“Looks like your memory’s coming back now.”
The old man laughed with a wheezing sound.
“You ask me to treat a patient, then suddenly pass out. You have no idea how flustered I was.”
I could imagine.
Seeing someone who had just asked to be hidden suddenly collapse must have been quite bewildering.
‘I must have fainted from the tension easing.’
It wasn’t strange, given that I had to wander endlessly for hours to evade pursuit.
Moreover, I had a patient in the cart I was pulling who looked like he could stop breathing at any moment—.
“…! What about Mister Walter? Is Mister Walter’s condition okay?”
“Hmm?”
The old man made a face that said he didn’t understand.
“Who’s Walter?”
“The patient I brought! I asked you to treat him!”
“Weren’t you the patient? …Oh, are you looking for the corpse that was in the cart?”
“……!!!”
Just as my heart sank to the pit of my stomach.
“Puhaha! That expression is a masterpiece! Don’t worry. I treated him properly.”
The old man cackled and pointed to a bed in a secluded corner.
Walter was lying there.
“He’s past the critical point. It was a bit touch-and-go, though.”
Walter was breathing heavily, his face flushed red.
It looked serious, but that made the reality that he was alive sink in.
“No idea when he’ll wake up. He seemed to be in a lot of pain, so I gave him some strong painkillers.”
“I see….”
Getting an explanation for how things ended up like this was postponed, but it didn’t matter.
Right now, just knowing Walter was alive was a relief.
“……?”
Suddenly, a wrinkled hand appeared right in front of my eyes.
“What? That ‘I don’t understand’ face.”
As if annoyed, the old man waved his hand.
“You don’t think this is a poorhouse, do you? If I gave you a place to sleep and treated you, you have to pay the price.”
“Ah.”
…I don’t have any, money.
A sigh escaped me involuntarily, but I couldn’t very well tell the unconscious man to pay up.
“Um, how much do I owe you?”
Click.
The old man held up two fingers.
‘If it’s that much….’
I took out some money with trembling hands and handed it over. Upon seeing the coins, the old man’s face instantly crumpled.
“Are you joking? It’s ten times that!”
“What?!”
You’re joking? That’s my line!
‘Ten times that is more than Lure’s monthly salary!’
You want that much money for one day of treatment?
“Don’t you have any conscience, old man?!”
“Nope! If I had a conscience, I’d work at a proper hospital. Would I be living in a back alley like this, treating wounds from gang fights and forging death certificates? I like money more than conscience!”
Damn it! I have nothing to say because he’s right.
So what should I do? Ask for credit?
Just as I was deep in thought.
“That’s enough joking. I already said I would cover all the treatment costs.”
The door opened, revealing the owner of a familiar voice.
“Miss Posha!”
“It’s been a while, Mister Hayes.”
She gave me a faint smile.
“We have a lot to talk about, don’t we?”
We really did.
“Mister Beetle, could you give us the room for a moment? I have something important to discuss with him.”
At Posha’s request, the old man crossed his arms and sharply turned his head away. It was quite a sulky gesture.
“No? You want to kick this old man out of his own house in this cold? You want to see this old man shiver like a dog and freeze to death?”
When Posha silently took out her purse and handed it over, the old man broke into a wide grin.
“Come to think of it, if an old man like me stays home just because it’s cold, he’ll lose his vitality and kick the bucket! I need to go out and run around like a dog to stay healthy, right?”
And with that, he left without looking back.
“…Is he really someone we can trust?”
“He’s a bit of a prankster, but his skills are solid. If you pay him properly, he’s quite tight-lipped too. In a situation like this, he’s about the only person we can rely on.”
‘A situation like this.’
“A situation where we’re being pursued by Grand Duke Katrin?”
“…….”
“You know, don’t you? I’m already involved. So please, be honest with me.”
How did Walter end up stabbed and found in the park in front of the Grand Duke’s residence?
And why are the Grand Duke’s subordinates chasing Walter?
“…It seems it will be a long story.”
Posha let out a soft sigh.
“May I go back a bit in the story?”
“However you feel comfortable.”
