V. 1243, Lapis Lazuli Castle, France
4
Six knights had disappeared from the castle. Marie learned of the incident the day after she'd found a head removed from the armor's storage room.
That morning, Marie was woken up by one of her maids, dressed, and left her room having completely forgotten about the mannequins from last night. But as soon as she left the room, the memories came flooding back, and she remembered the helmet she'd found lying on the floor. She grabbed the maid and shook her by the shoulder.
“Where is Raine?”
“I haven't seen Sir Raine today...”
It turned out that nobody had seen Raine. She had seen several knights around the castle who weren't part of the Order of Marie's White Shield, but Raine, Flanders, Annaud, Yves, Horace, and Matthias were all nowhere to be found.
Marie went to Geoffroy's room. Geoffroy's private chambers were located in the far end of the castle. Marie stood in front of a sturdy iron door, took a breath, and rapped the door with its handle. She heard a voice from within, and opened the door. There, sitting on a large red throne, was Geoffroy. He sat with crossed legs staring at a spot on the wall. The room was bleak. It was so simple and unadorned it was impossible to envision it as a count's room. All that was visible were stone walls.
“You're so noisy.”
Geoffroy narrowed his eyes and looked at Marie.
“Raine has gone missing. Not only he, but Flanders, Annaud, and the others, they're all gone.”
“I already knew that. I have sent some knights to search for them, so there is nothing to be concerned about.”
“What about the mannequin in the basement?”
“The mannequin? Whatever are you talking about?”
“Raine's helmet was dropped in front of my room last night. I was curious, so I went to investigate the equipment storage room in the basement. The only thing missing was the head of the mannequin that held Raine's equipment. His cloak and shield had also been moved to the floor.”
As Marie explained what she'd seen, the color drained from Geoffroy's face, and his eyes went wide. His fingertips trembled slightly. In a shaking voice, he asked Marie if she was telling the truth. Marie nodded.
“Did it still have its armor?”
“What?”
“Was Raine's chain armor missing?”
“I'm not sure. The mannequin was wearing its surcoat, so I couldn't see inside.”
“I see.”
Geoffroy's expression slowly turned inward as he appeared to come to a conclusion. Marie regretted her decision to come to Geoffroy's private chambers alone. If Geoffroy really had murdered her mother, it seemed dangerous to be alone with him. In her desire to find Raine, she hadn't thought of that. Marie stepped back and placed a hand on the door.
“There's nothing to be afraid of, Marie,” Geoffroy suddenly said in an eerily gentle voice. “Everything is for you.”
Marie ran from the room. Geoffroy's words echoed hauntingly in her ears. She ran through the cold, dark, shadowed corridor. She didn't call for help. There was no one to hear. She ran back to her room and immediately jumped into bed and wrapped herself in her blankets. The faint traces of warmth she'd left earlier had yet to completely fade.
Geoffroy knew something.
Marie was terrified. She felt as though her entire world had been created by Geoffroy. Why had she been born? Geoffroy had asked her that once. Marie couldn't answer. Why had she been born?
There was a knock on the door. Marie shrank away and decided not to answer. But the person merely knocked again.
“Lady Marie, what would you like to eat today?”
The voice was one of the maids. She was a year older than Marie and had always taken good care of her.
“I'm not hungry.”
“But...”
“I don't want anything.”
“I understand, my lady.”
She heard footsteps leaving the door. Marie suddenly felt uneasy again. The entire room was dark. She pulled the blanket over her head. If she focused, she could hear her own heartbeat. She hunched her shoulders, hung her head, and clutched the jewel at her chest for dear life.
There was another knock on the door, and she heard the maid's voice.
“I have brought you your meal, my lady. Will you be taking it here?”
Marie was relieved to hear the maid's voice and patted her chest. Throwing off the blankets, she ran to the door. She threw it open and addressed the maid, who was holding a tray.
“I said I didn't want anything.”
Marie took the tray. It held a bowl of mutton soup and a piece of bread.
“Are you worried about your knights?”
“...I am. I don't know where Raine and the others have gone.”
