Last Born Of The Desdemona

Chapter 371: Chapter 371: Honestly, I Don’t Care

Chapter 371 – Honestly, I Don’t Care.

"I’m sorry," Sarah said, her tone calm and measured, her eyes locked on the man sitting across from her, "but it doesn’t make any sense."

The man was on the shorter side, a cane in his left hand, eyes hidden behind dark glasses, mouth set in a permanent, tight line.

He wore a black uniform Sarah recognized well: the uniform of the House of Questions.

Sarah had never imagined she’d end up here, sitting under its cold lights, while a man across the table calmly explained that her blood had been found beside a corpse. The House of Sanctions would come later, if these people decided she was guilty.

It still felt unreal.

But that wasn’t the case for Inquisitor Kalor, sitting across from her.

He’d first tried to find the killer through divination, but it hadn’t worked. He couldn’t locate them at all.

Which meant, based on his experience, that the culprit either had a power tied to Seer or Prophet abilities... or was wealthy or connected enough to own an artifact capable of the same.

Which fit Sarah perfectly, being the prince’s own maid.

So, to Inquisitor Kalor, the odds that Sarah was the killer seemed perfectly reasonable. Not certain, maybe, but plausible enough. And he didn’t need to think too hard to guess why she’d be a target.

Plenty of people in the kingdom knew about the tense relationship between the Hood and the Stormblessed. Himself included. So this murder might well be their way of settling scores.

Yet from the very start, Sarah had denied every accusation against her.

That, in itself, was ordinary. Few people admitted wrongdoing outright. But the certainty and confidence in how she did it caught Inquisitor Kalor off guard.

He sat forward, settling comfortably, elbows on the table. His nose twitched. He sniffed instinctively, catching something in the still air: a faint dampness that made his eyebrows knit together.

He brushed his nose lightly with a cloth pulled from his pocket, then interlaced his ringed fingers and rested his chin on them.

His honey-brown eyes fixed on Sarah’s blue ones, the room dead silent until his voice finally broke it:

"You sound very certain of what you’re saying, Student Sarah," he said, sniffing quietly. "I’d like to know why. And don’t tell me it’s because you’re weak, with no reason to kill poor Coumba."

He smiled now, showing a flash of gilded teeth. "You don’t need a reason to kill. Plenty of people do it simply because they want to. And you certainly don’t need overwhelming power to kill someone with acidic poison. Rather brutal, by the way."

"Because it couldn’t have been me," Sarah repeated, fighting to stay calm, not to let anger or fear show.

Anger, because someone was clearly targeting her, even though she’d never truly wronged anyone. Fear, because of what would happen if she failed to prove her innocence.

For a moment, she considered calling Cassius. She was sure everything could be resolved with him involved.

But she couldn’t. He’d already given her freedom, then friendship, then even introduced her to his childhood friends.

She couldn’t ask for more. She couldn’t keep taking and taking. At some point, she needed to give something back.

And that started now.

Sarah took a deep breath and reasoned it out. "Look at the date of the corpse’s death, Instructor," she said, hands clasped together in her lap. "If you check the date, you’ll see it was impossible for me to have killed her, because at that time I was outside with Prince Raven, in the park. And, I’m sorry to interrupt, but before you start wondering if we were the ones who killed the woman...we weren’t."

She clenched her teeth. "I... I was in love with the prince. And that day, he told me it wasn’t mutual. So I ran. You can see me, in fact, on most of the Gossip Girl footage from that day, being saved by the Last Born of the Desdemona right before a carriage hit me."

Inquisitor Kalor arched an eyebrow; whether surprised by the confession or amused by her disastrous love life, Sarah couldn’t tell.

And she didn’t care.

"And if you don’t believe me, ask Prince Raven himself," she continued. "And if you still don’t believe the prince of the kingdom..."

’Oh, trying to pressure me now, huh?’ Kalor thought.

"...then you can look into my memory yourself and see whether I killed her or not. However," Sarah’s blue eyes turned cold, days of pent-up frustration boiling into something close to rage, "if I’m found innocent, I expect compensation for emotional distress."

"Logical. But logic isn’t enough. Let’s talk about the blood." Kalor replied. "Explain to me why your blood was found on her body."

Sarah’s mind worked with sudden clarity. In an instant, she thought back to every time she’d lost blood, and every chance someone might have taken it.

The answer came ridiculously fast.

"The Entrance Ceremony," Sarah said flatly. "I lost a lot of blood in the field from my injuries, someone could have collected it there. Or at the Health Center, someone could have taken it during my treatment."

Kalor looked genuinely surprised at that. He truly had nothing solid against her.

Whatever he threw at her, she found a way to counter. Her mind moved far faster than he’d expect from a maid, or from a student he’d barely even heard of before.

