After the train incident, Aaron and John were exhausted and it started to get late, so instead of going to the mines that day, they decided to stay at a mansion inn. When they entered the Office, they were supposed to pay an unthinkably high price for the rooms, however the blonde detective was apparently already well known by the house Lord who had then decided to let them stay the night for free in separate rooms.

As they went inside the mansion, they were overwhelmed by the size of the entrance which was beautifully decorated by brass pipes, many trophies and statues of small angels and the like. The lord then arrived with two young people. One was a young woman in a maid outfit with long brown hair. She greeted them with a bow as she held a large silver platter with drinks on it. The other one was a young man with short, very shiny black hair and brown eyes. He was wearing a butler suit and offered to take their luggage to their rooms as the lord lead them to the main hall, which was next to the kitchen and was the main meeting place for all guests to be entertained.

"This is huge! I don't think that my house is even anywhere near as big as this hall alone." Johnathan said, astonished as he looked into the hall. Several people, rich looking people, sat around drinking and laughing within this big white hall with large tables on which lie several food plates, from steak, to chicken legs, to salads, to beverage.

"Indeed, it's like about two hundred by hundred meters for a dining hall, just imagine how many homes would fit in it." Aaron said whilst taking a good look around and taking an interest in the interior design.

"Say, what do you believe are these brass pipes throughout this mansion used for?"

"Well, besides aesthetic reasons? I guess they are also part of the water and gas network of this mansion."

"Indeed," the Lord of the house overheard their little conversation.

"It's part of this mansions water and gas supply, as you can imagine this building has many rooms, among them a kitchen and several bathrooms for the guest rooms as well as several heating systems to keep it warm inside."

The two then decided to sit down, far away from the crowd at a corner table to discuss their plans for the next day. At first they started talking about how they wanted to get to the Brinston mines but quickly strayed off the topic and began to talk about the people inside the hall. They talked about a pair standing on a podium, apparently acting comedy to entertain the crowd, they seemed to be accompanied by two elderly people. At another table three men were talking and drinking together. Meanwhile they also every now and then, saw the two servants running in and out of the kitchen bringing refreshments.

Pretty quickly the two got bored and annoyed by the people and decided to go to their rooms, which were on the second floor, and call it a day.

As Aaron was just about to unpack his luggage to change into his pyjamas he remembered that he and John hadn't talked about their departing time for the next day.

He rushed over to Johns room and knocked on the door.

After several knocks, there was no answer but he noticed that the door was slightly open, thus he went inside only to find the bedroom in a mess with Johns clothes all over the place and his coat laying on the bed.

After he had a quick look around he thought, "John... you are such a messy idiot. You haven't even been in this room for a day and it already looks like a bomb raid came by." He walked toward the bathroom door as he could hear a metallic sound as well as a loud noise coming from inside, he knocked on the door yelling. "John are you there?"

No Reply, only the loud noise became more intense.

He lightly opened the door and noticed steam rushing out and the sound of splashing could be heard clearly now. Worried whether something might have happened to John, seeing as how he never replied, he pulled open the door rapidly and shouted. "John! Are you alright?"

Inside Aaron saw a silhouette beneath the steam clouds which cloaked the vision but not long after he opened the door the steam went away and he could see the back of a man with a great burn scar running from the left shoulder down and around the hip.

"Aaron? What are you doing in here?"

Finally the steam had nearly completely lifted and the man standing there was John, with only his pants on, apparently waiting for the bath to fill up with hot water.

He turned around, revealing the rest of the scar spread upon his stomach.

"I'm sorry Aaron," he said as he saw his face surprised and in shock.

Aaron turned around and had to lean on the door for support since his stomach began to hurt from the sight of the scar, he couldn't fathom to imagine the pain and procedure which had left him like that. "Since when did you have it? The scar I mean... ," he mumbled.

"That is a long story, let me tell you one other day, the bath is almost ready and it's getting late anyway... . Oh by the way, why did you come inside?"

