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The Dancers of Phantom – Part 04

Climbing down the spiral staircase, they arrived at the basement of the theater.

It must’ve been used as an entertainment hall in the past. Old lamps flickered on the stone walls, and a dusty chandelier illuminated the low ceiling dimly. To the right of the hall was a man-made pond, with a large lion, similar to the one at the entrance to the theater, spitting out water through its open mouth. Wax figures of half-naked women floated and sank in the pond. When Victorique closed her eyes, band music, merry laughter, the clinking of glasses, and even the women’s charming voices seemed to ring in her ears from beyond time, from the period of wild frenzy.

Like a lonely old man’s dream at dawn.

The hall had long since stopped accommodating guests. On the small stage on the other side of the pond, a dusty scarlet curtain hung halfway down, and a pile of unused tables and chairs for the audience were piled up against the wall.

In the middle of the hall were new desks and chairs that were only recently brought in. Men in black were gathered there, moving around silently, organizing piles of papers that seemed out-of-place in this establishment built for entertainment.

When they noticed Victorique and Inspector Blois entering, the men silently made way for them.

“I see,” Victorique grunted.

Inspector Blois shuddered.

“I didn’t know the ministry had a fortress here. Interesting.”

Inspector Blois snorted. “You don’t even know the concept of interest, you little, bored fiend.”

“Shut up. Or I’ll sick the dove at you.”

Inspector Blois let out a yelp.

At the end of the path that the men opened was a middle-aged man sitting on a chair. Victorique stopped in her tracks. The man exuded an extremely eerie aura, like billowing black smoke.

But she wasn’t surprised, as though she had expected to meet the man here. Her green eyes flickered listlessly.

“Albert de Blois. We finally meet.”

“I thought I smelled a beast. So it was my daughter,” the man—Marquis Albert de Blois—muttered, wrinkling his fine nose.

His cruel lips quivered. The eyes behind his monocle were narrowed. His gaze pierced the little Gray Wolf, the fruit of his long-term plot, like a bullet.

Victorique, holding her pipe in one hand, staggered momentarily. Then she bit her lip and stared back at her father.

Marquis de Blois was wearing a silver rosary, a coat the color of night, and shiny pointed boots that gleamed viciously. The cross glittering on his chest seemed like a ghastly symbol. It was as if the man was claiming that he did not believe in God, only in the wonders of the world. Because a man without a conscience cannot possibly believe in God.

The man who brought Victorique into the world as Europe’s ultimate weapon, Marquis Albert de Blois, a leading figure in the Ministry of the Occult.

“It looks like the storm is finally coming,” he said curtly.

Victorique’s icy expression turned even colder. She cast her gaze down, her green eyes misting up.

“Therefore, I’m ordering you to find out the truth behind the murder of Queen Coco, the greatest mystery in the history of Sauville, which has remained unsolved for ten years.”

“Ten years had passed. No one can possibly know what happened.”

“Your intellect crosses even the boundaries of time. The Ministry of the Occult is aware of that. There’s no point in hiding it.”

Victorique took a step back. “I had my suspicions in the carriage on the way here. Why do you, or rather the Ministry of the Occult, want to know who killed Queen Coco? It was a major incident, to be sure, but a lot of time has passed since then. What does this have to do with the next storm and the power of the Ministry?”

The Marquis chuckled.

“My conclusion was: you already know, or rather have a guess, as to who the culprit is,” she continued. “It’s not their identity that you want me to deduce. It’s why they did it and how. In short, the motive and method behind the murder. You want to have dirt on the culprit.”

“You really are a fascinating beast.” His laughter shook the chilly air.

“I doubt there are that many dignitaries you would want dirt on, who were also close to the queen. Your target must be quite the big shot.”

“Hahaha.”

“A Sauville dignitary targeted by the Ministry of the Occult. A murderer who killed Queen Coco using an unclear method and still holds power over the kingdom.”