"You don’t have anything against me except evidence that could easily be fabricated, Instructor Kalor," Sarah said, pressing her lips together. "And it’s obvious enough, if you actually think it through. So I won’t discuss this matter any further until I have someone here to protect my rights, since I’m clearly being mistreated."

She paused, then added bitterly, "And maybe it’s because I’m just a disposable commoner. I doubt you’d have reacted this way if the accused were, say, Anesthesia, or Love, or Klaus, or even Emrys."

Instructor Kalor studied Sarah for a long moment, and saw cold anger simmering just behind her blue eyes.

He chuckled softly, then turned his head to the side, towards a spot just to Sarah’s right, and spoke:

"How truthful was that?"

Sarah frowned, then flinched as a young man suddenly appeared beside her out of nowhere; as if he’d always been there, simply hidden.

She looked at him, an odd unease settling in her chest.

He had black hair and silver eyes, a handsome face marked with a mole beneath each eye.

He leaned casually against the wall, arms crossed, expression completely stoic as he studied Sarah’s flustered face.

He wore the same black uniform as Instructor Kalor, marking him as part of the House of Questions too.

"She told the truth," he said, and Sarah had never heard a voice so empty.

"I see," Instructor Kalor grinned. "And what do you make of this whole situation, Marcus?"

"I think nothing of it. I don’t particularly care."

"Now come on, bad disciple, you have to think," Kalor pressed. "I’ll give you 2,000 EP this time. Just think."

"3,000 EP," Marcus’s eyes lit with greed as he held up three fingers.

Kalor shook his head. "You get 2,000 EP."

"Not enough."

"It’s plenty."

"Then I won’t bother."

"You bloody—" Kalor caught himself in time, noticing Sarah watching the two of them in total confusion.

He sighed, decided to preserve his dignity as a decent master, and gave in. "Fine. 3,000 EP. Just think."

Marcus’s eyes flickered with something like emotion, despite his otherwise unreadable face. It was unsettling.

"She’s obviously being framed," Marcus said lazily, studying Sarah without a trace of feeling. "A maid, a commoner, look at her and the first thing anyone thinks is disposable."

Sarah shuddered at his cold words.

"But she’s connected to the prince, which makes her useful, but still disposable."

"I’m not an object," Sarah hissed.

Marcus ignored her entirely, continuing. "Whoever did this wanted to target the Hoods by attacking a maid. After all, a maid can rarely act without a master pulling the strings. But the frame-up itself is sloppy." He tilted his head. "Which means the goal was never to be believable. More likely, the goal was simply to give someone a reason to fight."

"A reason to fight?" Kalor echoed.

"People believe what they want to believe, as long as it serves them," Marcus said. "So even if the idea that a maid killed a Stormblessed sounds ridiculous, some will choose to believe it anyway, because they want to, and because they need a reason to go after the Hoods for the insult."

Kalor smiled as Sarah’s eyes widened, seeming to understand something.

"How confident are you in this reasoning, Marcus? What’s your skill telling you?"

"60 percent accurate," Marcus replied, his silver eyes briefly filling with complex mathematical formulas.

"Good enough to take seriously," Kalor nodded, turning back to Sarah, who looked completely taken aback. "It seems you’re innocent, Sarah, for now. Still, forgive me, but I was genuinely impressed by how quickly your mind works."

He smiled. "Speed and sharp thinking matter a great deal in this line of work. Having you here, alongside this greedy disciple of mine, could be very useful."

"I don’t—!"

"You’d have the backing of the House of Questions," Kalor cut in, and Sarah fell silent. "Take your time and think it over, Sarah. I think you’d make a fine detective."

Kalor turned to his disciple. "What do you think, Marcus?"

"35 percent accurate," he replied flatly.

Kalor shot him a glare, then turned back to Sarah. "You’re free to go. Think about the offer, Sarah," he said, serious now. "If you do well and graduate, you’d have a guaranteed shot at the Deathless Crusaders. Look at this greedy guy here."

He pointed at Marcus,

"He’s already been accepted, thanks to his interesting Aspect, and he’s about to become the disciple of the First Knight, the Jobless Wealthy Man."

"Don’t go sharing my business with strangers," Marcus complained, though his voice carried no tone, no rhythm; just flat words delivered flatly.

Kalor ignored him, focused only on Sarah, who nodded slowly, clearly needing time to process everything, despite the fact she had to leave tomorrow for her sect’s hidden mission.

She sighed, still wondering who could be framing her, and stood.

"I’ll take my leave, then," she said.

"Marcus, walk her out."

"I don’t see why I should. Just give me my money instead."

Sarah shot the rude man a glare, clicked her tongue, and walked away quickly. "I don’t need his guidance. I know the way."

Then she vanished, leaving Kalor and Marcus alone in the room.

"You useless disciple. If she turns down the detective offer because of you, I’ll beat your ass!"

"Honestly, I don’t care. Just give me my money, I’ve got games to buy."

"..."

—End of Chapter 371—