That Butler, New Face

That Butler, Contemplative

KNOCK. KNOCK.

Tanaka knocked on the door of another room.

"Excuse me," he said, opening the door. Inside Ciel was sitting on the bed, wearing Sebastian's coat, surrounded by his servants, who were all armed with pitchforks, brooms and the like, and his nervous guests. "We have succeeded in apprehending the culprit," Tanaka announced. "I have informed their party that Young Master and the other guests are hiding here in Mister Woodley's room, so they should be arriving presently." The other servants all exhaled sighs of relief.

KNOCK. KNOCK.

Arthur opened the door, and he was followed by Grey.

"We've taken the culprit into custody," Grey informed them, gesturing behind him.

"Kyah..." Irene shrieked as she and Grimsby paled and flinched in shock. Standing there behind Grey, was none other than Jeremy holding a dangerous-looking snake that he had tied into a knot.

"Here is your killer," Jeremy said.

"A... A snake!?" Ciel exclaimed. "How is that even possible...!!?"

'I freaking knew it!' Chêne thought.

"It may be hard to believe, but it really did come after the young lady by virtue of her simply wearing the earl's clothes," Arthur said. Ran-Mao nodded. She was dressed in one of Ciel's jackets, which covered very little of her.

"Let me guess, it came through the vent and down the bell pull?" Chêne said.

"H-How did you know!?" Arthur asked, surprised.

"I've heard of a similar incident, but I didn't think anyone would believe me," she replied.

"Well... No, I guess you have a point, since even now it's still difficult to believe..." Arthur said, thinking it over. "But you still should have said something."

"What incident was this?" Grey asked.

"It was in a story I heard," Chêne replied, deciding she could give away that much. "It was a long time ago, so the details are a little vague, but I remember that the snake was trained somehow."

"As weak as a snake's vision may be, its sense of smell and hearing are highly evolved in compensation. Thus it can search out creatures in the black of night by their smells and the sounds of their hearts To put it plainly... the perpetrator must have trained the snake by rewarding it with prey whenever it was made to smell Earl Phantomhive's scent," Jeremy explained, taking over again. "If a snake is the murder weapon, keys and alibis no longer hold any weight. This is a 'black mamba', which inhabits southern Africa. Its venom contains exceedingly potent neurotoxins. Those who receive its bite are sure to die within an hour. As for unique traits, it is the fastest land snake in the world and excels at climbing trees. A perfect snake for any assassination plot. —But a snake is still just a snake, after all. It had no way of knowing whether or not its victim was Earl Phantomhive."

"Now I get it... the earl not sleeping in his own room was an unexpected development for the one behind all this!" Arthur said, taking more notes.

"And that night, my bedroom was being used by... Patrick Phelps!" Ciel said, furrowing his brow.

"Surmising that it would definitely make another appearance once it got hungry again, we stuck around, and sure enough it did just that. What a relief she was able to put on your clothes and was willing to stand in for you, my lord," Jeremy said, referring to Ran-Mao, who was tugging at her tight clothing. He put the snake in a large ceramic container on the mantlepiece. "If that hadn't been the case, Lord Earl wouldn't have been able to dodge the awful snake, right?"