Who Holds The Whip

**Who Holds The Whip** is a case featured in *Criminal Case*. It takes place in the Roman imperial region of Graecita.

## Plot

**You are experiencing the story in third-person view.**

The night of the last case, Livius is at the Imperial office, sitting on the chair, waiting for someone’s arrival while something is rising in his toga. Finally, a slave called Nebet makes it to the office and when she enters, Livius immediately tells her to lock the door. Nebet does as she’s told and while she’s locking the door, Livius approaches her from behind and embraces her waist. He then starts kissing her neck and at first, Nebet is nervous, but then she turns to face the princeps and they kiss on their mouths. Nebet dominates the emperor, making him sit on his chair and then she gets on top of him and they continue kissing. Things were going great until Livius pulled up his toga, showing Nebet his member and when he tried to pull up her skirt, Nebet backed away. Nebet took a minute to process what happened and then she turned to the princeps, telling him that this thing between them cannot continue because he is the crown prince, and she is just a slave and that he can profess his love to her as much as he wants but he should know this wouldn’t work out. But Livius insisted that they continue their relationship and even asked Nebet to marry him. Livius’ proposal made Nebet speechless, and Livius began promising Nebet that she’ll live a life of luxury, that he’ll be faithful and dismiss all the concubines from the palace, and that if he failed to satisfy her sexually, he’ll allow her to pursue other lovers during their marriage and he’ll give them a blind eye. Although the offer was very generous, Nebet hesitated at accepting it, warning Livius about the public’s opinion and what it would do to his image but he told her that he doesn’t care what people think about him as long as he has her on his side. Livius then told Nebet that he doesn’t want to force her into something she doesn’t want to get into, so he’ll give her time to make a decision and it doesn’t matter to him whether she agrees to marry him or not, he just wants her to be happy and from now on, she is a free woman. Nebet leaves the office thinking about Livius’ proposal, how much it would benefit her but also how much it’ll damage Livius. She thought about how “selfish” it would be of her to marry him, especially since he doesn’t know about her secret yet...

Fast forward to the next day, Marionette is walking in the market place with Norah and Kaleb, looking for any slave auction going on to buy Shirley’s freedom. Marionette walks next to Kaleb and she decided to take the opportunity to apologize for impersonating his sister. However, Kaleb wasn’t mad at the impersonation, and he told Marionette that what made him mad was the way she and Norah reacted to the room they were given. He pointed out that Audenzia was kind enough to provide them with a room and have it tidied up for them, and instead of thanking her, they acted like ungrateful brats and picked it apart, which hurt her feelings. Marionette went silent with guilt, but then a market stall selling jewelry caught her attention and took her away from the group. Nervous, Marionette stared at the jewels and her eyes fell on a golden necklace encrusted with rubies. Her kleptomania started kicking in and she began resisting the urge to steal the necklace. The jewel trader noticed Marionette looking at the necklace and he offered to sell it to her, but Marionette was hesitant, knowing they needed money for the slave trade. Suddenly, Kaleb showed himself and he asked the man how much was the necklace and the trader sold it to him with a discount because he found Marionette “pretty”. Once the necklace was bought, Marionette hesitantly took off the necklace she was wearing (as it was a gift from Madelina and she was afraid of how she’ll react) and she wore the new one instead which matched her outfit way better. After they were done with the deal, Kaleb took this opportunity to ask the trader about where they can find the slave auction and the man told him that those auctions are held at the Forum and gave him directions on where to find the building.

The team followed the directions the jewel trader had given them and they entered the forum, only to find that the traders were packing their slaves and were ready to leave. This disappointed the group, but they still haven’t lost hope on freeing Shirley and they began looking for Eusebius Abelardus. Marionette and Norah entered one of the rooms at the forum and they found a naked man tied to a pillory with flogging marks all over his back. The girls assumed he was a slave and felt pity for him, so they came to untie him only to realize that the man is dead.

**You are now playing as Marionette Patrick.**

Even though they wanted to bring justice to the murder, Marionette and Norah were aware that because the victim was a slave the killer will not receive any charges so solving the murder would be a waste of time. This was until a man entered the atrium and through him they discovered that the victim was no slave and that he was in fact the slave trader they had been looking for, Eusebius Abelardus. The girls spoke with the man who identified the victim and he introduced himself as Kyran and that he was the victim’s trading partner. From Kyran, they learned where Eusebius lived and they went to his estate hoping to find clues on who might have killed him and they found reasons to suspect the victim’s neighbor, a noblewoman by the name of Simona Severa and Wu Ming, a Chinese slave who was brought to the auction but failed to receive any buyers. Marionette and Norah began discussing their progress, only to be approached by Ming who claimed that he has information that may help them with their investigation.

