● Illusory ●

Chapter 22

"Well, those are for a reason, Kallum. I know the members of my society well enough to know they'd never commit murders as brutal as the ones from these past months," I told him, "Besides, my niece and I have studied their powers well enough to know that it couldn't have been any of them."

"But can you really trust your judgment and the judgment of a young girl?" Kalle questioned, resting his chin on his hand, "You named Miss Kobayashi's sister as your current suspect due to her stabbing someone without any kind of investigation. Don't you think that would be like framing someone, Miss Neverland?"

I paused for a moment, planning out my retort. "I suppose I may have jumped to conclusions way too quickly, but unfortunately Seiko was the only one we actually caught almost committing murder," I replied, "I didn't want to have to name her as the suspect, but I had no choice. She was the only one who had committed anything."

"You know, Miss Neverland, maybe you wouldn't have to rely on surprises like that if you just listened to me," Kalle told me in a stern voice, to which I felt a bit peeved, "If I were you, I'd start interviewing all the criminals you allowed into your organization and round them up. Keep them in a different place than your other members and see if the murders still happen. Maybe even force them to renovate your old place a bit just to make it look nicer. I think I have a viable candidate for your first criminal suspect too."

I narrowed my eyes at the boy. "They're humans, Kallum. Not livestock," I started, "And I shall treat them as humans no matter who they are. Just because they're criminals doesn't mean they're automatically suspects. Besides, most of them don't even possess the powers to do what had been done to the victims."

Kalle raised an eyebrow with a questioning smirk. "Oho? Really now? Because last I recall you have one criminal in your organization who uses telekinesis and if I'm correct, no fingerprints could be found at the scene of the murders on anything. Maybe your so-called peaceful criminal is actually putting the 'fist' in 'pacifist'."

I sighed in a slightly exasperated tone, concealing my anger towards the boy and suppressing it. I knew there's no way that Alex could have done it. I saw the evidence myself the night their mother died when they were brought to the police station. When they were informed that they had killed a few of the men who killed their mother, they had an emotional breakdown and didn't break free of it for hours. Alex would be much too unstable to carry out a murder as flawless as the ones we've seen. It's even evident in their combat skill that they're too reckless to carry out anything like what had been done.

"You're right, Aleksandr could very well carry out the murders with ease due to their powers, but you're forgetting one thing, Kallum: They're pretty sloppy," I informed him in a calm tone, "Seeing as I have trained them myself, they're awfully reckless and tend to be pretty sloppy in any kind of move, even with telekinetic abilities. In fact, perhaps the reason why their defeat of thieves looks so flawless is because Seiko was there and more than likely covered up their sloppiness."

Kalle stood up then, slamming his hands on the table and preparing to shout at me, before his father raised a hand to silence him and his sister pulled him back down into his seat. "Thank you, Miss Neverland, but that's quite enough. Please don't provoke my son," Mr. Powell warned me, setting down his hand. I sighed once more, annoyed that he was telling me to not provoke Kalle when Kalle was the one who initiated this kind of topic. I heard Yuuko grumble something about making Kalle and Mr. Powell shut up.

I then leaned over to Yuuko, whispering in her ear: "I know you don't like how he spoke to me, but suppress your anger. We can't afford to lash out right now."

I saw her nod before I sat up again, to which I then looked over at Mr. Powell. "If you don't mind, Mr. Powell, could Miss Kobayashi and I perhaps talk to your son after this meeting? Miss Kobayashi needs to speak to him about something," I requested. I saw a curious look grow on the face of Kalle from out of the corner of my eye.