Chapter 95. Golden Tearstains
The next morning, the sun was already three poles high.
"Young Master, Young Master……"
"Let
sleep a little longer……"
"Young Master, wake up……"
A faintly wheedling voice drifted to his ears. Luo Nan, still half-conscious, waved a hand dismissively and buried his head under the blanket.
Even though it was sumr, the Ducal Manor ran its Cooling Magic Arrays around the clock, so Luo Nan still slept under a light silken blanket.
'Mm, the soundproofing effect is pretty good……'
Once his head was tucked under the blanket, the whole world finally fell blissfully quiet.
Zzzz……
"Young Master! Sothing's wrong! Sister Pati—she, she……"
Hm?
"Sister Pati has Returned to the Source……"
Seeing that she could not rouse the Young Master no matter how she tried, the panicked little maid Aina suddenly plopped down onto the floor, her small hands clutching the edge of Luo Nan's blanket, eyes swimming with tears.
"Mm…… Returned to the Source?"
What?
Pati had Returned to the Source?
In this world, "Returned to the Source" was another way of saying "death."
The common people of this world believed that after one's death, the soul would rge back into the origin point of the world, be washed clean of everything, and be reborn in its purest form.
Sothing akin to another cycle of reincarnation.
Luo Nan's drowsiness vanished in an instant. He bolted upright out of bed with such force that even the silken blanket was knocked clean off the bed.
"Aina, what happened? What about Pati……"
Luo Nan looked around in all directions, but he didn't spot the little maid's figure anywhere. "Aina?"
"Did I hallucinate?"
Luo Nan scratched his head, thinking he must have been dreaming, and was about to lie back down for a proper catch-up nap.
"Mm mm……"
Just then, a slightly muffled, whining sound reached Luo Nan's ears.
He followed the sound—on the right side of the bed, the blanket he'd knocked flying was draped over a petite little figure, who was fumbling about with great difficulty trying to free herself from it.
"……"
Luo Nan rubbed his eyes and finally recognized this little "blanket ghost."
"Oh…… Aina, sorry about that."
Luo Nan reached out, lifted his blanket from Aina's head, and tossed it onto the bed. Then he asked, "Aina, you just said…… Pati Returned to the Source?"
The little maid, whose neatly arranged chestnut hair had been completely wrecked by the blanket—fringe pushed out to both sides, a few loose strands hanging down—had those large erald eyes of hers peeking out in a half-hidden, half-visible state that gave her a soft, delicate sort of charm.
Aina rubbed her reddened eyes, sniffled, suppressed the urge to cry, and answered, "Young Master—Sister Pati really, truly Returned to the Source……"
With that, the girl reached up and wiped at her own eye corners again, trying to brush away the tears that were spilling over.
Aina didn't want to show her fragile side in front of the Young Master.
Looking at the unmistakably pitiful little maid, Luo Nan couldn't help but ruffle the girl's head and console her. "Don't cry, Aina. Take
to see her now, and I'll imdiately send soone to summon the Arcane Association. I promise you—I will get to the bottom of exactly what happened."
"Mm……"
Seemingly feeling the warmth of Luo Nan's palm, the girl's small head swayed slightly, and she answered in a soft voice.
Luo Nan threw on his coat and followed Aina down to the third basent level of the manor—into the single cell within the Interrogation Room area.
On the single bed, maidservant Pati still maintained her elegant seated posture: hands folded in her lap, legs together, back straight, head slightly bowed.
The standard Maid of Glory seated form.
Except……
Two vivid streams of golden tearstains trailed down from those brown eyes.
"Golden…… tearstains?"
Luo Nan furrowed his brow, activated his Battle Aura, and carefully walked to Pati's side. He bent down to examine those two golden tearstains on her face up close.
Neither in this life's mories nor in the mories of his previous life had he ever seen this kind of trait.
He put on his Isolation Gloves and gently brushed a finger across Pati's cheek.
The tearstains, already dried, had turned into a powdery substance resembling gold dust, glinting with tiny points of light at Luo Nan's fingertips.
"There is no Supernatural power of any kind contained within……"
Luo Nan turned his head toward the guards standing watch outside. "Did you notice anything unusual happening in this single cell last night?"
"Re—reporting to the Young Master: during our rotation on watch last night, we did not detect any abnormalities. Except—except……"
At this point, the guard glanced aningfully at the maidservant Aina standing beside Luo Nan, head lowered.
