Jang Min-ho and the guild members gathered in the guild house with very anxious faces.
First, we checked their vehicle's black box.
Most of them were operating normally, but one had its black box turned off.
"Why is this off? Whose car is this?"
"Oh, it's my car."
The one who carefully raised one arm was none other than the victim's wife.
"It seemed to have broken down a while ago... so I turned it off."
"I see. The bonnet is warm. Have you been out?"
"Huh? Ah, okay, wait a minute, in front of here..."
The guild members' eyes narrowed at the sight of me interrogating the victim's wife...
I didn't care one bit.
I moved to the scene of the incident, lined them up, and gave instructions to Jang Min-ho.
"You clearly said earlier that the hunter pet killed it, right?"
"That's right!"
"So where was Jang Min-ho at that time?"
"I was... right here. My hunter pet was right next to me!"
Jang Min-ho sat down near the sofa and vented his anger.
Judging from the traces at the scene, this is not a lie.
I pulled him aside again and stood in his place.
Now it's time to reconstruct the incident from scratch.
"Now, let's recreate this incident. For some reason, Jang Min-ho decided to murder the victim, Park Jin-wook."
"No, I didn't kill him... Ugh!"
Thanks to Kim Jeong-tae shutting Jang Min-ho's mouth, I was able to continue my explanation.
The guild members looked at me with very confused faces.
They seemed to want to leave the guild right away... but not until the investigation was over.
"Even for a hunter, carrying out the perfect crime is incredibly difficult. It's different if all the guild members are accomplices, but... realistically, that's much more difficult. The more accomplices there are, the greater the risk."
"Oh, that's right. Why would we kill Jinwook? This guild was running smoothly..."
I continued my explanation, pretending not to hear the guild members' cries.
"So, Mr. Jang Min-ho gave up on the perfect crime from the beginning. He planned to blame his hunter pet for the crime and receive a light punishment for his poor management. The plan itself was quite sound."
The problem is that in practice, things didn't go as planned.
I called Tia over and had her crouch down next to me.
"Tia, you will be playing the role of Cerberus. Do you understand?"
"Woof, woof!"
Tia answers immediately, wagging her short tail wildly.
Because of this, the guild members' faces became very upset.
I was satisfied that Tia's perception had improved a lot, so I called out one more person.
"Alice played the role of the victim, Park Jin-wook. She would have been standing there."
"huh."
Alice stood with her back to the soot, where the shoe prints remained.
I just gave Tia the order.
"But here, a problem arises that Jang Min-ho did not anticipate. Cerberus, attack Park Jin-wook!"
"Kki, kkiing..."
Tia looked at me, crying as sadly as she could.
The guild members still had expressions of confusion, but Jang Min-ho's face looked like he had been hit.
"The point is that hunter pets are never supposed to attack humans."
"That, that..."
"Wait a minute, Detective! Isn't that ridiculous? Then who are you saying killed Jinwook?"
"Brother Jinwook was clearly hit by a powerful flame attack. There aren't any flame hunters in our guild!"
I calmed them down once again and revealed the trick.
"Here, Jang Min-ho's accomplice appears."
"An accomplice?!"
Actually, I was also skeptical about the existence of an accomplice...
As I continued my research, I gained confidence.
"This incident was a meticulously planned crime. If this opportunity had been missed, it would have taken a considerable amount of time. So, the criminal who conspired with Jang Min-ho saw that Hunter Pet wouldn't listen, and came up with a second-best plan."
"second best?"
"This is the hunter equipment that was right in the guild warehouse."
"!"
What was important to Jang Min-ho and his accomplice was to put the blame on Hunter Pet.
So there was no need to use a hunter pet to kill the victim.
Once you kill it with a flame attack, it will be roughly hit by a goblin.
The guild members immediately remembered the existence of hunter equipment that seemed plausible to me.
I unfolded the inventory list from the guild warehouse that I had previously selected.
Since the guild warehouse contained dangerous items, the association naturally received reports on them every time.
"Of all the equipment stored in this guild warehouse, there is only one that can attack with fire. It's the Flame Arrow Scroll."
"If it's a scroll..."
"It's like a parchment that stores the hunter's abilities. It's just a consumable."
"Sure, if it's a scroll, it's powerful enough... but it's disposable, right?"
right.
Therefore, if the scroll is not in the guild warehouse, the guilt of Jang Min-ho and his accomplices is confirmed.
Because the scroll disappears once you use it.
I insisted and walked towards the warehouse without hesitation.
"Please open the warehouse."
"yes..."
One of the guild members hesitantly opened the underground storage room, revealing an interior protected by solid walls and a ceiling.
The equipment inside was generally well preserved.
"If it's a scroll... here it is."
"Oh, wait. What's here? A scroll of flame arrows!"
One of the guild members took out a rolled up piece of parchment and handed it to me.
Jang Min-ho looked very proud, but...
I explained without being the least bit flustered.
It's within the expected range anyway.
"It's definitely the same type of scroll. But can you be sure that this is the same scroll that was stored before the crime?"
"Huh? Of course, since it's the same scroll..."
