Chapter 58: Chapter 52

“And why do we have to meet Arthur again?” I pouted as she dragged me all the way towards the centre of the camp, not too happy about the development.

“He specifically asked for you.” Luna answered, equally unhappy to drag me to this stupid meeting. I wanted to have some fun with her and Kat, and certainly didn’t want to waste my time with Arthur. “But why is he following us though?”

I turned around and surprisingly saw Tom hurrying behind us. “Maybe he fell in love with you?” I giggled as Luna pulled my hand even more and ran through the carefully constructed passageway.

“Meanie.” She said, but laughed along with me nonetheless. “He was with you though. Maybe he has a crush on you.” I stopped running completely as soon as we went around a corner and nearly made Luna fall over due to that. Luckily her reaction time was fast enough, completely unlike Tom who slid through the mud and fell over my leg as I placed it in his way. The mud splashed in all directions as he slammed into the ground and I giggled.

“Nah. We all have a choice, don’t we? And I refuse to accept your love for me.” Tom laid in the mud, realizing that this was my revenge as I and Luna soon ran away again. While he struggled to stand up, he sadly was fast enough to follow us again, this time completely covered in mud.

“He is quite stubborn.” Said Luna as she let go of my hand and entered a familiar luxurious tent.

“Yeah, that´s kind of creepy.” I followed after her, still wondering why Tom really followed us. In any case, this tent was a bit more packed than I have ever seen. There were about seventeen military officers with different ranks and functions.

“Hi?” I said, just as my subordinate stumbled inside the room, completely covered in mud. I swiftly grabbed his shoulder and pointed outside with my thumb. This wasn’t a place for him to be right now. Luckily, he did understand and left the tent without causing any more uproar than he already did. Everyone was staring at me as if I wanted to murder half of them or something.

“Oh, Lucinda, I haven’t anticipated your arrival this early. I think we are done for today gentlemen.” The military officials left the tent all one by one, not without staring at me though. I rubbed my face, hoping that nobody smeared anything on my skin in my sleep. It didn’t change anything, but at least I could stare back with honour this way.

“So, why am I here?” I asked, hoping that he didn’t just bring me here to talk about my previous mission.

“I heard you successfully completed the mission.” He crushed my hopes completely.

“With three deaths that happened right at the beginning.” Bored, I threw myself on a chair and placed my feet on the table. Arthur wasn’t too happy about the development as there was quite a lot of mud on my shoes, but he strangely chose to stay silent about this.

“I heard about your new subordinate. Is he capable?” What was that for a question? I would never allow an idiot to be my subordinate.

“More so than all the foot soldiers I know of.” I claimed.

“I see …” He said and fiddled with a large map. It looked like the overall structure of the camp, although I wasn’t entirely sure. There were several dots marked on the map, all at completely different spots. “Do you know what this is?”

“Not a single clue.” I said hoping he wouldn’t preach until midnight.

“This is a map of the planned camp we set up every night. We may adjust it according to the topography, but that’s usually it.” He said while tracing the contours of the outer perimeter. “Can you imagine what these red dots are?”

“Hmm … tricky. Illegal breweries?” I tried, but the pattern didn’t fit. They were all probably conglomerated around Markus` tent after all.

“Murders. There were fourteen murders during the last three days, all following an irregular pattern. Not even once could the murder be caught. In the beginning, I thought it was you, but that apparently proved to be wrong. We suspect a group of people did it, as they all apparently knew the victims. There never broke a fight out, not even once before they were found dead.” I inhaled sharply as fourteen numbers were indeed quite a lot. I couldn’t wreak as much havoc during that time if I wanted to stay hidden, that was for sure. “Do you see anything suspicious on this map?”

“You do have a specialist for these things, don’t you?” I said and looked to an abashed Luna.

“I barely read anything about serial killers and  never anything about a group like this.” I sighed and looked at the map for real. The dots were seemingly in random locations and I couldn’t see a pattern at first sight.

“What about the supply unit? They camp separated from the rest, don’t they?” I pointed out and eyed Arthur, hoping to get any useful information out of him.

“They had no murders so far.” That seemed strange considering that at least one of them should be a woman. Judging by the absurdly high male to female ratio in this army, I suspected that there must be some link to the supply unit.

“Strange. How many were found in a tent?” I asked, thinking about one of the first few cases.

“Six of them. All died without alerting anyone.” He said and pointed to six locations on the map.

