Chapter 24 – In which people are suspicious

Fifth day since Saffra woke up with her old memories.

Something was telling her that it won’t be a good day.

Maybe it was because of the temperature?

It was hot. The days were getting warmer as they were slowly getting closer to the second half of summer.

No, it seemed to be something else.

There was a tension in the air that irked her skin.

Saffra frowned, looked around the room and then asked:

“Where is Miss Craya?”

Craya wasn’t in the room.

Apric and Tangeri paused their movements. There was visible anxiety on their faces.

Something happened to Craya but they tried to hide it from Saffra?

The previous, docile Saffra might have just let it go, but the current Saffra wouldn’t stand quiet if something happened to her subordinate.

“Tell me.”

“Well, that is…”

Apric and Tangeri, who usually never stop talking, today were struggling to make a sentence.

Then Apric shouted:

“There was a murder!”

What?! Someone dared to touch Craya?!

“Who was it?! I’ll kill them!”

Saffra got up from her seat, ready to take action.

Apric stumbled under Saffra’s momentum and dropped a glass beaded necklace, while Tangeri waved her hand in attempt to calm down Saffra and shouted:

“It was Craya, Craya!”

What? Craya killed Craya?

Was it like in one of those mystery stories Am told her about where for some reason there exist two identical twins with the same name?!

Saffra was getting more and more confused.

It was probably the result of her not sleeping much for the last four days, but panicking Apric and Tangeri didn’t help.

Finally, she held Apric and Tangeri’s hands and said:

“Calm down.”

“My Lady, I think you need to calm down first.”

“Miss Apric, you just told me Craya got murdered, I don’t need to calm down.”

“No, no, My Lady. Craya is accused of murder, she wasn’t murdered.”

“If Craya got murdered, we would already go to kill the murderer!”

Ah. Right.

It seemed that Saffra unconsciously jumped to a conclusion, because of her past experiences.

She took a breath and then asked:

“What do you mean Miss Craya is accused of murder?”

Apric and Tangeri, still holding Saffra hands, sat down and quickly explained the situation.

A body of one of the maidens was found early in the morning.

The body was found in the alcove of a rarely used corridor by a knight that happened to be on a patrol.

On the wall were words written with blood:

‘The descendant of fucking dog, Craya, you…’

It was assumed to be written by a victim and Craya was seized as a suspect.

Saffra tapped her arm in thought.

‘That totally sounds like the beginning of one of those mystery stories Am used to read!’

What is a 300 years old cliche doing here?

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Well, it didn’t matter.

What mattered was that Craya was held as a suspect of murder and Saffra wasn’t going to stay still.

“Let’s go.”

She planned to find out the exact details.

“Uh! My Lady, wait! We still haven’t finished dressing you!”

Tangeri caught her, while Apric was frantically looking around, mumbling:

“Um, where did that necklace go…”

*-*-*

Soon, Saffra found herself at the murder scene.

She saw many servants and knights running around, some law officials who were taking statements and… an unexpected person.

“I smelled a lot of blood.”

It seemed that Saffra's questioning gaze reached the person in question, as she answered with a calm voice.

Mimosa quickly stepped to Saffra’s side and then asked:

“And you?”

“My lady-in-waiting is a suspect.”

She pointed at the blood writing and Mimosa nodded.

“Miss Craya was asked to stay in her room for now. There are no direct charges against her, but as the main suspect, she is monitored until the case is clear.”

“I see, are there any other suspects?”

“There was one but… He provided an alibi.”

“Yes? Who?”

Mimosa didn’t reply and motioned with her head to a certain person.

At the edge of the alcove stood a man in knight uniform.

He seemed to be peeking inside and examining the curtains.

His actions were so strange, the law officials were looking at him with suspicion, even though they should be the ones who confirmed he isn’t a suspect in this case.

“Sir Citrie?”

Hearing Saffra call his name, Citrie turned around, ceased his suspicious actions and approached the two ladies.

“Lady Mimosa, Young Lady Saffra. Hello.”

“Hello.”

“What are you doing here?”

While Mimosa responded with curt hello, Saffra got to the point immediately.

Citrie didn’t seem to mind a cold welcome, as he explained with a leisure smile.

“I just proved my innocence and was taking an opportunity to look around.”

“And you were a suspect because…?”

“I was the one who found the body.”

Citrie was the one who found the body?

Understanding Saffra’s gaze, which prompted him to explain further, Citrie continued:

“About two hours ago I was on the morning patrol when I found a body and informed others about it. Because I was the first to find her, I was put on the list of suspects, but was quickly taken out of it. Doctor confirmed that the death must have occurred more than five hours ago, but I spent the entire night, until five in the morning, playing cards with other knights. They confirmed that I was with them the entire time, providing me an alibi.”

Current time was eight in the morning.

So Citrie found the body at six in the morning.

Considering the time it would take for the doctor to arrive and examine the body, it would be seven in the morning.

7 – 5 = 2. So the time of death was before two in the morning, but probably after midnight.

If Citrie played cards until five in the morning, he wouldn’t be able to commit a murder in that time frame.

