Trial 3 - Albert

[Chatt]

The screen crackles to life with an image of the late king.

"Another one! You're moving along now. I wonder if one of my children have fallen yet?"

"Well, let's bring the killer to justice!"

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Use this thread to debate the murder of Alberto. Use the colored truth system please. Remember if you are not the murderer, no lying using purple.

[Arie Camillia]

"I believe we should begin by outlining what we do know about this case, as it was rather puzzling."

"Albert was found dead in the Prince 5 Servant Quarter closet. There was a sizeable pool of blood under him and he was suspended by a scarf. He had heavy bruising on the front of his neck, suggesting that he was asphyxiated by something prior to his death. There was also a gash on his neck, severing his jugular and presumably causing the pool of blood in the first place."

"Albert was not choked by the scarf. I believe the entire setup in the closet is supposed to be a red herring, and I'm sure most of us can agree with the notion. Albert's fingernails have the remnants of rough fibers which match perfectly with a load of towels that were running in the laundry. One such towel in the load was ripped into, meaning Albert was struggling against his assailant and clawed at the towel trying to free himself. Among that towel were others that were stained in blood. The laundry could have been started anywhere within the last hour of when we start the investigation, however, and I cannot accurately deduce when it was started. I presume the Laundry to be the last room the murderer entered prior to resuming their normal activities."

"As for what we don't know, we certainly don't have a great lead on the timeline of the murder. Having spoken with Prince Tubeppa, Albert was at least alive until he left her lab during the blackout, meaning that he was killed during the blackout. Notably, the blood under Albert's body was very old and starting to dry by the time we were investigating. This means that he was dead for a long time before the body announcement went off, and with how secluded the Servant Quarters are relative to the rest of the ship, it's likely only the murder and/or their accomplices were the only ones to see the body."

"The shards are also likely red herrings, but we cannot fully rule out the possibility that they were involved. As far as I could tell, there were three groups of shards: cheap, fancy, and glass. The cheap shards came from plates from the Deck 3 kitchen; the fancy shards came from dishes from the Deck 1 kitchen, and the glass shard came from a broken lamp from the Lounge. Notably, I found the lamp in the freezer of the Deck 1 kitchen during the investigation, attempting to find missing plates and more shards. Some of these shards were bloody, and some seem to be wiped of fingerprints; such wiped shards are the glass shard from the couch in the Prince 5 living room and the fancy shard from the Prince 5 bedroom mattress."

"I'd like to open the floor to whatever else others have found or deduced."

[King V]

"Hmm... hmm... you make a lot of sense, 'lady who's been doing well in the trials'... *coughcough*. But before we go any further, how do we propose the culprit entered prince 5's room in the first place? There were several traps installed at the front door, including sets of pots and pans which would make a loud noise if the door was opened, and a large barrier of salt spread on the ground. The salt had been disturbed, presumably by Ynes, since I saw Ynes completely covered in salt some time ago, but the culprit wouldn't have known about that... unless the culprit was Ynes."

"I also want to address the blackout, it seems like the norm nowadays that the culprit always kills during a blackout. But! I came prepared this time. I set up several cameras to monitor suspicious areas, all of which I turned on shortly after the blackout began... of course, I was missing a camera due to a certain someone interfering... but you can clearly see from the camera footage that nobody except me visited Electrical, the Theater, or the Staff Hallway on deck 2 during the blackout. I also remained in the Staff Hallway a while after the blackout to fix my camera there, so I can confirm personally that nobody else was there."

"As for who the culprit is... I'm leaning towards Ynes right now. He was the one who messed with prince Tubeppa's front door traps, so he has the most likelihood of entering Prince Tubeppa's room without getting caught immediately."

[Arie Camillia]

"You may refer to me as Jekyll. You pose a very important question, Otoshin. I apologize for overlooking it. I did notice the... rather numerous number of traps at the entrance to Prince Tubeppa's suite. Although, these traps seem to function more as alerts rather than to deter intruders."

"I'd like to ask, simply for confirmation, are your cameras equipped with nightvision, Otoshin?"

"I was also rather suspicious of Ynes. Whilst investigating the passageway from Prince Tubeppa's suite, she mentioned that both you and Ynes had used it, albeit a few days prior to the murder. This is the only thing I can think of for her entrance into the suite. Does this coincide with when you saw her covered in salt? The only reason I can conjure at the moment for her entering the suite would be to place the red herring shards preemptively, but I have no definitive timeline for when those were planted."

