Chapter 28 Chapter Twenty-Three

fourth day is her, It's the girl I believe in, She saw me too and recognized me, With an urgent and pleading look, Let me have the urge to step forward and save her... Chapter Twenty-Three morning class William and Severinus inspected Berengar's body and found that the tongue was black, which is not normal for drowned people, and then they discussed the highly poisonous poison and the possibility of theft I won't go into detail how we informed the abbot, how the whole monastery woke up before the hour of worship, the screams of terror, the fear and sadness that were on every face, and how the news spread throughout the monastery.The servants murmured and prayed silently, fearing that they would be disturbed by demons.I do not know whether the first service that morning was held as usual, or who attended.Severinus had his servants wrap up Berengar's body and place it on a table in the sanatorium.I followed William and Severinus.

After the Abbot and the other monks had left, the herbalist and my mentor had a chance to examine the body, with the calm indifference of a physician. "There is no doubt that he was drowned," said Severinus, "his face was swollen, his belly was tense..." "But no one else drowned him," observed William, "for in that case he would have resisted the murderer's violence, yet everything was clean and tidy, as if Berengar had first boiled hot water and Pour it into the bathtub and lie down in it by yourself." "I'm not surprised," said Severinus. "Berengar has convulsions, and I've often told him that hot baths are soothing. Several times he asked me not to turn off the fire in the bathhouse. Off. So, most likely last night..."

"Last night," William interrupted, "because the body—as you can tell—has been in the water for at least a day." William told him something about the night before, but he didn't tell Seth. Verinus said we had sneaked into the office, and withheld many details, except that we chased a mysterious figure who took a book from us.Severinus knew that William had only told him part of the truth, but did not press further.He only said that if Berengar was the mysterious thief, he might be nervous and wanted to take a bath to calm himself down.He said that Berenga was sensitive by nature, and sometimes when his heart fluttered or his mood changed, he would tremble all over, break out in cold sweat, his eyes would bulge out, and then he would fall to the ground and foam at the mouth.

"Anyway," said William, "he must have been somewhere else before he came here, for I did not see the book he stole in the bath-house. So we suppose he went somewhere else first." Go, and then, to calm himself, and perhaps to evade our pursuit, he slipped into the bathhouse, and dipped in the tub. Do you think, Severinus, that his illness would render him unconscious and drown him? ?” Severinus said suspiciously: "It's possible." He checked the hands of the corpse again, and after a while, he said again, "There is a strange thing..." "What's the matter?"

"After Venantius's body was washed that day, I also examined his hands and noticed that the tips of two fingers on Venantius' right hand were blackened, as if by some black substance. Yes. Do you see?—Like these two fingertips of Berengar. In fact, there is still a mark on the third finger now. I thought Venantius got ink in his office... ..." "Interesting," William said thoughtfully, examining Berengar's fingers more closely. It was almost dawn, the light in the room was still dim, and my instructor was clearly distressed by the lack of glasses: "Interesting," he repeated, "but there are also a little marks on his left hand, at least on the thumb and index finger."

"If there is only the right hand, then it is the fingers holding something. This thing is not big, maybe long and thin..." "Such as a stylus, or some kind of food, or a louse, or a snake, a eucharist, a walking stick. There are too many things. But since there are signs in the other hand, it is probably a wine glass, the right hand Hold it steadily, assist with your left hand, and use less strength..." Severinus rubbed the dead man's fingers lightly, but the black marks did not fade.I noticed that he was wearing a pair of gloves, which he probably wore when handling poison.He sniffed, but found nothing: "I could name you many vegetables and minerals that leave such traces. Some deadly, some not. Book decorators sometimes have gold dust on their fingers... …

"Adelmo was a book decorator," William interjected. "I don't think it occurred to you to examine his fingers, since his body was so bruised from the fall. But the two of them may have touched Adelmo before he was alive." All of something." "I really don't know," said Severinus. "Two dead men with blackened fingers. What do you deduce from this?" "There is nothing. The two cases must obey the same rule. For example, an object that exists, and whoever touches it will blacken his finger..." I rushed to finish his deduction: "...Venantius and Berengar both had black fingers, so they both touched the object?"

