My villain wants to save himself, but the yandere heroine disagrees

"I know." Sherlock nodded.

Under normal temperature conditions, the body of a person will begin to slowly decompose more than 24 hours after death. When the temperature changes, the time will also be different.

Similarly, after being placed in a coffin and buried, the time for decay will be prolonged.

But after all, several months have passed. Although it has not rotted into a pile of bones, the half-rotten appearance is the most frightening and disgusting.

The coffin was not buried very deep, and after digging for a few minutes, the men reached the outer panel of the coffin.

Then the burial pit was cleared and several people jumped down and came to the coffin.

"Open."

Sherlock ordered coldly.

The investigators who came with them this time have all seen big scenes, so opening a coffin is no problem for them.

They first gently moved a corner of the coffin lid away, and only opened the coffin lid completely after they no longer smelled the odor of a rotting corpse inside.

The servant had turned away, not daring to look at the scene in front of him.

However, the scene inside the coffin at this moment was far from what several people had imagined.

A woman who looked quite young was lying quietly in the coffin with her eyes closed. Her hands were clasped together and placed flat on her lower abdomen, as if she was asleep.

According to the description, this person is undoubtedly Lady Mary.

However, several months later, her body not only did not decay, but instead had a strange fragrance.

This abnormal scene actually made the investigators who were responsible for opening the coffin a little scared.

One of them felt Mary's breath and found that there was indeed no breathing sound, so he felt relieved.

Perhaps it was preserved using magic.

And Sherlock's eyes have been fixed on Mary's chest since the coffin lid was opened.

She took out the Toulouse family crest that she was using for reference from her arms, placed it in front of her eyes, and compared it with the crest on Mary's chest.

Her eyelids twitched a few times.

"Sir, Madam Mary does have a family crest on her chest. Is it the crest of the Toulouse family?"

"Bring it here first." Sherlock said this and ordered his men to put away the family emblem first.

The possibility that it is a counterfeit cannot be ruled out, and it needs to be taken back to the Toulouse family for personal verification.

Then, the men followed Sherlock's orders and prepared to put away the family emblem.

However, as soon as one investigator's hand touched the family emblem, he jumped back as if he had been electrocuted.

"What's going on?" Sherlock couldn't help but ask.

"This family emblem... is so cold. No, the whole coffin is so cold."

Sherlock frowned, then jumped into the pit himself and came to the coffin.

The moment she reached out to touch the family emblem, she felt a bone-chilling chill. After Sherlock cast a magic spell to increase the temperature, she felt the temperature drop a lot. Then, she immediately took away the family emblem.

And at the moment she took away the clan emblem, the temperature inside the coffin returned to normal, just like the magic circle had lost its effectiveness after the core of the formation disappeared.

Fortunately, there is no scene of Mary's body rapidly decaying.

Then she returned upstairs and ordered her men to cover the coffin and bury it before returning to the Duke's mansion.

"I'm sorry, Your Excellency the Duke. I misunderstood you before. We found the emblem of the Toulouse family in Lady Mary's coffin."

"Hmph." Lucius snorted coldly and said nothing.

"However, we are going to take the family emblem back to Saint Laurent City. There are people from the Toulouse family there. They will identify whether this family emblem is authentic."

"Okay, remember, if it's the real thing, I don't need you to return it. You have to apologize to Orson in person."

"I will." Sherlock lowered his head and then said, "Well, I hope the Duke will not mind this inconvenience. I will go back and report now."

Lucius waved his hand, signaling Sherlock to leave.

Shortly after Sherlock left, the butler Albert walked into the study and whispered a few words in Lucius' ear, and then Lucius nodded.

……

On the other side, Saint Laurent City.

With the efforts of Litt and others over the past few days, the discussions about Orson gradually disappeared. People also knew that Orson was just cooperating with the investigation and he was living a good life, which was enough.

But inside the palace, Arthas received a secret report.

After reading the contents of the secret report, Arthas crumpled the paper into a ball and threw it into the stove next to him to burn it to ashes.

Chapter 3: How could I be that kind of person? (K)

"This is the situation, Your Highness. I can guarantee with my life that this is the family emblem that only the direct descendants of our family can have."

In front of Arthas, an envoy from the Dukedom of Orleans handed the family emblem back to Arthas, then bowed his head respectfully and said.

Upon hearing this, Arthas said nothing, but turned his head towards Sherlock.

"So, Miss Sherlock, your inference is wrong, and Heinz has damaged our relationship with the Duke of Antica, right?"

"I'm sorry, I am willing to take full responsibility. If you think I didn't do a good job, you can fire me directly. I won't refuse."

Sherlock lowered his head and spoke in a neither humble nor arrogant tone.

"Humph, firing you is not that easy. Things have come to this point, and you are the only one who can continue the investigation."

Arthas said this and placed his hand on the emblem of the Toulouse family.

"Now we have two family crests in our hands, both of which belong to direct descendants of the Tullus family. This means that the raven lied to us."

Arthas looked at Sherlock and asked:

"Then, Miss Sherlock, what about the fact that you swore that in your deduction, the raven had no motive at all?"

