"From the very beginning… or so I would have liked to say."
Ash and Elma remained on the bench, both of them staring at each other as they sat and enjoyed the night breeze. The silence between them created a thick layer of tension so visceral that it would cause many to shiver.
However, the two remained perfectly calm as they stared at each other.
"The truth is, I still wasn't a hundred percent sure until you asked how I figured it out, which has now solidified my suspicion into a fact."
"I see…" Elma muttered. "So I slipped up."
"You could say that."
Even if she hadn't at this moment, she would have at some other point. Ash already had his eyes on her, and so it was only a matter of time before she would fall.
"Even then, how… did you even begin to suspect me? I was sure I kept the perfect facade."
These words caused Ash's eyes to glint a little and even made his smile grow broader.
Elma wasn't wrong.
"Yes… you did." Ash nodded. "To the point where I thought that I was the one being paranoid and grasping at straws."
It was a frustrating thing to do—figuring out exactly what kind of person Elma truly was. But, when Ash pieced every little shard of the puzzle together, he arrived at a plausible enough explanation for her guilt.
'The most obvious one is the fact that Britta isn't a transmigrator.'
If she was a Transmigrator, she would have two Souls, and if she had two Souls… she would have far stronger abilities than she displayed. She would be able to break out of her confines by utilizing her other Familiar—something no one would expect.
She would also be able to do a lot more than mere projection, especially with the intelligence and resourcefulness that the White Death had been displaying throughout its killings.
That led to his second reason for suspicion.
'She was not particularly intelligent or resourceful…' Ash thought to himself. 'For someone who was the White Death, orchestrating all those killings and gathering accomplices, there was almost nothing special about her.'
She was ordinary in every sense of the word—a true Beta Class Student.
Normally, this would have fit the perfect profile for the White Death, but considering the kind of intelligence that the White Death had displayed thus far, Britta's abilities seemed a little too mundane.
Even Dustan had a much better kit of both intelligence and skill.
Britta, on the other hand, relied so much on the fact that she was The White Death and nothing more.
That raised suspicion that she was probably not working alone… and that there was perhaps another mastermind—this time, most likely a transmigrator, pulling the strings.
But who could it be?
At first, Rey suspected Dustan, but the boy had almost no relevance to the current case, which brought his attention to the only person who had such close proximity and control to the case.
'Elma herself…' Ash sighed internally. 'Once I realized that, I began to backpedal and look at things with the benefit of hindsight.'
After studying all of his past conversations with the girl and re-observing her behavior, he discovered a rather interesting thing.
Elma wanted to blame the Beta Students, and that fact was displayed in their earliest discussions about the White Death and the hint left behind by the Instructor.
'Elma specifically pointed to the Beta Students Dorm being in the East, which would construe that they are the suspects.'
Elma was once a Beta Student, and in the novels, while she didn't associate a lot with the Beta Class after her elevation—at least, not until Seth fully entered the picture—she still defended them vehemently, usually against the Alpha Class Students.
It was why Seth was so intrigued by her and drawn towards the prospect of having them be together in the first place.
'As such, it's odd that her first instinct would be the Beta Students Dorm.'
Of course, all of this could be dismissed by the fact that rumors were already spreading that the culprit was from Beta Class, but… Ash didn't think that would be enough to fully emancipate Elma from his suspecting gaze.
For one, she wasn't the type to blindly follow rumors—especially one spun by the entitled Alpha Class students. Secondly, it was suspicious how the rumor started, to begin with, since only one Alpha Student was killed in the entire incident.
It was very likely that the whole thing was engineered by someone; possibly Elma.
'In fact, it's also very likely that she's the one who planted the [Beware The White Death] words after orchestrating Dahmer's death, since that would give her sufficient justifications to point to the Beta Class Dorms after her help was sought out by Seth.'
Indeed, Seth was the one who solved the original White Death murders, but it took several months for him to catch the killer, and it wasn't until a friend of his was killed by the serial killer.
'Elma probably expected Seth to bump into her in the cafe or something, and they would solve the White Death murders together. In fact, it'S due to this specific fact in the novel that I knew I would find her in the cafe.'
