“A-a secret passage. It really existed…”
Lure gulped.
“It’s a castle built like a fortress. It’s only natural for it to have at least one thing like this.”
I peered into the passage. Torch holders were installed at various intervals throughout the space.
‘As expected, it’s a very old passage. It was probably built around the same time as the castle itself.’
A device of unknown origin was installed on the wall of the passage. It was likely the mechanism used to open and close the secret door. Though, I wasn’t certain if it would still work after I had completely smashed it.
“W-what are we going to do now?”
“We have to go in. Marie must have been kidnapped through this passage.”
However…
“Lure, do you want to stay here and guard the passage?”
I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to take her into this cramped, dark path.
“If the culprit finds out we discovered the secret passage, they might panic and kill Marie to get rid of the evidence. So, I need you to guard this room and make sure no one else enters. Can you do that for me?”
My assistant’s response to this momentous task was…
“No way!”
A firm, resolute refusal.
“Don’t be stubborn. Don’t you realize how important this is?”
“I know. But how on earth am I supposed to guard this?”
I found myself speechless when she countered me so confidently.
“I don’t have overflowing strength like you do, Master. If the people of the Grand Duchy come here to search the room for Marie, I’ll be overwhelmed by both force and authority. What could I possibly do in that situation? I can’t protect this passage anyway.”
Since when did she become so articulate? No, she was always smart…
“This passage is going to be discovered soon anyway. That’s why we have to find Marie first. It’s a race against time! So…!”
Lure suddenly threw a punch toward me.
‘… Should I let her hit me?’
But the punch only lightly tapped the back of my hand.
“Don’t leave me behind! I’m part of the team too! That… Phantom Thief Team or whatever!”
“Ah.”
She was trying to imitate the gesture Marie and I often did.
‘I thought she said she hated childish things…’
It seemed Lure had grown quite attached to this childish team before I even realized it.
‘If that’s the case… I guess I have no choice.’
“Alright. Let’s go together.”
“What? Really?”
“The Phantom Thief Lure Team wouldn’t be right without Lure.”
“Ack! I told you not to do that, seriously!”
I let out a small chuckle at the shouting Lure.
“But Marie would be so happy if you shouted the team name.”
“… I can at least do that weird fist thing with you.”
“She’ll like that too. Though it looks like you’ll need to learn how to do it properly.”
“Is there a specific way to do that, too?”
We walked into the darkness, chatting quietly. We dreamed of a future where all three of us would return safely and bump our fists together.
***
The path was incredibly narrow and dark. Even worse, the ground wasn’t even level.
“It feels like… we’re heading higher up.”
“I agree. I wonder how far it goes. Could it be leading to a spire?”
It wasn’t an impossible theory. The castle’s nickname was the Celestial Tower, as it featured several spires that soared endlessly as if to touch the heavens.
‘The inside of the castle is no different from a maze, making it difficult to match the interior geography with the view from the outside.’
If there was a spire that was visible from the outside but couldn’t be accessed by normal means from the inside? For example, a space connected only by this secret passage. If such a place existed, it would be the perfect spot to hide something.
‘Whether it’s a person or a corpse.’
“Oh?”
After walking in silence for a while, Lure suddenly let out a small cry.
“Look over there, Master. It’s a door.”
There was an elegant wooden door in the middle of the passage. It wasn’t worn down at all and was decorated with white paint, looking very ornate and graceful. It was a strange door that looked out of place in the middle of this dungeon-like secret passage.
I swallowed hard. I didn’t know what was inside, but I couldn’t just pass it by.
“Listen closely, Lure. Once we enter the room…”
I gave Lure several instructions to prepare for any potential situation before stepping in front of the door.
‘Phew.’
After taking a deep breath, I knocked politely on the door.
— Knock, knock.
“Excuse me. Is anyone inside?”
“…”
There was no answer.
‘What am I doing?’
Maybe it was because of the unusual appearance of the door. I felt like I had to act this way. Just as I was squirming with self-consciousness…
“Who is it? … Come in.”
An unexpected response came from inside the room.
***
The person who called us inside was a young woman. Her short, bobbed hair was a vibrant red and very curly, and her face was covered in freckles, giving her a mischievous look. She was dressed in a red muslin dress that matched her hair color and was leaning diagonally on a sofa covered with a leopard-print carpet.
