Chapter 190: Floating Corpse
Each container’s countertop in front had the corresponding name written on it, and the notebook detailed the persecution process for each of them.
Mireille was terrified, but Clark looked worried.
Clark was somewhat unable to distinguish the real situation. According to his previous speculation, the person who took the Shadow Stone Sculpture of Peering into All Things should have been Miss Hera. It was Miss Hera who performed the demon-subduing technique on Bluebeard the Count after his death.
But from the current evidence, Butler Valente was the most likely person in the castle to perform the demon-subduing technique.
Could Hera also know how to use this demon-subduing technique?
If Hera knew it, where did she learn it from?
If Hera really knew it, then three out of the four people in Bluebeard the Count’s castle already knew how to use this demon-subduing technique, so… Clark’s gaze couldn’t help but glance toward Mireille.
Clark’s scales toward Mireille tipped toward suspicion once again. He thought that he couldn’t take Mireille and leave right now.
What if he was wrong? Taking the wrong person would mean he was actively bringing danger to himself.
Thinking of this, Clark couldn’t help but feel a chill in his heart. He suddenly realized his thinking was wrong. What was he thinking? Why did he assume that the person who wrote the letter asking him to come to the castle to investigate must be a “good person”?
Perhaps, in the entire castle, he was the only “good person”.
Right, he should escape alone, leave alone…
“Mr. Clark, what’s wrong with you?” Seeing Clark’s expression gradually become very unpleasant, with his eyes staring fixedly at her, Mireille looked at him with some fear.
The girl’s timid tone startled Clark awake. Clark looked at Mireille, his heart complex. The kindness in his heart told him he couldn’t just survive alone and run away. Reason also told him that in such extremely adverse weather, he couldn’t escape alone. The only way to survive was to find someone to ally with, defeat or directly kill the other two people in the castle, and wait until the weather cleared before leaving.
Clark took a deep breath quietly. The cold air filling his breath cooled his brain down.
Yes, good and evil, right and wrong—considering those now was meaningless. Finding a teammate to cooperate with was the top priority.
“Are you sure Miss Hera is not in her room right now?” Clark asked again.
“I’m sure she’s not.” Mireille nodded, a bit confused by Clark’s constant headless questions. “Can you determine who the bad person is now?”
“Not completely certain yet.” Clark tucked the notebook into his pocket. “We need to do more investigation. First, let’s go investigate Miss Hera.”
With that, Clark walked to the wall hung with various torture instruments and weapons, took an axe from it, hesitated slightly, and handed it to Mireille to use, while he himself chose a hammer with some rust spots on the surface.
Mireille took the axe and looked at Clark eagerly. “Why do we need to carry an axe?”
“For self-defense.” Clark said briefly.
When Mireille appeared before him and he heard her say that Hera had also left her room, Clark knew that tonight was destined to be restless. Everyone was taking action, and the murderer who killed Bluebeard the Count, the madman who performed the demon-subduing technique on the count’s corpse, would also act in secret.
It would be fine if he didn’t run into them, but if they met head-on, it would inevitably be dangerous.
Clark and Mireille left the secret chamber. Clark glanced at the ugly fat pig lying on the floor and decided not to restore it, just leave like this.
There was no need to restore it anymore, because someone had already come in and taken that abnormal god stone sculpture from the count’s corpse. The military knife on the wall had also been broken. It seemed the person who came in planned to close the secret passage and trap him and Mireille to death in the secret chamber, but obviously this military knife, made into a mechanism key, lacked the hardness a normal knife should have. The person tried to pull it out but couldn’t, and in shaking it left and right, broke the knife instead.
Mireille had obviously also seen through that sinister person’s intention and patted her chest in relief. “That was close, so lucky.”
“Did Butler Valente do this?” Mireille guessed.
“No.” Clark shook his head. “The blade remaining in the keyhole drooped downward, indicating it was a short person who pulled the knife. Moreover, Butler Valente had been doing those things with Bluebeard the Count for so many years; it’s impossible he didn’t know how to close the lock on this hidden door and ended up breaking the knife.”
“So it was Miss Hera!?” Mireille widened her eyes.
Clark didn’t answer. This was a question that didn’t need answering.
There were only four people in the castle. By process of elimination, anyone could guess who wanted to do harm.
Clark’s hands caressed the handle of the hammer. His choice to bring a weapon was indeed correct. After all, someone had started showing killing intent again. This was now a game of hunter and prey between them.
Leaving Bluebeard the Count’s room, the two came to the empty, dark corridor. It was pitch black, just like when they first arrived, but because their hearts were on alert, both felt as if a pair of eyes was watching them from the darkness.
Led by Mireille, Clark arrived at the door of Miss Hera’s Room.
Clark signaled with his eyes, and Mireille understood. She knocked on the door. There was no response from inside, so she twisted the door handle.
The door wasn’t locked and opened gently with a push. Clark kept watch on the opening gap of the door at all times. If anything was wrong, he could protect Mireille’s personal safety immediately.
But Clark had overthought it. There was no one inside the room waiting to ambush them.
“By the way, how much do you know about Hera?” Clark entered the room, closed the door, and braced a small stool against it from behind, asking while doing so.
Mireille thought for a moment and said, “Miss Hera is a very beautiful person, very good at dressing up, and very good at communicating with boys. I don’t have that much charm.”
“Just that?” Clark was a bit disappointed. These were superficial cognitions. He asked, “Her interpersonal relationships, family, friends—does she have any?”
Mireille blinked and said, “I’m not too clear about her family, but the first time we cooked together, I complimented her hair. She was very happy and casually said that her mom told her, ‘Hair is a woman’s signboard; you can tell a woman’s intentions from her hair.’ I didn’t quite understand the meaning. However, I know Miss Hera probably doesn’t have any friends in the castle. She usually likes to cook alone.”
“If it weren’t Christmas, how many people were normally in the castle?”
“Um… Before I came to the castle, Butler Valente said there were twenty-six servants.”
……
“Twenty-six?” Yu Lianyun frowned upon hearing this number. “Can their identities be confirmed?”
Just a short while ago, at the downstream outlet of Black Water River in Fengxiang City, citizens discovered twenty-six corpses caught in the barbed wire net, eerie and terrifying to the extreme.
“Just as you conjectured, Captain.” The reporting mystic investigator said with a serious expression. “They are the twenty-six mental patients and medical staff who went missing in that big fire.”
