Chapter 129 – In which doubting sincerity is an occupational disease and can’t be helped (2)

  “You mean you saw it before?”

  Phlox turned to Saffra with sharp eyes.

  She spied a spark of a smirk in Saffra’s eyes, as if a joke danced at the tip of her tongue, but she seemed to held it back.

  Saffra answered solemnly:

  “Have you perhaps heard about a murder that occurred in this mansion a few weeks ago?”

  “… I did.”

  Before Phlox set a foot in the enemy territory, she made sure to learn everything she could glimpse from the newspapers.

  Among many rumors and stories, she heard about the murder of the servant girl.

  But there was too little of information and what information there was, it sounded too bizarre and absurd.

  So she couldn’t make head or tails out of it.

  “I and my sister have visited the hometown of Miss Golderodi, that’s the murderer-and-victim of that case. My sister found the same symbol in the abandoned house of Miss Golderodi’s family.”

  “Abandoned?”

  “Her parents died from the solary plague 10 years ago.”

  Phlox frowned.

  A feeling of discomfort tugging on her throat.

  Solary disease was a parasitic disease caused waterbond blood-suckers.

  Brought over from Sidus, those creatures native territory, they populated Flavun’s rivers and lakes.

  And they were thought to be completely harmless.

  Until 10 years ago ago.

  For reasons still unknown, their eggs, which would usually die while boiled in water or be killed by digestive juices, became immune to harm.

  What’s worse, the larvae were born inside human’s digestive system and enter the blood stream.

  Those creatures, also called solary, just like the disease, were largely sunlight dependent, so there would move close to the surface of the skin, especially in the areas exposed to sunlight.

  There, the worms would began to feed, copulate and reproduce.

  Blisters, scabs, cracking dry skin would cover the victim’s body at rapid speed, while worms feeding would led to anemia and damaged blood vessels and nerves, and later, to necrosis of the infected parts.

  The victims would usually die from the infections developed as result of open skin wounds.

  The treatment usually involved covering the victim from head-to-toe, until the worms died from lack of sunlight.

  Phlox glanced at the ominous symbol on the wall again.

  Inverted sun.

  Parasites dependent on sunlight.

  She didn’t like how well those things fit together.

  Not when she knew that this god also originated in Sidius.

  So she turned her thoughts to another thing that bothered her about Saffra’s statement.

  “Murderer-and-victim?”

  Saffra crossed her arms, as slight shadow fell over her face as if he recalled something unpleasant.

  “Yes. Miss Golderodi can refer to two bodies.”

  Even stranger statement came out of Saffra’s lips, but Phlox just raised an eyebrow, prompting her to continue.

  “The murderer and the victim shared the same appearance. When checked with the book– You know about our Book of Merits, right? Anyway, when checked with that book, the blood of both pointed to the same person. That doesn’t happen even with twins. The only thing different about the two were their personalities.”

  Saffra glanced at Phlox, she seemed to examine her expression, before continuing:

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “My suspicion is that someone may be creating perfect biological replicas of people. Cloning them, one could say. Did you ever saw anything similar?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  Phlox quickly looked Saffra up and down.

  Then she asked:

  “So did the replica came to kill the original?”

  “No… I suspect that the original killed the replica. Before you ask, no, they were aware each other beforehand. In fact, they were working together.”

  “Working together… in this mansion?”

  “That’s correct. But I wasn’t able to figure out on what. The place where we found Spider Golderodi – that’s the murderer – was filled with boxes full of wax. And later living wax dolls crated in the image of likeness of Flavun’s envoy tried to cause trouble at the Lesser Lord Mage’s coming-of-age ceremony.”

  Phlox frowned deeply.

  It was a bizarre sequence of events – why would anyone be so blatant to…

  “Young Lady Saffra.” She raised her head and looked at the lady before her. “Why are you telling me all of this?”

  “Well, you asked, so…”

  Saffra smirked, but quickly hid it, when Phlox’s expression turned increasingly serious.

  “Priest Phlox.” Saffra also became serious. “I wish to solve this murder. And you’re best shot I got at figuring it out.”

  “…”

  Phlox briefly closed her eyes.

  Was she sincere?

  Or was she scheming something else?

  “Alright.” She finally answered. “First tell me why you think there was a murder.”

  *-*-*

  Sharp sunlight cast down on the Universe temple, illuminating three figures within.

  “Please, treat yourself.”

  The Saint of Purplus, Amara, gestured towards the fruits and honey coated nuts.

  An almost kind offer, if not for the complete indifference in his eyes and artificiality of his smile.

  He was simply acting according to a scripted courtesy.

  “Thank you for your hospitality, Your Excellency.”

  But no one called out the Saint on that, rather the Head Priest of the Sun and Day Gods Temple bowed her head in gratitude.

  She sat down – her lavish clothes sparkling in light. Was the gold on her collar perhaps genuine?

  Rasin couldn’t quite tell.

  As the Head Priest of the Universe Temple, he didn’t have to wait for the Saint to invite him to seat, unlike the Head Priest of the Sun and Day Gods Temple Ombra.

