Elisa frowned in thought, then suddenly had a flash of inspiration.
Even if I can’t identify people by their chests like my male servant can, I can compare them to figure out who they are!
The [Album] contained a huge number of photos of ladies taken by her male servant. All she had to do was put them side by side with the two photos of the attackers and see whether their chests matched, and the case would be solved!
No, since she already had photos, she could just compare them as a whole. Height, waistline, the curves of their legs… all of those could be used to identify them!
Elisa quickly opened the album and began comparing the ladies’ photos one by one. She hadn’t realized until now that her male servant had taken so many!
These photos were all in color, far clearer than the black-and-white photographs from photography studios. They looked exactly like the real people. What works of art.
It was a shame these photos weren’t physical objects. If I could take out a photo of myself, frame it, and hang it on the wall, that would be perfect. Then the servants could admire my majestic presence every day.
Wait, why aren’t there any photos of me in here? Not even one!
There aren’t any of Mabel either, but there are two of Eleanor!
Damn it, Eleanor’s only a little bigger!
After sternly condemning her male servant in her heart, Elisa tried the photos one after another and finally found a match.
She placed the two screens side by side. [The short woman with the prominent chest.jpg] and [Ophina with the prominent chest.jpg] matched perfectly.
Ophina was Ophelia’s alias. So the person targeting Susanna was actually Princess Ophelia?
Then who was the other, taller woman? Haah, there still weren’t enough ladies in the [Album]. After all, this feature hadn’t been around for very long.
Closing the album, Elisa continued reading [Simon’s Log].
[Simon and Eleanor parted ways on the first floor, and he returned to his bedroom.]
***
Eleanor went upstairs and first pushed open the door to the master bedroom to check on Elisa. Elisa was sleeping soundly.
Returning to the guest bedroom, Eleanor threw herself backward onto the bed and sighed.
“You already did very well,” a voice whispered from her chest.
“No, I messed up.” Eleanor stared at the dark ceiling. “If he hadn’t been there, I would’ve had no choice but to rely on you to protect me, Madam.”
“That’s a normal level of performance for a newly advanced transcendent. Besides, you were hit with [Charm] the moment the confrontation began. It’s only natural that your reactions were slow.”
“That’s exactly the problem. I’m already Rank Two and close to Rank Three, while he’s only Rank One, right?” Eleanor sat up and lowered her gaze toward her chest.
“From what I’ve observed, he’s Rank One.”
“[Charm] should’ve been used on both of us. Why wasn’t he affected?”
“Perhaps he possesses an item that can resist it. The spells he uses are rather strange… quite uncanny. He’s also very experienced and understood the situation in an instant.”
“So I’m still just too weak!” Eleanor flopped back onto the bed. “Before this, I thought that if we got into a fight, I could show off my skills and earn his admiration, make him abandon his wife… abandon Elisa, and become my servant! I even came up with my victory line: ‘Before me, there are no worthy foes.’ But forget saying that line….I almost ended up screaming for help!”
In the darkness, Madam Necklace fell silent for a long while. Giving up on trying to comfort her, she instead reminded her, “You’ve kept me awake for too long. I can sense that you’ve lost three things.”
“What?!” Eleanor hurriedly got up and checked her belongings.
She first lifted the hem of her skirt. Fortunately, her stocking was still there.
Then she took stock of the small items she had on her. Her silver bracelet was gone, one of her earrings was missing, and her handkerchief was gone too.
She wanted to use the [Object-Finding Ritual], but the ritual required the silver bracelet, and finding the silver bracelet required using the ritual.
Forget it. None of them were particularly expensive anyway, and who knew where she had lost them? If they were somewhere outside the estate, she would have to wander along the pitch-black roads alone looking for them. Far too troublesome.
She would just replace them all with new ones when she got home tomorrow.
Taking off her black clothes, Eleanor slipped under the covers.
***
[Simon returned to his bedroom and took out the items he had picked up along the way: a one-shilling silver coin, a handkerchief, a pearl earring, and a silver bracelet.]
[Aside from the silver coin, the other three items had all been dropped by Eleanor. Simon kept the silver bracelet and decided to return the pearl earring and handkerchief tomorrow.]
