Dorothy’s Forbidden Grimoire

By staging a fake murder scene, Dorothy smoothly secured the cooperation of the cruise ship's crew. With her corpse marionette Ed posing as a detective, she was able to mobilize the crew under the guise of an official investigation. Because Dorothy had already surveilled and investigated the crew beforehand, she could be reasonably certain they had no ties to the cult and were thus safe to utilize.

Dorothy recognized the cigar ashes on the carpet of Cabin 417, identifying it as a brand typically smoked only by men. Through careful comparison and analysis of the faint imprints on the carpet, she deduced the footprints' size and inferred the height of the cabin's occupant. She then selected a male corpse marionette of similar height, stripped and disfigured its face, and tossed it into the cabin as the "body" before orchestrating its discovery.

Fortunately, the ship's captain, William, being a Prittish, was familiar with the name of Detective Ed, thanks to news coverage. This allowed Dorothy to gain his trust immediately. In fact, Ed's rise to fame largely stemmed from his connection to Adèle, a popular celebrity. After the incident at Soaring Theatre, Ed had ridden the wave of Adèle's fame and quickly became a renowned detective in Tivian.

Having officially secured investigative authority from Captain William, Dorothy had Ed conduct a perfunctory examination of the scene before approaching the nervous steward waiting nearby.

"What's the name of the guest who occupied this cabin? You should have it on record, right?"

"Yes, yes, we do. The guest staying in Cabin 417 is named Nicodo Rizzo. He boarded at Russo, and his ticketed destination is Moncarlo."

The steward provided Ed with the registered information of the cabin's occupant. Dorothy quietly reflected on the location of Russo, which she recalled as a coastal city in the northern Conquest Sea, within the island nation of Cassilia.

Once she had finished thinking, Dorothy had Ed turn to Captain William and state:

"Captain, I need to conduct a thorough inquiry into everyone connected to the case. Please prepare a private cabin for me and summon the guests from the cabins around 417 to wait outside that cabin. Also, bring in all the stewards responsible for this deck. I need to question them one by one."

"Understood, right away, Detective."

Without delay, the captain arranged for an unused passenger cabin near 417 to serve as an interview cabin. Once Ed entered the cabin, crew members gathered the neighboring guests and relevant stewards outside. One by one, Dorothy—through Ed—began conducting face-to-face interviews.

…

"What… You want me to recall my impression of the man staying next door?"

Inside the temporary interview cabin, a middle-aged Falano woman in a long dress sat across from Ed. After thinking for a moment, she answered.

"To be honest, I don't remember much about him. Even though he was in the cabin next to mine, I never saw him. Every time I left or came back, the door to 417 was always shut. At first, I thought the cabin was empty. But at night, there were always sounds coming from there."

"Sounds? What kind of sounds?"

"Disgusting ones. Like someone drowning and howling. It was awful. I've been on this ship for five days, and for three of those nights, it happened. Sometimes it sounded like he was clawing at the walls. If he hadn't stayed quiet last night, I would've requested a cabin change."

Dorothy noted her statement and moved on to the next interview.

…

"Noisy at night? Oh, yeah—that creepy yelling. Sometimes I heard it and thought the guy was having a seizure or just plain crazy. But apparently, he also got into an argument? Guess he's more normal than I thought."

This time, a man from North Ufiga in a long robe, with slightly darker skin, responded to Ed's questions. Dorothy's expression sharpened slightly, and she immediately had Ed press further.

"An argument? You heard someone arguing with the guest in 417? When was this?"

"That was yesterday morning. I returned to my cabin to grab something and heard shouting coming from inside 417. Two men, from the sound of it. They were really going at it."

"Do you remember what they were arguing about?"

"Not a word. I didn't understand a thing. They were speaking a different language."

"Do you recognize what language it was?"

"Sorry, no idea."

In response to this, Ed suddenly spoke a fluent sentence in Falano, then switched to North Ufigan and asked.

"Did the argument sound anything like what I just said?"

"Uh… I don't think so…" the man replied, somewhat confused.

Dorothy then had Ed try another language—this time Prittish—and followed up with:

"Then did it sound like this language?"

…

In the clean, quiet cabin, Ed sat in his chair, attentively observing the uniformed steward seated across from him, who was now trying to recall the details as instructed by Ed.

"The guest in Cabin 417… Let me think. Yeah, I do remember something. He liked to drink—always stayed at the bar until really late. I've helped him back to his cabin twice. And the whole way, he kept yelling and rambling on…"

"I see… And besides that, do you remember anything unusual about him?"

Ed asked again, prompting the steward to think more seriously.

"Unusual… hmm… nothing really comes to mind. If I had to say something, I guess it was how unreasonable he could be. On the day he boarded the ship, he pestered us non-stop to change cabins. The problem was, there was absolutely nothing wrong with his cabin, and the one he wanted was already booked. We obviously couldn't let him switch, but he made a big fuss for quite a while before giving up. Really annoying…"

The steward continued explaining. Ed raised an eyebrow at that and followed up.

"He wanted to change cabins? Do you remember which one he was trying to switch to?"

"That I can't recall. It was nearly a week ago. There are over a thousand cabins on this ship, and I deal with guests switching cabins all the time. I couldn't possibly remember which number he asked for."

Hearing this, Dorothy remained silent for a moment in contemplation.

…

"Huh? The guest Bart helped back to his cabin twice?"

At the bar on the cruise ship, a bartender now sat across from Ed. After hearing Ed's question, he fell into thought for a moment before responding.

"Yeah, that guy came to drink for several nights in a row—except for last night, I think. He drank a lot every time. He always got drunk to some degree, and sometimes we even had to call someone to escort him back."