  He picked a few dry plums and carefully watched the spectacle before him.

  “Considering that Head Priest Ombra came here herself, am I safe to assume that I don’t need to get into the details of the situation?”

  “Indeed, I made sure to hear all the details from those children.”

  “Is that so? And what did Head Priest Ombra hear?”

  Rasin rolled a plum on his tongue, as he checked the Saint’s expression.

  It was as bored and distant as always.

  ‘That kid can be damn clever with his tongue sometimes.’

  He bit into the plum.

  Well, it was Ombra’s problem that she said something so easy to exploit.

  She should’ve known better.

  Wait. She should’ve known better.

  He checked her expression too.

  She was maintaining her soft smile as always.

  ‘Aha, you’re checking how pissed he is? I can tell you straight, he is pissssssed.’

  Rasin internally shook his head.

  Amara didn’t have much administrative power, but his soft power due to this position, knowledge and deep connection with gods was quite enormous and difficult to combat.

  If you scratch him where he is knowledgeable and powerful, you are done for.

  Worse of all, the Saint actually cared about the gods quite a bit.

  ‘What are you doing, trying to turn a god mad in the open? At least do it in secret damn it.’

  He shouldn’t have ever trusted them with that relic deal.

  They only caused more problems than they were worth.

  While Rasin was seething inside, the conversation between Amara and Ombra continued.

  “I heard that the kids did something truly unbecoming.”

  “That’s one way to describe it.”

  “It’s hard to ask pity on them if Your Excellency speaks like this.”

  “Don’t I already take quite a pity on them? Head Priest Ombra from all people should know the extent of their crimes.”

  “…”

  Ombra just smiled without answering.

  It was too dangerous to answer the Saint’s words that were no different from a threat.

  Because not only as the head priest, Ombra should know the full history of all the gods that the temple worshiped, she would be also responsible for managing this knowledge.

  If some dangerous knowledge were too leak, it was fully her fault.

  “What does Head Priest Ombra plans to do about it?”

  “I’ll follow His Excellency’s will.”

  “This may mean some heavy restructuring of the temple’s hierarchy.”

  “Your Excellency, I’m but a servant. I live to serve, not for power.”

  Her words sounded so sincere, even Rasin was impressed.

  But of course it couldn’t be true.

  Rasin spent enough of time with this woman to know of her rotten insides.

  She was exactly as him, he was sure of it.

  “Excellent. Please submit a full evaluation and details of your temple entire personnel before the end of the week.”

  The Saint didn’t press the matter any further, simply throwing an order and leaving at that.

  After giving customary goodbyes, Ombra left.

  Rasin swallowed the last dry plum and said to Amara, who fell into thought:

  “I heard that an envoy from Rubrun visited.”

  He regretfully couldn’t see them himself, as he was busy, but he heard a detailed report on the three people.

  And there were some concerning things in it.

  “They did.”

  Amara emerged from his thoughts and picked a cup of water.

  He didn’t show much of a reaction.

  Was the report exaggerated?

  “I heard that the man named Sangria made quite an impression on your excellency.”

  “Ah…”

  Amara, who was about to take a sip of water, paused mid-motion.

  An almost bashful smile appeared on his lips, as he looked into the distance with sparkling eyes.

  “Yes, indeed…. Quite an impression.”

  He sighed, as he turned his face towards the blooming snapdragons.

  “Is that how it feels to fall in love for the first time? Just one name seems to bring life to the world.”

  Rasin froze.

  That was dangerous.

  An attachment that he couldn’t control, was an attachment Saint could not be allowed to have.

  Before, he was relived that Phlox’s attempts at moving the Saint all failed, and that she was sent away for now.

  But it appears that a worse enemy has appeared.

  “Your Excellency.” He put on the special pitch that he used to scolding Amara with when he was young. “It goes against the Saint’s dignity to engage with such fleeting things.”

  Amara, who turned away from Rasin to admire flowers, slowly turned towards him.

  And Rasin almost flinched.

  Those alien purple eyes were staring right at him.

  It was as if some ancient creature that was sleeping soundly until now leered its head and looked around, searching for a noisy fly that dared to disturb its sleep.

  At that moment, Rasin instantly realized.

  This was a lost battle.

  All he could do was to satisfy the beast until it goes back to sleep again.

  “Well…” The Saint said, with an unnerving smile on his lips. “I guess then I’ll have to set a new rules for what is considered ‘dignified’.”

  “… Understood, your excellency. I’ll make sure that the envoy is treated with most hospitality.”

  “Yes, do that.”

  The beast took a step back and returned its slumber, Amara’s face once again reflecting a daydreaming youth, high on his love.

  “You can arrange for him to stay in the room facing the inner night gardens, correct? I wish to watch him at night.”

  “… Yes, your excellency.”

  Rasin felt like he was about to fight the most brutal battle of his life.

  He couldn’t let the strings tying the Saint slip out of his hands.

  *~*~*