Reading the log, Elisa felt very gratified.
Her male servant treated everyone equally. He embezzled Eleanor’s belongings too!
No, this couldn’t be called embezzlement. Eleanor had lost them and didn’t want them anymore. Hehe, if it were me, I’d keep the earring too and only return the handkerchief.
In the Archipelago, there had once been a law stating that anyone who found a lost item could claim half the item’s value as a reward after returning it.
The law was repealed soon afterward, because no one returned anything. Everyone who found something chose to keep all of it rather than settle for half.
And yet my male servant only kept the silver bracelet and didn’t even want the earring. Haah, how morals have declined and people’s hearts are no longer what they once were.
[Simon set up a ritual and summoned the Magic Mirror.]
Looks like he’s about to report what happened.
Elisa took out the [Mirror of Mist] and poured spirituality into it.
[Simon told the Magic Mirror what he had discovered tonight. The ones targeting Susanna were Ophina and Miss Helen.]
Helen?! So that tall woman was my etiquette teacher?
Thinking about it carefully, it made sense. When Ophelia visited Eleanor’s manor, it had been Miss Helen who showed her in.
Her male servant had rarely seen Miss Helen and had almost no interaction with her, so there weren’t any photos of Miss Helen in the [Album].
[Simon guessed that Eleanor would approach Susanna next and search for whatever Ophina wanted. He asked the Magic Mirror whether he should continue following up on the matter.]
Of course you should! You still haven’t unlocked the [Explorable Area] yet!
Besides, there had to be some royal secret hidden behind all this.
Elisa replayed the previous recording, leaving her male servant to make his own decision.
***
Eleanor moved quickly. After finishing breakfast the next morning, she said goodbye to Elisa and went to Susanna’s house.
That evening, she sent Simon a message with a paper crane, and Simon passed the message on to Elisa.
[Simon reported that, according to Eleanor, Susanna possessed some of William’s belongings, but all of them had already been taken away by a police officer.]
[Eleanor investigated the officer and discovered that he wasn’t from the police station at all, but was a guard serving the First Prince.]
The First Prince was involved too?
The First Prince was heir to the throne. The current king was in poor health and had been recuperating for some time, so the First Prince handled many affairs in his stead.
There was little doubt that he would be the next king.
And now the [Finger Bone] was somehow connected to the Crown Prince as well. Perhaps even the king himself was involved.
Elisa toyed with the [Finger Bone], sinking into thought.
Fred… that was the First Prince’s name. Among Elisa’s few childhood memories was a fragment of Fred speaking with her father in the study.
Fred had once been her father’s closest friend, and the two were often seen together. In the conspiracy fifteen years ago, her father had died, her family had been destroyed, while Fred became the Crown Prince and his family became the royal family…
These [Finger Bones] might just give her a way to get close to the royal family and investigate the conspiracy from back then.
But the trail had gone cold at Susanna. The belongings that might have contained clues had all been taken away by Crown Prince Fred.
Elisa sighed.
Footsteps sounded outside the door. She picked up the [Serre Daily] and pretended to be studying diligently.
Maria arrived and informed her that Miss Susanna had unexpectedly come to visit, saying that she wanted to discuss some technical problems with Simon.
Elisa allowed them to meet and opened [Simon’s Journal] to secretly eavesdrop.
I almost forgot about my investment project. This is important too. This is the steady, practical path, while the [Finger Bone] affair is more of a risky shortcut.
You two should discuss it thoroughly and hurry up with mass-producing my mechanical pencil!
[Simon met with Susanna, and Susanna handed him a photograph.]
A photograph? Shouldn’t it be a design drawing?
[Susanna told Simon that this was a photograph left behind by a child she had once sponsored, and that there seemed to be something important hidden in it.]
What?! A clue suddenly appeared! Elisa abruptly sat up straight.
When the Crown Prince came to collect things, you didn’t give it to him. When Eleanor asked, you didn’t give it to her. But now you’re suddenly giving it to my male servant for free?!
Crown Prince Fred and Miss Eleanor are going to cry!
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