Pokémon Detective Case Files.

“Trash…” Lian Wu caught the word.

Half an hour later, accompanied, or rather under the watchful eye of a guard with an unfriendly expression, he arrived at the official garbage dump located on the outer edge of the capital, right next to a tributary of the moat.

Several groups of wild, smelly mud and tattered bags clearly regarded this place as paradise. They slowly crawled around, devouring the waste, and occasionally pushed and shoved each other and launched "mud attacks" in order to compete for a particularly "delicious" piece of scrap.

After several rounds of not-so-intense but extremely unpleasant "turn-based" extermination battles, Lian Wu was able to thoroughly search deep within the garbage mountain.

Then, he found it—

In a corner occupied by meowing and pickpocket cats, a huge burlap sack was ripped open by their sharp claws, scattering its contents all over the ground, which became their most interesting toy at that moment.

A wooden flute, a clay whistle, a crudely made rocking horse, a warped iron hoop, a top with peeling paint, a rag doll with crooked stitches, and a small, harmless wooden sword. These treasures in the eyes of children are now discarded here like real trash.

These are the very goods that the "bearded merchant" was selling!

Chapter 442 A Sacrifice for Densely Planted Rice Seedlings

While Lian Wu was wrestling with tattered bags in the garbage dump, Yueju was walking on the gleaming marble steps of the royal palace, where one could see their reflection in them.

The vases on both sides of the corridor were filled with flowers of all kinds, their fragrance cloyingly sweet.

He had noticed the unhurried footsteps behind him long ago—it was Leclerc's "shadow".

The magician knew that if he "accidentally" leaked a trace of magic during the investigation, or "mistakenly" broke any crucial evidence, the stalker, who was now as quiet as an ornament, would immediately arrest him on charges of disturbing the scene.

By then, no matter how suspicious the king's death was, no matter what secrets were hidden behind the missing head, Leclerc would be able to give all parties a respectable explanation.

Thinking of this, Lingju suddenly stopped at the garden entrance. He put down his wand, pretending to check the door frame, and then abruptly stretched his right hand towards the blind spot in the entryway—

The footsteps behind me suddenly quickened.

Just as the other party approached, the mage calmly withdrew his hand, which had not yet touched anything, and suddenly turned around to meet the watcher who had finally appeared.

"Why are you hiding like this, sir?" Yueju smiled. "Since it's surveillance, why not follow him openly?"

Seeing the other person's slightly embarrassed expression, he continued, "I happen to be unaware of the situation after yesterday's incident and need to ask someone who knows about it."

This palace guard named Lopa was dressed in soft armor and had a lean build.

Although not tall, his taut muscles suggested his fighting prowess was probably on par with the group's monk, Gadriya. A dagger gleamed coldly at his waist, but even more striking was the Gothic boy floating behind him—its feet barely touching the ground, its eyes vacant. This combination would certainly be more than enough to deal with a mage with low health and defense.

Now that he'd been seen through, Lopa decided to stop pretending and said directly, "Yesterday, I was the one who sealed off the scene with Count Leclerc and participated in the entire interrogation. If you can really find out the truth and relieve your worries, then you can ask me a few questions."

"So, we're now moving on to the questioning phase? Okay, then let me ask you—"

Lingju nodded, a mischievous smile spreading across her face.

"First of all, is it normal that this garden, where a murder just occurred, is unguarded?"

"It's not that there's no one guarding it, but rather that the guarded area is on the outer edge."

The guard answered without hesitation, his face showing a smug look that said, "I expected this."

“If we arranged for everyone to be at the garden entrance, wouldn’t that be blatantly telling everyone that His Majesty died in the garden? The Earl would never make such a basic mistake. He simply cleared out this entire quarter of the palace area and placed all those who knew about it under surveillance, keeping the news completely under wraps.”

"Do you know about the secret passage that goes past the Earl's office?" Yueju continued. "Is that passage also within the sealed-off area?"

