Married to a Demon

Chapter 12

Walking next to Sebastian/Jeremy, you tried your best not to kill him, truly this time. The poor man kept looking at you nervously, like you could burst at any second, but you kept yourself calm, even if you were boiling inside. Maybe it wasn't the best time to tell you what happened when he was in the circus with the tamer woman. Arriving upstairs, the young master with Charles Grey and Arthur were waiting for both of you.

"I'm sorry for being late. Let's go" said Jeremy with sweat drop.
"This is the way old guys are" you said with a smile.

The young master only shrugged before moving into the next room with the others. The moment Sebastian took one step, you tripped him and he fell face first on the ground. He groaned, looking up to you.

"Looks like the old man is quit clumsy too~" you said in scary sweet voice.
"Darling, you know you can be scary when you want to" he groaned before standing on his feet.

Jeremy entered the room and started examining it while you stood in the doorway. After a while, Jeremy frowned.

"It seems there are several killers in this crime."
"So, there were multiple killers after all" muttered Ciel.
"It will be simple to catch Georg's killer, but it will be quite troublesome to catch Phelps' killer. In order to avoid any further victims, it'll be better if we make sure to catch this criminal soon...No human will be able to get out in this storm anyway" Jeremy said thoughtfully.
"Which means?" you asked.
"In order to catch Phelps' killer there are two requirements. One is to wait for nightfall, and the second is...your cooperation Earl" he said with a smirk.
"My cooperation?"
"Yes, yours. I'll tell you everything when night has fallen..."
"Well, next up is the butler, right? Let's go back" Charles muttered before exiting the room.

You all went in the room where 'Sebastian's body' was being held. Bending down to the body, Jeremy only lifted it a little and Ciel suddenly gasped, distracting Arthur and Charles. Ciel leaned on Arthur, whispering:

"I'm sorry. Seeing Sebastian's corpse so many times...Is just too much for me..."

While Arthur was worried over Ciel's health and Charles Grey staring at them with a dumbfounded expression, Jeremy quickly covered the body.

"It seems that the butler was actually killed very simply!"
"You're done already?"
"Yes, I've seen enough..."

You went with Ciel and Arthur to the dinning room while Jeremy took his time with the preparations for tonight. When everyone finished eating, Jeremy explained his plan, saying to Ciel that he will have to take off his clothes.

"Under no circumstances should you raise your voice. You can't move a muscle. Be patient and don't open your eyes until I tell you to. If you do, you'll be caught by the 'string of death' in the blink of an eye" explained Jeremy. The killer will most certainly come to the Earl's bed tonight as well, we'll lie in wait there and capture him. Don't worry, he'll appear for sure...However, we don't know where he will appear so don't lose focus.

And then, there you all were, in Ciel's room, waiting for the killer to show himself. Jeremy told you to bring your red panda too for an unknown reason. After waiting a couple hours, Jiang started growling and you silenced him. Something was coming, you could feel it. There was something crawling on the floor, hissing a little. At the last moment, when he jumped on the bed to attack Ciel:

"Now! Step aside!" yelled Jeremy.

Ran-Mao, who was in the bed, quickly caught the thing in the cover of the bed, throwing it aside. Before Charles could kill it, Jeremy stopped him, telling him to not kill. Lifting the cover, you gasped at the sight before you.

"This is the...killer?!" Arthur deadpanned.


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Entering the room where the guests were, everyone had a look of shock when they saw what you had in your hands.