“Alright. On the day I first met you, Mister Hayes, I had decided, together with Mister Walter, to crush the Herbert Clan.”
That far back?
*
Persuaded by the two detectives, Hayes and Walter, Posha resolved to seek revenge.
“It might be impossible for me alone, but with you, perhaps I can do it.”
Walter Bell. The detective with the alias ‘Janus of the East.’
With him, it might really be possible to deal a blow to the Herbert Clan.
“You said you’ve been tracking the Herbert Clan for a long time. I believe you must have some plan. What do you intend to do from now on?”
“I’m thinking of moving my base of operations to the Capital.”
Walter answered immediately, as if he’d been waiting for the question.
“A significant number of the Herbert Clan members are retired soldiers from the East, but their main area of activity is actually the Capital. So it would be better for us to stay in the Capital as well.”
It was a reasonable story. Posha nodded, but at the same time felt worried.
“But are you really sure about that? You’re Janus of the East.”
“Ugh! Please don’t call me that!”
Walter covered his face with his hands and groaned for a while.
“What does it matter if I’m that… whatever of the East? Moving my base doesn’t mean my intuition loses its shine. I will do my best to track the Herbert Clan.”
Walter’s determination seemed firm.
‘This person is as serious about tracking the Herbert Clan as I am.’
Posha was satisfied, but soon a problem arose.
“…Miss Posha. His Highness Grand Duke Katrin has sent someone to me.”
“Huh? Why would His Highness the Grand Duke do that?”
“Because I was receiving his patronage.”
It was the first she’d heard of it, but it wasn’t surprising.
He was the famous Janus of the East. It would be more strange if such a famous detective didn’t have a patron.
The problem was what came next.
“I told His Highness that I plan to move to the Capital to operate and would like to conclude our patronage relationship. But he says he has an urgent request for me, and he cannot let me go until I complete it.”
“That’s… that’s absurd!”
Posha was shocked.
“No matter how much of a patron he is, he can’t force a request on you, can he? Just refuse! Once you go up to the Capital, what can even a Grand Duke do?”
Walter gave a wry smile.
“I think so too. But since he’s gone so far as to send someone, it wouldn’t be polite not to pay my respects. I’ll go and decline the request.”
But the next day.
Walter spoke with a dark expression.
He said he had accepted the Grand Duke’s request.
“Why on earth? We agreed to track the Herbert Clan together!”
“I couldn’t refuse.”
“So, why?!”
“Because if I had refused, I would have been killed.”
“……!”
“It’s true. He was smiling on the outside, but he was planning to kill me right then and there if I refused the request.”
Walter’s eyes flashed with conviction.
“My intuition isn’t wrong very often.”
Posha believed Walter.
Walter was an excellent detective.
If he said that, there must have been something to it.
But she couldn’t understand it at all.
“He would try to kill you just for refusing a request? Why on earth?”
“Who knows. Maybe he doesn’t want the details of the request to leak out?”
It was an even more incomprehensible story.
Posha had also heard about the request in her capacity as Walter’s assistant.
‘What on earth is in that photo?’
A photo of the Grand Duke’s son dating an opera singer?
Of course, if such a photo were exposed, it might negatively affect marriage talks.
But that’s all it is.
Is that a big enough problem to kill someone over?
‘Even if Grand Duke Wilhelm’s son’s marriage talks fall through, His Highness the Grand Duke has other children.’
Why would he go so far as to kill someone to keep it a secret?
“Well… there aren’t enough clues for proper reasoning yet.”
Walter said, stroking his chin.
“To make a light guess, perhaps that woman Christine is actually a terrible villain who was blackmailing the Grand Duke with the photo. His noble pride wouldn’t allow him to admit to being blackmailed, so he might have taken his anger out on poor me.”
How could he speak so lightly about a matter concerning his own life?
Watching him, Posha felt her temper rising.
“If not that….”
Walter’s eyes flashed with interest.
“Maybe something else is hidden in that photo?”
“Something else?”
“Yes. Something truly serious, incomparable to a trivial affair. A tremendous secret that must be recovered even at the cost of killing someone….”
Haha!
Walter burst out laughing.
