1705 The Ironic Light Orchestra/Prologue: The Death of the Corpse

Synopsis
In 1705, a girl's corpse is found spread-eagle on the ground of Lotto Valentino, an Italian port city with a population of about 50,000 people. Covering the girl's face is a white mask—the same as others that have similarly decorated other corpses. The next day's newssheet portions a small corner of its contents to the murder, but dedicates over half of its page to a follow-up on corruption within the City Police, the city's security force.

The newssheet's piece on the murder includes the basic facts of the serial killings: a mysterious person in a white mask has been often spotted near the scenes of the crimes, with the mask matching those that the victims wear; and the City Police have declared this masked person a suspect and are currently searching for him.

That Lotto Valentino has a City Police is in itself unusual for the time; rather than the Spanish military police keeping order in the city, it is the City Police that do so, and have done for several decades. As the 1705 serial killings are the first of their kind to endanger the city since the City Police's founding, the city considers it a matter of dignity for the police to capture the perpetrator.

Despite this, the newssheet had hardly reported on the girl's murder. In truth, the city has become desensitized to the murders; not only is the girl the twenty-seventh victim of the masked man, it has been half a year since the murders first began. Even so, fear remains rooted in the lives of the populace.