I Unintentionally Cured the Grand Duke’s Insomnia - Chapter 121

61. — Return (1)

The place I arrived with the knight was a small room inside the castle walls. Except for the minimum number of people preparing for Irene’s hospitality, the narrow room was crowded with everyone gathered here. I couldn’t see inside because I was being blocked by the large knights.

As I looked around, the knight who came with me brought a small wooden box from the adjacent room.

“Please climb up.”

“Oh, thank you.”

After briefly expressing my gratitude, I climbed onto the box that the knight had brought, and finally, the inside was revealed.

…Cain?

As expected, perhaps because the situation was serious, Cain was at the far end of the room. At the end of his gaze, which seemed to be looking at something, was a body. Moreover, it was a body with white hair that had been found all over Lian recently.

I couldn’t tear my gaze away from the body’s snow-white hair.

The man’s white hair didn’t seem to be his natural color. It was as if it had been dyed white, like a mark of dark magic I had set in my work.

“It was hanging on the castle wall?”

“That’s what they say. According to the kids who first found it, it happened to be hanging at the western gate.”

“The western gate?”

“It was a place the Saintess is passing through after five years, so it couldn’t be worse luck.”

The knights standing in front of me lowered their voices and murmured. As I listened to their words, I once again examined the body. There were clear rope marks on the body’s neck, as if a rope had been tied around the man’s neck and hung from the castle wall.

I closed my eyes and bit my lip as I looked at the lifeless body.

My mind was racing because I couldn’t even figure out who had done this. The face that suddenly came to mind was that of the Marquis Black, who used black magic to commit all sorts of evil deeds in the original story. Could this incident also be the work of the Marquis Black?

I had my suspicions, but I wasn’t sure it was him.

Another reason was that I had set up the character of the Marquis Black as thorough and methodical in his planning. So, none of the plans the Marquis had been preparing had been properly executed yet. Even I, whom he had tried to kill for my father’s fortune, was still alive.

In such a situation, if I speculated whether the Marquis would actually be behind this, I could confidently say no. Assuming that the Marquis would actually do something in this situation, I was convinced that it wasn’t the case. It was because he was someone who would move under thorough calculation, given the time he had devoted to it.

So, if it wasn’t the Marquis, then who?

In the midst of a situation where I couldn’t possibly figure out the answer, as I quietly observed the situation inside, Cain’s gaze, which had been examining the corpse, shifted towards the face of the dead person. He silently observed the man’s open mouth and soon bent down and retrieved something from there.

“What’s that? What did His Highness pull out just now?”

“Well, I can’t see it very well either… But it does look like paper, doesn’t it?”

As the knights in front said, what Cain retrieved from the man’s mouth looked like paper.

Cain’s face seemed to freeze for a moment as he checked it as if something had been written on a piece of paper much smaller than the palm of his hand. Then, standing up from his seat, he glanced at the murmuring knights and spat out in a low voice.

“Today is the day of the welcoming ceremony for the Saintess’s return to the capital after five years. Until the ceremony is over, please keep quiet about this matter.”

“Yes!”

The startled knights seemed to come to their senses by his sharp tone and gave a resounding affirmation.

Among the people lined up, one of the knights standing in the forefront raised his hand with his face turning pale. As if prompting him to speak, Cain gestured with his eyes, and the knight hesitantly began to speak.

“I, I’ve been feeling uneasy about it since earlier, but um, Your Highness, I think the dead man might be someone I know!”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it’s not like I personally know him, but it seems like he was reported missing to the capital guard not long ago.”

“Reported missing?”

“Yes! As far as I remember, the owner of a bookstore named Note had reported him missing and was looking for him…”

The man’s explanation trailed off. After alternating his gaze between Cain and the corpse while pursing his lips, he finally spoke as if he had made up his mind.

“According to what the bookstore owner told me when he reported the disappearance, he’s presumed to be the author of the book involved in a plagiarism dispute.”

Note? Note was the person who reported this man missing?

All of a sudden, a conversation I had with Note on the cafe terrace not long ago came to mind.

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