Castle instance world
‘Can you say what the poison is?’ Chu Anzhi whispered to Lan Kejia.
The four of them were standing in a darker corner of a hall that was already decorated with black drapes.
Most of the inhabitants of the castle were present. They prayed silently while occasionally glancing to the front of the hall where the two lords kneeled together in front of a marble table, both dressed in dark mourning clothes.
The table was covered with a white sheet, but the vague shape of a person could still be discerned.
‘Since the setting seems like the middle ages, I’d say it is something plant based. There are many poisons that could have been used, but the exact plant isn’t necessarily important in my opinion.’
Tian Xihua was deep in thought. He spoke softly, ‘Who would want to poison her? Excluding the chance of the poisoning being accidental of course, since there most likely is a murderer we need to find.’
Chu Anzhi’s expression was dark. ‘The clues we have are not enough for shit. We arrived just in time to see the death and nothing else..’
Shen Qiu chimed in, ‘If the poisoning was intentional, it happened most likely through her food or drink being poisoned. It can’t be too hard to figure out what she ate throughout the day.’
Tian Xihua thought that her words made sense. ‘In that case, the poisoning could have happened in three possible locations; one, in the kitchen, while the food was made, two, on the way to where it was eaten later, or three, right before she ate or drank it.’
Lan Kejia thought about it as she spoke, ‘I can ask around in the kitchen about how the dishes the Lady had for dinner were made. You,’ She looked at Tian Xihua, ‘You should inquire about whether she had any snacks by herself throughout the day. The rest of you figure out how difficult it is to get the following herbs around here…’
She went on to list about ten or more plants before issuing her last command, ‘Go. Let’s meet in the kitchen after daybreak.’
The group dispersed, all of them heading towards other halls. They were so immersed in their tasks and thoughts that they didn’t even notice the attentive gaze following their movements from the side of the room.
A lanky guard was taking notes into a small book as she glanced at one of the players from time to time with an expression of extreme boredom.
After watching the group leave the hall, she walked to the front of the hall and lifted the white sheet slightly. She bent down lightly to inspect the pale face of the young woman before pulling the sheets back and writing another few words into her notebook.
No one in the hall reacted to her actions, and it seemed highly possible that they didn’t even notice her. They all stayed in the same place where they were the moment the players left the hall, some of them even mid-movement.
The guard walked out from the dark hall, bypassing the grotesquely statue-like inhabitants of the castle. She tucked the booklet away in her clothes before pulling out a mobile phone from the same place.
There wasn’t any movement outside, and not even the singing of birds could be heard. The entirety of the castle was enfolded in deep, dead silence.
The guard didn’t seem bothered by the strange changes in the atmosphere. She was texting someone as she walked.
‘Too headstrong.’
The text bubble appeared, and after a couple of moments a loud ‘ding’ sound came.
‘Leave him then. Look for 7292733895.’
The guard sent an emoticon as a sign of her understanding before tucking her phone away and vanishing into thin air.
Only when Shen Qiu appeared at the end of the corridor leading to the kitchen did the dead silence fade gradually. She listened to the chirping from outside as she walked, and she appeared to be deeply in thought.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Zbra bo atf qijcar Ojc Bfplj wfcalbcfv mbeivc’a yf obecv bc atf wbecajlc ktfgf atf mjraif kjr yelia, rjnf obg bcf; atf obgfra’r mifjglcur kfgf fzmfqalbcjiis glmt lc wbcxrtbbv.
Ktlr wfjca atja lo atlr kjr lcvffv atf qijca erfv ab qblrbc atf Ojvs, la kbeiv yf mibrf ab lwqbrrlyif ab vfafgwlcf atf xliifg’r lvfcalas atgbeut lcobgwjalbc jybea byajlclcu atf qblrbc. Vtf kjr atlcxlcu jybea jrxlcu jgbecv lo jcsbcf tjv yffc ab atf yjmx tliir bo atf wbecajlc gfmfcais ktfc rtf tfjgv fzmlafv nblmfr ogbw atf tjii ja atf fcv bo atf mbgglvbg.
It was not long after daybreak at this point, and the airy atrium was shrouded in the faint golden light from outside. There was a group of women hurrying by outside, while voices sounded from the end of the corridor too.
Shen Qiu stepped outside just in time to see a strange scene as her steps halted and a dumbfounded expression appeared on her face.
The atrium sunk into silence briefly as the women stopped and bowed lightly towards the young woman who was walking across the garden.
This of course couldn’t have been said to be strange if it weren’t for the features of that woman being too unmistakable.. This was precisely the young Lady who had died only a couple of hours before.
Her previously lustreless blonde hair now gleamed with the early sunshine, and her face that appeared too pale because of nausea the night before had regained its previous rosiness. There seemed to be other small changes to her appearance in addition to the obvious healthiness, but Shen Qiu couldn’t exactly point them out.
The women’s conversation picked up where they left it when the Lady appeared, and they continued to gossip as if nothing of importance had just happened now.
