Chapter 24
“Why is this crying so loud? Is no one comforting the baby?”
Regina cautiously stepped into the corridor, curious. As she was about to move towards the sound, the door of the adjacent room suddenly flung open, and Noah emerged with an irritated expression.
“Damn it, I can’t sleep with all this noise! What on earth is going on?”
Regina, who had been hesitating to walk alone down the dark corridor out of fear, was secretly glad to see Noah.
“Oh, Noah, you’re up too?”
“What? Why are you here?”
“Huh? I woke up because of the noise too.”
Noah, who had looked at Regina quizzically in his half-asleep state, turned his head towards the far end of the corridor, exasperated by the continuing cries.
“Are all the maids here deaf? Why isn’t anyone going to the crying baby?”
As Noah grumbled to himself and strode down the corridor, Regina quickly followed behind him. The corridor, without a single light, had a chilly atmosphere that felt somewhat eerie. Regina adjusted her slipping shawl to cover her shoulders as she hurried after Noah with small steps. Soon, they reached a door with light seeping through the cracks.
“This must be it. Should we knock?”
-Click.
As Regina whispered cautiously, hearing the baby’s cries from beyond the door, Noah abruptly opened it.
“Wait! If you open it so suddenly- Ah!”
Regina, startled by Noah’s nonchalant attitude in flinging the door open, reached out to stop him but froze upon seeing the room’s interior.
“…What’s this now?”
Noah clicked his tongue and furrowed his brow.
The room, the only one lit in the dark corridor, was decorated in green to an obsessive degree. Dark green floral wallpaper, dark green curtains, a bed covered with a green canopy. Before they could be shocked by the terrible taste, whoever it belonged to, their gaze was drawn to the floor.
“W-What…”
As Regina stuttered, entering the room to check the condition of the person lying on the floor, Noah stretched out his arm to block her.
“He’s already dead.”
“Eek!”
Beyond the open door, the viscount lay on the floor, his face deathly pale. With his eyes wide open staring at the ceiling, clutching his throat, it was clear from any angle that this was not the posture of a living person. Regina swallowed a scream.
As she stumbled backward, the baby’s cries, which had momentarily stopped when the door opened, erupted again. It was a frantic cry, as if sensing the death that had occurred nearby.
* * *
On the evening of Regina and Noah’s visit to the mansion, Viscount Epola died.
Although they were clearly suspicious to anyone, fortunately, thanks to Noah’s claim of being from the Royal Constabulary, they managed to avoid being immediately branded as culprits.
Noah had the viscount’s room of death closed off, forbidding anyone to approach, and then summoned all the mansion staff to the reception room.
“Um, Chief Inspector. As you requested, everyone has gathered, but what should we do now?”
The butler, his face tinged with anxiety and fear, addressed Noah after confirming that all the staff had assembled. The mansion staff were visibly shaken by the viscount’s sudden death. While there was a sense of crisis about losing their jobs overnight, the greater fear was of potentially being accused of killing their master.
Moreover, with a Constabulary chief from the capital staring at them coldly as if interrogating them, these people who had lived their entire lives in a rural corner of the territory naturally felt intimidated. They looked at Noah with tense expressions. Noah, who had been sitting silently on the sofa, sensed the focused attention and spoke in a leisurely tone.
“Is this everyone?”
“Pardon? Ah, yes. Everyone in the mansion has been summoned.”
“I see? Then, for now, have everyone remove what they’re wearing on their heads.”
“…Excuse me? Ah, yes! Everyone, remove your hats and head coverings immediately.”
The butler, not immediately understanding Noah’s sudden request, repeated the question before quickly composing himself and ordering the staff. The maids removed their headdresses, and some servants who had forgotten to take off their hats in their haste to arrive quickly removed them and held them in their hands.
Noah observed them silently for a moment, then nodded and gestured for them to leave. The butler couldn’t hide his bewilderment at this response. Of course, Regina felt similarly to the butler. It seemed as if Noah had no intention of investigating at all, suddenly looking at their hair and then dismissing everyone.
“…Chief Inspector, aren’t you going to question them separately? Should I send everyone away like this?”
At the butler’s question, Regina also looked at Noah. She was desperately sending him silent signals that he should at least pretend to conduct an investigation.
“Yes, I’ll call them individually if needed. For now, they can go.”
However, his response was indifferent. The butler’s expression darkened, seemingly frustrated by Noah’s approach, but he followed Noah’s instructions and dismissed the staff. As he was about to leave the room himself, he bowed to Noah and Regina.
“Then, please let me know if you need anything.”
“No, you stay. I have a few questions for you.”
“Pardon? Just me?”
“Yes, just you.”
As Noah kept only the butler behind, the departing staff turned to look at the butler with suspicious eyes. The elderly butler felt cold sweat on his back as he sensed everyone’s gaze focusing on him at once. It was an eerie situation.
