A round mark, as if something had been driven into the ground.
It was the decisive piece of evidence that proved my theory.
‘Stay calm. I have to make sure this isn’t just a delusion first.’
It would be a problem if my desire to believe was so strong that I was overinterpreting things. Marie’s life was at stake, so I had to be certain.
“You, where are you going?!”
I returned to the lodgings and grabbed a lantern and my staff.
I also stole a long rope and a hammer from the servants’ storage.
“You came back quickly. But what are those items? Wait, don’t tell me you…!”
It was exactly what he thought. I fixed my staff into the ground near the cliff and hammered it down with all my might.
*Clang! Clang!!*
I had to bury it deep enough.
Deep enough so the staff could support my weight. Deep enough so the mark left by the staff would match that deep indentation.
Once I decided it was enough, I began to tie the rope to the staff.
“You, are you planning to jump! That’s too reckless! There’s no guarantee you’ll even reach the bottom! You won’t be able to recover your master’s body that way!”
That guy was nothing but a nuisance until the very end.
“I have no intention of recovering it. Seeing what’s down there is enough.”
While speaking, I finished tying the rope.
I tugged on it twice to check its strength, then wrapped the other end of the rope around my waist. The lantern was also securely tied to my belt, so the preparations were complete.
‘This is my first time bungee jumping.’
I didn’t know if the rope was long enough.
I didn’t know if there was ground or water below, how far I had to fall, or if what awaited me at the bottom was a living person or a corpse, but I still had to jump.
‘Because I promised to protect her.’
I took a deep breath and stepped out into the empty air.
To fall into that deep abyss.
I threw myself into the darkness.
***
*Whoosh!*
The fall lasted only a moment.
*Thump!*
The elasticity of the rope hit my abdomen.
“Ugh!”
As the rope swayed, my body swung wildly. I bumped and scraped against the jagged rocks in several places.
Fortunately, the swaying gradually subsided.
I managed to catch my breath while hanging in the air.
“You! Are you okay!”
A muffled voice echoed from above.
“I’m fine!”
I replied out of politeness and sighed inwardly.
‘I couldn’t do this a second time.’
I didn’t realize the crevice inside would become this narrow. If I had known I would hit the rocks this much, I would have lowered myself slowly by letting out the rope instead of jumping.
However, the risk was worth it.
‘There’s something down there.’
Now that I had descended this far, there was something I could tell.
*Splash!*
First, the sound of rushing water echoed from the pitch-black bottom.
Water was flowing at the very base of this cliff. It was likely a part of the sea or groundwater connected to the ocean.
‘If something fell down there, no evidence would remain.’
Fortunately, the scenery beyond the faint light of the lantern was different.
Something was caught on the jagged, protruding rocks down below.
I couldn’t see them clearly because they were far away and it was dark, but the colors were vivid.
Pink and gold.
‘Just as I thought… my guess was right.’
I felt a small wave of triumph that my prediction was correct.
The one who jumped from here last night was an actress. An actress dressed as Marie, wearing pink clothes and a gold wig.
That person had fixed a rope by driving a stake into the ground and waited in front of the cliff with the rope tied to an ankle hidden by her skirt.
Then, when a witness appeared as planned, she jumped.
When she fell, she was Marie in a pink nightgown and a gold wig, but when she climbed back up, she would have discarded everything at the bottom to become an innocent witness.
‘The key was getting back up without being caught… but it wouldn’t have been that difficult.’
The Head Maid was in league with the actress, and she was the one leading the witnesses. The window seat where the witnesses saw the incident was also a place the Head Maid had directed them to.
It was likely from a high tower in the castle.
Unless it was from such a high place, it would be impossible to see that this crack in the ground was actually a cliff.
If they witnessed the incident from there, it would have taken a considerable amount of time to run down here to the scene.
By then, there would have been enough time to climb back to the surface and drop the stakes and ropes to the bottom, completely concealing the evidence.
‘The reason they chose this place as the drop site must have been for that kind of concealment.’
This was a castle standing atop a cliff, surrounded by precipices on all sides.
There were countless cliffs to fall from, but they chose this one because the bottom was unknown.
Here, they wouldn’t have to worry about witnesses appearing, dressing tools like wigs or nightgowns being discovered, or being questioned about the missing body.
In the end, this was all a meticulously prepared plan from the beginning. A sophisticated play to kidnap Marie and fake her death.
‘If they went to this much trouble to take her, there must be a complex reason.’
They wouldn’t have worked this hard just to kill her.
Therefore, the probability of Marie being dead was low.
Relieved, the tension in my body relaxed. I let my body hang limp against the rope.
“Hey! How long are you going to stay there! Are you really okay?”
A worried shout came down.
‘Right. Let’s sort out the details after I get back up.’
I regained my focus and climbed back toward the surface using the rope tied to my body.
As I climbed the rope for a while, a thought occurred to me.
‘By the way, that actress is quite impressive.’
She was likely a woman with a similar build to Marie, yet she jumped off a cliff without hesitation, trusting a single rope.
After that, she quickly climbed back up.
This required not only great courage but also the physical ability to support it.
‘Either she has incredible stamina, or she’s someone used to climbing ropes.’
Furthermore, even if it was from a distance, she had to be perfectly disguised as Marie and change her appearance instantly down here, which meant she had to be quite skilled in makeup and costuming.
‘Is she a stage actress? From a circus?’
Whichever it was, she was certainly no ordinary person.
***
Climbing up was relatively easier than going down. This was because the self-proclaimed detective above pulled the rope halfway through.
