ATTENTION! ~~~~ PEONY FINALE ~~~~ Friday June 21, 2024~!

Mutiny Inn, right back where it all started.

The place was left exactly how it was – the aftermath of an intense raid. The doors that were blown off the hinged by the uninvited guest had hundreds of trample marks by the many soldiers that came to arrest everyone.

Maybe it was pure fortune or some freak coincidence, the trail left behind by the uninvited guest were still left intact, virtually untouched. They were well dried after several days where the rain had stopped entirely.

Tables and chairs were either tossed over or shattered into pieces. Even now there are pieces of food and chicken bones scattered across the floor during the initial chaos.

“Here.” Martial Red Sister waved a finger at the floor covered in bloody footprints. “This was made by our friend, Mr. Ghost Strangler. Just barged in during the storm, jump scared the hell out of us, and went to the bathchamber door to peep at Lady Peony. Nothing we did could hit or stop it.”

Martial Kim glanced at the footprints. Then he snapped his fingers, “Ah! I know who this is!”

Martial Red Sister and Martial Blue Sister turned to their companion with a unified ‘wut’? The man in the hanbok would suddenly heft what he was carrying with him the entire time.

It was his murder kit. A specially made wooden box that could unfold into multiple mini-trays and removable stacks of platforms, like a layered lunch box. With a hum he would pluck up a small porcelain bottle, whipped off the cloth stopper and dipped his finger inside the narrow opening. Some thick and sticky glass like fluid.

The ladies watched as Martial Kim drew something on a corner of a table – their table now that they recognize it, from the night where they had dinner with Lady Peony. His movements were swift, precise, but nothing showed up on the surface. It was until he picked up a random cup filled with some rain water did he splash it on the table top.

......:)

A smiley face painted in blood red magically appeared!

“OH!” Martial Blue Sister yelped, covering her gaping mouth.

“Allow me to introduce you to Redpulp Syrup!” Martial Kim would chime as he wiggled the small porcelain jar in between his fingers. “Made from sap collected from redwood waxtrees! After a complex refinement process, it turns into this glass like fluid which can be painted on any surface. It looks invisible at first, but once you splash a bit of water it causes a chemical reaction and becomes bright red! It’s very popular in stage plays, to give a dramatic – if not ghostly – blood appearance affect for the extra oohs and aash!”

“...I knew it wasn’t a damn ghost!” Martial Red Sister felt duped, so she kicked the table over, along with the innocent smiley face, to make herself feel better.

Something clicked in Martial Blue Sister’s head. She quickly ran over, to the bathchamber. She padded her small hands around like a mole touching the walls for a way out. Rather she was looking for any way ‘in’ through the walls or even the ceiling. A hidden door or something she missed last time!

While doing so, Martial Kim strode in and glanced about. His attention immediately turned to the bathtub in the center of the room. It was still full, near the brim. The colour of red clouding the inside of the water. Martial Kim gave the tub a small poke, a light push, then tried to shuffle the tub over.

It didn’t budge. Well of course it was still full of water. Weighed as much as a baby elephant.

To test something, Martial Kim dipped a pinky finger into the water – and licked it.

Obviously, the Martial Sisters gave a combined EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEW!

“Ah. Pig’s Blood. Thought the color was a bit exaggerated.” Martial Kim said out loud, talking to himself. He wanted a second taste to be sure, but Martial Red Sister slapped his hand to tell him to stop!

Then Martial Kim did the unthinkable.

If Martial Red Sister won’t let him pinky test the water – he pulled back a sleeve to dunk his entire hand into the tub. Ignoring the screams of disgust, Martial Kim would wiggle his hand to feel around at the bottom, the water sucking up above his elbow line. Then he had this smile, before he dig a forceful yank.

GRRRRRRRR—KLUNK—FLUSH!

Martial Blue Sister and Martial Red Sister’s eyes went wide open at the sight of the water level suddenly shrinking – nay, sucking down into a quick spiral. Bathtubs like these were not designed with a convenient drain system. In order to empty the water, people had to scoop it out like an ice cream bucket.