"Even active hunters don't seem to know. In fact, even these consumables all have serial numbers. Aren't they listed on the inventory list?"
"four?"
Even military personal firearms have serial numbers, so it's only natural that such a dangerous item would have a number.
I held the scroll up to the light and tried to find the serial number.
But it wasn't visible.
"Did you get it on the black market? It doesn't have a serial number."
"Well, then..."
"You bought it in a hurry and restocked it after the crime happened, right?"
At my words, everyone's heads turned towards one person.
Wife of victim Park Jin-wook.
I wondered where he had gone after turning off the car's black box... and he had gone out to get a new scroll.
She was the true identity of the accomplice.
"W-That's ridiculous! Why are you talking to Jinwook hyung..."
"Ah... no. It wasn't me... it was Jang Min-ho. That bastard killed him!"
"Woof!"
I sent a signal to Kim Jeong-tae to open Jang Min-ho's mouth.
Jang Min-ho seemed to have been wronged in his own way.
"Detective! I'll tell you the truth. The truth is, that woman killed him!"
"That's not even funny! It's a lie!"
"It's true. Since the hunter pet wouldn't listen, that woman took the scroll from the warehouse and attacked Jinwook hyung!"
Now that it has been revealed that the hunter pet did not kill the victim, the one who used the flame arrow scroll will be blamed for the murder.
The two accomplices, who understood this fact, tried hard to make the other one the main culprit.
I felt my head pounding and belatedly investigated the motive for the crime.
"So, why did you kill him?"
"That woman tricked me! If Jinwook dies, she'll be able to sell the guild."
"No! That bastard Jang Min-ho said he wanted to marry me, so he did..."
"What? Why would I be with a bitch like you..."
The guild warehouse instantly took on the feel of a marketplace.
Ultimately, further investigation revealed that it was the woman who used the scroll.
Jang Min-ho tried to give up the crime when he could no longer blame Hunter Pet, but the victim's wife brought a scroll and forced him to do so.
Since it was something that had already happened, Jang Min-ho decided to take the blame after receiving a promise of compensation from her.
If I was wrong, I would just confess and that would be it.
In the midst of the confusion, I asked Jang Min-ho a question.
"This kid is really evil. Don't you feel sorry for your hunter pet?"
"I'm sorry! If it weren't for me, that guy would have been slaughtered long ago! Isn't serving humans the very purpose of a hunter pet?"
Jang Min-ho, whose head is so hot that he can't recognize his opponent, goes crazy and runs wild.
The next moment, the bastard fell backwards with a scream.
Bam!
"Ugh! This, this kid... Is it okay for an investigator to beat up someone?"
"The Hunter murder suspect is indifferent to anything, so of course he must be subdued."
"..."
Jang Min-ho looked back at his former colleagues with a very aggrieved expression...
Not only his accomplices, but also his guild members were turning their eyes away as if they had not seen anything.
I've already made up my mind.
The reason I've been saving the Hunter-only prison spot all this time is for this very moment.
"I guess I'll have to let them both go on good terms. How many times have you two perjured yourself, you little shits?"
"Wait a minute, Master! Then, what will happen to Cerberus?"
"Well, it was spared from slaughter. It wasn't the hunter pet that killed it in the first place..."
I'm also a bit worried about what to do with him.
The original owner, Jang Min-ho, was certain to go to prison, and the other guild members did not particularly want to take over.
After much thought, I decided to use the guy.
"Okay, from now on you are a special forces member."
"Woof, woof!"
Cerberus responded vigorously, wagging his tail.
"Tia. For the time being, you are in charge of this child."
"Huh? Oh, I understand, Master. But didn't the child finish his training?"
"It's not enough. This is now a special forces hunter pet, so we need to make it capable of biting people and using Blast Burn."
"What the heck is this Blastburn thing..."
I was teasing Tia when a question suddenly occurred to me.
"Come to think of it, what are your abilities? I saw the Tiamat report, but the golden hair is so lacking in presence..."
"Ah, that's too much! Each of Tiamat's six heads possesses a special power. The black one you faced last time, Master, was in charge of 'magic power', and the blue one was in charge of 'agility'."
Aha, so each head had a specialized ability?
I asked Tia with secret anticipation.
"Then what were you in charge of?"
Tia proudly puffed out her chest in response to my question.
"As you can see, I'm in charge of charm!"
"...Where on earth are you looking?"
"You are the weakest."
Tia feels very wronged when Alice speaks as if she is making a judgment next to her.
"It's because I don't have enough magic power right now. If you could just supply me with more magic power..."
"Don't even dream about it."
"Hmph..."
As we were chatting, Lee Seo-woo approached us with a complicated expression on his face.
I congratulated him.
"Honestly, Seo Woo did most of the work this time. Alice helped out a lot too... I guess I can rest a bit, right?"
"Oh, no. Team Leader, you probably noticed it before it was too late. By the way, this incident is also due to an affair..."
Hot!
The thieves, including me, who had numb feet, laughed awkwardly and pretended not to hear anything.
Cerberus, who had just gotten a new job, wagged his tail wildly and greeted Tia.