Sherlock's pupils shrank slightly and a trace of cold sweat ran down her forehead.

The thought of her finding out that her inference was wrong was obviously more frightening to her than having her fired for failing to do her job.

She has had extremely strong logical thinking since she was a child. On top of that, she has a special ability of empathy, which allows her to restore the criminal's thoughts and motives at the crime scene layer by layer, and she has never failed.

However, this time she was not sure whether her reasoning was really wrong.

There must be someone who wants to frame His Royal Highness...

After Raven clearly revealed his movements and even gave away everyone in the Orchid Tavern...it is entirely possible that someone else was doing this.

unless……

Unless the Toulouse family crest that Raven took away at that time was fake, or was replaced by someone in the middle.

However, with Raven's eighth-level strength, it is impossible for him not to notice the substitution.

In other words, François's family emblem had been secretly tampered with before.

Someone knew that François would definitely die, so they replaced François's family emblem in advance!

Yes, that must be the reason.

It is therefore particularly important to know who François had met during his lifetime and the servants who took care of his daily life.

As mentioned before, the family crest is difficult to imitate, so if a family member comes to compare it, they can tell it is a fake. If François himself did not notice it, then it is very likely that the staff member responsible for François' daily life and clothing matching is someone who is deeply trusted by François.

And the time between replacing it with a fake one cannot be too long, otherwise François will find out.

So, it could be that the people around François colluded with the assassin, or they knew that François would be assassinated on that day, so they chose that day to replace the family emblem on François' clothes with a fake one.

The purpose is to frame someone later!

So, the problem now comes to the servants around François.

"I know, I know the reason!"

Sherlock said this, which startled Arthas. Then he asked, "What's the reason?"

"The family crest that Raven got was a fake one. The real crest had been replaced by someone else a long time ago. The person who had the ability to do it happened to be the servant who was in charge of François' daily life."

"Your Highness, please allow me to investigate this person's information."

"Okay, go quickly."

Seeing this, Arthas also nodded.

Seeing that Sherlock had made a new discovery, he became a little impatient.

However, after asking the Duke of Orleans for information about the servants around François, Sherlock received bad information.

François did have a special servant who was responsible for his clothing design and appearance during his lifetime, but that person went south and boarded a ship for a long voyage long after François was assassinated and he himself was investigated.

When Sherlock looked up the ship's operating information, he learned that the ship had wrecked, and the most recent operation was when the servant was transported east.

Anyone with a discerning eye could see that this was definitely a conspiracy, and Sherlock was no exception.

But in any case, it is difficult to connect this matter with Orson.

If the question is about the former owner of the place where the badge was found, then in addition to Orson, Arthas is also a major suspect.

In addition, after confirming that Mary's family emblem was authentic, Orson, or Antica, was cleared of suspicion.

If we continue to doubt and question, it would be the police station and the royal family who are being unreasonable.

In desperation, Sherlock had to find Orson again.

"Orson, I have good news for you."

Pushing open the door, Sherlock saw Orson sitting in a chair drinking coffee and spoke.

"Oh? What's the good news?"

"Your suspicion has been lifted for the time being. We went to Antica and found that the Toulouse family crest was still on Lady Mary's body."

"Then the question is, this is inconsistent with your previous guess, right?"

Orson took a sip of coffee, then looked up at Sherlock.

There was a hint of smile in his eyes.

"This was my oversight. I forgot the possibility that someone close to Duke François might have colluded with the assassin to commit the crime."

"Oh? Someone around you?"

Sherlock told Orson his reasoning again. Orson touched his chin and thought for a while, then asked:

"So, Miss Charlotte, what kind of person do you think can bribe the people around Francois? And, if you choose to believe Raven's confession, what do you think of Giovanni and his influence in this matter?"

"I have an idea about this matter. I wonder if Miss Charlotte would like to hear it."

"It's better not to do that."

Sherlock shook his head.

"I know you're smart, Orson, but it's not appropriate for you to tell me your guess at this time. Not to mention that it will affect my judgment, if others hear it, they might think you're trying to distance yourself from the matter."

"But aren't the outcomes of all cases the same?" Orson asked puzzled.

"I am only giving my speculation. Can a speculation affect the established facts? Isn't the purpose of your case investigation to make the facts public?"

"Besides, Miss Charlotte, you have always been very firm and firmly believe in your own judgment, right?"

Orson said this and stood up.

"Or, while you were working here, you gradually merged with them and forgot your original intention?"

Sherlock raised his head and looked at Orson. She pursed her lips and then shook her head.

"Orson, you can leave now."

"OK then."

Seeing that Sherlock did not respond to his question directly, Orson sighed helplessly, then walked past Sherlock and walked out of the room.

Sherlock lowered his head and clenched his fists tightly.

……

No one else was informed of Orson's departure, as otherwise the news would have leaked out and caused a traffic jam.

In fact, even if this incident had not happened, Orson would have been released for a day on the day of the graduation ceremony, but the investigation was too quick, and Orson had been cleared of suspicion, so he was released like this.