Chapter 444 - The hunt begins (Patreon)

The moment the lights went out, Hera and her friends had a buff cast on them. Being a shadow mage, Helena was an expert in not only using shadows to her advantage but also on how to deal with someone who was doing the same. Because of that, and because she already knew that there would be a blackout, Helena had a dark sight spell at the ready. It was simply a way to see in the dark despite the name. However, the rest of the group wasn't ready for the lack of light, and it took them a moment to realize what was going on. Another issue was that even with the spell, they weren't able to see perfectly in the dark as they would in the light. There was a limit to the max distance they could look at, and after that, things became hard to make out. Still, Hera could see part of what happened on the stage. She saw someone else climbing up, and there was a quick struggle between this new figure and the pianist. It didn't last for long, and the figure slammed the pianist's head against the piano keys a couple of times before they broke the performer's neck. Then the figure looked around before taking off the pianist tentacle like hat and putting it on themselves. Finally, it bowed to the crowd that couldn't see it and walked away into the darkness. About 2 minutes went by before the lights turned on again, and everybody could see that the pianist was now dead and the perpetrator gone.

"What happened?" Bonnie asked.

"You couldn't see it? The spell was supposed to let you see in the dark," Helena turned to the researcher.

"I saw it, but that doesn't answer my question. What the hell is going on? Wasn't this supposed to be about people getting robbed? Why is someone dead?"

"Well, most of the time, this is just about a thief. But like I said, it's a murder mystery party. If it was the same thing every time, it wouldn't be much of a mystery. I knew that having someone die was a possibility, but it's never one of us and this doesn't change all that much. People are just more inclined to believe that we can solve this. Or at least to let someone else handle things," Helena explained.

"And what about the spell? I think the first time I ever saw you using that one," Blue pointed out.

"Is that really a surprise? I mean, I use shadows. It's kind of obvious that I know how to handle them."

"Yeah, but you could've let us know. It took me too long to realize what was going on for me to be able to see anything useful," Blue pouted.

"Sorry, Blue. But that was kind of the point. Since we are discussing going to the no hotel, I wanted to make sure that everyone could respond quickly to sudden changes. That can happen here too, but it's not as frequent," Helena explained.

"OK... So what do we do now?" Hera looked down to the ballroom. It seemed like everyone was freaking out, and people were in shock. Not even able to scream because of the murder.

Helena looked down again and let out a long sigh, "This is a bit of a problem. Usually, we will ask some questions to everybody to see if they have any ideas about who was responsible for the incident since it can be one of the guests. But when they're like that, they are hardly any help. Unless anyone has an idea of how to direct their attention to us in a way to show that we are in charge, it's better to just call the butler and ask him to show us the rest of the castle."

"How useful is it to have them helping us?" Hera asked.

"It's a bit of a coin toss. Sometimes it might not help at all, while in other runs, we might be able to find the culprit in a few minutes because of the information we get from someone. Like I said, it's not always the same, so I can't exactly give you a good answer for this. But if we could get their attention, it wouldn't hurt."

"I really hate doing this kind of thing," Hera sighed and turned to Blue, "Can you make a cloud escalator for us? One that can hold all of us and bring us back to the first floor."

Blue nodded, "Yeah, you want to climb down from here?"

"Yeah. And I don't want to hear a single joke coming from any of you about this. Ever!" Hera told her group.

Blue felt that was a bit weird, but she decided to go along with whatever Hera was planning. She created the cloud escalator, and Hera called Daskka through the necklace, "You said I can have a command to call my entire court, right? Can I change it later?"

"Yes and yes. I'll set it up for you. What's the plan?" the snake replied with her eyes sparkling. She loved mystery movies and this wasn't something she ever imagined doing.

"One last thing. When I call you like that, can you be in the big mist snake form?"

"I can. You want me to do that? And what's the command?"

Hera didn't reply with her words. Instead, she used their connection to show Daskka her intentions. The snake held in a chuckle but nodded in agreement. The explorer then turned back to the group, "Follow me, don't laugh or say anything until we are down there."

Hera took a deep breath and stepped into the cloud escalator. After she went a few steps down, the rest of her party joined. Looking around, she could tell that some of the guests were stepping out of their shock and turning toward her with curious expressions. Hera did her best to keep a regal appearance, and he spoke in a loud and commanding voice, "I am Empress Hera Kingsley. All of you stay in your seats while we investigate this murder."

When she finished speaking her name, the command to call her entire court was triggered. The five blades appeared around her, with the four handaxes flanking her sides and Lurize in front of her, spearheading the formation. From behind the cloud, a massive 5-meter-tall snake made out of purple mist appeared with glowing eyes making her entrance even more intimidating. That seemed to have worked, and suddenly, all the guests were now focused on her, and we were no longer frozen in fear.

