Yubi sat with his back to a tree. Rik had gone back into the station mound to find a drink, leaving Yubi alone with his thoughts.

  So I have one story saying Rio was in the fortress compound and another saying he was at the teleportation facility. He couldn’t have been in both places at once, so one of these has to be a lie. All Loya said was he wasn’t at church, which doesn’t rule out either…

  Loya’s story could be corroborated by anyone else who was at church that day. Rik’s story could be corroborated by Toi and by anyone who might’ve seen him on the compound. Kain’s story could be corroborated by anyone at the facility who would’ve seen Rio walking around. Why would either of Rik or Kain tell such easily falsifiable lies?

  In both cases these are just stories being told to me, so maybe they don’t expect me to try asking anyone else. Rio isn’t contesting his sentence, so maybe one of them thinks they have more leeway for deception. Or… Rik has now seen me asking both Toi and Kain about this so he should expect me to confirm with Toi as soon as I get back.

  So what about Kain? Why would he lie? Well, his story is that he’s the only one who saw Rio go in. What if, during that period which only he witnessed, he went in and sabotaged the diagram himself? The name Kainolautis has more vowels than Rioshkaltis, so maybe he wanted to frame a higher-up out of some class-related indignation. With a name like Kain, he’d certainly be Able to do that…

  But that doesn’t make sense. It’s not like he’s getting the position. All he could expect framing Rio to do is make his own job harder at the teleportation facility. He should expect Rio to fight back against the charge, in which case he would immediately be found out and forced to give his own body to a demon. Moreover, I’m not sure he knew Toi had asked Rio to come to his office instead of going to church, so he should expect his lie to have an entire crowd of counter witnesses with none other than the king among them!

  But that leaves me back at square one…

  “Here,” Rik held out a cup.

  Yubi took it and sniffed. “Smells sweet. What is it?”

  “Juice. Now drink it, you seem dehydrated.”

  He sipped. It was good. “How would people feel about someone named Rioshkaltis being chief of the teleportation facility?”

  “What? They wouldn’t care. Usually that kind of position comes from a more prestigious background, but if a merchant got rich then he could wind up doing something like that. Why?”

  “Just… thinking…”

  So class doesn’t even work as a motivation for Kain, and that’s according to Rik who just accused him of lying. There’s clearly something I’m missing here…

  Yubi drank more. “Why didn’t you tell anyone about this earlier?”

  “I… think everyone already knows what juice is?”

  “Not that, the thing about Rio being at Toi’s office.”

  “Who would I tell about that?”

  “Wha- how about anyone? You heard about the sabotage, right?”

  “I heard about it, not that Rio was accused. I don’t follow politics.”

  “Well, Toi was there as well, so why didn’t he?”

  “Why are you asking me?”

  Yubi got up. “Good point.”

  Toinoioeo’s eyebrows perked up when he heard the other two enter the room. He was facing away at the time but the motion was visible from behind.

  “Ah Yubi.” Toi smiled, turning around. “Were you able to speak to Kainolautis?”

  “Yes, and I’ve actually got a bit more to ask you.”

  “Oh, alright.”

  “Earlier you said you were here in your office for the entirety of the twenty-first. Is that true?”

  “Ah… well, I wasn’t here strictly all day. I don’t sleep in my office after all.”

  “Right, and Rik here tells me you never left for long enough to get to the city. He did, however, mention that you did leave on a personal errand at one point.”

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  All semblance of joviality drained from his face. His long eyebrows furrowed into an expression of intense focus. “I delivered a letter addressed to my family in the city. I brought it to a messenger at the edge of the forest who ran it the rest of the way. If Rikshkindr has mentioned an absence, it would have to be that.”

  “What did you do when you got back here?”

  Toi’s expression softened. “Oh yes, I see why you may be interested in this detail. When I got back, your friend Rioshkaltis was waiting outside my office. There was some misunderstanding which had led him to think I’d called him here, but he left once I told him otherwise.”

  “Why didn’t you tell anyone about that when he was being tried for the sabotage?”

  “I… didn’t think it was relevant?”

  “Relevant? It puts him here instead of at the teleportation facility.”

  Toi tilted his head, “Does it? Could he not have done it earlier in the day? I’m told that in addition to Kain, there were a number of other operators who saw Rio there. They have a pretty good case.”

