Lure walked carefully along the dirt path of the park.
“You don’t need to be that cautious. The Grand Duke’s Son probably went after Mr. Hayes.”
“I know that! I just don’t want to accidentally step on a corpse!”
Lure answered with a pout.
She had volunteered for this task, but it was only to help her teacher.
This park, said to be filled with unclaimed bodies, and the detective grinning in front of her.
Everything felt utterly repulsive.
‘When did my teacher ever get friendly with a guy like that?’
The last time Lure had met Walter was the worst.
He was the one who obstructed their escape by even shooting a gun while helping Ms. Christine escape.
That day, Lure had no choice but to go save her teacher, even resorting to the absurd act of ramming a boat into a hill.
‘First he made the boat hit the hill, and now he made the carriage hit the wall.’
He was truly consistently atrocious.
When she first saw him, she thought he was a decent detective, but her eyes must have been mistaken!
Hanging out with a thug like that.
She knew her teacher was a good person, but wasn’t this a bit too much?
How could he forgive someone like that and work with him?
“Hmm…”
Walter looked at Lure’s expression and gave a bitter smile.
The best consideration he could offer was to avoid speaking to her as much as possible.
Of course, when it was truly necessary, he had no choice.
“Ah, I see it. That building.”
After wandering through the deserted park for a while, they arrived at a creepy building.
Seeing the gray limestone building, Lure muttered in surprise.
“It looks… exactly like a temple.”
“It used to be a temple. Back when there was a proper cemetery here.”
Long ago, there was a time when all the dead were buried by the side of God.
A time when even the nameless were guaranteed glory after death.
But times changed, and the Emperor abolished religion.
Now, the bodies of the poor are scattered across the earth without even a headstone.
“Better be careful. That abandoned temple is now the Undertaker’s House, and I saw the Black Carriage chasing us in front of it.”
“I know that! You be careful, Mr. Walter!”
Though she grumbled, Lure reduced her footsteps even more.
Squeak.
The two opened the rusty door and stepped inside the abandoned temple.
As befitting a place that was once a temple, the interior was quite spacious and had many branch paths.
No sign of people.
“…Which way should we go?”
“There’s a secret passage underground. Let’s start by checking that out.”
Walter took the lead, and Lure followed quietly behind him.
One unfortunate fact was that the corridor of the abandoned temple was extremely dark.
“Ah!”
Lure stumbled over something at her feet.
“Are you all right?”
“I’m fine. But…”
The sensation she felt was unusual.
Lure groped around to see what she had tripped over.
As her eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness, the surroundings became visible.
“Ah…”
It was a coffin.
Numerous coffins filled the wide corridor.
The coffin in front of Lure had its lid half open from the impact of her collision.
“That’s strange,” Lure muttered in a frightened voice.
“Aren’t all the bodies in here unclaimed persons?”
“That’s what I know, but…”
“Then why is there Taylor John’s mark carved on the body inside this coffin?”
“What?!”
Just as Walter was about to approach to check the identity of the body in the coffin.
Clop, clop.
From a distance, the sound of horse hooves was heard.
“!”
The situation was quickly assessed.
“Hide!”
Walter said in a low voice and disappeared into the darkness without waiting for Lure’s reply.
Left alone, Lure looked around anxiously.
There was nowhere to hide.
Actually, no, there was.
The rows of coffins at her feet.
Lure gritted her teeth and lifted the lid of the nearest coffin.
It was much heavier than expected, but thankfully, there was no corpse inside.
She squeezed her body into the coffin and struggled to pull the lid closed, but due to her awkward position, she could barely lift it.
‘Please!’
Thud!
The coffin lid closed with a narrow margin.
At the same time, the rusty door opened with a creak.
Step, step.
The sound of shoes on the creaking wooden floor was heard.
It was a typical gentleman’s footsteps, but Lure thought something about the sound was strange.
She couldn’t pinpoint exactly what was strange.
The footsteps grew closer, tightening Lure’s breath.
“…Hmm?”
The sound came from very close by.
The criminal muttered in a puzzled tone.
“The coffin is open…”
“!”
Her heart felt like it was dropping.
She remembered she hadn’t properly closed the coffin she had bumped into earlier.
Had he noticed something strange?
What if he had realized there was an intruder?
Creak, click!
…The sound of the coffin lid closing.
“Sorry, but since things have gone wrong, I won’t be needing you, Countess.”
Having said that, Taylor John walked away.
The footsteps gradually faded down the corridor.
‘…Hah.’
It was only after about five minutes that Lure was finally able to let out a sigh.
Once she felt safe, she belatedly worried about her companion.
‘…Is that detective okay?’
Since no commotion had occurred, it seemed he hadn’t been discovered immediately.
But would he be able to escape safely?
