Second World-Novel

During the dinner, Captain Salem, Marquess Fernando, and Duchess Isabelle had also joined, the same as the night before. The dinner was being served by head maid Jimena and maid Luciana, while butler Winston brought out the wine.

"I am well enough to join the dinner again this evening," explained the Duchess with a smile.

"Always happy with you around, Your Grace," Marquess Fernando said charmingly.

Captain Salem turned to Jack, he was curious about what Jack had found out after they parted. "How is the progress of your investigation?" He asked.

"Aren't the two of you together?" the Duke inquired with a frown.

"Forgive us for going against your instruction, Your Grace. I have asked Captain Salem to give me some time alone as an important part of my investigation," Jack explained. "But due to that, I have made an important discovery."

"Did you find out about the murderer?" Captain Salem asked.

"No, but I think I have found out where the missing painting is at," Jack answered.

"You have?" The Duke's eyes glittered when he heard it.

"I have my theory, but if my guess is not wrong, it should still be inside your workroom," Jack said loudly.

"In my workroom? How can that be? Where is it? We should go get it at once!"

"Don't worry. It's not going anywhere. I still have a couple of things to think through. I will go get it first thing tomorrow morning."

"Tomorrow morning...?" The Duke was unwilling to wait.

"Don't worry, your Grace, I guarantee I would return the painting to you tomorrow morning," Jack said with confidence.

Hearing Jack's assurance, the Duke no longer pushed further. He said, "all right then, I hope I can take your word for it. The thing is very important to me."

"I will not disappoint you, Your Grace," Jack said with a slight bow.

After the dinner, everyone went back to their chambers. Everything was silent in the mansion as the darkness of the night enveloped the estate. All the occupants dwelling in the mansion took their rest after a full day of tiring activities.

However, one shadow was moving along the mansion's hallway. It moved swiftly from one cover to another, while making sure that no one was around in the surrounding rooms. It continued to move, getting closer to one of the mansion's towers where the duke's workroom was located.

When it reached the entrance to the workroom, it took out a key and used it to unlock the door. Inside, it looked around the room, then it started to make a search, starting from the duke's work desk. It did not have the key to its drawers, so he tried to use brute force to open it, but without result.

It continued to search around the room, but suddenly it tensed up and looked in the direction of the exit. It was about to move when a figure emerged from the shadow of one of the room's corners.

"So you really can sense incoming people. Don't bother to run, they would have blocked the base of the stairs at this moment. Even if not, only two paths were leading out from the stairs. Both paths had guards on it already," Jack said after coming out from the shadow. He turned on the magic lamp on the duke's work desk, its light illuminated the room and revealed Head maid Jimena who stood not far.

"You! How do I not sense you in the room?" She asked with consternation.

"And how do you disguise yourself to be a level 1 head maid Jimena?" Jack asked back.

"How do you know?" the head maid's expression was ugly.

She then abruptly turned back to the room's entrance, and saw Duke Alfredo was already standing there. Some rapid footsteps were heard before Captain Salem appeared not long after. There was still some distant sound of footsteps, but it would still take them some time to arrive.

"You… you all… set this up?!" Jimena exclaimed after realizing the situation.

"It is really as you said…" Captain Salem uttered after seeing Jimena in the room. "Can you explain this, Mister Storm Wind? Was she the one behind the murders and theft that had happened recently?

At this time, Jimena suddenly changed her expression to a confused one. She uttered, "wait! What is the meaning of all this? What is this talk about murder and theft? I was just coming in here to clean the room"

"At this hour? Come on, I've been in this room from the start, I can see you are searching for something," Jack countered.

"I…" Jimena was still trying to explain but the Duke cut him off, "Jimena, silence! I would like to hear Mister Storm Wind's explanation."

At this time, the footsteps that were still coming a moment ago had arrived. The castle guards stood behind the duke and their captain, while another old woman in maid dress came out from behind them.

"H-how can this be?!" She exclaimed as she stared at the woman who looked exactly like her in the middle of the room.

"See? There is no use for you to disguise yourself as the head maid anymore. You yourself had provided the proof," Jack said to the fake Jimena.

"I don't get it, if she is not Jimena, then who is she?" Captain Salem said. "Is she also the one that killed Joselyn and my guard? And steal the painting?"

"For the theft, no, it was indeed Joselyn's doing. But she was ordered by the one who ended up murdering her, and that person was, yes, the one that stood before us here, who was also the other person apart from the duke that possessed the key to this room. It's the butler who did it!" Jack said as he pointed to the disguised head maid. Damn! He never expected he could copy this famous phrase from a detective story he used to read.

"Winston? Is it really you? The Duke seemed to be unwilling to believe the culprit was his trusted butler. "How can it be? After all these years…"

"I doubt he is your real butler," Jack added. "He probably had taken care of your butler, then stole his identity to infiltrate your mansion."

The duke looked at the fake Jimena with a sharp gaze. If what Jack said is true, then the person in front of him was truly unforgivable.

Jack continued, "I guess he took on the identity of the butler and head maid as they are the only one to have the master key of this mansion, thus the key to this room as well. But he did not dare to steal the painting directly as he knew about the enchantment on the painting that will automatically activate the barrier formation once it leaves this mansion. He will need a scapegoat as a distraction while he is looking for a way to escape. He just never thought that the duke would find out about the theft early and activated the barrier formation before the painting left the mansion. And also never thought that Joselyn would defy his instruction by hiding the stolen painting."

"So it was indeed Joselyn who steal the painting?" Captain Salem said.

Jack nodded, he said, "the theft was indeed done by Joselyn, but technically, it wasn't a theft."

"What do you mean?" Captain Salem was confused by Jack's words.

"Because the supposed painting was not taken by her. She simply hid it somewhere in this room."