“If it pleases you, my lady, I'd be happy to talk about it with you.”
Marie nodded and let the maid into the room. She sat down on the bed, put the tray in her lap, and began to eat the bread. The maid stayed standing.
“Last night, I witnessed a meeting being held in the east tower. I saw a group of people sitting at a round table. They were the same people who disappeared today.”
“Raine and the others disappeared from the east tower?”
“Yes. Lady Marie, have you heard the rumors? It is true that six knights have disappeared from the castle. However, there is no sign that they left the castle, either. The gatekeepers stood in shifts at the gate all night long, and they didn't see anyone leave. However, it is also not possible to leave on one's own without using the gate. Climbing the walls is clearly impossible. Moreover, there were not even footprints left anywhere on the castle grounds. The ground had been muddied from last night's rain, but there wasn't a single print from man or beast within the courtyard, upon the walls, or on the hillsides surrounding us. It pains me to say this, but it is a similar situation to the disappearance of Count Geoffroy's wife.”
“If no one has left the castle, then Raine and the others must surely still be inside, no?”
“No, they are not. Under Count Geoffroy's command, the knights thoroughly searched the castle and found no one. Apparently, some of the equipment kept in the basement was scattered, but I don't believe it was considered relevant and probably Count Geoffroy wasn't even informed. Count Geoffroy appears to have given up on solving their mysterious disappearance, just as he did with the late mistress.”
“Six knights disappeared from a castle that was completely closed off from the outside world. It's impossible.”
“In the village where I was born, people disappeared quite often. We all agreed that they'd probably just wandered off into the woods. It is said that this forest eats people. I can only hope that Sir Raine and his compatriots have not wandered into the woods themselves...”
Marie suddenly remembered the moving wall in the east tower. There was a secret chamber. With a secret window. Those vague memories seemed to contain something important.
“The tower!”
Marie jumped up as though she'd been shot. She narrowly managed to grab the bowl of soup and prevent it from spilling, then handed the entire tray to her maid.
“Lady Marie?”
“Now is no time for soup. I have to go to the tower!”
Marie ran from the room. Then she realized she had run off in the wrong direction and ran back. She crossed the hallway, turned several corners, passed several confused servants, and finally reached the east tower. The meeting room where the maid had seen the six knights was on the second floor. It was completely silent, as though nothing had happened. Marie went up to the fourth floor. Opening the door to the fourth floor, she entered and faced the moving wall. The smell of blood assailed her, filling the room. Marie put her hands on her hips and hesitated for a moment. What was on the other side of that wall? Perhaps a terrible reality awaited her. Slowly, Marie put her hand in the hollow of the wall. It took a while, but she opened a gap large enough for her to pass through.
Marie looked through the gap. The faint light of the window shone on the small staircase. There was nothing else there.
With mixed feelings, Marie closed the wall. That space was too small to fit six people, anyway.
Two days later, one of the knights sent on the search returned to the castle in a wounded state. He explained that he had been attacked by bandits on his way back and one of his partners had been slain. He reported that he had found dead bodies near Cross Spring. As evidence, he had brought with him six daggers. On the hilt of each dagger was a seven-pointed star, each engraved with a number from I to VI. Finally, he reported that all of the bodies had been decapitated. He said that the bodies were being stored temporarily in a private storeroom, and that he would collect them later.
Marie was as surprised by his report as Geoffroy. Geoffroy was struck speechless, but Marie nearly lost herself. She was so distraught she broke down sobbing, for which she was ejected from Geoffroy's chambers.
Marie locked herself in her room and thought about Raine. “It's awfully cold, isn't it?” he'd asked. Yes, it was so very cold. She'd tried to crawl into his clothes. That it was for warmth had been a lie from the beginning. She'd wanted him to hold her. But he'd stopped her. “Then take my hand,” she'd asked. But he'd just said not to embarrass him. Of course Raine would say that. Now Raine was nowhere to be found. He was nowhere to be found, so she would never see him again. And if they were never able to meet again...
Marie curled into a ball and fell asleep.