“Wow, I’m dying of curiosity. What on earth is in that photo to go this far? No good. I have to find a way to see that photo for myself.”
Posha looked at Walter with exasperated eyes.
Is this what a detective is?
So curious about a hidden secret that he doesn’t know what to do, even when his own life is on the line?
‘If that’s the case, I don’t really want to get involved with people like detectives.’
But what could she do? She was already involved.
“Be careful, Mister Walter. Your life might be on the line in this case.”
“Of course. It’s rare for my interests and my duty to align. I have no intention of doing this half-heartedly.”
Posha was still worried.
‘Isn’t he being too overconfident?’
Noticing her expression, Walter exaggeratedly showed his hurt feelings.
“That’s too harsh, Miss Posha. Don’t you trust me? Of course, last time I was completely outdone by Mister Hayes, but that’s because he’s a monster. Excluding such an out-of-spec monster, I’m quite a capable detective, you know. I won’t fail such a simple request.”
At that time, the two of them didn’t know.
That the enemy they would have to face upon going to the Capital would be precisely that out-of-spec monster.
*
“You probably know what happened next better than I do, Mister Hayes.”
Posha let out a long sigh.
“Mister Walter failed to resolve the request.”
“…I’m sorry.”
“Huh? There’s nothing for you to be sorry about, Mister Hayes. You said the photo never existed in the first place, right?”
That was exactly why I felt sorry.
‘That photo is actually in my pocket right now.’
I averted my eyes from Posha’s gaze and looked down.
It was fortunate that the human lie detector was unconscious.
“Anyway, after the request failed, Mister Walter became serious too. He said he had a bad feeling and suggested it would be better to leave and stay out of sight before Grand Duke Katrin, who would soon be coming to the Capital, arrived.”
“That’s the part I was curious about. Didn’t the two of you leave the Capital?”
“We did leave.”
Posha’s expression darkened.
“But then something unbelievable happened.”
“Something unbelievable…?”
“My dear old friends, the Herbert Clan members, came to capture me and Mister Walter.”
“……!”
“Mister Walter escaped safely, but I was caught. Mister Walter came back and helped me escape, but in the process, he was captured.”
“That’s…”
“The shocking part comes next. After that, do you know where the Herbert Clan members took Mister Walter?”
It was hard to believe, but considering the place where Walter was found bleeding profusely…
“Don’t tell me… to the Grand Duke Eduard’s residence?”
Nod.
“That’s when I finally realized it. The real reason the Grand Duke wanted to kill Mister Walter.”
Posha gritted her teeth.
“The Herbert Clan, a violent organization formed mainly by retired soldiers from the Eastern Front, was in cahoots with the Grand Duke from the very beginning. Whether they are subordinates or collaborators, it’s clear they are on the same side.”
There was no other way to think about it.
“So Grand Duke Katrin must have disliked the idea of Mister Walter, who was coming to the Capital to take down the Herbert Clan. The request was just an excuse. Even if he had successfully completed the request, the Grand Duke would probably have tried to kill me and Mister Walter.”
Posha’s words made perfect sense.
Except for one thing—the idea that the request entrusted by the Grand Duke was just an excuse.
‘That was probably not an excuse.’
Walter sensed that something was hidden in the photo. He just didn’t have enough clues to complete the proper picture.
And in my hand, I hold a puzzle piece that Walter didn’t have.
‘Grand Duke Wilhelm’s son is, in all likelihood, Taylor John.’
That was the truth the black shadow told me.
And Taylor John was a serial killer who started his activities five years ago and claimed numerous victims.
Finally, the photo the Grand Duke desperately wanted to recover showed Grand Duke Wilhelm’s son from five years ago.
‘Maybe, just maybe….’
The evidence is still insufficient, but an inexplicable intuition struck.
‘Maybe evidence is hidden in the photo?’
Evidence of the murders committed by Grand Duke Wilhelm’s son. Or evidence proving that Grand Duke Wilhelm’s son is Taylor John.
What if such a tremendous secret was hidden within a seemingly ordinary photo of lovers?
…The photo rustled in my pocket.