Trial 3 - Albert

[Arie Camillia]

“As much as I dislike the idea, did anyone actually check the Prince Hallways for drag marks or signs of struggle? If no one did, then it’s still possible, perhaps not as likely, that Albert was also choked out in the hallway. If not, he could still be carried into the Servant Quarters once he was unconscious if he was choked out in the foyer of Prince Tubeppa’s suite.”

“Albert being choked in the hallway simply requires extra steps, but seeing as this took place in the dark and many of us don’t even pay attention to who else is in the room with us, it’s still up in the air. Perhaps Otoshin was onto something with that.”

[King V]

"You're really suspecting me of all people? Did you even hear Prince Tserriednich speak?"

"The cameras record for 30 minutes, and I have footage showing that I was in the staff hallway at the end of the blackout. By the time I could even be involved in any type of activity, Knight would already be in the theater along with multiple other people. It's chronologically impossible for me to make contact with Knight after the blackout without several other people noticing."

"Your theory is so vague that I have trouble even calling it one. You have no evidence or basis to accuse me. You're only accusing me because it's convenient."

"But, that gives me an idea. Let's do a little thought experiment. Say Knight was the culprit, but she was working with Ynes and Prince Benjamin instead. Ynes has been in contact with Knight quite a bit, and admits to it. They have been quite friendly towards each other as well, giving them more reason to work together than me. Prince Benjamin has been with Ynes, but perhaps he's being willfully ignorant of Ynes' actions. What if Knight committed the murder, and then Ynes, who has been friendly with her, helped to dispose of evidence afterwards, and Prince Benjamin simply did nothing to stop this. Knight and Ynes even met up after the blackout, a perfect opportunity for Ynes to help dispose of evidence."

"Everything else happened exactly as Mr Goon stated. But, Ynes and Prince Benjamin decided afterwards to betray Knight in the trial and try to get one of their rivals' guards killed as collateral damage as well. Thus the culprits are Knight, Ynes, and Prince Benjamin."

"It's the same theory as before, but let's see if you can find some holes here or there, Prince Benjamin! I'm sure as one of the great princes, it will hardly be an inconvenience for you to disprove your guard's theory!"

[Xaniks]

Ynes takes out a meticulously kept notebook.

"Your humor is distasteful, Private. Let me tell you why."

"9:03 PM: In the Lounge with His Royal Highness. I concluded my conversation with Hu Tao. The lights returned. We decided we are going to the electrical room next."

"9:09 PM: His Royal Highness and myself pass through reception."

"9:14 PM: We arrived at electrical. 9:21 PM: We concluded our business there."

"9:42 PM: We returned to the hallway on deck 1. I take my leave from His Royal Highness to enter the Second Prince's room."

"At no point while I was with His Royal Highness the First Prince did we come across Ayane."

[King V]

*Otoshin sighs deeply*

"Is this what Prince Tserriednich thinks of when he says he's disappointed in me...? I've stumbled across a feeling that I don't think I should have..."

"Alright... Jekyll, let's talk about the murder! I still do think it's strange that there were no signs of struggle at all that people have found... but I have an explanation. In fact, I have an explanation for everything."

*Otoshin pulls out a corkboard with dozens of papers and maps pinned to it again*

"For you see, we're assuming that about 90% of the evidence in this murder is fake due to the culprit's numerous red herrings, right? But what if...... 100% of the evidence in this murder was fake?"

"I've been thinking for a long time, if the culprit planned this murder so far in advance that it could stretch back all the way to before trial 1... then why would evidence being stained with blood have any significance? What if the culprit just cut themselves, or used a blood bag to create additional red herrings that seemed more believable than the others? A red herring onion, if you will."

"I even have evidence. While I was on deck 3 in Electrical, I noticed there was the smell of burnt plastic in the air. I found this to be strange, but didn't pay any attention to it... except Hu Tao mentions there was a piece of burnt plastic mixed in with some of the shards. I believe this burnt plastic is the remnants of a blood bag! All of the blood found on the evidence in this murder is not blood from the victim, but rather it was faked using a blood bag that the culprit prepared in advance! The scratch marks on the towel could have also been faked! Everything was faked! This is a very simple walk in and stab murder disguised as a needlessly convoluted one!"