Soon the door closed, and only the butler remained, standing alone in front with a grim expression.
“Why am I…”
As the butler swallowed dryly and began to speak with a tense expression, Noah, still seated on the sofa, asked a question.
“Whose room was it where the viscount died?”
“Ah, that room belongs to the madam. Viscountess Mila Epola. Her health deteriorated rapidly after childbirth, so she’s currently recuperating at her parents’ home.”
The butler provided even information that wasn’t asked for. It was an attitude that showed his willingness to do his best to help solve the case.
“I see. One more thing, why did no one come when the baby was crying so loudly yesterday?”
“That’s… because the viscount had forbidden any staff from entering that room. Anyone who entered without permission would be immediately expelled from the mansion. The restrictions were so strict that even cleaning was done only at set times under the viscount’s supervision.”
“So you’re saying no one went even though that young baby cried all night? Shouldn’t someone have reported it, thinking there might be a problem if it was so noisy? Even if not, shouldn’t there have been at least one person lingering outside the door?”
“Well, you see…”
Despite Noah’s follow-up question, expressing his lack of understanding, the butler hesitated before answering. Noah’s eyes filled with suspicion at this.
“Is there something you can’t talk about?”
“No, no, that’s not it. The truth is, while the viscount was obsessively controlling every aspect of the madam’s life, he paid no attention at all to the baby. In fact, he strongly disliked having the baby in his sight, to the point where the maids had to almost hide the baby while caring for it.”
“So you’re saying the room where the baby was wasn’t originally there?”
“…Yes, that’s correct. Yesterday evening, he suddenly moved the baby’s bed into the madam’s room and strictly ordered everyone not to come near the corridor. That’s why no one dared to even approach the second floor when they heard the crying.”
“And you don’t know the reason for this?”
“No, I have no idea. The viscount wasn’t a talkative person to begin with…”
“I see. Then, one last question. Has there ever been a red-haired maid who died in this mansion? Looking at the staff’s hair just now, I didn’t see anyone with red hair. There didn’t seem to be anyone who had dyed their hair either.”
The butler seemed at a loss for words at this question, unable to answer immediately. After hesitating, he finally managed to speak.
“…No, there was no such maid. I’ve heard that rumor too. The one about a maid who worked here dying and her body disappearing? That’s a completely baseless story. To begin with, none of our maids had red hair. As I’m in charge of hiring, I’m certain about this.”
A fleeting, strange discomfort crossed the butler’s face as he answered, quickly disappearing. Seeing this, Regina felt that the butler was lying. She couldn’t explain why, but it was a feeling close to certainty.
“Alright, I understand. I need to examine that room once more. We’ll continue our conversation after that.”
“Ah, yes! Understood. Then I’ll take my leave.”
As Regina tilted her head, puzzled by the strange feeling that had suddenly come over her, the butler hastily bowed and left the room, almost as if fleeing. She watched his retreating figure with a suspicious expression, then turned to Noah, who was sitting on the opposite sofa.
“Don’t we need to ask more questions? That butler, he seems somewhat suspicious…”
“Pressuring him now won’t yield anything.”
Noah stood up, saying there was nothing more to gain here. Regina followed him as he headed towards the room opposite to where the viscount had died.
With a click, the door opened to reveal the viscount’s body covered with a white cloth. Regina, who had been squinting and trying her best not to look down, straightened her head with deep relief upon seeing the cloth at the edge of her vision.
The viscountess’s room was much larger than it had appeared in the evening. Besides the bedroom, there was an attached bathroom, and to the right stood a large desk and bookshelf. The viscount had collapsed on the carpet in front of the desk, facing the door, and a teacup on the desk still contained a small amount of tea.
In fact, the teacup looked suspicious to anyone. It seemed like an extremely simple case of poisoning, so Regina muttered as she looked around the room:
“Was it arsenic poisoning?”
“Why do you think that?”
Noah, who had been examining the room, looked at Regina with surprise. It was strange that out of all the possible poisons, she had specifically pointed out arsenic. Regina answered, recalling the detective novels she had binge-read while pretending to study in order to beg for a sapphire necklace:
“Isn’t arsenic poisoning common? And look, the entire wallpaper in the room is painted green. This is Paris Green. I read in a novel that in the past, this color of dye contained arsenic. It rained heavily yesterday too, so the humidity in the room must have been high… Maybe water droplets from the ceiling fell into the teacup? Like, he drank water droplets containing arsenic and died instantly, something like that.”
Based on the detective novels she had read over three months, Regina came up with a surprisingly plausible theory. Seeing her even strike a thinking pose with her hand on her chin, Noah let out a wry laugh. It was a laugh of disbelief.
