Back at the rock quarry along Sangokoi Strait, Alice waited until everyone she invited had arrived to explain everything. "Thanks for coming at short notice. I asked all of you to come here today because I'm going to explain how Annie and Sid—"

"Speaking of Sid!" Soon screamed and hid behind her professor as a tall figure wearing camouflage clothing emerged from the water. "We're being haunted!"

"How could you say that to me?!" The figure removed his diving mask and revealed himself to be Dan. "Just because I'm wearing camouflage doesn't mean I'm Sid, and just because I surfaced here doesn't mean I entered the water from here."

"Where did you swim from then?"

"I'll show you." The brunet led Alice, Shun, Soon, and Baron to the first vacation house. Ace and Runo were already inside, sitting on a sofa. "According to Alice, this is where Sid was killed."

"Wasn't Sid at the rock quarry the whole time?" Baron asked. "Annie said Sid wanted to kill her, so he couldn't have died here before killing Annie."

"That's what the killer wanted us to think," the assistant professor replied. "Shortly after Sid followed the hints and arrived at this rental house, the real killer rendered him unconscious and borrowed his camouflage uniform. The goal was to impersonate Sid and kill Annie at the rock quarry. The killer needed Annie alive for just enough time to call the police and specifically say that Sid Arkale was assaulting her. It's the same as how Soon immediately assumed that camouflage Dan was Sid's undead body. The killer then hit Annie's head with a rock before returning here and returning Sid's camouflage uniform, all before stabbing him to death. However, the killer made the mistake of tying Sid's combat boots incorrectly, which Shun noticed immediately."

The raven-haired secretary opened the blinds of the living room's largest window. "The killer specifically assigned Sid to this rental house because this window faces the bay directly. Once Sid was dead, the killer simply tossed the body out the window to wherever the water currents lead to."

"And it only took me twenty minutes to float from out there to the rock quarry," Dan confirmed.

"But why did Sid come here when all of us went to that other rental house?" Runo asked. "Didn't we all scan the same QR codes?"

"Billy and I checked with their mobile network carriers and confirmed that Annie and Sid's QR code from the shrine was different from the one Alice's crew scanned. The victims' QR code produced a long sentence that told male participants to come here and female participants to visit another house—but neither house was the one Alice's crew went to."

"Mister Big reserved a total of three different vacation rental houses," Shun clarified. "At Annie's vacation rental, there was a laminated card that told her to go to the rock quarry, which was where her body was later found. There's likely no hint card in this house at all. As Alice said, the killer's goal here was to incapacitate Sid, borrow his clothes, and finally kill him—all to create a false alibi."

"In the end, Mister Big paid Lync and me a huge commission just to play a fake treasure-hunting game?" Ace questioned.

"I'll explain after we go to our next location," replied the redhead as she led the way this time. "We're now at the rental house where our QR code hint told us to visit."

Baron held his chin in thought. "This house and that house are on two different streets. What if Mister Big assigned different houses on purpose to—"

"I'm sorry, but there's sand in my shoes again," Soon apologized as she rushed to the bathroom.

The bluenette turned around and asked, "Where did Dan—"

"Not again!" After hearing the auburn-haired student's scream, everyone rushed to the bathroom and looked out the window to see the police officer blow-drying his hair. "Professor Alice, isn't that the first rental house we visited?"

"It is, and because one bathroom window led to the other, the killer used this advantage to incapacitate and kill Sid."

Once everyone returned to the living room, Ace sat down and asked, "What about Lync? Didn't he die much earlier than Annie or Sid did?"

"I'm glad you asked. The QR code that Lync scanned from the tree on the beach was also different from what we scanned."

"I also checked the mobile network carriers to see what he scanned," Dan added. "One of the webpage titles was 'Teach your descendants...', but the actual webpage showed that full sentence followed by 'The treasure is located somewhere that you haven't been to yet'. He got that hint earlier than all of you did."

"Is that why he ran ahead and ended up on that hill?" the mint-haired student asked.