They didn’t look like they had just seen a ghost, and this filled Shen Qiu with a bad premonition.
Wasn’t this a simple murder case? Even if the information seemed rather hard to find and she didn’t manage to find anything about anyone who would have a grudge against the Lady, wasn’t that the way even the famous detectives on TV began their investigation?
It couldn’t be that this ghost really was an everyday sight here, ah? Not to the point where its appearance wouldn’t even evoke any strange feelings in the people living here?
She walked towards the kitchen absentmindedly as she thought about how she should explain this sudden discovery to the other members of their group.
It was still early in the morning, but the kitchen already had a lively air to it. There were at least a dozen servants busying themselves with various tasks as they began preparing breakfast for the lord of the castle.
Unexpectedly in the middle of the bustle, it was no other than Lan Kejia giving orders. She stood with her hands on her waist as she walked around and peered down on the dishes in the bowls that were being prepared.
She saw Shen Qiu enter and didn’t forget to complain to her, ‘You wouldn’t think, but these people actually wake up very early. Breakfast has to be done before six! I had to wake up just as I went back to sleep..’
Tian Xihua was also in the kitchen. He leaned his back on the windowsill, and watched the scene inside with a gloomy expression.
Shen Qiu followed Lan Kejia around as she spoke to her quietly, ‘Lan jie, it would be best if we could go outside to talk. I’ve found some details that I’m not sure what to do with..’
Lan Kejia’s expression became more serious. She waved Tian Xihua over, and told the two to wait outside for a moment, as she still had to make sure that things wouldn’t go astray while she was busy.
Outside the kitchen was a small vegetable garden, which was not far away from the stalls on the other side of the courtyard. They didn’t even have the time to exchange a couple of words before they saw Chu Anzhi’s figure approaching.
His skin was mostly covered in dirt and pieces of dry straw, and he seemed especially dispirited. Lan Kejia came outside with a cloth she wiped her hands with. This strange group gathered near the benches at the side of the kitchen’s outer wall to talk.
Lan Kejia looked at Shen Qiu first. ‘What did you find?’
Shen Qiu didn’t know how to begin. ‘I.. First of all, I asked around about the plants you told me about. Monkshood is widely available in the area, and it’ll be hard to find who went out for some of it if that person tries to hide it.’
‘Other than that, something that seems like a more pressing issue, the Lady, I just saw her outside.’
Lan Kejia frowned. ‘The mourning period isn’t over yet. Are you sure it wasn’t another body?’
Shen Qiu shook her head, ‘No, I’m sure it was her. And it’s not like I could have seen it wrong.. She was alive too.’
Tian Xihua blinked, ‘Are you completely sure of that?’
He didn’t doubt her words, but he wanted to make sure that there were absolutely no misunderstandings. A corpse returning to life and even walking around the castle as if nothing were wrong.. It would be an understatement to simply call it strange.
‘Yes. And the strangest of it all, the people who saw her didn’t even react. It was as if yesterday had never even happened.’
Chu Anzhi spoke for the first time as he scratched the dirt from his nose, ‘It wouldn’t have been this bad if the case was just murder.. But with this supernatural element, we can’t be sure about what is to come.’
Lan Kejia agreed. ‘This is going to be harder than I anticipated. Still, let’s try to solve the case first, and worry about the rest later.’
Tian Xihua nodded, ‘There’s no use of thinking about what hasn’t happened yet, it’s better if we can focus on what we know. Right, I’ve asked around about the Lady’s snacks from yesterday.’
His expression still had some of the gloominess from before, and now that he was reminded of what he found, his gaze darkened. ‘She didn’t eat much at all. She drank tea in the morning, and because her stomach is rather weak she chose not to eat much for lunch. In the afternoon, the Lord specifically sent her sweets, and then she missed dinner because she didn’t feel good.’
‘We can exclude the chance of lunch having been poisoned. In the dining hall the Lady and the Lord always sit close to each other, and so it wouldn’t make sense for the killer to poison those dishes. Of course, there are tasters in the kitchen too, but the dishes could have been poisoned on the way over.’
‘This isn’t likely though, for the reason that I mentioned. Unless the killer wanted to kill both father and daughter, they wouldn’t act so high-key. In that case, there is another scenario where lunch could be poisoned..’
Chu Anzhi scratched his chin as he thought about it. ‘If someone put the poison into the food personally, of course they could easily avoid it.’
‘Exactly.’ Tian Xihua seemed somewhat conflicted. ‘In that case, the killer is the old man himself. In another, he might just be lucky. In the third case scenario though, and this way all the trouble with the Lord having to memorise what dishes were poisoned would be eliminated, the poison wasn’t in the lunch at all.’
‘Instead, the cake the Lady ate would be what had the poison. In any case..’ He pulled out a mushy thing from somewhere, ‘We have a way of testing this theory.’
‘That..’ Shen Qiu looked at the piece of cake on his palm before swallowing loudly. ‘That shouldn’t be the poisoned sweets you mentioned, huh?’
