I yawned and stretched my arms above my head. The pile of paperwork had been a difficult one to tackle, especially when you had to do a double-check to be sure that nothing was wrong…But in the end, everything was done and documented as it should be. The only problem lies elsewhere right now.

  “Miss Nebulo… About what happened…”

  “I told you to call me Mara from now on”

  “M-M-Mara…”

  “What about it?”

  “You… You kissed me! You pinned me against the wall and kissed me like in those romance novels where the big, strong girl has feelings for the meek, frail girl!”

  “What the hell have you been reading, Mari? Relax a bit, will you? It was just a little kiss… You like me, right? Then listen to me. Calm down and be obedient. I might just do it again if you do as I say”

  Mari nodded her head abundantly, turning redder than I thought was possible for a human being–In any case, Mari was easily convinced to stop running her mouth about what had happened. Although I felt nothing even close to romantic affection toward her, she did have a cute face and relaxing lips. It would do for a while… Bonus point since she was already used to listening to my every order and was too infatuated to question my motives.

  Even if I didn’t like her in the way she would want me to, I wasn’t a monster, so…

  “Why don’t you come over to my place? We’ll eat something nice”

  Mari covered her face with both hands–Did I just see her start to spontaneously bleed from her nose? What kind of overreaction is that? That can’t be normal, or healthy.

  “I would love to! Can I… Can I… Huh… You know… Take a nap… Like… With you? You know… In the same bed and all…?”

  “Aren’t you getting bold already?”

  “Sorry… Can I, though?”

  It was still night when we stepped out of the restaurant. Although there was no night watcher yet, I trusted the security measures I had put into place to do their work, and if not… Well, any intruder would have to explain themselves with a whole circus of clowns. The gals were allowed to wander around during the night, and when it came to unwanted night visitors, they hadn’t been told to be kind.

  I trusted them to handle the place in my absence. I had made them myself, after all. I was well aware of what my girls were capable of.

  There was no ounce of worry within me as I left the newly opened location and brought an overtly excited Mari back home. After having a late-night dinner, I gathered that it wouldn’t hurt to have something to hug while I slumbered…

  When morning came, and the two of us headed back to Glown’s Wonderland, there was a story being shouted by the young boys who were employed to sell newspapers to passersby.

  “The second daughter of the genius of machines went missing yesterday evening! The widowed mother cries for help in finding her child!”

  They all said the same thing, but none of it truly mattered. I was just surprised at how quickly Eleanori had been able to rile up the vultures to make them spread the word about Saltina’s disappearance. It was almost impressive the ease with which she could do things like this.

  Though I was more concerned with the fact that they were calling Saltina my brother’s daughter. It should be common knowledge that Saltina was the result of adultery. That she had been born out of the union of two evil creatures whose combined value was inferior to that of an old, armless, plagued, and illiterate serf… Surely, the journalists were just idiots… Surely, Eleanoru wouldn’t have spent money buying them off to spout things they knew were false, right?

  Even she wouldn’t be so stupid as to waste money on something so frivolous, I would hope.

  “Mara?”

  “What’s the matter, Mari?”

  “Yesterday evening…”

  I shoved my index finger against my assistant’s lips.

  “I can already tell what you’re going to say–I have nothing to do with this, and it would frankly upset me if you were to think that I did have something to do with it. Understand?”

  “R-Right…”

  From then on, life was actually looking pretty good for me. My new location was thriving, and the other places were also doing fantastic. The court case had been paused indefinitely because of Saltina’s disappearance and the resulting investigation–Since Saltina was still connected to Leton despite the lack of blood bonds, the disappearance was being looked at closely by both the city and outside parties.

  Obviously, I was among the suspects. My animosity toward Eleanori and Joffi was not even barely concealed… It was laid out for all to see, but it wasn’t like there was any proof for anyone to reasonably accuse me of anything, though that fact did not stop Eleanori from openly accusing me every chance she got.

  I didn’t care, however. My clown gals are great. I am making enough money to be amongst the richest in the entire country, including the great nobles. I had plenty of time to tinker with machines, and I had Mari around, so I could put a pause to my man-seeking activities for a while.

  If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

  My life had never been this good since Leton’s death.

  When I arrived at Glown’s Wonderland, though, there was a slight problem. Three people were waiting for me. Two that I recognised, and another that was easy to guess since basically no other person matched their looks…

  I tapped Mari’s back.

  “Go ahead without me. It seems like I have some company”

  She listened to me, leaving me alone to greet the three unwanted guests.

  “Hello there. I doubt you're here for the Gal Clown Gang…So what’s the matter?”

  “Greetings to you, too, Miss Nebulo. We are here in regard to Saltina’s disappearance. We would like to ask you a few questions”

  The one speaking was the most well-known guard of Tolten–He was said to be stronger and more skilled than the average knight by a noticeable margin, and I would tend to agree.