“Heave! Ho! Seriously! I thought I was going to die! I can’t do that again!”
The detective panted, sprawled on the ground.
Anyone watching would think he was the one who jumped, not me. Still, the fact remained that he had helped, so I bowed my head.
“Thank you very much. You were helpful in many ways.”
It wasn’t just empty words; I had received a lot of help.
‘I wouldn’t have realized it so quickly if it wasn’t for that man.’
The fact that the actress limped because a heavy rope was tied to her ankle. The fact that the footprints were swept away with the snow due to the dragging rope. Even the marks left by the stakes that secured the rope.
I was able to discover it all quickly thanks to this man.
“If you’re truly grateful, pay me back with information, not words.”
The man lifted his slumped body and asked me.
“So? What was down there?”
I hesitated for a moment.
Should I tell this detective the truth? That the one who fell down there wasn’t Marie, but a disguised actress?
It was sensitive information, and I didn’t know what would happen if it were revealed. But it was also information that would have been hard to find without him.
‘Still, since he calls himself a detective, he might be helpful in the search…’
Just as I was leaning toward being honest.
“Was she dead with her ankles broken after all?”
‘What?’
The content of the words wasn’t what made me flinch, but the tone.
It was a tone that suggested… he was hoping for that.
“She must have been in a terrible state. It’s not like she was really killed while being chased by a ghost. She was probably brutally murdered while being pursued by the Grand Duke, right? Tell me. How gruesome was it? Was it so bad you couldn’t even speak? To the point where people would be horrified?”
It wasn’t a misunderstanding. That man was definitely hoping that I had encountered a gruesome corpse.
“Why… why are you asking that?”
As I looked at him in shock, he cleared his throat a couple of times.
“Ahem, don’t misunderstand. An ordinary person like you might not know, but this is all for a greater cause. The incident must be reported provocatively so that it’s easier to bring down the Grand Duke, the true culprit of this case! Only then can we avenge the victim!”
“Bring down the Grand Duke? Is that your goal?”
“You could say that.”
If his goal was to use Marie’s death for that purpose, he couldn’t be called a detective. That’s a politician, not a detective.
“No, can’t you tell just by looking! Look at Grand Duke Kalan’s face! Do you really think he’s a fit ruler for this North?”
The man’s monocle gleamed as he spoke passionately.
“He’s utterly lacking! Yes, completely lacking! How could someone like that take on such a heavy role? Besides, haven’t three of his wives died in a row! It’s too suspicious to be a mere coincidence! There’s no doubt. Grand Duke Kalan is a blood-crazed duke! A cursed man!”
A blood-crazed duke, a cursed man.
‘It sounds like the title of a male lead in a romance fantasy novel.’
I felt neither realism nor a will to uncover the truth. It was just a provocative slogan to incite public anger.
‘Come to think of it, I heard the Grand Duke’s position was originally unstable.’
It only stabilized after he earned a massive dowry through the marriage trade.
In other words, it was only in April of this year.
‘It wouldn’t be strange if there were remnants who held a grudge against the Grand Duke.’
“If only we could find definitive evidence that the Grand Duke sadistically murdered his wife, his downfall wouldn’t be a dream! Or, ah, yes!”
Suddenly, the man with the monocle pointed at me.
“Why don’t you step forward? You must have confirmed the death of the lady you served down there! You must be filled with resentment. Shouldn’t you take revenge? If you take a dagger and wait for a moment when the Grand Duke is off guard…!”
If I were lucky, I would kill the Grand Duke, and if I were unlucky, I would fail.
What was certain was that I would be sent to prison and tortured under the guise of interrogation, and whatever this monocled man said would be useless.
I didn’t even know his name yet.
‘Is that why he didn’t tell me his name?’
To incite me, a man in despair, to seek revenge by blaming the Grand Duke for Marie’s death, while he himself stayed safely in the background?
‘Was the detective thing also a lie to persuade me?’
I don’t know why I hadn’t realized it until now.
The eyes of the monocled man were shining craftily.
“Down there…”
I chose my words carefully.
“There was no corpse of the lady.”
“What?”
“But I did find some of her belongings. It seems someone moved her for some reason after she fell from the cliff.”
“That’s impossible!”
The monocled man reacted exactly as expected.
“There must have been some important mark left on the corpse! That’s why the culprit, the Grand Duke, collected and hid the body!”
“Lady Marie’s body is probably still hidden inside the castle. There’s only one way out of this Grand Duke’s castle, so it would be very conspicuous.”
“Well, that’s obvious! This body, a trained detective, knows much better than someone like you! There are countless secret spaces in this Cresthaven Castle where a body could be hidden!”
He looked anxious, as if he wanted to jump into the castle right away.
“I must start the search immediately! Will you join me?”
“No. I will proceed with the search in my own way.”
“Fine. Then I’ll see you later!”
And with that, he hurried toward the castle.
‘I knew it.’
That man has no interest in Marie, who might be alive. Instead, he would show more interest in Marie’s corpse, which would become the Grand Duke’s weakness.
From now on, that man would be frantic, searching every corner of the castle. It would be best if he found Marie while doing so, but I didn’t expect much.
‘I just hope he makes things annoying for the Grand Duke.’
Drawing attention was enough. In the meantime, I would be able to find Marie.
‘If they want to use me, I can use them too.’
Most of all, I had a much better collaborator than that man.
A much more capable and trustworthy companion.
I looked up and saw a carriage approaching the castle from afar.
“Teacher!!!”
Lure, sitting next to the coachman, was smiling brightly and waving her hand.
She had no idea what had happened in this castle last night.