"Of course."

Seeing that the other party nodded affirmatively, the magician asked again—

"So how many people who knew about this were gathered together?"

The guard raised a hand.

"Fifty people?"

Five people.

The Gothic boy, who had been expressionless the whole time, made a face behind the guard, and Lopa started counting on his fingers—

“Sander, the gardener of the Kingdom Garden, two of His Majesty’s personal guards, a guard on duty nearby at the time of the incident, and an elderly maid who passed by the front of the garden and saw the chaos when the guards reported the situation to the Earl.”

"Is this palace really that empty? Didn't anyone else see it?" Yueju couldn't help but ask. "I thought they would at least find a few doctors."

"Given the situation at the time, even calling in a miracle doctor wouldn't have helped." The guard gestured with his neck and smirked as he said, "If anyone else knows the details of the case, it would only be me, one of the Earl's trusted men—but there are only a handful of us."

"It sounds like there's something going on," the magician persisted.

That cannot be denied.

Lopa nodded—

"His Majesty was indeed extravagant when he first ascended the throne, building an outrageously large palace, which drew a lot of criticism from the people. However, in the last four years, as the Earl gradually gained power and moved into the palace, the royal family's extravagance has been toned down considerably. The number of guards has not decreased, but most of the palace maids and servants have been dismissed. The former would not have patrolled His Majesty's private areas anyway, and the remaining manpower is even more sparse when spread across the entire palace—but anyway, there are hired Pokémon to do the work, so they can manage."

"No wonder they could easily clear out a quarter of the palace; the logic is quite self-consistent," Yueju chuckled.

The bodyguard, Lopa, smirked smugly.

"So, the old maid was standing right here witnessing the chaos?" The magician tapped the stone slab in front of the door with the tip of his shoe.

“That’s right. She was preparing for the dinner party and wanted to ask Sander for some fresh spices in the garden. But when the guards came out of the door, she saw the terrible scene inside through that door.”

As the guard spoke, the Gothic boy behind him raised his small, dark hand.

With a faint light, the massive oak gate connecting the palace and the garden slowly opened under the pull of "psychic power".

What comes into view is a fruit tree whose trunk has been dyed red.

The fruit tree stood in the center of the garden, its trunk so thick that it took two people to encircle it.

Its lower half was now stained a dark brown, the veins of its bark filled with dried blood. Blood splattered upwards to about a person's height, leaving dark stains among the branches and leaves.

The ground beneath the tree was an even more horrific sight—large patches of dark brown seepage spread outwards from the roots, their edges already blackened. Several fallen leaves were firmly stuck in the pool of blood, like prey caught in a spider's web.

"His Majesty's body has been moved to the ice cellar," the guard's voice came from behind. "This is the initial crime scene. His Majesty was lying here, face down, arms outstretched. There were no signs of struggle; it was as if he had been suddenly cut down."

"Didn't you mark the location of the body with white lines?" Yueju couldn't help but ask, looking at the empty garden.

"Is there any need?" The guard raised an eyebrow dismissively. "Want to find where His Majesty fell? Isn't the pool of blood under the tree obvious enough?"

The magician's gaze swept across the surroundings.

The flowerbed was intact, the stone benches beside it were spotless, and even the cluster of white roses next to the tree was in full bloom—except for a few dark red spots splashed on it.

The entire scene had an eerie cleanliness to it. Apart from the tree and the pool of blood around it, it didn't look like a crime scene at all; it looked more like a careless gardener had spilled a bucket of paint.

Lingju observed intently for a while longer, then suddenly looked surprised: "There's only one line of footprints leading to the tree?"

“Those must be His Majesty’s own footprints,” Lopa said frankly.

"After all, the body was in that state, and neither the gardeners nor the guards dared to approach it rashly. Even when the Earl brought us to the scene later, it was only with the help of a Psychic-type Pokémon that His Majesty was carried out using Psychic."