"All the culprit would need to have in their inventory would be a single shard, making it possible for them to walk in, stab Albert, mess with the body a little, and then walk out. Simple as that!"

[Barrett Bear, esq.]

"Or maybe everyone was in on it but you, or it was all a big accident, and we're all innocent. I'm not entertaining this. Stop trying to muddle the evidence, take this a little more seriously."

[King V]

"I'm being very serious, Prince Benjamin. Every piece of evidence that we've found outside of prince 5's room, and even some evidence inside were all red herrings planted by the culprit before the murder took place. This allowed the culprit to take what would be a very complex and long murder plan, and condense it down to a few minutes to walk into prince 5's room, stab Albert, and then walk out."

"The reason why there are no signs of a struggle is because Albert was killed near-instantly by a shard stabbing him in the throat. The body was then carried, since the culprit would need nothing except for a single shard for their plan, and placed in the closet where the culprit would tie him up with a scarf. No disposal of evidence would be needed either, because all of the 'evidence' that we've found are red herrings."

"As for who the culprit is... that's hard to say. It would have to be someone who went to deck 1 at some point during or after the blackout. A lot of people seem to fit that description.... It would also have to be someone who lacks alibis before the 1st and 2nd trials, which... I don't even want to get started on examining those."

[Arie Camillia]

"Let’s try once again. I feel that some of the arguments through this trial haven't covered all of this theory's bases, so I will attempt to reword it and cover some of the holes. Re-establishing some of our foundational points brought up throughout the trial, we have the mysterious ceramic and glass shards present at the crime scene and littered across the ship; specifically, three types of shards are present in Prince Tubeppa’s suite: cheap, fancy, and glass. The cheap shards were determined to originate from plates from the Deck 3 Kitchen; the fancy shards resembled the plates from the Deck 1 Kitchen, and the glass shards came from a lamp found in the Deck 1 Lounge. Knowing this, our murder and/or accomplice would need to have traveled across the ship in order to obtain these items, thereafter they would need to be broken to obtain the shards to be planted as red herrings. The biggest point of contention I’ve been seeing in this trial is whether this is feasible during the blackout. However, with Hu Tao’s testimony and Otoshin’s latest contribution, let’s imagine if this actually didn’t happen during the blackout but rather before it even took place."


"Hu Tao mentioned finding ceramic shards bundled together in a towel, tossed away in the Guest Cabins; between some of these shards was stringy, melted plastic. I thought this was a rather confusing point as it didn’t seem to add much to the conversation, but Otoshin brings an interesting point: perhaps this melted plastic did originate from a blood bag that was used to paint the shards with blood. I can speak for myself in that I also doubted whether the blood on the shards was painted or actually there because they were evidence, but if this is true, this means that not only are the bloody shards found in the Staff Storage and Prince Tubeppa’s suite red herrings, they were planted there well before Albert’s murder even took place. After reviewing the camera footage, it seems like Otoshin also gags upon entry into Electrical, which I presume to be a response to the burning smell he reports. This further supports that this took place prior to the blackout, as he turns off the power partway through the footage, causing the 20-minute blackout."


"It’s therefore possible that the killer or accomplice found a gap in time where no one was close enough to them on Deck 2 or 3 to hear them breaking the plates and lamp. With this in mind, forget about the shards. Their existence in this trial is to complicate how the killer could have planted the red herrings and to protect their alibi. Thus, this begs the question, how did our murderer get to Deck 1, kill Albert, and move down to Deck 2 with the towels without being spotted by the footage?"


"Otoshin's footage confirms that no one besides him was spotted using rooms like the Staff Hallway and Electrical during the blackout. After speaking with Prince Tubeppa, she testified that no one used the passageway except for Otoshin a few days prior to the murder. Additionally, as far as anyone is concerned, the only people to have used Prince Carmilla’s passageway has been KoD and Kaede, who stayed in the theater following the end of the blackout. That leaves very little options for our killer to move to Deck 2 besides the Prince Reception. What we are looking for is then… someone that is not going to move between floors; the only individual so far who fits this description is KoD, who testified that she was patrolling Deck 1 and intermittently checked on Prince Carmilla."


