The residence that this man named Hawkwood bought was neither large nor hard to find. It was located in a remote residential area, and Lita easily found her way nearby.
In modern terms, it was an old neighborhood that could be demolished at any time, I suppose.
Under the pretext of inspecting the house for Cecilia, Lita made a round nearby but found nothing unusual, so she swaggered away.
After nightfall, when Lita planned to investigate the room again for any abnormalities, she smelled an extremely ominous odor before she even got close. It was the stench of rot and blood, which churned Lita’s stomach even from a distance.
For her own safety, Lita did not enter directly. After all, showing up at the crime scene would certainly arouse suspicion.
Yes, this must have already become a crime scene. Lita was convinced of this. Even if ordinary people weren’t qualified to arrest her, public opinion could be more damaging than a blade. What if Hawkwood had just committed some slaughter here?
Lita summoned several guards and reported the abnormality. Then she knocked on the door along with the guards, but no one answered. One guard went to find the homeowner, Mr. Hawkwood, but for some reason, Hawkwood was nowhere to be found.
Finally, the guards kicked open the door and followed the scent of blood. The scene that unfolded before Lita’s eyes left her stunned.
The entire room was piled high with gold coins and treasures—far more than what the people in Solus City had given to Cecilia to beg her to go easy on them during the Holy Knight Examination. But these treasures were soaked in black blood, and the owner of the blood was lying there in a state of collapse. The stench of rot and blood came from his body.
Perhaps “collapse” wasn’t the right word, since he looked already dead.
“Lord Hawkwood?!” a guard exclaimed.
In the end, the guards did not touch the body directly but called for a court physician. According to the court physician, he had died by poisoning himself.
Because this was a sealed-room murder. There was no one else in the room except him. The scratches and blood on the floor proved his extreme suffering before death, but he also had enough time to call for help, the same time it took to make those scratches.
A piece of paper was clutched in his hand, on which was written his confession to his crimes: embezzlement, murder, and so on—enough to kill him three times over. But there was no mention of the so-called Glen.
“Too coincidental.”
Cecilia pinched the bridge of her nose, her tone full of chagrin.
“I just got my eye on him, and he dies like this. Strange, too strange.”
“What do we do?” Lita asked.
“Continue, but don’t go yourself like before. Use your little mice if possible.”
Although it was winter and mice were hard to find in the palace, there were plenty of sparrows around. These little creatures could help Lita. Lita first caught a flock of sparrows, then bonded with her new animal companions, and released them to various corners of the Royal City.
Unfortunately, after Lita finished all this, she discovered that Omai, whom she wanted to investigate, had already led his troops out of the city.
A few days later, Lita received news that Omai had died in battle while suppressing bandits. As expected, it was probably Glen’s people who made the move, although the body appeared to have been stabbed to death by a Steelback Beast.
But that was all later. Lita’s sparrows weren’t only used to investigate Omai. Xien frequently visited brothels, and Lita’s identity prevented her from going there, so the sparrows were perfect.
Xien was a complete scumbag, but he did have some ability. Perhaps the bald head steward Pierre valued this and kept him by his side.
Unfortunately, he could no longer use this man. The returning sparrows told Lita the whole story of how this scumbag had his lung pierced by a Holy Knight over a woman. The pitiable yet detestable Xien choked to death on his own blood. The Holy Knight who killed him did not die, but that person seemed to realize he had caused a great disaster and simply ran away—at least, that was what most people believed.
“No, we can’t continue like this.”
Cecilia pressed her fist to her forehead with a thud, and Lita rarely heard such anger in her voice.
Three people had all died like this. This couldn’t be explained by coincidence. In fact, it wasn’t just these three; several others on the list were also gone, some even before Cecilia had drawn up the list.
People died in the Royal City every day, and their various deaths would never attract attention. But once people died, the clues were cut off.
“It’s a warning.”
Cecilia lowered her fist, stood up, and plopped down onto Lita’s lap, kneading Lita’s chest while deep in thought. The firelight flickered on her face, making her expression even more grim.
“Someone is telling us in this way that we should stop here.”
