Chapter 3276: The Empty Gun Murder Case

Hearing Major Lades' question, Xia De turned to look at the glass door behind him. He had told Miss Reinhardt just now that she could come to find him nearby after the "Sisterhood" gathering was over, and it was clear the witch hadn't come yet:

"There's nothing to handle for the time being, but I'll definitely have to leave when it's time for the dance. I came with a lady."

Major Lades showed an expression of understanding, and then smiled and left the terrace with Xia De, finding an empty sofa against the wall of the banquet hall, preparing to play cards on the coffee table.

And seeing that the two were going to play Luo De cards, the men nearby who had nothing to do also gathered around, and even the officers who knew Major Lades told everyone that Major Lades was a famous Luo De card expert on the fleet, and the number of special cards in his hand was not small.

It was just as if Xia De didn't have the luck to play cards tonight. After checking each other's decks, the two were discussing the rules this time and whether to play special cards, when a gunshot suddenly came—

Bang!

Then there was a woman's scream. The source of the sound was overhead, but because it was separated by the floor and there was both music and talking in the banquet hall, only Xia De heard it.

That scream clearly carried an emotion of fear. Xia De suspiciously organized his hand, and then suddenly stood up:

"Major, I'm really sorry, I suddenly remembered there's something to do."

Although Major Lades didn't quite understand, he knew Xia De wouldn't say that suddenly:

"That's really a pity. It doesn't matter. There are still quite a few gentlemen here who want to play cards. I'll play cards with other friends first. Remember to come find me when you're busy."

And after Xia De left the crowd, someone really sat in his seat and played cards with Major Lades, who had special cards. People were more focused on the card game, and soon threw Xia De, who had left the field, to the back of their minds.

And Xia De, who left the crowd, had an unchanged expression. He just scanned the banquet hall with his eyes, confirmed that there was no problem here, and then walked toward the stairs going up.

This kind of large banquet would generally provide extra rooms for guests to rest. This wasn't to provide a place for young men and women to have a secret rendezvous, but because some words and some things weren't suitable for public occasions.

As long as they were guests, they could go to the rooms upstairs, so no one stopped Xia De. The people in the banquet hall downstairs were still socializing normally, and because the rooms upstairs had excellent soundproofing, most of them had their doors closed. However, a large crowd had gathered at the doorway of a room in the middle of the corridor.

Xia De walked over before the guards of the nobles blocked the crowd who wanted to come over to join in the fun. He stood behind the crowd, stood on tiptoe and looked inside, and then forcibly separated the crowd and squeezed to the front.

Someone at the door wanted to stop Xia De, but the man who was a head taller than Xia De was directly pushed aside by Xia De.

"Claire!"

He walked into the crime scene. This time he called out the witch's name directly. And the platinum-haired girl who was standing with a group of frightened ladies in the room heard Xia De's voice, and immediately rushed over, burying her head in his arms with a look of being very scared.

Thus, the Marchioness of Cholmondeley, who had just met Xia De, didn't forget to say to the other members of the "Sisterhood" beside her in horror:

"This is the young handsome lover... friend that Claire found that I told you about just now. Look, I said young and handsome, right?"

The situation in the room was clear at a glance. The deceased holding the revolver was sitting on the sofa, and the bullet passed through his right temple. This was the source of the gunshot Xia De heard just now.

There was no need to check whether the other party was dead for this kind of injury. It looked like this man holding the gun had shot and killed himself, which made Xia De, who had been talking about the 【Gun of Kindness】 with Major Lades a few minutes ago, feel a bit absurd:

"Is there a second 【Gun of Kindness】? But the revolver in the deceased's hand is just an ordinary item... hmm?"

He lowered his head slightly and looked at his right hand. The purple rune mark flashed, which was the "Noble Fate" shared by the long-haired girl.

He didn't have the opportunity to contact the deceased, and Xia De didn't think about acting as an eye-catching detective.

Not long after he entered the room, the guards of Grand Duke Lagson, who heard the news, sealed the second floor and no longer allowed anyone to enter or leave. Then the local police rushed over. The first thing those local police officers, who looked like they were facing a disaster, did was naturally to check the identity of the deceased.

Any one person who died at this kind of banquet could be a big trouble for the city. If someone really had to be held responsible for this incident in the end, the local police would inevitably be held accountable.

The identity of the deceased only needed to be asked of the members of the Sisterhood who were in the room just now. He wasn't a representative of Karsenrik or Delarion, but Baron Jensen of Lagson Principality who came with Grand Duke Lagson.

But even if it wasn't a noble of the two major kingdoms, the death of a principality baron here was still a big deal.

