Chapter 8: Chapter 8

“If people continue to disappear while we're here, that should be enough to clear you two.”

At Rinaldo's words, Caitlin's expression changed from disappointment to relief. However, it soon turned into one of excitement in the blink of an eye. Her sudden shifts in mood worried Rinaldo. The maid showed no sign of such behaviour before when he still lived here.

An unexpected and unwelcome thought made itself known to Rinaldo: What if the person sitting next to him was an impostor?

The thought left him as soon as it arrived, knowing no disguiser worth their salt would break characters for no reason. Besides, there was no way his mother wouldn't notice if someone replaced Caitlin.

Everyone knew Lady Ragnell dismissed all the servants after her husband's death, all except one. But what if the real Caitlin was among them, and her replacement was an impostor?

It made little sense, though. Why would his mother hire an impostor to replace her? Unless the original Caitlin passed away…

“What are you staring at? Didn't milady teach you it was rude to stare?”

“Caitlin, do you remember what happened at the town square on Spring 24 ten years ago?”

“Nothing happened.”

Rinaldo nodded, satisfied with the answer. “Exactly.”

The Caitlin from today was much more playful than he remembered, but now he was sure she was still the same person.

Had she replied with something else other than nothing happened, Rinaldo had to check if his mother, too, was an impostor.

There was this fictional character from the fictional country of France who became a better person out of the blue. In that work of fiction, said character was an evil stepmother until she stopped being evil.

Her stepdaughter thought it was a good thing, only to change her mind the moment she became dinner.

Olivia was curious. “Are you sure we can monitor the two of them for one night?”

“Of course we can. There are two of us and two of them.”

“One of them is a skilled illusionist.”

Olivia had a point, Rinaldo thought. However, she shouldn't have said it right in front of Caitlin. The maid looked so thrilled now that someone had acknowledged her skills.

Rinaldo was glad she wasn't angry at Olivia's implication that she would use those skills to commit crimes.

“All of my illusion requires eye contact to work.” The maid closed her eyes. “You can blindfold me until morning.”

“Kinky,” a voice came from behind, to Rinaldo's surprise.

He turned towards the voice. “Katarina?”

“Where?” The woman who looked like a carbon copy of Katarina looked around. “I don't see Katarina anywhere.”

Rinaldo couldn't spot any difference between her and Katarina. The woman's appearance was identical to Katarina's, and she was wearing the same clothes Katarina wore in the morning.

If that person wasn't Katarina, then who was she? Katarina's evil twin?

The Count of St. Germain—or the Count's evil twin greeted them. “Hello there.”

Olivia didn't look pleased. “You have new information for us, I assume?”

“Not quite.” He produced a dome-shaped device from his pocket. “But I have something I believe that can be of use.”

The Count handed Olivia the device, explaining it was a lie detector of some sort. To show off, he asked her to put her hand there and say something, anything.

“My name is Olivia.”

A few minutes had passed since then, but nothing happened. Was the device supposed to do something?

“It's working.” The Count smiled. “Now, tell a lie.”

This time, it was Caitlin who volunteered. “I'm a human being.”

Unlike the previous attempt, this one was successful in triggering a reaction. The device made a loud noise, flashing red and white in rapid succession.

“See? It's working.”

“I think I'm going to be sick.”

Rinaldo looked around in discomfort to see Caitlin clutching her ears in pain and Olivia staring blankly into space. The Count and his assistant seemed unaffected, but then it wouldn't be their first time seeing this.

They must have seen these enough times to develop a resistance to the light's disorientating effect and emerge unscathed.

“My turn.” The Count's assistant ignored the pleading look Caitlin gave her. “I want world domination.”

The device did nothing, much to Caitlin's relief.

Rinaldo thought otherwise. Should he worry now that this evil version of Katarina had all but declared her desire to take over the world? Would he survive in a world ruled by Katarina?

Of course he would, if all it took to disable her was to look into her eyes.

“I am a cybernetic org—” Katarina began, but the Count cut her mid-sentence.

“Katarina, enough. They need to use the lie detector for the investigation.”

“I have a better idea.” Rinaldo looked at Katarina. “Why don't we start with you first?”

“Sure? Why not?”

Rinaldo asked the assistant some questions, and she replied with the utmost truthfulness. The lie detector deemed everything she said as the truth.

She recounted everything she did on the last three days in excruciating detail, and the device hadn't reacted at all during any point in her retelling.

The Count's assistant looked smug somehow. “I am incapable of telling lies.”

“I can vouch for her. Katarina never left my sight.”

“Next person, please.” Rinaldo turned to Caitlin. “You know what will happen if you lie.”

He repeated the same questions he asked Caitlin and his mother earlier in the day, receiving the same answers. Caitlin looked a little uncomfortable, but the interrogation ended with no issues.

With the invention of the lie detector, Rinaldo wondered if everyone could become an interrogator now. All they needed to do was ask the right questions.

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“One more question. Why are you acting so different?”

The question had no relevance to the current case. Rinaldo only asked for it because he was curious about what could have caused the maid to act differently.

“Don't tell milady, promise?”

“I don't make promises because it's meant to be broken,” Rinaldo began, but at Caitlin's dejected expression, he continued, “For you, this time will be an exception.”