That must be the case, otherwise why would these people die?
“Do we still continue?” Lita glanced at the list on the table.
Cecilia rested her chin on Lita’s shoulder, also looking at the list. The fire crackled, the cold wind howled, and in the extremely quiet room, the rustling sound of Cecilia standing up was especially clear. She picked up the paper and threw it directly into the fire.
The paper quickly turned black, then became a pile of ashes that could never be reconstructed.
“Stop it. I don’t want you to be in danger too,” Cecilia said.
“I’m really strong,” Lita replied, then added, “Don’t worry, I’ll also protect Lady Cecilia. If we stop here, isn’t it a bit regrettable?”
“I never doubted your ability, Lita. You can protect me, and you have the ability to protect me, but it’s time to stop.”
Cecilia turned back and threw herself into Lita’s arms again, whispering softly in Lita’s ear.
“I only said to stop your investigation, but I never said this matter is over. Everything that’s happening now precisely indicates that our direction is correct. This is not the end, but the beginning. We just need to wait for the next opportunity to come.”
“Next?”
“Soon, the Holy Knight Examination will begin. By then, I don’t believe those people will remain inactive.”
The Holy Knight Examination was approaching day by day, and Lita’s lessons were ending one by one.
Winter, end of classes, exam week! Bad memories were gradually surfacing!
To prevent anyone from harming Cecilia, Lita practically moved into Cecilia’s room. The teachers responsible for Lita’s lessons were also invited to the palace to teach under Cecilia’s watch.
In the past, Lita might have been able to chat with the teachers or slack off sometimes, but under Cecilia’s watch, no one dared to do that. Thus, the final lessons were especially painful. But fortunately, it was all over. Lita could finally stop struggling with various courses.
Even though the knowledge she learned was only basic, and there was more to master in practice, as long as there were no classes, it was good!
By the way, Lilia also woke up during this time, but no one could clearly explain the attack on Lilia. The King sent out many troops; the previously deceased Omai was one of them.
Battles naturally had wins and losses, but Glen’s group, who had exposed themselves, were almost all killed. At least for a while, no one mentioned them anymore. Perhaps Cecilia’s investigation had only coincided with this special period, leading to no progress.
Back to Lilia, although she had woken up, she could only sit in a wheelchair pushed by Xingxian, and over time, she stopped going out. This was a good thing for Lita. Lilia was harmful and unhelpful to her. Hopefully, this incident would teach her a lesson.
There were also rumors among the people that Lilia had lost the possibility of winning the Royal Selection, since most people would not choose someone who couldn’t stand as their empress. Lilia was very depressed about this, but what happened to her afterward was not Lita’s concern.
Recently, Lita occasionally went to see Momoka or Promi. The three of them had grown close in Solus City and had experienced life and death together. Now they were all in the Royal Capital, and they might become colleagues in the future. Keeping in touch was a good thing.
The venue for their gatherings was mostly the tavern where the Beautiful Pheasant was. Leaving aside Claire, the tavern’s atmosphere was indeed nice. Lita also suddenly realized that the tavern was a great place to gather information. Although much of it was exaggerated boasting, there was plenty of useful information too.
Time passed quietly like this. Rosalia also returned from the Northlands, bringing the latest news. During this period, Kaisa launched several more attacks, but they were far less formidable than the first. Both sides suffered losses, not much different from what the Northlands had experienced before. However, the Alien Ghosts with a leader were certainly more troublesome than before.
Finally, the Holy Knight Examination officially began.
Just as Cecilia had said, the examination itself didn’t matter. What mattered was whether anyone would use the examination as an excuse to infiltrate the Royal Capital and re-establish new forces.
But it was fine. After all, she didn’t need to take the examination. Her task during this time was relatively simple: accompany Cecilia to the opening ceremony, observe the candidates and passersby, as well as the newly appointed officials of all ranks, and see if there was anything suspicious.
That was what Lita thought.
However, fate played a big joke on her. No, it wasn’t fate playing a joke on her; it was the King playing a joke on her.
From the day the Holy Knight Examination began, Lita almost never had a moment of peace.