Day 5 - Nighttime - Late Night
26th Second autumn, 1152
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Investigator Jeanne takes another heavy breath. She tries not to tremble too much, her brown and leather coat doesn't work too well when she is out at night this hour. Braun doesn't seem to be in a better condition either. Both of them are experiencing the cold air on horseback, only the warmth of their bodies keeps them alive.
It has been two or three hours since Jeanne and Braun started stalking Selena's wagon. Without much preparation, this journey shows the investigator real pain, but she doesn't mind it at all. Jeanne is just worried about Braun, she was the one being pulled into this journey. The woman said her daughter would be well cared for by the maids but as a mother, the investigator knows no mother would want to be apart from their children, this is too much for Braun.
Jeanne looks around the area where she is, hoping to distract herself from the cold. She realizes she is in the middle of the woods, the road where Braun's horse is walking on is a trail, covered by coldness. Just trees and trees on both sides of the road, just darkness and coldness covering the two women on the horse. The wagon they're stalking is away from them not too far, just enough for the people not to detect them in the dark and enough for both of them to keep track of the wagon.
At first, the investigator intended to stalk on foot, but the cold just tore that idea apart. Jeanne also asked Braun to turn off the torches during the stalking to make sure both of them wouldn't be detected from afar, but it's just a terrible idea.
A small bright light suddenly catches Jeanne's attention. It appears to be a fireball coming out from Braun's palm, it's magic. Jeanne is a no educated person, or at least she was only taught to read and write. Magic and spells are something only accessible to the nobles, it's not a free thing to learn.
Braun notices Jeanne is trembling due to the cold. She extends the size of the fireball and shares some with the investigator's seat, both of them are feeling a little bit better.
"This way leads to Veta... I know where she's going to...". - Braun extends the fireball, she slows down the speed of her horse
"Sorry...". - Jeanne trembles a little
Braun doesn't respond. Both of the women maintain their bodies on horseback, the cold is still there. Braun wants to take a break, but she knows it's pointless to do something like this. Resting on the ground is much worse than being on horseback, losing track of the wagon is not a good idea either.
"I know this road, madame... I used to go with her several times, most people wouldn't go here, we can be relieved to follow the wheel marks". - Braun inhales and exhales, she wants to make sure her voice is loud enough for Jeanne to hear
All of a sudden, Braun stops her horse as she finished the words she just said. Her face appears somewhat confused, she keeps looking at the road ahead and turning around, watching the road where she just passed by earlier.
"It's supposed to be on the left...". - Braun slaps her head gently, as if she just realized something unusual. "................................". - Just a silence, she feels like her navigation skills just lost. "Both of them look like the same but...". - Braun keeps looking forward and backward, feeling unsure
"What's the matter?". - Jeanne steadies her breath
"We just turned left a few minutes ago, right?".
"Hmmm... I saw you turning right". - Jeanne doesn't remember either, just her assumption from what she tried to recollect
Braun appears to be more confused after hearing what Jeanne just confirmed. She doesn't notice she just triggered the rein. Just in a blink of an eye, Jeanne sees herself slipped off from horseback. She doesn't fall, her hands cling tightly to Braun's belt, almost making both of them fall.
Jeanne touches her boots on the ground and keeps her distance from Braun a bit. She nods to tell the female guard that she is fine.
"What happened?". - Jeanne asks, noticing the worries on Braun's face
Braun doesn't respond, she just lightly shakes her head. Her breath keeps coming out, her lungs going up and down due to the cold. Everything appears to be something bizarre. The investigator climbs on the horse again, trying to know what Braun wants to do.
"You want... to go there...?". - Jeanne gasps a little
"I never told her about this road... not everyone goes here either". - Braun does her to make sure her voice is coming out loud enough. "Hang on, madame, we'll get going".
The horse suddenly speeds up after taking order from Braun. Jeanne almost fell, the female guard increased the speed before she could hold on to her. The footsteps of the horse keep echoing on the road, Braun lights up a torch to give herself a clear path, somehow the stalking has turned into something else.
Jeanne wanted to ask Braun to take action carefully so that Selena and the servants in her wagon wouldn't spot them. However, Jeanne knows that is no use now. Braun seems to have another thing for her to worry about, it seems to be more important than being caught stalking her best friend.
