Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 8: The Unraveling Mist

Royal Master Academy.

In Levi’s world, this would be more like a public school that combined high school and university, funded and governed by the royal family, with no tuition or related expenses.

However, in return for such privileges, only the future elite talents of the nation—regardless of social status—could qualify to study here, provided they possessed genuine ability.

Of course, as the price for receiving royal assistance, graduates were required to work for the royal family, with no freedom to choose otherwise———which was perfectly normal.

Standing at the gates of the Royal Master Academy, Levi savored a rare taste of youth.

The atmosphere here felt much like a university—the kind of vibrant energy that young people carried.

It was wonderful.

Only that……………

Levi silently looked at the girl beside him.

She was none other than the “boss” from last night, the one who had worn a mask and cloak.

Now her outfit was far more normal—just a relatively plain coat, and a baseball cap with her hair tucked underneath, the brim pressed low.

She looked just like an inexperienced young student, blending into the school crowd without raising suspicion.

Levi had originally not wanted her to come.

But she insisted, and he didn’t want to create unnecessary trouble, so he simply agreed to bring her along for the investigation.

“What are we going to do now?”

The girl’s voice was deliberately lowered, yet it brimmed with excitement.

Hm, hopefully she wouldn’t get in the way.

“Hold this.”

Levi handed her his briefcase, signaling for her to take it.

“Stand right behind me, don’t say anything, just follow my lead, understand?”

“…………………Alright.”

Her tone was clearly reluctant, but after glancing at Levi, she obediently nodded.

Hopefully she would really behave.

Levi gave her a quick glance but said nothing more.

Most of the time, whenever he made a request, girls tended to comply.

Of course, there were also those who, for reasons he could never quite understand, insisted on doing things he hadn’t asked for, often on the verge of tears, saying, “I’m doing this for you…”

Ah, just thinking about it made Levi feel tired.

Forget it, better deal with the matter at hand first.

Levi shook his head, then looked toward the academy gates.

Seeing a group of female students approaching, he smiled slightly and stepped forward.

“Excuse me, sorry to bother you. I have something I’d like to ask…”

It didn’t take long for Levi to find “Emelia’s boyfriend.”

The reason was simple: an elite school like this never had many students to begin with.

And from experience, whenever Levi asked for help, even if someone couldn’t assist him directly, they would often enthusiastically introduce him to someone who could.

Just like now—Levi had asked some students at the gate, who then warmly led him to a senior in the second year.

That senior, in turn, kindly called over “Emelia’s boyfriend.”

“May I help you with something?”

Sitting across from Levi was a young man with an ordinary face, wearing thick-rimmed glasses, looking rather unremarkable.

The look he gave Levi held little friendliness and more than a trace of wariness.

“Hello, Mr. Edwards, sorry to disturb you.”

Levi smiled and gave him a polite nod.

“Actually, I’m an investigator from Atlantic Insurance Company…”

“Insurance company?”

“Yes, Miss Emelia had purchased an accidental death policy from us.”

Levi casually spun a lie—no one could expose him anyway.

“Unfortunately, she passed away so soon…”

“So, what do you want from me?”

The young man frowned, his face showing impatience, while Levi fixed his gaze on him.

“Because she listed you as her emergency contact on the policy.”

“Huh? Me?”

“Yes, which is why I’ve come to investigate… regarding Miss Emelia’s accidental death, how much do you know?”

“I don’t know anything!”

The man stood up, staring at Levi in astonishment.

“I had no idea she even did this… honestly, I know nothing about it!”

“If that’s your final answer, then there’s no problem.”

Levi closed his notebook, adopting an official, businesslike demeanor.

He noticed the young man’s hands gripping the edges of his coat tightly, his eyes wide, a flicker of fear in them.

But he still insisted firmly that he had nothing to do with the matter.

“But we suspect this might involve insurance fraud…”

“Huh?”

“I hope you can stand by your testimony in court.”

With that, Levi turned around, gesturing for the girl to follow him away.

One step, two steps, three steps.

“………………………”

Four steps, five steps, six steps…

“W–wait.”

Levi stopped and turned to look at the pale-faced young man, smiling faintly.

“Is there something else?”

“I… I mean…”

The young man now looked completely deflated, like an eggplant struck by frost.

Levi wasn’t surprised.

Royal Master Academy students had high social standing, and they cherished their reputations.

They would absolutely avoid any connection to court cases.

What Levi had just said was only to bluff him and apply pressure.

After all, if a Royal Master Academy student were accused of insurance fraud and taken to court—true or not—their days at the school would be numbered.

“That was truly an accident.”

Having made up his mind, the young man quickly began telling Levi the truth.

“I had already warned her it was risky, but Emelia… she…”

“Please start from the beginning.”