"'This' is the killer," said Jeremy, pointing at the snake.
"A snake?" asked Ciel. "That's ridiculous!"
"It's hard to believe but it really came to get the young lady wearing the Earl's clothes" Arthur said while Ran-Mao nodded.
"To compensate their lack of sight, snakes have a highly developed sense of smell and hearing. That's how they are able to find their prey in the dark, through sound vibrations and smell" you explained. "In other words...the snake was most likely trained by being fed right after it was exposed to the Earl's scent."
"If one uses a snake, it doesn't matter if they have a key or an alibi, said Jeremy. This is a 'Black Mamba', they inhabit South Africa and possess a strong neurotoxin, the victim will inevitably die within one hour of being bitten."
"Finally, it possesses special characteristics such as the world's fastest movement and an excellence in climbing trees" you finished for Jeremy. "It's the perfect snake to use for murder."
'...But a snake is still a snake, it didn't know whether the person it bit was the Earl or not."
"I see...For the criminal it was an unexpected development that the Earl was sleeping elsewhere..."
"And the one who slept in my bed that night was Patrick Phelps" Ciel said.

While Arthur thanked Ran-Mao for her assistance, you couldn't help but giggle when she clung to him, telling him she was glad that he was safe.

"In any case! I was made to wear the butler's coat to hide my body odor?"
"Isn't it great how it hid your entire body?" Jeremy chuckled.
"You really don't know when to stop talking do you?" Ciel muttered darkly.
"However, it's illegal to transport poisonous snakes on trading ships. I used to be a doctor on a boat that sailed the African sea course as a part-time job, the luggage was checked quite strictly."
"So it was smuggled" you said.
"Bribing a privately managed freight ship is probably the easiest way" said Lau.
"Indeed, you'd need close connections with an African business."
"If you're talking Africa, imported products would be gold or dia-" Arthur stopped mid-sentence, realizing something.

Everyone turned to Woodley, who was panicking right now.

"N...no. It wasn't me!" he stuttered. "T-Trading is Kun Lun's thing isn't it!"
"Aww too bad! We don't do business with any African companies" Lau smiled.
"Well, it really is a bit much to be deciding the killer based on the snake being from Africa alone, said Charles."
"That's right! And what about when Siemens was killed?! I have an alibi!!"

You chuckled darkly, everyone turning to you with a surprised look. You crossed your arms, leaning on a wall, your hair shading a part of your face, making you look more scary.

"That alibi might not be worth all that much" you told him with a smirk.
"What?" he said.
"What do you mean?" Grimsby asked.

You stared at Jeremy, who was smiling at you, telling you to continue. You nodded, before taking a deep breath.

"What if the corpse the butler and the others found wasn't a corpse?"
"WHAT?!"
"But...he didn't have a pulse and there was blood on his chest" said Arthur.
"Did you thoroughly inspect the wound?" Jeremy asked.
"That's...It was quite dark, so I wasn't able to..."
"Does everyone know the potion Juliet drank in 'Romeo and Juliet'?" you asked.
"You mean to go into a state of apparent death but come back to life?" said Irene.
"Yes, and it actually exist...There is a substance called tretrodotoxin that was recently discovered and is being studied. It seems that if you refine it in a certain way you will be able to achieve a state of apparent death much like Juliet's" you explained. Plus, tretrodotoxin is the poison puffer fish and octopuses carry.
"When I investigated Lord Siemens' body, I noticed a faint scent of the sea. Perhaps that was the scent of a poison made using puffer fish. I just have one question here; why would the scent of poison come from someone who had allegedly been stabbed?" Jeremy asked.
"It was set up?" Ciel said.
"Indeed, he himself drank the poison, got rid of the bottle and pretended to be dead. Then, it wouldn't matter what room he was put in...He probably figured that people without specific medical knowledge wouldn't examine the wound closely, hence why it would work as a temporary deception at least, but when I checked the body just now, he was certainly stabbed to death."
"So what was meant to be a fake turned out to be a real murder?" Lau asked.
"If we look at the situation, the killer might have wanted to lure the Earl into a trap" said Arthur. "It's impossible to know whether Lord Siemens was an accomplice though, because he seemed quite out of bound once he had some alcohol in him, the killer might have invited him to 'give everyone a good scare' or something..."
"But the Lord and myself had never met before, there is no reason for him to want to lure me into a trap, we can just look at it as him being used and then silenced by being killed" Ciel explained.
"There would have been plenty of chances to talk to him during the buffet party" you said.
"If so, anyone here could have egged him on! I don't even have any kind of alibi" yelled Woodley.
"We could inquire as to what everyone talked about with Lord Siemens but...let's not" said Jeremy while shrugging.
"Humans are lying creatures" you said with a smug smile.
"That's right, in fact, you could be lying as well" Charles said bitterly. If he drank a poison where did the bottle go?
"That's easy, he got rid of it in a place no one could examine right away, in the fire for example" said Ciel.
"We definitely wouldn't find it there...And if he collected it once the afterglow had died out..."
"However, that wasn't possible, because of Sebastian" you muttered. "Before he could destroy the evidence, he had already come to collect the ashes..."
"Tha-that's nonsense!" cried Woodley.
"Oh yeah? We shall see about that" you said while moving to the fire.
"If he had found the proof of a set-up, his precious alibi would go up in smoke. He acted quickly and immediately killed Sebastian...Next, he recovered the evidence and returned to his room" said Ciel while you were lifting the log away.
"Then the one who was it is the killer!!! I don't have any such thing! You searched us right?!" he panicked.
"That's right. Outside the hearth that is" Ciel smirked. "Isn't it the perfect hiding place? It's not like we would come to search in the room again. If you recovered and destroyed it after we were done searching, it'd be perfect."
"Th...that's a false accusation! There's nothing like that here!"
"Really? Show us, (Y/N)..."

