The banquet ended a while afterward, and all the guests separated to different areas of the manor.

I, Charles, Arthur, Phelps, and Grimsby and Irene were all in the billiard room. The men play billiard while I sat aside with Irene.

We chatted and I found out quite a bit about her; such as how her late mother was a famous play actress, and her father was one of the main figure in the theatrical industry. And she met Grimsby for the first time through one of the plays which was funded by her father.

"Wow," I laughed, "Was that really the first thing Mr Grimsby said to you?"

"Yes! I would have never imagined that I will be in a relationship with him when we first met." She exclaimed. "What about you, Clare? How did you meet Earl Grey? Are you two in a relationship?"

"Um, no we are not." I shook my head. "But the first time I met him was in a ball held by Her Majesty. In fact, I was the guest of honour of the ball. A mutual friend introduced us, and Charles invited me to my first dance of that ball."

"Oh wow, what a way to meet." She smiled.

"Look, Irene, Charles seem to be winning." I said as Charles managed to push yet another billiard ball down into a hole.

"Earl Grey sure is good at this. But let me tell you, Grimsby can't play this game to save his life!" Irene chuckled.

Suddenly, a loud shout could be heard in the distance. I and Charles looked at each other, and we hurried out the room toward the source without hesitation.

"What's wrong?" Charles asked as he approached Mey-Rin, who was pounding on Siemens' door.

The rest of the guests also gathered here after having heard the commotion.

"I will kick it down." Sebastian said to Mey-Rin, and proceeded to do so.

The scenario inside evoked screams and shouts. The limp body of Gerog von Siemens lay lifelessly on a chair facing the fire. The roar and of thunder and flash of lightning only added to the already eerie atmosphere.

"Excuse me!" Arthur stepped forward and inspected the body. "He's dead...."

"What is going on?" Ciel appeared in the door in his dressing gown. His eye widened when he saw the body, "Lord Siemens..."

Arthur looked down at the puddle of crimson on Siemens' chest, "I'm pretty sure.... this chest wound is the cause of death."

"A-At any rate," Grimsby spoke, "We better not move anything until the Yard arrives."

Bard wiped his forehead, "But this room is pretty hot, isn't it."

"I heated all the room in advance but... I suppose he might have been cold." Sebastian said.

"I hate to say it like this, but..." Bard paused, "With this heat, he'll decay in no time. Even if we put the fire out, he won't last long next to the hearth."

"Decay...?" Next to me Irene whispered shakily.

They decided to move Siemens to the cellar until the Yard comes.

Sebastian lit the previously unlit room and moved away the chair that he 'died' in.

"But I doubt the Yard will come for quite a while." Lau said, "I mean, look at this storm. This area is completely inaccessible right now. There is a good chance the culprit is still in the manor"

"But hey," Charles spoke up, "If you think about it logically, wouldn't one of us be the culprit?

People gasped. "Why us!? Don't be ridiculous!" Grimsby exclaimed.

"As he said!" Woodley said.

"In the first place, most of us have only just met." Arthur said.

Suddenly Irene gasped, "When we arrived at this door, wasn't it locked?"

Ciel then explained how a latched door could be locked form the outside with a needle and thread. Then it came down to giving our alibis around the time of the murder.

"Irene and I were in the Billiard room." Grimsby said.

"That's right." She nodded.

"I was there too." Charles said.

"Me too." I said.

"So was I," Arthur said, "Oh, and Mr Phelps. None of us left."

"What were you two doing?" Ciel asked Lau and Ran-Mao.

"We were drinking in the lounge with Mr Woodley." Lau answered while stroking Ran-Mao's head.

"Yeah," Woodley agreed, "We were together until the disturbance."

"We were all cleaning up after the banquet." Mey-Rin said for the servants.

"Which means..." Charles said directing his gaze at Ciel.

"I hope you will pardon the implication, Earl," Lau said, "But what were you doing at the time."

"I was sleeping in my room." Ciel said calmly.

"Can you prove that?" Charles asked.

"No."

"So... for now that makes you the prime suspect." Charles gave him a smile of pity, or of something else?

Everyone looked at Ciel as if expecting him to say something in defend for himself. But he said nothing.

Charles smiled and looked at Arthur, "We'd like some insurance that we'll all get home alive. So, how about we chain you together, and you keep tabs on the earl?"

"What?" Arthur's expression was shocked.

"I supposed that can't be helped." Ciel sighed, "Tanaka, make sure all the guest are shown to their rooms and that they are comfortable." Then Sebastian, Ciel, and Arthur left the room.

