A Random in Re:Zero

Loop 3 - Part 15

This was my fault. What kind of idiot makes things worse when he's supposed to make them better? I was too arrogant to believe that provoking the creation of such a dangerous weapon didn't entail any danger.

"Damn, now I understand Oppenheimer."

Now, what the hell had happened? How did the revolver, which was just a promising project yesterday, kill Russell Fellow less than 24 hours later? Did Nadir manage to make a successful prototype in just a few hours?

Did that mean Nadir was the killer? Since I didn't know anything about him, I wasn't sure what to think. It would be too easy to assume it was him, but the naive obviousness of such a crime indicated otherwise. Still, I couldn't rule him out as a prime suspect.

Felix was very worried about my reaction when he showed me the evidence. My whole body had started to shake and break out in a cold sweat.

"Are you okay? If you're so sensitive, you should have said so..."

"It's not that."

I focused and steadied my breathing, relaxing my frayed nerves a bit. The shock this news had left me with had been overwhelming, but I wouldn't let it overwhelm me.

"I'm the one most responsible for this death. I'll have to do something about it."

I walked slowly over to Russell's body and pulled back the blanket covering him, drawing stern looks from all the gentlemen.

"Leandro!? You can't do that!" Felix became nervous.

"Come on, try thinking like a CSI character..."

Some of the wounds were small on the front of the body and had a larger counterpart on the other side, meaning the killer was facing Russell when he shot him.

There were five wounds in total, all of which matched the five bullets Félix recovered. Apparently, the killer used almost all of the cartridges. Why five and not six? What happened to the missing bullet? Did he pocket it, or had he already fired the revolver before?

"Felix, how old is this corpse?"

"If you're referring to how long he's been dead, I think a few hours. He was probably killed this morning."

"That makes sense." I placed the blanket back over the body and stood up. "What did the witnesses say?"

Felix stared at me in disbelief at my abrupt transformation into a police detective. His ears perked up as he let out an admiring "ohhh." He nodded enthusiastically, caught by my initiative.

"There were few people in the building at the time! Those who were present described a noise resembling very brief, consecutive explosions."

"Didn't they see anyone running away from the office?"

"Nope."

"And before that? Who was Russell last seen with?"

"That's a little hard to pinpoint right now."

"Did he say if he was meeting anyone?"

The cat boy frowned, trying to remember if he had gotten that information. But before he could answer, someone else intervened.

"With all due respect, and while I appreciate the good intentions, you're not the person to be asking those questions, butler. In fact, you'll have to step aside to let us do our work."

Marcus, captain of the royal guard knights, appeared and completely overruled me. His stern look made it clear I had no choice; arguing would only get me kicked out of this place.