With the first threads of dawn beginning to break across the sky, the academy had yet to regain its usual liveliness.
The courtyards were nearly empty, and the silence of the corridors was broken only by the steady footsteps of a group of men in immaculate white uniforms as they passed through the academy gates.
Their pristine white attire alone was enough for anyone who saw them to immediately recognize who they were.
The Imperial Palace's Special Security Police.
The department responsible for crimes involving the aristocratic class.
Although they were part of the Imperial Law Enforcement, their department was known for having more free time than the others, since crimes falling under their jurisdiction were usually resolved before their files ever reached their offices.
Either through covering them up in exchange for bribes, or through secret assassinations carried out by hiring men from the underworld.
But when a crime of this nature occurred within a government institution, the police team had to be present to conduct an official investigation, even if it was nothing more than a formality.
And since today was the second day of the national holiday, the academy contained only a small number of administrators and students.
With fewer guards around, the circumstances were in the perpetrator's favor.
Yet his suicide was strange.
It was the kind of thing that could cause numerous complications during the investigation.
At the very least, they had to take statements from the witnesses who had discovered the bodies.
Especially those who had witnessed the victim's final moments… and those of his killer.
Unfortunately for Raymond Baskerville, he was the primary witness in the case.
Which meant he had to be interrogated several times as the investigation progressed.
Meanwhile…
There was another witness whom no one had been able to find since last night.
Gilbert Klein.
Inside one of the vacant rooms in the administration building, the investigator in charge slowly flipped through the case file.
Sitting across from him, Raymond maintained his usual composure.
"I heard that you're acquainted with the student—Gilbert Klein. You were also the last person to be with him last night. Do you have any idea where he might be?"
Raymond sighed inwardly.
"Not really. Perhaps he had some urgent matter that forced him to leave. He'll probably return on his own, so I don't see any reason to be concerned about that."
Then he continued in the same calm tone
"As for questioning him, I don't think it would add anything. He arrived long after the crime had already taken place."
He raised his eyes toward the investigator.
"If you want to know anything, ask me… as the primary witness."
The investigator gave him a quick, uninterested glance before lowering his head and lazily dropping the papers onto the table.
"This is just a routine procedure… No one is saying he's involved."
He settled back in his chair and sighed as he closed his eyes.
After remaining silent for a few moments, he continued
"Anyway, you can leave."
Raymond calmly nodded, then rose from his chair without saying another word.
As soon as the door to the room closed behind him, one of the officers standing in the back stepped toward the investigator.
"What do you think about this case?"
"Sedric Benedict was killed… and Evan Montgomery committed suicide afterward. Everything between the two families doesn't explain what happened that night."
He clicked his tongue in annoyance before continuing with boredom evident in his voice.
"Who butchers someone like that and then stabs himself?!"
The officer stared at the investigator for several moments with a neutral expression before stepping forward and pulling out a chair to sit opposite him.
He interlocked his fingers and lowered his head slightly.
After a few seconds, he asked in a calm but stern tone
"What about the witnesses? Do you believe they're being truthful in their statements?"
The officer fell silent for a moment before letting out a short sigh.
"That man named Raymond Baskerville… Don't you think he's far too calm despite witnessing the scene with his own eyes? And his statements sound almost like a defense of the student who disappeared last night. Don't you find those circumstances strange?"
A brief silence settled over the room.
The investigator looked at him lazily before replying with a long sigh.
"Officer Halland, didn't you hear the medical staff's testimony?
Perhaps that young man is simply trying to remain calm and get past the shock.
And what about the other student?
Even if he disappeared for a while, do you really think he's somehow connected to this case?"
The investigator slammed his hand against the table and looked at the officer in irritation.
"Don't try to act on your own again and do unnecessary things."
Officer Halland took a deep breath with his eyes closed, trying to maintain his composure.
Then he insisted firmly
"But, sir, I believe we should—"
The investigator interrupted him coldly.
"Ah… I feel thirsty and dizzy from all this talking. I think I'll go out and have a drink. I'll see you later, then."
He did not give Officer Halland a chance to say anything else.
He quickly left the room, leaving him behind without the slightest concern.
After the investigator's departure, Officer Halland rose from his chair and hurried outside, anger written across his sharp features as he muttered to himself
"If you're going to keep acting like this… then be as lazy as you want.