  “Sure, go ahead and ask away, Benait”

  Next to him was his sidekick, Jupo. Those two were always together without fault… And lastly, although I had never met her before, the short height coupled with the… I suppose oversized female weaponry… It made it quite obvious that this was the famed halfling mage-detective, Binibelle.

  Seeing her here wasn’t exactly a great sign for me, but I didn’t show any clear reaction as she outstretched her hand toward me.

  “Nice to meet you, Miss Nebulo. I am Binibelle–Your success is widespread, but I am afraid that we must meet under less than favourable circumstances… Would you mind answering a few questions about Saltina’s disappearance?”

  “Not at all”

  I was fairly certain that she cast a spell on me as we shook hands. Alas, I was too magically incapable to actually know for certain.

  I invited the trio to follow me into my office, where it would be more comfortable and private.

  “What exactly do you want to know, Miss Binibelle? I am confident that I have already answered all possible questions concerning all of this. It is a tragedy, but I would be lying if I said that I cared from the depths of my heart about this case. Saltina is unrelated to me, and her parents are nothing short of toxic creatures–I wouldn’t be surprised if they staged the whole thing to receive some pity. It would be very on brand for Eleanori”

  As I spoke, I leaned back into my seat and stared out the window. Binibelle only smiled while listening to me, not letting out any of what she was thinking. The previous investigators who had spoken to me had been quite taken aback when I started saying things like this, but I suppose that the halfling wasn’t considered amongst the best of the best for no reason.

  “I have been told that you took care of and are like a big sister to five girls… I heard that you quite liked cute girls. Do you not feel the same way about Saltina?”

  “Listen. If I felt strongly about any cute, small girl that I ran into, there would be no end to it. I only get attached to well-behaved ones with a good head on their shoulders. I have done my best to avoid interacting with Saltina as much as possible. I do not desire to feel any affection for the fruit of an adultery that took my brother’s life!”

  My tone rose toward the end, which hadn’t been my intention, but the subject was like an exposed nerve. You couldn’t just pull on it and not expect a reaction out of me.

  “I understand. If you don’t mind answering, when did you begin a non-professional relationship with your assistant?”

  “Pardon?”

  How the hell does she know this? Well, not like there is any harm in answering truthfully…

  “A bit more than a week ago… How did you know? I would rather not have people know about my inclinations. It isn’t good business to advertise such things”

  Benait and Jupo looked at one another. Why did it look like they didn’t get the subtext? Are they stupid?

  “Well, I sort of took a shot in the dark here, I just thought that it was a bit odd how closely you walked together, is all”

  Huh… I guess Mari is indeed a bit clingy, but I don’t feel like saying anything about this. It makes her cuter. It’s like she’s a little puppy who gets lonely easily–Now that I think about it, she pretty much lives with me now as well…

  “What does this have to do with the case, though? I doubt who I exchange saliva with is of much importance to figuring out where Saltina is… Did Eleanori and Joffi not receive any ransom?”

  “They haven’t received any word from any potential abductor, and we have no lead on where to look or to what might have happened. All we know is that Eleanori and Joffi were having an argument, which led to Saltina exiting the home. She was apparently quite sensitive to loud noises and greatly disliked them”

  An argument? So they didn’t want to mention that there was someone else with them that day? How suspicious…

  “Do you have any other questions? I wouldn’t want to sound condescending, but I have work to do”

  Binibelle smiled and stayed silent for a few moments.

  “That will be all for today. Thank you for your time, Miss Nebulo”

  I watched the trio go away. My gaze focused–This halfling was a dangerous one. She knew more than she was letting on, I was sure of it, but I was nonetheless confident that nothing should be making me suspicious.

  Aah… This is making me stress out…

  “Mari!”

  The door soon opened.

  “Yes?”

  “Come over here. I’m going to need to borrow your face for a bit…”

  ___

  Outside Glown’s Wonderland, the trio of investigators gathered.

  “What do you think, Miss Binibelle?”

  Jupo was the first to speak.

  “I don’t know if she actually has something to do with this, but I am nearly a hundred per cent certain that she is the source of the… Disturbances in my investigative spells. I tried to cast a spell of lie detection on her when we shook hands, but it didn’t work at all. She didn't even consciously reject it. It felt as though trying to investigate her was not allowed”

  “My spell simply… Phased through her as if she were a ghost. I do not know what makes this possible, but it seems rather likely that her mere connection to the case is causing everything about it to be obscured by some sort of veil”

  “Perhaps it is a unique ability of hers? We might benefit if we just told her about it. She might be capable of turning it off”

  Benait spoke up with a rather sensible idea, but Binibelle shook her head in disapproval of the idea.

  Her well-honed instincts were telling her something, and she trusted her instincts dearly…

  “Did either of you notice the odd concentration of energy around her, though? I am not sure what kind of energy it is”

  “I did sense something, but it didn’t seem to be anything spectacular to me”

  “Probably just an untapped reserve of an uncommon kind of energy”

  “You two aren’t proving very useful, you know? Let’s head to the library to have a discussion”