Confinement King-Novel

Chapter 329: Cryptic BBS

Two updates + two additional chapter…

Thanks yuu-oniichan & Oyashiro for the support…

In the morning after Jolanda and I had finished our punishment.

I revived Claudia, who had fainted with a shameful face covered with sweat, tears, drool, and semen, by giving her a little energy drink from the demon world.

Then, at the request of Jolanda, whose anger had not subsided at all, I made Claudia spread her labia with her fingers while spreading her legs in the shape of М, and let her tell me what happened yesterday.

「I-It’s really embarrassing…」

「Then, Master, we’ll go with plan B, “Change her name to Poop Claudia…”」

「Yay! I love M-shaped spread legs!」

It seems that Claudia didn’t want to be called that, so she gave a twitchy smile and raised her voice in desperation.

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Then, to summarize Claudia’s story about yesterday–

・Shiratori-san said something about Tachioka-kun’s sister.

・She followed Tachioka-kun’s sister because she was acting suspiciously.

・To hide her face, she wore Jolanda’s cap.

・When she was following Tachioka-kun’s sister, she came across the scene of the murder.

・The victim was Kobayashi-sensei, who was stabbed in the side with a knife.

・Next to him was Taka-chi, who had been beaten to a pulp.

・She gives her cap to hide Taka-chi’s battered face.

・The man who beat her up was Kobayashi-sensei.

・Taka-chi said she was being blackmailed.

・When she called the police and ambulance, Taka-chi told her to let her go away.

Every time the cap was mentioned, Jolanda’s brow would twitch and her body would jolt. And because of her pale skin pigmentation, even her blue streaks are clearly visible like 4K resolution.

「Well, well, Jolanda, I’ll ask Taka-chi to return the cap for you」

「…Please」

After appeasing Jolanda, I turn to Claudia again.

「So, where’s Kobayashi-sensei’s phone?」

「Can I stop doing the M spread while I take it out?」

「Sure」

I nod, and Claudia lets out a sigh of relief.

Then, she walks over to her undressed clothes, fumbles in her pocket and grabs the phone in its black case.

As I hold back Jolanda’s persistent harassment who says, “Then you’re Poop Claudia”, I pick it up and press the side button, which brings up the security lock screen.

The security lock screen is so-called “Pattern”, which is unlocked by touching four of the nine dots with a stroke.

When I’m not sure what to do, Claudia snatches the phone from my hand and says, “This isn’t security at all”.

「There’s still some oil on the screen」

She said, looking at the phone’s LCD from the side, and easily unlocked the security.

As I make up my mind to change the security lock method of my phone, I tap the photo app.

「Oh my… this is terrible」

「It’s terrible…」

Peeking at the screen from either side of me, the Detective JK sisters simultaneously scowled.

In the picture, Taka-chi’s face is a wreck. She is holding up a piece of paper with her name and address written on it, with her legs wide open, her chest covered with nosebleeds, and a half-crying face.

As I went through more images, more and more came up.

In addition to Shibata-san, there is another student who looks familiar. In addition, there are four other women of varying ages, all of whom I don’t recognize at all.

All of them are holding up a piece of paper with their names and addresses written on it, their faces swollen from the assault.

Seriously, it makes my face tense. It feels like blood is flowing back. I don’t think I’m qualified to say that, but I can’t allow it. That’s what I thought.

「Well, it’s called karma, isn’t it? It’s like he deserved to get stabbed. Maybe he’s already dead」

As Claudia cowered, I instructed Jolanda to “Call Ryoko”.

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Following Master’s instructions, I put on my suit for the first time in a long time, and stepped directly into the station through “The Door”.

The police are never closed. However, at five o’clock in the morning, there are no police officers to be seen in the hallway.

When I opened the door of the department, three people who had been looking at their laptops side by side looked up at me.

The one operating the PC is Kutaragi-kun, a young man who joined the department last year. Standing next to him are the Chief and Inomoto-senpai.

「Terashima! What’s wrong?」

The three of them looked surprised, but I pretended to be a little flustered and spoke.

