Rakan
looked at his half-sister, who already knew the motive, and felt a twinge of unease.
Maomao's
foster parent,
Luomen,
despised vague reasoning. He had trained Maomao never to speak lightly based on speculation either.
"Well then, shall I settle this in Maomao's place?"
What Maomao wanted to say — that the culprit was a woman — was largely predictable.
"...No, I'll speak to them myself."
"Oh?"
What to make of that, Rakan thought. In the past, she would never have stepped forward like this herself — she'd have pushed it off on someone else.
"I understand your feelings have shifted, Maomao, but let me handle this. I'd better be the one to talk. Could you explain the details to me?"
"...Fine. But there's something I want to confirm first."
"What is it?"
"What kind of woman was the culprit?"
"That's a hard thing to answer when you put it that way."
Rakan thought of the women who had been among the onlookers.
"There were three of them. I can tell you it's one of them, but that's all."
"Three, huh."
Maomao looked up at the ceiling beam.
"You of all people, Rakan, should understand that it would be impossible for a single woman to have hanged that officer and staged it as a suicide."
"Well, yes."
"So the question becomes — what would make it possible? If you plug in the motive we just imagined, the answer should follow on its own. But if one woman can't do it alone, what would it take?"
"If it's more than one woman... Ah. So that's what it is."
Rahan clapped his hands. "I see." It was the simplest thing in the world.
Maomao said nothing more and turned her back on Rahan. Perhaps it was because her superior—
Liu—
the physician, was watching intently. Liu, for her part, was trying to stop—
Tianyou—
who was fascinated by the nude corpse, it seemed. She was having her hands full.
Incidentally, for a while now—
Rakan—
had been quiet. He was lying on a bench, fast asleep.
Rahan looked at Rakan with a somewhat complicated expression.
"Master—
Onso—
—dono."
Rahan called to Rakan's adjutant.
"Could you summon the three women who were among the onlookers earlier?"
"I'll call them at once."
"Much appreciated."
Checking the position of the sun, they would just barely make it by noon.
Rahan narrowed his eyes, his mood growing somewhat heavy.
The three women who had been assembled were newly appointed court ladies who had passed this year's examination. Their family backgrounds were decent enough — two were daughters of officials, and the remaining one was a merchant's daughter.
For form's sake, an official from the Ministry of Justice had also been brought in. The Ministry of War, to which Rakan belonged, wasn't exactly on good terms with them, but that didn't mean they would go picking a fight. He had been told beforehand to observe the entire proceedings from start to finish.
"U-um, why have we been summoned?"
Court Lady One furrowed her brows—
by a fraction—
according to the brief report, she was the daughter of a provincial official, currently staying with relatives. A beautiful woman with lustrous black hair.
"Calling us to a room where something terrible already happened? Don't tell me we have to clean up the body?"
Court Lady Two said, trembling. She was the daughter of a wealthy merchant from the capital, a beauty with lustrous black hair to match.
"I-I want to go home quickly."
Court Lady Three hung her head, trembling. The youngest daughter of a bureaucrat, she too was a black-haired beauty.
Though their faces were different, from behind they looked very much alike.
"At this rate, even if we manage to find witnesses for the estimated time of death, it'll be hard to tell them apart."
Onsō crossed his arms.
Somehow or other, three medical personnel, including Doctor Liu, were still remaining.
"Which one of these people is the culprit, you're saying?"
Onsō looked at Rakan, but Rakan was still napping. Even if Rakan were to speak up, without a proper motive and method of killing, it would be difficult to press charges. Fabricating evidence to build a case was something Rahan found unsavory.
"The three of you seem displeased at being summoned as suspects."
As far as Rahan was concerned, he wanted to be courteous to beautiful women. At the same time, he wished their substance would match their outward beauty.
"Yes, exactly. This was a suicide, wasn't it? Why are you saying we killed him?"
Court Lady One insisted.
"Kill him? Someone that big?"
Court Lady Three insisted.
"More importantly, when did he die? If it was yesterday, shall I prove I was at home?"
Court Lady Two insisted.
"Ladies, your points all seem quite valid."
Rahan never let his smile fade as he regarded the three of them.
"There are still quite a few unclear points if we're to call this a suicide. That much became apparent from the condition of the scene and the damage to the body. As for"
"alibis"
"provided by family or close acquaintances—I must inform you that they do not constitute valid proof."
The three court ladies' faces tightened.
"More importantly, don't you three have a motive to kill this man?"
