Trial 3 - Albert

[Arie Camillia]

"Hmmm... this is all good discussion. I neglected to think about Albert being carried, however, I would think that that would be quite a difficult feat. Again, there were no drag marks as far as my investigation yielded, which could either mean Albert was killed in the suite or, as Otoshin says, was carried into the suite."

"I pose the question: with how heavy a human body is, how likely is it that the assailant was able to knock out Albert by strangling him with the towel and carry him into the suite without being noticed? Unless we wish to look through the reception logs once again, I imagine that there was more than one individual walking the halls during the blackout on Deck 1. If the assailant was carrying in Albert's unconscious body, they would likely have to drop their towel and any other prepared materials in the hallway before coming back to retrieve them. I'm sure if someone came upon a ripped up towel just outside a door it would prompt suspicion, no?"

"Of course, unless the assailant had more room to carry items? Just food for thought." 

[King V]

"Good point yet again, 'lady who's been doing well in the trials' *coughcough* *CoughCoughCough*"

"Still... I just can't imagine anyone specifically targeting Albert, going through all the trouble of getting past the various traps at the front door, doing such elaborate setup with all the hidden shards, all with the possibility that Albert wasn't even in the room to begin with."

"I did sense that there was some strange hostility towards Albert in the last trial. Albert received many more votes than I anticipated... I mean, I know I was the one pushing a theory against Albert, but I didn't think it was that believable, seeing how none of the princes voted the same way."

"I know! Let's reveal who we voted for in the last trial. Maybe that'll get us some idea of where all of the strange hostility came from. I'll go first. Of course, as the one pushing for the theory, I voted against Albert in the last trial."

[Xaniks]

"Following His Royal Highness the First Prince's example, I voted for no one!"

[Arie Camillia]

"I don't mind revealing whom I voted for: I only voted for 01."

"I don't think this will get us far, though. If this information is being used to narrow down a list of suspects that may have carried animosity towards Albert, who's to say that they will also claim they only voted 01? We only really know the count of how many voted for him. Additionally, people may have only voted for him because they saw it as an opportunity to remove two players instead of one from the game, it was likely thus a tactical vote rather than one born from hostility."

"Is it possible for us to assemble a list of everyone that was on Deck 1 during the blackout?"

[Karenina]

"I too have... voted for Albert alongside the culprit... At the time, it seemed... Optimal. Considering everything..."

[Xaniks]

"I attest that His Royal Highness the First Prince, Hu Tao, and myself were present on the first deck during the blackout! While we wait for Sir Keeper to make his defense, shall we discuss other avenues? We ought to cover all bases before deliberation!"

"May I ask of Her Royal Highness the Second Prince's guards? Your abilities draw suspicion by nature, though I do not mean to accuse you of anything! Speaking of your whereabouts will most definitely reassure this court! When I went about the ship in the days before the blackout, I came across members of other Princes' retinues, but I do not recall encountering either of you."

[Daiwa Scarlet]

"I abstained from voting during the previous trial."

"During the investigation, I found that Albert was holding a cheap ceramic shard. We recognized it as similar to those in the hallway of the guest cabins, which had been there for a few days (29th 2:09 pm pst). There was plastic between a chunk of ceramic. The plastic was stringy like it had been melted. This was all bundled in the towel. About half an hour prior, I discovered ceramic shards and blood smudges in the staff storage of deck 2. During investigation, we found that a bloody towel holding a fancy shard. It was inside a bin and seemed to go with the shards laying out in the open. Under a mattress of the 5th servant's quarters was a bloody fancy shard. In the 5th kitchen, there are four plain ceramic pieces on the floor that don't match together. Fancy plates had been missing from the kitchen on deck 1. Plain plates had been missing from the deck 3 kitchen, which Jekyll seemed to have rebuilt from the shards. When attempting to piece together the fancy shards, we found that there were pieces missing and that the one from the mattress didn't match the others. The laundry room had two towels that appeared to have had dried blood on them at some point, but had gone through multiple cycles."

[King V]

"I'm aware there are some flaws in counting the votes, I just want to... how do the kids say...? Feel the vibes."