Shun shook his head. "Lync was the first person that the killer wanted to separate from everyone else. It didn't matter where Lync was headed because the killer was following closely anyway. But I think Alice already knows who the killer is."

"And I'm not happy about it either. I always thought that the killer used high-tech methods to make his three targets see different messages when they all scanned the same QR code, but then I realized that doing things by hand might be faster. Only one person would've been able to swap out the laminated hint cards that day." She stood up and pointed at the mauve-haired research assistant. "That would be you, Baron Leltoy."

He stared back in confusion while everyone else gasped.

"At the small lighthouse, you were the one who initially suggested that we split up. You did that so you could leave us behind and buy yourself time to kill Lync."

"Wait a minute..." Soon interrupted. "When Baron was taking photos for Runo, the camera glare was the reason Lync saw the laminated card in the tree. Baron, you're usually forgetful and clumsy. How did you even plan this?"

"And as your professor, I never noticed anything out of the ordinary about you, either. Why did plan this fake treasure hunt and kill three people?"

Seeing that Baron didn't respond, the raven-haired secretary walked over to him. "I might not have known you for a very long time, but working with all of you for the past semester and a half on my mom's anthology project is one of the best things that happened to me ever since moving here. Please tell us what you're going through."

After more pleading from Soon, the mauve-haired student finally gave in. "Everything I did was in memory of someone very important to me, Professor Alice."

"Who are you talking about?"

"Ace, Mira, and I used to be neighbors back then in Vestal, but Ace later moved to another district and attended a different high school. Since I'm the oldest in my family, my parents expected me to pitch in with chores, groceries, and basically everything. When both my parents were at work, I had to take care of all my younger siblings. Sometimes things got out of control, but Mira came by often to help me keep things in order. I was sad when I heard that she would be attending college in Bayview, but we kept in touch. She always posted photos about college life. I still remember the day she sent me a photo of a gold ring with a blue-purple gemstone that she found in the dirt."

"Are you referring to the ring with the 'S'? So how did you end up applying to BIU, attending my class, and planning this treasure hunt?"

"I was cleaning out old photos on my phone when I noticed that the ring photo that Mira sent me came with GPS coordinates, which was a hill somewhere near Sangokoi Strait here in Bayview. I went to the exact location and found not only the exact ring, but also a metal box with priceless jewels inside. That's when I realized that Mira might've been killed because she saw the jewelry thieves' faces, so I planned the whole treasure hunt to avenge her death. Only the people who recognized the ring and had direct involvement with the jewelry theft would know that the answer to my question was Sangokoi."

"But you didn't expect us from BIU to think the ring belonged to Stoica and also answer with 'Sangokoi' because that's coincidentally where he decked his ships during peacetime."

"No, I didn't... until I heard you lecture about Stoica after returning from winter break. At the restaurant, Lync's reaction to Annie and Sid was completely different from when he saw all of us from BIU. That's how I guessed that he was the bystander who didn't carry any lights on the hill and also didn't tell the police that he saw Annie and Sid kill Mira with a snake. I followed Lync after he scanned the QR code and asked him why he didn't speak up. All he told me was that he was afraid of retaliation. He put a lot of effort into searching for the ring because he knew about the stolen jewels, so I made him suffer by using the same snake species to poison him. You already know what happened to Annie and Sid after that."

Ace stared speechlessly the whole time, while Shun laid a hand on Baron's shoulder. "Think back on the cases that we solved as a team while working on my mom's anthology. The common theme across everything is that murdering for revenge is never the solution. Why did you still have to do this?"

"You won't understand how I felt when Mira died! She was like a big sister to me. Before I even met all of you, I had been planning how to exact revenge every day. I don't want to make this sound like your fault, but if none of you saw me use the GeoFinding website and app, then we wouldn't be here today, and no one would find out about my plan. There was no way for me to kick you guys out, so I changed my plans instead, but I already knew what the endgame would be since nothing can escape Professor Alice's deduction skills." The mauve-haired student walked over to the brunet. "Do whatever you need to do, Master Dan. It was nice meeting you too during my short-lived college experience."