"Except what? Stop speaking in riddles!"
It was always Luo Nan who spoke in riddles to others—and now soone dared to speak in riddles to him?
The guard hemd and hawed for a mont, then answered, "Except that last night, Miss Aina ca here to deliver a late-night al to Miss Pati."
"Mm, I know about that."
Of course he did—if Luo Nan hadn't given his approval, could Aina have successfully "snuck in" to bring Pati her late-night al?
Although Pati had betrayed him, she was still the "maid elder sister" who had watched him grow up. Luo Nan would handle her according to Family Law—but within the limits of what he could manage, he would extend her a few privileges.
And for sothing like this, the maid raised personally by Pati's own hand was the most fitting person to do it.
"Young Master, I'm sorry…… I, I acted without your approval……" Aina apologized in a murmur.
"It's fine—bringing soone a al is only human," Luo Nan turned around, looking down at the little maid who only reached his chest. "Aina, tell
carefully—when you ca to bring Pati her al last night, was there anything unusual about her?"
"Anything unusual……"
After listening to Aina's account, Luo Nan's frown deepened further.
According to Aina, Pati had shown trendous remorse when facing her last night, and had kept saying things like 'the Young Master is in your hands now.'
"Aina, are you certain Pati said that?" Luo Nan asked pointedly.
Aina shrank back slightly. "Yes—yes, Young Master. That's exactly what Sister Pati said last night."
Luo Nan placed both hands on his hips, his deep black eyes fixed intently on Pati's serene, sleep-like face.
'According to the letter Pati left behind that I retrieved last night—she doesn't think her betrayal was a betrayal, and her reason was because of The Incident, and The Incident…… forget it, I won't think about that for now.'
'Did Pati kill herself out of guilt, after that ridiculous 'test' of mine ca to an end?'
'That seems unlikely—I got the feeling she never believed for a mont that she had done anything wrong.'
'Then the remorse Aina described…… could it have been directed not at , or at dillion, but at Aina?'
'That interpretation seems plausible—after all, Pati did genuinely try to fra Aina.'
'Enough. There's not enough information. I still don't know Pati's true cause of death—I'll have to wait for the professionals to reach a conclusion.'
With that thought, Luo Nan settled into the chair in the room and waited quietly.
Ding—
As the specially crafted detection instrunt wound to a stop, the Arcane Association mber dressed in a mage's robe withdrew the testing reagent.
She held it up close before her eyes and examined it carefully. After a mont, she turned to Luo Nan and said, "Mr. dillion, confird—the golden tearstains on Miss Pati are not an ordinary substance. They are a solidified form of so type of energy."
"A solidified form of energy?"
"Yes. It appears to be an extrely ancient form of energy, and most probably does not belong to the Fifth Era."
"Hmm……" Luo Nan stroked his chin and sank into thought.
In his previous-life mories, The Shining Myriad Trails' main storyline began in the year 1795 of the Fifth Era, but the ga made very few references to the preceding four eras—most were simply backdrop scenery for individual scenarios.
And Luo Nan, at the ti, had been too focused on combat satisfaction to pay much attention to the stories behind each scenario.
After all, the ga's selling point was never that—and the background lore was probably just written casually anyway.
"And Pati's death—was it suicide or homicide?"
"Upon examination, Miss Pati's body showed no residual trace of any Supernatural power being invoked, and no obvious external injuries. It was almost as if……"
"Almost as if the soul departed, yet the body was left perfectly intact."
"Given this anomalous circumstance, we are unable to determine her manner of death."
After hearing this, Luo Nan gave a nod. "You've worked hard, ma'am."
"Mr. dillion flatters —the fee you paid is more than enough to bring
out ten tis over."
Luo Nan made a dismissive wave. "Think nothing of it—there's still sothing I'll need to trouble you with afterwards: go back and look into any information regarding these 'golden tearstains' for . I have a feeling about them."
"As you wish, Mr. dillion."
After seeing the Arcane Association specialist off, Luo Nan summoned several maidservants and instructed them, "Temporarily preserve Pati's body in stasis and guard it under the highest security protocol, pending further investigation."
"Yes, Young Master."
"Golden tearstains…… just what sort of thing are they?"
Completely at a loss over sothing he had never encountered before, even the joy Luo Nan had felt at upgrading the Truth-Piercing Star Spike was gone. He turned to Aina, who was trailing behind him, and said, "It's about alti, isn't it? What are we having for lunch?"
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