Chapter 010 10

"The commission is to find the 'Holy Grail'..." John stood by the window and watched El-Melloi II and Gray disappear into the thick mist. "Sherlock, do you have any idea about this commission? And why would someone from the mysterious side come to you!!!"

"The information they provided is all true—" Sherlock refolded the letter of commission, "but they hid a very important part. Although the content of that part is of no help to the commission, it can only satisfy my personal desire to find the answer to the mystery. But the answer is indeed attractive enough for me to choose to accept this commission—John, I'm going out."

"Our destination is Whitechapel."

“Eh——!???”

——The Holy Grail needs to gather a large amount of magic power to appear, and blood is rich in magic. Similarly, the heart is also a part rich in magic, and human emotional fluctuations can also generate magic... According to the content mentioned in the commission letter, the two prostitutes who died in the Jack the Ripper case, their bodies were moved to the inside of the Scottish Field, and they lost their hearts without anyone knowing.

The only recent incident that has caused widespread panic among the public is the "Jack the Ripper" case.

——But the two people who came to visit did not give up the commission after seeing Lestrade was rejected... This means that their purpose is not to investigate "Jack the Ripper", at least not the "Jack the Ripper" who is committing crimes now. The commission to find the "Holy Grail" later also proves this point.

However, the commission letter mentioned that the bodies of the two prostitutes killed by "Jack the Ripper" were missing their hearts - so the "Holy Grail" they are looking for is not only related to the thick fog, but also to the guy who took away the two hearts.

"But we should go to Whitechapel to find the source of the recent thick fog." Sherlock strode ahead and explained the information about the commission to John. "This time the fog started the morning of the day before yesterday and has not dissipated until today. And the fog in Whitechapel has been the thickest since the day before yesterday."

"Jack the Ripper's second crime was also committed at dawn the day before yesterday."

"Then why don't you go find Mr. Lestrade and agree to his previous commission?" John asked, "Since the investigation of 'Jack the Ripper' is included in this commission..."

"Idiot..." Sherlock stopped, lit a cigarette and held it in his mouth, and answered John in a long voice, "The fact that Lestrade came to us means that he also disagrees with the Scottish top management's choice to prioritize disarming the East End Vigilante Force in London, and instead hopes to arrest the murderer first to protect the safety of the citizens..."

"But judging from his expression, he must have just been scolded in the conference room. If I agree to it directly at this time, Lestrade might have to roll up and leave Scotland Yard directly after solving the case. I still don't want the rare normal person to be driven out of Scotland Yard. After all, all the other guys are just idiots."

"Master went to the sewer alone." Gray walked out from the shadows and stood behind Lansermello. "All the events will come to an end tonight, right?"

"If this is the Jack the Ripper case in this world, it won't end tonight." Lansemero looked at the members of the Citizens' Self-Defense Force and the Scottish Field Police who were holding guns in the alley below, tilted his head and smiled, "But in terms of the special point - tonight is the time for the decisive battle."

"After all, that guy is a Berserker who has lost his mind. He won't think of hiding his existence. What's more, what awakened him was the blood and madness that best represent him... Hehehe, in fact, even the Jack that Chaldea is familiar with can't be said to have retained much sanity."

"But at least the kid listens to Fujimaru. Once this guy is awakened, he will be a complete killing machine."

"Well, but before that..." Lansemero looked at the roof opposite and tapped the windowsill gently, "There will be other performances tonight - we just need to watch this one carefully."

The magical aura of the fairy species spread out and blended silently into the East End of London shrouded in the night.

The bait is ready, the actors are in place—now all that’s left is for the curtain to rise on the stage.

"During this rare break, why don't we learn from Velvet and do some deduction—" Lansemello retracted his gaze and looked at Gray, "Besides, this is a crime committed by a non-magician... Let's try to deduce the criminal 'Whodunit' and the motive 'Whydunit' from the means 'Howdunit'."

“It’s also interesting to occasionally not use my clairvoyance and just reason like a normal person.”

——First of all, it should be made clear that magicians, like murderers, are a group of people who like to hide their actions; therefore, no matter how crazy or cruel the scene is, it is reasonable. But no matter what the scene is, most of these people will not choose to publish an open letter in the newspaper to expose their existence.

