Chapter 134: The Judges' Thoughts

9: 0 AM, Tokyo, Setagaya Ward, Mystery Writers Association.

"Respected judges, these three works are the finalists for this year's Mystery Writers Newcomer Award. I hope you will all review them and provide your evaluations."

The man speaking was a man in a suit wearing glasses; his name was Kawai Shinta, and he was the vice-chairman of the Mystery Writers Association.

He was directly responsible for the planning of this "Mystery Literature Newcomer Award" and the final selection of the shortlisted works.

After Kawai Shinta finished speaking, he looked around at the five judges in the conference room.

To ensure the selection was fair and impartial, Kawai Shinta had specifically invited one member each from the Orthodox school, Social school, New Orthodox school, Suspense school, and Hardboiled school among the many members of the Mystery Writers Association.

This was to avoid excessive bias from the judges toward any particular genre.

Furthermore, there was another important point: in recent years, the influence of the Orthodox school had become increasingly vast, to the point where more and more awards were being given to Orthodox works, causing great dissatisfaction among other factions.

Therefore, Kawai Shinta had selected one person from each faction. Although this might not be perfectly fair, it would at least prevent any grounds for criticism.

After Kawai Shinta finished speaking, he had his assistant distribute copies of the three works to the writers present, and then he began to wait patiently.

Let's see which lucky person would be able to win the favor of these writers!

……

On the other side, Morioka Yuho, a New Orthodox writer serving as a judge, received the three works.

She took a brief look at the covers of the three works and found they were titled "Death by Negligence," "Spiral Staircase," and "The Third Person Behind."

Just by looking at the titles, she had already briefly analyzed the style of these three works.

The first one only mentioned the motive for the crime, so it could be either the Social school or the Orthodox school.

The second one, just by the name, revealed a hint of a mechanical trick; it was highly likely to be Orthodox or New Orthodox.

The third one, with somewhat thrilling keywords like "behind" and "third person," would likely be the Heterodox school if there were no surprises.

Besides the titles, the three books did not include the authors' names.

Morioka Yuho was not surprised, because if the authors' names were included, it would often reveal a lot of information, such as the writer's publisher, relevant connections, and debut work.

And these external factors would become influences on the judges' choices.

So, to make this Mystery Literature Newcomer Award fairer, the organizing committee had hidden the authors' names entirely, giving the judges only the works to view...

Morioka Yuho thought for a while, then picked up "Spiral Staircase" and started reading it first.

Regardless, as a New Orthodox writer, she still hoped that works from her own school could flourish and thus be accepted by more readers.

She opened the book and began to study the plot carefully.

"The protagonist and their group arrive at a villa in the deep mountains to stay; this villa was built in the Taisho era and has a long history. Moreover, in this villa, there is a staircase that leads to different rooms. On the third day, someone dies on the staircase; on the fourth day, another person dies in the same spot. To uncover the truth and protect themselves, the protagonist decides to investigate who the real killer is."

She read for three hours before closing the book, feeling a sense of admiration in her heart.

It was indeed the Orthodox school; in this book, the killer utilized a visual error to make the victims and others believe that the two deceased were in the same position, but in reality, one person's death occurred at a second scene. Furthermore, the person the killer truly wanted to kill was the second person who died.

As for the first person, it was merely to frame someone else to achieve the goal of covering up their own tracks.

This "Spiral Staircase" had an unexpected murder method and contained a wealth of ingenuity; it seemed it could be classified as New Orthodox.

In that case, could she just skip the other two books and cast her vote for this one directly...

No matter what, she was also a member of the New Orthodox school.

She lowered her head and fell into thought.

At this moment, Vice-Chairman Kawai Shinta tapped the table, drawing her attention.

"Respected teachers, let's pause the morning's judging for now and go have lunch. The dining location is downstairs; we have hired a master chef from the 'Takeishi' restaurant in Kyoto to prepare the cuisine for everyone."

Hearing this, Morioka Yuho put aside her thoughts and decided to go have lunch first, rest, and then take a look later.

……

12: 0 PM, Mystery Writers Association, Guest Lounge.

