Chương 287: Accursed Sequence

The sound of a nail tapping against wood was all that punctuated a room flooded by early morning sunshine. Binibelle stared ahead at several blackboards that took up nearly the entire space available on the wall. All of them were utterly filled with writings, some so small that it was questionable if even their author could understand what was written.

Throning in the center of it all, however, was a very clear set of letters, and the heart of the riddle that had brought about the usage of such a dire amount of chalk… K B O W C B S H R S This string of letters was the source of it all. It had caused a lot of headaches for Binibelle already, but she still struggled to figure it out… Or rather, the answers she was finding did not seem satisfactory.

This wasn't her first rodeo with coded messages and the like, but in the past, whenever she came to the right conclusion, she would feel something. Something would click inside her mind, and she would just know that she had discovered the correct answer. Here, she hadn't felt it in the slightest despite her many attempts. It seemed as though she hadn't even gotten close to the right answer. The main problem was that she didn't really know what she was looking for. Was it a sentence? Was it a code to something else?

She had no clue. All she knew was that, considering the timing and place this message appeared, it certainly had something to do with what happened at Harvey's Diner, and with Mara. Binibelle believed that the physical proximity between herself and Mara Nebulo was what had caused this sequence of letters to manifest. So far, the lost Nebulo's ability to mess up investigations and scramble evidence had nearly always come out on top over Binibelle's spells.

Even when it had faltered, it had redirected the halfling toward alternate realities, basically giving no information at all in the process, as nothing that happened in an alternate reality could be fully trusted. In short, Binibelle had pretty much gotten zero solid evidence throughout this whole investigation. She still didn't know what had truly happened at Harvey's Diner, how Mara connected to it, or if she even connected to it at all.

Everything was so opaque to the point of being frustrating, and unfortunately, Mara herself had seemed uninterested in clarifying. Which left the detective mage with only two real options… Either she had to find Mara again to pierce through her bizarre ability once more, or she needed to actually figure out what the ten letters written down before her truly meant. Were they a clue? Were they an answer?

They had manifested upon the blackboard carried by Mara Nebulo, implying that whatever was written upon it might be something she could have written herself, only scrambled and codified by her ability. Following this logic, it then came to reason to presume that if it is something she could have written, then it was something she actually meant. Something she could have told Binibelle… Something she might have said if her interlocutor had been someone else… Someone she would actually be willing to discuss with.

"... If only Leton was more cooperative…" He hadn't been willing to speak a single word since Binibelle and her group had last spoken to him. Binibelle suspected that he had his own plans regarding his sister and was pretty much hoping that she wouldn't be able to figure out a thing.

"Family drama bullshit… This goes far beyond family business! She killed more people with her own two hands than some tyrants! Did he lie? Does he know what happened at the diner? But if so… Why the hell is this event at the diner of such importance? Why would it be fine to admit that she killed people left and right, only to feign ignorance about the five girls?" She brought her palms to her face, leaning back in her chair, staring directly up at the ceiling before loudly sighing.

"... Let's do this again" The halfling's gaze sharpened as she stared ahead. K B O W C B S H R S She had committed every detail to memory. Her first instinct had been to check if the spacing between the letters diverged in some ways, to see if there were clear words with precise amounts of letters to them, but the spacing was perfectly consistent between each of them, preventing her from drastically reducing the number of possibilities.

With ten letters total, basically an infinite amount of sentences could be formed, and that was if one assumed that the message was meant to decode into a sentence or that it wouldn't decode into another language. Without a clear direction, Binibelle was just taking random shots in the dark and hoping that one of them would somehow land, but it was like trying to catch a fish with a spear without even knowing where the lake was.

"There's only one solution left at this point" She stood up. The joints in her legs made a popping noise as she did so. It was without the shadow of a doubt that Binibelle was an excellent detective, be it with or without her spells, but it was also without question that her current notoriety was thanks to the spells she had created and refined over the years.

Without them, many of the cases she had worked upon would have either been left unsolved or would have required costly means that most were often unwilling to pay for. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. Her spells could do the same job for free. She had great amounts of mana, and it would always replenish itself. However, this challenge was making her realise that she might have grown complacent with time.

She had encountered cases and adversaries capable of resisting her spells in the past, but none had been able to consistently overpower and misdirect her like Mara Nebulo's mysterious ability. Indeed, Binibelle had stopped seeking new spells and great magical power for a while now. Subconsciously, she had realised that even those who could put up a fight were ultimately powerless, so she had grown lazier, but it was now time to go back to the old times.