"I..." After calling his supervisor and other colleagues to wrap up the case, Dan opened a set of handcuffs. "I'm sorry that things ended up this way."

Once everyone else went home, Shun noticed that Alice was trudging with her head down. "You don't look so well."

"Do you want to come to the rock quarry with me?"

"Sure." Once they arrived there, the redhead burst into tears. "You need to tell me what's wrong immediately."

"I don't know what to think! I absolutely do not regret changing my major from psychology to folklore studies back then. I can't think of any other college professor I've learned from that can surpass Shiori-san. She wasn't strict, but she wasn't easygoing, either. She always asked us thought-provoking questions and encouraged us to think outside the box. Her lecture style might not work for everyone, but I wouldn't be where I am today without her. Just like Baron said, I have excellent deduction skills because I learned all this from attending all my folklore classes."

The raven-haired secretary stared in silence until he whispered, "Is it bad that I envy you for seeing her every school day when you were still a student, while I pretty much only saw her on the weekends?"

Alice wiped her tears after realizing what she said. "I'm so sorry... I didn't mean to bring back any unpleasant memories from your teenage years or make you seem less important to her. My point was... no matter how much trivial information I learn or how closely I follow current events... I never would've expected someone close like Baron to be the perpetrator."

"There's no correlation between that at all." He pulled his jacket sleeve over his hand and wiped the rest of her tears off her face. "Anything is possible until you uncover the—"

The redhead instinctively grabbed Shun's hand and pressed it on her face with both her hands. "Since this case had nothing to do with pirate treasure at all, then that means we need to start over about where she could've gone."

"Now's not the time to give up, but if you need time off to recover from this mentally traumatic event, then don't think twice."

The assistant professor finally let go and breathed deeply. "I'll be fine. The police will probably need my statement since Baron was my student and I solved the case, but since I survived the fall semester, I'll survive the spring semester as well."

"Don't forget that I'm here, too. Will you ever find another secretary as efficient as me?"

"For a while, I suspected you were doing something incorrectly because you majored in something completely different, yet you managed to finish everything quickly and accurately with so much time left over. I seriously hope none of us are missing anything, although I wouldn't know because Shiori-san was usually my final check when I—what the?"

Not only did Shun pull Alice in for a hug, but he also planted a kiss on her forehead. "Don't think about anything related to BIU for the rest of the day. Do something else to clear your mind instead."

After coming to her senses again, she returned the hug and whispered, "Only if you'll also do the same."

-x-x-x-x-x-

In the Department of Folklore break room, Soon stared at her laptop screen until she heard the door open. "I'm sorry! Is it time to lock up the building?"

"Relax, it's just me." Alice took a seat next to her research assistant. "What are you looking at?"

"Just the map that Baron and I were arguing about the other day. Professor Alice, is it possible for me to withdraw from being a research assistant?"

"What do you mean?"

"It's just not the same without Baron here anymore."

"I see..." The assistant professor pulled out the table of contents page from her notes folder. "Even though we're almost done, it's still difficult to finish the rest of the project with one less person. But think about everything that you've learned during our previous assignments. You're from Minakami district, but you never expected to see how multicultural the other districts are."

"Traveling to Kashiwagi and Sangokoi made some good memories. Maybe you could adjust the next assignments to accommodate one less teammate and also my schedule."

"I'll try my best and let you know afterward."

Suddenly, the auburn-haired student's phone received a notification. "I'm sorry. I forgot to uninstall the GeoFinding app."

"Wait a minute... I thought Mister Big closed his account during the police investigation. Why is it active again?"

"His account came back?" Shun heard the ladies talking in the break room and walked inside. "I uninstalled the app already."

Soon opened the notification and read through all the text. "This has nothing to do with the treasure hunt. There's something hidden in the break room. We should look around."