"With the shards placed in the suite beforehand, KoD simply needs to enter Prince Tubeppa’s suite and ready herself with the towel. She would then wait by the foyer door until Albert walks by, when she would wrap the towel around his throat and begin to asphyxiate him. At this point, Albert clawed at his throat, ripping fibers from the towel which were found under his fingernails, but he ultimately succumbs. Once unconscious, KoD would have five minutes to obtain one of the stashed shards in the suite, carry Albert to the Servant Quarters, cut his throat, and hang him with Hu Tao’s scarf in the closet. Doing so would of course cause copious amounts of blood to flow from the wound, which was absorbed by extra towels that KoD would use to cover herself to prevent any blood from staining her clothes."


"At the end of this, KoD is left with a shard that should have been covered with about 2-3 inches of blood and some bloodstained towels. This shard so far has not been found, as I had cross checked the depth of the wound with other bloody shards in our communal pile during investigation and found no match. The bloody towels, including the ripped towel, were found in the Laundry. This means that KoD would have needed to visit Deck 2 in order to deposit the towels, but how would she have done this if she was with Kaede in the Theater following the blackout?"


"She has an accomplice: Otoshin. Not only has Otoshin been through every Prince suite as he has gone on record to say in previous trials, he was seen carrying plates. His cameras were used in order to confirm that passageways weren’t used during the blackout to protect KoD’s alibi, and upon reviewing the footage, he is correct in saying that only he was seen on the footage in the Theater, Electrical, and the Staff Hallway during the blackout. However, after the blackout, specifically on 5/06, Otoshin was recorded walking through Prince Reception three times: at 8:10PM, 8:24PM, and 8:59PM UTC. During this time, he would be able to walk back to Deck 1, remove the towels, and then travel back down to Laundry in order to wash them. The stains on the towels were very faded by the time I had found them during investigation, suggesting they were in there for a long period of time, but I cannot determine the exact length. Of course, this argument would naturally beget the question: wouldn’t Otoshin be noticed carrying bloody towels to the Laundry in broad daylight? I will then direct your attention to the Electrical camera footage, where it almost seems like Otoshin brings a crowbar out of thin air. Being a guard of Prince Tserriednich, he has access to an expanded inventory, which makes it possible for him to bring these items inconspicuously. No one would have noticed he was carrying these towels, and he would be able to drop them into a washer without issue."


"Otoshin then does not need to speak with KoD after the blackout. Unless this time Otoshin has a solid alibi for the hours following the murder, which number at least 12. The cameras were unfortunately removed at the end of their recordings, meaning that we do not have continuous recordings that would confirm or deny whether someone was continuing to use certain passageways, such as the Staff Hallway, after the blackout ended."

[King V]

"Sorry, 'lady who's been doing well in the trials'. I have an alibi for when I went up to deck 1, I was helping Odelia and Prince Tserriednich carry items up to deck 1 for their collections."

"I have also never entered prince 5's room after trial 2, Odelia would have seen me do so if I went in there."

"You know... I don't like all of these fingers pointed at me just because it's convenient to get past Knight's alibi. What if the time of death is simply wrong? When would I have the time to enter Prince Tubeppa's room to hide evidence? When would I have the time to prepare anything?"

"If you're going to insist on accusing me, give me a time and a location where I could have possibly done anything. I have alibis as well, it's not like I'm a phantom who can be anywhere at anytime."

[Chatt]

4th Prince: "I can confirm Otoshin here was coordinating with Odelia to solve our room's puzzle using the information they got during the blackout~ There was something very interesting found, you should come over at some point, Jekyll."

[Daiwa Scarlet]

May 17, 2023 8:11:43 GMT -8 Satori said:

"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."

"I'm afraid I'll have to doubt your testimony. There was plenty of time when you had been alone during the blackout, which you claim to have been spent hiding in the shop. As none can verify your location until Jekyll entered, there is every chance that you sneaked back to deck 1 through the staff hallway to the deck 1 kitchen and sneaked in the 5th prince's room before Otoshin set up the camera again. The method of entering without triggering the alarms was discovered during the previous investigation, so you had little trouble getting by. Hearing the sound of three conversing in the laboratory, you went into hiding in the living room or dining room to wait for the group to split up. Before hiding, you stole my scarf and plates from the kitchen. The broken plates in the kitchen and shard in the mattress may have been set up at this point. Attacking the first to leave would be foolhardy, as the others could walk in afterwards. This explains how I managed to leave unscathed. The second was not as lucky, seeing as the prince was unlikely to come out to thwart the attack. The murderer struck as Albert left the room, strangling him with a towel, perhaps even with a shard already embedded inside. She set up the gruesome scene and sneaked through Carmilla or Tubeppa's secret passages to get back on deck 2 to hide in the shop. You sat there for as long as was necessary for another to pass and popped out to create an alibi for you. Everything else was likely set up beforehand as red herrings. If I had to take a guess at her motive, Kaede was taking revenge for her fellow guard."

