Chapter 87 : Chapter 87

Chapter 87 - Evidence Collection

I arrived at the scene of the incident.

Two people accompanied me.

The only daughter of the Hunter Werewolf and the recently appointed Watchman of Eclipse.

With no need for introductions, the three of us were already acquainted.

“You did well to find such a secluded place. Gluttonous wolf.”

“You're the one who followed well despite it being so remote, Halsin. If you'd said your knees were aching, I was about to suggest we take a break.”

“Hmph. Be that as it may.”

The Watchman Halsin lit a cheap cigar.

“Something that should never happen in a mountain village has happened here.”

Instead of the sweet smell of peanut butter, tobacco smoke came out of his mouth.

No matter how delicious peanut butter was, he didn't want to eat it here, a place filled with the smell of blood mixed with a burning stench.

The Youngest Son stopped at the entrance of the village.

Cailin approached his side.

“One of my kinsmen discovered this late last night. He said the heat was even more intense then. It seems there was a fire.”

“The fire started on its own. Those things are living fireballs in and of themselves.”

“Those things?”

“It has faded over time, but focus and smell it. You will smell a scent similar to mine.”

A scent similar to the Youngest Son.

All she could smell was the faint scent of tea along with the overwhelming smell of blood that seemed to crush her nose.

But when he showed her his arm.

“Hmm…”

The werewolf’s eyebrows twitched subtly.

A different scent came only from his left arm.

A scent like some kind of hot fire, like sulfur.

“The smell of a demon.”

“Yes. They tried to hide it with the smell of burning and blood, but the essence still remains, however faint. And that essence is likely creating another piece of evidence.”

I brought two hunters to find them.

“Cailin. Halsin. Search the area around the forest. The demonic scents will have left long trails, and you must follow those directions.”

“Understood.”

“Okay!”

The hunters scattered.

The Youngest Son entered the village, the ruins, alone.

The inside was cold and desolate.

There wasn't a single country dog, not even a rat.

This place was even shunned by crows, the first visitors to a pile of corpses.

It had become a place that any living creature would hate to even look at.

“Enad. What do you think.”

[What is there to think about. Beings similar to us came and left.]

“Came and left, you say.”

[Yes. They obviously failed to remain completely in the human world, killed a bunch of life in front of them, and then ran out of power and returned.]

Enad frowned, seeing the village through the Youngest Son's eyes.

Private houses were burnt, leaving only ash and half-burnt pillars.

Fragments of corpses, torn and shredded, were scattered here and there on the ground.

There were no intact bodies; they were broken and shattered, expressing at least a fraction of the madness of destruction.

A literal catastrophe.

“The location doesn't seem to have any particular meaning. Other than being remote, it has nothing in common with Eclipse.”

That made it even filthier.

This place had been turned to ash for a light reason, as if decided over breakfast.

“…Tsk.”

With my gaze fixed on the ground, I searched for even the slightest patch of red earth.

If I found such a place, I would place my hand on it.

But it was too dry.

“All the blood that could have revealed the situation has dried up completely.”

[What is it you want.]

“Tangible evidence. First, I have to prove that a demon summoning ritual took place here. Who did it is the next step.”

That's why I was looking at the ground so carefully.

If a demon was summoned, a cluster of curses from the summoning would surely remain.

However, the suspect was meticulous.

“Just as they burned the crime scene, they also eliminated the curse cluster.”

[A curse cluster, do you mean the one from the literature of the demon worshipers in the castle last time.]

“Yes.”

In the past, the worshipers had used human sacrifices as offerings to open a rift between dimensions.

It was impossible for magic not to be involved in that process.

Magic was the purest form of power.

It contained and contained the collective will of the worshipers.

When enough offerings were made to even open a rift between spaces, a curse cluster would be created in the process.

The curse cluster became one of the characteristics of human sacrifice.

“They create bait with the offerings to be sacrificed and open a rift to lure a demon. Judging from the Butler’s case, it seems that the lured demons are mostly controlled.”

The culprit here had no intention of going that far.

Because they didn't want to expend that much power in a backwater like this.

In other words.

“This place is a testing ground.”

A testing ground to gauge its power and fuel consumption before using it somewhere else.

“I knew they would cause some kind of incident, but I didn't think it would be a sacrificial ritual and a demon summoning.”

No. Considering the suspect, could this have been an obvious course of action?

The suspect had been wary of the power of demons and opposed their land, only to be driven to a cliff's edge.

“Elder Kian. Are you planning to create a new Eclipse in the capital or something?”

There was no need to stage a hero's homecoming ceremony anymore.

Right now, for the people of the Julsin Kingdom.

They had become desperately in need of a future hero.

“I should have come with the Butler.”

Hwarurururuk—!!

Enad was revealed, riding along the forearm engraved with runes.

Flames blazed from the hand gripping the hilt up to the forearm.

“Then I would have noticed the existence of that thing much sooner.”

[Whether it's you or me, we're newborns as far as demons go, aren't we. Hmph hmph. You don't have to be ashamed.]

“Are you saying that to me? Or to yourself?”

[More importantly, what is that.]

A quick change of subject.

In the direction Enad's sword tip pointed, something was gathering.

They were fragmented corpses and pieces of internal organs.

Just as a Beast Sorcerer gathers parts of a body to create a new weapon.

The purple aura surrounding the corpses squirmed like mucus, repeatedly merging with other fragments.

“That mucus reminds me of a friend.”

The Chairman of the Physicians’ Council.

That fellow was much stickier than that thing over there.

“If I gather the evidence collected here and throw it to him, I might be able to get something meaningful.”