"It would be all well and good if this murder was an opportunistic one like the others, but I just can't see the culprit setting up all of those red herrings, then risking everything on getting past the trap in front of prince 5's room. Of course, Albert could have been attacked as he left the room and moved into the servant quarters, but as 'the lady who's been doing well in the trials' pointed out, there are some problems with this too."

"That being said, the vibes... are telling me there's something up with this murder. Perhaps... the culprit had some kind of motive for targeting Prince Tubeppa or Albert specifically? Anyway, let's hear some more votes, let's see the whole picture!"

[Satori]

"I will admit that I have also voted Albert during the last trial simply because Lady Carmilla voted for them as well."

"As for my whereabouts during the blackout. I went to Deck 2 shortly before the blackout and then I briefly saw Ynes and Gate E in the Guest Commons though I didn't pay much mind to them and then headed into the Shop and then hid behind the counter. Then sometime later I saw Jekyll in the shop so I came out from my hiding place, waved at her and then just left and then I headed back to Carmilla's room where Carmilla, Junko (KoD) and for some reason, Ynes was also there too and then we all just spent the rest of the day watching movies in the Theatre which we accessed using our passageway."

[King V]

"Wait a minute... Hu Tao, what was that about a melted piece of plastic? Th-that wouldn't happen to be my missing camera, would it...? D-did you check if there were any wires, or electronics, or glass mixed in with the plastic? Th-this is very important, s-somehow the camera I set up still hasn't been found, I need to know where it went!"

"Also... I did mention I have camera footage showing I was in the staff hallway near the end of the blackout, but Odelia and I went up to deck 1 briefly in the middle of the blackout to... add a few items to Prince Tserriednich's collection. That is to say, uh, Odelia found the items and presented them to Prince Tserriednich. I just tagged along, hahaha..."

[Arie Camillia]

May 16, 2023 12:35:12 GMT -8 Daiwa Scarlet said:

"I abstained from voting during the previous trial."

"During the investigation, I found that Albert was holding a cheap ceramic shard. We recognized it as similar to those in the hallway of the guest cabins, which had been there for a few days (29th 2:09 pm pst). There was plastic between a chunk of ceramic. The plastic was stringy like it had been melted. This was all bundled in the towel. About half an hour prior, I discovered ceramic shards and blood smudges in the staff storage of deck 2. During investigation, we found that a bloody towel holding a fancy shard. It was inside a bin and seemed to go with the shards laying out in the open. Under a mattress of the 5th servant's quarters was a bloody fancy shard. In the 5th kitchen, there are four plain ceramic pieces on the floor that don't match together. Fancy plates had been missing from the kitchen on deck 1. Plain plates had been missing from the deck 3 kitchen, which Jekyll seemed to have rebuilt from the shards. When attempting to piece together the fancy shards, we found that there were pieces missing and that the one from the mattress didn't match the others. The laundry room had two towels that appeared to have had dried blood on them at some point, but had gone through multiple cycles."

"Hmm... the more I think on this, the more it seems to confuse the mind. How about I raise a few questions that may direct our discussion:"

1. Otoshin raises a rather important question which may help in narrowing down our list of suspects. Why would the killer go through the effort of hiding away so many pieces of ceramic and glass? We know each of these original items places of origin: the Deck 1 and Deck 3 Kitchens, and the Lounge on Deck 1, accounting for the fancy ceramic, cheap ceramic, and glass shards, respectively. Additionally, as Otoshin says, we know all three of these items had to have been broken prior to the murder, at least to try and simplify things for now. This is because all three types of shards were found in the Prince 5 suite either hidden or planted on Albert's corpse. Interestingly, Hu Tao mentions that one of the shards, namely the one from the mattress, does not match the other fancy ceramics, which implies that another item was taken and broken. Nonetheless, I will continue with the assumption that all three of these items were broken and the shards were either hidden or kept on the killer's person until needed."
   
   "Unless we have a witness account or some camera footage from Otoshin showing someone transporting an abundance of plates from one location, it will be difficult to pin down a definite route, given the length of time that had passed between Albert's death and the discovery announcement."
   