You took the small pieces in your hands and showed them to everyone with a smirk.

"Glass shards" you said simply.
"But, it's not like we can tell what is was like this" said Arthur.
"It'll be fine if we pick it up and put it back together..."

Before Arthur could protest furthermore, he already done it, showing to everyone the bottle. The bottle looked like an ampule of medicine.


'Looks like you're the killer after all" you said with no emotions in your voice.
"I-I...have no idea what this is!!"
"To want to trap a child...why on Earth would you do that?!"
"Diamonds" you and Ciel said in unison.
"Huh?"
'There was a top secret plan for a major company in the diamond industry, Rose, and my own company possesses the world's leading technology to cooperate and take off the jewelry industry. But a few days ago, the autocratic president, Mr. Rose, was murdered and the plan was put on hold. However, if the plan was put into motion again, the Woodley company, that boasts of having the latest technology, would certainly receive some damage. That's why you thought you'd kill me now right? It was a careless thought anyway" Ciel said.
"I didn't do it, please believe me!! I'm being set up here!! By this kid...the Queen's watch-'

Before he could finish his sentence, you swung your leg and kicked him between his legs and Charles took this moment, to hold his sword to his neck.

"This is for killing my fiancé, bastard" you said darkly.
'I don't need your explanations, I'll listen to your stories in jail..."

While Woodley was yelling that he was innocent, Charles brought him with him to a carriage which will transport him to jail. Smiling in relief, you sat down in a chair, exhausted. Finally, the storm calmed down and everyone could return back to their home. When it was all finished, you were about to go in your room when you heard the entrance door opening. You hid behind a pillar and saw Arthur, panting.

"I came back to confirm the truth, pastor Jeremy...no. Butler Sebastian" he said and you smiled at that.
"Excellent, seems we underrated you a little or wouldn't I be more likely to say...it appears that we have rudely underestimated you sir?" said Sebastian while taking his mask off, revealing himself. "Mr. Wordsmith...."


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You decided to stay in your room all the next day, you were tired and you needed to sleep. Suddenly, in the middle of the night, you heard a knock at your door and you quickly opened it to see Sebastian. Before he could speak, you threw yourself on him, sobbing all the while. He embraced you tightly, smiling lovingly at you.

"I missed you so much" you muttered.
"Me too, my lady..."
"You know...I'm still going to kill you after all of this" you said in a dark tone.

The butler only sweat dropped at your words. Releasing you, he quickly kissed you on your lips before disappearing. That night, you fell asleep with a smile on your face.