WTBFCY Chapter 24

"Why is there such a racket from all that crying? Is no one comforting the child?"

Regina stepped cautiously into the corridor, puzzled. She was about to walk toward the sound when the door to the adjacent room suddenly burst open and Noah emerged, his face full of irritation.

"Damn it, I can't sleep with all that noise! What the hell is going on?"

Regina had been hesitating, afraid to walk down the dark corridor alone. She was secretly glad to see Noah appear.

"Oh, Noah, you're up too?"

"What? Why are you here?"

"Me? The noise woke me up too."

Still groggy from sleep, he looked at her with confusion. Then the crying continued, and he grimaced with disgust as he turned his head toward the far end of the corridor.

"Are all the maids in this place deaf? Why isn't anyone going to that crying baby?"

Noah grumbled to himself and strode down the corridor. Regina quickly followed behind him. The corridor had no lights. A cold atmosphere made it feel eerie. Regina adjusted her shawl to cover her shoulders and hurried after Noah with quick steps. Before long, they reached a door with light leaking through the gaps.

"I think it's here. Should I knock?"

Click.

Regina whispered carefully as the baby's crying echoed from beyond the door. Noah threw it open.

"Wait! You can't just open the door like—huh?!"

Regina reached out to stop him, alarmed by how casually he'd opened the door. Then she froze when she saw inside the room.

"...What the hell is this?"

Noah clicked his tongue and frowned.

The only lit room in the dark corridor was decorated with green to an obsessive degree. Wallpaper painted with dark green petals, dark green curtains, a bed covered with a green canopy. She didn't know whose room it was, but before she could recoil at the terrible taste, her gaze dropped to the floor.

"H-how..."

Regina stammered and tried to enter the room to check on the person lying on the floor. Noah stretched out his arm to block her path.

"He's already dead."

"Hii, hiik!"

Beyond the open door, the Baron lay collapsed on the floor, his face frozen white. Eyes bulging toward the ceiling, hands clutching his throat—nothing about him suggested he was alive. Regina swallowed a scream.

She took a hesitant step backward. The baby's crying, which had paused when the door opened, burst out again. The crying sounded neurotic, as if the child sensed the death that had occurred nearby.

On the evening Regina and Noah visited the estate, Baron Epola died.

The two of them were obviously the most suspicious, but fortunately Noah had mentioned he belonged to the Royal Security Force. That saved them from being immediately branded as culprits.

Noah sealed the room where the Baron had died and ordered no one to approach. Then he summoned everyone working at the estate to the drawing room.

"S-Sir Chief. Everyone has gathered as you ordered, but what should we do?"

The butler confirmed all the servants had assembled. He addressed Noah with a face colored by anxiety and fear. The estate's servants couldn't hide their shock at the Baron's sudden death. They felt the immediate crisis of losing their employment, but their greater fear was being accused of murdering their master.

Moreover, a Security Force Chief from the capital itself was staring at them with a cold face, interrogating them with his eyes. Those who'd spent their entire lives in a corner of this rural territory naturally felt intimidated. They looked at Noah with tense expressions. Noah had been sitting silently on the sofa. He felt their gazes concentrate on him and spoke in a leisurely tone.

"Is this everyone?"

"Yes? Ah, yes. That's correct. Everyone in the estate has been called."

"Really? Then first, everyone remove what you're wearing on your heads."

"...What? Oh, yes! Everyone, remove your caps and headscarves immediately."

The butler didn't immediately understand Noah's unexpected request and asked again. Then he quickly recovered his expression and ordered the servants. The maids removed their headscarves, and several servants who'd rushed over and forgotten to remove their caps hurriedly took them off and held them in their hands.

Noah watched them quietly, then nodded and gestured for them to leave. The butler couldn't hide his confusion at this reaction. Regina felt similarly to the butler. Why was Noah looking at their heads, and why was he dismissing everyone after only that? It seemed he had no intention of investigating at all.

"...Sir Chief, won't you interrogate them separately? Should I send everyone away like this?"

At the butler's question, Regina also looked at Noah. She desperately sent him silent signals that he should at least make a show of investigating.

"Yes, I'll call them separately if needed. That's enough for now. They can go."

His response was indifferent. The butler's expression darkened, seeming frustrated by Noah's handling of the situation. For now, he dismissed the servants as Noah instructed. Then he too moved to leave the room and bowed toward Noah and Regina.

"Then, if you need anything, please let me know."

"No, you stay. I have some things to ask."

"What? Just me?"

"Yes, just you."