5
Rumors circulated of a headless knight roaming the castle. Knight and servant alike clamored, claiming to have personally witnessed the headless ghost. Geoffroy chose to ignore the rumors. The rumors responded by growing louder.
Marie gathered a group of knights to form the “Headless Knight Ghost Investigation Team”. They stood guard throughout the castle all night, but none of their members reported seeing the ghost. However, the night the six bodies were returned to the castle, the ghostly commotion reached its climax, and an incident occurred in which the knights almost cut each other.
The bodies were temporarily laid out in the basement as they awaited their burial. Marie went to see them, but they were so badly damaged she couldn't tell who was who. She couldn't stand to look directly at them. There were bruises and scratches all over the corpses, and some even bore grotesque marks as though they'd been pecked at by carrion-eating birds. All six bodies wore the same monastic robes, so it was impossible to identify them by their clothes, either. The bodies were dirty and disheveled. Marie shuddered. She imagined these six headless knights rising up and prowling the castle in the dead of night, and it terrified her. She had forgotten the love she'd once held for Raine. All that remained was fear and despair.
The return of the bodies posed several new questions. They had been discovered the first morning after the maid had seen the knights at their meeting. That meant they had been moved from the castle to the banks of Cross Spring in only half a day. As the several days it had taken to transport the bodies proved, that was a considerable journey. It was impossible to travel the distance in half a day by any means. Coupled with the lack of any traces of human footprints around the castle, the only conclusion to be drawn was that the bodies had flown away at high speeds.
Marie suspected her father. She decided to investigate herself and gathered rumors about Geoffroy from the knights. Getting them to talk hadn't been easy. First she'd offered them wine, and when they still wouldn't talk, she forced them to drink until they were deeply inebriated. In that state, any knight would call him a heretic and a madman. Nobody had anything positive to say about their lord. On the contrary, Geoffroy's reputation was terrible.
“Count Geoffroy's a maniac who likes to destroy the things he's built. Lady Marie, I'm only saying this because you ask, but he's going to destroy this castle someday. His head is full of nothing but collapse.”
Marie didn't find that unlikely. Something about Geoffroy portended doom. No matter how cruel or tragic the event, he'd accept it easily. In fact, she had the impression that he sought out tragedies. The manor he'd lived in before moving to Lapis Lazuli Castle burned down just before he moved out. The people around him couldn't understand his behavior. His bizarre past must have been part of the reason he was called a madman.
Several days had passed since the Headless Knight Ghost Investigation Team began their nightly patrols. The knights assigned to the patrols were already prepared to give up, but Marie did everything she could to encourage them. There was no doubt in her mind that some mysterious entity was prowling the castle, and she was determined to find out what it was. Fortunately, she had many loyal fans among the knights, so she was able to keep the castle on high alert.
Marie immediately locked herself in her room come nightfall. She was afraid to be alone, so she always had a maid with her. Although she had managed to befriend the maids she usually didn't talk to, their presence didn't allay her fears.
“Shall we be sleeping together again today?”
The maid who'd asked that was the same age as Marie. Although she was somewhat awkward when she spoke, her outgoing personality had allowed them to ignore the master-servant relationship and become friends. Marie and the maid lay side by side. The soft light of the candles swayed on the ceiling like waves.
“Lady Marie, those clothes are silk, are they not?”
“Mm-hm.”
“I've always wished I could wear clothes as beautiful as yours, Lady Marie...”
“Okay. I'll lend you mine.”
“Really? I'm so happy. I thought that I would never be able to wear such beautiful clothes because I wasn't born a princess.”
She sat up with exaggerated glee.
A soft noise came from behind the door. Marie quickly covered the maid's mouth and listened. From the corner of the room, she heard the sound of the candlewick burning, but nothing else.
“I just heard something.”
“Really? I didn't hear a thing.”
“Hey, go open the door and look outside.”
“M-Me?”
“Just go!”
As the two girls fought, they heard the noise again. This time it was more clear than before. It was more like the sound of fine metal rubbing together than the rustle of clothes. Marie stared at the door. It felt as though any moment it would slowly open and the headless ghost would appear. It was clear now. The sound they could hear was the jingle of chain armor. Every time, it was the same. A footstep and a jingle, a footstep and a jingle, a footstep and a jingle. Marie and the maid both went pale, and they hugged each other. The sound moved away. Jingle, jingle, jingle...