Rahan pointed at the cloth-draped corpse of "the Fragrant Chariot."
"This man was ambitious and insatiable at the same time, unable to resist propositioning any woman who caught his fancy. All three of you were witnessed by several officials when this man,
Wang Fang,
approached you."
"……He certainly didn't limit himself to just one or two attempts."
Court Lady Two answered with a soft sigh.
"But other gentlemen have spoken to us as well. Court ladies are, embarrassingly, often used as a sort of bride training ground. I'm sure you're well aware of that."
Court Lady Two, being the daughter of a merchant, had a sharp tongue. She wasn't a woman Rahan disliked.
"Yes, but choosing your superior's empty office as a trysting spot is rather inappropriate, wouldn't you say?"
At Rahan's words, all three court ladies flushed. So that was the implication.
"What exactly are you suggesting?"
"I have an associate with a nose as sharp as a cat's. She noticed a distinctive scent clinging to the favorite couch in this office—belonging to its owner."
Rahan couldn't tell himself, but those with a keen nose picked it up right away. Maomao in particular, having grown up in a pleasure house, was especially sensitive.
In other words, the couch where Rakan was now sleeping had been used for intimate encounters. Given Rakan's particular nature regarding his couch, it must have been quite comfortable.
"This office appears to have been cleaned to a bare minimum, but the area around the couch was suspiciously spotless. They tried to wipe away every trace, but it was immediately discovered by someone with a beast-like sense of smell."
Maomao was glaring. Beside her, Tenyū was saying things like "Ahh, you sat on it~." Rakan did not wake up.
"……E-Even if it was used as a trysting spot, that doesn't necessarily mean it was us, does it?"
Court Lady One spoke cautiously.
"That's true… is what I'd like to say."
Onsou stepped forward in Rahan's place.
"This is Lord Rakan's office. Before Lord Rakan departed for the Western Capital, not a single court lady came anywhere near it. Precisely because they knew Lord Rakan all too well."
Rakan was the kind of man who did outrageous things. So other officials, let alone court ladies, kept their distance. Of course, part of it was never knowing what he might pull. But the biggest reason was that no official who had opposed Rakan remained in the palace. There was an unwritten rule: don't mess with the old fox of the military—no, don't even get close.
"However, Lord Rakan has been absent for the past year. Could it be that court ladies who didn't know Lord Rakan thought nothing of using this place as a trysting spot?"
Onsou was exactly right. All three of them had become court ladies within the past year and didn't know Rakan. Nor did they know the unwritten rule about staying away from him. Otherwise, they wouldn't have gathered gawkers outside his office. No court lady other than these three had been around.
"So your theory is that we killed him over a lovers' quarrel. But how could the three of us, myself included, have possibly killed this man and made it look like suicide—with these slender wrists of ours?"
Court lady No. 2's remark was met with agreement from court ladies No. 1 and No. 3, who both nodded along.
"Yes. I'd like to carry out an on-site inspection."
Raohan looked at Maomao and beckoned her over. Maomao made a face of undisguised displeasure. Raohan had no choice but to approach her directly.
"Could you give me a hand?"
"My job is purely to assist the physicians. What exactly are you asking me to help with?"
Maomao spoke in an exaggerated monotone.
"Well, since we're talking about a woman's slender wrists, it'd be more convincing if you were the one doing it."
"What are you talking about? Why, you yourself have skin as white as if you'd never seen the sun, and wrists so delicate they look like they couldn't hold anything heavier than a writing brush."
Maomao and Raohan glared at each other.
"
Maomao,
help me out here—"
"We'll never finish at this rate. Just help him."
Maomao seemed to grow irritated whenever Tenyuu told her to do something,
but
when Doctor Liu said it, she had no choice but to comply.
"Fine."
Maomao looked as though she had resigned herself to the inevitable.
"So what's the plan?"
"For starters, just like before—tie the rope to the ceiling beam."
"Sure, sure."
Maomao tossed the rope up and lashed it to the beam so it hung down. First, she fashioned a loop to slip around the neck.
"And then what? We're going to hang that enormous gentleman from here?"
Court lady No. 2 exhaled heavily.
"Yes. But there's one more rope here."
Raohan handed the rope to Maomao. She seemed to understand what she needed to do and, just as before, threw the rope up to loop it over the beam.
And then—
"Make a loop at the end of the other rope and put it around the neck of the person you want to kill—that's the idea! Maomao! Don't put it on your adoptive father's neck! Don't put it on him!"