I know what I need to do on my end!"
Raymond quietly closed the door.
He sighed before moving away from the interrogation room.
At first, one of the administration officials had come to discuss the details of the incident with him. Then he had been summoned again by the investigation team to begin the official procedures.
It had taken more than half a full day before he was finally able to breathe the outside air again.
The academy was quieter than it had ever been.
Under normal circumstances, a crime that horrific would have thrown every student who heard about it into a state of panic.
But because of the current situation surrounding the national holiday, that imposed silence had become somewhat suffocating.
As Raymond Baskerville walked away from the administration building, he caught sight of several officers from the investigation team scattered around the area.
The sight alone was enough to bring back a rather uncomfortable memory.
Raymond shook his head and muttered under his breath
"Things were different back then."
After walking for a few more minutes, he finally reached the residential building where he had lived throughout the month he had spent inside the academy.
Three students carrying leather bags stepped out of the building, each of them accompanied by their own attendant who had been waiting for them.
There was no particular rule preventing noble children from having attendants within the academy, so it was not unusual to see some of them with someone assigned to assist them with their various needs.
Raymond quickly averted his gaze and stepped inside the building.
For a moment, the interior seemed more spacious than before.
Perhaps it was merely his imagination, but he could not prevent the feeling that had begun creeping into his heart.
The farther he ventured into the building, the more the image of the corridor stained with the color of sunset returned to him, as though he were reliving the scene all over again.
But he had to return once more, even if he was uncomfortable doing so.
The few students who had remained inside the building during the holiday had been informed that they needed to move their belongings to a separate building to make it easier for the investigation team to move around.
None of this would have happened if not for the petition the students had submitted to the administration that morning, expressing their discomfort with remaining inside a place where two people had died in a single night.
Of course, the administration had taken responsibility for removing the bodies and cleaning the area, but the building still had to be emptied as soon as possible.
The farther Raymond went, the more he realized just how empty the place had truly become.
Perhaps those three students he had seen earlier were the last ones to move their belongings, apart from him.
Which left him completely alone, just as he had been last night…
The police were supposed to be here investigating by this time, at least… What are they even doing?
Raymond sighed as he walked quickly through the empty corridor until he reached the door of his room.
"Right… Lucas won't be back until the end of the holiday at the earliest. He might be busy communicating with members of the royal family…"
Raymond muttered under his breath.
But the moment the scene from his dream came to mind, he quickly shook his head to drive the thoughts away and tried to retrieve the room key from the jacket he was holding over his left arm.
"Here it is…"
He muttered as he pulled out the key.
However, a white handkerchief slipped from his pocket and fell to the floor.
Raymond immediately stepped back and bent down to pick it up.
He stared at it for a few moments before muttering to himself
"What am I supposed to do with this?
Why did I take it with me back then?"
He narrowed his eyes slightly and sighed.
"More importantly… who does it even belong to?"
He then quickly opened the door to the empty room and switched on the lights.
Silence filled the room.
He moved quickly, gathering his belongings.
He tossed his jacket onto the bed and placed the handkerchief on the desk.
It took no more than ten minutes for him to leave the room with a bag full of his belongings.
As he was leaving, he remembered the handkerchief he had nearly forgotten.
He quickly picked it up and continued on his way.
As he crossed the empty corridor at a relatively quick pace, the fading light filtering through the windows indicated that the crimson twilight was approaching.
Sunset had already begun.
It was the exact same period of the day when the incident had occurred yesterday.
And that only deepened the unease inside him.
He unconsciously clenched his fist until he felt something beneath it.
He raised his hand and stared at the handkerchief.
The crimson light seeping through the windows of the upper floor had stained the white handkerchief with a color resembling blood.
That familiar sight was enough to drag the scene from his memory back into his mind…
It had been just before dawn.
When he had decided to go out and search for Gilbert.
But…
There had been no one in the courtyard.
Only…
Shattered crimson glass scattered across the ground.
And a white handkerchief soaked in warm blood.
He had searched for a long time and called out more than once.
But the academy had been frighteningly silent.
And when he had returned to inspect the building despite his hesitation…
The two bodies had already been removed.
The guards surrounded the area.
The woman who had been assigned to watch over him during the past few days appeared to be among them.
