Chương 275: Chapter : 275

"That is the most absurd thing you have ever said," Naomi declared.

"And you once suggested we defeat a dark mage by challenging him to a dance-off."

"That was a legitimate tactical proposal and I stand by it. He had a weak left foot." Naomi opened her mouth to deliver what would certainly have been a devastating retort, but before she could, Princess Iris raised her hand. The room fell silent instantly. When Iris raised her hand, people listened. It was one of her most irritating and impressive qualities.

"Ken," Iris said, her violet eyes studying him with an intensity that made even the lazy boy sit up slightly straighter.

"You are suggesting that Carrion's murder was not about the Eternal Youth potion at all. That the potion is the adultery charge. The cover story. The thing everyone looks at so they do not see the real conspiracy."

"Exactly," Ken said, pointing at her.

"Everyone is looking at the potion because it is the obvious, flashy motive. Eternal Youth. Immortality. Who would not kill for that? It is the perfect distraction."

"But what if the real reason is something bigger?" He held up his hands like he was framing a concept.

"Something that the murderers do not want anyone looking at. Something worth killing for and worth covering up." Iris was quiet for a long moment. The room watched her think. Her violet eyes moved from the cheap paperback to the classified dossier to the encrypted journal, and something shifted in her expression. A recognition. A memory.

"The Core of Luminus," she said quietly. The name landed in the room like a thunderclap. Every member of the 13th Unit remembered that mission. The monster dungeon in the Outer District. The ancient artifact hidden inside it. And Ken's absolutely ridiculous, utterly baseless suggestion that it was there because he had seen a similar plot in a movie.

"Ken's movie logic was right that time," Iris continued, her voice gaining strength and certainty.

"Everyone dismissed it as nonsense. I dismissed it as nonsense. But he was correct. The Core of Luminus was exactly where his ridiculous movie logic said it would be." She looked around the table at her team.

"I am not making that mistake again. We are taking this deduction seriously. All of it." Sayma opened her mouth to object, then closed it. She pushed her glasses up, a sure sign that she was thinking hard. The logic was sound, even if the source was absurd. Ken's instincts, however unorthodox, had proven reliable before. She could not argue with results. Laxmi leaned forward, her flame-extinguished fingers now drumming on the table.

"Okay, I hate to admit it, but the lazy one has a point. We have seen this before. The bad guys never do the obvious thing. The obvious thing is always a trap." Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"That is also something I learned from this book," Ken said helpfully.

"Please stop talking," Laxmi said.

"So if the Eternal Youth potion is the cover story," Naomi said slowly, her green eyes narrowing as the implications sank in, "then what is the real motive?"

"That is what we need to find out," Iris said. She stood up, placing both hands on the table, her violet eyes blazing with determination.

"And I suspect the answer is not corporate theft. I suspect it is something much larger."

"Treason," Zinia said, speaking for the first time. Her deep, gravelly voice carried the weight of absolute certainty.

"A conspiracy against the Empire itself." Iris nodded.

"That is my suspicion. The murder of a scientist, the suppression of his research, the closure of the investigation by corrupt police officials. This has the fingerprints of a political conspiracy, not a corporate one." She looked at Ken, who was now casually flipping through his paperback as if he had not just derailed an entire investigation with a novel about a shirtless prince.

"We return to Carrion's laboratory. If there is more to find, we will find it." Ken leaned back in his chair, a satisfied smirk on his face. He picked up his paperback and slipped it back into his jacket pocket with the casual pride of a man who had just been proven right by a princess. The book had cost him three copper coins at a market stall. It was, without question, the best investment he had ever made. Three copper coins that cracked a murder case. He made a mental note to visit the market stall again.

Maybe the same author had written something about treasure maps.

"I did not thank you," Iris said.

"You were going to. I could feel it. The gratitude was radiating off you." Iris stared at him for a long, flat moment. Then the faintest trace of a smile crossed her lips before she turned back to the table.

"Prepare for a second sweep of the laboratory. We leave within the hour." The team dispersed with the efficiency of a unit that had done this many times before. Naomi grabbed her twin daggers, checking the blades with practiced fingers. As the team filed out of the strategy room, Ira paused beside Ken's chair. She looked down at him, her expression unreadable as always. Then she gave him a single, barely perceptible nod. Ken blinked.

"Was that... approval? Did Ira just approve of something I did?"

"Do not get used to it," she said simply. Then she turned and walked out of the room, her silver-white hair catching the morning light. Ken stared after her for a moment, genuinely surprised by the rare acknowledgment. He unwrapped the candy and popped it into his mouth. It was sweet. Very sweet. He smiled to himself, tucked the paperback into his jacket, and headed for the door.

Risa packed her medical kit with the careful, methodical attention of a healer who knew that second missions were always more dangerous than first ones. The first sweep had been about discovery. The second would be about truth. And truth, in Ken's experience, was usually guarded by people with very sharp weapons. Ken stretched, yawned, and wandered after them with the unhurried gait of a man who had all the time in the world.

But as he passed through the doorway, his hand brushed against the pocket that held the paperback, and his dark eyes flickered with something that was not lazy at all. Ira fell into step beside him, her footsteps quiet and precise against the stone floor of the hallway. She did not say anything. She just walked next to him, her pale blue eyes staring straight ahead with that characteristic, unreadable calm.

"What?"

"Your book logic is absurd," she said.

"And yet here we are, following it." Ira said nothing. But the corner of her mouth twitched. Just barely. Just enough for Ken to notice. And the 13th Unit marched off to find the truth hidden behind a lie, guided by a cheap paperback novel and the infuriating, inexplicable, occasionally brilliant genius of the laziest member of the family.