[King V]

"'Lady who's been doing well in the trials', I think your theory needs some fine tuning. I have my own theory, but... I'm unsure if I should share it."

"First of all, the theory states that the killer has to enter prince 5's room twice, once to plant the shards, and once more to commit the murder. But if you believe that the culprit went into the room much earlier on to plant the shards, the salt barrier portion of the trap would have been active, thus the culprit would have had their shoes covered in salt, and would have tracked salt everywhere. As we can clearly see, there were no salt tracks in prince 5's foyer. And if the culprit planted the shards during the time period before trial 2, before the salt barrier was up, then I would have found them as I investigated each prince room rather meticulously during the investigation phase before the trial."

"How the murder itself was done is also a bit shoddy... do you think Albert would have put up no struggle if he saw someone standing in the foyer in the darkness? It's still possible to see people during a blackout, so even if the culprit went into prince 5's room during the blackout and waited by the entrance, they would have inevitably been spotted by Albert who was leaving, and a struggle would have ensued, but we see no signs of a struggle in prince 5's room."

"I believe that with the salt barrier, it's very unlikely the culprit could have planted the shards too far beforehand, and since the culprit would need their full inventory space to carry Albert, they would be unable to do so while also carrying the many shards they would need to plant. And if the culprit dragged the body, we would find drag marks, but there are no drag marks that we found in prince 5's room."

"Your analysis is also missing something... the towel and shards Hu Tao mentioned in the staff storage. Don't you think it's possible that with the number of red herrings prepared beforehand, that the towels in the laundry are in fact red herrings? And instead, the actual towel used for the murder was the bloody towel found in the staff storage. Since none of the shards seem to match the size of the wound, one of the shards in the staff storage could be the real murder weapon as well. All the culprit would have to do is sneak past Prince Tubeppa before I set up my camera in the staff hallway. Then they could access the elevator to the deck 1 kitchen, and continue up on deck 1 without any problems."

[Arie Camillia]

"While I do recognize that the lack of struggle signs in the rooms is quite odd, I have no other alternatives for it and have heard no other alternatives through the duration of this trial. Surely if it was so important, people would have spent more time talking about it compared to the shards and the timing of the shards' placement. Perhaps the assailant hid in the foyer like Hu Tao proposes, that seems to be the best recreation of events that we have at the moment. Maybe they were able to lace the towel with an anesthetic agent such as chloroform, I don't believe anyone checked the towels or the stocks of drugs in the Infirmary. By the time we found the towels in the Laundry, they wouldn't run through the wash so many times that the smell of chloroform would have dissipated, so we have no way of verifying. However, it's possible the towels had some form of anesthetic that severely dampened Albert's ability to fight back."

"Regarding the salt barrier, it is nothing but that: a barrier. Anyone can step over it if they have knowledge of it being there, and it seems our culprit already had knowledge of the traps prior to executing the murder given that no one was alerted to an intruder entering the suite. Various forms of light exist on this ship, and it may be possible, like Hu Tao says, that the assailant simply entered without being detected and waited in hiding; this way, even if they used a light source to avoid the salt barrier, they wouldn't draw attention to themselves with it. With that in mind, there wouldn't be any evidence of salt trails if the killer simply didn't step on the barrier in the first place."

"I stand by the shards being placed preemptively, given the piles of shards in Staff Storage and the Guest Cabins having been found prior to the murder even taking place. In addition, you yourself mentioned the smell of burning plastic in Electrical and attributed that to the melted plastic found in the pile of shards that Hu Tao uncovered. If your argument that the shards were not placed beforehand hinges on a simple salt barrier, then I would like a better argument as to why this might be the case given other pieces of evidence we've brought up."