"Very well, Adso," said William, "it's a pity that your inference doesn't hold, because in it the middle term is not general. That's a sign that our main premise wasn't chosen well. I shouldn't have Say that everyone who has touched that object will get their fingers black, because there may be people who have not touched the object, but their fingers are black. I should say that all and only those who have black fingers must have touched a given object. Bodies, Venantius and Berengar, etc. From this we have an excellent third argument for the first argument."

"Then we have an answer," I said happily. "Ah, Adso, you believe too much in theory! All we have, is nothing more than a problem. That is, we propose the hypothesis that Venantius and Berengar touched the same thing, and this hypothesis is undoubtedly Makes sense. However, while we've established that an object exists that caused this result (which has yet to be confirmed), we still don't know what it is, where they found it, and why they touched it. And, Don't you forget, we don't even know if the object they touched caused their death. Imagine a madman trying to kill everyone who touched gold dust, can we say that it's the gold dust that kills?"

I'm confused.I have always believed that logic is a universal weapon, and now I understand that its effectiveness depends on the way it is applied.And, ever since I was with my mentor, I've come to see more and more that logic works especially well when you've brought it up and left it behind. Severinus was no logician, and he was thinking based on his own experience. "The field of poisons is as diverse as the mysteries of nature." He said, pointing to the bottles and jars neatly placed on the shelf against the wall, "As I said before, many of these herbs can be destroyed if they are not used properly. Be deadly poisons. There, belladonna, thapsigargin, they can cause drowsiness, excitement, or both. They are good medicines when taken with caution, but death in excess."

