"Sir Sershaw and Lord Hallan are both dead inside Sir Sershaw's office!"
The news spread like wildfire, the guest had asked why he did not come out of the room even after a long time, and the guards, who said that they had strict orders to not let anyone in and blocked anyone from entering, were the primary suspects for the disappearance.
Not only were they missing, but the entire office was rummaged. The safe was broken and all the valuables were missing, including several documents of both internal and external affairs.
"It is not just an ordinary assassination or theft." A blonde man was talking to himself as he examined the crime scene. He wore a neatly ironed hunter-green frock coat. He had a connected mustache with the rest of the beard neatly shaved.
The police had sealed off the room and were in the process of investigating. "Any clues, Detective Hawke?" A young man in a police uniform came to the blonde detective who was now kneeling in front of the corpse on a chair. He was a rookie who had only joined a week back.
The uniform was a combination of high-waist trousers and a tailored long coat with high collars. They were in mixed colors of deep blue and charcoal black with strips of burgundy separating the colors. There was also a flat hat with an insignia with a symbol of two short knives crossing through a cogwheel.
"This body of Lord Hallan was moved onto the chair after being killed somewhere else, probably not in this room." His voice was calm and collected.
"How do you know?" The young police asked.
"Well Mister Heiser, for starters, the body died quickly without any actions, and the other body was killed with a knife to the heart. Both died without knowing how, so there is a high chance that both died at the same time, otherwise, there would be resistance.
"But have a good look at the body, there is a sign of injury on the back of his head as if he was knocked out. But the injury is too small for a knockout, so he fell on the floor and the killer moved him here to the chair."
"Then why do you think the body died somewhere else?" Heiser examined the head injury on the body which was barely visible.
"That's where my explanation about both dying at the same time comes into play," He smiled wryly and walked over to the body of Knight Sershaw, and pointed at the knife wound on his chest. "Do you feel the residue ether?"
Heiser promptly nodded at the words of the detective. However he still did not understand what he was implying and was confused, but he could feel the ether, he was an elf and was sensitive to it.
Seeing the young man nod Detective Hawke continued, "There are no wounds on the body of Lord Hallan, which means he was killed via ether and Sir Sershaw was killed with an ether-manipulated knife. Normally, this would have been seen as both died at the same time, but the killer had missed the timing a bit.
"The residue ether on Lord Hallan's body is gone while the residue ether on Sir Sershaw's body remains, which means both were killed at different times." He paused to let the youth absorb all of this information.
Heiser looked at the detective for a moment, his eyes were that of a man who was thinking deeply about something. After a while, his eyes widened as he realized something, "If both were killed at different times, then one should try to fight back and make noise, which would attract the guard's attention.
"This means that Sir Sershaw, who was killed later, did not know that Lord Hallan was killed!" He exclaimed, "And that means Lord Hallan was killed somewhere else."
"Correct." Hawke gave him a light clap, "Now let me paint you the full picture, that I have collected till now.
"Lord Hallan was killed somewhere else, and the killer should have the means to move a corpse, there are two options for it, one is necromancy while the other is by using a dimensional principle. It should be the latter since the former needs time and a ritual, teleportation is out of the question since there is a barrier set up.
"The killer was able to get in after killing Lord Hallan, and the guards say that they saw Lord Hallan entering the office, so the killer should be using a transformation principle."
After explaining all this Hawke turned around and went to question the guests who were told to stay back While they were nobles, they all knew better than to be arrogant when an investigation was going on and to listen to the police. They did not dare to offend the king who led the whole empire's police force.
He approached them and started to question them nicely and politely, "Hello, I am Felix Hawke, many of you might know me and many might not, I am an official Detective and work directly under the king's orders. Now I ask for your cooperation for the questions I am about to ask..."
Heiser watched as the detective left the room, and focused his attention on the knife wound on Sir Sershaw's chest. The residue ether was slowly dissipating, a police officer used an artifact to collect a few of the ether. The artifact looked like a small transparent globe filled with crimson blood.
There were many ways to identify similar ethers, but if one used a dispensible catalyst, it was impossible to find the culprit. This was also the reason why the catalyst markets were closely monitored, but there were still many underground supplies.
Noel was drinking a glass of wine after his big gig, he sat in the underground bar where the assassins were located. They were a group who killed people for money, most of them knew that they were not living a nice life, but they needed money.
But Noel, on the other hand, was rich, and he killed people for the thrill. It was not because he liked killing, but because he felt like his life was boring and took up challenges, he did not mind if he died in the process.
There was a notice board on the wall where any new mission would be posted, he eyed the board for some time, missions for assassination would only amount to at most five missions a day, but most would taken the moment they were posted, only the difficult ones remained, and Noel always looked for something difficult.
As he was waiting, a new mission was posted on the board, and many rushed to take a look at it, but all of them turned back defeated after they saw the mission.
Noel smiled, his new mission had come.