Tian Xihua hummed. ‘Of course, using this to test our thoughts would be too crude, a last-minute shot if you will. I don’t think we need to do that. However, if this is the case, we also happen to know that it was the Lord himself who sent the cake for the Lady to eat.’
He looked at Lan Kejia as he said, ‘He should have specifically asked for the kitchen staff to prepare it, which means our list of suspects is still the same; the Lord, the kitchen staff, as well as whoever brought it over for the Lady to eat.’
Shen Qiu seemed to have discovered something, ‘Since it was the Lord who asked for it to be made, there shouldn’t be any tasters, right? They would want to bring it over to the Lady as soon as possible..’
Chu Anzhi shook his head. ‘Not necessarily. Maybe if there were no recent attempts at assassinating the two, but if the situation isn’t exceptionally peaceful the tasters would have to try every dish as always. That includes the cake too.’
‘But we have no information regarding that..’
‘Indeed, we have no information about it.’ Lan Kejia tucked the cloth into her apron, ‘Let’s see then, if we don’t count the evidence that we already have.. Why would anyone want the Lady dead? Provided that the murder wasn’t a mistake that should have killed her father instead.’
‘Think inside the castle, otherwise we have a lot of clues we have no way of justifying. The murderer is most likely still in the castle.’
This was the moment a little servant chose to approach them. She was a little girl, at most ten years old, and she held her skirt as she looked at the players shyly. She spoke to Tian Xihua, ‘Auntie, the Sir is looking for you.. He said it’s urgent too.’
Tian Xihua, who was still decked in the old-woman-costume: ‘………’ He nodded as he pursed his lips and looked away.
He
is gaze accidentally met Chu Anzhi’s and a grimace appeared on his face as he watched the other try to contain himself.
‘Very funny.’ He didn’t wait for the others’ reaction, and said directly, ‘I’ll be going then. I’ll try to find out if the Lady remembers anything later, you guys just.. Do whatever.’
He didn’t even look back as he walked inside, finding the Lord waiting for him in the kitchen. He followed the other outside and only asked him then while showing a puzzled expression, ‘My Lord, is something wrong?’
The man appeared to be in a worse state than the day before. He became disappointed after hearing the youth’s question. ‘You.. Don’t remember?’
Tian Xihua wrinkled his brows. He had a bad premonition. ‘Remember what? You need to be more specific..’
The Lord’s entire figure emitted dejection. He directly sat down to the cold ground and held his head in his hands, ‘No, no, no. It can’t be that..’
Tian Xihua felt highly uncomfortable as he looked around with tense shoulders. Fortunately it was only the two of them in the corridor in front of the kitchen at the moment, and no one else was present to witness the man’s breakdown.
He kept mumbling to himself. Tian Xihua let out a breath before looking around once more and crouching down next to him. He patted his shoulder somewhat awkwardly, ‘My Lord, you can tell me whatever your problem is, and I will do my best to solve it. How about that?’
‘In fact, I’ll surely manage to solve any issue. Your Lordship can trust me for sure.’
He got so immersed in his role as a trusted subject that he didn’t even notice the pit he dug for himself.
The lord looked up at him from between his fingers and asked as he was still sniffling, ‘You would?’
Tian Xihua ‘s movement stiffened slightly. He nodded slowly as he recounted his words from just now. ‘I would. What does my Lord need?’
The Lord straightened his sitting position slightly, leaning on the cold stone behind his back. He stared at Tian Xihua with slight suspicion in his eyes, but it seemed that his madness had won over his rationality in the end, as he pulled out a brocade pouch from his coat.
He pulled Tian Xihua’s hand over and placed the pouch on it, but instead of taking his hand back he held the youth’s own with both of his palms. He looked at him with unblinking and slightly bloodshot eyes as if he wanted to make sure that the other would remember every single word he told him.
There was something inside the pouch, and that something felt hard and freezing cold even through the lingering body warmth of the Lord on the cloth. It had a rather unusual shape and as Tian Xihua felt the coldness of it through the pouch, he couldn’t help swallowing loudly.
He could finally guess what was inside the pouch as a blade pressed against his palm lightly. He nodded slowly as if trying to convince himself of something, but in the end he still asked, ‘My Lord?’
The Lord still hadn’t let go of his hand. He opened the pouch with his fingers. The dim light from over their heads glimmered on the elegantly decorated dagger in their hands.
The man’s voice was somewhat hoarse. ‘You said you would be willing to do anything.. Would you.. Even if I asked you to end her suffering?’
He hesitated for a moment before holding the other’s hand tighter, as if he had made a decision. The sharp nib of the dagger let out a small streak of blood from one of their palms, and he shook lightly as he watched the redness drip onto the cold stone under their feet.
His voice wasn’t more than a faint whisper as he looked back at Tian Xihua. ‘Could you?’
The author has something to say:
begging for feedback (*_ _)人
Woah that went from 0 to 100 really quick
Aw damn. But could you ever truly end her suffering? She comes back after dying…
Thanks for the chapter <3