Pokémon Detective Case Files.

"Why don't we just let His Majesty Hugo... pass away due to illness? That way, no one will have to pay the price, and the kingdom can maintain peace for a while longer."

“That’s impossible!” Lian Wu immediately shook his head and said, “Because of that substitute’s nursery rhyme, the entire capital already knows that the king’s head has been cut off.”

"But it was just a folk rhyme, wasn't it? And it was precisely this rhyme that helped us."

Cranberry cups her hands together, fingertips lightly touching—

“If we wanted to create a false impression, we would need to provide ourselves with a bunch of evidence and convince all the confused skeptics one by one. But now—we only need to defeat a nursery rhyme.”

"So that's how it is, the same trick again?" A knowing smile appeared on the monk's lips.

“Exactly. The more someone tries to cover something up, the more likely people are to believe the other side of the story.” A sly glint flashed in Yueju’s eyes. “But before we begin the performance, let’s take stock of the props.”

The magician's fingers touched his companions one by one—

"A thief's [Disguise], a monk's [Medicine] specialization, a mage's [Repair] spell—if any one of these can be used to determine the 'complete' remains, we can obtain a 'complete' body."

“Yes, that’s one way!” Leclerc’s eyes suddenly lit up with understanding. “Then, whether it’s a prince or a nobleman, they will all accept the…other truth we’ve provided!”

.

Two days later, new rumors spread throughout the capital, but this time, they were corroborated by the nobles who had seen the king's remains.

His Majesty's head—now known as the former king—still rests obediently on his neck, though in far from dignified condition.

His face was ashen, like paint on a wall that had been stained with smoke. His expression at the moment of his death was so distorted that it solidified into an almost comical and grotesque grimace.

The official explanation is that he died of illness, if toothache is considered an illness. Or, he could say he died from surgery, if tooth extraction is considered surgery.

According to the most widely circulated version, a few days earlier, three strangers entered the palace through the introduction of the Earl of Leclerc. They claimed to be dentists with a family secret for relieving toothache. The king was initially frightened by their horrifying surgical instruments, but the excruciating pain eventually overcame his reason, and he summoned these "doctors" again.

Because the surgery required ample light, these strangers used lenses to refract the sunlight from the garden, shining it into Count Leclerc's office deep within the palace. Their plan was to extract His Majesty's decaying tooth, corroded by sweets and causing gum ulceration.

The outcome of the surgery is well-known. However, the king's death was not due to a failed surgery—in fact, the decayed teeth appeared intact until the nobles came to pay their respects.

This is precisely why the royal palace has not yet issued an arrest warrant for the group of travelers.

The truth of the incident is that before the stranger's pliers even touched the king's gums, His Majesty Hugo XVI had already died suddenly due to extreme fear combined with his long-term unhealthy eating habits.

His incontinence at the moment of his death was so severe that the count's office had to be thoroughly cleaned.

The three court physicians who witnessed this scene knew they could not escape death, so they fled in panic.

To conceal their journey to the palace, they spread rumors along the way that the king had been beheaded. Perhaps inspired by gardening tools in the garden that day, the bearded doctor among them composed the nursery rhyme that is now known to every household.

This well-documented palace secret is clearly much more reliable than any story of a 'head disappearing without a trace'.

Moreover, a retired royal physician who had treated the king has testified that His Majesty had long suffered from dental problems, and that his symptoms had worsened dramatically in recent years. This also explains why Leclerc did not immediately announce the cause of the king's death—after all, dying from shock and incontinence during a dentist visit is far more humiliating than being beheaded by an assassin.

Because of this incident, Count Leclerc of Black Moon, who had recommended the dentist to the king, voluntarily resigned and retired to the countryside. However, the three "doctors" who fled and spread rumors were not held accountable. After all, by now, no one was willing to speak out for the absurd King Hugo XVI.

The prince who replaced Earl Leclerc of Blackmoon and rose to become a newly powerful minister may have secretly been grateful to those three outsiders.

The late king's uncle is now assisting a niece who was supposedly adopted as a goddaughter by the late king—the youngest daughter of the king's sister.