While the trio looked through the bookshelves, cabinets, desk drawers, and pantry items, the raven-haired secretary later looked under the table and saw something taped to the underside. "I found a USB flash drive!"

"You can use my laptop." The auburn-haired student opened the drive location and found a video file. The thumbnail featured Baron facing the camera with his laptop.

Guys, look! I told you I could label this map of Bayview perfectly using computer software instead of printing it out and writing by hand... although Shun's idea wasn't bad at all. I was just worried that I might never be able to do this again. If you're watching this video, then that means I failed miserably. I registered for Professor Alice's beginner folklore class because Ace and Mira used to take this class when Professor Shiori was still here. Then I pushed myself to sign up to be a research assistant and never expected to meet the three of you, plus other graduate students and alumni. You made my short-lived college life much brighter. When I was doing fieldwork with you, I felt like I could be a regular college student and not have to think about revenge. Thank you for the awesome time together! As for these memories... It'd be too cheesy to say in English or Japanese, so excuse my pronunciation here... NAE MAEUM SOGE, JEOJANG! Look it up if you don't know what it means. Right now, I need to pull an all-nighter to finish the rest of this presentation. I want all of you to be proud of what I've done here. Peace out!

"What did he just say?" Soon whispered.

Shun replayed the foreign language segment. "That phrase is Korean for 'saved in my heart'. It was an iconic K-pop quote from a few years ago. No wonder Baron didn't want to say it in a language that we understood... But there's another file on the flash drive." He minimized the video screen and opened a JPG file. "What the... This map is insane. Look at all the district borders, points of interest, and even the color-coded legend. Super helpful to a non-local like me..."

"Unfortunately, it's useless now because this case was about stolen jewelry and not ancient pirate treasure."

"But if my mom didn't find any pirate treasure there, then where did the pirate ship flag come from?"

The assistant professor stared at the map while slowly grabbing a chair. "So that's where Sangokoi is located..."

"What do you mean, Alice? Landmarks don't just relocate overnight."

"Sangokoi is a strait, which by definition is a narrow passage of water connecting two other large areas of water. The surrounding land could also be collectively called Sangokoi because no land means no strait. This strait is where the bay water exits into the Pacific Ocean."

"Trident in the earth above water..." The raven-haired secretary recited the first line of Stoica's poem several times before asking, "What if the 'trident' is referring to how the water splits into multiple paths, like a river delta?" He searched online for a bathymetric map of all the waters surrounding Bayview. "The bay water splits at and through Sōryūjima. What is this place?"

"The natives named it 'twin dragon island' because—as you pointed out—this place is technically two islands with a very narrow yet continuous strait down the middle. It's still technically Bayview territory." Alice walked around while opening and closing her pocket watch. "Legend says that carp fish who successfully leap over the legendary Dragon Gate waterfall are rewarded for their perseverance by being transformed into dragons. And since 'Sangokoi' literally means 'coral carp'..."

"Then Sōryūjima must be where my mom discovered the flag and potentially other treasure."

"I think it's time to visit—"

"Sorry to interrupt..." Soon closed her laptop and began packing. "...but I need to go home. I'll leave the flash drive here. Let me know when you wish to visit Sōryūjima. I'm free on weekends."

"No worries. Take care!" The assistant professor put her pocket watch away. "If it weren't for Baron's map, then we never would've thought about visiting Sōryūjima. I'm definitely proud of him for that."

"At least we're no longer at square one... so it seems."

"What are your plans after we find Shiori-san again?"

"Return to Wardington as planned." After a long pause, Shun asked, "Why do you ask?"

"I need to plan for when you return to Wardington and vacate the secretary position."

"At least my mom would be back as the department head again."

"Yes, but I can't work as both an assistant professor and department secretary at the same time."

"Would you prefer that I stay?"

Alice stopped walking and looked over. "What I want is irrelevant. All that matters is that you get your long-awaited family reunion. We still have time to figure things out. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Good night." After watching her leave the break room, he sat on the table and rested his ankles on another chair. I know exactly what I want, but I don't know if Alice will agree to it.