The bartender explained, and Ed pressed further.

"Did he always drink alone? Was there ever anyone else with him?"

"Hmm… yeah, now that you mention it, he wasn't always alone. Sometimes there were different people sitting beside him, chatting. But I couldn't understand the language they were speaking."

Ed continued.

"Do you remember what those people looked like?"

"Ah, sorry, sir… I really can't help there. I serve hundreds of guests every day—I can't remember everyone's face."

Dorothy silently nodded at this final response.

…

"What? Suspicious individuals?"

A sailor in a janitor's uniform now sat in a chair, looking somewhat puzzled after hearing Ed's question. Ed clarified.

"Yes. On the deck you're in charge of, did you see anyone suspicious between 11 AM and 1 PM yesterday?"

"Let me think… if I had to name someone suspicious, I'd say just one guy. Young man, I think—wearing brown clothes, walking really fast so I couldn't see his face clearly. He was dragging a suitcase and smelled kind of… fishy."

The janitor recounted his memory while Dorothy mentally took note of everything.

…

After questioning over a dozen passengers and crew members, Dorothy finally concluded the interviews. She had gathered a significant amount of important intel—and now came the time for analysis.

"The man staying in Cabin 417 drank often, indulged himself, and made strange, seizure-like screams at night… that fits the profile of a Chalice cultist quite well. And that bizarre wailing could very well be a withdrawal reaction from chalice-drug dependence. He was clearly addicted, but it seems he didn't carry enough supply on him…"

"Also, this man wasn't alone. He had companions on this ship. People approached him while he was drinking. There were arguments in his cabin, meaning there were others aboard he could communicate with—and more than one. And since they could argue fluently, they likely shared a common cultural background. Based on the neighboring guest's testimony, the language sounded like Ivengardian. Plus, the name of the deceased—Nicado—also suggests Ivengardian origin. So it's highly likely they were Ivengardians."

"Another thing: the man likely died right after that argument yesterday morning. The argument was at 11 AM, and the ship's wastewater disposal was scheduled at 1 PM—so he was probably killed in that two-hour window. The janitor also spotted a highly suspicious figure around that same time."

Seated in her cabin, Dorothy analyzed the data with a serious expression. Before long, she had devised a plan.

Controlling Ed—still seated in the original interrogation cabin—Dorothy made him stand up and walk toward the door. Upon opening it, he stepped out to meet the somewhat anxious-looking captain waiting outside.

"Well? Mr. Ed, you've questioned everyone. Any results?"

Captain William asked.

Ed responded with a polite smile.

"I've got some leads. Captain, I'll need a favor—I'd like to see the passenger registry. Could you provide that?"

"The logbook? Of course. One moment, I'll have it brought over right away."

The captain promptly instructed a steward to retrieve the book. Shortly after, a large and thick ledger was placed into Ed's hands.

Returning to the cabin, Ed closed the door behind him, set the register on the table, and began flipping through it at lightning speed—skimming ten lines at a time.

The cruise's passenger registry wasn't detailed—it was mainly for service convenience. Only three key pieces of information were listed: boarding time, cabin number, and passenger name. But to Dorothy, that was enough.

Nicado had boarded with companions, and the killer was likely one of them. Since they were from the same cultural background, it was highly probable they'd share the same itinerary. So if Dorothy could identify other passengers who boarded at Russo and were headed for Moncarlo, she could dramatically narrow the scope.

Furthermore, assuming Nicado was Ivengardian, then his companions—those capable of arguing or conversing fluently with him—were likely Ivengardians too. Dorothy could roughly infer cultural background from name styles. After filtering for itinerary, she could cross-check for Ivengardian-sounding names to narrow it further.

Another clue: according to the steward, Nicado had tried to change cabins when he first boarded—not because of issues with his own, but simply because he wanted to move to another area. However, the requested area had already been booked by new passengers.

Dorothy reasoned that Nicado had wanted to move closer to his companions. It's common for traveling groups to try staying in adjacent cabins for convenience. But with a complex ship layout and high occupancy, groups often got separated.

Nicado likely faced this issue. He didn't request specific conditions for the new cabin—only to move to a particular section, which happened to be occupied by others who had also boarded at Russo, reinforcing the theory that his companions were all housed in that zone.

With this understanding, Dorothy could now focus on Russo-to-Moncarlo passengers with Ivengardian names, whose cabins were located close together. After going through the registry, she found about eighteen such individuals—a very manageable number.

With her target zone established, Dorothy reactivated her micro-corpse marionettes and sent them to observe those eighteen cabins.

It only took about an hour of surveillance before something surfaced.

In one cabin on the second level below the deck, a micro-marionette hidden in the air duct saw two men enter suddenly. Both wore neat, ordinary civilian clothes—one a handsome young man with neatly styled pale blond hair in his twenties, the other a slightly overweight middle-aged man with a round hat and small mustache.

Both wore grave expressions. After closing the door, the older man turned to the younger with a stern look and said:

"What happened? The corridor around Nicado's cabin is blocked off by sailors—they must've found something. Did you not clean up properly? Did those mundane cattle spot something?"

The middle-aged man questioned sharply. The younger man responded with an innocent tone.

"Impossible! I cleaned everything thoroughly. That blood-cattle who lacked discipline—I killed him ahead of time and used an alchemy sigil to dissolve him into blood potion, flushed it all down in the lavatory. Every trace was wiped clean. I even packed his bones into his own suitcase to bring back. None of his belongings were left behind either. At most, the crew should've just noticed he went missing. No way this should've blown up like this…"