Matiel hesitated for a moment before answering Charlotte’s question.

Then he lightly tapped the front pocket of his jacket where he had just put the silver rod and said:

“Thanks to this, I knew I was addicted to something, but you?”

Charlotte stared at him blankly. Matiel continued:

“You knew just by looking? Were you so certain you didn’t even need to check?”

Charlotte, with her arms crossed, let out a light snort.

“Are you joking? I could tell just by looking at your mouth. The dark spots characteristic of addicted patients or corpses were clearly visible. I could have recognized it even if I was doing cartwheels sideways while standing on my head.”

Matiel suddenly burst out laughing.

“You say amusing things.”

“So it wasn’t a heart attack. There could have been a heart attack after the addiction, but what doctor would say ‘died of a heart attack’ for something like that?”

“There could be. After all, the heart did stop.”

“The point is, you can’t just talk about the conclusion.”

Matiel, who had been listening to her rebuttal, nodded as he looked at the mansion that was suddenly much closer.

“Yes, I agree with you. But there’s a more important issue. What exactly was the poison that young man consumed?”

“You couldn’t find out anything from the attending physician, could you?”

Matiel slightly raised one eyebrow and let out a light sigh.

“You need to learn how to speak more indirectly.”

This time, Charlotte’s snort took on a completely mocking tone.

“I don’t know what you’re expecting from me, but you’d better think again. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to treat nobles like nobles.”

“Ah, of course. You’re ‘Miss Sherry’ from the social parties teeming with the noblest of nobles.”

“Are you teasing me? Or picking a fight?”

“Both, and neither. Let’s get off.”

As the carriage door opened, Matiel got off first and extended his hand to Charlotte.

Being escorted by someone else was something Charlotte had experienced often when gathering information or handling cases as ‘Miss Sherry’, but suddenly she felt a strange feeling.

Somehow, she felt like she shouldn’t take his hand.

It felt like she would be drawn into a trap.

Perhaps it felt that way because it looked too clean and neat.

While that’s how all nobles are supposed to be, how should I put it? Suddenly, looking at Matiel’s hand gave her an odd sense of discomfort.

Is it because he’s not wearing gloves? Charlotte thought.

Come to think of it, this might be the first time she had seen a noble man’s bare hands up close.

Until now, all the bare hands of men Charlotte had seen up close were rough and tough, covered with scars and calluses.

But Matiel’s were not like that. Is that why…

‘No, that’s not what’s important right now.’

Even if it was intended to draw her into a trap, she believed she had enough strength to escape. She believed so.

Charlotte took Matiel’s hand and felt its warmth.

It was a body temperature that one might feel when suddenly stretching out the back of one’s hand towards the sunlight in the depths of autumn.

Matiel, looking down at Charlotte, slightly furrowed his brow as if he had just noticed something.

“It would be difficult to attend a funeral in that outfit.”

“You don’t need to worry about that. I’ll take care of it… Wait, are we going to attend this man’s funeral?”

“Why else would we have come back here?”

Matiel smiled a strange, teasing smile, then turned and began striding towards Baron Lirald’s mansion.

The head of the cane he held in one hand, which had no practical use whatsoever, gleamed brightly in the light.

Charlotte followed behind him and said:

“Wait. You still haven’t given me a proper answer to my question. Are you playing games? You said you met the attending physician. Tell me what he said and what happened.”

“That commanding tone is irritating.”

When Matiel retorted without even looking back, Charlotte rolled her eyes in dissatisfaction, then overtook him and blocked his path with her arms crossed.

Charlotte said:

“I don’t care if it’s irritating or not. I told you, didn’t I? That I don’t know how to treat nobles like nobles.”

“If you want to learn, I’d be happy to teach you.”

“Don’t try to slip away by pretending to be a dimwit who can’t understand. I have my own reasons for coming here to investigate. I didn’t come knowing that the son of this mansion’s owner had died. My informant detected a demon roaming around this place. I came to investigate that, but things are turning out strangely.”

Matiel now seemed to show genuine interest in Charlotte.

“What kind of demon?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t met it yet.”

“Can you sense its presence here too?”

Charlotte tilted her head back for a moment, taking a deep breath, then frowned.

“Yes, I can sense it. There’s a fishy smell in the air. An unpleasant smell. A damp and gloomy smell… The kind of smell you might expect in a dead forest.”

