What Makes A Monster - Chapter 20

“Is this the seventh suicide in six months then?”

The public security guard spun around, ready to bark at whoever had asked the taboo. Upon realising who it was, he bit his tongue but there was no hiding the displeasure in his face.

“My Lady.” He lowered his head and touched the side of his neck with four fingers in greeting, “Please step behind the line. This is not a sight for milady’s eyes.”

“Is it that gory?” Lataena va Sugratzye squinted her eyes in worry, “Is it really the West End baker’s daughter who went missing yesterday?”

The guard sighed, “My Lady, the mayor will not be pleased to hear of you frequenting crime scenes again.”

“I’m not frequenting. I’m merely visiting.”

“My Lady.”

“So, it’s a crime scene? Not an accident? Not another suicide?”

“You’re making things difficult for us.

“You can tell me that much. Come on.” She winked at him.

The guard frowned at her for a few moments before finally giving in, “Yes, my Lady, it is very likely a murder. So please, keep this to yourself and leave before the mayor finds out you were meddling around crime scenes again.”

“I was only looking around.” She said doing exactly that, looking around.

She’d already gotten all the information from one of the new hires from the public security barracks.

The body of a young girl estimated to be around fifteen years of age was found outside the southern town gates with her throat slashed. A wild animal had dug the buried corpse out and carrion had gathered around it when one of the farmers coming into town to sell his eggs caught sight of it and raised a commotion to call the authorities. The stage at which the body was decomposing was said to be strange, because it indicated that several months had passed since she died, yet her features and her articles of clothing suggested she was Dinae, the girl who had not returned home the night before. The one public security had been searching for much of the previous evening at her parents’ behest.

Lataena frowned as she stared at the area outside the southern gate dense with public security guards. “What’s happening to our little town? As if serial suicides weren’t enough, now there’s even murder.”

“My Lady.” The guard had a stern look on his face.

“I’m leaving, I’m leaving.” Lataena sighed in defeat, “Let’s go, Haemi.”

Haemi, Lataena’s lady’s maid who had been standing several feet away as her lady spoke with the guard, chased after her as she hurried back into the confines of the town.

“What did he say, milday? Is it really little Dinae they found dead?”

Lataena shrugged, “You know what the old ones are like. They never tell me anything.”

“Do you think this is another part of Hanase’s curse, milady? Or is it Chennae’s?”

“Haemi, I told you to stop being so superstitious. What did you learn in school? Magic and ghosts do not exist.”

“That’s what they say, I know, milady. But isn’t six suicides in a row too much to be just coincidence?”

“Who knows. Maybe they’re not suicides after all.”

“But you said that all the evidence points towards a suicide, milady.”

“Because it does. But three noblemen and two commoners killing themselves after Ms Hanase’s initial suicide. It’s a strange group to be following the same morbid trend. It makes you wonder.”

“That’s what I mean, milday. It’s Hanase’s curse.”

“Can you not come up with a more scientific conclusion?”

“I was never good at science, milady.”

“What if it’s a murderer who is really good at copying other people’s handwriting and that’s how he wrote all their suicide notes? Or maybe he made them write the notes before he killed them. It could even be a group of murderers.”

“A group of murderers in our little town? Milady, please stop suggesting such scary things and let the investigators do their thing. You’ve been reading too many murder mysteries lately.”

Lataena gave her maid a glance before shaking her head and continuing on her way.

Later that day, just before sunset, her utharil bracelet was a teal colour, soon approaching blue and she was, as was her routine, on the rooftop, training her zorne. It was that time of day when the temperature was perfect, not too hot and not too cold and she was meditating and contemplating on the murder that had occurred and whether it was related to the serial suicides that Haemi barged in, informing her of visitors. Her butt crashed down to the floor and her head spun around to glare at the startled girl.

She’d recently heard that prolonged cross-legged floating in one spot while soaking in the setting sun’s rays did wonders for one’s earth zorne skill. She’d gotten into the routine of it several months ago and had yet to see a significant increase of her zorne skill, but it did serve as a form of meditation and contemplation at the end of each day, so she had continued the daily practice despite the lack of result.