The Gothic boy behind him nodded in agreement.

"Carrying him out of the garden using some kind of technique..." Yueju imagined the scene, "Was there anything wrong along the way?"

"You're overthinking it." The guard didn't understand why the magician would ask such a question. "The Pokémon in the palace are usually responsible for transporting various supplies. It's just a corpse, and besides, it's headless. How heavy could it be?"

"That's right. The script was written a long time ago. It's impossible to change the plot just because a character's name is changed. I shouldn't have asked that question."

Blueberry scratched its head—

"But that still doesn't make sense—a decapitation always requires a murderer, how could the victim only leave a single set of footprints under the tree? And what about Hugo's severed head?"

"If we understood, why would you be standing here right now?" The guard's lips curled into a mocking smile, his gaze still fixed on the magician's hand movements. "So, have you found any clues?"

I did find some blueberries, though.

"If you don't consider the place where the king died, the footsteps around this garden are quite messy."

Around the blood-stained fruit tree, various footprints circled the soil around the garden. Some were clearly left by guards' steel boots, while others were left by soft-soled leather shoes similar to Lopa's. Among them, there was a large patch of mud with particularly chaotic footprints, whose origin was impossible to discern.

Could this be the real murder scene?

Noticing the mage's gaze, the guard stepped forward, glanced at him, then rolled his eyes without hesitation and shouted—

"Aren't these the traces left by you travelers who wandered around the garden yesterday?"

Chapter 443 The Other Side of Valuable Documents

"It's just bad luck with the dice."

Seeing the guards' growing impatience, the magician scratched the back of his head and gave an embarrassed smile.

The unusually muddy ground looked familiar; it was the very spot where the travelers had faced the king the day before. Tracing the footprints back to their source, they could even see the secret passage through which Luna had led them into the garden.

Looking back from the open garden, it became clear that the exit of this secret passage was cleverly hidden among neatly trimmed bushes, behind which were gaps in the palace walls and low walls of varying heights. The designer of this passage had clearly used many optical illusions, such as variations in elevation, so that even if someone on the ground found the exit, they would hardly realize that it was actually a narrow, barely passable passage. Even now, though Yueju already knew of the passage's existence and had traversed it once, if he were to search for the exit in reverse, he would only get lost among the towering palace buildings.

In fact, even Sander, the old gardener who had tended the garden for decades, was completely unaware of the existence of this secret passage.

As Blueberry already knew, the footprints were the weight of five people—and as Leclerc said, there were only footprints leading to the garden, and none going out in the opposite direction.

If Lian Wu were here, he could use the thief skill [Footprint Tracking] to confirm the direction of the route. But even without personal confirmation, Leclerc's men wouldn't lie about such a matter. They could simply ask the guards behind them to find out the details of the incident. The fact that the guards didn't speak up at the moment indicated that there was nothing unusual about the footprints here.

Therefore, Lanju didn't waste the opportunity to inquire about this already known information; instead, she frowned and asked—

“Lopa, you must be one of Count Leclerc’s trusted subordinates, right? Then do you know Luna? In your eyes, can such a court spy be considered a subordinate trusted by Count Black Moon?”

“If you’re asking about Luna Silvia, I know her.”

The guard nodded, but his tone became subtle—

“However, if you were to ask Luna whether she is deeply trusted by the Earl, I think that would be a difficult question to answer. After all, that guy’s status speaks for itself.”

“A secret spy lurking around the king, that’s understandable.” Yueju nodded to herself, then frowned. “But it’s a bit strange. Since Luna doesn’t have Count Leclerc’s complete trust, how does she know about the secret passage in this garden path? Even Mr. Sander, who has worked in the garden longer, doesn’t know about this route.”

“In fact…” the guard Lopa hesitated for a moment before revealing the truth, “Luna is not on the list of those who know the secret passage. I guess the person who knows it may have found it on their own—but it could also have been leaked from the King or the Earl, since Luna used to work in the royal court before becoming a gardener.”

