Chapter 5: Sidetrack

Yohan contemplated if he should step into the murder scene when a loaded gun was pointed behind his back. 

"Don't you ever move," a sharp, threatening voice warned. Sensing no danger, Yohan raised his hand up obediently.

"Look miss, this is a misunderstanding. I am simply a passerby that got overly curious."

"I did not give you permission to speak! Admit to your crime or else I will-"

"Elara, don't be so impulsive. Put down the gun, I can vouch for this guy," the same waiter from before emerged from the corner. Unlike the ugly sight of fear he wore, a confident smirk smeared across his face.

Tsk— she clicked her tongue. Putting down her gun, Yohan turned his gaze and saw a woman with short red hair, wearing a dark blue blouse strapped by a suspended. She pulled her glove up and rolled her eyes up at her partner.

Pulling his bow tie, the waiter explained.

"Sorry for my partner, Mr Yohan. We are from The Cleaner Crew actually. And no, we don't suspect you," he clarified. "Since I was the one who guided you here."

"We are employees hired by Mr Ferdinand to protect the document at any cost," Elara pointed to a briefcase left intact under the bed. "Although it seemed like our professional robber missed the objective."

"Pfft," Hans left a small mockery.

Elara nudged and glared at him. 

"Okay, that's unexpected alright. Just letting you know, our contracts don't involve protecting the owner's life since he only engaged in the protecting service for the briefcase only," Hans said.

The Cleaner Crew, they operate similarly to The Guild, but instead of handling monsters and trade, they specialised in external protection and forces, almost like a police force, but certainly not in the name of justice. 

"Don't worry, we're on your side," Lifting his hand, they blocked the entrance and requested a collaboration.

"Unfortunately, you're the prime witness of this case, so why don't we 'solve' it together? Isn't that fun?" Hans proposed the plan. 

With a hesitant sigh, Yohan returned a light handshake.

Hans beamed and walked into the scene. Crouching down, he took out a latex glove and started to analyse the wound. Elara handed out a pair and gestured to Yohan to join the investigation.

Browsing through the overturned drawers and shelf, Yohan noticed a letter hanging at the edge of a book with a familiar symbol. 

'This…', his fingers slided the edge of the letter down and glided across the texture. 'This is an ardeat paper envelope.'

It was a special material only produced internally in the Empire of Eir military, mainly used for military orders and information exchange. 

It looked and felt like a thick quality paper, but it was magically enhanced to fully resist fire and physical damage. Similar to technology recognition, it had a specific way to open this letter. 

If opened in the common way, the content would be replaced by another text hidden in its mechanics to appear as a normal letter.

Sliding it discreetly into his coat, his eyes shifted to the side and continued to move Mr Ferdinand's items for more clues. Slightly adjusting the position, a half written letter was rushly folded and buried under the books and cash. On the paper, a brush stroke was roughly dragged off the page, with a splash of ink covering its second half.

Despite the rush to cover the content of the letter, the intended coverage was left exposed, leaving a big clue behind the murder. With a glance, Yohan  memorised its ambiguous spelling of the content.  

Moving closer to the table, his shoe touched a puddle of ink and caused a ripple on the floor. Hovering his hand decisively over the paper, Hans' voice halted his action.

"Elara, Yohan, I'm afraid that this case is as simple as it seems," Hans concluded, holding a blood stained tweezers with a spherical shape. Using a clicker, it printed a recollect before he wiped the blood with a napkin. Viewing the engraves of the bullet, he shared his findings with them.

"The fatal injury was caused by a 9mm pistol, coated with poison or acid. It hit directly into his vital areas and the harmful substance spreaded, paralysing the nerves. Painful to say, but Mr Ferdinand might be alive throughout the torture, before he succumbed to his injury."

Flipping over the pale wrist, the odd shade of yellow emerged underneath like veins.

"So can you deduce the culprit's intention?" Elara asked.

"Believe me or not but I think it's just a classic case of revenge," Hans shrugged. 

Holding two fingers up, he provided two possibilities.

"One, the culprit is likely from his underground organisation. Self explanatory, dirty dealings like blackmailing and corruption also lead to karma. Based on the engraving of the bullet, it highlighted the initial 'D.S', assuming it stands for Devoured Sun. Two, it was obvious that the documents weren't the culprit's priority. Hence, it must be a personal vendetta against Mr Ferdinand. Well, I'm saying our employer here had a lot of reasons to drive a person to murder." 

