Section 5: Improv Theater

There you are. Will you be able to get the wine stain out?

I think so. But I couldn't give less of a shit about that right now.

How's Gabriela doing?

She's still alive, though she's hanging on by a thread. And there's no telling what could happen next.

I expect it's going to be some time before she can tell us what happened.

So we've got no choice but to be patient until we can find out who did this, huh.

I'm not so sure. Even if Gabriela were to regain consciousness now...

...I doubt even she could tell us who poisoned her glass.

Where'd that come from? Suddenly trying to play detective or something?

As a matter of fact, I don't play anything. My traveling musician act was actually a facade.

His true identity is Isidoro Poggioli, the great detective.

And I'm his assistant detective, Adriana Molinari.

...Would you mind not stepping on my lines, Adriana?

Oh! I'm sorry.

Great detective Isidoro Poggioli, huh. Never heard of you.

Of course not. Most of my cases come directly from high-ranking government officials, so I can't imagine the common man would know my name.

So you're in a line of work that requires no self-promotion, are you? Wouldn't that be nice, Elise?

I don't know if I buy it. Maybe the higher-ups just use him to bury facts they don't like.

Those who know me sometimes call me "The Closer."

I can understand your trepidation, but I hope you will trust us.

A detective, huh. Usually, in my experience, having a detective around is nothing but bad news, but I guess it's a good thing you're here in this case.

Then, I suppose your client this time must be the old man himself?

Right you are. Our first president, Miguel Ángel Cortés, hired me to be here.

He said he wanted me to investigate if anything happened after he was gone.

I was hoping there would be no need for my services, but alas, it seems luck was not on our side... Sometimes I curse the way cases seem to follow wherever I go.

It always kind of scared me how thorough the old man was about this sort of thing.

It's almost like he knew exactly what would happen after he was gone.

Mr. Poggioli has an amazing talent for attracting cases wherever he goes. He's also known as "Isidoro the Reaper"!

(Obviously proud)

Yeah... Well that's not ominous at all.

You there. Salazar, or whatever your name was... Are you sure Miguel never told you anything about this?

Not a word. Maybe...Lord Miguel never really trusted me after all.

Cheer up, Salazar. It's much too early to say that.

Thank you, milady. Your kind words are certainly soothing to hear under the circumstances.

You're welcome.

Anyway, getting back to the question at hand: Why would anyone want to harm Gabriela?

Seriously? You actually have to ask?

Huh?

Uh, Cortés's legacy? What are you, an idiot?

He collected some really amazing shit back when he was a general. It apparently would've easily kept him in power even if he'd had to retire.

...At least, that's the rumor I overheard at a dinner with some high-ranking government officials.

So if Gabriela inherited something that great, it's no wonder someone else'd want her out of the picture, right?

But that's still only a rumor, right?

What, you don't believe me?

Cortés's legacy is no rumor. Trust me, I used to work under him.

I was a medical officer, so I had access to lots of different places. As a result, I was made to gather evidence of wrongdoing on all sorts of people.

And of course, the evidence I gathered was only a tiny fraction of the whole.

All told, I bet there were dozens of government officials who had collars slapped on them like that.

And it's not just skeevy blackmail material, either. I'd bet anything the legacy also includes priceless letters and works of art from the former kingdom.

And I'd also bet that it's all here somewhere in this enormous mansion.

...

Damn, that's quite a story. So if anyone managed to take this legacy for themself, they'd be Nadai Nadha's next ruler, huh?

So that is why Gabriela was poisoned...

Still, even if the culprit did succeed at eliminating her, that does not mean they would automatically inherit this legacy, right?

They might not have to. Some peoplesay high-ranking government officialswould be happy just to have it conveniently disappear.

I'd guess their next move will either be to try and kill Gabriela again, or to just kill all of us.

But if they merely wanted to bury this legacy, it would be much more expedient to just set it all ablaze, especially after we all went to bed.

'Course, I doubt that'll work now that they've got us all on guard, even if they don't plan on doing anything too drastic just yet.

Yeah, well that's not gonna be a big help if their next move is to just poison all our food.

Not considering how Gabriela just collapsed right after she drank the wine that guy brought her.

Stop it, Elise!

No, it's all right. Lady Elise has every reason to be suspicious.

Very well, how about this?

After I have prepared your meals, I will taste them before serving to make sure they are safe.

So you want to be our food taster? There are any number of ways you could fake that if you wanted to.

Sorry about Vargas; he's suspicious about pretty much everything. Though of course, that helps us a lot when we're out on the hunt.

Anyway, if you don't mind, we'd appreciate it if you could just share some nonperishables with us.

...Of course, if you cannot, we will simply go out and hunt our own food.

Couldn't the nonperishables be poisoned as well?

I can check for poison too. All I gotta do is brush it against my lips or the tip of my tongue.

Smell can tell you a lot about something too.

Actually, something already smells fishy... There's no way this scent could be natural.

It's coming from over here!

Hey! García!

We should follow them.

There!

This portrait. It smells like wet paint.

I see your nose is as sharp as your tongue, García. I can smell it too, now that I'm this close.

How long has this portrait been here, Salazar?

I believe it was completed when Lord Miguel was still with us.

Does anything seem different about it to you?

...I'm afraid I can't tell what might have been changed. I'm sorry I didn't study it closer when I had the chance.

A true artist puts their heart and soul into the smallest details of their work, including those most people will never see or appreciate. It's perfectly understandable that you wouldn't be able to notice them at a glance.

The important thing to take away from this is that someone altered this painting extremely recently.

Though I suppose it's possible the artist simply decided they didn't like some part of how it came out, and decided to fix it. They certainly wouldn't be the first to go back and alter their past work.

...Damn. It's all connected.

Paints like cadmium yellow and vermilion contain harmful heavy metals.

And while I can't yet be certain, Gabriela's symptoms definitely strike me as similar to heavy metal poisoning.

I doubt the paint was added directly to her drink, but the culprit could have extracted the heavy metals from it.

...So you're saying that whoever altered the painting would have to have access to paint...

...and that they used it to create the poison.

Basically.

It's a bit of a stretch, but the logic does hold. Very well, just to be certain, let me ask you all this: Do any of you currently have any paint?

...It looks like nobody is volunteering to come forward, Mr. Poggioli. Does that mean...

Yes. This is definitely...one of those cases.

Oh quit the damn theatrics and just spit it out!

Very well then, if I may be so bold...

One of you is the cowardly culprit behind this Meihousou mystery... The Portrait Painter!