CH 475

Great Detective Mia’s Challenge

Citrina told the other people in the room what she had learned from Connery while they waited for Dion. She said that the open market was in a pretty rough part of town and that Prince Echard had gone missing there for a while.

“I see. The open market. Chaos is good for markets. Businesses do better when there are fewer rules to follow. Also, because it’s so far from the castle, I guess it’s inevitable that the police won’t keep an eye on it as well as they should,” Ludwig said as he nodded along with the reasoning.

“However,” Citrina went on, “the large number of people going into and out of the open market makes it easy for Serpents to hide. I thought it was too strange that the Second Prince went missing in a place like that, so I went to check it out myself. Luckily, it didn’t take long to find what I was looking for. It seems that Prince Echard had talked to a strange man…”

Citrina had looked around the outside of the open market after getting the information she needed from her attackers-turned-victims. Connery said that it was full of people who seemed to be linked to the criminal side of society. Which was just what she had hoped for. At her request, Dion began tapping on every shoulder he saw and asking the people who owned those shoulders some questions. When we say “ask,” we mean “interrogate,” and when we say “tap,” we mean “use his sword.” He didn’t have much trouble, so that’s not a surprise.

Mia thought right away, Yes, that’s very much like Dion. I really feel bad for the people he met. They may think they are tough, but no one is tougher than Dion.

In the meantime, Citrina kept talking. “As we talked to the people we met, we got some information that led us to what we thought was the strange man’s hiding place. So we went there to check it out.”

—

Citrina looked up at the sky in silence. The moon was hidden by clouds, making the land darker than ever. Since there was a lot of shade over the open market, it was very quiet. All of the sounds of business that were heard during the day were gone, like customers haggling and the jingling of goods and money. Even though there was no sound, the quiet was full of a restless energy. Citrina knew just how this felt. It was the quiet of being looked at by a lot of eyes.

“Huh. So this is the open market then.” She looked around before saying, “I wouldn’t want to come here even when it’s bright out.”

It wasn’t a good place for Bel to go. Also, it didn’t seem interesting enough to walk around solo.

“A good number of them are far away and watching us.” Dion said, “Guess I’ll go find a few of them.”

“No, you won’t need to do that. Most likely, they’ll just tell us the same thing.” Citrina shook her head.

All of the men they “questioned” told them the same two things: the person who tried to get in touch with Prince Echard spoke with an Equestrian accent, and they were hiding out in a building near the open market.

“A few of them also said that they didn’t know when the man moved to Sunkland and that they haven’t seen him in a while,” Citrina said in a low voice. It wasn’t hard to get any of them to talk, so the process of gathering information went pretty fast. Even so…

She pursed her lips together and hummed in a mildly annoyed way.

This looks like a trap. I don’t think we’ll get any information from these people that they weren’t supposed to give us.

She groaned. At least, though, there was a guy standing behind her. Dion Alaia, one of the best soldiers in the Empire, was there, which was a huge boost. The person was Princess Mia’s best sword and acted like he walked into traps for fun.

So she decided to try to do just that.

As soon as they were done with the open market, the building in question came into view. With almost perfect timing, the clouds broke up, letting silver moonlight shine on its outside. It was a simple stone building that didn’t look or work much different from its neighbors. There was a wooden door with two closed windows on either side. The moonlight wouldn’t come inside with them.

“Dion Alaia, how good is your night vision?”

“Eh, I guess it’s okay? As good as anyone else.”

“I see…”

Citrina thought about what the word “okay” meant in the Empire’s Finest. He seems like the kind of guy who could probably beat four or five people while being blindfolded, so…

From the few times she had dealt with the wolfmaster before, she knew he was a skilled fighter who could fight well even though he couldn’t see properly. If he could do it, Dion could probably do it too.

“Okay,” she said, “then let’s see… Let’s take a good look around, and then we’ll break down that wooden door.”

“Would you like to go in? It looks like a clear trap.”

“But you’ll protect Rina if anything bad happens, right, Sir Empire’s Finest?” She gave him a taunting smile, which made him shake his head.

“First it was the princess, and now it’s you. I swear, I don’t know what it is about young Tearmoon noblewomen and how they love to recklessly rush into danger without thinking?”

He made a joke, but Citrina didn’t answer. She got close to the building quietly and looked inside through a crack in the window. She was met by quiet darkness.

“Dion Alaia,” she said. “I want you to know that I don’t like how you called what I did ‘reckless.’ Even if they set this building on fire, there is enough place for us to get out. If a lot of them surprise us inside, you can take care of them. There’s nothing reckless about this at all.”

She moved back a step and pointed toward the door. Dion sighed and did as she asked. After a quick flash, the door was no longer there. All that was left were two broken pieces of wood. As expected, the inside was completely dark.

“Just so you know, Lady Yellowmoon, danger doesn’t care what you call it. If you don’t think this is recklesss, that’s fine. But from now on, you should be extra careful not to be extra reckless. Best case scenario: hide behind me. If you’re not careful, you might not make it out of here alive.”

“Yes, yes, you’ve already made your point. Since you’re worried, can I hold your hand?”

Even though she was rude about it, she did what he said. She stayed close behind him as he cautiously looked around and slowly walked in.

“Hmph… It doesn’t look like anyone’s home,” he said with a little bit of disappiontment. “What now, Lady Yellowmoon? If we want to look around, we’ll need a light.”

Then they heard a heavy thump, and the air was filled with some kind of powder.

Dion snorted. “Holy crap! Is it poison?”

He wrapped Citrina’s head in his coat, covered his face with one arm, and picked her up with the other. With just a few quick steps, they were back outside.

