Boom...!
The earth shook with a tremor, and thick smoke rose into the sky.
The clear sign of an explosion sharpened the senses that had been dulled until then.

Something unusual is happening.
With that thought, I lowered my body closer to the ground and pricked up my ears.
It was a purely instinctive move to gather as much information as possible.

‘This smell...’

At that moment, a sharp, acrid smell pricked my nose, making me frown involuntarily.
Perhaps it was carried by the unnatural wind from the explosion.
The unpleasant scent drifting through the gap in my mask was unmistakably the smell of gunpowder.

That would mean the explosion was caused by gunpowder, not magic.
Of course, there are cases where magical explosions involve creating substances similar to gunpowder,
so I can’t completely rule out the possibility that magic was involved, but still…

‘The distance from the explosion site is close. But according to Echo, there were no electronic devices within a 100m radius...’

Since candidates must always wear watches on their wrists, the likelihood that the culprit is a candidate was low.
No matter what trickery they might try, they couldn’t escape Echo’s detection abilities.