Chapter 8 - Shattered Facades

The next day, Amon sat in his office, lost in thought.

He had let Julia go. Since the physical description of her dark chestnut hair and the dagger she had used were fairly common, there was no concrete evidence he could use against her.

Moreover, there were no eyewitnesses in the first place. It was all a story he had created to see through her facade.

In the end, it was the Amon's desperate stance that had been ultimately revealed.

'You want to believe. Am I wrong?'

The memory of Julia's sincere tone and the way her light brown eyes looked at him through the hood lingered in his mind.

Despite the vivid description she gave of Russell's death, he couldn't help but feel doubtful of how she came to obtain such details. The information was only known to a few selected knights.

However, her account of the scene was almost flawless. He wondered why she suggested holding hands with him. Why? Was it truly because this incident meant something to her?

'She said it was significant to her.'

She didn't seem to be lying. She must have become entangled in this case one way or another.

As he let out a short sigh, a knock resounded against the door.

“It's me, Captain.”

A savvy voice resounded from behind the door. Amon replied promptly as if he had been anticipating his presence.

"Come in."

With a playful expression on his face, Carlyle walked into the room. His curly black hair was slightly tangled, and his knight's uniform was crookedly worn, reflecting his unique personality.

“You look a mess.”

“It's the usual?”

“When you leave for the field, you'd at least make an effort to tidy yourself up."

"It's just us here, what's the issue?"

Carlyle approached the desk where Amon resided and crossed his arms triumphantly.

“You seem to have discovered something new. Was anything detected from the Duke's corpse?"

“There is nothing that can help. Except that he died for some unknown reason, and was hereby hacked mercilessly. Nothing was detected in the toxicology test.”

When Amon gazed at him with a face that spelled the expression 'Why did you come then?', Carlyle pulled out a crumpled wad of paper from his chest.

"I've found something else instead."

“Something else…”

“What you asked for a few hours ago.”

Amon stared at him in surprise. Carlyle, the person responsible for gathering and analyzing information for the Blue Knights, was known for his exceptional skills. Despite this, Amon had assumed that the investigation would take more than a few hours to complete.

“Someone pecked at me, saying it was so urgent. I had to do my best."

"Thanks."

“So who is this woman?”

Carlyle waved the piece of paper in his hand. His eyes were filled with curiosity.

“A person involved in the case.”

"Involved? Do you mean the Bolev murder case? I haven't seen this person in the files."

“Sometimes the things that truly matter aren't the ones to go on record."

Amon held out his hand for the paper. With a displeased expression, Carlyle eventually passed him the stack of documents.

“Well, they seem related.”

"They seem?"

“I heard this person had a bad relationship with Russell Bolev.”

What was this about?

Amon quickly flipped the paper. As soon as he turned the first page, a familiar face that had been plaguing his mind appeared in his field of vision. It was a portrait of Julia Reitz.

“There was a portrait of her family altogether, so I roughly took out only the woman. This is a picture from a few years ago, but you can recognize them using this.”

Carlyle provided additional information while scratching his head. Amon acknowledged the explanation with a slight nod. Although the document was prepared in haste, it was still valid.

Julia was seen smiling brightly in the photo. While she obviously still remained with the same features, the person in the portrait seemed different from the woman Amon had met.

'Was she someone who could laugh like this?'

As he turned the page, new thoughts circulated in his mind. The upcoming summary contained dense information about her, starting from her birth date and place of birth to her family outline. Nothing was particularly noteworthy. Amon's face hardened as he quickly read through the contents, and his expression distorted when he reached a specific paragraph.

"This… Did Duke Bolev really do as this passage claims?"

"Yeah? Why, were you unaware?"

Carlyle, who had come to Amon's side before he could realize, thrust his face in and said, “I thought you knew."

“Are you sure about this?”

“I guess you really didn’t know?”

Carlyle tilted his head.

“Didn’t you ask for an investigation because you thought she was a suspect?"

Amon didn't answer and simply gazed at the paper. It was not unreasonable for Carlyle to think of the woman as a suspect. Julia's past noted on this paper proved her to be very suspicious.

'But is she truly the culprit?'

Amon recalled Julia's unusual reaction upon mentioning the fake eyewitness statement. He noticed Julia's brief but clear expression of anxiety.

