Chương 289: Maternal Wraith

Binibelle found herself in a bit of a bad spot whilst speaking with the soul of Lativa Nebulo. The detective wanted to ask more precise questions, but it was plenty obvious that if she did so, her interlocutor would catch on to what was going on. Information on the Nebulo parents was hard to come by, so Binibelle hadn't been aware of what Lativa would be like before starting this conversation, but now, it was quite clear that a good chunk of Mara's personality had come from her mother…

Taking a good look at the woman across from her, Binibelle couldn't help but see the similarities in appearance as well. She had thought that the paintings exaggerated the resemblance, but they turned out to have been frighteningly accurate. Binibelle might have had to make sure she wasn't talking to Mara herself if not for certain key details in Lativa's looks… Namely, while a tall woman, she wasn't quite as tall as Mara was said to be. Additionally, she didn't have wide shoulders at all.

In fact, Lativa was quite the scrawny woman. She was like… If Mara had been a proper noble girl instead of a brute. Lativa also lacked the purple eyes. Mara had the abnormal purple, and Leton had a lighter shade of purple that actually existed. But their mother actually had green eyes, and quite gorgeous ones at that. Their beauty was only lessened by the death stare that was this woman's resting face.

"Aherm… Was Mara always prone to getting in trouble when she was young?"

"Not really. She would only ever get in trouble because of how protective she was of Leton… They are twins, but it always felt like she was the older sibling of the two. Poor Leton was born frail, and no matter what we tried, his limp and feeble constitution simply could not be cured. In comparison, Mara beamed with vitality and strength" The halfling showed interest.

"What kind of trouble did she get herself into for Leton's sake?" Lativa brought her index finger to the underside of her chin, thinking for a few seconds.

"... It was pretty much always the same stuff. Children can be cruel creatures, and many of them were without mercy for Leton. They picked on him constantly, pushing him around, mocking him quite extremely…

Those little bastards would make sure my husband or I wouldn't be around to do this, as they knew that we weren't opposed to teaching them a lesson""Mara eventually decided that this couldn't continue, and from this day onward, the repercussions for committing even the smallest of slights against Leton would be quite severe. We would often receive the visit of very angry parents" Lativa smiled again, as if it were a warm memory that she was recalling.

"They wouldn't need to hire healers to heal their kids if their kids weren't such pieces of shit, you know? It is a fundamental law of the world that all actions have consequences, and the consequence of messing with Leton was a brutal beating… Honestly, they must have been born wrong in the head for kids to keep coming after the first few beatings occurred""My sweet Mara… She's a great daughter and a great sister, isn't she? It's such a shame that giving birth to them weakened me so direly.

I would have wanted to see them grow…" The mood turned forlorn, leaving Binibelle scrambling to keep the conversation going.

"How… How good was she at making friends…?"

"Mara? Making friends? She was never interested in doing that. She never mentioned any friends. She never brought any friends home… I honestly don't think she ever tried to be friends with someone. She had acquaintances, and even that seemed to tire her at times""Honestly, if she ever brought someone home, I would have assumed that it was a boyfriend or girlfriend""Girlfriend?"

"I know my daughter… By the way, does Leton have a woman in his life nowadays?"

"Yes, he does""It's a big, strong lady, isn't it?"

"... His wife is a draconic monsterfolk""Mmh… I suspected this was how it would end up. It changes a person's perspective on things to be protected like this, you know? It was obvious that he would end up believing that the ideal woman needs to be strong and big""A monsterfolk, though? This isn't going to give me grandkids" Lativa was rambling a lot, which was good, but wasn't saying anything actually important, and Binibelle didn't know how to properly steer the conversation in the right direction.

The woman she was speaking with didn't seem like the type to be easily tricked…

"By the way, Lady… What is your name? I can't help but feel like I recognise you, somehow" The detective felt a knot form in her stomach. Contrary to what many might believe at a glance, Binibelle was not only alive when Lativa was still of this world, but she had already finished her education and had begun developing her investigative spells. Naturally, she was never going to mention how old she actually was without a very good reason, and she hoped that people assumed that she was still a young woman.

Her achievements in magic had allowed her to remain young-looking, after all. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. … Binibelle had certainly not expected that Lativa of all people would have heard of her back then–At least, that's what the question seemed to imply, and if her memory was jogged enough to remember what Binibelle was known for, then she might just figure out that there was something extremely fishy going on.

"My name is Hilene, Ma'am""Mmh… Why are you lying to me?"

"I am not lying. Why would I lie about my name?"

"There are plenty of reasons to lie about your real name… Do you think I am a fool? I am a freaking dead woman, and I have been dead for decades already. You just summoned an undead, I can feel your fucking heartbeat slowing and speeding up as you lie to me, halfling bitch! Why are you asking me questions about my children?! Do you want to die?!"