“You heard that too, right?”
“Yes, I did...”
“Go open the door.”
“No! No way!”
“It could just be a knight out on patrol.”
“But he was moving so creepily!”
“That's why you should open the door!”
The maid reached out for the door, positioned for optimal running away. Grasping the handle with her fingertips and keeping as far away as possible, she opened the door. In the middle of the corridor, a massive man stood covered in darkness. The maid collapsed to her knees. Marie let out a scream. At that moment, the dark giant disappeared. Its true identity was the maid's own shadow cast from the candles in the room. The maid looked at Marie and shook her head.
“There's no one here.”
“I wonder if it was just a knight on patrol after all.”
“But no one wears battle armor inside the castle, do they?”
“Yeah, they all wear those long, fluttery surcoats. Maybe it was the ghost after all.”
“Please don't say that...”
The maid's shoulders shook as she closed the door. She jumped into bed and wrapped herself and Marie in the blankets. They decided to get to sleep. It was getting late.
As dawn broke, a bit of a commotion occurred. Several knights had gathered around the gate, standing on weeds wet with morning dew. The gate was ajar. Beyond the gate, the wide hillside and withered forest stretched into the horizon.
Marie happened to overhear the commotion and rushed to the gate. The gatekeeper looked puzzled as he spoke to a visitor.
When Marie saw the visitor, she was shocked. They wore the most eccentric, mysterious, and outright bizarre clothes she had ever seen. A light, thin, fluffy white jacket. A large white... string decoration of some sort swayed in the wind on their chest. Their lower half was covered in intricately woven fabric, with a wide cone for a hemline. It wasn't formal attire, but it wasn't anything a commoner would wear. They wore black boots that sharply contrasted the rest of their outfit. On their head was a hair clip with a small ornamental feather. They looked a bit like a girl, but their face was a bit like a boy's, and it was impossible to tell their gender just from their looks.
“I'm sorry, but we can't let anyone in without permission,” said the gatekeeper. He held a spear in his right hand, but he was leaning against it and didn't look combat ready.
“Hey, can you bring out someone more talkative? I'm getting tired of dealing with this stupid old man.”
The visitor's tone was disgusted.
“You don't know who you're talking to. Just get out of here.” The surrounding knights joined the gatekeeper. “If you don't shove off soon, we'll hurt you good.”
“Oh, goody! Well, come on, then.”
At the visitor's words, several knights moved in. They grabbed the visitor, wrestled them to the ground, and shut them up. In the end, it was a one sided beating. His – Her? – face made it out unscathed, but the white clothes were ruined by grass and mud stains.
“If you've learned your lesson, then go back to whatever village you came from. Next time we'll bring our swords.”
“How interesting. Bring your swords or whatever you want.” Despite their defeat, the visitor still looked confident. “All right then. You! Idiot! Give me your sword!”
The visitor pointed at a knight. The knight smiled at the abuse and obediently handed the longsword at his waist to the visitor. The visitor took the sword, and immediately dropped it. They couldn't pick it up again.
“...It's heavy.”
“We know.”
The knights broke into laughter. Marie laughed alongside them.
“I'm going to kill every single one of you who just laughed.”
“Scary words from such a cute face.”
The visitor tried to lift the sword again, but they were far too small. Marie, unable to stand the conflict anymore, stepped between them and the knights.
“That's enough of that, now,” Marie said as she stood before the visitor. “I'll give you permission to enter the castle. You'll be my guest. Will that be alright?”
“Are you sure about this, Lady Marie?”
“As you can see, there won't be any problems.”
The knights nodded with smiles and allowed the visitor through the gate. The visitor left the sword behind, stood up, brushed some of the dirt from their clothes, and suddenly puffed out their chest. Some of the people around them laughed again.
“Hey, just who are you?” Marie asked.
“Who am I? That should be obvious. I'm the detective.”
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.