Chapter 131: The Culprit (1)

"Suicide?! This hasn’t happened in a long time, certainly not while Nikolai was still employed at Nexus," Maria Novikov declared, her voice trembling with frustration and disbelief. The news of the maid's suicide had hit her hard, and the weight of it was palpable in the room. As the maid's body was being removed, Maria took it upon herself to assemble all the chief servants in the courtroom, awaiting Nikolai's arrival. Her agitation was evident as she paced around, her anger barely contained. The servants, visibly shaken by the recent tragedy, kept their heads bowed, absorbing the tension that filled the space. Maria's frustration was compounded by the fact that Nikolai had a history with such incidents. Three centuries ago, during a darker period at the castle, suicides had been alarmingly frequent among the servants. Though no one fully understood the methods Nikolai used to drive people to such despair, everyone knew it was a horrifying and effective tactic that stripped individu