  “You…” just vouched for both stories? “Toi. Kain witnessed Rio near the diagram during a brief window of time while church was still in session.”

  “O- Oh! So he couldn’t have done it earlier! But how could he have been both here and there? I must report this at once.”

  “Yes, and I’m the one you’re reporting it to. Now… you said you didn’t ask Rio to come here, correct?”

  “To my office? No, I had nothing to discuss with him that day.”

  So Toi’s story doesn’t line up with Rio’s… “Alright… I think that’s all I need from you for now.”

  “Good luck Yubi, the truth is a valuable thing!”

  Yubi nodded and left Toi and Rik in the office. Just outside the door was a metal bench with soft-looking upholstery, which he opted to sit on.

  So if I trust everyone then Rio was both at Toi’s office and at the facility, and Toi both asked him to skip church and didn’t ask him. This is ridiculous.

  Or maybe my approach is just wrong. Instead of asking how these can all be true, what if I just want to know who committed the sabotage? The facility where it took place is in the city, which means everyone there could be suspects. That’s way too many.

  How about just in the fortress then? Well, if the culprit is here then… if Rio’s sentence is delayed long enough then they could wind up finding the right person just doing those scans. However… the culprit would probably know that’s the case. If they’re talking to demons, they’d probably pick a method that doesn’t have such an easy countermeasure.

  Mana fibers… What was it the librarian said? Demons can “speak silently at a distance”? These fibers are probably what she meant. Kain said the fiber attaches to the soul, so it’s probably more convenient than a phone… Damn it, I should’ve learned how radios work in the other world.

  In the midst of thinking about communication, he remembered something odd that had happened two days ago.

  Head doctor Kyuzu apparently had her own office in the medical wing.

  “Oh, hello Yubi. Is your memory improving?”

  “Yes, yes. Em… would you mind answering a few questions? If you have the time, of course.”

  “I’m a bit busy, but I can probably spare a moment.”

  “The other day, do you remember how many days I thought were in a year?”

  She scratched her head. “Did you not know there are three hundred sixty?”

  “In the other world a year is about five days longer.”

  “Huh. I suppose if the moon rotated a bit slower… that doesn’t divide very well does it?”

  “They make do. Anyway, I ask if you knew because an apprentice healer asked me about it. Do you remember that?”

  “I think I remember someone coming out of the room we had you in. I assumed she was just making conversation while I was preparing your treatment.”

  “She said you sent her to ask me some questions to test my amnesia.”

  “Oh. Well, I certainly didn’t do that. You’d already said you didn’t recognize the names of the Leader and your wife, so I was already convinced of your condition’s severity.”

  “Right… another thing. I spoke with Kainolautis at the scanning station earlier. He said the medical staff have already been scanned?”

  “Yes, it was rather inconvenient. For an entire day we only had half our healers on duty.”

  “Only half?”

  “Yes, we were all scanned in one day, but not all at once. One group went in the morning and the other later so that we would have at least half our people here while the other was being scanned. It was lucky not many people needed care that day.”

  “About the scans, I know this isn’t your area but if a demon were scanned, what would that look like?”

  “Well, those bastards have so much mana it’d probably overwhelm the detector. Yubi, what’s this all about?”

  “Don’t worry, you’ll find out tomorrow.”

  His next stop was the library.

  “Yesterday you said the demons can use mana to change their bodies’ shapes,” Yubi said. “What exactly did you mean by this?”

  “Um…” The Librarian was a bit startled by his intensity. “Well, I don’t remember exactly what I said. When a demon possesses someone, the person usually takes on the appearance of the demon to some extent.”

  “Usually?”

  “Yes, it varies. I’m told some are able to control the effect more than others.”

  “How much control are we talking?”

  “Um… I think… Well, in the most extreme cases they can directly control their appearance.”

  “Would it be possible for a demon like that to imitate a particular person’s appearance?”

  “I haven’t heard of such a thing, but I suppose if a demon specialized they could probably learn to do it.”

  “Alright… now, could you tell me who’s responsible for the rearranging of the halls?”

  “I believe that would be the head diagramist.”

  “Alright, thanks. You’ve been a big help. Sorry about the noise.”

  As he left he started waving before remembering that gesture didn’t exist in this world.

  Alright. I think I see what’s going on. Now I just need favors from Loya and Toi…