They sprinted through the long dirt road for the lit up box mansion at the end. 669 suspected that visiting the grounds at night was due to suspicion of Corpse Puppet Magic.

“Let’s hurry before anything jumps out to attack us.” Emelia panted as she picked up the speed of her sprints.

Naturally 669 was able to keep up and then some, being a skilled henchmen scout and vanguard.

“You seem to be slowing down. Need me to get out your pills, old timer?” He joked as he came up beside her.

“Old timer?! I’m the same age as you. Just keep running pretty-boy.” She pushed her sprints harder to push a head, making him chuckle.

But they slowed to a walk when they approached the entrance courtyard and saw no lights or signs of life.

“Where is everyone?” 669 gulped, getting a strange feeling about the place.

“It’s as Morse and I suspected. Seems this time there maybe more than one victim.”

They strolled up to the front door and pressed the bell, then waited. Time ticked past, but there were no stirrings.

“Damn it.” Emelia felt impatient so she led the way across the front porch and to the side path that curved toward a hedge maze.

Arrows whizzed toward them as they were coming around the bend to enter the back end of the grounds.

“Duck!” 669 pushed Emelia out of the arrow’s path and whirled around to dodge them. Fortunately, he had kept their Vast Eye power active so they could easily see the projectiles in the dark.

Emelia caught a figure break cover from a hedge bush with an attempt to make an escape.

“Chase!”

They sprinted after the person, fortunately able to keep them in their sights, but the person was fast. 669 suspected they were using a spell. As they continued the chase, he got a whiff of a musty and floral scent that reminded him of pomegranate juice.

“Let’s split up.” He suggested and expanded his Vast Eye vision so most of the hedge maze was visible.

They dispersed in two directions and was eventually able to catch up to the assailant.

“Poison Magia: Bind!” Emelia bellowed out her spell, causing a cloud of purple poisonous smoke to blanket the area around the person.

“Water Magia: Damp.” The person counter the spell with rainfall that dispelled the poison cloud.

669 attacked them from behind. They were skilled enough in hand combat but their fist blows and arm thrusts had a better flexibility than his, so they were able to evade his movements. The assailant smashed a glass that activated a smoke bomb, which concealed their escape. He had blindly clutched at their body and was able to tear off some material before they had disappeared.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Damn it!” Emelia panted as she caught up to them.

He examined the black cloth he had managed to tear off the person’s clothes. They had been covered in a black robe and head mask, so their body couldn’t be distinguished. But there were clues that could lead them to their identity.

“Looks like the danger has passed for now, but the feel of the area. Let’s examine the mansion.’ She suggested and whipped out a bag to seal the cloth into.

669 nodded and dumped the piece in the bag, which gave a short spark.

“The bag is laced with water magic to preserve the item in its current condition.” She explained.

They calmly retraced their steps to the mansion path and front entrance.

“The door is opened this time.” 669 pointed at the slight gap between the door and frame.

He turned off his Vast Eye power, so he wasn’t completely drained of his magic.

“Hello? Royal Guard here.” Emelia called out as she poked her head through and paused with a gasp.

The smell of blood was strong. They saw why.

669 lowered himself down the sprawled body of the mansion’s butler, who looked like they had been dead for a few days.

Emelia whipped out her notebook and quill to take notes and magically draw the body at the scene. She did the same for all the other servant dead bodies they had encountered up the main staircase to the second floor. By the time they reached the fifth floor, the area was void of bodies, but it was eerily quiet. 669 noticed the broken hall window adjacent to a room door.

“Look. Just like Poirot Mansion.”

They leaned over the window break to see the outside area below: the energies of a dead body still lingered on the barely visible ground directly beneath them.

“Let’s take a look.”

They retraced their steps to the outside of the broken window and saw the body. As 669 cast a light over them, sure enough, they saw a young lord dead on the ground in the same way as the other two murders. But something was different or new to this death. He caught a faint mark on the forehead: an outline of a lotus flower. But it was so faint it could be mistaken for skin discoloration.

“There’s a lotus flower mark on his forehead.” No sooner had 669 said this, his mind spiraled backward with thoughts and stopped on a vision where a building was burning around him, and a flaming banner had broken free from its flagpole to almost fall on top of his body. His eyes widened at the black foreign image of a lotus, which writhed about the material to dominate a flower print.

“669!” Emelia shook the man by the arm, when she saw he was going into a virya deviation throughout his body, which was clammy and showing other evidence of being weakened.

“Close down your magic and take a moment to regather your strength.” She gently patted his back.

He nodded and lowered himself on the stone ground in a meditation pose to recover his strength. She waited for him to be well enough and break out of the brief meditation, before continuing their analysis.

“The forehead has a lotus flower? Different aspect to the other victims.” Emelia examined the forehead and took note of it in her notebook. “Right, I think we’re done here. Let me seal off the crime scene and call a harse cab.”

669 nodded as he helped her set black sealing flags around corner points of the mansion zone and watched her perform a spell to seal the area with a domain spell.

She then pulled out a firecracker, unwound a string at its base, then pull it to release a firework’s image of a white clover in the night sky.

They waited for their pick-up to arrive.