However, anyone with eyes to see can see that the reason the prince chose this girl from another family with no connections is simply because she is easy to control.

She was merely a stepping stone for the prince to the throne, a carefully orchestrated power transition.

This prince, who had previously clashed with the previous king over sharing the same name, is now ambitiously preparing to officially change his name to Hugo XVII and become the rightful next monarch of the kingdom.

.

Meanwhile, the three "outsider dentists" who knew nothing about the political turmoil at court were neither fleeing in panic nor being imprisoned. Instead, they were sitting comfortably in the high-class hotel provided by the Black-Eyed Crocodile Tavern, enjoying the aged cider that was once exclusively supplied to the royal family.

Their bags were crammed full of props and potions obtained in exchange for their payment.

Since there is little combat involved in this mission, the increase in character attribute points is limited, so this situation can be considered a balance of values.

"Speaking of which, there's still one question I haven't figured out."

Amidst the fruity aroma of cider, the martial monk Cattleya suddenly put down her glass—

Where did Luna go?

“There were guards at the city gate before, so Luna hadn’t left the city yet, right?” Thief Lian Wu scratched his head, equally baffled by the question. “But we didn’t see her at all in the city.”

"This is nothing; there are many more strange things."

The magician, Yueju, started counting on his fingers—

"Luna is Leclerc's spy, Hugo's double, and his personal attendant. In the end, she was transferred by the real king to work as a gardener in the garden—this girl's identity is far too complicated."

"What's even stranger is that Luna almost exposed the king's identity inexplicably—through just one meeting! This is something even Leclerc couldn't do, and afterwards, she didn't encounter any difficulties other than the real king's reassignment."

"And this guy clearly acted stupidly, yet he only stayed in the garden for a month and discovered a secret passage that even Sander didn't know existed—and even led us through it without any hesitation—just who is Luna?"

"And there's that one most important point of doubt," Lian Wu said in a low voice.

"It's about the incident where Hugo's double had Luna bring cider. You know, the real king was dismembered in Leclerc's office, but his head was eventually found in the attic of the Black Crocodile Tavern, in that barrel of cider that had been drained—how did that happen?"

"Could it be that after Luna parted ways with us, she returned to the palace with the wine barrel, emptied the cider there, and then hid the king's head inside the barrel and took it away?" Cattleya asked, glancing at Blueberry. "The implication that Hugo, the stand-in, gave Luna was actually to order this subordinate to bring him cider?"

"But how did she manage that?" Yueju frowned. "Carrying a wine barrel around would make it even harder to hide, so Luna could only enter through a secret passage, but that contradicts the known facts."

Even if it were a dilapidated, sealed room, it would be almost impossible to come and go freely.

“Leclerc only faked the footprints in the garden, and at most cleaned them up to the office window, but the footprints in the secret passage were only those of the five of us from beginning to end—this was confirmed by the bodyguard Lopa and me.”

Yueju, Lianwu, Cattleya, Luna, Emily.

There were exactly five people, no more and no less.

"No, the number is too small; there should be more than five people."

Cattleya put down her wine glass and suddenly interjected—

“Hugo’s double couldn’t have left through the main gate of the garden, which was under surveillance. He must have escaped the palace through the secret passage in the garden. On such a long journey, even if he could wear his shoes inside out and blend his footprints into the traces we left, there would inevitably be a sixth footprint—but there was no sixth person’s footprint in that secret passage.”

"Haha, could Hugo possibly fly? Fly..."

The smile that had just begun to appear on Yueju's lips suddenly froze, and the wine glass in her hand trembled slightly.

"What's wrong?" Gadriya and Lian Wu turned their heads at the same time, looking at their companion with confusion.

"It's not Hugo who can fly—it's Luna who can fly!"

The magician's eyes widened! His face turned as pale as a dead king in an instant.

"It's it! It can always fly!"

The air in the room, thick with the aroma of alcohol, seemed to freeze suddenly.