In the blink of an eye, Jeanne realizes the horse has dropped her down somewhere. Everything is dark as always, Braun's panting is what distracts the investigator, she is bewildered about where she is. Selena's wagon did not show up before their eyes earlier. It might be too far ahead, beyond Jeanne's miscalculation about the distance during the stalking.
Jeanne inhales and exhales again, she feels confused when the road ahead appears to be colder than the one behind her. Something uneasy is here, just on the road ahead, the investigator just wants to have a light for a better view. Braun lights up the torch in her hand once again, it turned off earlier for no reason. She also lights up another torch and hands it to the investigator in silence.
A fragile, but enough bright light comes to Jeanne's eyes. Her eyes suddenly catch an object on the ground, just away from her a few feet ahead, it doesn't look normal. She blinks twice to make sure she didn't mislook. That same object appears as a skeleton, with ragged clothes, body completely lifeless.
"I can't believe she'd use this road for travel". - Braun gasps, then steps forward
Jeanne also follows. The deeper both of them walk in this location, the more disturbing things show up, this road is full of dead bodies. On both sides of the road, in the middle of the road, etc. Those are the rotten bodies with only bones remaining, appear to have been staying in this area for years.
The two women keep walking forward. This time, a high "mountain", deep on the left side of the road, appears before their eyes. It must be a hundred, or a thousand people there. The bodies are stacked up one by one, the scene of this place, somehow, makes it appear like a complete different world these two have stepped into.
Jeanne stays quiet. She was quite shocked to see something this terrifying. Instead of being overwhelmed by that fear, she waits for Braun to open her mouth. From what the investigator sees, the bodies lying on the road are not new, all of them have been here for years. Jeanne waves the torch in her hand further, trying to understand what this place is. Only skeleton corpses before her eyes, some other objects like spears, shields and armors can be seen as well, some of these objects are even sunk on the ground and grass.
"This looks like an old battlefield", Jeanne thinks to herself.
The investigator looks back at Braun, she notices the female guard feeling worried.
"There's no way she'd do this...". - Braun murmurs to herself, she turns around, as if she doesn't dare to look at Jeanne
Jeanne doesn't know what this place is exactly, but she sees it as a potential location for body disposal. Selena and her wagon just went through this road earlier. It's possible to dispose of the bodies by dumping them here. Going out when it's dark and dumping bodies in this dark place, to think about it further, it's possible. However, the investigator sees there are so many bodies in this area, must be about from a hundred to a thousand. This will take a very long time to identify all of these.
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"Madame, I beg you, Selena has nothing to do with this". - Braun clings to Jeanne's hand as if she doesn't want to believe what she just saw, she wants to believe Selena. "My friend may be weird to choose this road but she has nothing to do with this. Please, I can explain".
Jeanne nods. She feels bad for Braun but she wants her to spill out what she knows, she needs more information for the investigation, especially this new road.
"So...", - Braun tries to steady her breath. "ten years ago, this place was a war zone between my country and Attenta Kingdom. The Attentan Army gathered the civilians here and killed them, they blamed us for the crimes...". - She puts her hands away, trying to stay calm as much as possible. "It'll take up very much of time and money to clean up this place after the war, so it was left till this time. Just... please, madame, I don't know why my friend chose this place to travel but she is innocent, I beg you, believe me please".
"Everything is alright, Lady Frieden". - Jeanne reassures the female guard, although her mind didn't say so. "By the way, what is this place called...?".
"Land of... The Dead...". - Braun speaks up
Jeanne nods. She looks around the area a bit more, looking at the bodies in her sight. The wagon is sure to be far away now, but she knows it's also too late for her to continue chasing it. Even if she can chase it, she can't do anything but watch because she doesn't have a warrant paper to make a search. Fortunately, this road appears to be a potential location to solve the case, at least this journey went with some results.
"Do people know this place well?". - Jeanne turns around to see Braun
"I don't think so, madame. But many people rumor this area has a haunted road... maybe they were referring to this". - Braun points her torch up, watching the bodies piled up like a mountain
Jeanne stays quiet. She wonders if Selena's earlier arrival was normal, or if she just did something here before leaving. Unable to stop her constant thoughts, the investigator looks around, waving her burning torch to everywhere she glances. "Hmmmm... if she uses this place to dump the bodies...", she keeps thinking. All of a sudden, the investigator lowers her gaze.
