Today he caught the bus, so he didn’t pass by Tianyi Bookstore. Actually, even if he chose to walk to school, Samuel Grant knew that the bookstore owner would never open so early. Judging by his demeanor, he was the type who would never crawl out of bed before ten in the morning, so passing by the bookstore would be pointless anyway.

The situation at school was pretty much as Samuel Grant had imagined. The night-shift guy discovered the body around four o’clock. He didn’t call an ambulance, just went straight to the police—probably because Henry Clark’s appearance had already made it abundantly clear that “there’s no saving me.”

By dawn, the police had sealed off the entire third floor of the teaching building. The investigation and evidence collection proceeded at a leisurely pace, and quite a few teachers and even students were questioned. Samuel Grant wasn’t questioned, perhaps because he looked too inconspicuous, or maybe he just gave off an introverted, hard-to-approach vibe.

All morning, the students whispered among themselves, and of course, the topic was Henry Clark’s death. The teachers seemed distracted during their lectures, so they just let classroom discipline slide.

“Ah... Henry Clark, he really was the worst! A mean and sleazy middle-aged man, over forty and still unmarried, right? He was always getting handsy with some of the female teachers, and I heard he even harassed some female students. But this guy never left any evidence when he did bad things, had a good relationship with the school board, and was great at sucking up to parents, so even the principal couldn’t fire him. So everyone just had to watch him strut around the school every day, flaunting his petty triumphs and being an eyesore.

It’s really great that someone like that could kill himself—finally did the world a favor! Hey, officer, don’t look at me like that. I just speak my mind, that’s all. I’m only saying what everyone else is too afraid to say.”

The one saying this to the police was Teacher Harold Price. She was a Japanese literature teacher, past menopause and nearing retirement, a hot-blooded woman with no filter. With a personality like that, it was hard to get promoted to leadership, but people like her were never disliked by colleagues or students—except for Henry Clark...

If Henry Clark was like slimy dirty water, then Harold Price was boiling hot oil. The opportunistic Henry Clark could skillfully switch between groveling and arrogance depending on who he was dealing with, but when it came to Auntie Harold Price, all he could do was keep his distance. The reason was simple: put a petty person next to ordinary people, and he’s just annoying; but compare a petty person to someone truly upright, and he’s nothing but scum.

Of course, the police would sift and analyze the statements they collected, but everyone seemed to agree on Henry Clark’s character—basically, he was someone who deserved what he got.

But precisely because of this, the case became even more puzzling.

Would someone like that really commit suicide? And he lived alone—why bother sneaking into the school in the middle of the night to do it? Couldn’t he just hang himself at home?

As noon approached, the school finally announced a half-day off. After lunch, the students could go home.

This was undoubtedly good news for Samuel Grant. He couldn’t wait to rush to that bookstore—there were too many questions that needed answers. Still, he calmly finished his lunch in the cafeteria and left with most of the others.

Samuel Grant told himself he had to be extremely careful, not to do anything out of the ordinary. Even if no one would pay attention to him, he still had to be as cautious as possible.

He walked for an hour to get home, keeping a calm demeanor the whole way, and didn’t even glance at Tianyi Bookstore as he passed by.

“I’m back.” Samuel Grant said as he closed the door behind him and sat down in the entryway to change his shoes.

He walked into the living room. His father was sitting under the kotatsu, a cigarette dangling from his mouth, watching TV. When he heard Samuel Grant open the door, he didn’t even turn his head and said, “Back so early—did you skip class?”

Samuel Grant sat down by the kotatsu and started pulling homework out of his backpack. “Teacher Henry Clark committed suicide at school last night, so classes are canceled this afternoon.”

His dad frowned slightly at this. “Ah... that guy, he’s your homeroom teacher, right? I remember him. He came for a home visit last year, didn’t he? Walked in with that look of disgust, and when he talked to me, he had this arrogant expression—what a guy.” He took a deep drag on his cigarette. “How did he die? Jump off the school roof? Or hang himself or something?”

Samuel Grant’s expression was numb as he pushed up his thick glasses. “He hanged himself. I heard he snuck into the school at night and did it in his own office. I don’t really know the details.”

“Oh, right.” Samuel Grant’s dad reached for the remote on the table. As he moved, he let out a burp, a waft of alcohol on his breath, but Samuel Grant didn’t pay much attention—he was used to it by now.

“This might even make the news.” His dad flipped through a few channels, found one broadcasting the news, and stopped.

“With the New Year approaching, Hokkaido’s public security situation continues to decline at the end of the year. Compared to other regions in the prefecture, it’s once again ranked last. In addition to frequent burglaries, violent crimes have also increased. The police spokesperson refused to comment on these figures. Today, our station’s reporter and several invited experts will...”

The news was the same as always, reporting some depressing stories, then bringing in a few so-called experts to offer some useless, after-the-fact opinions.