Katarina’s lips curled up. A dim gleam flickered in her deep crimson eyes.

She could roughly guess where the key evidence had been hidden.

“Mr. Hohenheim, there’s something I need to make clear to you first.”

Katarina spoke in a calm tone, smiling faintly.

“If you confess now, I can reduce your punishment. I’ll only lock you in confinement for ten years, with no meat or alcohol.”

“But if I find the evidence myself, it won’t be nearly that simple.”

Gu Qinghan froze for a moment, as if he had realized what she meant. A slight flush rose to his cheeks.

“Inspector, I truly haven’t violated the Church’s rules. Please believe me.”

Katarina smiled with narrowed eyes and gave a light nod.

Just as expected.

Only this way could bad people receive the punishment they deserved.

A trace of coldness flashed through Katarina’s eyes. She lightly raised her right hand, and a slender rapier appeared out of thin air.

“Then next, I, Katarina—an outstanding graduate of the kingdom’s highest magic academy—will carry out my duty.”

“—Following the revelation of the doctrine, I will tear away the false mask of a criminal.”

She slowly opened her eyes. Her face was expressionless, long lashes lowered and overlapping like a fan.

“The puzzle game begins now.”

She murmured that in her heart. A trace of magical markings flashed in her blood-red eyes.

It was an ability clearly beyond ordinary people.

As a top student of the magic academy, Katarina had possessed an unusual gift since childhood.

Truthseeker.

When a suspect spoke a lie, she could “see through” the trick and find the clues.

Only those born with extraordinary talent could awaken a Rune Engraved Magic like this.

That was the confidence she placed in herself.

In the air, natural mana began to stir, leaving behind clear traces.

Within her field of vision, the entire house turned black and white, like an old photograph.

At the same time, red mana surged through the air, and even the flow of time seemed to slow.

The red mist condensed. It gathered into crimson lines, flowing like winding streams, and finally converged on several spots—

the torn bedsheet.

The fallen flowerpot.

The tightly shut bathroom.

And the huge book chest beneath the experiment table.

In that black-and-white world, only those few objects were dyed a blood-like red by the mana. They stood out sharply.

The effect of Truthseeker was obvious.

Expose every lie.

Katarina’s lips lifted slightly. Everything was settled now.

In front of her, it was nothing but a fool’s dream for a criminal to hide clues.

She, Katarina, was an expert at exposing lies.

“Mr. Hohenheim, in the name of the Church of Pure Love, I hereby declare that you will be arrested today.”

“You have committed hooliganism, unlawful cohabitation of a man and a woman in one room, and immoral premarital relations. Multiple crimes combined. The circumstances are severe, and your attitude is abysmal.”

“Do you admit your crimes?”

Word by word, Katarina turned back to look at Gu Qinghan. Her gaze gradually turned cold.

Hohenheim blanked out at first. Then his face went pale, and cold sweat poured down.

“N-No, Miss Prosecutor, why are you slandering me without any basis?”

The young tenant looked extremely flustered now.

The curve of Katarina’s lips deepened, and so did the chill in her expression.

During her internship at the magic academy, she had judged plenty of criminals. Katarina had never shown mercy to last-minute excuses.

“Then I’ll help you remember exactly what you did.”

Red light flashed. Katarina stopped the mana drain of Truthseeker and slowly stepped forward with a dancer’s grace, stopping before the creamy white bedsheet.

“The moment I entered this room, I realized it was hiding a secret.”

“The bedsheet was torn, and there were drops of blood on it.”

“The flowerpot fell and shattered to pieces.”

“From these two abnormal signs alone, it isn’t hard to tell what happened in this room.”

She paused, then slowly raised her head and looked back at Gu Qinghan, her eyes sharp.

“Someone struggled on that bed, and it happened not long ago.”

At this point, Gu Qinghan’s face was pale, his lips dry and cracked. He couldn’t say a word.

“Before I came in, you had about three minutes to deal with the scene.”

“And your explanation was—that you were feeling unwell and staying in the bathroom—”

“But that was a lie!”

“That rusty door latch would definitely make noise if it were opened. Do you think I wouldn’t have heard it?”

“What do you say, Mr. Hohenheim?”

At that point, Katarina’s cheeks flushed slightly.

Half from anger, and half from embarrassment.

