Pokémon Detective Case Files

Chapter 456 A Sacrifice for Densely Planted Rice Seedlings

Chapter 458 A Sacrifice for Densely Planted Rice Seedlings

While Lian Wu was struggling with tattered bags in the garbage dump, Yueju was walking on the gleaming marble steps of the royal palace, where one could see their reflection in them.

The vases on both sides of the corridor were filled with beautifully colored flowers, their fragrance cloyingly sweet.

He had long noticed the unhurried footsteps behind him—it was Leclerc's "shadow."

The magician knew that if he "accidentally" leaked a trace of magic during the investigation, or "mistakenly" broke any crucial evidence, the stalker, who was now as quiet as an ornament, would immediately arrest him on charges of disturbing the scene.

By then, no matter how suspicious the king's death was, no matter what secrets lay behind the missing head, Leclerc would be able to give all parties a respectable explanation.

Thinking of this, Lingju suddenly stopped at the entrance to the garden. He put down his magic wand, pretending to check the door frame, and suddenly stretched his right hand towards the blind spot in the entryway—the footsteps behind him suddenly became more hurried.

Just as the other party approached, the mage calmly withdrew his hand, which had not yet touched anything, and turned around to meet the watcher who had finally appeared.

"Why are you hiding like this?" Yueju smiled. "Since it's surveillance, why not follow me openly?"

Seeing the other person's slightly embarrassed expression, he continued, "I happen to be unaware of the situation after yesterday's incident and need to ask someone who knows about it."

This palace guard named Lopa was dressed in soft armor and had a lean build.

Although not tall, his taut muscles suggested his fighting prowess was probably on par with the group's monk, Gadriya. A dagger gleamed at his waist, but even more striking was the Gothic boy floating behind him—its feet barely touching the ground, its eyes vacant. This combination was more than enough to deal with a mage with low health and defense.

Now that he'd been seen through, Lopa decided to stop pretending and said directly, "Yesterday, I was the one who accompanied Earl Leclerc to seal off the scene, and I participated in the entire interrogation. If you can truly uncover the truth and relieve your worries, then asking me a few questions is perfectly acceptable."

"So, we're now moving on to the questioning phase? Okay, let me ask you a question—"

Lingju nodded, a mischievous smile spreading across her face.

"First of all, is it normal that this garden, where a murder just occurred, is unguarded?"

"It's not that there's no one guarding it, but rather that the guarded area is on the outer edge."

The guard answered without hesitation, his face showing a smug look that said, "I expected this question."

"If we arranged for everyone to be stationed at the garden entrance, wouldn't that be blatantly telling everyone that His Majesty died in the garden? The Earl would never make such a basic mistake. He cleared out an entire quarter of the palace area and placed all those who knew about the incident under close surveillance, ensuring that the news was completely sealed off."

"Do you know about the secret passage that goes past the Earl's office?" Yueju continued. "Is that passage also within the cordon area?"

"Of course."

Seeing that the other party nodded affirmatively, the magician asked again, "So, approximately how many people who knew about this were gathered together?"

The guard raised a hand.

"Fifty people?"

Five people.

The expressionless Gothic boy made a face behind the guard. Lopa counted on his fingers: "Sander, the gardener in the Kingdom Garden; two of His Majesty's personal guards; the guards on duty nearby at the time of the incident; and an elderly maid who passed by the front of the garden and saw the chaos when the guards reported the situation to the Earl."

"Is this palace really that empty? Didn't anyone else see it?" Yueju couldn't help but ask. "I thought they would at least find a few doctors."

"Given the situation at the time, even calling in a miracle doctor wouldn't have helped." The guard gestured with his neck and smirked as he said, "If anyone else knows the details of the case, it's only me, one of the Earl's trusted men—but there are only a handful of us."

"It sounds like there's some hidden story," the magician pressed on.

That cannot be denied.

Lopa nodded. "His Majesty was indeed extravagant when he first ascended the throne, building an outrageously large palace, which drew a lot of criticism from the people. However, in recent years, as the Earl has gradually gained power and moved into the court, the royal family's extravagance has been toned down considerably. The number of guards has not decreased, but most of the palace maids and servants have been dismissed."

