A/N: Finally! A never-before-posted chapter! That's right! This is not a repost.

LUCIUS

WHENEVER LUCIUS was in deep thought, he would forget about himself or the world around him. All he wanted to focus on what the case he was working on. He could care less if he had not eaten, bathed or even changed his clothes. Distraction was at the bottom of his list. He could accomplish all of that once he was done with the task at hand.

Unfortunately, his days of poring over documents and cross-referencing records had not yielded the result that he wanted. He plastered a giant canvas on the wall of his office, drew a layout of the Palace building, and pinned photos of the people where they were on the night of the attack. Almost everyone was outside.

His hair became more disheveled every time he pulled some strands whenever he hit a dead-end. They turned greasy and oily from the lack of proper bath. But this was the least of his concerns.

"Ugh!" He groaned. He leaned his back against the chair too much that he almost fell from it. The mini-heart attack woke him up. He then heard approaching footsteps from the wooden stairs. Judging by the lightness of the footfalls and short interval between each, he could deduce who had come to see him.

"What the hell is that smell?" His partner Isabella sniffed before covering her nose. "Did you let a homeless person in and allow him to sleep here without washing the dirt off?"

"That's just me!" Lucius raised his right hand unashamedly. He was guilty as charged. Sorry, I haven't taken a bath since . . . I forgot what day. Who needs a bath when there's something more interesting than that?"

"Definitely almost every rational human being." His partner's voice was muffled. "I know how important this case is for you, but you shouldn't forget your hygiene! What if the capitol constabulary pays you a visit? What if the king himself decides to come down from his palace to get direct report from you? They will be disgusted."

Lucius turned in her direction. "First, the captain will understand. Second, there's no way the king will visit this wretched place we call office just to get an update. He will send for a coach and ask me to be brought to the palace."

Isabella sighed. "All I'm saying is you need to be presentable at all times, no matter what's on your plate. Being clean will also benefit your health."

"What I need is answers, not bath," he insisted.

"Take a pause and take a bath," she ordered him. "I can't stay any longer here and help you if you smell this bad."

"Don't you have a vial of magical liquid that can instantly make a closed area smell like lavender?"

"Even if I have, I won't use it here. Address the root cause of the problem. Don't rely on temporary solution."

"But—"

"You heard me the first time, didn't you?"

"Fine!" Lucius threw his hands up in the air and got to his feet. He walked past his partner who still had her nose covered with a cloth. He went straight to the bathroom and left the door slightly opened. "I also need to take a breather after hitting a dead-end. Hey, what are you doing—"

"I'm cleaning your mess!" Isabelle yelled from the lounge. Lucius could not see what she was doing. But the rattling of the plates and cups on the table gave him the hint that she was putting them away into the sink. He had not washed any of his tableware. "My goodness! How can you concentrate in this type of environment? So disgusting!"

"I'm flexible." Lucius began to undress himself and turned on the shower. "I can work anywhere. My training as an arcane tracker gave me that advantage. I can work on the streets, in the garbage dumps or under a tree. Having an office makes me seem more legit."

"Your potential clients will surely be turned off once they see this mess. You know what? You should hire a housekeeper if you're too lazy to do any of the chores."

"Once I receive the handsome reward from the newly crowned king—long may he reign, by the way— maybe I will have the mercs to avail the services of a housekeeper. Right now, my budget is tight."

Even if his office turned into a dumpsite, he would not care at all. At the moment, he had the single most important case of his life, the one that could change everything for him. Once he claimed his reward, he would not need to work as an arcane tracker anymore. He could buy an island somewhere off the coast of Polesin and live out the rest of his days there.

"You surely have hit a dead-end," Isabella commented. "Since when did you take interest in map-making?"

Lucius could picture her standing before his magnum opus: the layout of the Palace. He scrubbed off whatever dirt stuck on his body and washed it with flowing water. "I haven't made any breakthrough since that cult leader—sorry, I meant the leader of the Order of Arcana—gave us the registry. None of his members could have been there around the time of the late king's death."

He turned off the shower, grabbed the nearest bathrobe from the rack, and wrapped it around him. He was dripping wet, but he did not mind if droplets of water would scatter on the floor.

"Based on your map, the only ones near the throne room at that time were the two guards standing outside." Isabella glanced at him over her shoulder before snapping her gaze back to the layout. "You're already done taking a shower? And please, put some clothes on!"

"I don't stay any longer than three minutes in the bathroom. Might catch a cold."

"How I wish I could do same."

This was a habit that Lucius had adopted from his training as an arcane tracker. Back then, they did not have the luxury of time to indulge themselves in a relaxing bath or shower. They always had to be ready and on the move in case they got an urgent mission. Just a minute or two, they should have bathed and changed into their uniforms already.

"So, are you saying that the murderer is one of the two?" Lucius grabbed the tunic from the closet on the left of his desk, removed his bath robe, and wore it. He did not care if his partner would take a peek. They were adults already.

"Or maybe both. One of them did it while the other stood guard outside."

"Sorry to burst your theory's bubble. But neither of them were in the registry." He picked up the thick book on his desk. "If the king was stabbed to death, then they'd be automatically suspect number one. But no. The king died because of magic. His stomach exploded. His blood and entrails splattered everywhere. Your magic dust revealed as much."