'Devoured Sun… isn't that the partnership for the Eligos Restoration Project?' 

Yohan subtly furrowed his eyebrows. It was obvious that Mr Ferdinand might be an alias because Yohan had never worked with that name before. 

'If this involves the Eligos Restoration Project, I should know almost everything about it. It seemed that I was proven wrong.' 

To confirm Mr Ferdinand's identity, he needed to know the purpose of his trip.

"May I know what's the content of the documents?" Yohan questioned.

Elara and Hans glanced at each other. "The thing is, we don't even know. It is labelled as confidential information and protecting it is our priority. Even at the death of the owner, we'll still uphold the conditions of the contact."

"That's why you assumed the culprit's intention wasn't to steal the documents because if it held any importance, that would be the first to be taken away before dealing with Mr Ferdinand." 

"Then, let's say the culprit was after the document, but blinded by rage, he prioritised the shooting. After all, it's better to finish him up before he could witness what the culprit has to do. Next, the culprit was frantically searching for the documents before my untimely arrival, in which he had to make an emergency escape." Yohan suggested.

"That's plausible," Elara noted. "If someone in the organisation had spreaded the information about the documents, it's logical for Mr Ferdinand to find us to 'clean' the aftermath than to trust his people. I'm sure there's an internal conflict going on and judging by the extreme action taken, I think it might be more than just a murder case."

"Ugh, then we have to go through all the trouble with the authorities," Hans Complained, crossing his arms in annoyance.

"Since we have painted a clearer assumption of what happened, let's look around on the Orient Express and gather the guests' information list. The culprit won't be very far from the scene." Elara said.

Walking to the window, Yohan closed the curtains to prevent natural light in. 

Leaning against the window frame, Yohan looked further behind from where they were standing. 

"There's no need. He's with us now."

Before they could react, the train electricity went off. Only the thin outline of the window kept them collected from the sudden darkness. Hearing loud screeching and gunshots, Elara and Hans charged towards the window.

"YOU PESKY CLEANERS!" A shout from behind halted their footsteps. Then light taps were felt on their shoulders in between, with a whisper.

"Don't be distracted. Restore the electricity."

A loud crash followed. Sharp swishes of a dagger collided with a metal object, clanking sound echoed throughout the room. 

Infruitated, the culprit shot more bullets carelessly, while switching to a blade, stabbing into Yohan's palm. 

Taken aback, his palm paralysed in pain and dropped his dagger. With no time to waste, Yohan bit his lips and elbowed the culprit's stomach. Stretching his leg, he swept the culprit's feet, causing him to lose his footings. 

"You're not stopping me!" His eyes glowed and immediately concealed his presence. He took the opportunity to crawl under the bed and grabbed the briefcase. Aiming at the thin light on the floor, the culprit slid out and headed to the window. 

However, an arm wrapped his neck and harshly pulled his body away to the floor. 

"WHAT, YOU MOTHERF- AHHHH!" The culprit screamed. The sound of squelching blood and rusty smell filled the air, the heavy thud of body weight resounded as his eyes widened in terror. 

Facing the relentless dilated eyes triggered the culprit's trauma response. Pushing his legs to a corner frenziedly, he mumbled incomprehensible words.  

"No-no, not my fault, y-you deserve it, fuck. Who cares about the documents," he stuttered incessantly. 

His fingers were still dragging the briefcase to his body as he frantically opened the locks. 

His determination to see what was inside made him take no notice of Yohan's presence.

"Ahahahaha, haha, this is the end of your reign, I will expose your dirty secrets to the world—."

The silence of realisation set in. His hands wobbled violently, flipping the briefcase over. The papers fell into the pool of substances as he crazily kicked the briefcase and tore the papers apart.

"IT CAN'T BE!" The culprit yelled in anger. 

"So you have realised that's a red herring," a voice of amusement asked.

That moment, the train entered the tunnel, plunging the room into complete darkness. The culprit couldn't see the outline of the other person he was with, thus throwing him into a turmoil.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN??"

"Think about it, instead of camouflaging the document with the rest of the papers or disguising it as something that's not a document, he purposely hid it in a briefcase under the bed as an individual object. Quite obvious to me that it was a prop. Secondly, no one in this operation knows what's the content of the documents. Let's say it does exist, how sure are you to know that's the exact document you need to steal?"

"IT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS! DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!" The heavy, slow creaking steps became louder and louder. Despite not being able to see, he could feel the immense pressure from the other party.

