"Ah, finally some peace and quiet after that embarrassing sports day!" Exclaimed Emrald with delight while helping her mother to prepare breakfast. It was Saturday and who does not love weekends? Everyone loves it.
"Emrald your uncle recieved a telegram this morning and sent it here on his way to work, he said that you should go with Hyungwon as his substitute. After breakfast take a look at it, I put the envelope in your desk's first drawer when you were still sleeping." Said Mrs Kaizen.
Emrald simply nodded to say yes and wondered what this telegram was about.
After breakfast Emrald quickly went to her room and took out the telegram from her drawer, she carefully opened the envelope which was already unsealed. Then she called for Hyungwon and told him what her mum said and read the letter together.
'Dear Mr Kaizen,
I hope you are doing well. This telegram I'm sending is to invite you to a Mystery Dinner in the Rose Mansion near Funaokayama park. Since you are a mystery novelist I decided to invite you, the other participants I invited are detectives and the superintendent of police HQ of Tokyo. Now then will you be able to solve the mystery? The first mystery is that a person will die at exactly midnight, can you prevent this tragedy? Now then Good luck.
Rosencreuz.
This was clearly very intimidating and suspicious. "So what are you going to do?" Asked Hyungwon with a serious expression on his face. "Let's go, sounds interesting and we're my uncle's stand-in anyway." Answered Emrald. They then went to inform Emrald's parents about what they decided to do and Mrs Kaizen instructed them to be careful. They got ready and were both formally dressed. They went to wait at the bus station near the Tokyo police HQ. Once there, they met with Emrald's father's old friend Sasaki Akira who was the current superintendent of first division. "Akira-san, could you be going to the Rose mansion as well?" Asked Emrald. "Kaizen? Oh yes. As well...that means you too?" Asked Akira-san surprised. "Yes we're standing in for my uncle, ah this is my friend who is currently freeloading at our house, Lee Hyungwon." Said Emrald. "Oi oi what do you mean freeloading? Your mum made this offer to me remember?" Said Hyungwon. "Ah pleased to meet you mr Lee Hyungwon, that's a Korean name isn't it?" Asked Akira-san. "Yes I am an exchange student from South Korea, pleased to meet you Sasaki-san." Said Hyungwon all politely.
"No need for such formality Hyungwon-kun, you can simply call me Akira-san or Akira." Said Akira-san. " I'll keep that in mind, thank you Sasaki-san." Said Hyungwon.
Just then, a black Porsche came to fetch them. The driver asked them to show their invitation letters first before they were allowed to enter the car.
"Mr. Driver could you be this Rosencreuz's butler?" Asked Akira-san.
"Yes I am, there's another two butlers and two maids. I am Tanaka Shiino, pleased to meet you." Said the butler Tanaka-san. "I see..." Said Hyungwon.
It was quite a long ride, they even brought spare clothes with them as per Emrald's uncle's instructions when the latter was on the phone with Emrald's father earlier. "My guts tell me something bad is about to happen there." Said Akira-san. "Same here, like a far bigger tragedy than what we can imagine." Said Hyungwon. "Or it could all be a prank to scare us." Said Emrald. "I hope so." Said both Akira-san and Hyungwon in unison.
They finally arrived at the designated destination and were welcomed by the two maids at the front door, they were the last to arrive. "Wow such a huge door even an elephant or a giraffe can walk through it!" Exclaimed Emrald. "Well it's a mansion after all." Said Hyungwon. The two maids and Tanaka-san lead them to the dining room where everyone were already seated. There were name tags in front of each seat in order to arrange the seating. When everyone were seated the maids made a 'ding' sound by tapping a fork against a spoon.
"Attention please, we will now introduce ourselves. I am Tanaka Shiino a butler." Said Tanaka-san. "I am Midorikawa Yuriko, a maid, pleased to meet you" said one of the maids and the other said "Pleased to meet you I am a maid as well and as you can see I am Yuriko's twin sister. My name is Midorikawa Fumiko."
"Hello I am Mizobata Jun, a butler as well, pleased to meet you." Said the second butler, he looked like he was in his thirties while Tanaka-san looked like he was in his sixties or maybe fifties. The last butler was the youngest one, quite handsome as well and looked like he was in his twenties just like the two maids, he then introduced himself as Subaru Eiji. "Now's your turn to introduce yourselves dear participants of the mystery dinner." Said Tanaka-san.
