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The woman had a severe wound that could not have occurred without someone inflicting it.
“She’s in her mid-20s at most, and she’s a commoner. I think she was an employee of the temple…….”
Smith fumbled around the corpse, speaking rapidly as if trying to prevent someone else from speaking.
Ainar paid no attention to the body, fixated on the branches that protruded from the back and impaled the chest.
Lyna, on the other hand, listened to Smith with one ear while thinking about something else.
‘He said he wanted to check.’
– Lady Bolsheik, is today the worst day in your life?
‘Maybe he felt something.’
It wasn’t that difficult to notice Lyna was surrounded by bad luck.
It was a known fact among the servants of the Bolsheik family that Lyna was plagued by bad luck.
Despite this, they remained silent because they were servants.
It was impossible not to notice when spending time with her, as accidents and unfortunate events seemed to happen constantly.
Smith, however, had never paid much attention to her and was unaware of her luck until now.
Ainar’s sudden comments and actions were strange, as he had never spent much time with Lyna and this was their first proper conversation.
Lyna wondered how Ainar could possibly determine whether her luck was truly bad or if it was just a series of coincidences.
However, a small incident soon clarified Ainar’s intentions and confirmed what Lyna had been curious about.
“If you ask me, this is definitely murder,” Smith finished speaking as Lyna, who had been fixated on the body, looked up.
“I think you’ve seen enough, let’s go,” she said.
As they were leaving the room, a small accident occurred.
CRUCK
Lyna heard a slight sound and immediately stopped.
It was natural since just moments ago she had a near-death experience with the falling of the statue.
Smith and Ainar however continued on, but as they took two steps, a jar hanging on the wall suddenly split in half with a dull noise.
CLACK
A thick layer of white dust obscured the view, and Lyna knew something was going to happen, so she avoided it in her own way.
“COUGH COUGH… What kind of powder is this?”
Lyna looked down at the unknown powder that had fallen on her hair, top, and skirt, and then looked up at Ainar.
He was smiling, as if he were a predator who had found his prey, and not a speck of dust was on him.
Lyna’s lips parted in surprise.
“Uh……how.”
The accident with the jar was similar to the previous incident with the falling stone statue.
It appeared that the jar broke when Smith and Ainar passed by that exact spot, yet Ainar had escaped without a single speck of dust on him, just like before.
Lyna couldn’t understand how it was possible and looked at Ainar with confusion and suspicion.
Ainar simply whispered,
“It’s just…I’m lucky.”
Lyna couldn’t help but burst into laughter at the absurdity of the situation.
Despite her laughter, Ainar didn’t seem to care and his eyes were filled with life again.
He thought to himself, “She’s a funny girl” and couldn’t help but smile.
He couldn’t believe that despite his own heavenly luck, he was unable to fully protect Lyna from these accidents, not once but twice.
He couldn’t comprehend how someone could be so unlucky as to compete with his own heavenly luck.
“Ulk…kkuu… Is this ash?”
As Smith exclaimed in disgust at the ash that had gotten into his mouth, Lyna’s laughter subsided.
She gracefully shook off the powder from her hair and stepped closer to Ainar.
“You’ve confirmed it,” Lyna said.
“Lady Bolsheik,” Ainar replied, gently tapping the tip of her bright red hair to shake off any remaining powder.
“As expected, Lady Bolsheik is a terribly unlucky person,” he said with a smile.
“Your Highness is a very lucky man,” Lyna replied, also smiling.
They were an oddly matched pair; an excessively unlucky woman and an excessively lucky man.
Their eyes met for the first time not in a garden full of roses, not in a banquet hall with colorful lights, but in a basement next to a corpse.
“Will you spare me some time when this case is over?”
Ainar asked, extending his hand.
“I’m honored, your Highness, but no,”
Lyna refused, not taking his hand.
Ainar nodded, as if he had expected her response.
Lyna had a feeling that even if she didn’t want to, she would soon meet Ainar again, as he desired.
“Uh-huh, Lyna,”
Smith called out, interrupting her thoughts.
“Are you done?” Smith asked.
“How are they managing this place? Oh, is it fine?”
Lyna responded.
“You took your sweet time to ask that. As you can see, I’m fine,”
“No, I asked about the broken jar.”
“In that case, you don’t have to ask how I was doing, since I’ve already answered.”
Smith replied with a dry voice and an expressionless face, clearly uninterested in the conversation.
But Smith wasn’t going to let Lyna off that easily.
He approached her and looked her up and down.
“Did you inhale ash?” Smith asked.
“What?” Lyna replied.
“You have to shake it off well, so call the servant…” Smith said.
“It’s okay,” Lyna said with no sincerity.
“It’s not okay!” Smith exclaimed.
“Anyway, it’s better than being covered all over with that powder,”
Lyna replied, and without waiting for Smith’s response, she immediately opened the door and left the basement.
“Please take us to where the investigator is.”
The three of them, having inspected the body and encountered a small accident, made their way to the room where the investigator was waiting.
“Greetings,”
Smith said as the investigator stiffly bowed.
“What is the status of the case?”
“I believe we can close the case within a few minutes,” the investigator replied, holding up a bundle of papers.
“Really? What do you have there?” Smith asked in surprise.
“I have never encountered a murder case with so many clues. Thanks to this, I believe it will be resolved quickly.”
The investigator pointed to Jane.
“As you have confirmed the body, let us begin the questioning.”
Before Smith could say anything more, the investigator immediately sat down opposite Jane and started the inquiry.
“I understand that you were the first one to discover the body,” said the investigator.
“Yes, that is correct,” Jane replied.
“You seem to be quite calm for someone who has just seen a corpse,” the investigator observed.
Lyna’s lips twisted at the investigator’s words.
Of course, she would be calm. She had never seen Jane’s calm facade break.
Even when Lyna had caused a scene that no ordinary person could imagine, Jane never raised her voice or became angry.
She simply calmly tried to soothe Lyna, as if she knew it would only enrage Lyna more.
Jane lowered her eyes, and the investigator continued with the questioning.
“Please describe the circumstances under which you first discovered the body,” he said.
“I always chatted with her at the same time, so I went to where I always went,” Jane said.
“But she was already dead,”
“Yes,”
“Then I assume you knew each other well,” the investigator said.
When asked by the investigator, Jane’s story was a twist on a common tale that many people would have heard at least once before.
A man was caught between two women, and he chose one as his lover.
Typically, the woman who was not chosen would be jealous of the one who was.
But in this story, it was different.
The woman who the man professed his love to did not trust him, and was jealous and resentful of the woman who couldn’t let go of him and still clung to him.
“Then the deceased woman must have been the one who was not loved by the man,” the investigator said, stroking his chin in thought.
“No,” Jane calmly denied.
“What? ” the investigator asked, surprised.
“She’s not,” Jane repeated.
The investigator asked again, but received the same response.
“Then, who is the deceased woman?”
“The woman who was loved by the man,” Jane replied.