Chapter 38
The Culprit Is Her!
“Hm? Himena… that outfit…?”
“Eron, sorry, but for today could you call me Hermes?”
Eron was surprised when he saw Himena stepping down from the carriage.
On the way to meet the author who had received a threatening letter, Himena had asked to be left alone in the carriage for a moment — and emerged from inside disguised as Hermes.
“Why… suddenly dressed like a man…?”
“Think about it. If that author recognizes me as Himena, would he meet me properly? He made me look like such a mess in his novel, after all.”
“Ah… when you put it that way, I suppose not.”
“Then introduce me as your adjutant, Hermes. I’ll treat you like my superior too.”
“All right. Understood.”
They rode the carriage again and arrived in front of a magnificent mansion in the center of the capital, Grantole.
“The author must be pretty well-off, huh?”
“Yes. I don’t know much about romance novels, but I hear he’s quite famous in that field. He’s had several big hits.”
“Is that so?”
Following the elderly butler’s lead, the two entered the mansion.
‘Wow… the interior is lavish. I hear successful authors from my previous life make a fortune too; looks like this one’s no different…’
Expensive-looking paintings and sculptures were displayed everywhere inside the house; the carpets and decorations all bore ornate patterns.
‘Still, it annoys me a bit. He’s making money off other people’s stories, right? My and Kailian’s story! How can there be no copyright for that? Ugh!’
While thinking that, they were shown upstairs to the study where the author was waiting.
“Author Lopez, I’ve brought guests.”
“Mm, come in.”
A high, nasal voice sounded and the butler opened the door for them. They entered the study.
“Oh my! Welcome!”
‘Huh? What—what is this. The author is… a man?’
The author, who looked to be in his late forties, had long silver hair tied back and worn eye makeup, but he was clearly a man with a thinly styled mustache.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Eron Serpentis, a sheriff from the Capital Guard. This is my adjutant, Hermes Ponti.”
“Hello, author.”
“Nice to meet you, I’m Andrea Lopez. Um… but this is cheating, isn’t it?”
The author widened his eyes and scanned the two of them up and down, twirling his mustache as he murmured.
“Pardon? What do you mean…?”
“To think such handsome pretty boys are doing the rough job of protecting the capital… Oh my, this is unbelievable. It’s not that you protect the capital — the capital should be protecting you.”
He flapped his hands exaggeratedly and fussed.
“Ah… haha. Th-thank you.”
‘This man has quite a character.’
Himena smiled awkwardly at him while Eron cleared his throat and shifted to a serious tone to explain why they had come.
“May we have a moment to speak with you, author?”
“Oh my, excuse my lapse. Yes, yes. Please sit. Butler, bring some tea, please.”
“Yes, sir.”
Once the butler left, Eron began his questioning in earnest.
“Three days ago you had a servant send this threatening letter to the Capital Guard, correct?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“When and how did you receive that letter?”
“Hmm… it was about ten days after my new novel, Please Curb That Princess’s Obsession, hit the bookstores. The delivery boy didn’t bring it himself — my maid did. I had sent her to the stationery shop to buy paper, and when she came home the letter was tucked into her basket. She got startled and brought it to me right away.”
“So someone secretly put the letter into the maid’s basket?”
Himena frowned and asked.
“That’s right. I questioned the girl and she didn’t know who or when it happened.”
“Sheriff, after you’re finished speaking with the author, we should speak to that maid as well.”
“Hmm. We’ll do that.”
“You must have been quite startled by the letter.”
“Oh no, I wasn’t really all that surprised. It’s so childish. It’s not even kids’ mischief. I almost ignored it, but then I remembered the murder that happened at a bookstore recently. That author’s murderer was the husband of another author, right?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“I usually read the Gazette quite carefully. An author needs inspiration from anything, after all. So when I recalled the article about the threatening letter in the Gazette, I thought, since this is my first time experiencing such a thing, I’d better send it to the sheriff just in case.”
“I see. Yes — that author also received a similar threatening letter before being murdered.”
“Really? What did it say back then?”
Himena took out the threatening letter she had been handed earlier by Eron and showed it to him.
“The content is similar. It demanded the author change the ending of their novel.”
“Oh my, honestly, is this person a lunatic? Who tells someone to change the book’s ending because they don’t like it? Sending a petty little threatening letter like that wouldn’t make authors blink. What childish nonsense is this?”
