Chapter 2138: Clues to the Murder Weapon, Directions of Suspicion

The spellcasting process went very smoothly. Xia Duo could tell that Aisite was also very eager to discover some brand-new clues that had previously gone unnoticed, so the other party cooperated to the fullest during the spellcasting, allowing him to truly experience the feeling of being an overbearing mentor.

After sharing his Perception with Saville, Xia Duo began a preliminary examination of the Short Sword on the ground; though called a Short Sword, it might be more appropriate to call it a "scimitar."

It was just that the curvature of this murder weapon's blade was completely different from the scimitars common in Calimshan; it only began to curve near the tip, and the arc was very shallow. It was precisely because of these characteristics that Talafu and the Elf called it a "Short Sword."

In the eyes of Xia Duo, who had little concept of scimitars, the curved tip was enough to classify it as a blade. In such a serious matter, he believed that both the Calimshan and Kaitemier sides must have appraised the style of the murder weapon, and "Short Sword" was likely just a designation.

Xia Duo tentatively called it a "Short Sword" as well.

Besides the style of the blade, he also noticed the forging marks on this Short Sword. This should actually be considered a highly significant feature, because normal magic weapons are mostly cast and formed in one piece directly by a Spellcaster (weapons often require ergonomic design, a role usually performed by a professional Ironmaster; if one doesn't care or doesn't need it, it can be absent).

Only a few high-quality pieces would have the participation of a highly skilled Ironmaster to improve the weapon's load-bearing capacity under various extreme conditions.

This Short Sword was clearly a magic weapon, so through the forging marks on it, one might be able to trace its original creator, thereby determining the identity of the user.

Of course, this was only Xia Duo's preliminary judgment; perhaps the Kaitemier and Calimshan sides had already done so. He would know once he asked about the details of their investigation later.

……

For a magic weapon, apart from its material, Magic is its true core. The spell elements Xia Duo had detected so far were not very Advanced, involving at most the Magic Net Eighth Layer.

Such a weapon might be fine to use as a Prince's personal sidearm, but it would be somewhat inappropriate for assassinating a great power's Prince on a diplomatic mission to another country.

Unless the assassin clearly knew what kind of Protection the target had, they could not have made such targeted preparations. Otherwise, if they encountered a defensive measure they could not break through, wouldn't they be left with only the path of suicide?

In Xia Duo's view, an assassin or killer must consider all unfavorable factors during an operation, using all their strength to ensure a kill in one strike, thereby completing the mission.

To kill a Prince of a country instantly with just a magic sword that had only just reached the high-quality level was simply too childish. Xia Duo speculated that there was a high probability of an accomplice to the assassin within Kaitemier, or more specifically, among the Prince's entourage.

【To be honest, I've been using Wild Fruit Reading to catch up on books lately. It has many sources, and the text-to-speech voices are great. It works on both Android and Apple.】

Of course, this was still a preliminary judgment Xia Duo made based on the murder weapon. Perhaps the Kaitemier side had already investigated this. No, it should be said that after such a major incident, the Prince's entourage must have had their ancestors back eighteen generations dug up.

"Remember to ask for the results later!"

……

The specific Magic Effect of the magic sword could not be fully understood through the 【Shennuodeer Detection Spell】 alone.

However, based on his experience in Spell Identification combined with Talafu's previous description of the assassination scene, Xia Duo judged that this Short Sword should possess effects such as 【Soul Disintegration】, 【Flesh to Mud】, 【Detection Block】, and 【Trace Erasure】.

Among these, "Detection Block" and "Trace Erasure" combined could perhaps be called "Severing Causality," a very overbearing effect. If a normal person used this sword to kill, Spellcasters below the level of a veteran Mage would not even be able to investigate.

But as the saying goes, the Magic Net level involved in this sword was too low. It seemed to be for the sake of lowering the guard of the Prince's entourage, but if they didn't know the specific defensive measures on the Prince, why prepare such inferior equipment?

One explanation was that the assassin behind it only had this much capability, but that seemed unlikely. This incident involved first replacing Talafu's brother—which was not an ordinary identity, just masked by the status of the Kaitemier Prince.

Afterward, they had to assassinate the Kaitemier Prince, offending two regional great powers in succession. If they only had this much capability, weren't they afraid of being hunted down by the angry Calimshani and Kaitemier Elves the next day?

Therefore, Xia Duo was more inclined to believe that there was an accomplice or collaborator of the assassin in Kaitemier, and it was that Elf traitor who provided the assassin with the Prince's specific defensive measures, allowing the assassin to carry out such a precise assassination.

If it were an assassin who knew nothing about the Prince's defensive measures, perhaps throwing a "nuke" for indiscriminate attack would have been more appropriate, rather than performing a near-surgical, precise assassination like this.

And this also exposed the goal of the assassin or the forces behind them: to solidify the illusion that the Kaitemier Prince was killed by an important figure from Calimshan, thereby provoking a great war between the two countries.

From this perspective, the true identity of the forces behind the assassin was perhaps about to be revealed.

……

Afterward, Xia Duo requested to backtrack to the scene of the assassination; this was also a unique clue. Aisite suggested that they could view the Magic Image saved from their two previous investigations, and Xia Duo agreed.

Past images, even if backtracked, would have a lot of distortion, and might even have been deliberately forged to mislead investigators. Of course, the past image of this incident should not have been forged.

And what he wanted to see was just the state of the assassin when they acted; he didn't need many details, so viewing the saved image was the same.

It was not convenient to do these things inside the Static Field, so the group left the Static Field and came to the Elf camp on the north side of the plaza.

It must have been that Aisite had already contacted the camp when they came over. By the time Xia Duo arrived, an Elf ran out from the depths of the camp and handed a wooden box emitting a bright Magic Aura to Aisite.

Aisite opened the wooden box, inside which was a green Gemstone with nearly a hundred facets, shining brilliantly in the sunlight. Seeing this Gemstone, Xia Duo exclaimed internally at the extravagance.

This Gemstone was none other than the Wisdom Gem he had sought but could not obtain in the past. Although he had now obtained some by materializing them through his Personal Space, the production method of this kind of Gemstone remained a mystery.

Wuweilun in 【Projection Plane · Evereska Independent】 would rather give up the Inheritance Ritual than give up the production method of this Gemstone, which showed how precious it was.

Now, the Kaitemier side had used a brand-new Wisdom Gem just to save a historical image of the past, which was simply too extravagant.

The magic world had too many means to save Magic Images, such as Memory Crystal, which was actually White Crystal. Although it could also be called precious, it still could not compare to a Wisdom Gem.

Or one could simply use a Spell to save it.