Kuroshitsuji: The Contract from Birth [Ciel Phantomhive]

[39] Her Butler, Sickened

There was no time to waste once Yuki had announced the unfortunate news I'd known all along would eventually happen.

Sebastian and I were the first to reach the supposed crime scene, followed seconds behind by a disheveled Adelina and a frantic Yuki herself. Rodric, unsurprisingly, was already inspecting the body before anyone had even reached the outside gardens, where the body was half buried in a shallow ditch.

"How sloppy," Rodric commented softly, eyes scanning the corpse, "It's certainly quite a different modus operandi, hm?"

Sebastian clicked his tongue.

"I would say so... a much less passionate method... or quite possibly a much more passionate one instead. I suppose it depends on what end of the knife you're standing on." He quipped contentedly, as though this gruesome scene was nothing more than a game of cards.

Adelina gagged a bit beside me and Yuki turned her away by the shoulders, leaving me with the liberty to now approach Dianesse without feeling guilty about doing so in front of her.

The body, however, was barely recognizable.

A long, scarlet smile extended now from one end of her hinged throat to the other, continuing to drip hues despite the decaying smell that indicated she had been left outside since the previous night. Her arms and legs had also been contorted in attempts and make her fit into the small hole in the ground. Because of the relatively limited area, she was also caked from head to toe in dirt, grass and a bit of frost from the cold morning dew.

She looked like the day I had first met her, only instead of the frosting being what was smeared, it was blood, grass, and earth that took its place.

Quite a different style of homicide indeed.

"We need to start investigating." Adelina's trembling voice announced, slowly turning around to now begin inspecting the body herself. Rodric stepped in front of her and blocked her view.

"You don't have to do anything, Countess. This is your fiancé's area of expertise." he gently reminded with a smirk.

Despite the accuracy of his statement, I couldn't help but bare my teeth behind my lips at him, somehow beginning to feel that he was enjoying the struggle I had been forced into. Adelina, on the contrary, smiled weakly at me from behind Rodric and I involuntary mirrored the expression, now a bit warm.

Sebastian shifted beside me and began to further inspect the scene as Yuki waved Salvador over, who had just appeared at the garden gate with a pair of large scissors and a garden hose. His expression contorted repulsion when he finally caught sight of Dianesse and his eyes instantly flashed towards Adelina.

"Rest assured, with such a passionate crime, something is bound to have been left behind," I said, adjusting the brim of my hat, "why don't one of you walk Adelina into the manor and warm her up?"

I turned to Adelina and raised a brow.

"Wouldn't that be nice?"

Silently nodding, she allowed herself to be escorted away by Yuki, turning back every so often as though she expected the body to just vanish.

"My poor Countess," Salvador sighed, pocketing the shears into his front apron pocket, "siempre le suceden tantas tragedias." 1

I stayed silent.

Tragedies always fell on those who don't deserve them.

"What were you doing so early in the gardens, Salvador?" Rodric asked suddenly, eyes still on Dianesse as Sebastian and him both shifted through the surrounding dirt of the coincidentally made grave.