“What visitors? I’m not expecting anyone. Go tell Mother instead of disturbing my training time.”

The girl fidgeted, saying the guests had claimed to be her friends, asking for her specifically and that the Mistress had yet to return from her visit to one of the neighbouring manors.

“My friends?” She had friends? Of course, she did have friends, but none that would arrive unannounced like these. All the friends she had, always made sure to at least send a fletter in advance. They were a dull lot.

The maid hesitantly nodded. Lataena sighed as she stretched out her legs and told the maid to inform the guests that she would be down as soon as she could and that they should wait in the sitting room.

As she fixed her face, hair and outfit before greeting the uninvited guests, Haemi diligently recited their description. A group of redheads from out of town, likely siblings. And if the man amongst them was veiled, they were probably from all the way north in Junxin or Belaze. Why would anyone native to the far north seek her out? With a frown, she sped up her walk to the reception.

When she entered the drawing room, she immediately regretted taking her time. Sitting, no, lounging on the chaise lounge was a girl she’d recognise anywhere. The absence of her silver eyes and her personal crest made no difference. That pale red-blond hair, that pale green-almost-blue skin, the soft rounded cheekbones contrasting against those arrogantly arched eyebrows, that confident half-smirk that indicated that everyone and everything was beneath her. Lataena’s face turned ashen.

“Lataena!” the girl’s lips widened slightly as she called out with a lazy voice.

Lataena gaped.

What was the 4th Rev-Imperial Princess Imyra, Candidate to the Imperial Throne, doing in her drawing room?

Thinking over the facts quickly, she decided. “Leave us.” Lataena ordered in a firm voice. The maids were confused, but scurried out in order.

“Y-your Highness!” as soon as they’d left, Lataena’s voice came out higher than she intended as she bowed low and pressed her fingers against the side of her neck with the other hand resting on the centre of her chest.

The princess laughed as she sat up. “Oh Lataena, please, cease with the formalities. I’m here just to visit, not as an ambassador of the court. Come on, get up.”

Lataena hesitantly stood up. “W-what brings your Highness all the way out here so far from the capital?”

“That’s a long story. But for now, do cease calling me ‘Highness’. It’s terribly stuffy, don’t you think? As you’ve already guessed, I’m travelling incognito. It would be inconvenient if everybody knew I was coming through. Just call me… oh, I don’t know, Olivia or something.”

It was then, after the shock of finding an Imperial Princess in her drawing room had settled down a little, that Lataena noticed the woman sitting on the other settee stuffing a long blue pastry stick into her mouth. Her colouring was strange; with an unusual light brown skin tone that bordered on ivory, blue eyes and pale red-blond hair just like the Princess’. She took the chance to peek at the other man that had accompanied the princess. He seemed to be the man from the far north that the maid was talking about, wearing a veil over his face, with deep blue colouring and red hair several shades darker than even the natives of Detzlane.

The woman paused her inspection of the food and looked up as though she’d been called. “What?”

Princess Imyra pointed to the girl, “And you can call her Imyra. Yes! Wouldn’t that be fun?”

Lataena wrinkled her brows in confusion.

“No, it wouldn’t. It would only confuse everyone. Stop trying to act like the Nara. It’s even more annoying coming from you.” After saying her piece she returned her full attention to the plates of snacks in front of her. Lataena noticed the strange pronunciation of some of her words. It was not an accent she’d ever heard before; neither the south nor the north spoke like so. But then Lataena had not travelled so extensively as to know how each region of the continent commonly spoke, let alone the world’s languages.

The princess only shrugged at the rejection of her idea, much to Lataena’s surprise. She’d never seen any Candidate spoken to like that, let alone the 4th Rev Imyra. Where was the princess’ retaliation? If it was the 3rd Rev Milina, she would have been rubbing the girl’s face in the mud for speaking to her like that. The 4th Rev was said to be subtler than her elder sister, but for to take it so easily?

Perhaps, since she was accompanying the princess, Lataena mused, the foreign woman was an important ambassador of some sort from a distant kingdom. She should probably remember to address her with a level of respect too.

“Oh, please. I have nothing on her level of annoyingness. Oh, now that I think of it, we haven’t even discussed fake names yet. How about”

The princess was interrupted by the foreign woman, “There’s no need to be longwinded about it. Just call her Myra.”

