Chapter 190: 186 The Disappearing Truth

Hearing Milaier's words, Kelake's footsteps faltered; with Milaier's voluntary admission, the last shred of suspicion in his heart was thoroughly dispelled.

Milaier simply wrapped a strip of cloth around her bleeding finger to stop the flow, then patted her backside and stood up, saying with a smile, "Greetings, Officer. I am Milaier, here to report the criminal secrets of Bluebeard Castle to you."

"It really was you." Kelake felt a slight sense of relief in his heart. He glanced at Milaier's injured finger and said with a hint of apology, "Sorry."

"It's not your fault, I was just careless." Milaier shook her head, then looked at Kelake's finger, which was also bleeding, and said with concern, "You are bleeding too." As she spoke, she tore another strip of cloth from her own clothing and stepped forward to bandage Kelake.

Kelake instinctively wanted to step back and avoid it, but his heel had just lifted before he planted it firmly on the ground again. In the end, he did not dodge, accepted Milaier's kindness, and thanked her after she finished bandaging him.

Milaier flashed a sweet smile and asked curiously, "Mr. Officer, may I ask if you have any new discoveries now? I imagine that even for you, moving a corpse so casually and easily is not exactly legal, is it?"

Kelake did not answer the question immediately, but instead asked gravely, "Did you come alone? You didn't run into anyone else?"

Upon hearing this, the smile on Milaier's face vanished, replaced by a slightly nervous expression. "Actually, I originally intended to go to your room to find you first, but as you know, where I live is not far from Miss Hela—just a few rooms away. In order to sneak out without being discovered, I kept watching the movements in Miss Hela's room. However, I discovered that Miss Hela had actually left her room before me. After seeing her leave, I dared to come out to look for you. When I discovered you weren't in your room either, I wondered if you might have come here to Count's room."

"Where did Miss Hela go after leaving her room?" Kelake raised an eyebrow.

Milaier shook her head, "I don't know either. I didn't see her on the way here."

"And what about Butler Walunte?" Kelake asked again, "Have you looked for him?"

"How could I dare to!" Milaier shrank her neck and shook her head repeatedly, saying in a weak voice, "I feel like Butler Walunte has become strange somewhere ever since the Count died."

"Strange?" Kelake asked in confusion, "Tell me about it."

Milaier thought for a moment, looking somewhat uncertain, "It's just... it's like he has become very overbearing... he doesn't want to listen to what others have to say..."

After hearing Milaier's words, Kelake nodded secretly. This matched his own feelings. After confirming the death of Count Bluebeard, Walunte's attitude had indeed undergone a subtle change. His attitude toward others during the day was also different from the feeling of their first meeting on the first night; his condescending demeanor had increased, as if... with the Count gone, he was the master of the Castle, the one in control here.

Since even Milaier could sense such a change in the Count, Kelake was certain that his own feelings were not wrong.

Suddenly, without warning, Kelake asked: "Did you kill Count Bluebeard?"

Hearing this, Milaier was stunned for a few seconds, then her face flushed red as she said, "I didn't, it wasn't me! Mr. Kelake, please believe me." As she spoke, tears welled up in the corners of her eyes, seemingly from the grievance of being falsely accused.

Kelake coughed awkwardly, "Sorry, I just asked that off the cuff."

Immediately after, Kelake confessed his discovery from this evening to Milaier, quickly diverting her attention.

Milaier's attention was indeed quickly diverted. After hearing Kelake's discovery, she looked at him with surprise and admiration, "As expected of Mr. Kelake, to be able to discover so many details during the day."

Kelake avoided her overly bright gaze, carried his military saber back to the small hole beside the black picture frame, held the saber horizontally, and thrust it into the gap. When the entire blade disappeared into the wall, Kelake felt the tip of the saber hit something, like a switch or the like. With a slight push, the bed frame began to shake, the hidden secret door slowly opened, and a secret passage leading underground appeared before them.

"There really is a secret passage." Milaier's eyes shone as she looked at Kelake, but seeing the pitch-black passage, she hid behind Kelake in fear, clutching his sleeve with one hand.

Kelake said in a low voice: "Let's go, let's go down and take a look."

Holding a lit candelabra, they walked down into the secret passage, which was also a spiral staircase leading to a secret space somewhere in the Castle.

When they reached the exit and Kelake lit the oil lamps hanging on the walls on both sides of the secret space entrance, the light illuminated a portion of this room filled with a pungent odor. The horrific and bloody truth struck their brains like an out-of-control train speeding toward them.

They saw that in this sunless secret room, row upon row of shelves were filled with deformed human heads. They were soaked in containers filled with formalin, staring at the two intruders of this forbidden place with eyes that refused to close even in death.

"Ah—" Milaier was about to scream, but quickly covered her mouth, looking at everything around her in terror.

Although this horrific scene was visually shocking, for the well-traveled Kelake, it was still bearable. What he cared about at this moment were the mysterious symbols engraved on the containers soaking the human heads; those were the symbols for performing Demon-Subduing Arts, the inscriptions for praying to the Shadow of All Things.

"How could it be... is Count Bluebeard also using the same Demon-Subduing Art?" Kelake was shocked and confused, because Count Bluebeard, who had been using this Demon-Subduing Art, had actually ended up suffering from the same Demon-Subduing Art himself.

"What is Demon-Subduing Art?" Milaier asked, unable to help herself after hearing Kelake's muttering.

Kelake did not explain it to her, but instead walked to the desk in the room with the candelabra. He used the candle flame to light another candelabra on the desk and handed it to Milaier, "You go look around too, but don't touch anything randomly. If you need to come into contact with something, notify me first."

Milaier nodded obediently. Holding the illuminating candelabra, she felt somewhat afraid and hesitant, but seeing Kelake, who was engrossed in flipping through the notebook on the desk, she gritted her teeth and temporarily left his side, hunching her back and looking around vigilantly.

Kelake opened the notebook on the desk. Inside were records of every time Count Bluebeard secretly performed the Demon-Subduing Art, containing numerous graphic details, all of which revealed Count Bluebeard's perverted inner self. What made Kelake's heart even heavier was that every time Count Bluebeard performed the Demon-Subduing Art, he had an assistant, and this assistant was none other than Butler Walunte.

"Ah! These people are! These people are!" Milaier seemed to have made another discovery over there. After bracing herself to observe those bottles and jars up close, she took a few steps back in disbelief, her legs trembling, her eyes filled with terrified tears.

Kelake gripped the notebook in his hand until it was deformed, looking at the mutilated and deformed heads around him with a complex expression, and said hoarsely: "These are all the people who mysteriously disappeared from the Castle. Some were travelers visiting the Castle, some were servants in the Castle... They didn't mysteriously disappear; they were cruelly murdered by the Count and Walunte."