   
2. Additionally, because this seems to be a premeditated murder rather than an opportunistic one, it's fairly obvious that the killer is framing Hu Tao for the crime. Without trying to overcomplicate, it would be dubious as to why, if Hu Tao, were the killer, she would use her own scarf to tie up the body, in their own Prince's suite, with red herrings littered around. I would also like to attest that I spent much of that weekend with Hu Tao in the library attempting to solve puzzles. That is... unless she snuck away for an indeterminate amount of time to not only wait for Albert but also choke him out, carry his body to the Servant Quarter closet, and set up his body. However, this is incredibly overcomplicated and makes too many assumptions for me to bet money on."

       "I think it would then be fair to look at suspects that, like Otoshin said, bear hostility to Albert. Who does this leave us with?"

May 13, 2023 15:59:15 GMT -8 King V said:

"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."

"While we stew on that, I would like to ask Otoshin, what was your reasoning behind your camera placements, and where was your missing camera originally placed? Additionally, if nobody except you visited Electrical during the blackout, would this not also entail that you were responsible for turning off the lights? Being Prince Tserriednich's guard, you are also capable of holding more items than the rest of us, making it possible for you to hold onto all of your tools and red herrings if you found an unlucky straggler on Deck 1 during the blackout."

"Does Odelia have confirmation that she was with you the entire time you were on Deck 1 or were you unaccounted for for a brief period of time?"

[King V]

"That's the puzzling thing.... My missing camera was originally placed in the staff hallway, to monitor prince 5's secret passage in the staff storage, and the elevator up to the deck 1 kitchen at the same time. Two birds with one stone, if you will. But when I went to check on the camera right before the blackout, it was missing. I only placed the cameras in case there was another blackout, the reception not being equipped with CCTV cameras during the last blackout really bothered me, so I thought I would set up some cameras of my own to deter people from moving around suspiciously in the darkness."

"As for the blackout itself... the only thing I can say is someone must really like leaving messages that only appear in total darkness scattered throughout the ship. In my quest to track down these messages, the lights may or may not have been turned off a few times..."

"I'm sure Odelia can account for me throughout my entire time visiting deck 1 during the blackout, we were never apart for more than a minute or two. And I'm also fairly sure that I left deck 1 before the time 'near the end of the blackout' where we're placing Albert's time of death. Of course, there are several reception logs indicating myself and Odelia passing through at the time of the blackout. I pass through the reception like a normal person instead of using a hidden passage to access the theater... like some degenerates here."

[Daiwa Scarlet]

"I'm afraid I was unable to tell what kind of plastic it was aside from the stringiness of it being melted."

"I would have to suspect Prince Carmilla and her guards, as Otoshin's musings during the prior trial could have incited them to act thusly. Would they care to explain what they have been up to for the last few days?"

[Xaniks]

"Sorry, I didn't catch that last bit, Private! Can you repeat that? Actually, I have something else to ask you! What did you get for solving your brainy mystery? Another secret passage?"

[King V]

"Wh-what? No, no, obviously not Ynes, I meant, uh... Prince Carmilla's guards. Because the theater is where prince 2's passageway goes to. I'm not sure there's some kind of legal action that can be taken against secret passage abuse... b-but there should be!"

"I-if I had to say something about what was revealed after Odelia and I went up there... it's probably another piece to add to Prince Tserriednich's collection... but there was something strange about it that I'd like to discuss. At another time and place, not right now."

"I also have an idea in regards to the shards. Generally speaking, everyone here can be split into two groups, people who stay on deck 1 most of the time, and people who wander around all over the ship. The culprit must belong to one of these two groups, and by using the shards they are trying to pretend like they belong to the other group. The fancy and glass shards can all be obtained on deck 1, but the ceramic shards necessitate a visit to deck 3. Therefore, the culprit could stay on deck 1 for the most part, and make a single trip down to deck 3 to collect the ceramic shards, pretending to be someone who wanders around."

"Although... the ceramic shards were placed in plain sight, while the other shards were hidden... so perhaps it's the other way around? The culprit is someone who typically wanders around, but wants to frame someone who stays on deck 1. So they laid out several possible shards that could have been accessed from just deck 1 to make it seem like someone who only stays on deck 1 could have feasibly pulled off the murder. Hiding the shards makes it seem more likely that one of the hidden shards was used as the real murder weapon, or something like that."

"M-maybe I'm just overthinking things... i-if only I knew where my missing camera was... I really need that camera... it was so important... where did it go..."