Chapter Two - 5

5

 

Rumors circulated of a headless knight roaming the castle. Knight and servant alike clamored, claiming to have personally witnessed the headless ghost. Geoffroy chose to ignore the rumors. The rumors responded by growing louder.

Marie gathered a group of knights to form the “Headless Knight Ghost Investigation Team”. They stood guard throughout the castle all night, but none of their members reported seeing the ghost. However, the night the six bodies were returned to the castle, the ghostly commotion reached its climax, and an incident occurred in which the knights almost cut each other.

The bodies were temporarily laid out in the basement as they await their burial. Marie went to see them, but they were so badly damaged she couldn't tell who was who. She couldn't stand to look directly at them. There were bruises and scratches all over the corpses, and some even bore grotesque marks as though they'd been pecked at by carrion-eating birds. All six bodies wore the same monastic robes, so it was impossible to identify them by their clothes, either. The bodies were dirty and disheveled. Marie shuddered. She imagined these six headless knights rising up and prowling the castle in the dead of night, and it terrified her. She had forgotten the love she'd once held for Raine. All that remained was fear and despair.

The return of the bodies posed several new questions. They had been discovered the first morning after the maid had seen the knights at their meeting. That meant they had been moved from the castle to the banks of Cross Spring in only half a day. As the several days it had taken to transport the bodies proved, that was a considerable journey. It was impossible to travel the distance in half a day by any means. Coupled with the lack of any traces of human footprints around the castle, the only conclusion to be drawn was that the bodies had flown away at high speeds.

Marie suspected her father. She decided to investigate herself and gathered rumors about Geoffroy from the knights. Getting them to talk hadn't been easy. First she'd offered them wine, and when they still wouldn't talk, she forced them to drink until they were deeply inebriated. In that state, any knight would call him a heretic and a madman. Nobody had anything positive to say about their lord. On the contrary, Geoffroy's reputation was terrible.

 “Count Geoffroy's a maniac who likes to destroy the things he's built. Lady Marie, I'm only saying this because you ask, but he's going to destroy this castle someday. His head is full of nothing but collapse.”

Marie didn't find that unlikely. Something about Geoffroy portended doom. No matter how cruel or tragic the event, he'd accept it easily. In fact, she had the impression that he sought out tragedies. The manor he'd lived in before moving to Lapis Lazuli Castle burned down just before he moved out. The people around him couldn't understand his behavior. His bizarre past must have been part of the reason he was called a madman.

Several days had passed since the Headless Knight Ghost Investigation Team began their nightly patrols. The knights assigned to the patrols were already prepared to give up, but Marie did everything she could to encourage them. There was no doubt in her mind that some mysterious entity was prowling the castle, and she was determined to find out what it was. Fortunately, she had many loyal fans among the knights, so she was able to keep the castle on high alert.

Marie immediately locked herself in her room come nightfall. She was afraid to be alone, so she always had a maid with her. Although she had managed to befriend the maids she usually didn't talk to, their presence didn't allay her fears.

“Shall we be sleeping together again today?”

The maid who'd asked that was the same age as Marie. Although she was somewhat awkward when she spoke, her outgoing personality had allowed them to ignore the master-servant relationship and become friends. Marie and the maid lay side by side. The soft light of the candles swayed on the ceiling like waves.

“Lady Marie, those clothes are silk, are they not?”

“Mm-hm.”

“I've always wished I could wear clothes as beautiful as yours, Lady Marie...”

“Okay. I'll lend you mine.”

“Really? I'm so happy. I thought that I would never be able to wear such beautiful clothes because I wasn't born a princess.”

She sat up with exaggerated glee.

A soft noise came from behind the door. Marie quickly covered the maid's mouth and listened. From the corner of the room, she heard the sound of the candlewick burning, but nothing else.

“I just heard something.”

“Really? I didn't hear a thing.”

“Hey, go open the door and look outside.”

“M-Me?”

“Just go!”