Whether it was for the face of the principality or to determine whether this accident was related to politics, this case had to be known as soon as possible. The simplest way to know the truth was still to ask the witnesses, and there were quite a few people who saw the "murder scene" at that time.

The matter wasn't very complicated. Even before the police rushed over, Xia De had already learned the whole process from Miss Reinhardt.

Of course, before the police arrived, the ladies in the room didn't want to continue staying with the corpse. Grand Duke Lagson, who came to handle this matter personally, let them wait in the room next door first.

But Xia De wasn't indoors at the time, so the guards of the Grand Duke, who didn't figure out what his identity was, politely wanted to ask Xia De to leave here first:

"We will protect these ladies well."

"No, Claire is still here. She was scared, I can't leave her."

Xia De, who had already seen something extraordinary in the room, refused to leave. Then the maids, guards, and male companions of other ladies also heard the news and rushed over, demanding to stay like Xia De.

After leaving the room where the corpse was, Prince Samuel Anjou and representatives of Delarion also heard the news and rushed over. Because the ladies present were all members of the Sisterhood who studied at the university in Wilndale, and almost all of them were of prominent background, Prince Samuel Anjou decided that each lady could have one companion.

After leaving the room of the corpse, the ladies who were talking all at once finally said what had happened just now.

Simply put, the deceased Baron Jensen was pursuing Miss Hannah Schmidt, a member of the "Sisterhood" from Cornell County.

Although she was single like Claire Reinhardt, she had recently become engaged to the eldest son of a family friend, so she had long since declined Baron Jensen's pursuit. But the baron wouldn't give up, and this time he found Miss Schmidt at the banquet again, and even forcibly squeezed into the gathering of the "Sisterhood."

"But what does this have to do with that gun?"

The men who had nothing to do with this matter all wanted to know the details, and this was naturally a stupid and boring story. The Marchioness of Cholmondeley, protected by her personal maid who looked sturdier than Xia De, evaluated it like this:

"Men and women who are carried away by love will all do things that normal people cannot understand. That Baron Jensen was like this."

The ladies recalled that Baron Jensen brazenly entered the room, took out the gun, and then unloaded the bullets in front of everyone, and then held the empty gun, saying love words he didn't know where he got:

"When I first saw you, my heart and my brain seemed to be hit by the bullet turned into by your charm. Just like this, shaking my soul for a long time!"

Then he pulled the trigger, and after a bang~, he died in front of the ladies.

"This..."

Because they were surprised by the stupidity of this matter, no one commented for a long time. Miss Reinhardt sat on the chair under the window, holding Xia De's hand who was standing on the side. Seeing Xia De looking down at her, she nodded slightly, indicating that that was also the whole process she saw.

Xia De spoke to break the calm:

"Ladies, I don't doubt your statement, but are you really sure there were no bullets in that gun originally?"

There was more than one person who had this idea.

"Yes, we all saw him unload all the bullets."

Miss Schmidt, who was crying, said, and someone on the side was comforting her. The reason why this lady who was about to get married was crying was probably not because she was heartbroken by Baron Jensen's death, but half because she was scared, and half because she was worried about the reaction of her family and her fiancé's family after hearing about this—this was easily rumored as suicide for love.

She was about to get married when this kind of thing happened, and her reputation would be greatly affected.

"I heard that sometimes you can hide a bullet directly in the barrel when assembling the gun, so that even without a cylinder or magazine, it can still be triggered. Well, I saw it in 'Hamilton Detective Stories'."

A gentleman with a small mustache who was also accompanying his female companion here said so, but there was more than one person here who was familiar with revolvers:

"I like hunting, and I have also come into contact with different firearms.

In the design and use of standard revolvers, the situation where there are no bullets in the cylinder but there are bullets in the barrel and it is successfully fired cannot happen. The structure of the revolver doesn't support doing this. The one mentioned in that detective novel should be a firearm like a semi-automatic pistol."

"Then without bullets, how did Baron Jensen..."

No one could answer this question, not even Xia De and the witch who was holding his arm. Because except for the two of them, there were no ring mages present, and the revolver, which was basically confirmed to be the murder weapon, didn't have any element reaction.

After the police rushed over, they questioned the ladies here separately, but the matter was very simple, and everyone had no clues to hide, so the complete event backtracking was carried out very quickly.

Baron Jensen looked like suicide, or "accidental suicide." No matter to whom, the biggest problem was still how that revolver killed people without bullets.

?? PS: Picture of this chapter "The 'Scared' Sun"

? (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 3277 =====