Chapter 60

Lantern Festival (12)

Translator: Kimmy

Editor: Sasha_00

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“It’s not like I’m not going to drop any of them or something. Plus they said they need more time to make the rest of the orders. Around 10 minutes? I can do it so you don’t have to go, Karl.”

“But, I feel like I should help.”

How did she put the plates on her head? Did the staff put them there for her?

Eva looked at the countless plates on the table and wondered.

Tart, muffin, cake, macaron, eclair, scone, and other various jams and drinks glowed deliciously under the light.

They were so colorful like jewelry–some actually had gemstone-like candy over it.

Brigitta grabbed the strawberry tart with strawberry cream and jam on top. Her eyes were sparkling like the caramelized strawberry topping on her tart.

“Ah, by the way, what do you think it was earlier? It kinda felt like a trap.”

She took a huge bite of the tart.

Karlos thought it was unnecessary to talk about such gruesome things while eating dessert and studied Eva. However, Eva simply shrugged as if it was no big deal as she drank her orange soda.

Wait, what? Am I the only one feeling weird here? Is it normal to talk about these types of things while eating?

The emperor’s amethyst eyes trembled.

“Well, I can’t exactly say it was specifically set up for us but… Actually, we can’t come to any conclusions about this yet. But there is definitely something sketchy about this. Hmm, should we discuss it now then?”

Eva glanced over to Karlos’s leather bag.

Um, I’ll sign that book that I-can’t-bear-say-the-title-of after Brigitta leaves to get the other desserts.

Eva decided to postpone facing her past embarrassment.

“The method is exactly like Murderer TT but it’s too similar to the previous case.”

“Isn’t the method always the same, Eva?”

Eva placed her glass on the table at Brigitta’s question. She stirred the lemon jam on the bottom of the drink with the straw and thought.

“Ah, I didn’t mean it that way. What I meant was that it’s too similar to the ‘article of the previous case’.”

The emperor and his trusted sword master cocked their heads in the same direction.

Eva giggled at that sight.

Ah, they are both so cute.

Unaware of what Eva was thinking, the two giants waited patiently for tiny Eva to continue.

She took another sip of the sparkling yellow drink.

Contrasting to the sweetness of the drink and the slight smile on her face, the words that came out of her soft pink lips were as strong as Marco the Giant’s punch.

“A body as cold as a mannequin, severely damaged scalp, and all of its blood drained. It’s all very strange.”

“Uh, I don’t know Eva. Weren’t all the cases like that?”

Karlos nodded in agreement with Brigitta.

TT’s signature didn’t change this time. It was a big case that concerned the safety of the entire capital, so Karlos kept close attention on it and always had every incident reported to him directly. By now he had memorized every related detail quite well.

What he-or-she left behind at the crime scene was always the same. Parts of the victim’s head, a huge pool of blood, and the weapon used to kill the victims.

He-or-She was definitely a devilish murderer who wanted to induce fear among the people with no known motive and their victims not having any connections between them.

Karlos frowned. He couldn’t understand why a devil like that was still roaming around.

“No. The previous case and this one are the only cases where the bodies had been found.”

The two stared into Eva’s large green eyes inside her brown glasses and slowly blinked. Then, she started kindly explaining to them like how a kindergarten teacher would do.

“The case of the professor couple for one. They were found in the running river but even their head and scalp were found together with their bodies.”

When Karlos heard the word scalp from Eva’s mouth, he slowly put his scone down. The strawberry jam he spread on top made him nauseous.

On the other hand, Brigitta didn’t put her dessert down. Instead, she gobbled it up and searched for the next dessert like a hawk hunting for food.

What she ended up choosing was a red velvet muffin with a sugar-coated cherry on top.

Why is it red again?

Karlos could not understand the berserker’s palate choices.

“Until now, the investigation was stalled because the bodies hadn’t been found but the victims of the last two cases were discovered too easily. To the point that it’s strange. Plus, the murderer left the body in the middle of a play as if they wanted to be noticed. Also, the last 2 cases are the only cases where the entire scalps were found.”

