Jack stayed still, as the invisibility will only take effect if he did not move. But he was bored to hell, hours had passed without anything happening. Could his suspicion be wrong? Peniel had been bothering her several times asking what he was doing. She was also bored, and Jack forbid her from coming out from her hidden dimension.
Jack had explained to her that he suspected that the culprit had tried to search Joselyn's room after murdering her. Probably looking for the so-called painting that was stolen, most possibly hidden by Joselyn. But his or her search attempt had been cut short when the murder was found out, the culprit was forced to abandon the search. He highly suspected that the culprit would come back to this room to continue the search. Hence he was waiting in the dark to find out.
Peniel had also pointed out that if that was the case, wouldn't the first one to find the bodies to be the prime suspect? He could have been searching the room when Marquess Fernando passed by, then acted as if he had also just found out about the grisly murders.
Jack countered by saying different probabilities could also occur. It was possible that the culprit was not those two people who stumbled onto the crime scene, that the culprit could have heard or sensed their coming, considering his ability to kill a castle guard in such a short time. Thus had made his or her escape before the butler arrived at the crime scene.
Jack also added it could be the Marquess as well. Saying that probably after Winston went off to call the others, the Marquess went inside and searched through Joselyn's possessions while the others had not yet arrived. If so, then it would be much more complicated, because then it would mean that the murderer and the person searching through the room were two different cases. He hoped this was not the case. Anyway, he needed to make sure. That's why he was waiting in the dark inside this silent room.
It was probably almost nighttime outside, he had lost track of how long he had been waiting. Did he need to wait until midnight? Or until tomorrow morning? Tomorrow was already the last day permitted to complete this quest, he would fail if he could not solve this case by tomorrow night. Should he be wasting time like this doing nothing? But he also had no other clue to follow up on at the moment. He was having a dilemma as he continued to wait.
His body was already stiff due to standing still for such a long time. If it was in the real world, he would not have been able to keep such a still position for such a long time. Good thing his body here had high endurance stat, but still, the boredom was eating at him mentally.
While he continued to try to console himself about the patience of waiting, he finally noticed a white dot in the vicinity. There had often been white dots in his radar since his radar covered quite a wide area, but this one dot was moving in his direction. Seeing it, the boredom in his heart vanished. It was replaced by expectation, and tension. Considering if it was the murderer, he must make sure he was not found. Otherwise, there would be a second murder case appearing in this mansion.
Jack focused his attention on the approaching white dot. Not long now, he said in his mind. It stopped. From its position, Jack surmised it was just outside the room, near the entrance. He was sure now that this white dot was not simply a passerby. He soon saw a head poking out into the room.
It's her?
The said person went in after checking that the room was empty. She went to the middle of the room and looked around. She seemed to be cautious about something. Could she sense his presence here? Jack tensed up with the thought. To his relief, the person stopped looking around. She shifted her attention to one of the cupboards, and went there and opened it up. After ruffling through the contents, she closed it up and went to a cabinet next to it. She opened the drawers and continued to search for something.
Is she the murderer? Jack could not help but think about it. He decided to take the risk to use his God-eye monocle to inspect the person.
Jimena (Basic Human), level 1
HP: 150
The head maid was still at the same level as he last inspected her during the interviews. He could take her out easily. But if she was the murderer, perhaps then she had some kind of tool that could kill the castle guard instantly, which would also be able to do the same to him. Thus, he stayed hidden. Or could she be an underling? There was another powerful person behind the scene. This was getting more confusing, Jack was irritated by this quest.
The head maid spent quite some time searching for something, but she didn't seem to find what she was looking for. Her expression was ugly with frustration. She seemed to be trying hard to keep her calm so there was no noise. Eventually, she calmed down. She put everything back to its place but didn't bother to tidy up the insides. She then went out of the room.
Jack waited for her to be at a safe distance first before he came out of the shadow and followed her. If she had a powerful superior, she should be on her way to make a report now. He had to follow her if he was to find out. He focused on her white dot, as there was no name marker on the white dots on his radar, he might lose her to the other white dots if he lost track of it.
He maintained his distance so Jimena would not get suspicious. While he continued following, something caught his attention while he was passing the hallway with the balcony overlooking the inner courtyard. He glanced over and saw head maid Jimena was crossing over the courtyard below while bringing a basket of fruits.
What the…? Jack was stunned for a moment as he was looking at the Jimena below. He focused his sight, he did not see wrong, that was indeed the head maid. But wasn't the white dot he was following went in the other direction? Wait! Where was that white dot?
He returned his attention to his radar, he had lost track of the moving white dot. The direction that it was moving before only had several stationary white dots now. He ran in that direction, he saw the butler Winston was talking with the Marquess, he went further to the other white dot, the position indicated the kitchen below. He went there and saw there was only the cook, Tomas, inside.
He had lost the one he was supposed to be following. But why did he see Jimena when he was already following one that was in a different direction? And where did that other Jimena go? Why were there two of them? Or could it be that she had used a teleporting device that sent her to the floor below? But she did not notice the white dot made an instantaneous shifting when he saw the head maid below.
"I don't understand, this is getting very confusing," Jack uttered.
"What's so confusing? One of the head maids must have been someone in disguise," Peniel said in his mind.
"In disguise?" Jack asked.
"Yes. Some magic tools can do that."
That's right, this is a game world based on magic. He was too caught up with the mistery case that he treated it as the same as those detective stories he had read, which used logic and science. This place used magic so some tricks could be explained with magic.
With that thought, he started to ponder on what he had learned since he came into the mansion. At this time, the butler approached and said to him, "dinner in half an hour. The Duke would like to invite you to join them again."
"All right, I will be there," Jack said.
😉