Chương 325: Let The Expert Speak

Binibelle's first thought was to check under the bed, where she found several boxes that seemed promising but ended up merely containing a bunch of old books and old children's toys. The halfling picked up a doll that she found to look quite creepy.

"I wasn't expecting to find dolls or plushes in her room, but I guess that she was indeed a little girl at one point in her life… I wonder… Was she born like this? Or did something happen to turn her into the overprotective monster that she is today?" Regardless, Binibelle found nothing of importance inside the boxes. It was just old stuff, which did make her believe that she was supposed to be inside the bedroom of an older Mara Nebulo, considering that most of the childish stuff seemed to have been put away.

All that was left out in the open were a single life-size doll of a little girl and the plush of a bird. The halfling found the former to be intensely creepy, especially since it was positioned on a chair and it wasn't slumped either. It was positioned so that it genuinely looked like the doll had sat down by itself. Thankfully, it didn't seem to actually be alive.

"Hopefully…" There were several boxes stacked upon one another right next to the doll, and each contained different clothes and accessories clearly intended for the doll itself. Unless Mara Nebulo was a bigger fan of such things than the detective assumed, then this room probably still belonged to a fairly young Mara instead of the older version that would go around massacring people–If she had to guess, Binibelle would presume that this bedroom belonged to the time before Mara's parents passed away.

Inspect as she might, the doll itself was just a doll. There was no hidden mechanism or secret compartment to be found anywhere. Neither was there anywhere in the boxes nearby, so Binibelle instead turned her attention to the one plush that had been allowed to remain out in the open for some reason. It suspiciously looked like a crow, which was either a massive coincidence or the fact that her non-corporeal attributes looked like birds had come with the side-effect of making her like feathered creatures.

Either way, upon closer inspection, the plush–Which was sitting prominently on the nightstand, had a small note stuck underneath it. Alas, it was no clue.

'For the prettiest of princesses'"... A gift from her dad, I suppose? The handwriting looks pretty masculine… So I guess this plush is here because it is a recent gift? Recent for whatever point in time this bedroom is supposed to be, at least…" Muttering to herself, the halfling decided to direct her attention to something else on the nightstand, as the plush held no secret, no matter how much she looked into it. The other item was a framed painting.

It seemed like the Nebulo family wasn't one to bother getting the help of a mage to create images, and instead always hired an artist to do the job, as Binibelle had only ever seen paintings in relation to them, despite the fact that they should have had the funds for pricier and better alternatives considering that the business of Mara's parents had pretty much always been in an upward curve. Thinking about it, the tale of the Nebulo family was quite the tragic one.

Not just the fact that the parents had died in quick succession, but the fact that eventually, Leton Nebulo had become a genius mechanist and acquired the title of noble. If the mother had not succumbed so early on, then Leton's genius or newfound connection might have been able to save her…

"Mmh…" The framed painting was simply of the family. Binibelle sighed. She looked through every drawer, made a mess out of the contents of the closet–Which surprisingly contained a balanced mixture of girly and tomboyish clothes–And even slashed open the mattress in an attempt to find something. The halfling had already tried to open the door and window, but they wouldn't budge and were indestructible, meaning that what she was looking for was indeed inside this room that she had turned into a mess.

"Is it hidden in a crack in the wall again?" She started moving the furniture around, only to discover she had been both right and wrong. The answer had been hidden behind the nightstand, but instead of an opening in the wall, there was a small safe. Rather than a combination lock or a key, it seemed that to open it, one needed to put in a two-number code–A specific one in only one try. How old is the Mara this room belongs to? You only have one chance to input the right answer.

"That's… Tricky" Considering that the plush was clearly a recent gift, a gift that had seemingly not even been discovered by Mara yet since the note was still in place, then it was definitely before the death of her parents. Since the one to make the gift was probably the father, the halfling doubted that he would have the mind to make gifts if his wife had just died. From what she knew, he hadn't lasted very long following the passing of his wife, dying of grief within a month at most. Binibelle dug in her mind.

"When her parents died, she was… Fourteen" Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. She had never given this much thought, but Mara was indeed quite talented to be able to take over the family business at this age. It also meant that she had been brutally beating knight trainees and had already injured the knight instructor by that time. Though it wasn't like she had been a typical girl of that age.

According to the paintings and intel Binibelle had gathered, Mara had been an adorable little girl for about five to six years, after which she turned into a tomboy, until she became a teenager and became a lot more similar to the woman she would end up becoming. However, information about Mara's day-to-day life wasn't exactly readily available, so Binibelle had to do a lot of guessing.