Yet, clearly the water level was decreasing with a guttural noise. Before they know it, the water just FLOOSH, drained out completely without soaking the floor.

The two Martial Sisters looked into the tub. To their shock, there was a hidden trap door pulled wide open, revealing a hidden space leading to a flowing stream right below.

“By the divines!” Martial Red Sister could not help gasping at this sight and hugging her body. “Which egg headed pervert made this trap door!? As a woman, I feel violated!”

“I did some research into Mutiny Hill,” said Martial Kim as he flung the red water off his bare arm, “Decades ago it used to be a bandit outpost, operated by mountain thieves and some rebel turncoats. They dressed up the place to look like an Imperial sponsored inn, to swindle travelers of their money. Food, bed, even supplies were over charged, and if they refused to pay the con artists would threaten jail time. Very convincing when they wore Imperial armour and uniforms.”

The man in the hanbok would dry off his arm before he pointed at the hatch. “If the con artists took interest of any fine skinned beauty, or even a rich man, they rigged the bathchamber to allow themselves to climb in secretly, grab their hostage, and crawl out. They even added this mechanism to fill up the bath once they close it! That way if anyone were to investigate their disappearance, they would be none the wiser! Quite ingenious, really.”

“Of course,” Martial Kim continued, “When word finally reached his Imperial Majesty’s ear, he dispatched a raid to storm the place and kill all the swindlers. He gave the order to toss their bodies out into the open for the wolves to pick on, forbidden from receiving a proper burial as their punishment. Hence, Mutiny Hill you see today.”

He then added. “Also, the gears of the hidden door have well rusted. My guess after the raid no one has used it, meaning everyone forgot about this secret mechanism. However, I can tell by the chipping of some rust powder, it’s been used just recently. Most likely to put on the disappearing of Lady Peony. The killer, or those connected, knew of Mutiny Inn’s secret and took advantage of it, along with the legend of the ghost, to make it seem like Lady Peony was murdered by a vengeful spirit, not a human being. And if the prisoners from Mutiny Inn had been executed without question – this would have been the perfect crime. Dastardly clever!”

Martial Blue Sister couldn’t believe her eyes and ears.

She gave the bathtub a hard push. Last time she tried to move it, but thought she was too physically weak to push something that weight exactly like a baby elephant. Now she realized, she was tricked as the entire tub was bolted down even when it was drained of water.

Some ideas started to click in place and she didn’t like where her thoughts were going. “So that’s what you mean, a magician’s trick! Like a trap door under a stage to drop the actor! B-but, how did Lady Peony – or at least her corpse, get stuffed into a chest right above our heads!?”

To make absolutely sure nothing else was left out, Martial Kim would have his companions guide him to the room in question. They entered the place where they met North Cloud Shipping Company.

Martial Kim went down and dirty and started to pull and kick at floorboards. When none of them gave way easily, he used brute force to yank the planks right off.

“Hmm.” He would hum as he examine the floor. “There’s barely any space for even a ninja to sneak through and pull off an elaborate switcharoo trick. How big were those chests?”

Martial Red Sister held up her hands to give a rough estimate. About yay big and yay wide.

“Even empty, they would be heavier than the bathtub down stairs.” Martial Kim noted as he looked around in the dark. “Meaning there was no way those connected could switch a package with another with a simple sleight of hand. This wouldn’t be as elegant as switching the side of a dice in a gambling table.”

“Could it be magic?” Martial Red Sister perked up. “I know some spells that can send objects into a locked room...Wait, no. I may be ahead of myself. The trunk Lady Peony was inside was full of stuff. Salt, random corpses, what have you. To teleport matter inside an empty space is one obstacle, to shove them into a complex environment like a box full of salt or sand, its a nightmare to deal with and too unpredictable.”

“...What if,” Martial Kim started to put the pieces together in his mind. “What if it wasn’t a spell, or a stage trick...” Before he could reveal the answer in his mind, something caught his attention. “Ah. By the way, have either of you examined Lady Peony’s body?”

Martial Blue Sister and Martial Red Sister turned to each other with a unified ‘ah’ noise.