"Morioka-sensei, which work do you think this year's Newcomer Award should be given to?"

Morioka Yuho was sitting on the sofa with her eyes closed, resting, when she suddenly heard a low male voice.

She opened her eyes, looked up, and discovered it was another judge—the Orthodox writer Takaoka Haruto.

This kind of topic wasn't really suitable for public discussion, was it?

She was a bit surprised, then looked around and found that, apart from herself and Takaoka Haruto, there were no other writers present, only a staff member standing at the distant entrance.

At that distance, they probably couldn't hear the two of them talking clearly.

It seemed there was no problem.

Morioka Yuho thought for a moment, then lowered her voice and asked, "Takaoka-sensei, what do you think?"

Takaoka Haruto shook his head, then sat down beside Morioka Yuho, "In my view, as long as the trick is designed reasonably and brilliantly, any of the works will do."

Hearing this explanation, Morioka Yuho couldn't help but chuckle.

You might as well just say you want an Orthodox work to win.

The Suspense school focused on the suspense of the mystery, the Hardboiled school focused on the expression of action and social observation, and the Social school delved into human nature.

Therefore, only the Orthodox and New Orthodox schools would care whether the trick was brilliant and reasonable.

She didn't want to play coy, so she answered directly: "Takaoka-sensei, there is no one else here, so you don't need to play coy."

Takaoka Haruto smiled and replied, "In short, I will not be voting for the work 'The Third Person Behind'."

Morioka Yuho nodded; judging by the name, this work sounded like a Suspense school piece, and the trick design surely wouldn't have anything special.

But she was still curious about the content, so she asked, "Did you read this work this morning?"

Takaoka Haruto replied, "Yes, this work is relatively short; I finished it quickly this morning. Let me describe it to you, Morioka-sensei."

Then, he began to describe it, and Morioka Yuho learned the story background from his description.

This "The Third Person Behind" told of a series of very bizarre murders of young women occurring in a city, and after they were killed, their bodies were often arranged in strange poses, with their states of death being extremely tragic.

The police began an investigation, but they discovered that these victimized young women had different interpersonal relationships and no social connections in their lives. Just then, a detective who was also chasing this case discovered a key clue...

Hearing all this, Morioka Yuho suddenly became interested, "What was the killer's ultimate goal and method?"

Takaoka Haruto shrugged and explained, "The motive is poorly designed; it was purely due to a romantic dispute. The killer murdered his cheating ex-girlfriend and then buried her body. To avoid being targeted by the police, the killer fabricated a series of serial murders and specifically targeted women rumored to be cheating."

"Hiding a tree in a forest?"

Morioka Yuho shook her head; she felt this story was not designed well enough.

If she were writing it, it should have been the killer using the occurrence of serial murders as an opportunity to cover up the truth of their own murder, ultimately pointing to two killers.

Takaoka Haruto waved his hand, "So this work combines some characteristics of the Suspense and Social schools; it might be able to get those two votes. As for the Hardboiled school, perhaps they might vote for it too."

He paused, then said in a firm tone, "Morioka-sensei, that is why I believe we should concentrate our two votes together to prevent the honor of this Mystery Literature Newcomer Award from being taken by a work outside the Orthodox school."

Morioka Yuho was silent for a while, falling into hesitation.

After a long while, she said to herself, "If there are no surprises, I will recommend that book 'Spiral Staircase'; I think the trick inside is designed very brilliantly."

"Eh?" Takaoka Haruto asked in confusion.

"Is there a problem?"

"Morioka-sensei, didn't you read the work 'Death by Negligence'?" Takaoka Haruto asked in return.

Morioka Yuho shook her head; she liked to savor books slowly, so she was much slower than other writers.

Takaoka Haruto thought for a moment and said, "How about this: wait until you have read this work, Morioka-sensei, before making this decision. After all, there is still some time left for voting."

Morioka Yuho thought about it, felt it made sense, and agreed immediately.

However, what exactly was so brilliant about this work that it could be worth Takaoka Haruto's recognition, to the point of even dismissing the "Spiral Staircase" she felt was very outstanding?

Her heart was filled with doubt.