Kankdal, early morning, in the foreign residents’ district, inside a suite in one of the hotels. Dressed in her pajamas, Dorothy sat upright on the sofa, her attention focused on the outskirts of the native residential district, where she had just completed the toxicology test. Though the test had succeeded—the snake venom had been successfully detected—numerous suspicious details kept her from feeling any relief. “Based on my long experience with corpse marionettes, since they are essentially living dead—animated by Chalice’s mystical power—the fresher the corpse, the better. The fewer damages and the less decomposition, the better. Even just one hour of natural decomposition can decrease control sensitivity. Four days have passed since the assassination. By all accounts, Mazarr’s body should have deteriorated past the point of usability. The fact that I can still control him is absurd.” With that thought, Dorothy decided to verify the actual time of death of the corpse currently identified as Mazarr. Since marionette control sensitivity declines linearly with time of death, she could estimate it by feel, and combine that with traditional autopsy methods like livor mortis and rigor mortis. She quickly concluded that the true time of death was two days ago—an unexpected result that sent her into deep contemplation. “Died two days ago? Not four? How could that be? Was Mazarr not killed on the day of the assassination, but kept alive for two more days and only then murdered? Or… is this not Mazarr’s body at all?” With these doubts crowding her mind, Dorothy decided to perform a deeper autopsy on the corpse. Controlling the other marionettes in the basement, she had them completely strip Mazarr and begin the forensic examination. She focused her attention on the gunshot wound on the chest. Dorothy recalled the scene from the day of the assassination. When the train attendant shot Mazarr with a handgun, she calculated the impact site—and it matched exactly with the wound on this body. That, to a degree, supported that this corpse was Mazarr. But as she examined the wound, she found something else suspicious: signs of healing. Clearly, this person hadn’t died immediately from the gunshot. He had survived for quite a while afterward—long enough that the wound had started to heal—before finally being killed. So what was the true cause of death? Was it really poisoning? As she scrutinized the strange anomalies, Dorothy noted more unusual signs during the autopsy: bleeding in the eyelids, signs of cyanosis on the lips. When she had a marionette press around the hyoid bone, she discovered it was fractured—something that immediately caught her attention. “A fractured hyoid bone…? That wouldn’t happen from a gunshot or poison. It’s usually seen in strangulation or hanging, where intense force compresses the throat.” After another round of examination, Dorothy concluded: the victim likely died from strangulation. The eye hemorrhages supported this too. But another contradiction remained. “If someone dies from being strangled, there should be visible bruises on the neck from pooled blood caused by pressure. These bruises don’t fade easily postmortem. And yet this corpse… shows no marks.” Puzzled, she decided to dissect the neck and inspect internally. Sure enough, she found extensive dead blood vessels and trauma on the trachea. The force had indeed been strong enough to kill—but oddly, the external bruising had all but vanished. “Strange. This guy was clearly strangled, more so than poisoned—but the strangulation bruises have vanished. How is that possible? Blood flow stops after death. The body loses the ability to self-heal. Could it be… that blood started flowing after death?” “Yes—that’s it! Post-mortem blood circulation!” Suddenly, it clicked. If someone was strangled to death, then had their body reactivated with a method that restarted blood flow, the bruises might begin to fade. And there was indeed a method Dorothy used daily to do just that: corpse marionette. By animating a corpse with mystical power, a kind of artificial blood circulation could begin. With minor healing rituals applied, the body would even appear less damaged. Thus, Dorothy concluded: this Mazarr was strangled to death two days ago. Afterward, someone used corpse marionette control to reactivate his body, removing the incriminating bruises. “So… on the day of the assassination, Mazarr wasn’t killed. He was saved. Two days later, they strangled him—and used corpse marionette control to erase the bruises.” “But… why strangle him instead of killing him by poison like originally planned? And if he was strangled, then what’s with all the venom still found in his system? Did they want him dead by poison or by strangulation?” Though she had unraveled the mystery of Mazarr’s actual cause of death, Dorothy now fell into deeper confusion. There were simply too many inconsistencies with this corpse. Until those doubts were resolved, she didn’t dare hand it over to Ivy as formal evidence. “Think about it… Vania treated two victims in public, and those guys must’ve known she’d discover the poison. They had to know Mazarr’s body—full of venom—would be damning evidence if recovered by her side.” “Logically, if Mazarr really died from poison, they’d heavily guard the body to