“…”

“No way. Don’t tell me…”

Victorique put her hand to her cheek and glared at her father with a pale face. The pipe in her other hand quivered.

Marquis de Blois recrossed his legs. The rosary on his chest swayed, glowing a dull silver under the light of the lanterns.

They climbed up the spiral staircase and stopped in front of the stage props.

“Around the year 1900, Queen Coco, unable to get accustomed to the luxurious lifestyle in the palace, left Saubreme and moved to the suburbs.” Marquis de Blois pointed to the country house prop. “She had this country house built for her.”

A hammer sounded from somewhere, shaking the floor faintly with each pounding. The lanterns swayed, their light advancing and receding on the floor like waves.

“Queen Coco, who seldom left the suburbs, garnered the sympathy of the public. There were even rumors that she was depressed because her child died while she was giving birth. For the next fourteen years, until the storm—the Great War—came, the queen lived in seclusion without returning to the palace.”

“Hmm,” Victorique groaned.

“There were a lot of rumors in the city, but none of them seemed credible. I knew Queen Coco personally, and she wasn’t the type to indulge in the nightlife. She was shy, timid, and as meek as a sleeping bird.”

“I see.”

“Soon an ominous wind blew over the world. Spring of 1914, right around the start of the Great War. Queen Coco visited the royal palace. It was the first time in fourteen years since she returned, so the place was very busy.”

“Why?”

“A messenger from France had arrived. He wanted to talk to the queen about something. His Majesty the King said it would be uncouth to invite him to the country house, so he sent a carriage to fetch the Queen and bring her to the palace.”

All eyes went from the country house prop to the extravagant royal palace. The gilded furniture and luxurious fabrics arrested attention.

“Apparently there was a visitor at the country house at the time, but they missed the queen. We’ll go back to the visitor later.”

“Okay.”

“Anyway, Queen Coco was shown to a room in the palace, where she died just before meeting the French envoy. Correction: murdered. There was only one entrance to the room, and His Majesty Rupert was seen entering it and coming out immediately.”

“I see. So the king did it.”

“But the king was empty-handed when he entered and when he left. According to the king’s own testimony, Queen Coco was still alive at the time. But a few minutes later, when the French envoy entered the room, they saw the gruesome, headless body of Queen Coco.”

The wind whistled. It must have come through a door or a window. The white dove that Victorique was holding in front of her cooed.

One corner of the Marquis’ lips curved into a sinister smile. “That wasn’t all!”

“Hmm.”

“Around the same time, in a country house far away, Queen Coco’s severed head appeared. The visitors and the servants were certain about what they saw. Floating in the air, her head was just as pale as when she was alive, her expression forlorn. And her eyes were tightly closed. A drop of red blood flowed from the corner of her eye, then the head suddenly burst into flames, falling to the floor.”

“I see. So it’s sort of being in two places at once. One person appears in two different places at about the same time. In this case, her torso was in the palace, while her head was in the country house.”

Marquis de Blois’ eyes gleamed coldly. “One thing that bothers me is that one of the visitors at the country house was Jupiter Roget. Needless to say, he’s the president of the Academy of Science and is on good terms with the king.”

“Hmm.”

“But the fact that even Roget, a believer in science, saw the severed head, ironically adds credibility to the testimony.”

“I see. So His Majesty Rupert is more deeply involved in this case than expected.”

The suitcase that Inspector Blois, standing behind Victorique and Marquis Albert de Blois, had dragged here, had been shaking for a while now. The shaking grew fiercer the moment the Marquis mentioned the burning head. Suddenly, the suitcase burst open.

Hearing the sound, everyone looked back. Ms. Cecile popped out of the suitcase. She had taken off her round glasses, holding them in her hands.

“Severed head! Torso! Noooo!”

Marquis de Blois swiftly jumped away from the suitcase, letting out a yelp that was somewhere between a shriek and an angry roar.