“Dion Alaia, no.” Citrina, who was hanging from his arm, said, “It probably isn’t. Otherwise, they wouldn’t put it all over the whole building. It would be silly. Also, it stands out too much. Using poison would be pointless if it was so clear.”

When you're just trying to make great content at bit.ly/3iBfjkV.

As he ran out the door, his sword jumped out of its sheath. He looked around left and right. There was no sign of anyone coming to attack them. Still, he stayed on guard and kept his sword drawn. He didn’t stop being on guard until it had been quiet for a long time.

He spat on the ground and said, “Not poison, huh? Well, what the hell was that meant to be? A joke?” He put his sword back in its sheath and brushed the powder out of his hair.

“No, that’s not right either.”

Citrina raised her back and stretched, then put out her hand and waved it at him a few times. He took a quick look at her and, when he saw her hand outstretched, knelt down so she could reach his head. She ran her fingers through a piece of his hair and picked up a little bit of powder. She messed around with it a bit before putting it close to her nose. Then she licked some off the end of her finger.

“Hey!” Dion yelled out of the blue.

She gave him a sideways look, then drank from the water flask she had brought with her and rinsed her mouth.

“Ease up. All it is is flour. Flour that has gone bad.”

“What? Flour? What did they want to happen when they threw a ton of flour into the room? Did they drop it on purpose or by mistake?” He looked at her with doubt.

“I’ve heard that if you fill a room with this powder and set it on fire, it will burn quickly and violently. It looks like a bomb, but it’s not.”

“Huh. They tried to kill us with flour bombs? Why do these guys have so much time on their hands? Couldn’t they think of an easier way to kill us?” He laughed.

Citrina just looked at the ground for a few seconds before she said something. “Dion Alaia, do you know what the best poison would be?”

“I’m baffled. One that will kill you as soon as you drink it?”

She gave a head shake.

“The best poison, in my opinion, is one that leaves no sign that it was used. The best way to kill someone is to make it look like they died of natural causes, so no one suspects anything. The second best way to kill someone is to do it in a way that makes it clear what poison was used. A poison that kills in a very clear way can be used to throw off suspicion or point out fake suspects,” explained Citrina. “As for this flour, I think it’s just a fancy farewell present. If their goal was to find their attackers and make them unable to catch them, they could have used poisons that make people weak or blind. As long as they keep us still, they can do whatever they want to us after that, whether it’s asking questions or torturing us. This, on the other hand, is just a simple goodbye gift. They knew we were looking for them, so they made a fake trail for us to follow that led to a simple device that would get rid of us for good.”

“They faked a trail that was easy to follow to hide the real one, huh?”

“If we look really hard, we might be able to find some signs of the real trail, but if they throw us a bone, we might as well eat it, right? Even more so when we’re short on time. Even a fake path is still a path.”

Dion hmph’d and crossed his arms. “And that bone led us to this building, which was supposed to blow up while we were searching it?”

“Yes, that’s right. It wouldn’t catch anyone’s eye. All that would be left would be some burned pieces of wood and flour. Which would make you more suspicious: that or a room full of poison with two dead bodies in it? This thing is like poisons that kill without leaving a sign and look like death by natural causes. Except it looks like an accident this time,” said Citrina as she looked at the building.

“Well, in any case, it looks like we didn’t find anything. We don’t have any clear proof that this has to do with the Serpent, and at this point, the whole ‘Equestrian accent’ thing sounds pretty strange as well,” Dion said with a shrug.

Citrina smiled at him in a sweet way.

“Dion Alaia, you don’t have to be too sad. Almost certainly, the Serpents are behind this.”

“And, Detective Yellowmoon, what makes you say that?”

She smiled even nicer. “Simple, my good knight. Did you know that you can blow up a building with flour? Did you even think about the chance of such a trap before I told you about it?”

“Ah, yes, I see.”

“Once this trap is set off, it will look like a building falling down or, at most, an accidental fire. If not triggered, a room full of flour is the only sign. Most people wouldn’t understand what that means. For someone who knows, like Rina, it’s a clever trick set by someone else who knows the same thing. A secret that only a few people know is a great way to hide proof, but to someone who knows what to look for, it might as well be a name tag. After all, only a certain number of people can make such things.”

She stopped for a moment and thought for a while before going on.

“That being said, the Equestrian accent is also not useless information.”

“Why is that?”

The sweetness in her smile became as thick and sticky as honey. “Because there are only so many poisons they can use to make it look like the Equestrian Kingdom is behind this.”

—

“That’s the end of my story on what happened tonight. Dion Alaia, do you have anything to add?”

“Well, no. Except, I guess, to tell Your Highness not to make enemies with the Yellowmoons,” he shrugged.

Bel gave a grin. “That’s alright. There’s no way Rina could ever turn against us.”

“Bel…”

Mia took a deep breath, definitely not a yawn, and asked Rina, “Are you able to deal with all the poisons that come from the area around the Equestrian Kingdom?”

This stopped the two girls from making another public show of their love.

“Yes, Your Highness, each and every one,” Citrina said with a bow.

“However, I do have to say that the Equestrian Kingdom… Recently, this word has been used quite a bit… Miss Rafina said she came here because of something that also had to do with them… I wonder if that means anything,” Mia said in a low voice.

She didn’t yawn this time.

With that, Mia was done collecting information. With all the pieces at her disposal, could the Great Wisdom of the Empire put the puzzle together and lead the situation to a good end?

“Fwaaaah… No, I can’t do this anymore. I’m too tired.”

Would she have to do it while she was sleeping?

Time would have to tell.

Author’s Note:

Everybody loves dust explosion!