Levi tapped his notebook, keeping up his professional demeanor.

This made the young man even more nervous, but he began explaining.

“O–our research group is currently developing a new type of steam-powered surgical device. You see, in the past, surgeries required several people to work together. We are trying to create a fully automated operating table powered by steam, one that works alongside the doctor to perform surgery. That way, a single doctor could conduct a full operation with the help of these mechanical components…”

Good grief, you people really dare to dream!

Hearing the young man’s answer, Levi remained outwardly calm, but inside, waves of shock crashed through him.

Even in the age of artificial intelligence, no one had dared to create something like this.

These people in this era were playing a very dangerous game.

“………But there’s a problem. We built the device, but it needs to be tested. Live tests are illegal, and the risks are high…”

The young man swallowed hard before continuing.

“I just happened to mention this problem to Emelia in frustration, and she told me she could help with the experiments.”

“Oh?”

“She—she said… her father was a doctor, and he often performed surgeries for poor people. So she wanted to test the new device there. She said those poor people didn’t have much money, so if something went wrong, it wouldn’t cause too much trouble…”

“…………………”

“O–of course I thought this was wrong!”

Seeing Levi’s gaze fixed on him, the young man hurriedly waved his hands.

“But she promised she would only use the device for simple surgeries! Nothing that would endanger anyone’s life! That’s what she told me! We only helped her install the thing. We never used it ourselves! I swear!”

“Doctor Doolittle claimed she died in an accident.”

Levi’s gaze turned cold as he stared at the young man, fully playing the part of a cold, heartless capitalist lackey.

“Is that true? Or did you collude to falsify it?”

“I—I really didn’t!”

The young man shouted again, waving his hands frantically.

“Believe me, when I arrived, Emelia was already dead…!”

“Oh?”

“………………………”

Realizing he had said too much, the young man clamped his mouth shut.

But Levi simply kept staring at him at an unhurried pace.

“I’d like you to explain yourself, sir. Otherwise… why don’t you explain to the police instead?”

“No—I’ll talk! I’ll talk…!”

Half-grown students were the easiest to scare and manipulate.

This kind of insurance-claim-fraud bluff worked best on naïve, inexperienced university students who hadn’t yet stepped into society.

All the more so at Royal Master Academy, a first-rate school in this country—being summoned by the police, or worse, ending up in court, would be no small scandal.

From this bespectacled man’s behavior, Levi judged that he would never want to be at the center of such headlines.

Even though they had only spoken for a few minutes, Levi had already figured him out—smart, but inflexible, bookish, knowledgeable in theory but clueless about the real world.

From his clothes, he seemed to come from a family with some money, but far from wealthy—a typical middle-lower class student.

Well-behaved, honest, obedient, the kind who could be tricked into counting money for the scammer.

And very soft—just a little scare and he lost his composure entirely.

Good thing this world didn’t have phone scams yet, or this one would’ve been cleaned out to the last penny.

“So what exactly happened? I expect you to tell me clearly what happened at the time, so I can determine whether you were involved.”

“O–of course… let me think…”

The young man’s face was ashen.

He frowned, thinking for a moment.

“That was… about half a year ago. I lent the device to Emelia, and she reported the data to me once a week. For the most part, things went smoothly. She also kept to her word, only performing small, localized surgeries on patients. But later, she decided that wasn’t enough—she couldn’t showcase the machine’s full potential that way. So she wanted to perform…”

“A proper surgery.”

Levi prompted, searching his mind for related knowledge.

“But you were just students. You didn’t have a practicing doctor’s license, did you?”

“…………………”

“If you don’t want to explain to me, then you can explain to the police.”

“I—I’ll tell you…!”

When Levi made to leave again, the young man looked like he was about to drop to his knees and cling to him.

“I said the same thing back then—those simple stitches, disinfection, and sutures, that was fine because her father was a doctor, so helping him was no problem. But acting as the lead surgeon was a different matter. Of course I opposed it, but she insisted this was the only way to truly demonstrate the machine’s value… If even a student like her could perform an operation independently with the machine’s assistance, it would prove the worth of our invention!”

Ah yes—pure, foolish university students.

Levi rolled his eyes inwardly.

Back in the day, he’d been like that too… though never quite this extreme.

“And then?”

“I—I thought it wouldn’t work… and even if it had to be done, I thought a licensed doctor should do it. But… she wanted to do it herself. She was one of the top students at the academy, and she really was outstanding in this field… she was also highly skilled in human anatomy and dissection…”

“Go on.”

“Later, we had an argument. But the next day, I still felt uneasy, so I decided to check on her. I went down to the operating room beneath the clinic… and then—then I walked in and saw…”

Recalling the scene, the young man’s face turned deathly pale.