John wondered as he grabbed his shirt to cover up the scar but Aaron couldn't bare the sight any longer and went to the other side of the door and almost closed it, he left it open enough to talk through but was also disgusted by himself, "I should be ashamed, I am his best friend and yet I can't even look at him. I have seen many open bodies and operated on many so then why am I trembling at the sight of his burn?"

He shook his head and finally answered, "I wanted to ask at what time you want us to depart tomorrow?"

"Is that all? Well I don't mind, maybe at around 8am?" John answered.

Aaron then went back to his room and went to sleep in his disappointment, meanwhile John took his bath and when he was finished he entered his bedroom.

"What the...? Did Aaron do this?"

John looked at his room in confusion, it was in a complete mess, he hadn't taken more out than a towel and yet his luggage was all over the floor and bed.

Believing that Aaron must've been looking for something he cleaned it up and went to bed.

Several hours later, at 7 am, a loud high pitched scream of fear shot throughout the mansion like a bullet. The sound came from the second floor, nearby our protagonists rooms.

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It was still early in the morning but the two didn't waste any time getting to the scene, unlike Aaron however, John wanted to equip his sword just in case, whilst the former merely put on some pants and grabbed a small bag with a red cross on it.

John was the fastest to arrive at the scene since his room was right around the corner whereas Aaron's was further away. He saw an open door and in front of it was the maid, she was sitting on the floor crying, pressing her hands at her face, next to her was a mop and a bucket. Wondering what happened he rushed to her and asked just that.

However as he stood next to her, in front of the open door, he caught a glimpse at what was inside the room. His tired eyes opened up widely and he then turned around, facing inside. On the floor he could see a small pool of blood and laying in it was a man. He looked like he was about fifty years old, as his clothes soaked in dark red.

"Mr. Balter is dead!", the young woman on the floor shouted with a clogged up nose,"I just wanted to clean this floor but when I noticed the open door and peaked inside I...," she continued to cry but John already knew what she wanted to say.

He also knew he couldn't wait for Aaron to finally hurry up and get here, so he quickly hushed over to the body and kneed down next to the man. He did not know a lot about biology, seeing as how his biology exam to become a detective ended up being only ten out of a hundred percent, but he remembered Aaron once telling him how to confirm whether or not someone was dead. He shortly closed his eyes to remember and then after doing so he pushed his fingers on the bloody throat of the man to try and notice a pulse, but after he noticed nothing, Aaron had arrived.

"John! What happened?" He immediately knew the urgency and hurried over to John sitting down next to the body and looked at the blonde detective as if to ask whether the man was dead or not.

John nodded in confirmation. "Yes he's dead alright," he said and then looked at the throat noticing a stab wound in it and thus asked his friend. "Can you make out what the---" He was then interrupted by a young man entering the room.

"What was the scream for?" The man coming in was the young servant of the mansion who had come to see what the loud scream, of his fellow college, was all about. John looked at him and determined him to be too young to see this cruelty and also noticed a disgusted, or maybe even an angry look in the kids eyes.

"You! Get out! This is a crime scene, a man has been found dead," John yelled and showed his nice and shiny badge on his chest which was just a silver bead in the size of the average coin, "do you understand? I am a detective and am currently investigating this place. Now get out and inform the other guests to collect in the main hall of the first floor!" He was annoyed, he hated it when people arrived so soon to a death scene, because he would have to suspect him especially now due to the old 'the culprit comes back to the crime scene' rule.

Afterwards the young man stepped back slowly, helped the maid to stand up and ran off to collect the guests.

Then Aaron replied to the question which John was about to tell him, as he leaned over to take a better look at the throat. "This wound, it looks like it could have been from a very slick arrowhead, or even a knife. To be honest anything that is capable to stabbing would fit. However it appears to be a clean stab."

After attempting to think of what Aaron meant by that he looked at him with confused eyes.