"Lady Frieden...".
"?". - Braun gets bewildered a little
"Does she often go out at night like this in every charity work?".
"No. She always did that in the morning, going out at night is dangerous... I'm very confused...". - Braun shakes her head slightly, she holds her sword which is tightened to her belt, her eyes looking forward and backward. "Maybe... maybe she uses this place because not many people know about it. People are scared of ghosts anyway, they won't go where they're scared of, especially the road where is full of bodies, she's innocent". - Again, the woman still defends her friend
Jeanne doesn't respond. She ignores her trembling and takes a walk around the mountain of corpses to check on it carefully. Unlike other bodies that are left scattered all over the place without order, these piled-up bodies stay in one place. "Who knows among these skeletons, there's still a body that still has some flesh on it", Jeanne thinks to herself a little bit.
However, the investigator rejects what she just thought. It's impossible to find it, every time when someone leaves the palace with a wagon, it will be checked by the royal guards before having permission to leave for travel. Then... it means if there's a victim buried within these skeletons, the only parts that can be found are the limbs of the victims.
Jeanne starts thinking further about Selena's departure times when she goes out at night. If possible, those times could be the moments she went to dump the bodies of those poor victims. Unfortunately, there's no way the guards who work at the entrance will have a book to make a record of it, tracking it through travel records is impossible. And yet, the investigator knows very little about the corruption of Warsaw Kingdom. Selena might be a poor noble, but she could use her beauty or the money from Koenig's support for her charity work to bribe the guards so that they wouldn't check on her wagon whenever she goes out.
The more Jeanne thinks, the more she gets overthinking. She shakes her head twice, trying to shake off what she just thought but still carefully notes it deep in her mind.
"I'm not suspecting Lady Breima, Lady Frieden. I believe the killer is someone else... but... to make sure she is not guilty, I have to make it clear through this investigation". - Jeanne reassures Braun, she points her torch toward the bodies
The investigator walks in a circle, pointing her torch to every corpse she sees on the ground. Then she returns to check on the piled-up bodies to make sure they're intact. She wants to find out if there is a physical sign of these skeleton bodies being stepped on or touched, but she can't find any traces to prove it. It's possible to bury a body in these corpses, but to do that, there must be some physical interactions on the skeleton bodies to prove it.
Jeanne sighs. She knows her eyesight is not as good as the time when she was still a youngster. Maybe it's because the place is too dark that the torches cannot brighten everything up. She can just mess up with the corpses to find the limbs of the victims, but it will take more time than being able to identify the position of the suspicious marks in the first place so the search will take shorter.
"At least I've found where the bodies could possibly be hidden", Jeanne thinks to herself.
But the real question which still annoys Jeanne is... if they were murdered in the castle, where their bodies were dismembered?
"Madame, can we stop stalking? It's so cold right now". - Braun weakly speaks up, she trembles. "This place just gets scarier...". - She gasps, trying to reach her horse
Jeanne is too drowned in her thoughts, it's no use for Braun to call her. The investigator has been going through hundreds of cases in her life, a big bad luck in her life was that in her initial years being an investigator, almost all the cases she involved were murders. She has many ideas of the location where the victims in this case could be dismembered after they were murdered. However, she can't find a proper location of the palace that fits what she can think of.
"Madame, you'll catch a cold". - Braun stands before Jeanne. "Please don't make me worried". - She keeps waving her torch around the investigator, trying to create some heat. "We'll return, hold me". - She decides to hold the investigator and cover her while walking back to her horse, she wonders what Jeanne is thinking about when her face is only pointing to the ground
A thought in Jeanne's mind suddenly sparked up. She remembers a basement in the palace where is only accessible to royal members. That's the only location she and her daughter - Hannah haven't checked from the beginning. Unfortunately, Jeanne assumes being able to get in there is possible but it will need a lot of help from Prince Koenig.