"All of this to say, unless Ynes was covered in salt again, either:

1. The salt barrier was not remade.
2. Ynes cleaned herself off while also running to wash the towels (which were rerun multiple times).
3. She never stepped foot in the suite since the time you saw her covered in salt that time."

"I am simply thinking aloud and offering thoughts to your contributions. It's also notable that there were no signs of struggle in the rooms surrounding and including where Albert's body was found, and I didn't find any evidence of drag marks, meaning that Albert was likely killed in the Prince 5 Servant Quarters. I'm unsure what Albert would've been doing in there, as I thought that he fancied himself a chef. I spoke with the Deck 1 Kitchen staff and they claim that they hadn't seen him recently, so he was probably in the Servant Quarters for a decent period of time before he was murdered."

[Xaniks]

"Surely you are teasing me, Private! My venture into the salt pile was only an attempt to rattle Her Royal Highness the Fifth Prince's guards to be alert as a kind gesture! I didn't go in further than the foyer, so with all due respect, Her Royal Highness must have been mistaken. Afterward, I was in the reception reading a poem for all of our enjoyment!"

"Perhaps you are trying to scope the details of my perfect alibi, aren't you?"

[Chatt]

Prince Tubeppa: "I'd like to give a correction to my testimony, Ynes did not use the passageway. I apologize I was conversing with Albert at the time so I missed how they exited the lab."

[King V]

"All of the cameras were taped to flashlights and they were all turned on during the blackout, this I can confirm."

"Hmmm... was there anyone nearby while you were fooling around with the salt barrier in front of Price Tubeppa's room, Ynes? This is what I wanted to confirm. If someone else was watching then they would have known about the traps at the doorway and would have come prepared. I think I saw quite a few people in the prince hallways at around the same time I saw Ynes covered in salt, including a certain knight, and a certain gatekeeper..."

"I also definitely think some of the shards were planted in the room preemptively, except for the one specifically used to stab Albert, but it's difficult to tell which shard made the wound. If we could tell which shard that was, perhaps we could narrow down the culprit's path a little bit, but right now I'm at a loss..."

[Xaniks]

"Nope! I wasn't with anyone at the time."

[Karenina]

"Someone... fell into the salt trap..? I did not see... such thing myself. However, the evidence does seem to show... that someone fell into the salt... So it seems it was... just Ynes and no one else..? I did not see any salt on Ynes... by the time we met either."

"Ynes... When were you... in the Reception... reading your poem..? One must leave records... being there after all, correct? Perhaps... this is a good place to start?"

[Xaniks]

"I read my poem during my first recorded activity in the reception logs, dear Ayane!"

[King V]

"Well that's odd, I could've sworn I saw 2 people around the hallway at about the same time... that aside, I've got a good idea of what's going on now."

"First of all, I don't think the shards are red herrings, not all of them anyway. It wouldn't make sense for the culprit to preemptively lay all of the shards around the room, when the possibility exists that one of prince 5's servants could find them and toss them away. But, there are two types of shards which I believe are red herrings, those are the fancy ceramic shards and the glass shards. Since the fancy shards are from plates in the deck 1 Kitchen, and the glass shards are from lamps in the deck 1 Lounge, the culprit could access both easily from deck 1, and wouldn't need to jump through any annoying hoops to acquire them and hide them around the room."

"However, to get the cheap ceramic shards, the culprit would need to run all the way down to deck 3. Thus, I believe the other 2 types of shards are red herrings to cover up the cheap ceramic shard that was used to stab Albert in the throat. There were also a lot of the cheap shards scattered around and not hidden like the others, probably because the culprit didn't have time to hide them. The culprit most likely went down to deck 3 at some point to grab a cheap ceramic plate. Since the cheap shards scattered around in the room don't form a complete plate, we can assume the culprit broke the plate somewhere else, and only kept several shards on hand. Also, due to the bloody and torn towels found in the laundry room, we can deduce the culprit had to go back down to deck 2 after they committed murder to dispose of the evidence."

"So what we are looking for is someone who has visited deck 3, and who would have gone down to deck 2 after the blackout. Now, I don't believe the culprit used the reception, seeing how several people seem to be there at all times and CCTV cameras have been installed in case of blackouts. I don't think the culprit would risk using a secret passage either, while the flashlight cameras I set up were pointed at the other end. But, there is an exception to that, which is prince 3's secret passage. I can confirm that Prince Tserriednich's room puzzle was only solved partway through the blackout, and Prince Benjamin's guards seem to be having a hard time with theirs. Prince Carmilla's and Prince Tubeppa's secret passages were being monitored by cameras... leaving only Prince Zhang Lei's guards who had an undeterred path from deck 1 to deck 2."