"Clean meaning, the stab must have been made with something very sharp as it doesn't appear to have ripped through the flesh. Come on John, you as a swordsman should know such things." Aaron pointed out in a disappointed sigh whilst John just scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.

After they were done with the inspection of the body, they covered it up and left the room, unable to close it from the outside however, they just had to trust that nobody would enter.

They went into the main hall to begin the interrogation but were immediately stared down by many lurking eyes who appeared to have had a short night and who still looked dead tired.

"What is this commotion about? We are supposed to take part in the theatre, in a few hours." A young man, sitting on the couch, with short ginger hair says as he holds a young and pretty woman, with blonde curly hair, in his arms.

"Yes we have to take part in the rehearsal. We can't just stay here," she says, clinging to him.

"Well, I am sorry to say but you will all have to stay here for a while. A man has been found dead and it's an obvious murder. We can't afford to let anyone out of sight and we will start questioning you soon," as he said these words the atmosphere in the room changed drastically, they knew they would be suspected and had to now be very careful about their word choice. John felt squished beneath the pressure of their stares but was also annoyed due to his plans being ruined now. Meanwhile Aaron grabbed the Lord of the house and asked him to help him carry the body into the cellar since the body would otherwise start to decompose rather quickly.

"Alright then everyone please sit down, I will begin from the far right and ask everyone so please be ready to answer." John claimed as he himself also dragged by a small stool and sat down, crossing his legs as he grabs a note book from his pocket together with a pen.

He had to question twenty people, at about half of it the house Lord eventually came back from helping Aaron carry the corpse but the later had continued his look around the mansion, mainly the kitchen.

As John eventually finished the interrogation, Aaron got back in time and they went to the crime scene room on the second floor to investigate the room further and to talk about the suspects.

"So then, anything out of the ordinary among them?" Aaron asked as he entered the room after John, leaving the door wide open to imagine the crime better.

"Well then," John starts as he knees down at the spot the corpse was once at. "We have a young pair of actors, who seem weird, especially the girl being so clingy on him... . Besides them there is also an old, bald man who appears to have had a drinking night with the Lord and the victim from 9pm to 6am meaning the murder must have happened not too long after they went to bed."

"I see, what about the servants then?" Aaron wondered, seeing as how they were the first near the victim.

"The servants? Well it seems the maid served those three men and after they went to bed, she went to clean the mansion. Meanwhile the male servant was busy treating an elderly couple and the actor pair with beverage and food until 4am." John said beginning to mumble towards the end of the sentence noticing something on the floor.

Meanwhile Aaron also told John about how he had not found anything out of the ordinary in the kitchen.

"What is this?" The young detective wonders, as he is being irritated by some shiny object on the ground, near the door. He carefully moves towards this and finds a few very white hair strands. "Hair? But why are these here?"

His partner then takes a look at them and points out, "maybe they are from a former guest?" However the blonde man quickly replies, "no I can't see the maid being that sloppy, I believe these might be from the culprit," as he stares at them whilst scratching his neck.

"White hair... well anyone old enough would fit that description." Aaron claimed.

"Not quite," he mumbled. "There weren't many old people there, among them only an elderly pair with grey hair and the Lord of the house, who also had grey hair. Nobody had such a snow white colour." Then he remembers something from cleaning his room the night before, as he cleaned he found another, just as white, strand of hair on his luggage.

"Wait," he quickly checked his notes to compare the alibis and then noticed something. "I know now, or at least I think---"

"You know who it was? What is your proof?" Aaron swiftly interrupts but saw his friends annoyed face, since he had already been interrupted too often today.

"I don't have my proof... yet, but judging by these alibis and the hairs then I almost certainly believe it was..."

John stopped talking as he heard footsteps coming from near the door and as soon as he took a glimpse and notices a shallow dark motion, rapidly passing the door. Just as the young man was about to stand up and ask who had dared to come up here, the door was smacked shut.

Who is the murderer and who shut the door? Find out this and much more in the next Chapter of Steam's Shadow!