Caitlin pulled a package of something from somewhere. “What do you know about this?”

“This is contraband. You can only get this from the Southern Continent.”

“It's a gift from your sister. She was here a few days ago.”

Wait, his sister was here a few days ago? She would be in trouble if her arrival matched the date of the first disappearance. He didn't want to interrogate his sister.

“Why wasn't I informed of this?”

“You don't ask.”

Rinaldo didn't know what his sister thought when she gave Caitlin millennium sugars.

On the first glance, there was nothing wrong with the substance itself. It wasn't addictive or damaging to one's body. In fact, it worked like regular sugar as long as the one who consumed it was a human, causing a phenomenon known as the sugar rush.

A person on a sugar rush would become abnormally high on energy or alert. It was not a feeling that would last long. The body quickly processed the sugar and would return to normal after a few hours.

However, one couldn't say the same for other sentient races with different metabolisms. The feeling either lasted shorter or longer. There were some rare cases when the effect was irreversible. It was the worst-case scenario.

“She gave you these? Why?”

“Because I asked.”

The next time Rinaldo saw his sister, he would like to have a word with her. What were the odds that she didn't know how dangerous millennium sugars could be? Rinaldo needed to find out if she was aware of the risk. However, he had a feeling she only thought it was regular sugar with a fancy name.

Olivia recovered from her stupor. “I'm confiscating this. It's not good for your health.”

Caitlin pouted, her expression like a child denied their toy. “At least give me my book back.”

“Here you go. Don't get caught the next time you read smut at work.”

The maid bowed. “Yes, ma'am.”

Did Olivia just encourage the maid to break the rules? Rinaldo knew little about Olivia. At first, he thought she was the no-nonsense type dedicated to working. However, he realised something else in Olivia he hadn't yet seen—something like this.

“By the way.” The Count turned to Rinaldo. “The town's mayor invited you to dinner at his place.”

Katarina shrugged. “Of course you don't have to accept his invitation, but you know he'll be expecting you. The invitation probably means nothing. He just wants to show off.”

Caitlin was curious. “Why don't we have a wonderful dinner right here instead?”

“That sounds nice, Caitlin.” Rinaldo looked at her. “But I have to go to the dinner. It's not polite not to accept an invitation.”

“Right.” The maid nodded. “I hope you have a good time there.”

“Thanks, I will.”

“Good.” The Count went to the door. “See you later. I'll leave the lie detector in your capable hands.”

As the Count disappeared through the door, Rinaldo saw something strange on the ground at his feet. It was a silver medallion. It was round, and had an engraved image of a triangle, with a circle in the middle of it.

Rinaldo stared at the medallion in his hand. He tried to recall anything he might have seen about such a thing, but he found nothing that quite fit. He knew it had to be important. Some small piece of myth or legend. An ancient symbol with specific power.

He lifted it to the light and saw it emit a strange glow. He could not, as yet, identify the colours it emitted, but they appeared to possess a sort of luminosity to them, like nothing he'd ever seen before. “What do you think it is?”

Olivia looked at the medallion. “I don't know. I have seen nothing like it before.”

“Well, it could be some kind of magnetic device. Could be a compass, I suppose. I doubt it's something magical.”

Rinaldo would not admit he was hoping for something magical. He put the medallion into his coat pocket. It was such a strange piece of jewellery he wanted to keep it close to him, even though it didn't appear to do anything.

In the afternoon, Rinaldo and Olivia headed back into the city, intent on questioning as many people as possible before dinner.

It turned out they were not alone in their desire to know more about the disappearances. The archbishop of the Northern Church also sent agents to investigate, but they were as perplexed as the pair.

The rest of the day was uneventful, and Rinaldo thought it would remain the same for a few moments. However, the universe always conspired to make his day as interesting as possible.

Before the sun went down, a lone crow swooped down and landed right next to him, staring into his eyes with a beady-eyed gaze.

“Hey, buddy.” He stared at the crow. “Want a little snack?”

The crow cocked its head. It wasn't until Rinaldo crouched down, holding bread, that the crow snatched it from his hands and flew away.

“Rinaldo. I think there's something following us.”

He glanced over his shoulder. “You mean the crow?”

“That crow, do you think it's following us?”

“I don't think it is, but I guess we'll see.”

He kept his eyes on the sky, hoping to catch sight of the bird again. The bird didn't return to the spot where they first saw it. It had left. Rinaldo shrugged and continued walking.

The sun was nearing the horizon. The sky was turning dark. Rinaldo couldn't help but feel uneasy. He glanced up at the tree line. The sun reflected off the leaves, sending tiny beams of light rippling through the canopy. They looked like fireflies caught in a beam of light.

As they went closer toward the mayor's house, the sun set in earnest. They continued to walk in silence for a while, until there was just the sound of their footsteps.

After a few minutes of walking, they saw a figure approaching, walking steadily in their direction. The pair stopped, but both remained silent. They tried to figure out what they were going to say.

Eventually, the individual ahead of them noticed them and slowed their approach. He was a well-dressed young man with short, black hair, and blue eyes. As soon as they saw it was the mayor, Rinaldo relaxed.

“I've been waiting for you. I was wondering when you'd show up.”