In an elegant study room, a knocking sound resounded.
Knock, knock,
"Come in," a melodious and charming voice spoke.
The door opened, and a female assistant came in and reported.
"Princess, the royal guards of the capital are requesting help."
"What happened for them to ask for help, Lucile? And please stop calling me princess; you know I'm not into formalities," the princess asked.
"There was a noble murder case yesterday," Lucile started.
"Isn't that normal? Why bother asking for help for something so trivial?" the princess cut in.
"Well, because it was done by the same person who killed some nobles before. This is the tenth one, and there were no clues found at all," the secretary replied.
The princess stopped writing, fixed her posture, and looked at Lucile with interest.
"Okay, you have my attention. Go on," she said.
'Ten kills and no clue? That's interesting,' she thought.
"Yes, it started six months ago, when in the royal guards' hall in the capital, a loud knocking at the door came. When they opened it, only a recording artifact and a note were found.
On the artifact were images of a place, slaves, and tortured people, and on the note were written the directions to that place. Once the guards went there, they found a nobleman brutally murdered and the slaves chained and still behind bars," Lucile narrated.
"Leaving evidence behind? What did the slaves say?" the princess asked.
"They said that the nobleman was killed by a masked man of average height, wearing loose black clothing and gloves so no skin was showing.
The man told them that while safe, they had to wait for the royal guards to come and free them," Lucile said.
"Of course—so they could testify against the dead noble for taking them as slaves."
Lucile handed the princess a report and told her,
"Slaves were not the only thing, Prin—Vanessa." Lucile was about to call her princess again, but seeing the eyes with which Vanessa stared at her made her quickly correct herself.
Vanessa read through the report and grimaced; there was all kinds of nasty stuff written in there.
"After that one, the second came a few weeks later, then another, and in the span of six months, yesterday was the tenth one," Lucile said.
"Yeah… even if the noble deserved the death penalty, that's something for the law to decide, not some vigilante," Vanessa said.
"Will you help them then?" Lucile asked.
"Yeah. We will depart right now," Vanessa said, with a bit too much excitement.
"You just want to get out of the palace, right?" Lucile asked.
"Yes, no! Wh—?" Vanessa stumbled over her words.
"I just want to test my intelligence against someone who can leave no clues after ten murders," she quickly added, fabricating an excuse.
"For sure. Let me call your guard." Lucile didn't believe a word she said, but she still prepared for immediate departure.
Once Lucile left, Vanessa stood and went to her room.
She was excited to leave the castle finally, and she was curious about the person behind all this—unlike the seriousness she showed before.
'Finally, I get to go out. How can a martial artist be contained within four walls for so long!' she exclaimed mentally.
Some hours later, Vanessa reached the Redwyre manor, walking toward the bedroom.
The moment she entered, a chill ran through her body, product of the ice magic used to preserve the place, which she quickly pushed away with her master-level body.
"Ugh, gruesome. Catch me up to date, you," she commented at the sight of the nobleman and demanded, pointing her finger at a royal guard.
"Princess, we assume that while this wasn't done by the man who killed the first noble, but it was orchestrated by him," the guard replied.
"Why?" she asked.
"Because it follows the same pattern. He poisons every worker with sleeping poisons, then attacks only the noble or nobles specifically, even leaving behind the nobles' kids if they had any," the guard answered.
"So he kills a specific person." Vanessa took a mental note.
She started looking around, then at the man, and said,
"This was probably done by a woman. I think the man had been raping one when our mysterious person appeared and somehow left the revenge to the lady he was raping… but how?" Vanessa analyzed.
She could tell by the wounds, especially the fact that the man was separated from his groin area.
"Probably from this, Princess," another guard said, tilting the nobleman's head sideways.
Vanessa looked over and saw two needles poking from the man's neck.
That told her all she needed to know.
"So he was poisoned, and the man gave the opportunity of revenge to the lady," Vanessa said.
"What did the slaves say about the person who rescued them?" she asked.
"The same as the last ones," the guard replied.
"But they gave a description of the woman who is missing," the guard added, handing her the portrait. "The guards have been asking around town, and one person seems to know who she is; a patrol is on the way to her."
"No, tell them to retreat. I will go there personally," Vanessa ordered, then promptly left.
Thirty minutes later, she was knocking on a door.
When it opened, the woman from the portrait answered.
"Hello, I'm Princess Vanessa Morningstar. I have some questions for you," Vanessa introduced herself.
The woman froze, unsure how to behave.
"So—sorry, Princess, come in," she quickly said.
Vanessa and her guard stepped in, and before even reaching the living room, Vanessa asked,
"Tell me everything that happened the night the man saved you from being raped." She spoke boldly.
The girl stammered, unable to find words.
"Don't worry. The pig deserved death, but that had to be decided by the court. I won't charge you for murder if you tell me everything," Vanessa coaxed her.
The girl thought for a minute. While he had saved her life, she wasn't about to throw her own away for him.
So she retold everything until the man in black arrived.
"He was a man. His voice was serene, cold, yet with a touch of gentleness, like he knew what I was going through.
He convinced me to take back what dignity I could by killing the man myself. I was so angry, and he was so comforting and gentle that I did it.
Then, when I finished, he refused the dagger he'd handed me and told me that he knew that after revenge, only the void came after. So when I felt that way, to look at the dagger and remember that what I did meant no other girls would suffer what I did. After that, I left," the girl explained.
"Okay. Thanks, that's plenty useful, so don't worry—nothing will come your way. Goodbye." Vanessa said and left.
Now she had a clearer understanding of the man she was looking for.
"He's quite interesting, don't you think, Marina?" Vanessa said.
"Well, skipping the fact that he's a psychopath, then yeah, he is," Marina replied.
"But I don't think he's a psychopath at all. Still, there has to be some way he receives information," Vanessa stated.
The search had just begun, and she felt thrilled for some adventure.