"Alright, I'll help you to admit. You've played into a dead man's trap and you're now charged with first degree murder. However, even though you're overcoming your fear, I need to make sure you can't escape."

Yohan grabbed the blade out from his palm and brutally plunged it into the culprit's chest.

"AURGHHH!" His agonising screams pierced through the air. His hands clenched onto Yohan's wrist, squeezing it tight. The excruciating pain and slippery sensation made him light-headed but he exerted strength to thrust the blade deeper.

Then, a sudden force pulled Yohan's body, throwing the blade in his hands away. The light flickered and was restored, lighting up the room.

The culprit convulsed uncontrollably as he coughed up blood. Elara immediately bent down and placed her hand above the wounds, manifesting a glowing light. 

The light touched the wound and closed the wound to a degree, easing his symptoms. 

Once his breathing steadied and laid unconsciously, she turned to Yohan and healed his bleeding hand to normal.

Hans stared at Yohan in a complex expression, "so, how much do you know about this?"

"Nothing. I simply observed and guessed the arrangement of the crime scene. I know you understand my reasoning when you have heard my explanation outside," Yohan calmly replied. 

"… you're a smart fellow," Hans acknowledged. "But, don't keep things to yourself, if it's anyone else, you would be the most suspicious person beside the culprit." 

"Elara, let's leave Yohan out of this." Lifting him up, he smiled and thanked Yohan. 

"If it wasn't for you, we would misjudge the situation and act differently. From now on, it will be a complex process of recounting and proving the series of events, which is best for you to be uninvolved. So before the authorities come and report, you should go back to your room." 

"You're going to let him go like that?" Elara asked. 

"Yes, although we have to take credit for what he has done…" Hans sheepishly replied.

"That's fine by me. I take it as if I acquired new skills to investigate," Yohan said. 

While stepping out the door, Elara hastily pulled his arm and asked, "Is there any more information that you've extracted from the culprit or the scene?"

Yohan's eyes looked down on the ravaged corner, the study table broken into pieces and its items shattered  the wet ground. 

"No… what I have found should've been seen or heard by you guys."

Walking down the corridor back to his compartment, he slid into his coat and took the letter out. Fiddling the letter around, he cracked the code using the same method he was familiar with. 

He sat on his bed and opened the letter, reading its content. 

'Eligos Restoration Project:

Final draft.

It is at its final stage of preparation. I will be arriving at Vidar to draft out the map and we shall meet at the No Man's Land.

May the sun set and meet with victory, all glory to Your Highness Laurent Carlos La Eir.

Yours sincerely,

Elgar Easdale.'

Yohan stared at the letter, which outlined a well made map of Vidar, the first location that the Imperial Army invaded. 

Easdale, he remembered a fragment of him. 

It was when an unexpected letter arrived at the camp in the No Man's Land where he worked for the then crown prince, Layton Charles La Eir. 

Mr Easdale was a comedic middle aged man who worshipped the sun god. Other than him being an extreme loyalist, it was him who started the first step in war preparation. 

Yohan never had a chance to work with him after the news of his sudden death at the Orient Express. Eventually, he decided to initiate an investigation and brought a proper closure to his death. 

'I didn't expect to witness his murder on board,' With a solemn expression, he took a piece of paper and wrote out the memorised content.

'Your Highness, I've heard of a familiar name you've wished to seek. However, due to my incompetence, I'm unable to verify the identity of this young man. I took a glance across the dining cabin and he fits exactly like your description. 

I apologise as this may be my last letter, but I wish to repay the favour.

He/she is'

Yohan lifted the pen. 

A concentrated point at the end of the alphabet, and a string of scribbles that were indistinguishable from Russian cursives.

Analysing the written words he had recreated, it was straightforward with minimum formality. It must be when he saw the culprit and quickly wrote to the point before getting shot.

Unfortunately, he couldn't refer to the letter as it had fallen into the pile of books and mixed substances.

'Laurent is looking for someone… and they're on the Orient Express.' 

Recalling the scene at the dining cabin, there were many dignified noblemen and ladies. Yohan was unable to decide which pronoun Mr Easdale had used due to the excessive brushstrokes, hence it was impossible to pinpoint who he was referring to.

Since this was a letter with previous understanding of the subject, Yohan couldn't extract any information on the person's appearance.

Disappointed, Yohan kept both the letters in the envelope and tucked it into the pages of a book he borrowed. 

'This should be enough to delay the project… I just hope history won't repeat itself.'