Chapter 9
Agnes confidently handed Ergon the notebook containing the completed montage. Ian, who had discreetly peeked over, admired her drawing skills purely.
“Oh? I feel like I’ve seen this man somewhere before.”
Although the style was quite distinctive, it strangely captured the subject’s features well, so anyone who knew the culprit’s face would likely recognize him immediately. Ultimately, even Ergon had to admit that her drawing was helpful.
“It wasn’t a doodle after all.”
He then turned his gaze to Agnes. She looked deeply moved by her own work.
“I never knew, but I think I have a talent for drawing.”
“Not to that extent.”
“Look, doesn’t it look exactly like the face I saw?”
“I don’t know that face.”
Ian tilted his head as he watched Ergon and Agnes bicker. It was the first time he had seen his master converse so casually with a woman.
Then, snapping back to reality, he took Agnes’s drawing from Ergon’s hand. He had remembered something he needed to do.
“For now, I’ll take this montage and make inquiries.”
Though he wasn’t certain who it was, if the face seemed familiar, there was a high chance he had seen the person in the Imperial Palace. After all, the palace was the place Ian frequented most, second only to the Duke’s residence.
Not long after, Ian returned with some very crucial information.
“This man is the deputy commander of the Imperial Guard. But apparently, he went home this morning.”
Ergon, Ian, and Agnes headed straight to the deputy commander’s house. According to what they’d learned, after losing his wife a few years ago, the deputy commander had essentially lived in the guardhouse, taking duty almost every day. Though he usually stopped by his home about once a month, today, being the anniversary of his wife’s death, he had gone home specifically.
“Deputy Commander? Are you there?”
Ian knocked on the gate of the two-story red brick house, but the interior was silent.
Ergon peered over the wall, which was shorter than he was, and furrowed his brow. The wooden front door was slightly ajar.
Without hesitation, Ergon pushed the gate. It swung wide open without any need for force.
With an ominous feeling, Ergon moved his hand to the sword at his waist. He took the lead cautiously, with Ian and Agnes following closely behind, holding their breath and tense.
Sreung.
Ergon entered the house, pointing his sword forward. Though it was still far from sunset, the interior was very dark. Heavy curtains covered every window. The only thing allowing them to distinguish objects was the small window on the landing leading to the second floor.
And then they saw him. The deputy commander, suspended in mid-air against the light, hanging limply.
“Kyaak!”
Agnes, who had been following Ergon, screamed and collapsed. Ian quickly stepped in front of her, blocking her view with his body, but Agnes was already trembling with terror.
It was far too gruesome a sight for a young noble lady who had just turned twenty.
As Ian stood helplessly between the cowering Agnes and the deputy commander’s body hanging in the air, a low, calm voice gave him an order.
“Ian, search for poison.”
Then, Ergon immediately swung his sword, cutting the rope connecting the body to the ceiling.
Thump!
The deputy commander’s large body fell heavily to the floor. Ergon unflinchingly began to search the body. His touch paused at the deputy commander’s forearm.
“There are signs of a struggle.”
The arms and hands bore marks that looked like they had been scraped against a rough surface. It seemed highly likely that the deputy commander had been killed by someone hiding here as soon as he returned home.
Could the culprit have known I would trace things this far and acted preemptively? Deliberately making it look like a suicide?
The signs of a struggle remained on the body, and the condition of the corpse was far from consistent with death by hanging. The culprit had staged the scene, confident that Ergon would never be able to find them.
The exact cause of death would need to be confirmed, but the most likely based on observation was poisoning. And the poison used was probably the same one the dead servant in the Imperial Palace had ingested.
This was a warning. No matter what evidence he presented, the deputy commander’s death would ultimately be ruled a suicide, so he should just accept it quietly and stay out of it.
“…So they intend to cut the tail like this?”
Ergon muttered lowly, then looked back at Agnes, who was trembling behind him.
“Agnes.”
Agnes looked at Ergon with a pale face. His emerald eyes glinted coldly.
“Would you be able to touch the body?”
“What?”
He stared pointedly at Agnes’s gloves. He looked ready to rip them off at any moment.
Ian, who had been searching the corners of the first floor, heard this and rushed over in horror.
“Your Highness! How can you ask a young lady such a thing!”
As Ian quickly stepped between them to restrain Ergon, Agnes, her face pale with shock, rose to her feet.
“I have found the person who placed the poison, as promised. I will be taking my leave now.”
Without waiting for a reply, she turned and walked toward the front door. Every fiber of her being wanted to run, to escape this place as fast as possible, but her legs were trembling too much.
Because she had come in Ergon’s carriage, she didn’t know the way back to the Count’s residence well, but that wasn’t the most important issue right now.
With every step she took, every time she blinked, the deputy commander’s body she had just seen flickered before her eyes.
The blackened skin, the blue-tinged lips, the stiff, rigid body.
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t her first time seeing a dead body. Due to her uncontrollable psychometry ability, she had already unwillingly witnessed such scenes a couple of times when she was younger.
Even though it hadn’t been real at the time, she had felt so terrified and scared that she thought she might lose her mind, and now she had encountered such a horrific sight in reality.
Feeling the fear she had experienced in the past swell up and rush towards her, Agnes’s lips trembled.
And now he wanted her to touch the body? Treating a person like a mere tool…!
The Duke was clearly a cold-blooded man with neither blood nor tears.
Even aside from the horror of touching the corpse, there would be consequences afterward. While she couldn’t be certain she would see a terrifying scene, based on past experience, it was highly likely she would witness the memory of how he was murdered. She couldn’t even begin to imagine how gruesome that sight would be.
Agnes bit back tears, inwardly cursing Ergon.
Just as she was about to step out of the gate.
Ergon, who had followed her without her noticing, roughly grabbed her arm.
“Do you think that man was the real culprit?”
“…”
Grabbed so forcefully, Agnes had no choice but to meet Ergon’s blazing gaze head-on.
Instead of answering, she pressed her lips together tighter, her eyes reddening.
“Then why is he dead? And why now, of all times?”
The moment Ergon identified the man who had framed him, he turned up dead. And with clear signs of murder. It was an impossibly convenient coincidence.
“That deputy commander was probably bribed by someone to plant the poison among my belongings. He was killed because he had served his purpose.”
The moment Ergon saw the deputy commander’s body, he had sensed it instinctively. That there was a different true culprit.
“This isn’t how it ends. We need to find the real culprit.”
Ergon’s grip on Agnes’s forearm tightened.
“If you give up here, more victims will appear.”
Until now, there had been many attempts to sow discord between the Emperor and Ergon, but no one had died. That was why he had endured them quietly. But this time was different. A palace servant and a deputy commander – two precious lives had been lost.
“I want to find the true mastermind behind this.”
The real culprit wouldn’t stop this madness as long as Ergon remained alive. He had no intention of being toyed with by such cowardly malice, so to prevent further victims, he needed to find the true culprit quickly. And for that, he needed Agnes’s psychometry ability.
“…I’m sorry.”
But Agnes was still reeling from the shock of seeing the dead body. She couldn’t even bear to look back towards the house.
She had thought it would simply be a matter of clearing his name. Having never dreamed it would involve such dangerous, life-threatening situations, she could no longer help him.
“I don’t think I can help you any further.”
In the end, Agnes pulled her arm free from Ergon’s grasp.