A lot of orchestrations had been put in place by her to ensure that she would be guiltless, while steering the hands of whoever approached her..
'I'm sure she even began to suspect me as a Transmigrator after I approached her, defeated her, and displayed charisma and intellect that far surpassed anything Ashfelt displayed in the novel.'
She wanted to observe him some more, so she agreed to their relationship and pulled her weight, making some intentional lapses so that he would fill in the blanks and show the extent of his intelligence.
Her tactic was incredibly smart—nearly flawless too.
In fact, she would have gotten away with practically all of her crimes too.
After all, Ash only had a few cherry-picked moments that fueled his suspicion, and he also had a motive to suspect another player which could have influenced his bias.
Ultimately, he had no definitive proof… until she slipped up in the most glaring way possible.
'She fled from the White Death despite knowing that it was merely a projection.' Ash smiled internally. 'Only those who have read the novels should be able to know the special ability of the White Death's projection.'
In essence, in that single moment—a scenario orchestrated by Ash—she revealed herself to be the culprit.
"I always found it suspicious how you were readily on board with the plan, showing almost no sign of hesitation or bias after I defeated you. It was almost like a polar switch that I couldn't fully understand." Ash chuckled as his eyes narrowed on the girl.
"Hmm… but you still haven't told me how I slipped up." Elma pouted rather cutely. "What did I do specifically? Was it my little joke in the classroom today? Or did you already suspect me at that point?"
Ash shook his head internally and laughed even more.
'She intentionally made that joke and glanced at me once she did because she wanted to see what kind of face I would make.'
Why?
Because Elma wanted to be sure that Ash felt certain that he had caught the White Death and there were no additional conspirators. With the intelligence that he had displayed, Elma was still unsure if he was on the lookout for any additional suspects.
However, Ash already noticed this and behaved in a manner that brought her relief. He also spoke about the White Death in the past tense and used conclusive words whenever they discussed it, so she thought it was well behind him.
Hence, this confrontation must have come as a real shock to her.
"When fighting the White Death, you loudly declared your name, and you also made sure to state out your intentions to fight against it, despite the projection not making any advances or malicious moves towards you." Ash spoke softly. "I found that a little suspicious."
He had no intention of letting her know all of his other thoughts and the other reasons he suspected her as the true mastermind.
This was all he was willing to say on the matter.
"Ahh… I see." Elma's smile grew even broader. "So you suspected me because Britta didn't attack me on sight?"
"Perhaps. It looked to me as if the White Death wanted to talk."
That added validity to his theory that the White Death and Elma were co-conspirators, with the former being an average Beta Class Dropout, and latter being the Transmigrator.
'Also, during my few moments talking with Britta… I got to know about how she looked up to Elma and how she had hoped to reach Alpha Class one day.'
It was why he specifically revealed his plans which involved him and Elma plotting, aggravating her to the point where she had to attack as a last stand.
And, sure enough, she attacked Elma—not him.
'It shows that Britta felt really betrayed by Elma working with me to catch her—using her as a scapegoat to evade suspicion herself.'
As for why Britta never gave up Elma during the interrogation, Ash remained unsure.
'It's why I wanted to see her one last time.' He sighed. 'Unfortunately, they killed her.'
Even without being certain, Ash could think of a few ways that Britta could be forced to remain silent: the most obvious one being a Soul Contract.
'It would be physically impossible for Britta to even reveal Elma's true identity, even if she wanted to.' Ash sighed. 'And the higher-ups held no suspicion regarding Britta working with another person because they were simply relieved that the White Death had been caught and Elma made sure to tie all loose ends so nothing concrete pointed in her direction.'
In essence, it was a perfectly clean case.
"You do know you have no concrete evidence that I'm who you're looking for, right?"
That was true: it was his word against hers.
'It's the second reason I decided to aim for Alpha Class… so I won't be in a disadvantageous position when dealing with her.'
Ultimately, though, he needed hard facts and logic to hand her over to the authorities.
But—
"Who said I ever had the intention of reporting you?"