Noah kept only the butler. The servants leaving the room looked back at the butler with suspicious eyes. The elderly butler felt everyone's gazes converge on him at once and broke out in a cold sweat down his back. It was a chilling situation.

Soon the door closed, leaving only the butler standing there awkwardly with an uncomfortable expression.

"Why am I..."

The butler swallowed dryly and spoke with a tense expression. Noah threw out his question while still sitting on the sofa.

"Whose room is the one where the Baron died?"

"Ah, that room belongs to the Madam. Baroness Milla Epola. Her health deteriorated rapidly after childbirth, so she's currently gone to her family home for recuperation."

The butler rattled off information even beyond what was asked. His attitude showed a willingness to help solve the case to the best of his ability.

"I see. One more thing—the baby was crying so much last night, why didn't anyone come?"

"That's... because the Baron forbade servants from entering that room. Anyone who entered that room without permission would be immediately thrown out of the estate. Even cleaning was done at set times under the Baron's supervision—the control was that strict."

"So you're saying that even though that young baby cried all night, no one went? If it's that loud, there could be a problem—shouldn't someone have notified him? And even if not, wouldn't at least one person linger outside the door?"

"That's..."

Even when Noah questioned him again with clear skepticism, the butler hesitated as if finding it difficult to answer immediately. Suspicion rose in Noah's eyes.

"Is there something you can't talk about?"

"No, not at all. The truth is, the Baron was obsessively controlling of every single move the Madam made, but he paid no attention whatsoever to the baby. In fact, he disliked the baby being in his sight so much that the maids originally cared for the baby while hiding her in her room."

"So the room where the baby was staying wasn't originally there?"

"...Yes, that's correct. Last evening, he suddenly dragged the crib from the baby's room and placed it in the Madam's room, then earnestly warned everyone not to come anywhere near the corridor. So even though everyone heard the crying, no one dared go up to the second floor."

"And you don't know the reason?"

"No, I have no idea. The Baron wasn't usually a talkative person..."

"All right, then here's my last question. Has a red-haired maid ever died at this estate? When I looked at the servants' hair just now, I didn't see anyone with red hair. No one who seemed to have dyed it, either."

At that question, the butler seemed at a loss for words and couldn't answer immediately. After hesitating, he barely managed to speak.

"...No, there was no such maid. I have heard that rumor too. The rumor that a maid working at our estate died and the corpse disappeared, correct? That's a completely baseless story. There were no red-haired maids at our estate to begin with. I'm in charge of hiring, so I'm certain of this."

As the butler answered, a strange discomfort briefly rose on his face before disappearing. Seeing it, Regina thought the butler was lying. She didn't know why, but the feeling was close to certainty.

"All right, understood. I need to examine that room again. We'll continue this conversation afterward."

"Ah, yes! Understood. Then I'll take my leave."

Regina was tilting her head at the strange feeling that had suddenly come over her when the butler hurriedly bowed in greeting and left the room as if fleeing. She watched his retreating figure with a suspicious expression, then asked Noah, who sat on the opposite sofa.

"Don't you need to question him more? That butler seems somehow suspicious..."

"There's nothing more to get out of him right now by pressing him."

Noah stood up, saying there was nothing more to gain here. Regina followed him out, and he entered the room opposite where the Baron had died.

The door opened with a click. A white cloth now covered the Baron's corpse. Regina had been squinting her eyes and trying her best not to look down, but seeing the cloth in the edge of her vision, she sighed deeply in relief and straightened her head.

The Baroness's room was much larger than it had seemed last evening. Besides the bedroom, there was an attached bathroom. On the right side sat a large desk and bookshelf. The Baron had collapsed on the carpet in front of the desk, facing the door. A teacup rolling on the desk had some remaining tea pooled inside.

Honestly, anyone would find that teacup suspicious. It looked like a very simple poisoning case, so Regina muttered while looking around the room.

"Arsenic poisoning?"

"Why do you think that?"

Noah, who had been examining the room, looked at Regina as if surprised. Out of all the poisons, it was strange for her to specifically point out arsenic. Regina recalled the detective novels she'd forced herself to read in order to get him to buy her the sapphire necklace, and answered.

"Because arsenic poisoning is common, right? And the wallpaper throughout the room is painted green. This is Paris Green. I read in a novel that in the past, the dye for this color contained arsenic. It rained a lot yesterday, so the humidity in the room would have been high... Maybe moisture collected on the ceiling and drops fell into the teacup? He drank drops containing arsenic and died instantly—something like that."

Based on the detective novels she'd read over three months, Regina made a surprisingly plausible guess. Noah let out a hollow laugh seeing her put her hand to her mouth and even strike a thinking pose. He was dumbfounded.