The moment she and her party arrived on the 1st floor, the butler approached them and bowed before whispering, "Apologies, my Empress. We have security measures, but it seems like whoever did this was able to bypass them. We can wait for someone to come to help us, or, if you want to find this murderer yourself, I'll be glad to give my assistance in anything I can."

Hera glanced back to Helena, "Is it always the Butler?"

Helena shook her head, "No. Or at least, it was never the butler when I did this."

"But it could be?" Blue asked.

"I understand that you must consider all possibilities, but I wasn't responsible for this. I was in the back with the kitchen staff, setting everything up for the meal," The butler replied while giving an angry stare to Blue.

"I'm sorry. But, like you said, we have to consider everyone as a potential suspect for now," Hera interjected, already noticing how Blue was bothered by the stare.

The butler nodded and turned back to Hera, "That is fine. I admit that being accused of something this heinous bothered me, but I understand why you did it."

Hera nodded and turned back to her party, "Any suggestions about what we should do?"

"What's versus some questions. I think we all watched enough cop shows to know the basics of interrogation. Let's just see if anyone here has any idea who might have done it or why they might have done it, and then we go from there. I honestly think that the murderer will be hiding somewhere else in the castle, but if we know who they are, it might be easier to make them come out and confess," Helena suggested.

"That's a possibility?" Bonnie asked.

"Actually, yes. If we find who did it, start yelling or accusing the right person, we might be able to finish the dungeon before even having to deal with any of the traps."

"OK then. There are a lot of people here, so let's split up and everybody talks with someone. But let's not waste too much time with this. Like Lena said, we are probably just grasping at straws," Hera turned to Bonnie and Blue," Maybe you guys can do some good cop, bad cop routines. Alex, you might be able to hear what people are saying without us being there, then Lena and I just do the regular interviews."

"That's a good plan. Since when are you into true crime?" Blue asked.

"I'm not. Like it's fun, but I get bored easily. Daskka is the one who's really into it. Part of this plan came from her," Hera gestured to the giant mist snake that was still hovering behind them.

"Well done," Helena turned to Daskka, "but may I change one thing in the plan? Hera, you go to the kitchen and interview the staff. Since you're the Empress, the people here will probably want to talk to you about a lot of things. On the other hand, the staff will probably be a bit more intimidated because of your position. That way we can gain some time. We do this for half an hour, and then we try searching the rest of the castle". Helena looked at the butler, "I assume it's not a problem."

"Not at all. We are here to help. It's a shame that this happened, but I can't say I'm surprised that something went wrong," the butler sighed.

"And why is that?" Hera asked.

"Because these types of events attract the attention of some unsavory types. We had other presentations where people got their belongings stolen, or there was a kidnapping attempt. All those were unsuccessful, but I figured that someday someone would come along that was able to complete their mission, so to speak. I warned my employer about this, but he wasn't interested in spending more money to reinforce the security."

"And where is your employer tonight?" Hera pressed. The owner of this place being conveniently away seemed to be a good enough lead to investigate.

"He was unable to attend. It seems like there was a family emergency, and he had to go out of town last week. We talked a couple days ago, and even some of the guards can confirm that he is nowhere near the premises."

"I want to talk to the guards and all the staff that were working tonight. I think the kitchen will be the better place for us to have this conversation. That way, we don't have to worry about any judgment from the guests," Hera looked to her group, searching for confirmation or another suggestion, but everyone stayed silent, just hearing her directions.

"I agree. Please, follow me. I'll gather everyone."

"OK then. We'll see each other in half an hour?" Hera asked.

Everyone agreed, and they all split off to do their own missions. Talking to the staff was easier than she expected. Maybe it was because she remembered how it was to work in the service industry, but the people were quick to connect with her and open up. Daskka was with her, taking all their statements and ensuring that none of them was lying or hiding anything. Not that they could tell for sure since neither of them had any lie-detecting spells or skills, but the snake was able to tell if the person they were talking with was nervous or not, which helped a lot in the questioning. There was a surprisingly small number of people working tonight for the size of the event, 2 cooks, 3 waiters, 4 guards, and the butler. Everyone else had already left and couldn't enter the castle until the event was over.

Unfortunately, from what she could tell, none of them seemed to know anything that could help to find out the killer. If it was something about stealing, there was a chance that there were some of the staff involved, but the mention of a murder scared them too much for them to be related to it. After 10 minutes, Hera thanked them all and walked back to the main room, hoping that her friends had better luck than her.