But there was on thing that bothered Saffra.

She looked around the corridor, then walked to the candle stand and moved her finger on the edge of it. When she raised her finger up, there was an obvious layer of dust on it.

That corridor was very rarely used.

“Were you really patrolling here?”

“Young Lady is really suspicious…”

Citrie was about to say something, but three pairs of eyes of Apric, Tangeri and Mimosa sent glares towards him. He changed his words.

“This place isn’t officially in my patrol route, but it connects two places I should patrol. There is an official route I should use, but that corridor is covered by my colleges, while that corridor isn’t usually covered by anyone. So whenever I have such a patrol route, I use this corridor, just in case.”

“... So in other words, if someone were to commit murder here, it would usually take a lot of time for the body to be discovered.”

“Yes, Young Lady. I heard those law enforcement officials say that it may take a day or two, or even a week for a body to be discovered in such circumstances. That would depend if someone reported that this girl was missing.”

“Who is that girl anyway?”

This time Saffra turned her eyes to Mimosa, who, though didn’t live in the manor these days, should have a good grasp on the identity of all the servants.

“She is from a small new noble family and started working in this manor only a few months ago. She wasn’t particularly close to anyone, so it’s uncertain if someone would go looking for her if she disappeared. The one point worthy of attention is that…”

Mimosa paused as she hesitated, while looking at Saffra.

“She had beef with Craya. They were seen arguing a few times.”

In other words, it looked like Craya had a motive.

But why would they argue?

Craya was very quiet and wouldn’t involve herself in petty arguments.

Saffra's eyes turned to the blood writing.

Small new noble was a term used for new noble families which emerged in the war 50 years ago, when the current Yellow Throne holder, Sulfious, came to power.

They were people who made a great achievement and were rewarded with a nobility title.

They didn’t hold much power, but were still considered members of the noble council which controlled Flavun.

But those new nobles often hold grudges against the so called ‘old nobles’, which was a term used to refer to families who had a nobility title passed down since the days of Saffaron.

‘Descendant of fucking dog…’

It seemed that Craya was a descendant of one of the old nobles…

But which one exactly?

“Let’s go talk to Craya.”

She would have answers to questions which bothered Saffra right now.

Something was really fishy here.

*-*-*

[Priest Phlox, please tell me you didn’t forget to pick up that stone…]

[Alright, Your Excellency, I’ll stay quiet.]

Amara closed his eyes for a moment.

In fact, it was his fault. He should have made an explicit order to Phlox to take back the runic stone they used to tamper with the formation after the operation was finished.

But maybe because working with Phlox felt so familiar, he unconsciously assumed she would know what she had to pay attention to, just like his old subordinates.

Well, milk was already spilled. He had to prepare for the case if someone finds it and…

*Don’t worry Am~*

*Huhuhu. Right, no need to worry.*

*Our Am should just go get some sleep!*

Why were those gods suddenly acting so suspicious?

*-*-*

The head priest Rasin was following the temple walls and observing the holy symbols engraved on the floor, walls and columns.

Tonight, his little sacrifice somehow escaped.

His subordinates suspected the assassin used powerful magic and just vanished the moment he managed to break the binding formation in the cell.

The assassin already presented himself to be a quite capable mage, it wouldn’t be strange if he had a few tricks in his sleeve.

But Rasin was doubtful.

‘They said that it’s difficult to use magic if you stay at the temple grounds for more than a day.’

The assassin stayed for two full days at least.

He shouldn’t be able to break out on his own or not so easily that he disappeared the moment he broke the bindings.

The most reasonable explanation was that someone tempered with the formation, causing a delay in setting off alarms.

Therefore Rasin was now examining the formation.

He just entered one of the secluded gardens when…

Rustle.

He heard the sound of rustling leaves and then…

A small head popped out from within the bushes.

Rasin, who had a cold expression on his face, immediately switched to a soft and benevolent smile, when he saw who it was.

“Young excellency, what are you doing here?”

Before him stood a boy about eleven years old.

His name was Laven and he, similar to Amara, had very strong connections to gods and the spiritual world.

Therefore, if Amara could no longer serve his function as a Saint, Laven could replace him.

The child blinked his big, lavender-like eyes and mumbled:

“I was just looking around…”

“Mm, but shouldn’t young excellency be learning scriptures right now?”

Rasin asked softly and when the child made slightly disgusted expression, he shook his head:

“Young excellency, it’s okay to play, but you shouldn’t forget about your studies. If his excellency hears about it, he will be very sad.”

At the mention of Amara, Laven blinked quickly a few times and then made a determined face:

“Okay. I’m going to learn all the scriptures.”

“That’s the spirit!”

Rasin smiled happily, but inside, he was frowning.

That kid seemed to follow Amara, who didn’t even spare him a glance, too well.

Rasin couldn’t figure out what made Laven idolize Amara so much, but it didn’t matter now.

After sending the child off, he continued to examine the formation.

And as for Laven.

After making sure no one was looking, he took out a small stone, with a letter ‘o’ engraved on it, from the pocket in his robe.

He looked at it for a second and then tossed the stone down into the well.

No one will find it now.