Apart from Emrald, Hyungwon and Akira-san, there were five more participants. And they were Takatou Giselle, a half Japanese woman who writes mystery poems about Roses, Takahito Akita a young CEO, Aburame Akihito a detective from Osaka, Nagasaki Sakura a mystery novelist, Hinamori Takeshi a detective from Nagano perfecture. After the introductions dinner was served, it was a French meal suiting the environment of the mansion. "Say we've been eating and all but where is the master of the mansion; this Rosencreuz?" Asked Hinamori. "Well we butlers and maids were only given instructions, alas we do not know where he is and we do not even know his face." Said Tanaka-san. "Sure we were only employed to work here by Rosencreuz for two days and three nights and he offered big money for it so we naturally accepted." Said Yuriko. "Do not know his face? Man that's nuts!" Exclaimed Takihito. "Wait what if the part at midnight someone will die wasn't a joke and was real?" Asked Takihito. "Don't worry well I hope it is a joke, this Rosencreuz is probably trying to surprise us with a magic trick or something and laugh at us." Said Hinamori. "In your place I wouldn't be so sure, this could be a declaration of war against us detectives or a murderer trying to fool us." Said Aburame. Everyone's facial expressions changed at this moment.
They then each returned to their own rooms. Each one of them recieved a towel with different roses embroidered on them. The men went into the men's bath and the women went into the women's bath. "Ah this is so refreshing" exclaimed Emrald. It was a soothing rose bath. "I agree with you hundred percent Emrald, and mn this fragrance, it smells so good and it's so soothing!" Said Giselle. Then the girls started to have their own fun in the bath. "Wow Your skin is so radiant and smooth, tell me your secret? Ah how nice to be young and fresh..." Said Giselle. "I'm just a child in the eyes of adults... A teenager, as for my secret it could be that I always only wear long dresses and long sleeves. All my dresses have high collars or large frilly collars. Even my school uniform's skirts are beneath my knee and my socks are long enough to cover my calves... In short I don't get much exposure to sunlight. Though I do like to take a stroll in the sunlight right after sunrise in the garden and allow myself to be basked in it while wearing summer kawaii pyjamas during summer." Said Emrald and since the men's bath was just next door they heard everything. And all of their faces went bright red, especially that of Hyungwon. "Oi oi looks like the women are having fun." Said Eiji and Akihito in unison. Aburame Akihito is a high school detective. He's quite famous and known as the high school detective of the west. "Well even with long dresses on I admit this Kaizen Emrald girl is beautiful and elegant. A little impressive for high school student, I mean nowadays they all want to wear mini skirts and so on. I think she would look really good in a Cheongsam." Said Eiji while trying to imagine her in a Cheongsam. He felt a sudden icy cold chill on his shoulder and turned around to see the angry and scary face of Hyungwon who was grabbing his shoulder very hard. "Wow scary scary, I was only joking, I didn't mean anything by it, I'm sorry." Said Eiji while being all stiff. The other men laughed and talked about football.
Time passed and it was 11:45, Hyungwon still couldn't sleep. He heard three knocks on his door and a voice calling "Hyungwon ge" he knew immediately that it was Emrald and opened the door for her. Emrald stood in front of him in her beige and pink floral print frilly pyjamas, carrying a pillow with her and said "Hyungwon, I want to sleep in your room, please allow me, truth is I'm a little scared to sleep alone considering this place is eerie and the letter said someone will die, though I believe it to be a joke. And midnight is near, so..." Hyungwon pulled her into a hug and said "it's okay, don't worry I'll protect you I swear" and closed the door behind him, they had no choice but to share the bed this time. "Hyungwon ge" said Emrald suddenly. "Mm" replied Hyungwon. "Tomorrow let me sleep in your room again, I'll bring my mattress here and put it down don't worry, I'm just feeling slightly unsettled by the atmosphere." She said. "But of course Ems, I said I'll always protect you and I mean it, afterall I promised your mother to take care of you and to be careful." Said Hyungwon with a smile while patting Emrald's head.
"Kyaahhhhhhhhhhh" a loud scream was heard, it was a female's voice and it was as if she was horrified by something.
It was exactly midnight, Hyungwon and Emrald quickly got up and rushed out of the room, so did Akira-san who's room was right next to Hyungwon's and so did the other participants. The scream of horror came from Takatou Giselle's room. Akira-san knocked on her door repeatedly and called for her but there was no response. The men finally decided to pry open the door by force and entered the room, it was empty. Everyone got inside to look around, the room was clean and neat, did they mishear? A drop of water fell on Emrald's cheeks from the ceiling. "No way is the ceiling leaking?" Asked Emrald and wiped off the drop of water only to find out that it wasn't water but blood. "Kyahhhhh" yelled Emrald horrified who fell down to her knees, her head facing the ceiling. "Emrald!? Oh My God!" Exclaimed Hyungwon and everyone else looked at the ceiling to find Giselle's corpse pinned up there with a huge sword, her eyes still open. 'how the hell did she get up there?' thought Hyungwon.
"Yaaahhhhhh" screamed the other ladies.