Karlos desperately searched for coffee on the table.

Meanwhile, Eva was choosing what flavor of macaron to eat and Brigitta had gobbled up a strawberry cake.

Eva likes desserts as much as Brigitta does. Karlos made a mental note of that.

“I think these 2 cases haven’t been done by TT.”

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“Are you talking about Baron Sez’s opera house?”

Informant B pulled his cravat and asked the Chancellor. Slightly messy brown hair fell behind his neck.

Seems like he’s been staying up a few nights.

He shrugged. Then that means I have to stay up for a few days too. He thought of excuses that he would have to give to his family and questioned the Chancellor again.

“The Leonharguese saw that place? In the mine? Are they sure?”

“Yes, according to the translation.”

Glenn sighed deeply.

“Leongargue must be trading meds there. We should dig deeper later and investigate if the temporary gate was installed illegally, first.”

Glenn handed him a list of materials–made with the help of Maximilien–required to build a temporary gate to Informant B.

Informant B was more competent than Informant A in this type of work. Plus, Informant A was busy with Murderer TT right now too. Glenn scratched the back of his neck and leaned back into his chair with an exhausted face.

The emperor who he sent out to have some fun brought him back even more work.

The Leonharguese the emperor met were probably here to trade ‘meds’.

The ‘meds’ were still in debate of being legal or illegal in Lesa but they had been judged as legal in Leonhargue. However, the supply of materials for the meds was difficult in Leonhargue so it couldn’t have been manufactured there. However, the meds weren’t technically legal in Lesa so even if they were manufactured in Lesa, they couldn’t be sold publicly either.

So the balance of the demand and supply were met in the underground clubs. The merchants partnered with corrupted nobles who worked with lawyers to trade all sorts of illegal things using the blind spot of the law. The ‘meds’ were probably one of their products.

Glenn pressed his temples. He worked like a dog but somehow his work never lessened and instead only piled up. They were in desperate need of additional staff.

“Check the list first and take a look at Baron Sez’s opera house.”

Informant B smirked.

“A task to enter a club filled with corruption and desire during the Harvest festival. I’ve never been happier.”

Glenn shrugged and smiled at his sarcastic scorn for giving him work during a national holiday. Well, if you wanted to rest during the holidays you should have applied to another job.

*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*

Pammy was a dancer/singer of the underground club.

She didn’t like her job.

She didn’t care that the underground club she worked at had more regulation than the other underground clubs or if her job was easier here.

Since either way the club owner took half of her income with whatever unreasonable excuses he could come up with and her job required her to laugh along with the trashy people who came here.

She wanted an easier and better-paying job.

However, this tiring and irregular job was one of the easiest jobs she could take as a woman with quite a serious criminal record.

Because of that damned new law about citizen registration–what the hell is it even for?!–the employers could now see the criminal records of the applicants if they wanted to and needless to say, it had become a trend to do so.

Bullshit. Before that law, they would give me the job if I smiled a few times and let them touch my breasts!

Nowadays, it was even difficult for her to get a job as a waitress at pubs which she wouldn’t even have considered in the past.

Pammy was frustrated.

Is hitting someone a few times that big of a crime? It’s not even that bad to be affecting my life this much. Plus it happened 10 years ago!

Pammy couldn’t even remember who she had beat.

Obviously, she also didn’t care that the person she hit can’t use one of their legs anymore and how the lives of the people involved with that had been affected by her.

She didn’t come to the underground club because she wanted to but ironically, she was the ‘I don’t care about others’ pain only I matter’ type of person who was best suited for this type of work.

She curled her bangs in her finger.

Pammy spread her legs freely while wearing a dress that seemed too tiny to be called clothing. Her underwear could be seen but she didn’t care.

Only her and her fellow dancers were in the waiting room.

No one would scold her for being too comfortable–especially since Pammy was famous for her temper.

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