Ming informed Marionette and Norah that the victim was a huge womanizer and that he often invited courtesans over to his estate to perform sexual acts with them. Ming then told the duo that there is a scholae near the estate which trained such women and that the victim frequented it and sometimes sold female slaves there to have them practice sexual acts for them to use on him in the future. Marionette and Nora decided to pay that scholae a visit where some courtesans fell for Nora’s disguise and began flirting with her, thinking she was a rich nobleman. Norah enjoyed the attention but she resisted the temptation to flirt back with the girls and focused on the investigation where she and Marionette found reasons to suspect a transsexual courtesan by the name of Discordia and the scholae owner, Honoria Davinia. During the investigation, the duo learned that the victim made racist comments about Persians which offended Kyran and that Simona used to be one of his slaves before being sold to her late husband and even after becoming a free woman, she never forgave the victim for the way he treated her. While they were recapping the case, the girls noticed a crowd gathering around the scholae and ,out of curiosity, they went to see what was going on.

Marionette and Norah pushed through the crowd where they saw Discordia having a fight with some noblewoman. The noblewoman was pissed off, accusing the courtesan of stealing a piece of jewelry that belonged to her, and she demanded that she get it back, which Discordia refused to do so. The duo broke down the fight and they promised the noblewoman they’d look into the matter after they are done solving Eusebius’ murder. After turning the noblewoman away, the duo went back in the scholae hoping to find more clues for their investigation and they discovered that Honoria argued with the victim for forcing her courtesans into sexual acts against their will and that due to failure of finding a buyer for him, Eusebius planned to castrate Ming to pass him as a woman and sell him to the scholae, but Ming managed to convince him into taking him into one more auction, saving himself from the fate as Eusebius died before he could have his manhood chopped off. They also found out that Discordia was the victim’s daughter, who he disowned back when she still identified as male after learning she was homosexual. After collecting enough evidence, Marionette and Norah found out that Honoria Davinia was Eusebius’ killer.

Honoria acted confused by the accusations, pointing out that she’s supposed to set a good example to her courtesans and wouldn’t want them to think murder is okay, but when shown the evidence she cracked up eventually and admitted to killing the victim to save her own reputation. Honoria revealed that she isn’t a “full” Roman woman and while her mom was a noblewoman, her father was a Chinese slave. This caused problems with her mother’s side of the family, and even though they kept her, she was considered illegitimate and they hid the truth of her ancestry from everyone in Rome. Despite the prejudice she faces from her mother’s family, Honoria worked hard, managing to reach a high social status with the nobles and she found the scholae which made her money enough to be considered Roman aristocracy. After telling her story, Honoria began talking about how much of a creep Eusebius was and how he often flirted with her and tried to get her into sleeping with her. Honoria kept rejecting his advances until, one day, he learned the truth about who her father was and threatened to expose her if she doesn’t go in bed with him. This terrified Honoria as she didn’t want to sleep with Eusebius, but she also didn’t want anyone to know she was Half-Chinese. So Honoria decided to see him at the Forum and told him that she agrees to have sex with him but would like to get drunk first. Eusebius agreed to her terms and he began drinking with Honoria, but what he didn’t realize is that she wasn’t actually going to sleep with him and she actually had something else in mind for him. After Eusebius got drunk, Honoria stripped him off his clothes and dragged him to the pillory where she had his hands tied up and she began whipping him until he died. Norah and Marionette decided to take Honoria to the Roman guards where her punishment will be decided by the crown prince.

After Honoria’s arrest, Norah and Marionette instantly put their focus back to Shirley and decided to go speak with Kyran and see if there’s a chance he would sell her to them. But before they could go talk with him, Kaleb approached them and told them that there is a courtesan who wishes to see them.

Norah and Marionette assumed the courtesan who asked for them must be Discordia and so they went to the scholae to see her and caught her having an argument with the same woman they saw her fight with earlier this day. The noblewoman was as livid as before and she kept accusing Discordia of stealing her bracelet, refusing the possibility her husband was seeing “a man”. But Discordia insisted that she never stole anything, that every piece of jewelry she has were gifts from her clients and told the woman that she doesn’t even know what bracelet she’s talking about as she has plenty stored in her safe. Wanting to save Discordia from this psychotic woman, Norah and Marionette began searching the scholae for Discordia’s safe and when they found it, they unlocked it and began digging through Discordia’s jewelry to find the noblewoman’s bracelet and get her to fuck off. The girls found a necklace that looked similar to the one the noblewoman was talking about, but it had a note next to it. The duo uncovered the writing on the note which showed proof that the bracelet was given to Discordia as a gift. Feeling smug, Norah and Marionette went back to Discordia and gave the noblewoman she was fighting with the note they had found. The noblewoman recognize her husband’s name on the note and was too stunned to speak, and finally having proof of her innocence, Discordia yelled at the noblewoman and threatened to call the guards on her if she does not leave the scholae. Livid, the woman leaves and feeling grateful, Discordia gave Norah (who she believed to be a man) a peck on the cheek.