In the dead silence, the faint sound became exceptionally clear... Outside the window, a rhythmic flapping of wings could be heard.

Blueberry felt like a puppet with rusty joints, struggling to turn her head.

In the slanting rays of the setting sun, a noisy bird with blue and yellow feathers was tapping on the window frame with its claws.

Chapter 453 Resolution - Sunset Under the Woods

Although Leclerc had retired, his title of Earl was retained. The newly enthroned Prince Hugo was clearly quite pleased with the former regent's swift retirement and was not in a hurry to settle scores, instead giving him ample dignity.

As dusk fell, when the heavy mud-bearing horses hired by the count were harnessed and all the belongings were loaded onto the carts, and the entire procession was about to leave the capital in the twilight—the familiar figure that suddenly appeared in front of the mansion almost made Leclerc think it was a hallucination caused by his exhaustion over the past few days.

“I hid in a shantytown outside the city for a few days.”

The former "king" sat on the steps of the count's mansion like an ordinary vagrant, his rough fake beard unable to conceal the bitter smile that Leclerc knew all too well on his face—

"Seeing the city gates reopen, I thought I'd come and say goodbye. Won't you invite me in for a while?"

It was only at this moment that Leclerc suddenly realized an ironic fact—all these years he had respectfully addressed the other party as "His Majesty Hugo," but now that the monarchy was gone, he found that he had long forgotten the other party's real name.

In silence, the count pushed open the heavy oak door.

Although Leclerc no longer needed to reside in the capital, his mansion was not sold; however, the half-empty rooms appeared particularly spacious in the twilight.

To be fair, the years I've spent working with this stand-in have been quite pleasant—after all, most people in this world are wise compared to the real Hugo XVI.

"Those travelers don't seem to have discovered Luna's existence yet?"

The stand-in asked softly, settling naturally into the study. It must be said, his acting was still superb; even now, he still looked like a king visiting a subject's residence.

"Luna must have been acting on your orders, right? I thought they had already guessed it."

Leclerc set down the teacup offered to him and raised an eyebrow slightly.

"Because of your order regarding the cider, as soon as it left the palace, it flew from the Crocodile Tavern with the cider barrel into the palace gardens, and then returned the empty barrel with the human head to the tavern, right? After all, it's obvious. With Luna, a Flying-type Pokémon, around, anyone would have thought of this method. The palace isn't far from the Crocodile Tavern, and similar transport operations have been carried out using Pokémon in the palace before. Even if someone witnessed it, they wouldn't suspect anything."

The noisy bird is indeed a creature blessed with unique advantages.

Their tongues are remarkably similar to those of humans, allowing them to precisely mimic any spoken words. These natural mimics can not only use the same calls as their opponents to mislead them into thinking they are their own kind and thus avoid danger, but even more terrifyingly, as they age, they can actually understand the meaning of those words.

"Won't they become suspicious? That's not necessarily true." The double's lips curved into an enigmatic smile. "People are always blind to what's right in front of them."

He slowly adjusted his cuffs—

"Luna Silvia—that's a perfectly normal name. As the best of the chattering birds, she earned the dual titles of 'gardener' and 'spy' in the court thanks to her lifelike mimicry. Anyone who has only heard her name but never seen her would probably imagine her as a capable but slightly clumsy young lady-in-waiting, right?"

“Even so, the anomalies in these clues are obvious enough.” Leclerc shook his head.

"While granting official titles to the Pokémon in the palace was indeed one of the countless absurd ideas of the late King Hugo, the so-called 'spy of the Rose of the Night Squad' was merely because it always patrolled the corridors with its companions late at night; the 'gardener's' duty was simply to drive away the Bug-type Pokémon that stole the berries; as for the former job of 'palace guard'..."

The count tapped his fingertips lightly on the table: "It's purely because it always loves to stick close to you. You should know that better than anyone, right?"

He raised his eyelids, a weary, bitter smile in his eyes as he looked at the stand-in—

"In reality, how could anyone possibly hold so many positions in the palace at the same time? Besides, isn't it obvious at a glance what that noisy bird really is?"

