Chapter 231 Case File 3: The Mysterious Shadow at Rose Villa (7)
——Reliable! Safe! He's really worthy of being called a little bone!
Andre could picture Valentine searching the pantry for nuts, gnashing his teeth, yet forced to feign indifference and ask Little Bones for a snack. It had been a sudden decision, a spur-of-the-moment one. He had finally come up with a plan, only to hit a wall at the very first step. His heart must have been pounding with anxiety.
——With every minute that passes, Baron Chandler may be coerced or bribed into revealing the secret that Valentine wants to hide, thus destroying his subsequent plans.
In this state of urgency, people often can't think properly or thoughtfully. The principles they uphold and the taboos they insist on avoiding are often thrown out the window. When adrenaline rushes through them, they become like bullfighting bulls seeing a red cloth, their minds and eyes focused solely on their own goals.
At such times, they tend to ignore the mistakes they have made, disregard the arrows stabbing at them, and make countless mistakes.
There is no perfect crime in the world. Andre has seen countless people trying to hide their actions while handling cases. The more impulsive the act, the more clues will be left behind.
From this point of view, Valentine, as a novice, was quite quick-witted. He also knew that the lich could smell the scent of the soul, so he placed the white pepper that was easy to spill in advance, causing the accident.
He later planned to dress up as Madame Butterfly, and was afraid that Jiangyou would smell the scent of soul fire that shouldn't be there, so he first used strong-flavored white pepper powder to disrupt Jiangyou's perception.
Disrupted by the sudden accident, Jiangyou did not remember the scent of Valentine's soul, but taking away the nut snacks would still be remembered by Jiangyou, which was unavoidable.
That made sense. However dangerous the nuts were to Baron Chandler, they were just food to everyone else. Valentine had bitten down the cookies, insisting they were his own, and no one else could do anything to him. Compared to knives and ropes, nuts were a concealable and easily handled weapon. A less reliable chef might have forgotten such a trivial matter.
It’s a pity that Valentine repeatedly hit a wall with Little Bone.
——However, there is still one very strange thing.
Andre pondered, "Valentin's use of these tactics to disrupt the investigation doesn't seem like an attempt to evade capture or shirk responsibility. Even after faking his own death, he didn't flee the villa. Instead, he knocked Yadra unconscious and imprisoned her, then disguised himself as Madame Butterfly and continued negotiating compensation with the guests... He must have known he could hide for a while, but he still chose to persevere. This suggests he has some hidden agenda."
Jiang You nodded heavily, nearly shaking the skull's head off. "Yes, I think so too. Whether he killed Baron Chand or Victor, it was all to silence them. In other words, if these two people said something, it would affect his true goal! He was willing to kill people, fake his own death, and even abandon his own title, territory, and property to achieve this goal... What is so important to him?"
Andrei took a deep breath and said, "No! Big brother!"
He rushed back without saying anything more. Jiangyou didn't understand why and ran after him. Behind him followed Yadra, who was also confused, and Leila, who was not thinking at all.
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The number of guests in the banquet hall gradually decreased, and Winston leaned back in his chair, thinking about the case.
Andre took the unconscious skeleton to another room to rest. After Samantha regained consciousness and recounted her past events, Pete helped her back to her room. The historian and the magician entered a small room to discuss compensation with Madame Butterfly. Only a few familiar faces remained in the vast ballroom.
Winston took out the necklace which had come with the letter and stroked the pattern on it with the tip of his thumb.
He has always had a bold guess in his mind. Now, as the case becomes clearer, this guess has gradually become the elephant in the room, which is difficult to ignore.
"There is crazy blood in the royal family." Winston murmured. His voice was so soft that he did not wake up Vivian and Elenor who were sleeping on the table next to him.
—There is mad blood in the royal family. This was a saying widely circulated among the people in the last years of the German dynasty.
Like most royal families in the Middle Ages, the German royal family paid attention to the purity of blood in its early days. All marriages took place within the family. They persistently pursued the "purity of blood" and did not allow any "mixed blood" to contaminate it.
This resulted in their offspring being of two extremes: either extremely sick and stupid, or extremely talented.
The German royal family has always been extremely utilitarian in dealing with their descendants. They don't care if there are thousands of defective products. As long as there is one genius, there will be successors.
Generations of bloodline 'purification' have significantly increased the incidence of genetic diseases. Even 'geniuses' who appear to have no symptoms are inevitably prone to mental problems. Cruelty, superstition, and short life... these 'curses' that plague the Delman royal family are, in reality, the inevitable result of inbreeding.
Hundreds of years passed, until scholars from the Rusman Federation discovered the harmful effects of inbreeding, and the German royal family finally realized the problem. They began seeking marriage alliances abroad, and Isabella from the Rusman Federation married King Rudolf, marking a significant change in the royal family's outlook.
But this change came too late. The genetic disease hidden in the royal bloodline already existed and would not be eliminated by one or two marriages. What's more, Queen Isabella herself came from an ancient family in the Rusman Federation - they also once upheld the "purity of blood".
Madness ran in the Dermann family's blood. By the end of Rudolf Dermann's reign, his majesty's policies were riddled with errors and omissions, difficult for ordinary people to understand. His favored crown prince was also far from a worthy figure. Even before he took power, he had already revealed a harsh and tyrannical style, a relentless warlike nature, and the potential for tyranny.
So when the German royal family died out and there was no official successor, the people were uncharacteristically jubilant, with celebrations stretching for months. Even many members of the old royal family secretly breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn't until Grand Duke Huntington succeeded to the throne and began to sharpen his sword against the old royal family that the seemingly calm political scene began to ripple again.
Madame Butterfly's inexplicable invitation, Lady Samantha's frantic misidentification, his unclear background...all seemed to hint at a solution, but Winston didn't want to tear through the thin veil. True or not, he didn't want to admit that the "mad blood" of the Delman royal family flowed in his veins.
"Count Mordor." The butler stepped forward again. "Madame Butterfly invites you to a chat. Please do not hesitate to come."
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