Maomao was trying to slip the noose over Rakhan's sleeping neck. It was understandable that she disliked her father, but he would prefer she not go so far as to actually murder him.
"Your Ladyship, there's just the thing right here!"
This time she tried to drag out the body that Tenyū had hidden under a cloth. Court Physician Liu stopped her with a swift punch.
"Please use this instead."
Insou brought over a sandbag. It had a cinched section in the middle where a rope could be looped through.
The ceiling beams were whole logs left in their natural round shape. Thanks to that, they could pull rope over the beam like a pulley.
But—
"It doesn't seem to be moving at all, does it?"
Court Lady No. 2 smiled.
Her adopted sister Maomao was not strong. The sandbag had been weighted to match the dead official's mass—roughly twice Maomao's own body weight. If the setup had used a movable pulley, the load would have been halved, and even Maomao could have hoisted the sandbag up. But with a fixed beam serving only as a fixed pulley, the weight one had to lift remained unchanged.
Maomao struggled to haul the rope in hand over hand, but instead her own body was lifted off the ground.
"You're right. Then let me help as well."
Raohan pulled on the rope together with Maomao. The sandbag gradually rose into the air.
After holding it suspended for roughly ten seconds, both of them exhausted their strength, and the sandbag thudded back to the floor.
Raohan and Maomao panted for breath. He had no desire to do heavy lifting in the first place, but among everyone present, he was the most convincing choice for this demonstration, so there was no help for it.
"The—there were scratch marks on the deceased's neck where she tried to pull the rope away with her hands. Apparently, this wouldn't happen if the victim had simply jumped from a chair and had her neck strangled in an instant."
At Raohan's explanation, the faces of all three court ladies stiffened.
"If it's impossible for one person alone, then it would be possible with two, wouldn't it?"
Rakhan had pointed to a "white go stone." He did not say which "white go stone."
In other words, there was no guarantee there was only one "white go stone."
"Then how do you propose they made her hang herself from that position?"
It was Court Lady No. 2 who raised the objection, her face taut.
"That's exactly right. Two people could barely lift it, so faking a hanging would be quite difficult. You'd need a third person—"
The court ladies' expressions froze completely.
Luomen tried his best to soothe Maomao while lifting the sandbag once more. When it reached the height of the pre-installed noose's loop, Onsou climbed onto a chair and slipped the noose over the sandbag.
By severing the second loop, the sandbag now hung suspended from the beam.
"Just like this. I never once said the culprit acted alone. All three of them were accomplices."
At Luomen's words, the three court ladies each reacted differently—one went blank, one began to cry, and one kicked the floor in a burst of frustration.
They quietly confessed to the charges.
The three had grown close after being assigned together this year. Perhaps because they didn't get along with the senior court ladies, their bond was strong—they were so in sync that they even used the same hair product. The fact that all three had beautiful black hair might have been because of that.
All three had been told by their families to find good marriage prospects, and it was through that search that they met Wang Fang.
Wang Fang had approached each of the three individually.
The rest could be imagined.
Wang Fang probably thought he was pulling it off, but a woman's intuition is sharp. His two-timing—no, his three-timing—had been discovered.
When an affair is exposed, a woman's hatred tends to turn on other women. But since he had pursued all three women who already knew each other, the hatred converged on Wang Fang alone.
And so, the three conspired to carry out the murder. Anticipating that Rakan would return, they lured him out the day before the court assembly.
"Women really are terrifying, aren't they?"
Luomen exhaled heavily. They could have handled it more skillfully. They could have chosen adult women who were more pragmatic about such dalliances.
In the office, only Rakan—still napping—Luomen, and Onsou remained.
The medical officials had departed, and the court ladies had been taken away by officials from the Ministry of Justice. Since the corpse was still lying in the corner of the room,
Junjie
was asked to remain and wait as he was.
"Still, to think Wang Fang was killed over a love entanglement. I thought there would be some other reason."
Onsou exhaled softly as he prepared a change of clothes for Rakan. He would dress him in garments that had been carefully
pressed with a heated iron
before the audience with His Majesty.
"Well, perhaps that's not quite the whole story."
Rahan gazed over the personnel records of the three court ladies. Numbers that matched up with their histories in some way flickered through Rahan's mind.
"Do you find something?"
"If there were, that would be troublesome, so I shall certainly look into it."
The moment the words left his own mouth, Rahan regretted them. This would eat up an entire day. But that too was within the range of what he had anticipated, so there was nothing to be done about it.