“Where are the corpses?” I hoped to find any new clues through looking at them, but that was apparently wishful thinking.

“We buried them already.” Arthur answered, just as I expected.

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“It´s hopeless. Nobody commits so many murders in this fashion and doesn’t leave a trace. It is simply impossible.” I concluded and shrugged my shoulders as this had nothing to do with me in the first place.

“Hmm … it is the perfect task for you then. After all, you make the impossible possible.” I couldn’t turn stone into gold, no matter what he claimed. There were things impossible to me and this was one of them.

“I am a soldier, not a detective.” I said while pointing out my lack of experience with murder cases.

“You are my subordinate. You have two nights to solve the case.” I squinted my eyes, but nonetheless stood up, but not on the ground. My shoes smeared mud onto the table as I walked over it, grabbed the map, jumped down on the other side and left the tent, a surprised Luna in tow.

“Let´s solve a murder mystery.” I said to nobody in particular. Tom stood nearby, a lot cleaner than previously, but also strangely angry. I immediately waved him over and much to his surprise, asked Luna very nicely if she could get us something to eat. She happily obliged and went out of sight quickly afterwards, taking the smile on my lips with her.

“I didn’t expect that.” said Tom as soon as Luna vanished behind a tent. He looked at me differently than before, a lot less angry and a bit more curious.

“What?” I knew that asking him this would open a whole can of problems, but I didn’t want to be too mean as I already enacted my revenge a few minutes prior.

“I mean your behaviour around her. It´s like you are a completely different person.” He claimed and I nearly smacked him.

“Hmm?” I growled, hoping that he would finally back off.

“I mean, you are acting so nice all of a sudden, at least to her. Is there any reason for that?” He didn’t seem too interested in my warnings and rather chose to poke a hornet nest.

“Do I need a reason for everything?” I inquired very slowly and quietly while my right hand was twitching near my sword.

“Then what is it?” He still didn’t let go. This curious subordinate probably thought he was immune to my rage, but in all honestly, I didn´t have any problem with hurting him. I rammed my fist into his belly and stepped closer to block the gaze of interested onlookers. He gasped but didn’t step back.

“… This isn’t going to end well if you are already this inquisitive. Keep your nose out of things that shouldn’t interest you.” I threatened him, hoping that he wouldn’t ask any more about my strange behaviour around kids that even I couldn’t explain completely.

“I was just asking. I´m sorry.” He backed off, but he didn’t look scared at all. A blue hue glowed in his eyes as I let him off the hook and stepped back as well. While he certainly wouldn’t question me this openly in the future, he would still try to find out everything about me. I couldn’t blame him and was honestly a bit interested in just how much he would find out. And yet, I didn’t want him to know too much right away as I barely knew him and didn’t trust him that much.

“Have you ever wondered what it takes to develop a split personality?” And so, I laid a false trail. At least I hoped it was false as my behaviour around kids could indeed be explained due to a split personality. But I didn’t feel like I was mentally ill, at least not in this way.

“Are you schizophrenic?” The smile on my face returned as I saw Luna walking towards us, three meat skewers in hand. I waived towards her and even jumped a bit in anticipation. No matter why I really behaved this way, at least I felt happy doing so.

“Hey! I hoped you didn’t have to wait too long … I have brought one for you as well.” She happily intended to hand the food over to Tom, but sadly she didn’t count me into the equation. I snatched it out of her hand and put it in my mouth while Tom´s hand still hung awkwardly in the air.

“I take two.” I said while I munched on the meat which was too dry in my opinion. Luna blinked twice before she handed me the other skewer as well. “Tom … could you do me … a favour and go to bed? It´s going to be a girls night!” Tom didn’t take my exclamation too well, but considering how horrible I was to him so far, he probably needed time for himself, not that this was my sole intention.

I needed eyes and ears during the day if I wanted to solve this case within two nights, a very short timeframe in my opinion. He may or may not have understood my intention as he didn’t bicker around and left rather quickly after saying goodbye.

“A girls night?” asked Luna, oblivious that she was just recruited to be my co detective.

“Aye! Want to pull an all-nighter?”

“I don’t know …” She was unsure and seemed to be deep in thought. It was probably the woman we were forced to travel with who she was worried about, but we already had the perfect excuse to stay up all night.

“Sleeping in the carriage is better than staring holes into the wall.” I pointed out and gave her a sweet smile while leaning forward.

“Alright, I guess…”

 

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