Thunder rumbled in the distance as a storm whipped around the Snowflower Palace—a grand building that had been built for the king’s beloved daughter, the Fifth Princess.
The wind was so violent that it was dangerous to go outside. It seemed as if even the cows in the fields were about to be blown away. The conditions were perfect...for a locked-room mystery. But there were very few who could have been present when the incident occurred.
“Lottie, this may be your hardest case so far.”
“Quite. To think I would be faced with such a gruesome case so soon after returning to the Snowflower Palace.”
Where a detective goes, a case follows—such is the rule. However, it was beyond Lottie’s imagination to think that one would have occurred in her very home.
Lottie creased her well-shaped brow and whispered introspectively to herself.
“Who would dare commit the grave crime of murder? Mark my words—Detective Lottie will lift the veil on this mystery!”
A few hours beforehand...
Charlotte was stuck inside due to the inclement weather. Cecily was visiting as she often did, and the pair of them were enjoying some after-dinner tea, prepared by Maria, in the dining room.
Today, Zeke, Alphonse, and Cyril were on guard duty for the princess. All the same, it was highly unlikely that any bandits would attack the palace on a day like this, and due to this, the knights were in a far more relaxed mood than usual.
Having finished her tea, Charlotte linked her arm with Cecily’s and headed to a bedroom, accompanied by Maria. The weather was too terrible for Cecily to head back home to her hut, so they had arranged for her to stay in the Snowflower Palace again. Due to Cecily’s fear of thunder and lightning, the pair were going to sleep in the same bed, a prospect which excited Charlotte.
Cyril was following a short distance behind. The shifts for the night had been decided such that Cyril would take watch until late at night, Alphonse would take over in the hours as the day changed, and Zeke would man the dawn shift.
Due to their responsibility to take care of their wyverns and the possibility that they might be asked to ride them at any time, the Celestial Knight Brigade never performed all-night vigils. They completed their guard duties in shifts, and rested in the break room when off duty.
Having finished washing themselves and changing into their nightwear, Cecily and Charlotte settled down into the same bed. Charlotte’s beloved four-poster was a king-size bed, large enough for them both to roll about on, so the pair spread out and enjoyed the space.
The two girls had an endless supply of things to talk about during a sleepover. To distract Cecily from the storm outside, Charlotte chatted in a lively manner about various things, but soon her excitement turned to exhaustion.
Before she knew it, her eyelids were closed, and the gentle breathing that came with sleep filled the room.
“Gyaaaaaaaagh!”
...That was, until an earsplitting, animalistic scream cut across the silent palace.
Charlotte leapt up and looked around.
Cecily was gone. Had she been caught up in something terrible? As worry engulfed Charlotte, Maria came running into the room.
“Lady Charlotte!”
“Maria!”
By Charlotte’s command, Maria got the princess changed into her detective outfit in three seconds flat. Charlotte looked up at the clock. It was 2 a.m. sharp.
“What’s going on?”
It wasn’t just Cecily—Cyril was missing too. This was concerning, but the pensive Lottie decided it would be more prudent to find the source of that terrible scream.
“Lottie, I believe the scream came from this direction,” Maria said, leading the detective to the bathroom. It took less than five minutes for them to arrive.
In the corridor in front of the bathroom was a large pool of blood, and in the middle of it, a man lying face up. It was a man Lottie knew well.
“No... What happened to the captain’s loins?!”
Lottie couldn’t believe what she was seeing. This was the powerful captain of the Celestial Knight Brigade, Zeke Stein! To think he had fallen prey to something...
Cecily, then Alphonse, and finally Cyril came running up to Lottie, who was standing frozen. All of them were struck speechless by the scene before them. Maria gently placed her coat upon Cecily’s shuddering shoulders.
“What happened? Cyril, we need to get Zeke to the infirmary.”
“Y-You got it. I’ll go get a stretcher!”
Alphonse and Cyril pulled themselves together and rushed off. Lottie eyed them as they left before surveying the scene.
Zeke was lying in a pool of blood. His blue outfit was stained with the stuff, which had even splattered his gold aiguillette.
“The murder weapon’s not here. I suppose the perp took it with them?”
“There’s too much blood to ascertain where his wound may be,” Maria added.
What a puzzling situation. Was it really possible for a wound to have bled this much without being easy to locate?
Soon, Alphonse and Cyril returned and carried Zeke to the infirmary. After they had done so and then returned, Lottie made a shocking announcement.
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news at such a traumatic moment, but Cecily, Alphonse’s loins, and Cyril’s loins? I have narrowed down the suspects to you three.”
“You can’t be serious...”
All three were dumbfounded by the detective’s deduction.
“Why just us three? There are lots of people who work in the Snowflower Palace,” Alphonse said.
“And why aren’t you counting yourself and Maria among the suspects?” Cyril added.
“Very well, allow me to explain,” Lottie said. She stood on tiptoes and started writing on the blackboard that she had asked to be brought over. “First of all, Maria and I can vouch for each other with our alibis. Maria and I spoke in my bedroom mere moments after that scream, which I believe occurred when the captain’s loins collapsed. Not only that, it took us a whole five minutes to reach the location where he was, even running. Well—I suppose there is the possibility that Maria and I are conspiring together and conducted this heinous crime as partners, but surely it would have been more fruitful in such a case to ask other maids to vouch for us, no?”
Alphonse nodded. More witnesses would have been better in that case. This fact seemed to imply that it wasn’t likely that Maria and Lottie were behind it all.
“Next, we can strike off the other maids from the list of suspects. They work together and thus all have alibis. In addition, none of the children have left their rooms, or so it seems.” Lottie looked over at the three suspects. “However, the three of you were all acting alone at the time of the crime! Explain in turn what you were doing when this awful incident took place!”
“Okay, I suppose I’ll go first,” Cecily said, cutting through the silence, her face red. “I couldn’t get to sleep with all the thunder outside, so I slipped out of Lottie’s bedroom and headed to the kitchen to have a hot cup of tea. My cup should still be there, so that should verify my claim. You see, I left it there when I heard that scream and came running.”
Next was Alphonse, who spoke with his brow furrowed.
“As for my alibi... Zeke would be able to vouch for me, but, well. Anyway, I was resting in the break room when I heard that scream. I sped out of the room, wondering why Zeke wasn’t in bed, and headed to the bathroom.”
Finally, Cyril.