Chapter Two - 6

6

 

“Normally we'd never let a stranger into the castle,” said Marie, crossing her arms. “Where are you from? You have a rather unusual name, Detective.”

“That ain't a name, Princess. 'Detective''s a title used for people who are good at cleaning up messes. They won't miss even a single speck of dust.”

“So you're good at cleaning?”

“Oh, no, I'm the opposite. I've never cleaned anything in my life. I'm good at making messes. By the way, my name's... well, you can call me 'Snowy'.”

Marie and Snowy were in the dining hall. The people in the castle who had earlier been watching them with great interest had all left, leaving them alone.

“Then, Snowy, what did you come to this castle for?” Marie asked.

Snowy took a sip of hot water from a wooden cup. They looked at Marie with their big eyes.

“I came here to investigate the case of the Headless Knights.”

“Do you know about that incident?”

“Well...”

“Then you know why Raine was killed?”

“Lay off, will ya? Even if I did know, I might decide not to say anything. I told you, I'm a detective who likes making messes. I don't make deductions. I just dig around.”

“I have no idea what you're talking about.”

“That's alright, Princess. At least you're cute.”

“I'm not a princess. My name is Marie.”

“Whatever you say, Princess.”

“What were you planning to investigate when you entered the castle?”

“All sorts of stuff. Just tons of things to investigate. But when I got to that gatekeeper, he wouldn't let me in. Even though I went to all the trouble to enter the castle the normal way, he said no. Really, he was lucky I didn't have a rope on me. I would've hanged him in five seconds.”

“This is off-topic.”

“...What were we talking about?”

“What you were planning to investigate in the castle.”

“I was planning to solve the case. I'm sure you're already aware of all the mysteries in this case, like 'who killed the knights?' and 'how did the corpses leave the castle?' and all that.”

“Yes. There's quite a bit I don't understand.”

“I was planning to examine all the mysteries one by one.”

“Then where should we start?”

“Let's head underground. Even though I don't like dark places.”

“Me neither.”

They went to the basement. Marie held the candlestick, and Snowy crept behind her. Several times, Snowy stumbled and bumped Marie from behind. Every time, she let out a short scream and almost dropped the candlestick.

 “Will you be careful?”

“It's 'cause it's dark.”

Finally, they arrived at the storage room. Marie opened the door. The mannequin knights were lined up in rows. Marie gasped. She remembered the night that Raine and his comrades had disappeared. The headless mannequin had been removed. Not a trace had been left behind.

“There was a headless doll here, right?”

“Yes. Did I ever mention that?”

“Don't sweat the small stuff. The doll was missing its head and chain armor, right? And its helmet had been dropped in front of your room. The shield and cloak were scattered on the floor. It was like something out of a fairy tale. The story of the Princess, the Knight, and the Headless Doll. Now, the night the knights went nighty-night somewhere outside and the night this knight lost its head were the same night. What do we make of that?”

“Maybe it was meant to be a forewarning. By decapitating the mannequin, it was a warning that someone was going to commit a murder and decapitation.”

“Who was the notice for and who left it?”

“From the culprit to Raine and the other victims.”

“What's the point of doing that?” Snowy shook their head as though they'd smelled something foul. “And if you were going to give a warning, I think there are better places to leave it than a dark basement. For instance, they could have cut the head off that statue of Christ in the great hall.”

“Indeed, that would have been scary.”

“If this was the culprit leaving a warning to the victims, it should have been done somewhere it'd actually be seen.”

Snowy was slowly walking around, investigating the mannequins. Marie was charged with holding the candlestick and moving it closer or further away at Snowy's command. It was quite boring. Snowy carefully examined the mannequins, their shields, and their armor, giving only the occasional hum or whistle.

“Hey, can we try something?”

Snowy looked at Marie with eyes full of mischief.

“What is it?”

“This.”

Snowy approached a mannequin and put a hand on its surcoat. They grabbed the hem and pulled. The wooden figure swayed, and its shield fell to the floor. A high-pitched metallic sound reverberated through the small room, and Marie instinctively covered her ears. Snowy, perhaps not yet satisfied, grabbed the mannequin's arm and pulled. The mannequin moved as though it were dancing, but it didn't drop anything.

“I'm not very strong. Gimme a hand here.”

“You're fighting mannequins now?”

Marie placed the candlestick on the floor and joined Snowy. At their signal, they pulled the mannequin's arm, and it popped clean out of its socket. The mannequin crumbled to the floor. The arm flew across the room, and the legs rolled off into the distance. The torso was covered by the cloak and the head was covered in its helmet, lying at Marie's feet. Marie felt a surge of disgust and stepped away.

“Ai-yi-yi, I think we overdid it a bit. But as you can see, the equipment is now scattered on the floor.”

“I wonder if someone was violent with the mannequin that night, just like we were. In other words, they pulled Raine's mannequin apart while trying to steal its equipment. Is that it?”

“Maybe.”

“Then why did they only take the head and armor?”

“What is armor usually used for?”

“For wearing.”

“Then they wore it.”

“Someone wanted to wear Raine's armor. Maybe they were going to war.” 

“I wonder...”

“Isn't it possible that the material of the armor was used for something else? It's like clothing made out of chains, so perhaps the chains were used for something?”

“What could they have been used for? Did they melt it down in a kiln to make a big axe for decapitating people? Or maybe they made it into a pan to fry up some eggs.”

“Alright, I get it,” Marie said poutily. “You're right, armor is for wearing. Then why did someone tear it off the mannequin like they were in a panic? What did they need it so desperately for?”

“It's armor, so probably for protection,” Snowy said curtly.

