Book 17: Chapter 16
The scene of the assassination was the flower courtyard in the Royal Palace. As opposed to calling it a flower courtyard, it’d be more accurate to call it a flower garden next to the inner court. I met her there the first time. Yes, I was referring to the one whose name I don’t even want to recall. There was a pond there. While it was set up for Mommy Elizabeth, I rarely ever saw her go there.
The Valkyries cordoned the flower courtyard. However, owing to my identity, I still managed to persuade them to let me in. The poor official died by the side of the pond. He didn’t die from drowning. Actually, not entirely due to drowning would be more precise. He was stabbed from behind then tripped into the pond where he drowned. There were still dark red stains on the surface of the water. He must’ve bled to death.
I examined his corpse, which was temporarily placed aside. He was fat, but not the water tank size type of fat. At most, he was a middle-aged man who was living in a tad too much luxury. You could tell that he had offered all of his intelligence to Empress Elizabeth from his glossy forehead. He wore a shocked look at the time of his death, which was a sign that he never expected to be assassinated.
The things he had on him had been placed aside. There were keys, accessories and a letter that had been open due to being soaked in water. Under normal circumstances, I would consider it an important clue; unfortunately, I recognised that it was the royal family’s seal. It appeared to be nothing more than the invitation from the royal family. The rest was cash and his family crest. He didn’t have much cash on him. His gold coins were still wet, as a matter of fact. His family crest was perfectly fine, which meant that we could eliminate the possibility of him being killed for money or a personal vendetta.
“Does he have any grudges with anyone or debts or did something happen at work? For instance, corruption and the such?”
“Sorry, but I do not know about any of that.”
“I guess that’s fair…”
I sighed. The Valkyries in the garden were only in charge of watching over the corpse, not investigations, after all. I really wanted to know the fellow’s identity. There were countless possible reasons to kill someone. Oftentimes, it was to silence people or for money. The official might’ve committed corrupt deeds, and someone caught wind of it, which eventually led to him being silenced. Otherwise, they might’ve eyed his status or money. All of those possibilities had to be explored.
There was only so much that his corpse could tell me. He only had so much on him; or rather, I think that he had slightly too little on him. Not necessarily in the sense that he didn’t have much in terms of items, but… The copy of the invitation was placed in his pocket. He kept a wallet and keys in one pocket, while his accessories were worn on his body.