The author flapped about, irritated and hysterical as he looked over the letter.
“Author, you shouldn’t belittle this. It’s not such a trivial matter.”
Eron said gravely, looking at Andrea.
“Yes, the sheriff is right. The person who sent those letters is a serial killer who’s murdered five authors so far. The reason was the same: the author didn’t change the story’s ending to the killer’s satisfaction.”
When Himena, expressionless, also stated the facts, the author finally went pale with shock.
“Oh my! W-what did you say? Is that… true? Where did this happen? I’ve never heard of such a thing. I’ve never seen it in the Gazette?”
“Ah… those murdered authors were not here in Kedem — they lived in other countries… in the Kingdom of Duse…”
Himena faltered slightly and changed the subject to avoid the awkwardness.
“Anyway, have you seen anyone suspicious recently? Someone loitering around the mansion, or someone disguising their identity to approach you? The suspect is likely a woman. Specifically… a blonde with blue eyes.”
“A blonde with blue eyes, huh? Hmm, when I first received the threatening letter I did have someone in mind….”
The author furrowed his brow, twirling his mustache.
“Who? Who was it?”
Eron and Himena exchanged a look and asked urgently.
“I can’t speak for murders in other countries, but I think it’s very possible this threatening letter came from her.”
“Her?”
“Princess Himena Sylvester.”
“Wha—?”
Himena blurted out, incredulous.
“Oh hoho. You’d be surprised, pretty boy adjutant. But any reader of my novel The Princess’s Obsession would immediately think of Princess Sylvester and Marquis Termos as the two lead characters. Didn’t I say it was a brilliant idea? Writing a real-time novel based on the most talked-about scandal in society! I’m truly ahead of my time!”
“W-what does that have to do with thinking Princess Sylvester is the sender of the threatening letter?”
Eron glanced at Himena’s trembling fists and quickly asked.
“As you may know if you’ve read my book, I tried to portray the evils Princess Sylvester has committed without holding back. I have fairly wide connections in society and have heard many things about her.”
He tweaked his mustache and frowned.
“I’ve heard she blocked other young ladies from approaching the handsome, upright, brave Marquis Termos — if they so much as glanced at him, she’d plot all sorts of schemes to ruin their standing in society. Isn’t she a notorious villain?”
“Y-yes… that seems to be so…”
Himena boiled inside as she listened to the author’s words, but since they weren’t entirely untrue she couldn’t argue back and instead wore an expression that was hard to tell whether it was a smile or a grimace.
“So my readers all wrote in the same way — they hate the princess-modeled heroine and want her to be punished mercilessly, to suffer and die horribly.”
“Author, how do you know your readers want that?” Eron asked.
“Hah, take a look.”
He handed them a box full of letters from readers.
“These are all letters from my fans. The content is the same: ‘Please kill Himerona quickly, please.’”
Picking a few at random and opening them, just as he said, the majority were pleas that the villain-like heroine be made to die a horrible death.
“Then wouldn’t Princess Sylvester be furious? She must have thought, this is unbearable. So she might have pretended to be the serial killer and sent these threatening letters. It even says in the letter to change Himerona’s personality to a kinder one. Ha — isn’t the answer obvious?”
“Ugh… I suppose… that could be one way to look at it…”
“Oh my, pretty boy adjutant, are you unwell?”
Himena inadvertently let out a stifled groan of anger.
“No, I’m fine. It’s just my lunch… didn’t settle well… I’m okay… haha.”
“You should eat smaller portions, then.”
Eron patted Himena’s back with concern and continued.
“But author, that’s only your conjecture. If this really is a threatening letter from a serial killer, your life could be in danger. You can’t change volume one now, but for volume two — are you willing to change the character as the perpetrator demands?”
“Oh my, absolutely not! No way! Like I said, the life of this novel lies in being a real-time piece based on real people. The moment I stray from that, the work dies!”
Andrea the author grabbed the box of readers’ letters back and raised his voice passionately.
“To an author, a work is like a child! I would rather die than ruin my child-like work like that! I simply cannot do it!”
He brusquely dismissed Eron’s concerned suggestion with resolute expression, and further persuasion was pointless.
“Understood. I get it. The previously murdered authors also refused the killer’s demands, didn’t they? And… the ends were tragic.”
Himena rose from her seat with a dark expression and spoke.
“But you must remember this.”