But Gilbert…
There had been no trace of him.
No matter how long he searched,
the result had remained the same.
Raymond shook his head and placed the handkerchief back inside his jacket.
"I need to get this thing out of my sight…"
Then he continued on his way.
Amid the silence of the long, empty corridor, a strange noise with a monotonous and irritating rhythm echoed through the building.
He stopped where he was and said with a sigh as he looked toward the crimson sky outside the window
"Have those people finally started working?"
He resumed walking calmly.
"Those guys really never change…"
The monotonous sound had barely stopped when his ears caught a sharper noise.
The repeated impact of a hard object against something, again and again, until it finally ended with a dry crack.
A cold shiver ran down his spine.
He turned his gaze around, searching for the source of the noise.
"Is that sound… really coming from those people?!"
He muttered hesitantly before the scene of last night's crime immediately flashed through his mind.
He shook his head and quickened his pace.
Since last night, the building had carried the same kind of feeling found in graveyards and abandoned buildings.
So Raymond tried to leave the place as quickly as possible.
He could no longer endure the situation any longer.
Why does the corridor seem longer than it was before?
He thought to himself as he tried to ignore the strange, irritating noises that refused to stop.
He tried covering his ears, hoping the noise would stop digging into his head.
But it was all in vain…
In the end, he found himself standing at the very place where the crime had taken place yesterday.
There were strips of tape stuck to the floor, outlining the shape of a human body.
It was obvious that this had been done by the police officers who had examined the scene earlier.
Raymond stepped past the area.
But soon, a different sound echoed in his ears.
This time, it was closer.
The sound of strange laughter, as though it were coming from behind him.
When he tried to turn around, he felt a strange coldness spreading through the area.
Black shadows danced in the corners of the walls, clinging to their lower edges before slowly spreading across the marble floor.
Raymond remembered those shadows he had seen near the staircase the previous night.
They had been strange shadows carrying a foul odor, similar to the smell of rotting bones.
He pressed his fingertips against his eyes and tried to step backward.
Raymond thought that he had begun seeing strange hallucinations again.
But the strange laughter suddenly stopped.
And turned into a sharp scream.
"Die… die… die… die… die… die… die… die… die… die… die… die… die…"
A cold shiver spread throughout his body, and Raymond froze in place.
When he turned around, the empty area surrounded by the tape had transformed into two black masses.
It was not something that could be described as human.
One of them resembled a dark, distorted body attempting to take on a human shape.
It seemed to lack anything resembling a head, while the head itself lay severed beside it.
Numerous holes were scattered across its black skin, which appeared to be made from darkness itself.
Crimson blood continued to seep from those countless holes, staining the floor once again with a dark red color.
As for the other black creature, it was closer to a human shape than the thing lying beneath it.
Its long limbs were buried deep inside the black body, violently tearing out its entrails before plunging back in and repeating the same act again…
Raymond slapped his face with both hands in an attempt to wake himself up, but to no avail.
That thing did not disappear…
"I don't think that's enough to wake me up from this nonsense…
The problem runs too deep inside my mind itself…"
A faint smile appeared on his lips, as though he were mocking his own situation.
Then he sighed and looked at the black mass again.
But…
At that moment…
That thing was looking at him.
Two large white eyes without pupils silently watched him.
A wide mouth stretched into a twisted smile that reached the edges of its face.
His heart clenched, and his breath stopped for a moment in surprise.
"Can you… see me?"
The creature tilted its head inquisitively.
"Huh?!"
At that moment, Raymond could do nothing but pray for this nightmare to end.
He could no longer hold himself together.
The hallucinations were getting worse and worse.
He tried to ignore it and quickly stepped backward.
He felt that he truly had to run as fast as he could.
But…
Suddenly, something extremely cold touched both his cheeks and pulled his face toward it.
"You… can see me…"
The black creature was no more than a few centimeters away from Raymond's face.
A twisted smile spread across its black face, devoid of any human features.
And as its eyes narrowed in conjunction with that smile…
At the very moment that its sticky, foul coldness seeped into Raymond's skin when it touched him…
When that thing spoke to him…
All of it was real!
Now… Raymond could no longer deny anything he was seeing.
This wasn't a hallucination!!
But…
How was he supposed to escape from this thing?!