Chapter 84. Under What Circumstances Is One Safest?
"Miss Pati, ti is of the essence—let us begin."
"Of course, Mr. Detective. I will tell you everything I know."
Rol gave a nod, and paid no particular attention to maidservant Pati's exceptionally cooperative attitude.
"Na."
"Pati Beckett."
"……"
"……"
Having quickly run through the basic information he already knew, he lowered his head and thought for a mont, settling on the question he intended to ask.
"Miss Pati, your movents over the past seven days…… would you be comfortable sharing them?"
He had in fact just asked Aina this sa question, but Aina's answer had been "at the Duke Manor throughout, carrying out my duties of cleaning and attending to Luo Nan in accordance with my responsibilities," with no other unusual activities.
"This……" Pati hesitated slightly—she had not expected the Detective standing before her to lead with such a sensitive question.
After a brief pause, she decided to respond in full, as the comings and goings of the Duke Manor's staff were all formally logged.
"Of course, no problem. In the past seven days, I left the manor once, two days ago—for the purpose of purchasing supplies."
"Mm," said Rol, resting the notebook on his knee and letting the pen tip scratch lightly across the page. "Would you be able to tell
what supplies were purchased?"
"Silk fabric."
"Silk fabric?"
Rol's pen paused. He raised his head and fixed his gaze on maidservant Pati. "Forgive my presumption, Miss Pati, but as far as I understand, all supply purchasing within the Duke Manor is handled by designated staff, is it not? Was it necessary for you to go in person?"
The dillion Duke Manor had few servants in number, but as a noble house of long and distinguished history, it had long since developed a well-ordered internal managent system, with each servant performing their designated role. This was the only reason such a small number of people could keep a manor of that scale running so smoothly.
Pati smiled faintly and replied in an unhurried tone: "The thing is, Mr. Detective, the maidservant Peini who had previously been in charge of liaising with the purchasing staff fell suddenly ill three days ago, so I simply filled in for her on one occasion."
"I see." Rol gave a light nod, accepting Pati's explanation.
"On a related note—has Miss Peini recovered from her illness?"
"She has already recovered. She is currently waiting outside the reception hall."
"Good, then let us continue to the next question." Rol did not linger over irrelevant individuals and moved on to the other questions at hand.
And maidservant Pati answered every one fluently, without a single discrepancy from what Rol already knew.
"Very well, Miss Pati—those are all the questions I have. Thank you for your cooperation." Rol closed his notebook, stretched out his body after sitting for so long, and spoke in an amiable tone.
Pati rose with a nod and perford a bow toward the people present. "It is my duty. If there are no further questions, please forgive
for taking my leave."
Having said so, Pati stepped toward the door with perfectly asured, graceful strides.
"Oh, Miss Pati—I have one more question." Rol called out suddenly.
"Please go ahead."
"I should say in advance that this is a personal question of mine and will not be entered into the records."
"Please go ahead." Maidservant Pati's voice was steady and unruffled.
Rol darted a glance at Serela, who had been watching him with a smile all along. Their eyes t, and he said casually:
"Just now, Miss Aina ntioned that she had secretly kept Luo Nan's torn tie—and this tie……" Rol suddenly produced the transparent sealed bag he had not shown Pati during the questioning.
"……is the key piece of evidence we found at the assassin organization's safehouse we raided."
Rol raised his head. Those deep dark eyes showed no trace of any emotion, yet one could understand that any emotion could be contained within them.
Upon seeing the tie in Rol's hand, maidservant Pati's eyes flickered for just an instant, but she imdiately returned to normal.
She replied in that sa unruffled voice of hers: "Mr. Detective, you may speak plainly."
Rol gave a light cough and said: "The thing is, given the connection between Miss Aina and this tie, her current level of suspicion is relatively high. I would like to learn so additional information about her from you."
Pati lowered her head in thought for a mont, then seed to arrive at sothing, and said: "Of course—I am the one who raised that child Aina from the very beginning. When it cos to knowing her…… no one knows her better than I do."
Rol then learned a good deal of information about Aina from Pati's account; the vast majority of it was consistent with what he already knew, and only a small portion…… was unknown to him, and could not yet be verified as true or false.
"Good—thank you for your additional cooperation." Once the exchange was finished, Rol gave Pati a nod of thanks.
"Think nothing of it. It is my duty."
Once Pati had left the reception hall, Anya—who had been sitting to one side cracking her knuckles all along—finally asked her question with great enthusiasm:
"Mr. Rol, why did you reveal your suspicion of Aina to Miss Pati? Didn't you just tell Princess Serela that you would not draw any conclusions before questioning everyone?"
"Miss Anya, that was simply a common interrogation technique—it does not an I genuinely suspect Aina." Rol leaned back against the sofa and said lightly.
"A technique?" Anya could not quite follow.
"Miss Anya, what do you think…… under what circumstances would a true mole be safest?"
It was not Rol who answered Anya, but Serela—one arm folded across her chest, the other propped beneath her chin.
Her Highness the Imperial Princess even gave Rol a deliberate glance, unabashedly displaying her exquisite figure.
Rol was naturally not the sort of man who beca entranced at the sight of a beauty. He simply cast an instinctive, brief look over Serela's incomparably beautiful face and perfect figure, then turned back to the notebook and began carefully analyzing the statents given by the two maids.
Mm…… one had to admit, Serela was quite a feast for the eyes.
Truly worthy of the title "Benevolent Imperial Princess," "The Cornflower on the Austrein Crown."
"The safest circumstances for a Mole?" Anya tilted her head, her beautiful golden eyes flickering with great puzzlent.
She scratched her head, then suddenly broke into a look of sudden enlightennt, clapped her hands together, and declared aloud:
"I don't know."
Pft—
Rol, who had been calmly and single-mindedly reading through the notebook analyzing its contents, could not hold back.
This girl…… she is really sothing else.
Back when he had played the ga, how had he never noticed that the "Chosen Hero" was this much of a handful?
'Looks like a ga really cannot compare to reality.' Rol sighed inwardly.
Even Serela gave a faint dip of her head, her jade hand in its lace glove lightly touching the tip of her nose—as though suppressing a laugh, yet still maintaining all the elegance of a noble Imperial Princess.
"Hehe hehe—Mr. Rol, what are you laughing at? I already thought of the answer…… but I feel like there's sothing missing……"
Anya glared with those golden eyes at Rol, whose head was lowered and whose expression could not be made out, her cheeks faintly red as she explained.
Why is this fellow just as insufferable as Luo Nan?
"Miss Anya, the safest circumstances for a mole are precisely when the mole has already been discovered."
Serela withdrew her right hand from her lips, resud her composed and graceful posture, and explained in a serious tone.
"Right, I was just one step short, one tiny step from figuring it out—that was my line of thinking too." Upon hearing Serela's explanation, Anya gave a matter-of-fact nod.
Rol closed the cap of his pen and raised his head again, his expression unchanged. "Mm—Miss Anya's line of thinking is correct. We shall proceed along this line."
Having said that, he turned his attention away from Anya and looked toward the figure who was at that mont pushing open the door.
"Pardon the intrusion."
Another sowhat deferential maidservant carefully gave a nod and bow to the three of them.
After receiving Serela's permission, she straightened up with perfect posture and then perched on barely half the sofa across from Rol.
Her every movent was like that of the most exquisitely crafted marionette.
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