prevent it from becoming evidence. But at the civic hall? There wasn’t a single mystical security measure. It’s like they were waiting for someone to steal it.” “The key issue is, if the stolen corpse didn’t contain venom, that would’ve been fine—but if it does, then that’s even stranger. Were they deliberately sending the evidence to their opponent?” As Dorothy pondered this, she began to grow suspicious of the presence of Sandscale Spotted Viper venom in Mazarr’s body. “This won’t do. I need to run a test…” Sitting on the sofa, the idea took root in her mind. She immediately had a few marionettes leave the basement and roam the chaotic native district, catching several rats to serve as test subjects. Once the rats were brought back to the basement, Dorothy began her experiment. First, she injected one rat with Sandscale Spotted Viper venom. After several minutes of suffering, it died in agony. Next, for the second rat, she strangled it to death first. After waiting some time, she injected the venom post-mortem. For the third rat, she also strangled it first, waited, then injected it with venom. However, this time, she reanimated it with her marionette ability, made it move slightly, then ceased control. After two hours, Dorothy drew blood from all three rats and analyzed them separately. The first rat—killed by venom while alive—showed a well-integrated mixture: the venom had bonded thoroughly with the blood, destroying red cells and impairing clotting. Only trace amounts of original venom remained; most of it had transformed into toxin-blood complexes. The second rat—strangled and then injected—showed almost no detectable venom. Its blood was thick and coagulated. Since blood stops circulating after death, the venom had remained localized at the injection site and didn’t spread systemically. Samples drawn elsewhere revealed nothing. The third rat, however, was the most intriguing. In its blood, Dorothy detected high concentrations of unbonded venom—even more than in the first rat. This was because the third rat had mostly dead blood cells when the venom was injected. After reanimation, the limited circulation allowed only a few cells to bond with the venom. As a result, the blood contained three components: dead blood cells, venom-infected blood, and free venom. This pattern, unlike the fully bonded venom-blood of the first rat, closely resembled the composition Dorothy had extracted from Mazarr’s body. The conclusion was clear. A creature poisoned while alive and one poisoned after death, then reanimated, produced entirely different blood compositions—something that could be distinguished by chemical testing. “Whew… that was close…” Letting out a deep breath, Dorothy leaned back. She now understood the trick those people had played. In short, Mazarr’s body was a trap. If she had given it to Ivy as evidence, she would’ve walked straight into their snare. Massaging her temples, Dorothy began piecing the enemy’s plan together. “At first, they planned to use venom to ensure the victims died after the gunshot—no chance of survival or rescue. But I ruined that with Vania. Not only were two victims saved, but Vania discovered the poisoning method through her healing process. “Realizing Mazarr’s poisoned corpse could become incriminating evidence, they saved him. He was treated and detoxified—but still declared dead to the public. While secretly imprisoned, he remained a hidden liability. “Two days later, they changed tactics. They strangled him to death, then quickly reanimated him as a marionette to remove bruising via corpse-healing. Aside from a fractured hyoid, there was no outward sign of strangulation. “They then let the corpse rest to allow cell death to occur, reanimated it again, and injected the Sandscale Spotted Viper venom. With few viable blood cells left, the venom didn’t fully bind. This created the appearance of post-mortem poisoning. “Then they publicly held a memorial and placed his body in a barely guarded public hall—openly inviting us to steal it. “They calculated that we, knowing about the poison, would assume Mazarr died the same way. We’d steal the body, find unbound venom, and take it to Ivy as evidence. “But that’s where the trap springs. They’d accuse us of injecting venom post-mortem to fabricate a frame-up. They’d even demonstrate how poisoned and post-poisoned blood differ. With the biased inquisitors on their side, they’d have the perfect excuse to counterattack and accuse us of falsifying evidence. “We’d walk right into it—making ourselves look guilty and dishonest. Even Ivy might not be able to save Vania in that scenario.” The more Dorothy thought, the more terrified she became of how well-prepared her enemies were. If she hadn’t been cautious—if she’d rushed to present the toxin as evidence—she would’ve fallen into their scheme. But a trap only works if the prey doesn’t see it coming. Now that Dorothy had uncovered the ploy, the entire dynamic had changed. "Such a cunning bait-and-snare… but once the trick is exposed, it holds no threat. On the contrary—it reveals your side’s deeper secrets to me..." Muttering to herself, Dorothy stood up from the sofa, walked to the balcony, and gazed toward the rising sun. This failed deception, rather than becoming their weapon, had exposed their weakness.