Then all the guests were shown to their respective rooms. When Phelps discovered that his room was right next to this murder room, he refused to stay in it. The servants had to find him another room, which, as I remembered from the anime, was Ciel's room.

My room was next to Charles' room, and opposite Irene's.

"Irene, don't worry, I'm sure we're going to be fine." I said to comfort her, who was still slightly shocked.

She nodded, "Thank you, Clare. I hope nothing more happens during the night." And we went into our rooms.

Since I knew more was going to happen tonight, I didn't prepare for bed. But instead, I changed from my ball gown into a day dress that was easier to move in, and read to pass time. When I heard that late in the night while everyone should be sound asleep, a sound of a door being opened and some light footsteps were coming from the corridor, I went out of the room. I lightly followed the footsteps until it went into Siemens's room. I peaked into it, and there they were, Earl Grey and Sebastian.

Sebastian was kneeling down in front of the hearth with the two ampules that we gave Siemens in his hand. Behind him, Charles had his arms raised, with the fire iron in hands, ready to strike down.

Within moments, Charles had bashed Sebastian's head so hard that it sent him flying, and then stab right through his heart from the back. Sebastian lay stilly on the floor.

"God, this is no fun." Charles said to himself and jumped onto Sebastian's back, "I wanted tease that stupid brat. But her found out so quickly..." He scraped up the ampules, and threw it out the window.

"Now everything is ruined!" He said angrily out the window.

He started walking towards the door, "And Siemens is in the basement!? Going by myself is going to SUCK!"

I took this chance to make my entrance, "Maybe I can go with you."

He quickly removed his rapier from the sheath and pointed it to my neck. When he realized it was just me he put it back in, "Ah, it's just you?"

I smiled, "Yes, just me." I looked around him and saw the blood-covered Sebastian lying on the floor with the iron sticking out of his back. "What a mess you've made there!" I said jokingly.

He huffed, "He deserves it, for ruining our plan."

I shrugged, "I suppose."

"Well, I'm coming to the basement now. Are you coming with me?"

"Yes, let's go."

We left the body and soundlessly walked through the manor to the stairs leading down to the basement.

"Arg, I hope there is no gh-"

"Boo!" I scared quietly.

"Ahhh!" He shouted.

"Shhh!" I put a finger to my mouth to shush him, but I myself couldn't hold in the laughter.

"That was mean, Clare." He pouted.

"Sorry, I had to do that." I said still trying not to laugh.

We reached the bottom and he pushed opened the door. Inside a loud snore could be heard. Siemens was sleeping blissfully with a bottle of empty wine in his hand, unaware of what was to become of him.

Charles kicked him and he woke up from his slumber, "Oh, Earl Grey, Baroness Clarette! It seems things went well! Were they surprised? When I woke up there just happened to be wine, so I had a little hair of the dog-"

Charles has had enough of his annoying senseless talk, so he shushed him by putting his rapier straight through his chest.

"Quit blabbering and shut that fat mouth. Obnoxious piece of scum." Charles pushed it deeper into Siemens' body, "You think you dim-witted Germans can catch up with Britain? You're ten years early." He straighten up and was about to pull the rapier out when I put a hand on the handle and stopped him, "Can I?" He nodded and let go of his rapier.

"And women are definitely not below men. We can do just as much, and more." I said venomously as I pulled out the rapier from the wrong angle while kicking his body back with my heel, causing him more pain. He twitched for a few seconds on the floor, and went still. I jumped away avoiding the blood puddle that was building up. I returned the blade to Charles, and he re-covered the body with the white cloth.

"Whoo, that felt good. After all that abuse in the carriage." I said.

Charles laughed, "Serves him right."

I followed him towards the exit of the door, but stopped. I looked up at the cellar ceiling, and there he was, Sebastian. He looked down at us emotionlessly and I gave him a smile.

"Clare, what are you doing? Come on let's get out of here." Charles said without looking back.

"Alright." I removed my gaze from the demon and exited the cellar with Charles.

-----------------------

Lesson of the chapter: "You can tell a lot about a woman's mood just by her hands. For example, if she's holding a gun (or a rapier), she is probably angry."

Me: Lately I have not been very diligent in updating (not that I've ever been XD soz reader-tan!). I actually have been working on another fanfic, a kpop fanfic this time. I know I have that EXO fanfic called "The Shadow of Meritorious World" that only has like 2 chapters, which I haven't updated in like 5 million years, I hope this one will actually be continued. (I really should stop starting fanfics before I finish XD).

It is a BTS V (Kim Taehyung) fanfic called 'My Enemy, My Love, My Kim Taehyung'. This will probably be the first time I write a serious oc x someone love story, I hope I'll do well!

So if you like kpop and BTS, please go check it out!