Pokémon Detective Case Files

Chapter 464 The Head That Stopped in the Net

Chapter 466 The Head That Stopped in the Net

"Leclerc, you have never been the one pulling the strings behind the scenes. On the contrary, you are the puppet being pulled by the strings. You are unwaveringly loyal to the king who raised you to power, and it is this unwavering loyalty that has led to this end."

With that, the magician pulled Count Black Moon aside, walked to the barrel, and lifted the lid that sealed the head. He tilted the barrel, turning it towards Leclerc.

As dusk deepened, in order to allow everyone to see the scene inside the bucket clearly, Lingju thoughtfully lit a cluster of [lighting] spells on her fingertips.

The king's head, its eyes wide open in death, was revealed in the cold light. Lingju's voice was so soft it was almost a soliloquy—

"The reason for the contradictory royal orders is that there were actually two monarchs in the palace at the time, right?"

In the silent attic, Count Black Moon's face instantly turned even paler than the dead man's head in the bucket.

"A carefully prepared double, or a twin, in short, someone who can perfectly impersonate the king."

"Only in this way can we explain why there was another king when we met with Hugo XVI," said Lanju, shaking her finger that served as a light source, her tone almost inflammatory. "This answer also explains His Majesty's change in character and the reversal of your hierarchical relationship with the king."

"Indeed."

The thief Lian Wu stood to the side with his arms crossed, nodding and adding, "Considering that if the king really did have a twin brother, it's impossible for the royal family to be completely unaware, and the person who truly possesses royal blood and the right to inherit the throne would never be content to be a shadowy substitute. It seems this imposter was probably found by you from among the common people, right?"

The thief paused, his gaze sweeping over the head in the bucket, its expression frozen in astonishment, and added meaningfully, "As for the one lying in the bucket right now—whether it's that absurd king or a stand-in you found, it's probably too early to say."

"The legend of 'there are three people in the world who look exactly like you' seems to be true."

Blueberry chuckled coldly and shook the barrel beneath her hand, the gardening axe scraping against the barrel's walls, making an unsettling sound.

"I was wondering why that king, who was rumored to be incompetent, tyrannical, and extravagant in the streets, suddenly changed his ways."

It seems he had long grown weary of the throne and made the most absurd decision—abandoning the coveted responsibility of kingship to pursue so-called freedom. To cover for him, you, the count promoted by Hugo XVI, found a lookalike to replace the king and placed him on the throne. You hold leverage over the lookalike; once the secret is exposed, he will surely die, and naturally, he will obey you without question. Now, the real king has returned, and he hates the imposter who has taken his place with a passion, hence this case.

"To be honest, having an identical double is a bit too much of a cheat in a mystery story," the monk Gadriya commented critically. "It's like a coincidence forced into the plot, which is really unfair to us puzzle solvers."

"Having the power to control a country, finding a lookalike doppelganger among the common people isn't exactly a huge coincidence. Besides, there was actually a hint earlier, namely the rumor of 'possession by an evil dragon.'"

Lian Wu pointed out—

"Didn't that man in the tavern say openly—that the king is no longer him, that something else sits on the throne?" It sounds mystical, but in hindsight, it was just the literal meaning.

"That bearded man is actually the returned true king. The reason he spread rumors in a tavern so close to the palace is not to undermine the rule of the royal family. On the contrary, he wants to send a signal to you, Earl of Black Moon, Dukem Leclerc—the subject he personally promoted—that he has returned."

Lingju watched with great interest as Leclerc's expression grew increasingly grim, becoming more and more certain of her deduction.

"Even we outsiders were able to track down Big Beard's whereabouts in a short time. As the one who controls the capital, it should be even easier for you to trace the source of the rumors—especially since the other party had no intention of hiding anything. Under these circumstances, if you really had the intention to usurp the throne, it would be easy to deal with; you could just kill the real king and continue to control your puppet. But you happen to be a reliable and loyal minister."

This is the most illogical aspect of the whole incident.

If Hugo hadn't warned them beforehand, the three of them would probably have remained stuck on this blind spot for a long time—a powerful minister who held absolute power and even the monarchy firmly in his grasp would immediately set aside all his pride and cooperate with the absurd monarch's actions without hesitation simply because of the monarch's return.

But human nature is inherently diverse. Loyalty is sometimes like being deeply involved in a game of chess; the more you invest, the harder it is to extricate yourself. Perhaps it was precisely because Leclerc possessed this temperament that he was chosen by Hugo XVI and promoted all the way to his current position.

The magician sighed with some regret—

"In other words, the real king had already met with you privately in the palace shortly after the rumors began to circulate. And now that the real king has returned, the imposter should naturally step down—after all, that puppet was never able to refuse your orders, even if the intention behind those orders was to kill him."

Leclerc remained silent, staring intently at the head in the barrel.