「I heard that the victim of the harassment case was murdered, and I was wondering if it might have been Nakamura’s work…」

The Chief immediately frowned.

「Who’s the one who leaked the investigation information…」

「There is no one in the department who is informed of this, sir. But I’ve got a few informants myself… and one of them just happened to be among the onlookers」

「Anyway! You’re in the middle of hiding, but if you come here, you’ll end up being targeted by Nakamura!」

The Chief still the same as an instant water heater. He’s usually mild-mannered, but when he gets angry, his voltage rises quickly.

Inomoto-senpai, whose arm is hung from his neck with a plaster cast, appeases him with a wry smile.

「Well, sir, please consider Terashima’s feelings. I can understand how you feel when you hear that there has been a big change in the case you were in charge of, and you can’t stand still. It means you have a strong sense of responsibility」

「Inomoto… you’re really soft on Terashima, you know that?」

「Haha… sorry」

Inomoto-senpai said without a hint of embarrassment and turned his head towards me.

「Terashima, it looks like this has nothing to do with Nakamura. And just to correct your information, Kobayashi-shi is in critical condition, but not dead yet」

「No connection?」

「Yes, we’ve already secured the culprit」

「Secured? Is that so?」

「Yes, he’s in a parking lot about two kilometers from the scene. Seiji Aota, ex-boyfriend of the receptionist who was murdered the other day」

「What!?」

At this unexpected comment, I stiffened with my mouth hanging open.

「The ex-boyfriend… You mean, the one you said you couldn’t arrest because he had an alibi?」

「Yeah, that’s right. He’s still being interrogated, but he’s a tough guy with a lot of bluff. At this point, he’s confessed to almost everything. Now we just need to find out the rest」

Now that he had said that, I could imagine what had happened.

「You mean… Is it a contract Killing?」

「Yes. The receptionist was strangled with bare hands, though no fingerprints were found. According to the forensics, the killer was a big man, nearly two meters tall. From here, we’ll be able to identify anyone who fits the profile and is related to Kobayashi’s couple」

「So it wasn’t the work of the devil, huh?」

When I said this, the Chief spat out.

「I think it’s much more demonic than the devil. Kutaragi, show him that thing」

「Yes, sir」

The young Kutaragi-kun hurriedly tapped a key, and a website with green symbols on a black background appeared.

It seemed to be a BBS, but the displayed characters are not clear, as if they are corrupted.

「It seems to be a BBS where Aota exchanged information about a murder. I don’t know anything about this kind of thing, Kutaragi, please explain」

Kutaragi-kun took over the conversation with a bit of joy when Inomoto-senpai asked him to explain. I guess he is good at this kind of thing.

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「I think there’s a program distributed somewhere to make it readable, but it looks like the input text is displayed in a special font. I can read it this way, so I’ll use this for now…」

With that, he selected a certain area of the mysterious symbol and copied it. When he pastes it into a text editor, he changes the font to MS Gothic.

Then, miscellaneous exchanges in Japanese appeared in the text editor. The contents are various, and seem to be mostly about the sale of illegal drugs. I find a few cryptic words that I recognize.

「So, I will check back, but for now, in yesterday’s posts… there it is, I think」

As I looked at the monitor, Kutaragi-kun turned his head in panic, probably because my chest hit his shoulder.

What’s written on the monitor, after much complaining about the non-fulfillment of the contract, is an ultimatum: “if you don’t do it today, I’ll tell the police everything”.

The reason why he wrote “Sage(セージへ)” is probably to let us know that his identity is unknown.

Surprisingly, it even gives instructions on when to pass this point.

「How about the crime…?」

I looked up, and Inomoto-senpai nodded his head.

「The culprit has a very detailed knowledge of Kobayashi-shi’s activities. Besides, he’s a big man, nearly two meters tall」

Kutaragi-kun tilted his head suspiciously.

「Anyway, I wonder what it is. The word “Derau” that keeps popping up in the instructions…」

「…could be a code word for something, like grape… grape」

The Chief said gravely, putting his hand on his chin.