Chapter 475

Chapter 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.”

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!