She gestured with an interested expression.
“What are you doing? Don’t just stand there. Come in and sit down.”
However, there was nowhere to sit. There were no chairs in the room, and she was taking up the entire sofa.
‘Well, she did tell us to sit.’
Lure and I sat awkwardly on the large bed in the middle of the room. Since the owner of the room didn’t say anything, I assumed this was fine.
‘It’s soft.’
I brushed my hand against the bed fabric. It was smooth to the touch, with nothing catching on my skin. The fluffy texture made it feel as though it was stuffed with thick cotton. Above our heads, a light blue silk canopy hung delicately, and a pair of fluffy fur slippers were neatly placed at our feet.
— Hiss, hiss.
A kettle on the fireplace began to whistle as the water boiled. White steam puffed out from the kettle, warming the air inside the room.
‘It looks cozy.’
But it wasn’t just that.
‘But it’s dark.’
There was only a small window in the room. Even then, it was placed too high and was far too small. It was a room where only a handful of sunlight could barely enter.
‘How strange. Looking at the window alone, it seems like a prison, but looking at the furnishings, it’s like the safe house of a wealthy person.’
Why was a room like this in the middle of a secret passage? What was the identity of this red-haired woman? Did she witness Marie being kidnapped?
‘First of all, she’s likely not an accomplice.’
If she were the culprit, I would have seen it through my eyes. But being “not the culprit” didn’t necessarily mean she was a “good person.”
“… First of all.”
After a long moment of contemplation, I asked, “What should I call you?”
“Hmm, let me see…”
The woman pondered for a moment before tugging on her own hair.
“… Copper. Yes, that would be good. You can call me Copper.”
She didn’t even seem to have the will to hide the fact that it was a pseudonym.
“Are you… being imprisoned in this room?”
“Imprisoned?”
Copper burst into laughter as if she found the idea hilarious. It was a high-pitched, piercing laugh.
“That’s impossible. I’m here of my own free will.”
“But I have never seen you inside the castle.”
“That’s because I always stay in this room unless something special happens.”
“In that case, you must have been here last night.”
Copper’s laughter stopped.
“Last night, Ms. Marie must have passed by this door. Did you not see her? Or perhaps, did you hear any sounds?”
“… I don’t know. I went to bed early last night.”
‘She isn’t very good at lying.’
She had clearly become tense as soon as I mentioned last night. She had already guessed what I was going to say. Her subsequent eye contact and body movements were also excessively unnatural. She was not a person who was used to lying.
‘… In that case.’
I made a decision and asked again.
“If you didn’t see her, Ms. Copper, what about your roommate?”
“Pardon?”
“Does your roommate also claim not to have seen Ms. Marie?”
“What do you mean? I don’t have a roommate.”
Copper spoke firmly, her expression turning serious. But that was also a lie.
‘The items in this room are somewhat discordant.’
A white lace bed and a sofa covered with a leopard-print carpet. The styles of the two pieces of furniture were completely different. It was as if they had different owners. One could argue it was just a unique taste, but the fluffy white fur slippers placed neatly by the bed were the deciding factor. It was quite cold, yet this woman named Copper was barefoot.
‘The owner of the slippers must be someone else.’
She was trying to hide the existence of a roommate with an obvious lie. But why? Would it be troublesome if we found out about the roommate?
“You say you aren’t imprisoned and that you don’t have a roommate.”
“And?”
“Then all these items must belong to you.”
I looked around the room’s belongings with exaggeration.
“Every single one of them looks like a high-end luxury item. Ms. Copper, you aren’t trapped, you have no roommate, and you slept soundly early last night. Who on earth are you to be living in a place like this with such furnishings?”
“I… I am…”
Copper hesitated for a moment before shouting resolutely.
“I have a special relationship with His Excellency Grand Duke Kalan.”
“…? What does that…”
Perhaps gaining confidence after speaking, Copper added with more force.
“I am a special person to His Excellency. A woman in a ‘special’ relationship who had to be hidden quickly when a new bride was coming. Surely you can guess what that means?”
So… she was saying she was Grand Duke Kalan’s mistress?
‘It’s not… impossible.’