“Hmm…”

Carlyle, who had a serious expression on his face, spoke up while looking at the paper.

“You asked me to investigate this woman for good reason. She must have seemed suspicious from the get-go."

Carlyle continued to speak to himself even when he received no response from Amon.

“But after researching, it turns out that she had a past like this. From the evidence to the motive. She is the perfect suspect.”

“It’s not like that.”

"What? Are you saying she isn't a suspect?"

"Right. There's no proof. It's just...”

As Amon slurred the end of his sentence, Carlyle raised his head.

"Just what? What is it? No matter how you look at it, this is suspicious. The Amon Spencer I know is not someone who would initially move without clear evidence.”

Carlyle was right. Amon kept acting unlike himself.

'Even with these documents in front of me, I still don't get the feeling that she's the culprit.'

While there was no clear evidence that Julia is the culprit, Amon still harbored suspicions.

"You want to believe. Am I wrong?"

He wanted to trust her. He wanted to believe that if she claimed to be innocent, then innocent she was.

“You can't be…”

Carlyle suddenly widened his eyes and glared at Amon.

“Do you still suspect that the culprit was the person from back then? Is that why you refuse to believe this woman is guilty? Otherwise…”

Carlyle's dark eyes sank.

“Are you being sympathetic? Because this woman’s past resembles yours?”

Amon unknowingly burst into laughter. It seemed that their years together hadn't been in vain. Carlyle was accurately defining his mind, which even Amon himself could not explain.

His resentment and obsession with his past, and the feelings of sympathy he felt for Julia. Those were the only reasons why Amon wanted to believe in her.

'It's pathetic.'

Emotions named by others felt many times less insignificant than they actually were. Amon slumped the stack of papers on his desk dejectedly.

Carlyle was right. The criminal couldn't be the same person. It was strange why the person who killed his parents would murder Russell Bolev, after more than ten years.

His job was to investigate based on what he could see, the facts. That was the motto of the Blue Knights' leader, Amon Spencer.

‘But wasn't it that Russell was stabbed after his death? If Julia is truly the culprit, why would she bother...’

Amon was on the verge of giving up when a new question arose in his mind.

And instantly, a brilliant idea struck him like a bolt of lightning.

Julia's dismay, the traces left on Russell's body.

Julia stabbed Russell, but then there was the real culprit who killed Russell using undetectable poison.

What if both claims were evident? What if there were two different people involved in the case?

Amon was engrossed in his fantasy, contemplating a way for the two separate facts to ultimately lead forth a single truth.

A dark bedroom with red curtains. Russell seated himself at a table and savored a cup of tea while looking out the window. The tea was poisoned, and he fell to the floor and died.

The next moment, Julia appears out of nowhere. She stabs the already dead Russell with a dagger and then disappears. After that, the person who initially poisoned Russell appears and shifts the scene, removing the traces of poison.

That would fill in the empty portion of time.

“…Carlyle.”

Amon spoke in a hushed voice, causing Carlyle to tense up in response to the solemn atmosphere.

“What if there were two people on the scene?”

"What?"

“What if the person who poisoned and killed Russell and the person who stabbed and mutilated his body were different people?”

“Hey, Amon. I know you've been chasing this person for decades, and I understand why, but you can't—"

“It’s not like that.”

Amon cut off Carlyle. He couldn't say he had no personal feelings. But this was different from a mere obsession in his case.

“As you said, that is a reasonable conclusion drawn after examining the facts. However, if there are two people involved, doesn’t everything instantly fit?”

Carlyle pondered for a moment before replying.

“So you mean to say the true culprit killed Russell, and then someone else stabbed him. Are you implying that two unrelated people coincidentally made up their minds to kill Russell at the same time?”

"Right. Something like that isn't likely to take place. However, can we truly say with certainty that there is no possibility?"

Carlyle opened and closed his mouth several times. The expression on his face assumed that he believed Amon was still fixated on the past. Nevertheless, eventually, Carlyle yielded to Amon's persistent gaze and provided an answer.

"If it is a matter of whether there could be a small possibility… I can't say for sure there isn't.”

"Is that so?"

Amon shifted his gaze towards the paper summarizing Julia's past. The possibility existed. That alone was enough reason for him to trust her.

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