"Alright, so her closet is half girly, half tomboyish… What about the sizes of everything?" The halfling neatly organised everything on the ground, quickly discovering that nearly all of the tomboyish stuff was a fair bit smaller than the rest.

"Huh… She had a girly phase…?" That's what this seemed to imply. It seemed that she had a significant growth spurt at one point, and decided to try and be more ladylike at the same time, forgoing the tomboy-like style she used to have. This phase was probably quite short since Binibelle had never heard of it, and by the time young Mara took over the business, she had already adopted her signature look with the dark coat. An idea popped into Binibelle's mind. Why was she troubling herself with this?

She still had a fair amount of mana that she could use, a method to contact her disciple, who in turn had very handy spells. As such, she focused on making her body, which was peacefully sitting in the real world, emit a specific set of pulses, conveying a message to Jupo, who immediately got it, resulting in her disciple's voice echoing inside her head.

"How can I help you, Master?"

"Let me talk to Maarkus""Sure thing!" Within a few seconds, the obsessed healer's voice resounded inside her head instead.

"Do you need my help for something?"

"Yes, I need your expertise in what you are the best at–Mara Nebulo. You've known her since you were little, right?"

"Indeed. I've been a good friend of Leton since back then, and although I always did my best to hide it, a big part of why I came to play over this house was to see Mara–She was so beautiful from the very moment I first laid eyes upon her, she-""No need for all that, Maarkus… I need to know something. At one point in her life, she was the archetype of a tomboy, correct?"

"Absolutely""But then, did she have a short-lived girly phase?"

"Oh, do you know about it? That's when I realised I wasn't actually into tomboys, but that I just loved Mara in particular. The change in style hit me like a gut punch. I was left stunned for a solid minute when I first saw her like this… My heart might have even stopped beating for a few seconds" Binibelle ignored the unhinged ranting.

"How old was she then?"

"This period started a bit before her birthday and ended a little while after it, so she was twelve or thirteen, why do you ask?"

"I need to solve a riddle, and the answer is Mara's age at a specific point in time, but my clues can't give me a precise number with one hundred per cent certainty… Probably the work of that damned bird""Bird?"

"Don't worry about it, Maarkus. Mmh… Did you say birthday? Did she receive a crow plush as a birthday gift?" The halfling asked questions, not knowing if Maarkus would have answers to them, but he always responded without even a second's passing.

"No, I don't remember any crow plush at her birthday or otherwise""Did you never see one sitting on her nightstand?"

"Do you think I'm crazy? Why would I enter her room? I may have been young and foolish, but I knew not to do anything that would get my bones converted to sand" Binibelle shook her head.

"Alright, then… It came with a message…" She read the note that had been stuck underneath the plush, hoping that the cleric would somehow make a connection, and he did.

"Princess? Her dad would rarely call her that, only when she was upset about something…" Maarkus thought for several seconds, thinking about any events that occurred when Mara was twelve or thirteen that would have warranted not only the use of this word, but also an impromptu gift…

"Ah, I know!"

"Then spill it!"

"Right… I had forgotten about it, but Mara actually domesticated a crow that had fallen in the backyard of her house with a broken wing. She was quite fond of it, but it didn't live for long, unfortunately. She was understandably quite sad about it, you know? Anyway, she was thirteen at the time""Thank you and your unhealthy obsession, Maarkus""I do my best!"

Somehow, the healer took this as nothing but a compliment, and the connection ended as Binibelle approached the safe, inputting 13, and successfully opened the safe, revealing what was clearly a picture that shouldn't exist. Binibelle felt no mana about it, meaning that it was certainly intended to be a picture made using mechanistry, which already meant that it wouldn't be able to exist in the timeframe this bedroom was supposed to be in, but most of all, the picture was of Glown alongside the five missing girls.

Seemingly telling a story. Poppy was elegantly sitting on the ground, listening attentively. Annie was also listening, but clearly not capable of staying in place while doing so. Gigi was sitting on Glown's lap, seemingly half asleep. Nessa was behind Glown, hugging the clown from behind as if trying to hide. Elowen was a bit further away, clearly trying to act tough, but obviously quite interested in the story as well, probably the most out of everyone, actually.

Whether it was something that had truly happened or not, it definitely showed that Mara–Who was definitely the one in the Glown suit–Had indeed been quite fond of these girls. Binibelle had heard that Mara didn't like children very much, but there clearly were exceptions. The picture was all the safe contained, but instead of focusing on the image itself, Binibelle looked at the back of the picture, finding words arranged in a manner akin to the previous set of clues she had uncovered. A smile appeared on her face.

"Let's see…"