"So, according to you, all the guards who have served in front of the king in the past might also know this road?" Yueju pressed on relentlessly.

“No.” Lopa shrugged. “The secret passage in the palace gardens isn’t exactly an interesting topic of conversation. It’s hard to imagine the king mentioning it in his daily life, but it’s just a possibility. However, Luna is different from others. Her demeanor makes it easy for people to lower their guard.”

The inquiry clearly yielded no substantial progress. After observing the secret passage for a while longer and still finding nothing, Lingju's gaze returned to the fruit tree that was now stained red with blood.

Upon closer inspection, one can see that, in addition to the bloodstains, there are several marks on the tree trunk that resemble some kind of chopping mark—to be precise, three marks, like three closely spaced horizontal lines of varying lengths that do not intersect each other.

"Despite the presence of such traces, Leclerc still suspects that we killed the king with iron wire. It seems that either the criminal investigation technology of this era is really inadequate, or the Earl of Black Moon is completely uninterested in the truth of this murder case."

The magician turned to Lopa—

"After the incident, besides Hugo's head, was anything else missing from the garden?"

In order to investigate at close range and avoid disturbing the crime scene, Lantana, with the help of Gothic Boy, floated above the rose bushes, making him look somewhat like a legendary wizard, although his posture was more like that of a Magikarp with its tail hanging up.

“There weren’t many miscellaneous items in the Wang family garden to begin with. However, after comparing the gardening tools left at the scene with Sander’s testimony, we found that a spare axe was missing… But old Sander is getting on in years, so it’s possible that it was replaced and a new one hasn’t been replaced yet,” the guard said.

"Are there any relevant records? Can we determine when the axe was replaced based on the current wear and tear?"

Lopa shook his head: "The axe was a cheap one that Sander bought from a merchant out of his own pocket. These kinds of handmade items from small workshops will age even if they are left unused. Besides, gardeners usually keep their tools in the same place, so they inevitably mix and match them sometimes."

“Mixed use…” As if reminded of something, Yueju showed a thoughtful expression.

"Speaking of which, since the body was missing its head, why are you so sure it was the king's body?"

The other party was clearly unprepared for this question, displaying a bewildered expression as if to say, "How could you think of that?"

"His Majesty was the only one in the garden during that time! And the body was clearly dressed in royal robes, how could that be fake?"

"Why can't it be fake?" Yueju crossed her arms in mid-air, a confident smile on her face. "Clothes can be taken off and changed, and the king himself knows the layout of this palace like the back of his hand. Is it really that incredible that he can perform an escape magic trick in his own garden?"

"But……"

"Would a king of a country die so easily? And if the murderer killed him, why go to the trouble of cutting off Hugo's head? Wasn't it precisely to hide the fact that 'the real king is not dead'?"

Yueju felt that the more she speculated, the more reasonable it seemed; according to the logic of a mystery drama, the story should develop in this way.

"That's just wishful thinking on your part."

Looking at the mage who had been sent back to the surface by Gothic Boy's "telekinesis," the guard said solemnly—

"His Majesty has no reason to do such a thing."

"Fake your own death—it's not as pointless as you might think."

Lingju spread her arms and took a step closer to the guard.

"A brief power vacuum can test the ambitions of those around him, and it can also give the king, who is trapped in the deep palace, a rare freedom—time to do certain shady things. More importantly, for the king, playing such a prank results in no loss other than a slight loss of his already dwindling prestige. If he ever tires of such tricks, he can simply reappear in the capital with that face that is known to everyone on the kingdom's coins, without any risk whatsoever."

“You have no evidence,” Lopa reminded him sternly.

“Then let’s go examine the body,” the magician said confidently. “Before that, we need to go to the place where the king usually works. In your country, the king should leave his fingerprint when signing royal decrees, right?”

"Maybe there are, but I'm not sure if I can find something like that."