"Someone among Prince Zhang Lei's guards... who was in the hallway at around the same time Ynes tripped prince 5's door traps... and who would be able to come up with this incredibly convoluted murder plan... I can only think of one person who fits this description. The culprit... it must be you, Gat E. Keeper!"

[Satori]

"Interesting theory there although I would like to point out some things, First of all. The killer wouldn't nessesarily had to have witnessed Ynes messed up the salt trap to avoid it. It's been publically known since the 2nd trial that Prince 5's room was booby trapped so whether or not the killer knew about the salt trap or not prior to the murder, they still would have taken extra precautions while proceeding into the room. Secondly. Ynes messing up the salt trap seems too coincidental for me to ignore and definately makes her very suspicious so she very much possibly could have done this murder. In fact, given how convoluted and well planned this murder seems, I would go as far as to say that accomplices may be involved here. Therefore I would like to propose my own theory that Gate E Keeper and Ynes are the killers! It plays out much like Otoshin's theory except Ynes was probing Prince's 5's room defenses and intentially messed up the salt trap to clear the way for Gate E Keeper to enter the room unopposed to commit the murder! She then pretended to act dumb and claim it was an accident to distract from her role since we would think she wouldn't just openly admit to messing up the salt trap if she was an accomplice. It's also possible that Ynes could have helped gather up the shards for the murder and may have also helped disposed of the bloody towels in the laundry." Also if you claim they would have been caught by the cctv cameras, Who's to say that the murder wasn't already preplanned even prior to the 2nd trial and gathered up all the materials needed before the cameras were set up? And since the reception records reset each trial, there's no way to tell who went through the reception in the prior rounds unless someone actively kept a log of everyone who went through the reception."

"So Gate E Keeper and Ynes. What do you guys have to say for yourselves?"

[King V]

"Hmmm... that theory seems... off somehow. How should I put it...? Ynes and Gat don't seem like they would have any reason to work together, do they? It seems very strange to me that they would choose to work together, and would target Albert. Furthermore, most of this murder looks like it could've been carried out by a single person, there's no real need to involve an accomplice."

"The blood is also another problem with that theory. You could claim that certain objects were prepared beforehand, but any bloodstained objects would have had to be hidden after the victim was stabbed, otherwise there would be no blood to stain them with. Thus, the bloodstained shards found in prince 5's room and the bloodstained towel in the laundry room would have had to have been put there after the murder took place. Perhaps the culprit prepared the shards beforehand, and then took them out of their hiding spot when the time came...? Again, this runs into the same problem as before, the culprit would need some kind of guarantee that the hidden shards would not be found, otherwise they could be caught without a murder weapon."

"I will make an addendum to my theory, however, I don't believe Albert was attacked in prince 5's room. Since there is both a bruise wound and a stab wound on the victim's neck, I believe Albert was attacked after he had left the room. He was then knocked out in the hallway via strangulation and carried back inside to avoid suspicion, where the finishing blow was delivered by a shard stab. The culprit could have waited inside their prince's foyer to carry out the attack, and it would be difficult to spot them."

[Karenina]

"I too think... it is possible... that Albert was knocked out or killed from strangulation... somewhere else... Must be... somewhere else. Jekyll mentions herself... Albert's fingernails have the remnants of a towel from Laundry... Meaning there was a struggle between him and the culprit during strangulation... But... I could not find any signs of struggle or fighting in any of the Prince 5 rooms... Prince Tubeppa... also claims to have not heard anything... ever since Albert left."

"Ah. It did not... occur to me... to investigate the hallways in any way. How dull-witted of me... Did anyone else... check the Hallways..? For clues?"

[Xaniks]

"What a bold theory, Kaede! The Private gave some good reasons why it's unreasonable for me to be involved, but I'll say more to dispel all your suspicions! Before I went into the salty foyer, I visited some of His Royal Highness the Third Prince's entourage to play a harmless prank on them! Gat was one of them, and later I encountered him on the second deck. Before I could prank him again, he spilled moonshine in my eyes! Thankfully, I don't need glasses just yet. There is little reason for me to ever work with him after that!"

"As for your claim that I could have helped dispose of evidence: His Royal Highness the First Prince graciously agreed to accompany me since even before the day of the blackout!"