Isabella crossed her arms, turning her head. "If no arcaster was near the throne room, then who else could have possibly killed the late king? We have no other suspects to choose from. It's either the royal knight or the two palace guardsmen outside. Only the knight has arcane powers, but he isn't a hydrocaster that fit our culprit's profile. Meanwhile, the guardsmen are not gifted so they couldn't have made his guts burst from inside and out."

"Maybe the culprit can turn invisible?" Lucius asked. He was just spitballing some random ideas. "Maybe they transformed into mist and seeped into the throne room through the tiny gaps under the doors or between the windows without anyone noticing? Arcasters with high level of expertise can do that trick, right?"

"So we're looking for aerocasters? But they don't match the hydrocaster profile . . . unless they're duocasters?"

"Probably." Lucius shrugged. He stood next to Isabella whose eyes were transfixed on the map. "I get the feeling that things aren't what they seem. Do you feel the same?"

Isabella glanced sideways at him. "Of course. Look at the initial phase of the investigation. The capitol constabulary thought that one of the royal knight did it, but you kinda proved that he did not. It's as if the mastermind of this royal murder wanted to appear that the obvious is the answer."

While he had no definite image yet of who could have murdered the king, Lucius sensed that the one behind it was clever. No one would have dared to kill a person in a heavily guarded place. The fact that the crime was committed within the hallowed walls of the Palace meant that the perpetrator was smart, bold, and confident. It took a lot of guts to pull this off.

"The obvious is the answer, huh?" Lucius repeated. The facts of the case flashed on his mind. The way the king was murdered. The traces of magic revealed by Isabella's dust. The royal knight losing consciousness and remembering nothing. The position of the suspects in the map.

Then it hit Lucius. He had not entertained that possibility because he was so busy pursuing another lead. Could anyone blame him? He was so engrossed on the most obvious thread that he had disregarded the others right in front of him.

"It's quite obvious to us that magic was used to kill the king, right?" he muttered, making his partner turn to him. "What if the opposite is the truth?"

Isabella squinted at him. "What do you mean? You saw it with your own eyes, didn't you? Only magic could have done that damage on the king's body. Even the magic dust told us the same thing!"

"It is possible to recreate magic, isn't it? Like the vial of liquid of yours that can freeze anyone that it touches?"

"Yes. We found a way to produce the same effect without the help of natural magic. It took us decades to perfect the art. Manufactured magic, that's what we call it nowadays."

"Can your magic dust detect the residue of manufactured magic?"

His partner's eyes blinked repeatedly, as if she was starting to get the point that Lucius was driving at.

"The dust detects the disruption in our surroundings. Since manufactured magic creates the same amount of disruption as natural magic, then it will definitely be detected."

Lucius smirked. His mind began to put together the pieces of the puzzle in his head, hinting at the picture that might give him the answer. He made a hundred-and-eighty-degree turn and went back to the starting point. It might not be too late to pursue another lead.

"Picture this," he began, pacing back and forth in front of the map, "when the late king and the royal knight entered the throne room, one of the two palace guardsmen snuck inside, knocked the knight unconscious, and stabbed the king using a spear. It's safe to assume that the guardsman was highly trained in strength and speed. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been stationed in the palace—let alone the throne room—in the first place."

"It's not that hard to imagine."

"For some reason, the king didn't use his magic to fight back," he went on. "If he were to be found dead with a stab wound in his stomach, the constables would realize that someone who owned a sharp weapon could have killed him. And that reasoning would automatically implicate the palace guardsmen. They'd be caught in the same night."

"So in order to avoid suspicion," Isabella's eyes squinted further, "the perpetrator used manufactured magic to make the king's stomach explode and therefore hide the stab wound."

"He probably shoved a vial of magic liquid down the king's throat. Then . . . boom! The stab wound was so obliterated, the royal medical examiner failed to see any hint of it. Since magic was allegedly involved, the crime would be pinned to any capable arcaster. A spear user like the palace guardsmen wouldn't be suspected. Suspicion averted."

"We fell for it, huh?" His partner chuckled as she shook her head. "I didn't expect those men at the double door to be behind this elaborate scheme. Who would have thought that they were capable of coming up with such plan?"

It hurt Lucius' pride, but that was the truth. He got tricked by them. "They sent us to a wild goose chase. They thought they could get away with their crime. But unfortunately for them, we've seen the light, the truth. The walls are closing in on them."

"But something still bothers me." Isabella looked down, touching her chin. "Whatever manner the king was killed, why didn't he fight back? Even if he was stabbed in the chest, he would have been able to at least put up a fight, wouldn't he?"

"That's a mystery for another time," Lucius answered. Even he got no idea why. "Right now, we must focus on capturing the kingslayers. We have an interesting theory, but we have no proof to support it. They can easily get away from our accusation."

"You're lucky that you have me." His partner beamed. "I know someone in the guild who can help us track down all shops—both legal and illegal—selling manufactured magic. If those guardsmen bought some vials from those places, we would have something concrete against them."

"Good!" Lucius clapped. "Reach out to your friends in the guild while I'll reach out to the capitol constabulary. I'll ask the captain to help us gain access to the records of all Palace staff. We need to know more about our suspects before we make a move on them."

"But if you were right, I wonder why they did it? Why would they murder the king whose residence they swore to protect? Did someone pay them to assassinate the king? Was it for personal or political reasons?"

"I'm curious as well!" Lucius rubbed his palms together. "But we'll probably find out the reason once they're in custody. We'll make them spill all the beans." 

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