Vanderbilt quickly brewed the tea and placed it on the wooden table in front of Cain and Oleciren.
The two smiled in response and picked up their cups. The aroma was quite sweet and seemed like it would taste good.
Vanderbilt poured himself a cup of tea late and said.
“But a few years ago, she didn’t come for days. So I went into the forest to look for her……”
Cain turned his head towards the half-open window.
Count Ethelred’s castle was visible in the distance.
There was a fairly dense forest between them. Of course, the path to this place was well-maintained, and there was no problem since it was the knights’ training ground.
“She was dead, in the snow.”
“That day?”
Cain nodded.
There’s never been snow in the warm and temperate Ethelred region.
It was also the time when young children first learned about snow.
Some people whispered that this strange event was happening because Cain’s mother, Chloe, was there.
Cain vaguely remembered that there were villagers who had died from the sudden snowfall because they couldn’t adapt to it.
“I was the first one to find her body in the snow, but other people said that I had killed her.”
Gulp.
Vanderbilt smiled as if he were drinking something bitter while drinking delicious tea.
It was probably a memory from the past that lingered on his lips.
“Why?”
Cain asked something else.
It’s common for people who are not used to the warm climate to die from the sudden snowfall.
But there must be a reason why the head maid said that Vanderbilt killed Arian.
“……”
Was it a rather painful experience for him?
Vanderbilt couldn’t answer immediately.
Oleciren looked at Cain and opened her mouth in a soft tone.
“Knight Vanderbilt. We’re after Arian.”
She explained the pursuit that had continued from the underground library.
Vanderbilt, who had been listening quietly, realized that he was not in a position to keep silent.
The loyalty that sustained him overcame his wounds.
“Certainly, the only person who could have changed the records in the basement library is Arian.”
“What was the condition of the body that made people think you killed her?”
“……Her wrists and ankles were cut off.”
Oleciren stopped drinking her tea.
Cain also looked at Vanderbilt with a bad expression, as if he were slightly surprised.
“What about the severed hands and feet?”
“They were gone.”
“What was the cause of death? Excessive bleeding?”
Vanderbilt shook his head.
“No. There was too little blood on the snow for that.”
Snow that had fallen for the first time in years.
Arian, a maid found in the forest of the inner castle with her hands and feet cut off on the white snow.
Cain frowned.
‘She was killed to break the chain of investigation.’
At first, he thought that it was the work of Arian alone or that she had been commissioned by the Count of Lamaring who had come.
But the more he investigated, the more he seemed to see a cold conspiracy that those people could not carry out.
“You use a sword, and since her wrists and ankles are missing, they would have suspected you as the culprit.”
Vanderbilt began to recall the events of that time one by one.
His expression involuntarily tightened.
“I really didn’t kill her.”
“I believe you. If you really killed her, you wouldn’t have bothered to kill her like that.”
Cain’s lips curled upwards.
Vanderbilt, as if he had been holding a grudge for being misunderstood for so long, gave a wry smile.
“As a knight, what do you think Arian’s cause of death was?”
Cain’s question.
“For one, the cause of death I found was a cardiac arrest.”
“Hmm……”
Cain and Oleciren both stroked their chins.
There are many ways for a person to kill another person, but the most common way to leave no trace is a cardiac arrest.
‘It’s difficult to cause it.’
And the second problem is Arian’s severed wrists and ankles.
In other words, it was not a cardiac arrest that happened by chance, but someone intentionally caused it to kill her and made it look like her limbs had been cut off.
Cain folded his fingers one by one.
“The only people in this mansion who could do that are the Ethelred Knights, but they wouldn’t be around here.”
“Yes.”
“Next is Vanderbilt, but if you really wanted to kill her, you would have cut her throat in one breath.”
“……”
He appreciated the trust, but it seemed like the direction was a little off, so Vanderbilt just smiled awkwardly.
Oleciren chuckled, finding the sight of the elderly knight and the young master amusing.
Cain raised his third finger and said.
“Then it’s a third party we don’t know, but were you close to Arian?”
Vanderbilt answered honestly.
He said that he didn’t have any personal feelings for her, but since they were both from the Lamaring family, they relied on each other a lot.
And……
“I heard she had a relationship with Young Master Tedley, the second son of the Lamaring family.”
Cain’s eyes widened.
Oleciren tilted her head.
“That can’t be. Tedley is a very clean person when it comes to women.”
“They said that Arian was the one he met before he met his wife. They were both young at the time, and when Tedley-nim’s marriage was arranged, she was sent here with me.”
“I don’t know if it’s related or not.”
He had a feeling, but it wasn’t certain.
At that moment, Oleciren stood up and gestured towards them.
“Let’s go to the place where the body was found.”
Oleciren didn’t know exactly what her power was, but it wouldn’t hurt to check with her witch’s power.
Following Vanderbilt’s guidance, the three of them moved and arrived at a small path in the forest.
Woo woo woo.
Since it was an old incident, Oleciren exerted a little more force.
She stiffened her face, as if she had seen something.
“Cain, is there anyone else with purple eyes in Count Ethelred’s family?”
At that moment, the two of them froze.
The only person with purple eyes besides Cain.
“There was……”
Cain’s mother.
Chloe Lamaring.
“That person cut her. Arian’s hands and feet.”
Interesting