Magicians strictly abide by the rules of hiding mysteries; and among murderers, whether they are premeditated or committed in the heat of the moment, most of them would first choose to hide the body after committing the crime to delay its discovery.

Jack the Ripper not only did not deliberately hide the bodies of prostitutes after killing them, he even published an open letter in the newspapers...

"... In other words, East London has almost become a battlefield, which is what they hope to see." William began to sort out the context of the Jack the Ripper case for his companions before the operation began. "And, they are expecting a complete conflict between the JSF and the Scottish Yard - no, as long as the next body appears here... the entire Whitechapel will be completely detonated."

——The "Jack the Ripper" case was undoubtedly a show-style murder planned and carried out by an organization.

First, the criminal called himself "Jack the Ripper" and sent a crime statement to the newspaper - their purpose was to incite public fear by publicizing their own criminal behavior; as for choosing this nickname, it was just because "Jack the Ripper" was a title suitable for inciting public fear.

It is not difficult to see that killing prostitutes was not the criminal's purpose.

"Gray, do you still remember the various theories about Jack the Ripper's motives?" Lanser-Mello tilted his head. "I remember that all the information about Heroic Spirits should be recorded in the Chaldean database."

——There are many different opinions about Jack the Ripper's motives, but the one that is directly related to Jack the Berserker in the database is that the criminal himself was a psychopath, so he used such a cruel method to kill several prostitutes in succession.

But this statement only applies when there is only one prisoner.

Considering that the two prostitutes were walking with different customers before their death, there must be more than one culprit. Assuming that the two customers are innocent, then the culprit should be two or three people to force the prostitutes to be killed; if the two customers themselves are the culprits who killed the prostitutes... then there must be more than one culprit.

There are more than two criminals, and they are committing crimes continuously - it is obvious that the motive is not simply to kill people... Killing people is just a means like publishing an open letter, "Howdunit".

Then, the means "Howdunit" and the multiple criminals "Whodunit" can be used to deduce the motive "Whydunit" - that is, to cause the current situation, cause the confrontation between the citizens and the Scottish Field, and then cause the conflict.

"Come on, let me see how you deal with the chaos that's about to break out here - Lord Crime, James Moriarty."

"...In this case, it will be very tricky." The black-haired sniper in the back row frowned slightly, "There is a gang behind Jack the Ripper, so we need to gather all of them together and catch them all in one fell swoop-"

"Don't worry." William said to comfort his companions, "Let us use this place to conduct an experiment on Moriarty's plan."

——Although the citizens and the police are now in conflict with each other in the Whitechapel area, the conflict is also due to the existence of "Jack the Ripper". As long as Jack the Ripper never shows up, once a new corpse appears, it will trigger a riot in the entire street.

"But it's easy to solve this situation." William smiled. "Just do as Moriarty planned - let the common enemy of both sides appear on the stage. It doesn't matter if Jack the Ripper hides behind the scenes. We just need to create a Jack the Ripper who appears on the stage."

The criminals wanted a situation where the police and the Scottish Yard would clash, rather than unite to hunt down Jack the Ripper. So whenever "Jack the Ripper" appeared on the street, it would attract the attention of the criminals, causing them to gather together to discuss countermeasures... and that would be the time to end the battle.

——However, the biggest difficulty of this plan lies in the "Jack the Ripper" who attracts attention on the surface.

"...I hope that the teacher can help me buy some time before we are sure that all the prisoners have been gathered." William looked at the old man who used to be nicknamed "Jack the Ripper". "'Jack the Ripper' cannot be caught by anyone from the Vigilante Corps or the Scottish Field."

Grandpa Jack: "So that's it. It's not hide-and-seek, but a game of chase?"

"We're going to run away, but the enemy is the Scottish Army plus the Self-Defense Force, the number of people will be no less than 300, and we can't kill any of them..." The black-haired sniper looked serious, "That's very difficult, I'm not sure if I can hold on for ten minutes."

"It will take me about half an hour."

Master Jack took over the topic with ease, but William's subsequent request shocked everyone in the room.

"Of course we can't kill anyone, and we have to avoid challenges as much as possible - two hours, no, at least one hour." William raised his finger, looking serious, "And if nothing unexpected happens, we need to work non-stop tonight."

"There's another 'Jack the Ripper' waiting for us to deal with."