Not a detective

Page 79

The next second, Asakawa Riku slumped forward and lost consciousness.

...

Well--

I woke up in a daze.

I haven't felt this sleepy in a long time. Usually, I'm wide awake as soon as I open my eyes. I really miss this feeling.

Asakawa Riku felt that the pillow was exceptionally soft today, with a faint fragrance and a slight elasticity.

He didn't want to open his eyes yet because it was too comfortable, so he turned to his side.

But then a surprised voice was heard:

"Don't--"

Then his head was held down.

Riku Asakawa realized that he had bumped into a "soft" wall, which turned out to be his lower abdomen.

He was lying on Shinonome Suetsuki's lap. She seemed to be wearing a simple nightgown, the thin fabric of which was so light you could almost feel her skin, and it felt very comfortable.

"Just wake up."

She calmly laid Asakawa Riku's head back down and said, "You can sleep a little longer."

Asakawa Riku was filled with questions.

While he was curious about what had happened after he fell into a coma to lead to the current situation, he was even more surprised by this gentle detective.

The fingers bring a warm touch.

The difference in personality is so great that it's as if he's been possessed. I've never seen Shinonome Suetsuki talk like this before. Could it be that he has already arrived in the afterlife?

He lay back on his comfortable lap pillow and said to the detective in front of him:

"what happened?"

“You fainted… That guy named Ito was very flustered. He said he brought medical equipment and told me to lay you flat on the ground and wait a moment while he rushed back to treat you. I ignored his words and sent a message to Hoshino to find a trustworthy doctor. Then I took you all the way down the mountain back to the hotel room and conducted a preliminary examination here.”

"Is her name Ibuki?"

Asakawa Riku smiled. He was still the same detective as before.

"it does not matter."

Mo Yue curled her lip, seemingly uninterested: "The doctor examined your body. I was going to suggest that we drive you to a hospital in Kyoto or call an ambulance to pick you up, but the doctor told us that you were perfectly fine, your vital signs were stable, and there were no signs of danger. You were just—'just asleep'."

She hesitated for a moment, then mimicked the doctor's tone, lowering her voice to speak.

Asakawa Riku wasn't too surprised. He tilted his head, intending to stretch his neck, but unintentionally tickled her a little: "How long have I been asleep?"

"Don't move... Hmm, you can tell by looking at your watch."

Mo Yue pointed to the wall clock. This must be her room; the layout was just as luxurious, and the clocks were also very intricately designed.

But the hour and second hands are still visible. It's 10 p.m. now, and he's been unconscious for about 3 hours...

"It's taking longer than I expected." Asakawa Riku smiled wryly. "I was careless."

"Yes."

Mo Yue, with a slightly reproachful tone, grabbed his head and shook it:

"Didn't you notice? How could you drink that glass of wine?"

"That drink was poison."

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Bonus chapter for the treasure chest, another chapter in ten minutes.

Winter of the Demons: Chapter Twenty - Simple Techniques

"So, the culprit is Ibuki Ren, right?"

"Yes, it's Ito."

"Are you deliberately trying to create a certain persona...?"

Since they were discussing serious matters, Asakawa Riku said calmly, "I did consider the possibility of poisoning the drinks, but I didn't expect him to use such a simple method... Although he drank with me, only one of the drinks was poisoned. I thought that since I chose the first drink, it would be fine, but he played a trick."

He held out his hand, gesturing the shape of two glasses of wine, of course, avoiding the object currently casting a huge shadow overhead.

"The waiter who served the drinks must have been arranged by him. There should have been some kind of mark on the glasses that we couldn't see. The waiter stood to our side, with one glass of wine closer to him and another closer to me. When people take things from a plate, they will choose the one that is closer to them first. This is less a polite habit that is learned later in life and more like an innate instinct to be lazy. It is awkward to take the glass that is farther away and it is easy to knock it over. So I subconsciously chose the glass that was closer to me and unintentionally fell into their trap."

"In magic, this would be called 'forced choice.' It seems like I have a choice, but in reality, the other party has subtly disrupted the balance of probability between the two options."