"And so, the true king smoothly took over the affairs of the past month without attracting anyone's attention—this can be seen from the fact that Luna was transferred to the garden and the apple cider supply to the Black Crocodile Tavern was cut off. As for that counterfeit, you, Earl, have hidden it away, and it won't easily show itself unless there are special circumstances."

"And Luna is that special case," Lian Wu said decisively, following behind Yueju.

"The bodyguard Lopa just said here that Luna has served the king faithfully for four years." Perhaps in that spy's eyes, the so-called king was always just a substitute. The real king, on the other hand, was a stranger to Luna, which is why the king, upon returning to the throne, transferred her out of fear.

"Both times we saw him, it was that double who looked exactly like the king, wasn't it?"

Cattleya continued, "Because Luna was there. If it were a true king who didn't know Luna, he probably wouldn't have been willing to meet us. But that Hugo XVI acted very naturally, and even brought up cider with Luna at the end—he didn't even know that the king had ordered a halt to the supply of cider."

"It must have been your order, Count, to assign a double to receive us travelers who entered the palace with Luna, right?"

The magician pressed on—

"Even though Luna is your subordinate, you are unwilling to let the existence of the king's double be exposed to more people who know about it. And when we meet with you in the office, you have plenty of time to replace the king's identity again."

"Hmph, letting you go to see the king was the biggest mistake of my life." Leclerc neither confirmed nor denied the travelers' reasoning, but gritted his teeth and said.

"Your mistake was irreversible the moment you decided to assist His Majesty in committing murder."

Cranberry pointed out incisively—

"Before and after the incident, it's clear someone faked decapitation marks on the fruit trees in the garden. Although clumsy, the liquid used to create the fake bloodstains couldn't have been prepared in a hurry—even if someone was beheaded on the spot, such a large amount of blood couldn't have been smeared on the tree trunks without a container. Leclerc, what exactly were you and His Majesty planning in the garden?"

The count remained silent. Lian Wu simply answered for him—

"What else could we possibly plan? We'd have to execute that double, of course."

The thief tapped on the wooden wall of the attic and said, "The bearded man and the king are the same person. He even prepared those toys to fool children after the crime in advance. He probably started thinking about the doggerel 'When the axe falls, the crown is lost' days ago. This blood was obviously prepared to increase the drama of this 'final performance.'"

"Besides, it was also to make it easier to frame others," Cattleya suddenly said. "Since the crime was committed in the garden, the original intention was probably to frame the gardener Sander, but considering the circumstances at the time, perhaps that guy suddenly decided to target us instead."

"But I don't understand the necessity of doing this."

Blueberry shrugged.

"The life of the Stand is in the hands of the King and Leclerc. Even if His Majesty is dissatisfied with the imposter, why does he need to take action himself? The Earl is all-powerful in the capital, and the King is a habitual offender who acts recklessly. The two of them certainly have the means and the ability to kill the Stand, but the crucial motive seems unusually weak—is it really necessary to go to such lengths?"

"Having deduced this far, there's only one possibility left," the female monk said slowly. "What Hugo XVI wanted to kill wasn't the imposter, but the king—the real king in the eyes of the world."

She continued, "He returned to the palace, abandoning everything, not to reclaim power—he'd had enough of that cage. This insatiable fool wanted something even more luxurious this time—a complete break from the identity of 'King.' To that end, he had to make 'Hugo XVI' disappear from the world. Not by fleeing incognito, but by convincing everyone that the King was dead. Only then could he gain true freedom, a new life no longer bound by the crown."

"This matter must not be known to a third person except Leclerc, who already knows about it," the monk concluded, his gaze fixed on Count Black Moon's eyes.

Leclerc's shoulders slumped abruptly; Cattleya's [intuition] had clearly hit the nail on the head.

"Looks like we guessed right." Cranberry chuckled.

"Unfortunately, His Majesty's actions did not go as smoothly as our deductions suggested. He apparently encountered resistance from his double in the garden, and in the end, one died and the other survived, with the victor dismembering the loser—ah, the beheading should have taken place in the Earl's office we visited, right? It's right next to the secret passage leading to the garden. No wonder you locked us in the dungeon when we met the second time—at that time, the bloodstains in your office probably hadn't been cleaned up yet, had they?"

'

Leclerc sighed and finally admitted, "The bloodstains have been cleaned up, but since I was the only one cleaning up, there were bound to be some oversights, and the smell hasn't completely dissipated yet."

This is tantamount to a complete acceptance of the traveler's reasoning.

"His Majesty's decision to surround the Black-Eyed Crocodile Tavern was arbitrary. It seems he has temporarily changed his original plan to identify the gardener Sand as the murderer, and wants to use this opportunity to drag you three outsiders into the mess—after all, your actions in investigating the rumors about Big Beard in the capital have already aroused his suspicion."