Soon, as if her worries were unfounded.
“Miss Lure? Are you there?”
A whispering voice came.
It was the detective who had come with her.
Lure immediately tried to open the coffin lid and get out.
But…
‘…?! It won’t open!’
Panicked, Lure urgently knocked on the coffin lid.
Fortunately, Walter heard the knocking and opened the coffin for her.
“Are you all right?”
“Hah, hah. Yes…”
Lure gasped for breath, her face pale.
Perhaps due to the panic of being trapped in a narrow coffin, her breathing became rapid.
The feeling of not being able to breathe properly only heightened her fear.
‘I thought I’d develop claustrophobia I never had before.’
But what if it wasn’t just in her head?
“This coffin… has no air holes,” Walter muttered as he examined the coffin Lure had hidden in.
He then frowned as he looked at the lid.
“And it’s designed so it can’t be opened from the inside.”
Lure swallowed hard.
If she had come here alone, she might have ended up a corpse in that coffin.
She couldn’t even imagine how terrifying and horrible that experience would have been.
But…
“…Is that a problem?”
Of course, it was a huge problem for Lure herself.
But in a normal situation, wouldn’t it be fine?
It’s not like the corpse inside the coffin would breathe and open the door to come out.
“Of course it’s a problem. Cases of being buried alive due to a doctor’s misdiagnosis are surprisingly common.”
Walter said with a frown.
If Hayes were here, he would probably have added a remark, saying, ‘Just holding a mirror to the nose and checking for fog is bound to lead to many misdiagnoses.’
“That’s why most coffins can be opened from the inside and have air holes. In the case of high-end coffins, they’re often made so that pulling a rope from inside rings a bell. But this coffin…”
Walter frowned.
“The more I examine it, the stranger it is. It has no consideration for a possible living person, yet it’s not a cheap coffin either. It uses expensive mahogany wood and even velvet lining. It’s unmistakably a high-end coffin, but it has none of the features of one.”
Hearing that, it was indeed strange.
The fact that the material of the coffin was high-end was also odd.
“Wasn’t this park a cemetery for unclaimed persons?”
“Yes. It’s a cemetery for those who cannot afford to pay for their own headstones.”
Then why was the coffin made of such high-quality material?
As she pondered, she remembered what the criminal had said earlier.
“…! Countess!”
“Yes?”
“The criminal called the body in that coffin the Countess!”
“Really? There’s no way the Countess’s body would be in a place like this…”
He questioned skeptically, but since the criminal had said so, he had to check.
Walter asked forgiveness for disturbing the dead and opened the lid of the coffin in question again.
The body Lure had seen earlier was revealed.
A female body in shabby clothes with Taylor John’s scar on her abdomen.
Walter examined it carefully and then shook his head.
“No. This person is not the Countess.”
“How can you be so sure? Because of the clothes?”
“Clothes can be changed. But the shape of the calluses on the hands cannot be faked. This person engaged in manual labor for a long time. Moreover, the condition of her teeth is poor. She seems to have suffered from malnutrition for a long time.”
That meant this woman was a poor lower-class person.
A person of a status that it wouldn’t be strange to be buried in this park cemetery.
“But… doesn’t Taylor John only kill high-born noble ladies?”
“That’s what’s known. We’ll have to see if that’s actually true, but in any case, this body doesn’t serve as evidence to the contrary.”
“…? What does that…”
Walter pointed to the bloodstains on the woman’s upper clothes.
“Look. The bloodstains are too small for a wound of this size from Taylor John, aren’t they?”
“But the wound is real.”
“That’s right. So this wound was likely inflicted on a body that was already dead and had no heartbeat.”
“So… the criminal deliberately mutilated an already dead body?”
Why would he do such a thing?
Just as Lure was lost in thought.
Snort.
A horse’s whinny was heard from outside.
It was a very small and faint sound, but both reacted sharply.
“We’d better get out quickly. The criminal—”
“He didn’t put the horse in the stable. The horse is still hitched to the carriage.”
To use a car analogy, it’s like getting out without turning off the engine.
That meant the criminal could return at any moment!
“Let’s go!”
Walter and Lure quickly exited the Undertaker’s House.
They saw the Black Carriage standing in front of the door.
They ran past the Black Carriage.
Suddenly, Lure stopped.
“…?! What are you doing? Hurry…!”
“…I smell something.”
“Smell?”
Lure turned back and approached the Black Carriage.
Then she forcefully opened the carriage door.
“…A smell of blood.”
After looking inside the carriage, Lure muttered with her lips tightly pressed.
“Something terrible definitely happened inside this carriage.”
Bloodstains that hadn’t been cleaned remained here and there inside the carriage.
Walter, who had approached unnoticed, muttered like a groan.
“Taylor John… committed murder inside this carriage.”