"But these substances don't leave any marks on the fingers, do they?" "I believe neither. Some substances are only dangerous if ingested, while others are effective when applied to the skin. A man who pulls up a weed will vomit from touching it. White moss and Peppermint, when in bloom, anesthetizes the gardener who touches them, as if drunk. The hellebore, just touching it, causes diarrhea. Some plants cause palpitations, some give headaches, and others It will make people dumb. I saw someone smear poisonous snake liquid on the inner thigh of a dog, near the genitals, and soon the dog died of convulsions, and its limbs gradually became stiff..." "You know a lot about poisons." There was a hint of admiration in William's voice. Severinus looked directly into his eyes for a while: "All I know is what a doctor, a herbalist, and a student of human health science must know." William thought for a while.Then he begged Severinus to open the dead man's mouth and see his tongue.Severinus' curiosity was greatly increased. He took a long and thin tongue depressor and pried open the mouth of the corpse in accordance with William's instructions. He shouted in surprise: "The tongue is black!" "Then," whispered William, "he took something between his fingers and swallowed it...and that eliminated those poisons you just spoke of that can kill you when rubbed on the skin. But it doesn't Doesn't make our inferences any easier, because now we have to assume that both he and Venantius acted voluntarily. They took something, put it in their mouth, and knew what they were doing... ..." "Is it something to eat? Or something to drink?" "Maybe. Maybe—who knows? A musical instrument, like a flute..." "It's ridiculous," said Severinus. "Of course it is absurd. But we must not lightly dismiss any hypothesis, however far-fetched it may be. Now let's get back to poisonous substances. If someone who knows poisons as well as you does breaks in here, use Is it possible that he could make a deadly poultice that leaves those marks on fingers and tongue? Is it possible that the poison is mixed with food or drink, put on a spoon, or some An object that you would put in your mouth?" "Yes," admitted Severinus, "but who could it be? Besides, even if we accept the hypothesis, how did this person poison our two poor brothers?" Frankly, I myself find it difficult to imagine Venantius or Berengarcon accepting a mysterious substance offered to them by someone, and devouring it unsuspectingly.But William doesn't seem bothered by it. "We'll come back to that later," he said. "Now I want you to try to think of anything you didn't remember earlier. For example, someone asked you about herbs; Easy access to the sanatorium..." "Wait a minute," said Severinus, "a long time ago, for several years, I placed on one of the shelves a vial of a potent substance, a My brother gave it to me. He can't tell me what it's made of, many kinds of herbs, but they are rarely heard. Looking through the bottle, it is a bit sticky and yellowish. But the brother warned me not to Go touch it because if that thing touches my lips it won't take long for me to die. The brother told me that even if ingested even a little bit, within half an hour it would cause extreme weakness followed by paralysis of the limbs , and finally death. He didn't want to take it with him, so he gave it to me. I kept it for a long time, and I always wanted to find time to study it. Then one day, a big storm hit here. One of my assistants, a novice, forgot to lock the door of the sanatorium. So the hurricane swept through the room where we are standing now, and ravaged the place. Bottles broke, liquids poured on the ground, herbs and powders scattered It took me a whole day to put things away, all by myself, and only my assistants to sweep away the broken bottles. Only then did I realize that the little glass bottle I just mentioned to you was missing Yes. I was worried at first, then I decided the bottle must have been broken and mixed in with other trash. I've cleaned the sanitarium floor carefully, and the shelves..." "Did you see that pill bottle before the storm hit?" "Yeah... oh, I don't think so. It was carefully hidden behind a row of bottles, and I didn't check it every day..." "So, for all you know, it was probably stolen before the storm and you didn't see it?" "If you think about it carefully, yes, there is no doubt about it." ※Bandhammer Academyの重学E Book※ "That novice of yours probably stole it and took advantage of the storm to leave the door open on purpose to create a mess?" Severinus looked very excited: "Yes, of course. More than that, now that I think back on the situation at that time, the storm, although violent, still surprises me that it made a mess of the entire laboratory. It is likely Someone took advantage of the storm to mess up the room and cause damage that had nothing to do with the hurricane!" "Who is that apprentice monk?" "His name was Augustin. But he died last year, when he and other monks and servants were cleaning the statues on the outside of the chapel, and fell off the ledge. I remember now, when he pointed at the sky. Swear he didn't forget to lock the door before the storm hit. I, in a fit of rage, blamed him for the accident. Maybe he really was innocent." "So there must be a third person, perhaps more knowledgeable than a novice, who also knows that you have a vial of rare poison. Who did you mention?" "I don't remember that. Dean, of course, I have to get his permission to keep such a dangerous medicine. There are a few more people, maybe in the library, because I am looking for herbal medicine books that may have relevant records. " "But didn't you tell me that you put all the most useful books here?" "Yes, and a lot of them," he said, pointing to a bookshelf in another corner, "but then I was looking for books that I couldn't put here, and Malachi wasn't even willing to lend me one. The truth is Now, I’m going to ask the dean for an order first.” He lowered his voice, almost ashamed to let me hear his words, “You know, in a secret place in the library, there are books about magic, witchcraft, There are also books on the secret recipe of the devil's aphrodisiac. The dean allowed me to borrow such books if necessary. I was trying to find records about the poison and its functions in the book, but it was in vain." "Then you mentioned it to Malachi." "Of course, and perhaps with his assistant, Berengar. But you must not draw conclusions. I don't remember. When I told the story of the glass bottle, there may have been other monks present. Sometimes the office There are a lot of people here, you know..." "I'm not suspecting anyone, just trying to understand what might have happened. Anyway, you said it happened years ago, and it's a shame that anyone who stole poison and waited so long to use it Strange. It means that an evil mind has been meditating a murderous plan in the dark." Severinus said a few words, with a look of horror on his face: "God forgive us all!" he said. No further judgments were made.We covered Berengar's body again and waited to see him buried.