The former wouldn't patrol His Majesty's private areas anyway, and the remaining manpower, spread across the entire palace, was even more sparse—but with hired Pokémon to do the work, they could manage.

"No wonder they could easily clear out a quarter of the palace; the logic is quite self-consistent," Yueju chuckled.

The bodyguard, Lopa, smirked smugly.

"So, the old maid was standing right here witnessing the chaos?" The magician tapped the stone slab in front of the door with the tip of his shoe.

"That's right. She was preparing for the dinner party and wanted to ask Sander for some fresh spices in the garden. But when the guards came out of the door, she happened to see the terrible scene inside through that door."

As the guard spoke, the Gothic boy behind him raised his small, dark hand.

With a faint light, the massive oak gate connecting the palace and the garden slowly opened under the pull of a single thought.

What comes into view is a fruit tree whose trunk has been dyed red.

The fruit tree stood in the center of the garden, its trunk so thick that it took two people to encircle it.

Its lower half was now stained a dark brown, the veins of its bark filled with dried blood. Blood splattered upwards to about a person's height, leaving dark stains among the branches and leaves.

The ground beneath the tree was an even more horrific sight—a vast expanse of dark brown, seeping blood spread outwards from the roots, its edges already blackened. Several fallen leaves were firmly stuck in the pool of blood, like prey caught in a spider's web.

"His Majesty's body has been moved to the ice cellar," the guard's voice came from behind. "This is the initial crime scene. His Majesty was lying here, face down, arms outstretched. There were no signs of struggle; it was as if he had been suddenly cut down."

"Didn't you mark the location of the body with white lines?" Yueju couldn't help but chime in, looking at the empty garden.

"Is there any need?" The guard raised an eyebrow dismissively. "Want to find where His Majesty fell? Isn't the pool of blood under the tree obvious enough?"

The magician's gaze swept across the surroundings.

The flowerbed was intact, the stone benches next to it were spotless, and even the cluster of white roses next to the tree was in full bloom—except for a few dark red spots splashed on it.

The entire scene had an eerie cleanliness to it. Apart from the tree and the pool of blood around it, it didn't look like a crime scene at all; it looked more like a careless gardener had spilled a bucket of paint.

Lingju observed intently for a while longer, then suddenly looked surprised: "There's only one line of footprints leading to the tree?"

"Those must be His Majesty's own footprints," Lopa said frankly.

"After all, the body was in that state, and neither the gardeners nor the guards dared to approach it rashly. Even when the Earl brought us to the scene later, it was only with the help of a Psychic-type Pokémon that His Majesty was carried out using Psychic."

The Gothic boy behind him nodded in agreement.

"Carrying them out of the garden using special techniques," Yueju imagined the scene. "Was there anything wrong along the way?"

"You're overthinking it." The guard didn't understand why the magician would ask such a question. "The Pokémon in the palace are usually responsible for transporting various supplies. It's just a corpse, and besides, it's headless. How heavy could it be?"

"That's right. The script was written a long time ago. It's impossible to change the plot just because a character's name is changed. I shouldn't have asked that question."

Lingju scratched her head. "But this still doesn't make sense—a decapitation always involves a killer, so how could the victim only leave a single line of footprints under the tree? And what about Hugo's severed head?"

"If we understood, why would you be standing here right now?" The guard's lips curled into a mocking smile, his hand still firmly fixed on the mage's grasp. "So, what clues have you found?"

I did find some blueberries, though.

"If you don't consider the place where the king died, the footsteps around this garden are quite messy."

Around the blood-stained fruit tree, various footprints circled the soil around the garden. Some were clearly left by guards' steel boots, while others were left by soft-soled leather shoes similar to Lopa's. Among them, a large patch of mud was filled with particularly chaotic footprints, whose origins were impossible to discern.

Could this be the real murder scene?

Noticing the magician's gaze, the guard stepped forward, glanced at the scene, and then rolled his eyes without any politeness, loudly proclaiming, "Isn't this the trace left by you travelers who wandered around the garden yesterday?"