"Even if I suddenly had the idea to take the glass of wine that was far away, Ibuki Ren could easily break it by accident. Anyway, he would never drink the poison."

"Although there is an element of luck involved, upon closer examination, the success rate is already quite high."

In retrospect, Asakawa Riku easily saw through the opponent's method, which was not particularly clever; in fact, it was rather rudimentary.

Especially when it comes to assassination, poisoning someone in front of their face is far too blatant.

Mo Yue mocked mercilessly: "Now you're analyzing things so logically, but back then you drank that glass of wine without hesitation?"

Asakawa Riku smiled wryly: "I thought... people with such high IQs wouldn't bother with such petty tricks."

He was indeed a bit careless.

It's just not in this aspect.

When he drank that glass of wine, he saw the panic in Dongyun Sueyue's eyes, and in that instant he realized that he had fallen into a trap.

If the correct course of action was to lie down immediately and induce vomiting, given his ability to mobilize his muscles, he should have been able to vomit out all the venom in time.

But Asakawa Riku didn't do that... He actually knew this, yet he still swallowed it.

This is for a reason.

Asakawa Riku's body has a certain degree of [poison resistance].

Of course, he hasn't reached the legendary level of being "immune to all poisons." He still has to endure the physical and biochemical effects of chemical substances on his body. He hasn't violated any basic laws. It's just that after training, his detoxification and recovery speed is faster than that of normal people, which can also be seen in the healing of ordinary wounds.

Most of the world's poisons cannot kill him, including natural poisons from plants and animals, as well as man-made toxic substances.

Ordinary poisons would only cause him to become dizzy and unbalanced, stagger, lose the ability to move and speak, feel nauseous and vomit, and have a persistent headache, which would last for several hours.

Simply put, it's like the symptoms of "drunkenness." For him, poisoning is equivalent to being drunk.

This was a physique he had specially trained for. The reason was simple: he was afraid of dying. I won't go into the details of the special training methods, which he was afraid others would imitate, but in short, he had the ability to withstand poison.

—You need to eat both poison and nutrients to be considered healthy.

Therefore, Asakawa Riku dared to drink that cup of wine without any hesitation.

Anyway, at worst, just pretend you're drunk. If the other person sees this and isn't poisoned, they'll probably be scared away, which will intimidate them.

He never expected to make a fool of himself...

To completely knock him out for three hours, rendering him unconscious and limp, must be one of the world's most potent poisons; a normal person would have died on the spot.

To go this far, it seems the other party is serious. By the way, it's not surprising that the other party is a scientist specializing in chemistry and biology, so it's not unusual for them to obtain some contraband.

"Seriously, are you alright?"

Sueyue, unaware of what Asakawa Riku was thinking, asked, "I've asked Hoshino to contact a hospital in Kyoto. After you come down the mountain, you should get a full checkup."

It's amazing to see the detective's caring side, and to even get to sleep on her lap as a pillow. I have to say, it feels pretty worthwhile.

Asakawa Riku smiled and said, "It's alright, I've fully recovered."

He wasn't lying. Even the most potent poison could only keep him intoxicated for three hours at most. Beyond "drunkenness" it would be "anesthesia," and that was the limit.

After detoxification and self-purification during sleep, his body has now fully recovered and will not have any aftereffects.

This isn't the end. After this tempering, his [poison resistance] will be further enhanced, and his tolerance to the same type of toxin will be greatly improved.

Moreover, his overall tolerance will be comprehensively improved, and in the future, it will probably take something of a higher level to make him fall into a coma.

"What I want to know is, why did Ibuki Ren do this?"

Now that he had said he was fine, he couldn't just continue lying on the other person's lap, so he slowly sat up.

He pretended not to be reluctant to leave, and instead got down to business in a serious tone: "In other words, what was the criminal's motive?"

Since this guy is going to mispronounce my name sooner or later anyway, I might as well just call him "prisoner".

"Hmm... I don't know either. The criminal left the scene immediately after you collapsed. I was taking care of you at the time and didn't think to call someone to chase after him. As a result, he disappeared and there is no trace of him now. Maybe he hid out of fear of punishment, or maybe he escaped from this mountain. As for his motive, I guess only he himself would know."