Also, although she was excellent at ignoring personal matters, it would be a lie for her to say that she did not want to know what happened to Yeldt. The elf had vanished at the royal palace of Aesther, and it was plenty obvious that Mara was responsible for it. It was very likely that she had killed him and made him vanish, but Binibelle wanted the full truth…

"Let's see it as a training opportunity, by testing spells against her ridiculously powerful ability, I should be able to come up with some powerful spells… It's better than testing spells against nothing, I suppose" She was going to make Jupo do the same thing. In her eyes, he had a lot of talent and a bright future. She had never met anyone else with such a good understanding of her spells, after all. With the two of them, they might just be able to come up with something that could actually beat Mara's ability.

As she stretched her arms and back, she heard a knock come from the door. She swept her mana sense, raising an eyebrow before telling the person to come in.

"It's been a while. Are you looking to hire me again for something? I thought your network had grown enough that you didn't need external help anymore""Miss Binibelle" The guest bowed slightly.

"My network might have grown enough to fulfil its purposes, but there are things that require a true expert… Besides, this is a personal matter. I have come alone to show it. To spare any back and forth, I'll avoid the theatrics–I am in dire need of your help, and I am certain that my issue overlaps with the case you are currently battling" Binibelle crossed her arms as she listened to him.

"How so?"

"It is about the monster. She is hiding in plain sight in Heldinot right as we are speaking. I suppose the stunt is so absurd that scepticism is overwhelmed… She is staying in Leou Palf's tower in the city of Randlac, acting as Palf's bodyguard""It is obvious that she is the monster responsible for the Nightmare Plague, but she rides on Palf's good reputation, and also somehow managed to alter her unique eye colour. This definitely helps her case a lot.

It is the most well-known thing about the monster, and people put a lot of emphasis on it" Binibelle walked around the room as her guest spoke.

"So you're telling me that she is just hanging out in broad daylight with a respected figure?"

"Well, she always has her hood over her head, so most people don't really know what she looks like, but yes""... So she was at this damned tower…?" The detective muttered to herself, shaking her head from side to side.

"What is the personal matter you are talking about, Lunovis?"

"Basically, I cheated on my wife once about twenty years ago, and a child was born out of it. This child is Hulil Boorizar, whom my brother–The current patriarch of the family–Believes was his son… Anyway, he didn't care much because Hulil was a deadbeat, but I do. I… My wife can't have children. Hulil was my only son, and he disappeared.

His lifestone shattered, and my only lead is that he was investigated by people, but as far as I was able to find out, the only truly suspicious one to do so was Leou Palf, so I suspect that she sent the monster to do the job for one reason or another" The halfling blinked a few times.

"That's a lot of words to speak in so little time, Lunovis. You really didn't want me to stop and question you on certain details, huh?"

"Listen… My wife knows, and… And I would like to defend myself on this one, because I was drunk, and my brother's wife wasn't. Like… It's pretty damned fucked up to take advantage of a drunken man because you feel like your husband doesn't pay enough attention to you, don't you think?!"

"... I surprisingly detect no lies. What's the matter, though? Aren't you the sort to settle things instead of keeping secrets?"

"Don't you know who my brother's wife is? She wasn't called the 'Entrails Ripper' for no reason. She's a bloodthirsty madwoman. I had to get Hulil and several more of her children away from her. She genuinely wants to murder progeny that isn't up to her standards""I do my best not to even be in the same building as her. I would encourage anyone who wants to live to keep their distance, actually""Alright… So you want to figure out whether or not your son was assassinated on the orders of Leou Palf?"

"Yes""If the 'monster' is involved, it will be complicated. She messes up my spells and all investigative efforts by her mere presence… Do you have an idea why Leou Palf would even order Hulil's death?"

"I haven't shared it yet as it could be very bad if incorrect, but Palf might have done it as a friendly favour for Sahhi Dest Salamandia… Hulil was probably a bit… Changed by having to deal with his mother, and his taste in women was a bit dangerous. It isn't unlikely that his poor attempts at seduction did not go over well with Salamandia""Salamandia… Isn't it the name of an old family of dragons with the innate ability to transform into dragonfolk or even humans?"

"Precisely. You might hear that Sahhi is a black horse in the family due to her frail stature, but believe me, she might be the most dangerous of the bunch. I don't know when exactly or how, but she overcame her feeble body. Which is why I am not going ahead and accusing her of anything""The Salamandias are one of the biggest supporters of the Heldinotian crown alongside my family. Creating tensions without proof would be a terrible idea" Binibelle thought in silence for a few moments.

"Interesting… You're in luck, I know someone from the Salamandia family""You know people everywhere, Miss Binibelle""It helps with investigations…"