"You are correct in that none of the shards match the wound. In fact, the very shard that was found in the bloody towel from Staff Storage is the one I compared with the depth of the wound. It did not match. Unless our killer meticulously placed fibers of the towel under Albert's fingernails and ripped it up themselves, it seems simpler to conclude that the bloody, ripped towel from the Laundry was the one that was used to choke him."

[Daiwa Scarlet]

"Certain issues have been pointed out, so I'll amend my theory with Kaede either sneaked past the prince hallway or Prince Tubeppa in the dark with her ability or passed after the lights had returned and Otoshin moved away. Either way, the lights were back on by the time she used the secret passage to run to the shop."

[The City [EclipseZwolf]]

"Greetings! Unfortunately I have little to add to the case, even in my defense. Significantly prior to the discovery I was in the Third Prince's chambers and was awoken by the scribblings of Ynes upon me! The lack of a clean shirt was maddening, so I abandoned it and proceeded to the gift shop to obtain a new shirt!"

"I passed by the one who is very not suspicious in my shirtless state on the way! I had a brief trip up to the gift shop and obtained a new shirt! I was accosted by Ynes on the way back down and was forced to defend my new shirt by splashing Ynes in the eyes with a drink I had on hand!"

"I then returned to the third prince foyer, and finding my new shirt comfortable, remained there through the duration of the latest blackout and case!"

"I have no knowledge regarding a secret passage for the 3rd Prince, as I have not attempted to search for it, nor has anyone told me about it! Also, the sole time I have set foot outside of Deck 1 is during that trip to the gift shop."

"Unfortunately, I did not set up my guard at the third prince's door, then perhaps I could have confirmed none had passed. Curse my new shirt and it keeping me from my duty!"

[Satori]

May 19, 2023 16:04:29 GMT -8 Daiwa Scarlet said:

May 17, 2023 8:11:43 GMT -8 Satori said:

"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."

"I'm afraid I'll have to doubt your testimony. There was plenty of time when you had been alone during the blackout, which you claim to have been spent hiding in the shop. As none can verify your location until Jekyll entered, there is every chance that you sneaked back to deck 1 through the staff hallway to the deck 1 kitchen and sneaked in the 5th prince's room before Otoshin set up the camera again. The method of entering without triggering the alarms was discovered during the previous investigation, so you had little trouble getting by. Hearing the sound of three conversing in the laboratory, you went into hiding in the living room or dining room to wait for the group to split up. Before hiding, you stole my scarf and plates from the kitchen. The broken plates in the kitchen and shard in the mattress may have been set up at this point. Attacking the first to leave would be foolhardy, as the others could walk in afterwards. This explains how I managed to leave unscathed. The second was not as lucky, seeing as the prince was unlikely to come out to thwart the attack. The murderer struck as Albert left the room, strangling him with a towel, perhaps even with a shard already embedded inside. She set up the gruesome scene and sneaked through Carmilla or Tubeppa's secret passages to get back on deck 2 to hide in the shop. You sat there for as long as was necessary for another to pass and popped out to create an alibi for you. Everything else was likely set up beforehand as red herrings. If I had to take a guess at her motive, Kaede was taking revenge for her fellow guard."

"Bold claim there. First of all. I could care less about my fellow guard. For me they are simply just colleagues who happen to serve under the same prince. Even Lady Carmilla herself could care less about Chirstie and considers her weak and imcompetent. I also voted Albert in the 2nd trial only because Carmilla voted for them and I simply trusted their wisdom."

"I also clearly went through the reception at 4/23 9:36 PM UTC heading into Deck 2 and then I saw Ynes and Gate E in the Guest Commons although I didn't pay mind what they were doing. They probably didn't notice me cuz they would mentioned it by now but they can confirm if both of them were at the Guest Commons around that time. The logs also clearly show that Gate E went through the reception at 9:37 PM UTC a minute after me which means I clearly would have saw him as I passed through the Guest Commons. And from there I entered the shop where I hid behind a counter and afk for 2 whole sessions and stayed there for awhile before Jekyll came in and then I left the room to Carmilla's room." 

"It's also impossible for me to have committed the murder during the blackout simply cuz I'd have to go through many rooms which had cameras set up and not even my follower ability could cover me for all those rooms and I was clearly not captured in any of the camera footage. Also if I had done this murder, I would have totally taken the opportunity to kill Tubeppa as well if I wanted to but she's clearly still alive.