Chapter 194 Case File 3: The Mystery of Rose Villa Begins (10)

While Jiangyou and Andre stood quietly in a corner of the hall and observed secretly, Winston was also looking at Madame Butterfly carefully.

He arrived early and, as a spy, had chosen a seat in a corner of the hall so that he could observe the entire place. However, he did not expect that Madame Butterfly would not go through the main entrance of the hall, but instead emerged from a small door on the other side. As a result, he became the person closest to Madame Butterfly by accident.

The position was too advantageous, so Winston naturally would not miss this opportunity. He took the black tea brewed by the butler as a cover and carefully looked at Madame Butterfly from head to toe.

Madame Butterfly has thick, wavy black hair. The butterfly mask she wears covers the upper half of her face. Even her eyes are blocked by a thick, transparent lens that makes up the butterfly's wings. The lens is cut and reflects a bright light, making it impossible to see the specific color of her eyes.

Her exposed chin and slender neck were covered with a large amount of powder, and the artificial "whiteness" concealed everything real. Not to mention any flaws or features, even her true skin color could not be seen.

The leather strap of the butterfly necklace she wore today was very thin, and the jeweled butterfly was worn on the side of her neck, making her look like she was picking a delicate flower.

Winston's gaze lingered on Madame Butterfly's neck - there was no obvious Adam's apple, so she was probably not a man dressed as a woman.

Her clothes were very complicated, covering almost all of her skin, and she even wore black lace gloves on her hands.

It was beautiful, but in the open-minded Principality of Huntington, this was a rare attire. Women in Huntington were known for their unrestrained display of beauty, not to please others but to please themselves... Perhaps she was dressing this way to hide some secret.

After the opening introduction and greetings, Madame Butterfly finally got to the point and began to tell a secret about the royal family of the previous dynasty in her charming and magnetic voice.

Legend has it that Rudolf Delman, the last king of the Delman Kingdom, and his queen were childhood sweethearts, sharing a deep bond. The queen loved the vibrant, fragrant rose, so King Rudolf ordered a long journey from the south to retrieve its seeds. He then spent countless sums of money to have botanists meticulously cultivate them, eventually cultivating the Oster rose, a plant that could withstand the kingdom's harsh winters and bloom year-round.

When the queen was pregnant with the prince, King Rudolf ordered his men to search for a beautiful valley in his country. He had botanists plant a vast expanse of Oster roses there and built a villa in the mountains. The king gave the villa to the queen as a gift for her 26th birthday.

Miraculously, even the heavens seemed moved by the love between the Emperor and the Queen. When the Queen arrived at the manor and saw the beautiful, fragrant roses that covered the hillside, she discovered pairs of blue-purple jewel butterflies fluttering among the flowers. These butterflies, one male and one female, formed pairs, twirling and dancing together around the flowers. If one butterfly tragically died, the other would instantly and silently plummet to the ground, as if dead from a broken heart.

"No one knows what kind of relationship these butterflies share: are they siblings, lovers with a shared soul, or simply strangers forced to bond together by some inexplicable connection... But people can't help but be moved by their shared life and death, and have dubbed these rare butterflies twin butterflies, or lovers butterflies."

"Oh!" The skeleton, who was listening to the story with great interest, suddenly clapped his paws and said happily, "So the twin butterflies mean living and dying together. I thought they meant twins!"

Jiang You's voice was not loud, but it seemed a bit abrupt among the nobles who were listening to the story with bated breath in the room. Madame Butterfly gave Jiang You a look with a faint smile and feigned anger. Many nobles turned around to check the source of the sound, but gasped in horror when they saw Jiang You's skull.

——Well, the meal delivery just now was almost entirely completed by the servants, and many of the nobles participating in the event did not notice Takumi Yu.

Having successfully added a touch of ghostly chill to the story of Madame Butterfly, Jiang You gave the nobles a smile that he thought was gentle. However, in the eyes of the nobles, this strange skeleton in chef's clothes had eerie fire burning in its pupils and its upper and lower jaws creaking, which was extremely terrifying.

——If the servant beside it hadn't been standing calmly, I'm afraid several nobles would have shouted "Help!" and then thrown attack magic at it.

"Don't be nervous," Madame Butterfly said, curling her lips and suppressing a smile, "This is the head chef of our manor. All the delicious food you have eaten these days is made by her."

Several nobles who had not noticed Jiang You before and had just finished or were eating breakfast suddenly coughed.

Madame Butterfly ignored them and continued her story: "...It is well known that twins are a bad omen in the Kingdom of Derman. Legend has it that the Moon Goddess is in charge of reincarnation and is responsible for sending souls to be reincarnated into women's wombs. Twins are one soul split into two halves, bound to fight and devour each other. Any attempt to merge into one will ultimately result in mutual destruction.

"If there are two boys, or two girls, their parents and family will abandon the weaker one... But if there's one boy and one girl, they can't be allowed to meet each other, and even more so, one can't be allowed to die. Otherwise, one will kill the other, and the soul of the deceased will return, causing the remaining child's personality to change drastically."

"I believe everyone knows that these legends are nothing but nonsense, but King Rudolf is a superstitious person and believes these folk rumors.

"It's common knowledge that forty-nine years ago, on a stormy night, the then-Queen of the Kingdom of Derman gave birth to the kingdom's Crown Prince, Frederick, at the Royal Palace. But what few people know is that, in the pouring rain that night, a carriage carrying a wet nurse and a baby girl, guarded by a team of knights, hurriedly left the palace without stopping, heading straight for Butterfly Manor.

"I'm sure you've all noticed. The villa we're in right now is the Rose Villa built by King Rudolf Delman for his queen. And what we'll be exploring here is the unknown and enigmatic life of that little girl. Legend has it that she lived to the age of 24... Yes, that's exactly the age when the crown prince suddenly passed away overnight."

"Could it be... that there is some connection between the two?" asked the blond Count Valentine de Rosewood flatteringly.

"Perhaps," Madame Butterfly said meaningfully, "Roses have a subtle fragrance, and butterflies are born in twins. Perhaps these unfortunate twins fulfill the story of the twin butterflies... Or perhaps, they are merely victims of the changing of royal powers."