They lifted the mannequin's head off the floor and peered into the helmet.

“The helmet was left in front of your room, Princess. The head inside had been taken away. Now, Princess, who do you think did that?”

“Well of course, it was the one who killed the six knights and cut off their heads.”

“You don't know anything at all.”

“You've been acting really aggressive for a while now.”

“The decapitated mannequin held Raine's stuff, Raine's armor was the one taken, and Raine's helmet was left behind. Even though it was all Raine's, you still didn't notice a thing, Princess.”

“What are you saying?”

“Raine put on his armor. He was in a hurry, so he wound up scattering his shield and cloak. He didn't have time to put them back. The helmet was left as a message for you. He's the one who left it. Get it?”

Marie felt a stabbing pain in her chest. She had assumed that the person who took the head from the mannequin was the one who'd cut the heads off the six knights, but as they'd said, that wasn't necessarily the case. Raine took the head from his own mannequin, put on his armor, went outside, and placed the helmet in front of her room. Marie's thoughts were beginning to align with Snowy's hypothesis.

“If that's true, then what was Raine trying to tell me?”

“How could I possibly know that if you don't?”

“Where did the mannequin's head go?”

“Dunno.”

Snowy spun on their heel and abruptly left the basement. Although Marie watched them go in shock, she quickly recovered, grabbed the candlestick, and followed them. Just as she was about to leave the room, she ran into Snowy, who had spun again and come back. They nearly crashed into each other.

“What are you doing, walking back and forth like that? It's not safe.”

“It's because it's dark. Come on, let's hurry and go somewhere we can see.”

“Where are you going now?”

“The crime scene.”

“Where?”

“The tower.”

They headed to the east tower. For some reason, Snowy was able to navigate the castle without needing Marie's help. Their appearance, which made them look like they were covered in white feathers, was astonishingly out of place in the gloomy castle.

They looked into the meeting room. Snowy circled the round table, tracing it with a finger as they went.

“There's a trace that something spilled here.”

They pointed to the edge of the round table. There were a few dots of dark red stains. They looked like they had been formed recently and were still damp.

“Blood?”

“I don't know.” Snowy put their nose to the table. “It's wine.”

“I see.”

“Are you sure? I can be more confident if I lick it.”

“Please don't.”

“Maybe the knights were all killed by poison. Someone mixed poison in the wine and killed them. If you want to kill six people at once, that's the easiest way to do it. They probably drank the wine after their meeting. The culprit must have given it to them. Now, Princess, let's head upstairs.”

Marie and Snowy thoroughly investigated each floor as they went, but they didn't find anything. Nothing had changed in the tower since the first time she'd investigated it with Raine. They didn't find any bloody messes or severed heads. The tower seemed to exist outside of time.

They opened the door to the fourth floor and went inside. Snowy took a look around, instantly found the secret handle, and casually went to open the hidden door.

“You're quite perceptive.”

“Because I'm a detective.”

“I wonder if there are any other hidden doors like this in the castle.”

“I'm guessing Geoffroy wasn't the one who built this castle. In that case, there's no need to be suspicious.”

“Father only built the east tower.”

“Figured.”

Perhaps the door was heavy, as Snowy struggled to open it. With Marie's help, they were finally able to open it far enough for someone to pass through. Snowy went in first, and immediately tripped on the stairs.

“Don't go too far in. You'll fall out the window.”

“I'm fine, thanks for asking...”

Marie aimed her light at the walls. There were no visible changes. It was probably just her imagination that made the darkness look heavier. Marie stood in front of the window next to Snowy. Snowy stuck half their body out the window and peered down, holding their hair clip with one hand. Their white clothes flapped in the wind.

“Hey, I can see a giant cross from here.”

“It's dangerous leaning over like that.”

“What'd happen if I fell from here?”

“You'd die.”

“I won't die. It'd probably hurt like hell, though.”

“You'd die.”

“I'm not gonna die. Now, just to establish things, lets try falling down. Princess, you go first.”

“Why should I fall down!?”

“Because I don't want to get hurt.”

Marie looked down from the window. The window was halfway up the roof's slope. The roof's edge cut off her vision. She could see the giant stone cross at the edge of what she could see. The cross lay sideways, with the left side of the crossbar facing her.

“The east tower is connected to the castle wall. That means if you went out the window, you could leave the castle without passing through the gate.”

Snowy said that to themself. Marie clapped her hands in agreement, and almost fell out the window. She managed to catch herself, though.

“That's it, they went out the window!”

“Who?” Snowy tilted their head to the side with a blank look on their face. “And why?”

“Because the bodies were found on the banks of Cross Spring. Someone had to have taken them there. But nobody passed through the gate. That means the bodies must have been lowered from this window in the tower using a rope-”

“There weren't any footprints near the tower. Even the horses never left their stables. Even if the culprit had another horse prepared, they still would have had to move six bodies a day's journey in only half a day. Don't forget that, Princess.”

“Ah... that's right.”

Marie shrugged.

“Isn't that huge stone cross curved on its horizontal axis?”

“Yes. It is curved, or rather, it's slanted. When you look at it from directly below, both ends of the horizontal bar appear to be slightly above the center. The surface of the horizontal axis gets lower towards the center.” (See figure)

 

“Huh.” Snowy sounded bored. “Oh, I can see the river over there.”

“Oi, Snowy. Forget the river. What do you think? Do you think you can solve the mystery of how Raine and the others disappeared from the castle?”

“I think I understand. Or rather, I knew from the beginning.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you'll understand that eventually.”

Snowy pulled a dagger marked “VI” from their clothes and held it up in the air.

Without a word, they turned their back to Marie and went back downstairs and into the room.

 

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