To His Hell and Back-Chapter 400: A Detective Minister-I

Arabella became wary. She didn’t know who’s he was up against. Whether it was the sorceress Wendy or if it was the ministers who still hadn’t adjust to the fact that Cassius has have a witch beside him. Although she was always treated politely and well, Arabella wasn’t stupid. She knew what she could see and whenever she passed by the ministers she could find their curious glances wrapped in wariness and a sense of judgement.

A woman who bears power has always been either worshipped or frowned upon and her existence if a witch was so rare that it was difficult for them to accept her, so she knew she belonged to the latter case than the first. There are many ministers she could tell wanted to replace her, knowing well that her power was a double edged sword, as while some prefer to put her under the law so if push comes to shove and she rebel against them, she could easily be tamed.

Was this their doing? The unhappy ministers who didn’t want to have a witch as their queen?

Or was it someone else...

The paper that was now held by Cassius does hold a trace of witchcraft but revealing this to the ministers won’t be helpful when they are looking at her with such skepticism.

Minister Luis first walked toward the wall and studied the hanging man, he then turned and muttered aloud, "I can tell that Miss Arabella is on the weaker side when it comes to physical power so I doubt it would be easy for her to fight against a man of his size, especially when there are signs of struggles."

"Signs of struggles?" Arabella echoed as she saw how the minister had pulled the dead servant’s hands, showing how under the fingernail of their hands were blood and skin.

"It’s not his blood, I suspect that it comes from the person who had killed him and sure enough that person must be filled with scratches on their body, clear as day for us to see," he sang with a tone hummed between his lips. "May I see your arms, lady Arabella?"

Arabella could tell everyone’s eyes were already darted towards her arms so without thinking much about it, she pulled her hands forward, showing her fair hands that was free from wounds.

"Well would you look at that, as clear as the day," snapped the minister, "Then as I have suspected, it was really not your blood. Which means this servant didn’t did because of you."

The curious gazes of the ministers turn into a frown as though unhappy that the servant didn’t die from her hands. One of them stepped up and asked, "But how is it possible that a body was found here and lady Arabella is unaware of it happening when she is inside this room? The guards outside must have known if someone tried to break in!"

Someone else also argued, "I agree, it doesn’t make sense does it? She couldn’t be asleep without noticing someone was killed here! It would have made much noise!"

"But what if the servant had already been killed and was simply, brought away and moved here?" Minister Luis hummed. Rather than a detective he felt like a judge and for some reason Arabella didn’t feel as apprehensive as she was to him at first.

His gaze was focused, serious in finding the truth.

"Has he been the minister for long?" Arabella who had inched closer to Cassius began to ask.

"No, he replaced his father, Helena was the one who taught him," explained Cassius briefly and when seeing that her eyes was somewhat trustful towards Luis, he warned, "But we can’t trust him fully yet."

"Why?" She asked, "He seems to be on our side."

"Sometimes people help you because they wish a repayment or," Cassius hung his words, "Maybe he’s the one behind the trouble and is pretending to be a savior for our damsel in distress."

"You’re a part of that damsel in distress, Cassius," she returned his words and went to study the situation again.

Minister Luis walked all around the room while the guards began to lower the body of the servant from the wall, placing a white linen cloth over the servant’s face, covering it to put an end on the gruesome sight. But uninterested in the body, the minister continued to walk and study the room, when suddenly he bent down and raised his eyebrows. "Lady Arabella may I ask what did you drink before you fell asleep?"

Arabella blinked. "A glass of milk."

"Is this the glass?" Pointed the minister to the mess under her bed from the shattered glass that had been knocked over.

Arabella furrowed her eyebrows as she recall clearly of putting the glass in a safe space on the table. It didn’t fell... wouldn’t someone like her who is a light sleeper would have noticed if it shattered right underneath her? The servant could have died when he was brought in, the people who did it might have used silencing magic to dampen the sound of their footsteps. She had thought of multiple ways for this to take place but for her to not notice the broken glass?

A shiver run down her spine as she snapped her head to the mirror on her left, feeling a presence that wasn’t supposed to be there.

"Lady Arabella?" minister Luis asked again.

Blinking once and twice, she turned to the minister and pulled herself together, "That is the glass."

"So it is," and turning the shard between his hand he placed it to one of the guard, "There is a sleeping herbs famous you see. Quite often used in Versailles by humans as it only affect humans. When drunk, it won’t be noticeable but the effect will cause the person to be in such a deep sleep. Did you feel very sleepy after drinking the milk?"

"Well usually I do fell asleep after drinking it, I didn’t notice a change," she answered and Cassius watched as Minister Luis stepped closer in front of her, smiling.

"The herb always left a scent similar to mint and that’s what I smelled from the shards. I suspect that this murderer is in the castle and one of the perpetrators worked with the servant who had passed you this glass of milk."