Her Highness glared at the woman who’d resumed to nibble on another biscuit, “We may as well. It’s close enough to my actual name that I won’t get confused and different enough that you have no need to be worried about calling an Imperial by her first name.”

Lataena wrinkled her brow. “I understand, your Highness.” she said slowly. When the princess gave her a pointed look, she lowered her head and corrected, “I mean, Lady Myra.”

Her Imperial Highness grinned widely. “See. You can do it. And I really don’t mind if you scrap the ‘Lady’ business. Just treat me like a friend, you know? We’ve gone through a bunch of stuff together. We’re friends, right?”

Lataena did not think so. She had met the princess twice and had barely spoken to her either times and most important of all, she did not have a death wish. One did not make ‘friends’ with Imperials. At least not daughters of a branch family of a fallen clan like Sugratzye.

With a strained smile, she voiced a most important issue, “May I ask how long your… Ladyship plans to stay in this… in our humble town?”

“Not long, just a few days. Is there an inn you would recommend? We haven’t actually checked in anywhere yet and left most of our things at the boat.”

“M-my Lady.” Lataena thought quickly, “I must insist on offering the hospitality of our home. Mother would never allow a guest to stay in one of those shabby inns over our very own manor. Especially one of your exalted personage. My fathers would also be very delighted to be able to serve your Highness. Please, I must insist.”

After a long stare, drenching Lataena’s back in sweat, the princess shrugged. “If you insist. I could not refuse a friend’s invitation like that. But can you do something about that way of talking of yours?” She shook her head, “Maybe I’ve been away for too long, but I find my patience for all this scraping and bowing growing thin.”

What did these Imperials want from her? She did not bow and scrape because she enjoyed it, she did it so that these high and mighty Imperials would not suddenly find mistake in her conduct and ruin her family more than it was already ruined. What was she supposed to do? Talk to her like an equal and then be beheaded for disrespect? Detzlane was having a bad year as it was, adding the destruction of its mayor’s family to it would not help matters.

“Indeed. Her ego is far too big already. Calling her ‘Highness’ and talk of ‘exalted’ will only make it bigger. Please don’t. It only makes life difficult for rest of us.” The foreign woman set down an empty tea cup and spoke up again.

The princess laughed with a raised eyebrow as she shifted her gaze to the foreigner. “At least mine’s justified.”

The short-haired woman looked unimpressed, “If you’re talking about basking in the glory of your ancestors, that’s not a justification, that’s an excuse.”

Her Highness gave her a half-smile. “If that’s my excuse, what’s yours?”

“I don’t need one. My ego isn’t that big.”

The princess burst out into laughter. Even the veiled man seemed to be silently shaking in laughter. To Lataena’s confusion, the woman lifted a fist with the middle finger pointing out and showed it to the princess and the man. She then used another finger to point at the plate of refreshments as she focused on Lataena. “These biscuits are subpar, inedible even, but this tea is actually really good. Can I see what blend you use?”

“…Of course?” Still in confusion, Lataena called the maid in and told her to bring in a pot of the tea leaves they’d used. When the maid had left to fulfil the order, she turned back to the princess and asked, “Your High.. Ladyship. May I ask who your travel companions are?”

She’d assumed the quiet veiled man was her bodyguard. But the identity of the woman who would call the Rev-Imperial by her given name and purposely snub her without being reproached for it was still a complete mystery. Her unconventional clothing, the unusually short hair, the strange accent, made it all the stranger.

The woman who had asked for seconds grinned, “Hi, Imyra’s friend. My name Olivia va Isa. Nice to meet you.” She held out a hand. Lataena stared at it. As though she had just remembered how it went, she held her palm facing upwards and clasped her other palm on top of it. Lataena returned the gesture of greeting and smiled awkwardly.

“Lataena. This is Olivia. She is a guest of the Empire and the reason behind our prolonged visit here. She is hoping to taste your regional delicacies and see the sights. I would be grateful if you could show us around the place.”

“Of course, my Lady. I shall personally show you around.”

And that’s how her nightmare had begun.