A luxurious but hidden room. A dark and damp sanctuary that was difficult to enter or leave. It was certainly a place where an unsavory secret could be hidden. However…
‘If Grand Duke Kalan is really Taylor Zohn, he wouldn’t keep a mistress.’
He was a madman who killed even his own wives because he couldn’t control his impulses. If the Grand Duke had a mistress, there was no way that person would still be alive.
“It seems you aren’t very good at lying.”
“It’s not a lie! I really have a special relationship with His Excellency!”
But unlike before, Copper looked very frustrated and wronged. She looked like someone who firmly believed that what she had just said was the truth.
“Stop asking me questions! Why do I have to be interrogated one-sidedly like this? Do you have no manners toward a lady?” Copper shouted indignantly.
“I apologize if it felt like a one-sided interrogation.”
I apologized politely. But it was only a gesture for the next attack.
“Since we don’t know each other’s identities, I thought we would both have many questions. However, because I was the only one asking, the atmosphere inadvertently became like an interrogation. It seems I was the only one curious about the other’s identity.”
You already knew who we were, didn’t you?
“… I heard about you from the servants.”
“Is that so? I wonder what you heard that allowed you to recognize us. We must look completely different from what you usually hear.”
Lure usually wore Marie’s pink clothes because of her nagging, but today, she was wearing the simple clothes she preferred while visiting the village alone. I also usually wore my bright, polished knight’s uniform, but today, I was wearing tattered, mud-stained rags after jumping off a cliff. We usually wore such conspicuous clothing that I doubted anyone would describe our appearance based on anything else.
“It’s as if you recognized us by our voices rather than our faces.”
The woman who was ominously eavesdropping on the sounds coming from Marie’s room, and the woman who gave Marie nightmares with her cackling laughter. That was you, wasn’t it?
Copper’s face hardened at my accusation.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I can no longer tolerate your rude remarks. Please leave at once!”
“Master…”
Lure looked at me, asking what we should do. I nodded lightly and stood up.
“Pardon our intrusion. Let’s go, Lure.”
When I stood up so readily, the tension in Copper’s brow eased significantly. As we walked out, Copper spoke to our backs.
“… I recommend taking the left at the fork.”
I turned around in surprise, but Copper kept her mouth shut as if she hadn’t said anything at all.
‘I don’t think she’ll answer even if I ask more.’
I left the room without a word. We walked through the dark passage once more. And when I felt we were far enough from Copper’s room…
“Lure.”
“Here. I found it.”
Lure handed something to me. It was two thin strands of hair.
“Good job.”
“It was nothing. It was all thanks to you drawing her attention, Master. That woman didn’t look at me once.”
Earlier, in front of the woman’s door, I had given Lure a single instruction.
‘If there’s someone inside the room, I’ll draw their attention. If you see Marie, find a way to escape with her. If Marie isn’t there, look for any traces she might have left behind. Or anything that could serve as evidence.’
The situation I had imagined while saying that was a fight. It was unexpected that it proceeded through conversation without any violence, but it wasn’t bad. Especially since the opponent was that woman.
‘She was someone who wasn’t used to lying. When such a person is forced to keep lying, their vision inevitably narrows.’
I hadn’t expected to hear the truth from a woman named Copper from the beginning. If Lure had found evidence while I was questioning her, that was enough.
“So, what exactly is this?” I asked, looking at the hair Lure had brought.
“Look at this, Master.”
Lure held the lantern close to the hair. One of the two strands shone noticeably.
“It’s blonde. And very long blonde hair at that.”
It wasn’t a common hair color.
“Where did you find this?”
“Under the bed.”
“Which means either Ms. Copper’s roommate is blonde, or…”
“Marie was in that room last night.”
I examined the hair closely and discovered an even more interesting fact.
“Lure, what about the other strand of hair?”
“Pardon? I just picked that up to compare it with the blonde one. Why?”
“This isn’t red either.”
It was probably dark brown or black. Furthermore, it was also long.
“Maybe that’s the roommate’s hair. Then the blonde hair must belong to someone else.”
‘This… I should keep it in mind.’
The suspicious woman in the hidden room. And the three different hair colors.
“Oh, Master. It’s a fork in the path.”
Before long, a fork in the road appeared before us. It was the very fork Copper had mentioned.
We chose the path to the left.