“Oh, Lord above, it was horrible! I saw Emelia lying by the operating table, her whole body covered in blood, surgical knives sticking out of her body. Doctor Doolittle was screaming while pulling those instruments out of her. When he saw me, he shouted for me to shut the damned machine off. I was frozen in shock, like a statue…”

“So, you’re saying… you didn’t know what had happened, or what Emelia was doing?”

“Y–yes… I think she was probably operating on a patient, because I saw someone lying on the operating table at the time…”

“Male or female?”

“P–probably female…”

“And then?”

“I shut the machine down and took Emelia down from the table, but by then she had already… God…”

At this point, the young man covered his face with his hands, fingers digging deep into his messy, nest-like curls, looking utterly pitiful.

But Levi remained unmoved—at least outwardly.

“What do you think caused the accident?”

“T–that… I’m not sure. Maybe there was a problem with the machine’s calibration, or maybe it was just an accident…”

“And the patient?”

“I—I think she died too… I was frozen with fear. After shutting off the machine, I just stood there watching Doctor Doolittle try to save Emelia… but it was useless. When I finally came to my senses, Doctor Doolittle—his face covered in blood—told me not to tell anyone about this, not to go to the police. Because we had been practicing medicine illegally, and if this got out, we’d all go to prison…”

“So, in other words, Miss Emelia died in an accident due to her own mistake while performing an illegal act. Mm, thank you, sir. Your testimony is very useful—in this situation, the insurance company will not make any payout.”

Levi played the role of a cold-blooded capitalist vampire perfectly, writing the final stroke in his notebook.

“Sign here.”

“I… this… alright.”

The bespectacled man hesitated for a moment, then picked up the pen and signed his name at the end of the record.

Although reluctant, if it meant avoiding further trouble, then admitting fault was the lesser evil.

“One last question.”

“What question?”

“From what you’ve described, that device must have been quite large.”

As Levi spoke, he recalled the narrow wooden door of the pharmacy.

He didn’t know what operating tables were like in this era, but he did remember that in his own world, they certainly weren’t the kind of folding, collapsible lawn chairs you could just carry around.

“How was it brought inside? Were there any witnesses?”

“I—I don’t think so. Because we brought it in through the sewer…”

“The sewer?”

“Yes, Doctor Doolittle’s underground operating room is connected to the sewer.

We transported the device by small boat through the sewer, then carried it into the underground operating room for assembly…”

“The location?”

“The outlet of the Fifth Canal in the Lower City.”

“………………”

“May I… go now?”

“Please.”

With Levi’s permission, the bespectacled man almost fled in his hurry to leave.

Levi watched his back and sank into thought.

The sewer.

He remembered that the footprints he had once tracked had vanished at the riverside.

He recalled that foul-smelling, garbage-filled waterway.

Then he looked down at his own crisp, clean suit and sighed silently.

“You lied.”

Once they left the school gates, the girl fixed her gaze on Levi and spoke with a serious tone.

“You’re not an insurance agent at all.”

“Of course.”

“But isn’t that illegal?”

“If I defrauded him of his money, that would be illegal.”

Levi spread his hands, smiling slightly at her.

“But I only hid my identity and asked him a few questions. As long as he doesn’t have to testify in court, there’s no problem.”

“That’s pure sophistry!”

I won’t deny it.

Levi didn’t respond—just smiled to brush it off.

Luckily, the girl soon changed the subject.

“So, you think Doctor Doolittle is the killer?”

“What do you think?”

“I’m not sure. I’ve never been to his clinic.”

The girl shook her head.

“But I’ve heard many people talk about him. He’s willing to treat patients for free or for a very small fee—he’s a good man.

I don’t think it’s him. Besides, he has no reason to kill anyone, right? His daughter’s death shouldn’t have anything to do with those courtesans.”

“Indeed, it doesn’t.”

Levi nodded.

Emelia’s death had been an accident, a coincidence, and had nothing to do with the courtesans.

Even if, for the sake of argument, the patient Emelia had intended to operate on was a courtesan, Doctor Doolittle could have taken revenge on the spot if he had any grudge.

There was no reason for him to keep killing again and again.

“But it’s not entirely unrelated.”

“How so?”

“I once tracked the killer, and their footprints disappeared at the riverside.”

Levi explained to the girl.

“And according to this young man’s testimony, Doctor Doolittle’s underground chamber is connected to the sewer, with its outlet right where the killer vanished.

So, it’s quite possible the killer escaped into Doctor Doolittle’s underground chamber through the sewer… at least, there’s that possibility.”

“But… why would Doctor Doolittle do that?”

Her voice was filled with disbelief.

“Perhaps when we catch him, we can ask him directly.”

Levi glanced again at his notes and sighed helplessly.

This didn’t feel like detective work at all.