anliena would read it too, and hold the edge.

The rules allowed the killer to slay seven at once.

She waited and watched—no move came.

Seven names don’t gather like sparrows on one branch.

Auril would’ve seen that loophole.

If he didn’t forbid group killing, it meant the designated ones were hard to herd together.

The plan looked strong.

For an Investigator, the best play was to confirm identity.

It should’ve been that simple…

Until this morning, when word spread of a merchant dead in the block.

Her first thought flew to the killer’s blade.

Then she checked herself—her memory stood intact, moon-still.

So that death might be unrelated.

That was her take—until she learned someone had filed a report.

The caller claimed Lucimia and Rexi had gone inside.

Alarm rang like a gong.

She grabbed her Investigator credentials and rushed to the scene for a look.

She suspected the killing was done by Lucimia’s partner, laying groundwork to smear after the memory purge.

So she moved while her memory held.

Before Lucimia killed, she would strike and smear first.

Even if the smear got wiped, she’d wake and reassemble the pieces quickly.

It favored her.

So she did it.

She had assumed the reporter was a simple passerby.

Turns out there were ties.

She invoked a Duel and asked Lucimia; Lucimia said she had no connection to the dockworker, didn’t know him.

Anliena read a trick in that calm.

Rexi’s memory, perhaps.

The rules were clear—memory could only be used on oneself and one’s teammate.

So Rexi wiped Lucimia’s memory.

With that, any Duel would yield the same answer:

“Don’t know.” “No ties.”

It left her with no proof to brand Lucimia the killer.

Anliena’s heart drummed like rain on a drumskin.

A game she’d thought favored her had slid into shadow.

If her earlier inference held, then Lucimia also saw the Investigator’s colossal edge.

She knew the best play was to hole up at home, wait for the memory wipe, then surge ahead.

So Lucimia walked the opposite path.

While the Investigator waited, she acted, quiet as a cat.

If the Investigator stepped out to act, the killer would time a murder and a smear.

Away from home, the Imagerecording Stone couldn’t certify identity.

The edge would thin, maybe vanish.

Anliena snapped to Lucimia’s rhythm, the stratagem clicking like stones on a Go board.

A killer’s power peaks twice—before the wipe, and long after it.

How chilling.

She walked the street, body trembling, wind cutting like thin knives.

Worst was the helplessness spreading like dusk.

She had almost no tool to halt Lucimia.

If those four dead were all designated, Lucimia needed only three more to end it.

Urgency bit her heel.

She refused to lose.

She chose to go on the offensive.

She would smear Lucimia outright.

Time was sand leaving the hourglass.

Lucimia likely already knew her targets; ambushing her with the Imagerecording Stone felt impossible.

She didn’t know whether the four were designated.

She would plan for the worst.

———

Elsewhere, Lucimia led Rexi back to the tavern.

Her identity still wouldn’t lock, though her gut leaned Investigator.

Anliena had proposed a Duel, using questions to test whether she and Anliena had any tie to that worker.

Yet the move felt strange to Lucimia.

Even if there was a tie, after the memory wipe you could answer “no tie” without issue.

Which meant the questioning Duel was hollow, a blade of paper.

So why did Anliena do it anyway?

Was she being foolish?

That didn’t fit.

Lucimia couldn’t untangle it.

Given the current tableau, she leaned toward this:

She was the Investigator, and she had killed three merchants because they were guilty.

An Investigator doing that was fine.

Then Anliena, as the serial killer, killed one more.

That corpse was still a blank page.

After the memory wipe, Anliena found an extra body, then had her teammate and the dockworker smear Lucimia.

That was her lens on the story.

Now the dockworker lay dead.

Lucimia didn’t know if he was one of Auril’s designated targets.

From her angle, the death was bound to Anliena.

Yet something gnawed at her.

Anliena seemed utterly certain she herself was the Investigator.

Two readings:

Either Anliena was the Investigator.

Or she had confirmed herself as the killer, and could impersonate the Investigator with iron calm.

Lucimia considered a way for a killer to confirm identity:

Kill once, endure the memory wipe, see the body at your feet, know you’re the killer, then hide it.

Though one doubt remained—was the wipe instant, or did a brief window exist?

Either way, once the body was hidden, the Investigator’s hands were tied.

Finding it within three days would be like fishing moonlight from a well.

More and more, Lucimia felt Anliena might truly be the killer.

At minimum, she might have two kills already.

That would mean Anliena had her targets confirmed.

The air thickened for Lucimia.

She judged the situation severe.

She decided to find out who Auril had designated to die.

From her vantage, time still had breadth.

She could try first, and see if the named targets could be found.