“She was indeed the prime suspect at first,” the duke said, “but listen to the whole story first. During our way down, I suddenly remembered to have not yet locked my desk’s drawer. I hurried back to my workroom as I asked Joselyn to follow me back as well.”
“Why do you ask her to follow you back?”
“Because there are many important letters with sensitive information inside my desk. I am not a suspicious person, but still, I like to be careful. If important documents are missing, then I want to search her first. When we came into the room, I found out the painting was missing. I immediately searched the maid. She was frightful but cooperative, I did not find the painting on her. So I activated the barrier and called the castle guards to stop anyone from going in and out of the estate. I also notified the palace to send military aides to help deal with this matter, in which captain Salem showed up soon after.”
“I can’t help but say, for these important items to be out in the open like that, isn’t it begging to be stolen?” Jack said.
“These items in my workroom actually had enchantment on them. If they left the mansion, the barrier formation would have automatically activated, thus preventing anyone from leaving the estate ground. The fact that it didn’t activate yet when I found out that it was missing, meant that it was still within the mansion, but since I couldn’t find it, I chose to activate the barrier formation manually. Furthermore, only me and my butler possessed the key to this workroom, so normally the items inside were perfectly safe.”
“You absolutely trust your butler?”
“With my life,” the duke answered unhesitantly.
“I see. What happened next after the castle guards showed up?”
Captain Salem picked up from there, “after I came, we made a thorough sweep of the estate using this Orb of Detection as I have mentioned before, and found nothing. We also made a thorough search on the mansion and checked all the occupants’ belongings, especially the maid’s. But they came out empty.”
“Where was the maid during your search?” Jack asked.
“In detention, even though the stolen item was not found on her. She was still the main suspect. One of my men is watching her at all time.”
“Even now?”
“Even now.”
“So there is no other clue?”
The duke shook his head. “Then I decided to post a request to the Adventurers Association,” he said.
“Could the perpetrator use magic to bypass the detection of the Orb? Or use magic to escape from the barrier?” Jack asked.
“No. Both the barrier and the Orb are immune to such trick,” captain Salem said with certainty.
Jack was tempted to ask why, but he kept his mouth shut instead. This was their world after all, so they would be more clear on its rules.
“Furthermore,” the duke added. “Apart from the guards that came later, I’m the only one within this mansion that could use magic. The others, they are all commoners.”
“Commoners?”
“Commoners are our word for people who have no magic or battle skills, most of them are level 1 civilian,” Peniel explained to him from her hidden dimension. She had gone into hiding since Jack stepped into the estate area. She felt something unusual about this quest, so she hid as a precaution.
‘Oh, I thought for a second he meant a non-noble person.’ Jack commented in his mind.
“Those we call peasants.”
So, the duke could use magic? Intrigued, Jack used his God-eye monocle to Inspect the duke and the captain.
Alfredo (Rare Elite Human, Duke), level 65
HP: 680,000
Salem (Elite Human, Knight-Captain), level 55
HP: 125,000
Jack took a gulp with a pale face after reading their descriptions. The captain was much stronger than the Priest of Phobos who had trashed him previously. The duke was even more crazier. Both of them might be able to kill him with just a single hit. Now he felt lucky this was not a combat quest. His level was absolutely not in the league.
“I would like to take a look at the crime scene,” Jack told the duke after taking some time to calm down.
“The what?” The duke was confused.
“Um, I mean, your workroom, where your painting was stolen,” Jack explained with an embarrassed face. It seemed that he took this detective role a bit too seriously.
Duke Alfredo nodded. “Come with me,” he said.
Captain Salem continued to tag along. The two of them brought Jack through the mansion onto a gigantic hall with a large staircase that led upstairs. There was a large domed glass ceiling above where the sunlight came through and shone on the staircase. They went up the stairs as Jack admired the interior. The railings were coated with gold, he didn’t know if it was real gold or simply gold color coating. Nevertheless, they still looked impressive.
Many large paintings decorated the walls. There was also a large painting of the younger version of the duke, hung on the wall facing them when they came up the stairs to the second floor. They then walked into a wide and long hallway. There were several suits of armor standing at a fixed distance along one side of the hallway. The other side was an open space facing the courtyard below where they were at some moments ago.
After walking for a while, they went up another flight of winding staircase, which brought them to a door. There was no other pathway, so the only way to this room was through this long staircase. Jack figured they must be in one of the three towers he had seen from outside.
Duke Alfredo opened the door and said, “this is my workroom.”
Jack went in and saw a spacious office room. He was expecting a messy room typical of a busy working man’s office. Instead, the room was especially tidy. Bookshelves lined up one side of the walls. They were full of books arranged neatly. A sofa with two lounge chairs and a coffee table adorned the other side. There were some portraits on the wall and a preserved head from some kind of large beast mounted on it.
The opposite wall from where they had entered was decorated with massive windows that overlooked the outside. When Jack peeked through the windows, he could see the garden at the front entrance of the mansion.
He looked for the knob of the windows and found them at the bottom side. He tried opening them, only the bottom part could be opened and it only opened by a little, the gap was only enough for his hand to go through. No way someone could enter through the windows. Not to mention this room was three floors up from the ground. For a Warrior like him, he should still survive after falling from this height, but for commoners, they would most likely die.
A large wooden desk was positioned before the windows. Several documents and writing utensils were arranged orderly on the desk. Apparently, the duke was as neat as he was elegant in his temperament. Beside the desk were some stands. One of the stands held a bust sculpted into the shape of the duke’s half-upper body. While the other stands held glass cases with various artifacts inside. One such stand was empty.
“This must be where the stolen painting was placed?” Jack asked as he came to that stand.
“That is correct,” the duke confirmed.
Jack observed the glass case of the stand. It was a rectangular shape the size of an A4 paper. It would be a tiny size painting if it was displayed on this stand. There was a glass case cover on the stand, it was to protect the thing being exhibited inside from outside elements. It had a hinge at its top part. Jack lifted the glass cover, it was easily opened, there was no lock on the glass cover.
“Was it closed when you found the painting missing?” Jack asked.
“It was,” the duke nodded.
“Any other things gone missing or were out of place from when you left it?”
“No, everything is fine except for the missing painting.”
After checking the display stand, he then glanced at the other display stands beside the one that was missing its painting. In fact, when he came into the room, his God-Eye monocle had marked the items on the stands, so he knew those items were nothing usual.
Inside the glass case of the display stand closest to him was an ivory horn. Out of curiosity, he inspected the ivory horn using his monocle.
Horn of Silver Rhino Emperor (Unique Consumable)
Summon a Mythical grade Silver Rhino Emperor
Duration: 1 hour
Usage: 3