"Alright, alright! I lie quite masterfully, usually. I wasn't expecting to be found out so quickly… My name is Binibelle""Binibelle… Ah, I knew I recognised that peculiar physique. Not many can have so much meat stashed in such a little compartment. Are you that upstart detective mage girl? You don't seem that old…"

"Perk of being good at mana manipulation or any way of power, for that matter…" Lativa leaned back.

"So, you're investigating my children, Binibelle… Why?"

"Listen, Miss Nebulo… I didn't mean to trick you, but… Your daughter didn't exactly turn out too well down the line""What, did she marry a good-for-nothing? Sounds like a bad thing for him""No, Mara quite literally turned into a monster and has been terrorising people for a while now""Well, yes, that's what monsters do. You're just telling me that my daughter had a successful career change" As Binibelle had feared, Lativa really didn't seem to give a damn. She was on the side of her children no matter what.

"You know what? It doesn't matter. I'll be frank with you. I took up a case that happened more than twenty years ago, but Mara is involved, and she has some sort of innate ability that messes with all forms of investigation to an extreme degree. I just need to know one thing, alright?"

"Mara takes a job in a diner. She plays the role of a clown girl. She gets close to five young girls and reportedly cares for them. Is there any scenario in which Mara would kill those five girls? Let's say… It's to help Leton with something, somehow!" Lativa stared down at Binibelle.

"First of all, if Mara is taking such a shitty job, it's definitely to help Leton with something. Second of all, she would absolutely play the role of a clown girl without any motive. She's loved clowns ever since she was a little baby…"

"... Third of all… I died when Mara was still a young teenager, and back then, she was still very antisocial. I do not know if, years later, she would be able to care for young girls or not…"

"... And lastly, if she did care for those girls, I doubt she would kill them for any reason. Besides, what good would killing them do in any scenario here? What was she here for?"

"Mmh… We strongly suspect it was to steal automatons. Leton is a genius mechanist nowadays, and is a close advisor of the king… The new king, we have a different king than when you died""Oh, that's great to hear! I always knew he would go far" Lativa tilted her head to the side.

"If that's all, then why do you even need to ask me? Mara obviously had no need to kill anyone to steal a few things. Are you really a detective, Miss Binibelle?" The halfling felt like cursing. Of course, this was the most logical explanation, but there were so many weird things about the case that just didn't fit… She shook her head and instead slid a piece of paper toward Lativa.

"Does this ring a bell?" The piece of paper bore the sequence of letters. The dead woman stared at it for a few moments before shrugging.

"Looks like nonsense to me. Is it a coded message? My husband loved those. I would tell you to try asking him, but the second I go back to the afterlife, I am telling him what you are working on, and he won't speak with you. If you think I am protective of my children, then you know nothing, Miss Binibelle""For your own safety, I would recommend that you leave my family alone. Be it me, be it my husband, be it my daughter, or be it my son… You would do better to stay away.

The Nebulo bloodline is not something the likes of you should mess with" The spell came to an end, and Binibelle found herself drained of a large quantity of mana in the blink of an eye.

"S-Shit… Did she just try to kill me…?" It was no wonder that Lativa didn't immediately leave. She was trying to murder Binibelle by giving her a shock by draining a massive amount of mana at once.

"What's wrong with this family?" As she breathed in and out, calming her breathing heart, words appeared on the ground in front of her eyes. Need some help?

"By the gods- Since when have you been here?" She looked up to see the dark spectre standing in a corner of the room like some sort of monster that only comes out when people are in their beds. I have been here for about ten minutes. I was waiting for you to be done. The halfling sighed and stood up, fixing her robes.

"Buddy, I've been waiting for you to show up ever since we spoke in Aesther. Where have you been?" I must keep an eye on her.

"So, you know where she is at all times?" Threads of fate bind us together.

"Right… Make yourself useful and help me with this" She pointed to the central blackboard, causing the dark spectre to walk over to it. It seems to be a cypher. Have you tried shifting and scrambling the letters?

"Of course, that's the first thing I did. I tried all of the cyphers I know to no avail" Then, it is surely a cypher that requires a key. We just need to figure out which kind of cypher exactly, and to find the right key.

"That's easier said than done. All we have is that sequence of letters and nothing else. The context it appeared in has proven unfruitful as a lead" What was the context, exactly?

"Well, I was asking her about what happened at Harvey's Diner… Wait, you wouldn't happen to know what happened there, right?" The dark spectre's form suddenly rippled as he grasped his chest area. PL e A s e D o N o T S P E a k O F T h E Di nn E R.

"You can't talk about it?" Her ability has a hold over me in this regard. I was held to silence. More than once.