It's possible to hide the dismembered bodies in a place where only a few people can enter. This also explains why the victims are not found. They were killed, dismembered and stored in the basement before being loaded up in a wagon and driven to the final disposal location, evidence erased. But if this theory was true, then Selena was just a card. The Queen would be the mastermind all along, the real killer would still walk free.
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The two women managed to return to the palace without facing anything dangerous on their way. According to Braun, Land of The Dead used to be a battlefield in the past of Warsaw Kingdom's history. Thousands of civilians and soldiers were gathered, murdered and left there by Attentan Army. After the war, due to financial problems, the bodies were left there intact and citizens were ordered not to travel there for safety. Despite being a road that only had one bad history, the people, mostly the superstitious, rumored that the road is where spiritual entities like ghosts and demons are haunting.
It's unsure if the Land of The Dead is safe to travel or not. Braun knew about it because she used to be a soldier in that war and were the first ones to witness it. It's reasonable to say the road is dangerous, especially at night. The outlaws like bandits can use that place to make a hideout, especially when it's abandoned with a history of things most people wouldn't want to travel there to see. However, if that road is safe and Selena uses it to dispose of the bodies then...
Till now, to Jeanne, it's unsure why Selena knew about that road. The only explanation she can think of is that a noble girl like Selena was born in Veta, that road is also located in her hometown anyway. Being a local there might explain why Selena knew about it. But what the investigator wants right now is to find the connection between the crime and the road, the case is not yet to end that early.
Jeanne and Braun are now walking side by side together. They're both exhausted, the female guard is even in a worse condition because she just coughed a while ago. Braun appears to be very dedicated to her duty, she wants to escort Jeanne back to her room. But she doesn't seem to respect her health, she now has to hold the wall on the right side of the hallway when she walks, she can barely balance her body.
"Just get back in your room. Thank you...". - Jeanne wants to apologize, but she knows the word "sorry" only deepens the matter because words are worthless when it doesn't come to actions
"Alright, let me". - The investigator holds Braun, she decides to drag her back into her room so that she won't follow her anymore
"I... I can walk...". - Braun gently pulls Jeanne away a little, she decides to walk back into her room after making a nod
Jeanne sighs. She is worried about Braun, she hopes the woman will not fall ill.
"Alright, so... rest for three days. I'll see if I can ask His Highness to give you some days off, you don't need to follow Selena either, just rest well until that time". - Jeanne whispers to Braun, she still decides to help the woman
"Is your husband home?". - The investigator wonders
"I... I hope so...", - Braun coughs a little. "Only when His Majesty goes to bed... that's the time he ends his shift...".
Jeanne makes sure to look at Braun carefully until she enters her room. The investigator then decides to return to her room to sleep, she only knows to sigh.
"Hannah, what t-?!". - All of a sudden, Jeanne speaks up out loud but soon lowers her voice
For some reason, Hannah is been standing in the hallway. This makes Jeanne feel like her daughter had been watching her mother from behind for a while.
The mother pulls her daughter with her, both of them soon enter the room and the front door is locked as always.
"How could you...?". - Jeanne wants to shout, but her tired sigh makes her realize she shouldn't express herself that way. "Hannah, I already locked the door before leaving. Did you read what I wrot-".
Jeanne realizes the fur note she placed on the table before leaving the room is nowhere there.
"Let me talk, mom". - Hannah talks back
Her mother then decides to give in.
"Well... I don't know what you found when you went out with Braun, but I found something". - The daughter pulls out a fur sheet of paper full of writings on it. "Hmmm... maybe... ten minutes? I mean, I just wrote all I saw in this paper, here". - She hands the paper to Jeanne. "I saw four carriages coming in ten minutes after you were with that guard. Do you know what they were...? Those wagons came from Selena's house, I saw the emblems on those ones match those on her wagon. I don't know why they came but a bunch of maids came and loaded some packages... then they just left". - Hannah gives a light punch to her mother's chest, she jumps on a nearby seat and grabs some cookies placed on a plate nearby
"Ah yeah, those packages were brought from that basement, mom. You believe it? That's where we haven't checked". - Hannah takes a bite. "I told you, that prince is something... he's not normal".
"We found it, sweetie".
"Huh?". - Hannah swallows the cookies, she looks completely bewildered
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