Hoping to buy the rights for Shirley’s freedom, Norah and Marionette caught up with Kyran, telling him that they want to buy a slave. To their disappointment, Kyran told them that slaves are only sold at auction to make as much money as possible out of them, and even if they were patient enough to wait until next week, it is too late as Shirley was already purchased. This shocked the duo and Norah demanded he tells them who he sold her to, but Kyran told them that this information is confidential and he refused to say anything. Not wanting to loose hope, the duo decided to search the forum for any records Eusebius and Kyran have for their sales, and they found a broken wax tablet which after restoring mentioned who each slave is sold to. One of the names on the board was “Sherise” and the tablet revealed that she was bought by a man called Flavian Lucretius. Norah and Marionette asked a random person in the streets who Flavian Lucretius was and they were told that he was a “lanista”, someone responsible for training gladiators and managing the Colosseum. The duo decided to pay the man a visit and offered to buy Shirley from him, but he refused as he had to bid hard to get her. However, if they had a strong male slave with them, he offered to trade Shirley for him so that he could transform him into one of his gladiators. The duo left Flavian’s estate disappointed, thinking about his offer and they new they could not afford it as the only male “slave” they have is Kaleb and Leonora will be livid if they left him at Rome. However, the girls then remembered Wu Ming telling them he was a soldier back at China and they thought that he would be the perfect candidate Flavian must be looking for. Norah and Marionette went to talk with Kyran, who was shocked to learn they wanted to buy Ming, and since he and Eusebius failed to sell him at any auction, he agreed to sell it to them in a very generous price. Ming was confused when learning he had been sold, and the duo felt bad for him and really wanted to set him free, but they knew they had to make sacrifices to free Shirley and so they brought him to Flavian Lucretius’ house. When Flavian saw Ming he thought the girls must be joking with him, but Norah insisted Ming would make a great gladiator and told him about his past as a Chinese soldier, how his short height makes him a fast fighter and while he may not look much now, if fed properly he’ll get to see his true power. Eventually Flavian agreed with the trade and he went into his office with Norah to sign a deal.

**You are now experiencing the story in third-person view**

After she was done signing contracts, Norah took the opportunity of being at Flavian’s home to ask him if it’s true one of the gladiators at the Colosseum is a prince. The lanista was confused and denied having a prince in the arena as the Romans hadn’t contacted anyone outside for years. While they were unable to obtain information on the prophecy, the team still managed to buy Shirley and they left the Lucretius estate with her. Shirley was glad to finally have her freedom, but the team all stared at her and they asked her why she hid the fact she was a runaway slave and finally questioned her on lying about her name and origins. These questions made Shirley panic but eventually she confessed that she was afraid if they learned that an Ancient breed of people were still around, they would try to reach out and befriend them and if they knew she was a runaway slave, she feared that they’ll bring her back to the Imperial family and she’ll lose her freedom once again. This suggestion horrified Marionette who told Shirley that they’d never do this to her or anyone in general and that she is a citizen of Graecita and her being a slave doesn’t change that. Marionette looked at her companions for confirmation and they nooded, and relieved, Shirley thanked them for saving her from slavery. Once they have set Shirley free, the team wanted to focus on their quest but they caught a young boy wearing a priest’s running, shouting that a Vestal Virgin had been murdered.

Meanwhile at Graecita, Yoyo is seen walking with Ophelia to the theatre where she told her about Madelina asking out Zachary for a date. This of course worried Ophelia who knew how rocky Mia’s relationship with Madelina is and how this would make her dislike the latter more, even though Madelina knew nothing about Mia’s crush on Zachary. Yoyo and Ophelia began arguing over who should tell Mia until they reached the theatre, where the actors were rehearsing for a *Les Miserables* based play and Mia was singing a beautiful rendition of “On My Own”. After she was done singing, the girls clapped for her and praised her for her amazing cover, which flattered Mia and she couldn’t wait to sing it a showtime and see what Zachary would think of it. Mia turned to Hasuro and asked him if he invited their friends to the show and he assured her he did and that both Maverick and Madelina agreed to show up. Mia was displeased to know he invited Madelina, but chose not to make a scene and she asked about Zachary instead. Unfortunately, Hasuro received no response from Zachary thus far. After Mia received the disappointing news, Yoyo told her that there is something she wanted to inform her and Mia turned to her, ready to hear what she had to say. But Yoyo couldn’t bring herself to tell her about Madelina and Zachary’s date, so instead she told Mia that Zachary came to the Aphrodite daughters’ estate to speak with Alex and Jennifer, and she overheard him mentioning he’ll attend her show. This made Mia excited, and Ophelia glared at Yoyo for her high hopes.

## Summary

### Victim

* **Eusebius Abelardus** (Found tied to a pillory with whip marks all over his back)

## Suspects

Wu MingKyranSimona SeveraHonoria DaviniaDiscordia
## Quasi-suspects

Flavian LucretiusShirley KennedyMia Loukas
## Killer’s Profile

* The killer drinks posca.
* The killer uses Chinese medicine.
* The killer reads *Catullus*.
* The killer is 35-years-old.
* The killer has a bruise.