“To force a woman to do such a thing in broad daylight…”

Just imagining those scenes made her face heat up.

“Unforgivable!”

The girl’s thunderous shout left Gu Qinghan looking dazed for a moment, as if The Cortex had completely crashed.

“N-No, no, you can’t slander me like this.”

After a long while, Gu Qinghan gritted his teeth and spoke, but his voice had already gone weak.

“Arresting someone requires evidence. If you can’t find any, then this is just your own speculation!”

Katarina had expected that response. She let out a cold laugh and continued,

“Fine. Then I’ll show you, step by step.”

Her bright eyes shifted toward the final clue marked by mana.

Under the alchemy experiment table, that huge book chest now looked especially glaring.

“Let’s take a look here.”

As she spoke, Katarina stepped forward again and stopped in front of the chest.

One and a half meters long. Eighty centimeters wide. Hiding a person inside would be easy.

All it would take was one strike to the back of the neck to knock her unconscious.

“Mr. Hohenheim, I hope you’ll open this chest yourself.” Katarina’s tone was steady and left no room for refusal.

Mr. Gu Qinghan froze. His face turned pale, and his legs gave out beneath him as he collapsed onto the floor.

“No... this book chest can’t be opened…”

“Can’t be opened?” Katarina sneered.

“In that case, I’ll do it myself.”

“Wait!”

Katarina cut him off coldly. The rapier danced in her hand, and the sharp tip reflected a blinding gleam under the sunlight.

Clink—

In a single instant, the iron lock on the chest split into two.

The slanting sunset spilled down over the chest, revealing everything inside before the two of them.

Hohenheim’s face was deathly pale, as if he were watching Pandora’s box open.

Katarina’s gaze stuck to the inside of the chest. She stared fixedly at what was there.

A woman’s body.

Just as Katarina had expected.

Slender, alluring, beautiful bodies.

But... it was different from what she had imagined.

The figures were shapely, their skin smooth and delicate, almost fragile, like exquisite sculptures.

There were dozens of such women.

Printed across page after page.

Katarina stared blankly at the scene. A faint blush gradually spread across her cheeks.

Three books, five books, ten...

Dozens of dirty little books had been crammed tightly into the chest, hidden beneath the alchemy table like treasured jewels.

Those attractive women, striking seductive poses and wearing clothes that made one’s blood race, were printed right on the covers.

Those were the treasures hidden inside the chest.

Not real women.

And now, because of Katarina’s sword strike, the chest was flung wide open, its contents fully exposed before both of them.

“H-How can you read this kind of stuff?! You have no shame at all!!”

Katarina turned back to glare at Hohenheim in flustered anger. Even the tips of her ears had gone red.

“Talk! Where did you hide the women?!”

She felt like her head was already burning up.

What even is this mess?!

“M-My lady, all the women I hid are in the chest. I didn’t move a single one.”

Gu Qinghan looked like he was on the verge of tears. He still wore that wilted, miserable expression.

“That’s impossible!”

Katarina clenched her silver-white teeth. A magical marking flashed through her scarlet pupils as she tried to verify his words again.

Truthseeker!

With a hum, the whole room turned black and white once more, like an antique camera image.

But this time, there were no flowing red lines of magic.

Katarina’s mind went blank.

Truthseeker hadn’t activated.

Just as the man before her had said, all the “women” he had hidden were inside that damned chest.

Could it be... he really wasn’t lying?

For an instant, that thought flashed through Katarina’s heart.

With another hum, Truthseeker shut off on its own, and the world became vivid and colorful again.

But Katarina’s face had gone pale.

Truthseeker couldn’t fail.

In other words, Hohenheim hadn’t lied at all.

“Ah! It’s all over!”

At that moment, Gu Qinghan spoke up at just the right time. With a pained look, he sighed deeply.

“Now the whole street is going to know I’m a man with weird tastes!”

“You know how people are. They’re always biased against someone like me!”

“But I’m just reading a few books. What’s wrong with that? Can’t a minor have fantasies about love?”

He weakly pounded the floor, looking utterly miserable, as if he had lost something precious he had protected for years.

And yet, if one looked carefully, his eyes revealed what he was really thinking.

It was the look of someone utterly certain, as if his heart wasn’t stirred in the slightest.

He even looked like he was trying not to laugh.