Earl Black Moon hung his head dejectedly, but his tone was unusually calm because he had given up on concealing his true intentions. "In the original plan, the secret passage in the garden should not have been discovered by anyone. The reason I was sitting in my office at that time was just to wait for the King to settle everything so that I could take people to the scene of the incident to clean up the mess. It was just a coincidence that I saw you there and that you became witnesses to the secret room."

"Looking back now, it really was a riddled-with-holes secret room," Blueberry chuckled.

Leclerc ignored the traveler's sarcastic remarks and continued speaking—

"That's why, when that familiar figure appeared outside the window, carrying me in royal robes on his shoulder," I was completely thrown into a panic. He climbed in through the window, carrying me on his back, and ordered me in a tone I knew all too well to fake bloodstains under the tree and clean up the footprints along the way. When I returned after doing everything as instructed, he had already changed into the casual clothes the king had prepared in advance, and was waiting in the garden with the decapitated corpse.

"He then ordered me to proceed according to the original plan, and it wasn't until I returned to my office and saw the bloodstains all over the floor that I realized what a huge mistake I had made—I had forgotten to confirm which 'His Majesty' had given me the orders!"

Earl Black Moon unconsciously traced the indentation on the scepter with his fingertips—"The way that man gave me orders was too natural, and he was openly wearing the same casual clothes His Majesty had been wearing for the past month, not to mention the double he brought" was still breathing at the time—all of this made me subconsciously rule out the possibility that the double had taken over.

"I originally planned to examine the body carefully after the scene was sealed off and everything had settled down, but—"

"However, the corpse's head has vanished without a trace," the magician said, raising his voice, which was particularly clear in the small attic.

"So, your real purpose in trying to examine the body was to determine who actually died. You were willing to plot a murder for a foolish king, but you wouldn't be fooled by a mere imposter, is that it?"

Blueberry reached into the bucket, pulled out the dried blood from the victim's head, and forcefully pried open the mouth with two fingers—

"Is this what you really want to check?"

Seeing Leclerc's pupils suddenly contract, Yueju's lips curled into a knowing smile.

"I previously said that the criminal investigation technology of this era is so backward that we don't even know how to use fingerprints, but that's not entirely accurate. Even in this era five hundred years ago, there were still more intuitive and simpler ways to distinguish between two people who look alike."

"Ah." Lian Wu looked at the magician's hand gesture and suddenly realized, "It's a tooth!"

"That's right!"

Blueberry's fingertips, casting a [Lighting] spell, lightly touched the chin of the skull—

"The teeth of a king who grew up in luxury and had a fondness for sweet wine and delicacies, and a stand-in who grew up among commoners and ate coarse food, will tell the story of completely different lives."

Leclerc leaned down and stared at the open mouth.

As a minister who had dined with His Majesty at countless banquets, he was very familiar with these teeth. Over the years, he had personally witnessed how His Majesty carefully scraped away the candied fruit residue between his teeth with a small silver spoon, and how he screamed in pain when the court physician treated his toothache.

Now, illuminated by the magical white light, the truth between the teeth was laid bare. A noticeable cavity was visible in the upper left molar, its edges stained with dark brown decay—the mark of years of drinking sweet wine. Yellowish-white plaque had accumulated on the inside of the incisors, difficult to remove even with regular cleaning. Even more alarming was the receding gums of the lower canines, with a small section of the root still clinging to it with bits of dried fruit fiber—

Although the teeth had clearly been well-maintained—each tooth was firmly embedded in the gums, there was no missing tooth as is common among ordinary people, and the cavities had been carefully filled with some kind of resin material, although the material had turned black, the traces of the previous maintenance were still visible—all these maintenance measures could not cover up the fundamental damage caused by the owner's long-term indulgence in food and drink.

Faced with the truth before him, Leclerc couldn't help but think of the double he had found—

The last time I examined his mouth, I saw teeth that were yellowed but exceptionally strong—to keep this a secret, he even dismissed the palace's original royal physician. Those teeth had no cavities, only wear marks from years of chewing coarse grains, carrying a raw and tenacious vitality.

"Did you understand?"

The voice of the blueberry tree pulled the powerful minister back to reality—

"It's so obvious that even someone like me, who lacks dental knowledge, can [identify] that these meticulously maintained yet still riddled-with-cavities teeth could only belong to the true king, who has been pampered since childhood. No matter how much the stand-in imitates His Majesty's eating habits, it's impossible for him to create such cavities in just a few years."

He released his grip, letting Hugo's head fall back into the bucket with a thud.

"It seems that your king has ultimately been consumed by the shadow he created."

The count slowly straightened up.

No further evidence is needed; these teeth prove the deceased's identity more than any emblem or ring—after all, no substitute would go to such lengths to fake cavities in order to impersonate someone else.

Leclerc was surprised to find that he wasn't actually that surprised.

Perhaps, even when he disobeyed the king's initial orders and allowed the three travelers to investigate the case, he had already subconsciously accepted this fact.

E