"Travelers are, after all, outsiders and are not familiar with the political norms within the royal palace."

The stand-in moistened his throat with tea, but still said dismissively—

“You can imagine those three travelers as beings from another world who can only understand the world through words and language. In their eyes, these common sense facts that we take for granted will coincidentally weave into an invisible trap, thus creating a bias that only people who do not belong to this world can feel—after all, no one would point to a noisy bird and specifically introduce its identity.”

“Even if they can’t see through this, they would have noticed the anomaly in the footprints when they investigated the garden, right?” Leclerc calmly retorted. “If Luna were human, and there were only five sets of footprints in the secret passage, your stand-in would have had no way of leaving.”

He didn't question the far-fetched assumption about a body double, but instead continued to delve into the details—

"The reason Luna was able to distinguish between the real and fake His Majesty Hugo is because the chatterbirds have developed an extremely keen hearing in order to imitate calls, and can identify identities from the most subtle differences in timbre. That is why it screamed in terror when it first heard the real king's voice."

"As for the secret of the garden's secret passage, it must have been discovered by chance by Luna the chattering bird when she was banished to the garden and looked down from the air. That secret passage is indeed hidden from the perspective of humans who are limited by ground view, but it is obvious from the perspective of flying. The architects who built the palace a hundred years ago could not have foreseen such a situation."

“And most importantly,” the count added, as he poured himself another cup of tea and sat up straight again.

"Luna Sylvia usually speaks incoherently and always imitates lines spoken by others, a fact that anyone who has come into contact with her would notice. How could those three intelligent people, who could even solve the case of the late king's murder, possibly overlook such obvious anomalies?"

“Your Excellency, you have underestimated the power of preconceived notions.”

The stand-in gently shook his head.

“Those people assumed from the beginning that Luna Silvia was human. Under that premise, these abnormalities would naturally be subconsciously interpreted as eccentricity or a slip of the tongue. As for the issue of the footprints in the secret room, it can also be explained by other reasons, such as that all five sets of footprints were forged by you, Earl, afterward.”

He paused meaningfully—

"After all, you were the first to arrive at the scene, the one with inside information. You had both the motive and the ability."

"If you want to find fault, you can always find a reason."

Leclerc spread his hands, looking sharply at the other person.

"You came all this way to see me today, surely it wasn't just to say goodbye and discuss these far-fetched hypotheses?"

“Of course there are things that are truly important.”

The stand-in nodded calmly.

"Just as travelers are blinded by a leaf because of noisy birds, I, as a character in this play, also have some questions that I hope you can answer."

Leclerc's fingers paused on the rim of the teacup. "Then you may have the wrong person. Perhaps you should ask that female monk's master about such matters."

"Quite the opposite." The Stand's gaze flickered like the flame of a candlelight. "Only you can answer my question."

He leaned forward, his voice low, like the whispers of a schemer—

"Whether it's me or the three travelers, we all know that we are in a role-playing game, and the controller of this world is our mutual friend Wanlong. She and her rulebook define everything in this small world. As created characters, we can only receive information through sound and text, and the success or failure of our actions is determined by the roll of the dice."

The count's eyes widened in confusion, but the double—or rather, the real Hugo—continued speaking without a care in the world.

"Including the king's beheading, all these plots were created by the novelist Wanlong for the game."

"I can even guess where she got the inspiration for this plot—just by seeing the name of the Black Crocodile Tavern and the use of that narrative trick, I know that the underlying logic of this case is a derivative of the 'millionaire kidnapping case' that I once mentioned to her. The same escape plan was exploited, and the rumor of 'possessed by an evil dragon' spread by the true king in the tavern is just like that threatening letter sent to the millionaire."

"I think Wanlong must have done some research on this. After all, the image of that king is exactly the same as that vain real estate tycoon I once met. He vividly portrayed that kind of arrogant and ignorant arrogance through indirect description alone—I can only say that he is truly a professional novelist."

Leclerc frowned, seemingly bewildered, but to Hugo he looked like a carefully manipulated puppet.