“You have a peculiar nose.”

Charlotte felt her insides boiling at his tone, which sounded as if he was addressing a strangely shaped dog.

However, Matiel, his thoughts unclear, pressed his lips into a straight line and fidgeted with his fingertips resting on top of his cane.

Standing slightly askew, supporting his weight on it, he looked as if he might start whistling leisurely at any moment.

“The Baron’s attending physician was a close friend of the deceased second son. They had been close since childhood. The second son, the physician in question, and there was one more person, who’s probably somewhere in the mansion. According to him—the physician, that is—the cause of the second son’s death was definitely a heart attack. I coaxed, cajoled, and even threatened him, but he wouldn’t change his story. But his expression definitely changed. Evidence that there’s something he’s uneasy about.”

“A friend? Then, will he be attending the funeral too?”

“I suppose so. He practically chased me out, saying he needed to change clothes, so wouldn’t he come?”

Charlotte knew he was telling the truth, and that his claim of not finding out much from the physician was also true.

It was disappointing compared to what she had hoped for, but it wasn’t entirely without gain.

“Would you be able to recognize the physician’s face if you saw him again?”

“Are you asking me that?”

“No, I’m asking that bizarre statue over there. What do you think? Of course I’m asking you!”

Matiel turned to look at the statue and let out another short laugh of derision.

“I have an excellent memory. I hardly forget anything. Especially when it’s related to work.”

This was a good thing. Whether his words were boastful or not, well, there was no way he couldn’t remember the face of someone he had just met. She was just pretending to ask for confirmation.

Charlotte said:

“Good. Let me know if you see him. I have something I want to find out from him.”

She thought he would make another spiteful comment or show arrogance, but Matiel surprisingly nodded obediently.

Charlotte thought it was fortunate, and believed she would be able to solve this strange case soon.

For a very brief moment, she even regained enough composure to wonder if Taemi had returned safely.

However, things in this world don’t always go smoothly.

* * *

As the funeral began, people sat down in order on the chairs and completed a solemn and brief ritual.

When the deceased young man’s cousin, who had been close to him, and a man who claimed to be his academy classmate came out to give eulogies commemorating the deceased, old Baron Lirald sobbed heavily, not caring about the gazes of those around him.

The man who appeared to be the eldest son, who closely resembled the deceased young man, comforted his father with a gloomy expression.

Matiel was seated in the third seat from the front in the right row.

Charlotte, not having had time to prepare mourning clothes, was hiding herself appropriately among the people standing, not seated. As the classmate’s eulogy was nearing its end, Matiel turned his head.

He found Charlotte among the crowd at a glance and felt a strange sensation.

‘Of course, wearing clothes that stand out alone amidst all the gloomy mourning attire.’

Matiel quelled the incomprehensible emotion with his own logic, then slowly shook his head towards her.

Then he turned his gaze back towards where the coffin was.

Meanwhile, Charlotte, seeing this, tightened her crossed arms even more with an ominous feeling.

The physician in question hadn’t come… Matiel’s head shake was to inform her of precisely that.

It doesn’t make sense that he wouldn’t attend the funeral when he was a close friend and even the family physician.

Didn’t Matiel say that when he visited, the physician had practically chased him out, saying he needed to change clothes?

‘If it’s like this, we’ll have to wait until the burial…’

Charlotte stared straight ahead with her eyes wide open.

She didn’t even blink once, causing her eyes to quickly become bloodshot.

Seeing this, someone offered Charlotte a handkerchief.

They must have thought she was holding back tears for the deceased young man.

She refused the handkerchief and stared intently at the coffin again.

When this eulogy ends, everyone will offer perfunctory prayers, then the coffin will be taken outside and moved to the public cemetery.

During the old monarchy period, any noble family would have had their own separate family crypt, but as many mansions were destroyed during the revolutionary government period, many nobles also began using public cemeteries.

It started reluctantly because they couldn’t just throw away the bodies, but some people said it was actually better not to waste family land just to make graves.

That young man’s coffin will surely be buried in the ground.

They will sprinkle blessed water on the coffin, throw in flowers and tears… and cover it with soil for eternal rest. The body, that is.

‘But the soul is different. Where on earth did it go? I’ve looked everywhere I could think of, but there’s nowhere it could have gone…’