Chapter 58
Chapter 58: Only a Hair’s Breadth Apart (Supplementary File)
(Revised, original version available in group)
“The horses and carriage♡… Although they seem fine at first glance♡… Mmph♡…”
A brief moment of absent-mindedness.
Funis hadn’t even finished her first sentence when she abruptly stopped speaking.
Cecia stepped beside the girl to examine her current expression—a strand of light pink hair fell messily across her forehead, her flushed cheeks glistened with fragrant sweat, and her crystalline beautiful eyes rolled back slightly, losing their luster.
Even though she had already fainted and lost consciousness, Cecia still didn’t let her go. More and more vines broke through the stone tiles, winding their way toward the girl.
The black-haired girl pressed her forehead against Funis’s. She felt the girl’s warm, sweet, sticky droplets of sweat; she felt the girl’s irregular, short breaths. “Young lady, don’t blame me. You were the one who left me behind first. I was so heartbroken, I’ve endured for too long…”
But she only dared say such things when the girl had lost consciousness.
The wicked desires she displayed were never more than the tip of the iceberg. Those mad and twisted thoughts—she was unwilling to reveal them, didn’t dare reveal them. She feared losing the girl before her eyes, losing her forever.
She felt she was already being restrained enough, controlled enough.
Charlotte and Roy were still circling the carriage, searching for suspicious traces, yet they had no idea that the unremarkable spot they repeatedly passed through was, in another space, the stage for such a sensual and explicit scene.
Elaborate and expensive gorgeous fabrics hung before the snow-white form, rising and falling gently with soft friction, producing faint rustling sounds.
The girl’s delicate gasping sounds from her throat were muffled and unclear.
“Mmgh♡—!”
Intense.
Funis was startled awake.
Her entire body felt tingly and weak, soft whimpers came in waves from between her thin pink lips, her mind was a complete mess, unable to form coherent thoughts.
“W-Witch Miss♡…”
“How sweetly you call me, my little detective. But your deduction isn’t finished yet, is it? Failing to complete a commission means punishment, you know.” Cecia spoke softly, her tone affectionate.
“Eh? This… this doesn’t count as punishment?” The girl’s cherry-pink eyes widened slightly, as if she couldn’t believe it.
“Didn’t a girl just suddenly cry out around here? I think I heard some other strange sounds too… It couldn’t have been my imagination…”
Hearing the familiar voice, Funis snapped awake instantly.
Looking up in a daze, through her disheveled hair she saw Charlotte’s heroic and handsome face incredibly close to her own, almost touching.
Those sapphire-blue eyes, pure and clean as bright gems, were now gazing directly into Funis’s eyes, which were currently filled with crystalline tears and hazy with corruption.
Her breathing stopped, even her heartbeat ceased.
Funis wanted to cover her mouth but discovered both her hands were still bound by vines. Biting her lower lip, her soft moans still couldn’t help but spill from the corners of her mouth. She was actually making such indecent sounds in front of her own daughter.
Cecia sat beside them, intoxicated as she admired this forbidden scene. Not only did she fail to consider Funis’s feelings, she actually intensified her actions.
“What’s wrong, little detective? I’ve looked already—the horses and carriage seem fine. Where did you leave off in your analysis?” The girl gently stroked the woman’s delicate, lustrous snow-white back, her fingertips lingering around the butterfly-like delicate shoulder blades.
Funis glared at Cecia with resentful anger, her eyes full of unwillingness and reproach.
This was the punishment.
Not simply because she failed to complete the deduction smoothly, but because Funis had acted intimately with Charlotte and had spoken ill of her behind her back, making her take the blame. But even so, making her lose face in front of her own daughter was going too far.
“How stubborn. Even in this state, you still glare at me like that.” Cecia pinched Funis’s chin.
Then, she forcefully turned the girl’s face toward Charlotte, compelling her to make eye contact once again with the adopted daughter she had raised with her own hands.
At this time, outside the crimson space.
“But I still didn’t hear anything? Little Charlotte, haven’t you been resting well lately?” Roy held his cigar, looking around the area with a worried frown, unable to find anything.
Charlotte still felt something was strange. She remained crouched by the carriage, tapping the carriage body with her finger. The echo wasn’t crisp but rather soft and muffled.
Something wasn’t right.
But she couldn’t determine exactly what the problem was inside, perhaps it was simply because the carriage body used some special type of wood.
“Mmgh♡…”
The sweet voice suddenly rang out again from the area in front of her.
But Charlotte couldn’t see anything. When she reached out, she only felt the cold autumn air, yet something sticky seemed to have dripped onto her palm and fingers.
Was it raining?
Charlotte looked up. Above was still covered by smog, not dark rain clouds.
She sniffed the strange liquid on her hand. It smelled sweet and sticky, not much like raindrops.
She couldn’t very well taste it with her tongue, could she?
As soon as Charlotte had this thought, she immediately dismissed it. She couldn’t determine whether this unknown liquid appearing at the crime scene was poisonous, so maintaining a rigorous attitude, she carefully collected it in an evidence vial.
“What’s that?” Roy noticed Charlotte taking out a vial to collect samples.
“Possibly some kind of liquid remaining on the carriage. It smells sweet—I don’t know what it is, so I’ll preserve it for now.” Charlotte held up the vial, observing the transparent droplets at the bottom. “Miss Louise from the alchemy testing lab will help us reach a conclusion.”
“I suppose that’s one discovery.” Roy sighed.
He and Charlotte had already examined the coachman’s body. Apart from some blurred markings on the handle of that strange dagger, they couldn’t find any other suspicious points.
This was undoubtedly a murder case involving supernatural forces.
The victim felt despair and terror before dying, but didn’t have time to resist or struggle much. This dagger pierced through his neck with astonishing speed and force, pinning him to the carriage wall behind him.
The horses were frightened afterward and also seemed to suffer mental disturbance, then fell into chaos and madness, suddenly galloping wildly through streets full of pedestrians.
But there were too many possibilities for killing the coachman this way. Many Path followers who reached mid-level Sequences could accomplish this. Displaying it so obviously for everyone to see was more like misdirection.
“If Boss Sera were here, he could probably determine what kind of supernatural characteristic was at work.” Roy’s tone was regretful.
“Yes, if it were Father…” Charlotte’s expression was melancholy.
“It’s the Diligent Path♡! Gabriel’s omen markings♡… carved on both the dagger and carriage♡…” Across the layer of crimson that couldn’t be seen or touched, Funis revealed the answer with hazy eyes and a sweet voice.
But Cecia didn’t let this sentence carry over either. The supernatural deduction belonging to “Boss Sera” or “Father” could only be heard by the two of them.
“Unexpected yet reasonable. If it’s the Diligent Path, it could indeed be possible.” The witch smiled and applauded the girl. “Well done, little detective. But the punishment still isn’t over. We still have some accounts to settle between us.”
Funis’s mouth was still glistening with crystalline drool, looking completely disheveled.
“Eh? There’s… there’s still more!?”