Yes, the biggest question in this case is not actually the method, because the method was actually very simple, and both of them saw it at the time.

However, even the detective couldn't figure out the motive.

"First, the most intuitive thought is that he was angered and resentful after you rejected his engagement, and that love turned to hate, so he wanted to kill you."

“But your rejection of the engagement happened just now at the banquet. Before that, even your prophecy didn’t know that such a farce would happen, so naturally he couldn’t have known either.”

"Such a highly toxic drug couldn't be carried around all the time, nor could it be made out of thin air. Even the waiter and the two wine glasses must have been pre-ordered. This shows that the culprit had a well-thought-out plan. He wanted to kill you before the banquet even started. This was definitely not an impulsive killing in a fit of anger, but premeditated."

"Secondly, it could be a dispute over the inheritance. But as everyone knows, inheritances are not given to the dead. If you die before that old man, you cannot inherit the estate."

"At the same time, he didn't marry you and he's not a member of the Dongyun family. Even if he kills you, he won't get a penny out of it."

"So, neither of these possibilities applies... I really can't figure out what this guy's motive is?"

Winter of the Demons: Chapter Twenty-One - The Perfect Crime

The two thought about it in silence for a while, but came to no conclusion.

Ibuki Ren's motive for the crime remains shrouded in mystery; no one knows why he suddenly decided to poison Shinonome Suetsuki.

Moreover, he used such a simple and crude method, poisoning someone in front of them. A simple autopsy would quickly reveal the composition of the poison, making him the prime suspect.

After all, there were several eyewitnesses, not to mention in full view of everyone, who saw Asakawa Riku drink with him before fainting and collapsing.

The most likely person to have poisoned her is Ibuki Ren. Even if the police are incompetent, they can still come to this conclusion.

Isn't he afraid of getting caught with such a bold approach?

It's really incomprehensible. If Asakawa Riku hadn't blocked that drink for the detective, Ibuki Ren would already be handcuffed and arrested.

"Perhaps, as you said, the only way to get the answers to these questions is to ask him himself."

Asakawa Riku clenched his fists. He was still a little groggy from the hangover when he first woke up, but now he could feel his strength returning to his body: "I won't let him get away with this."

That's natural, after all, that guy almost poisoned Shinonome Suetsuki to death, and in fact, he also gave Asakawa Riku a lethal dose of poison.

Although he was fine in the end and might not be able to be convicted, Asakawa Riku was determined to settle accounts with Ibuki Ren.

"My request was simply for you to protect me, and that's already done."

Suezuki looked at him: "If you go to find Ito, it will not only be dangerous, but you will also get no reward. Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Now it's my turn to do my own work."

Asakawa Riku answered without the slightest hesitation.

Having "murderous intent" makes one an "evil person," and eliminating evil completely is his principle. He cannot ignore potential threats, otherwise, even greater sins will inevitably arise sooner or later.

That poison was very dangerous... At the time, Asakawa Riku was only thinking about showing off in front of the detective, but now he is terrified.

During those three hours of unconsciousness, he was completely at the mercy of others, unable to resist anything that happened.

Dongyun Sueyue spoke lightly, but it was the dead of winter. She was wearing such a thin dress and uncomfortable high heels. It's hard to imagine how she managed to protect him amidst the chaos and anxiety, even arranging for Xingyu to find a doctor, handling everything, and finally bringing him back to the hotel.

It's still quite reliable.

Thinking of this, Asakawa Riku looked at her earnestly and said, "Thank you... for protecting me for three hours. I should have been the one protecting you. I'm truly ashamed."

"I should be thanking you. If you hadn't stopped me from drinking that glass of wine, I might be the one lying on the ground."

Under the dim reading light, the atmosphere in the room was too ambiguous, and even Shinonome Suetsuki, quite unusually, started speaking in human language.

But the next second, her expression suddenly turned strange, as if she realized what she had heard...

"Wait... three hours."

“It’s definitely three hours.” Asakawa Riku said in confusion, glancing up at the wall clock. “To be precise, it’s three hours and twelve minutes, about right.”

They broke up around 7 p.m., left the banquet hall, and started drinking around the same time.