As the two girls fought, they heard the noise again. This time it was more clear than before. It was more like the sound of fine metal rubbing together than the rustle of clothes. Marie stared at the door. It felt as though any moment it would slowly open and the headless ghost would appear. It was clear now. The sound they could hear was the jingle of chain armor. Every time, it was the same. A footstep and a jingle, a footstep and a jingle, a footstep and a jingle. Marie and the maid both went pale, and they hugged each other. The sound moved away. Jingle, jingle, jingle...

 “You heard that too, right?”

“Yes, I did...”

“Go open the door.”

 “No! No way!”

“It could just be a knight out on patrol.”

“But he was moving so creepily!”

“That's why you should open the door!”

The maid reached out for the door, positioned for optimal running away. Grasping the handle with her fingertips and keeping as far away as possible, she opened the door. In the middle of the corridor, a massive man stood covered in darkness. The maid collapsed to her knees. Marie let out a scream. At that moment, the dark giant disappeared. Its true identity was the maid's own shadow cast from the candles in the room. The maid looked at Marie and shook her head.

“There's no one here.”

“I wonder if it was just a knight on patrol after all.”

“But no one wears battle armor inside the castle, do they?”

“Yeah, they all wear those long, fluttery surcoats. Maybe it was the ghost after all.”

“Please don't say that...”

The maid's shoulders shook as she closed the door. She jumped into bed and wrapped herself and Marie in the blankets. They decided to get to sleep. It was getting late.

As dawn broke, a bit of a commotion occurred. Several knights had gathered around the gate, standing on weeds wet with morning dew. The gate was ajar. Beyond the gate, the wide hillside and withered forest stretched into the horizon.

Marie happened to overhear the commotion and rushed to the gate. The gatekeeper looked puzzled as he spoke to a visitor.

When Marie saw the visitor, she was shocked. They wore the most eccentric, mysterious, and outright bizarre clothes she had ever seen. A light, thin, fluffy white jacket. A large white... string decoration of some sort swayed in the wind on their chest. Their lower half was covered in intricately woven fabric, with a wide cone for a hemline. It wasn't formal attire, but it wasn't anything a commoner would wear. They wore black boots that sharply contrasted the rest of their outfit. On their head was a hair clip with a small ornamental feather. They looked a bit like a girl, but their face was a bit like a boy's, and it was impossible to tell their gender just from their looks.

“I'm sorry, but we can't let anyone in without permission,” said the gatekeeper. He held a spear in his right hand, but he was leaning against it and didn't look combat ready.

“Hey, can you bring out someone more talkative? I'm getting tired of dealing with this stupid old man.”

The visitor's tone was disgusted.

“You don't know who you're talking to. Just get out of here.” The surrounding knights joined the gatekeeper. “If you don't shove off soon, we'll hurt you good.”

“Oh, goody! Well, come on, then.”

At the visitor's words, several knights moved in. They grabbed the visitor, wrestled them to the ground, and shut them up. In the end, it was a one sided beating. His – Her? – face made it out unscathed, but the white clothes were ruined by grass and mud stains.

“If you've learned your lesson, then go back to whatever village you came from. Next time we'll bring our swords.”

“How interesting. Bring your swords or whatever you want.” Despite their defeat, the visitor still looked confident. “All right then. You! Idiot! Give me your sword!”

The visitor pointed at a knight. The knight smiled at the abuse and obediently handed the longsword at his waist to the visitor. The visitor took the sword, and immediately dropped it. They couldn't pick it up again.

 “...It's heavy.”

 “We know.”

The knights broke into laughter. Marie laughed alongside them.

“I'm going to kill every single one of you who just laughed.”

“Scary words from such a cute face.”

The visitor tried to lift the sword again, but they were far too small. Marie, unable to stand the conflict anymore, stepped between them and the knights.

“That's enough of that, now,” Marie said as she stood before the visitor. “I'll give you permission to enter the castle. You'll be my guest. Will that be alright?”

“Are you sure about this, Lady Marie?”

“As you can see, there won't be any problems.”

The knights nodded with smiles and allowed the visitor through the gate. The visitor left the sword behind, stood up, brushed some of the dirt from their clothes, and suddenly puffed out their chest. Some of the people around them laughed again.

“Hey, just who are you?” Marie asked.

“Who am I? That should be obvious. I'm the detective.”

 

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