453 stairss (1/2)

Red Rose Manor, outside the luxurious rooms filled with all kinds of antiques.

Klein stood at the door and asked the sixth maid he had met today.

The young maid was wearing a black-and-white servant dress that had the characteristics of the times. She was pretty, in her prime, and had natural curls to her brown hair. She had a hint of playfulness on her face.

”Who does Mr. Talim meet when he visits?” Klein repeated the question numbly.

The maid replied almost without a pause, ”Mr. Talim usually requests to meet His Highness, or to accompany him in riding horses, or to discuss matters. If His Highness happens to be absent, he will meet with that lady. They are very good friends. He receives permission from the butler.”

Talim is good friends with the commoner lady who Prince Edessak likes? Meeting in private from time to time? It was likely that he was persuading her to leave this place, so as to not affect the reputation of the Prince… Klein nodded thoughtfully.

”They, I mean—Mr. Talim and the young lady, what would they talk about?”

When he asked this question, Klein suddenly recalled how Talim had fallen in love just recently. With his rich ”experience” from the information age, he somehow came up with an extremely contrived romance story.

The maid wasn't afraid of the detective. She smiled, shook her head, and said, ”At times like these, we're all asked to leave the room.”

This… Even more than ever, Klein couldn't resist making associations, even to the point of changing the colors of Prince Edessak's hat and helmet.

Without waiting for him to ask any further questions, the maid chuckled and said, ”Detective Moriarty, if you want to find out exactly what the lady and Mr. Talim were talking about, you can ask her directly.”

”The old butler doesn't permit that.” Klein confidently pushed out his scapegoat.

He changed the topic and said with a smile, ”You seem to know more than the other servants. You even know to call me Detective Moriarty.”

The maid looked around, maintained her smile, and said, ”It's because I've been serving the lady during my rotations. She's always wanted to meet you, Detective Moriarty. After all, she's close friends with Mr. Talim and cares a great deal about his death.

”Unfortunately, she always ends up missing you.”

”Always?” Klein was sensitive to the words ”always,” ”just happened,” and ”missed.”

The maid nodded seriously and said, ”The first time His Highness invited you to be his guest, she intentionally threw a tantrum and wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to walk downstairs to meet you. Who knew that you would leave in a hurry.

”Afterwards, she took the initiative to represent His Highness to place flowers on Mr. Talim's grave, but as she didn't know what you looked like, she wasn't able to find you.

”And today, she just happened to go to the golf course out back to relax on horseback. Otherwise, even if the butler didn't allow it, she would've tried to find a way to meet you.”

What a coincidence… Klein sighed as he suddenly grasped a crucial point.

On the day of Talim's funeral, it was the commoner lady he loved who had offered flowers in the prince's place!

On that day, Klein was most concerned about the lady with the black veil and the sapphire ring on her finger. She might have a Grade 0 Sealed Artifact or some powerful existence of an equal level!

All of a sudden, a thought flashed through Klein's mind—the woman with the sapphire ring on her finger was wearing a long, heavy black dress. Accompanied by two maids, she slowly disappeared into the distance…

One of the ladies had brown natural curls.

The image of the maid quickly overlapped with the one in front of Klein, and it was abnormally identical!

Klein's body tensed up, and sweat rolled down his back, but his expression didn't change at all.

Using the abilities of a Clown, he pretended like he was recalling the event, and he asked with a smile, ”Were you with that lady on the day of Talim's funeral?”

The maid replied without much thought, ”Yes.”

… Damn, it's really her! Klein maintained his smile.

”Very well, next question.”

As if nothing had happened, he began to inquire about other things, then he switched to another servant and continued.

However, Klein secretly shortened the process and sped up the progress.

He wanted to leave Red Rose Manor before the young lady returned from her riding!

At four o'clock in the afternoon, before the sky had turned dark, Klein left the manor much earlier than expected and took the carriage sent by the old butler back to the city.

Sitting in the window with his back against the wall wrapped in silk and muslin, he was relieved to have the energy to reflect on the whole situation—it was Prince Edessak's beloved commoner lady who had cursed Talim…

Why did she have to deal with a descendant of a fallen noble family? To take revenge against Talim for trying to break up the relationship between her and the prince?

But there's no need for her to do it herself. She can find a chance to mention it while in bed. Prince Edessak has plenty of ways to make Talim disappear without a sound…

Talim was in a state of deep love before he died. Yes… The first sign was after he successfully persuaded the commoner lady to leave Prince Edessak… They had an affair? So, the commoner lady who was brought back to the manor killed Talim in order to silence him and remove any latent dangers?