[Doesn't that mean I have to touch that monster.]

“Don't be like that, it's probably a distant cousin.”

That thing before my eyes was the remnant of a demon reacting to the energy of another demon.

That's why it only had a violent nature and looked so crude.

A monster that had become like a meat golem.

Not just one, but five of them had risen from the ashes.

[Didn't you send the hunters away for nothing.]

It wasn't that he felt overwhelmed.

He was saying he didn't want to touch those things.

“They're busy chasing evidence over there, too. We have to do what we can.”

Wuuuuuung—

The Bloodstone was imbued with a light of its own color.

That light didn't just stop at the hilt.

It flowed over the connected guard and continued to the blade.

“As it happens, I needed a testing ground myself.”

Kuuuuuk—

I gripped the hilt with both hands.

Leaned back greatly.

And thought of only three things in my head.

‘Horizontal slash. Liquid when it flies. Solid afterwards.’

If I considered too much, my concentration would drop.

If I thought too much, my delicacy would drop.

Just three things.

If I perfected just three things, I could slice apart these five monsters here.

Drip— Drip—

Drops of blood gathered and gathered on the blade before falling to the ground.

[I don't know if you're aware. But those things are rushing towards you. It seems they plan to divide and devour your limbs and head one by one.]

I can't let that happen.

Enough gathering.

The remaining steps were compression, conversion to Samche.

And then, release.

Chwaaaaaaaak—!!

***

The hunters returned with their respective harvests.

Just as the Youngest Son had said, there were tracks.

Following them led to some pitch-black beasts.

But they didn't look like beings that had crossed over from hell.

Wild boar. Rabbit. Deer. Crow.

Beasts commonly seen in the forest.

The only difference was that their entire bodies were pitch black, and their aggression and strength had increased to an absurd degree.

To the point where even the experts in hunting had to unleash their sharpened claws.

“Three of them? You caught quite a lot too, old man.”

Ahem.

As she spoke, she immediately held up her hands.

Three were held in each hand.

Though they were cut in half to make them easier to carry.

It wasn't hard to figure out where the other half had gone.

“You have a strong stomach. To eat this.”

“My curse resistance is incredibly high, even compared to my other kinsmen. This much won't even give me a stomachache.”

The hunters returned to the village.

There, five more corpses had appeared.

“Wow…”

“……”

The hunters' eyes could see it.

The identical shape and location of the cuts on the corpses.

And beyond the corpses, the sword path carved horizontally into the forest trees behind them.

“What is this.”

“It looks like… Dante did it?”

“Yes. I'm sure he did, but.”

Halsin felt his mouth go dry.

The sword path was clearly one.

This meant the sword strike was also a single one.

But it had demonstrated a cutting power that went beyond the five monsters that had appeared on the scene.

Moreover, these monsters.

“They're no pushovers.”

When he nudged one with the tip of his toe, the magic moved as if drawn to a magnet.

It meant they had an unusual resistance to magical attacks.

He had cut down such things in a single blow.

It meant that the Youngest Son could also sweep away things that were probably just the dregs of hell as if they were trash.

“It seems his level is up to that point.”

Hooo….

He let out a sigh of relief.

Right. How long has it been since I found a place to stay, he can't just collapse on his own.

“Even among the blood nobility, such martial prowess is not easy to see.”

He wasn't even a fully grown adult.

Where had he seen something like this before.

“At a low estimate, he's at least Baron-class. The blood magic they use wasn't on this scale.”

He was a madman who had even brought the dead back to life.

It was plausible, and believable enough not to need relief, but.

He was a guy with a more exceptional talent for finding his own grave, so it was hard to keep trusting him.

To consistently trust such a guy would make one even crazier.

“Dante!”

Here, one of those crazy ones ran forward cheerfully.

“Look at this! I caught them all, leaving the hearts!”

“To be precise, half of each has disappeared to fill a hungry stomach.”

“Hey, hey!”

Cailin was flustered, but it didn't matter much.

“Good work.”

I put what she and Halsin had hunted into the body of the Chairman of the Physicians’ Council.

The dregs I had split in half were the same.

“What are these hideous things. They look like half-melted humans clumped together.”

“They are the residents of the village. However, they were directly exposed to the catastrophe. Unlike the animals you hunted.”

The Chairman of the Physicians’ Council gathered those victims and traces and fused them in his stomach.

[Activating Unique Skill 「Material Ingestion」.]

He melted down what had become no different from remnants, leaving only their essence and clumping them together.

Next was the turn to produce the result.

[Activating Unique Skill 「Internal Potion Combination」.]

Chiiiiiiiii—

A not-so-pleasant smoke spread.

Along with it, the new product of the Chairman of the Physicians’ Council also came out.

[Combined Potion: Clustering Potion for Throwing]

I poured the concoction, which was hard to understand just from its name, into the remaining bottle.

When I took a small piece of the Chairman of the Physicians’ Council’s body and put it in the bottle, its filth-like color became more apparent.

“This… smells exactly like the beasts we caught just a moment ago.”

“It will probably do something similar. It gathers a curse cluster on whatever it touches and forces a shoddy demonization.”

What was completed in that way was not even a demon, but a being less than dregs.

But if the first attempt produced dregs, it was a great success.

The suspect would go beyond the first attempt and strive for even greater perfection in the second.

In the first place, this village was a testing ground for that purpose.

“This is pretty good evidence.”

“Who are you trying to identify as the culprit?”

“Yes. An elder of my family.”

“……”

An unimaginably big fish had appeared once again.

An elder of Millesdusk.

Within the vast East, and even including the great family of Millesdusk.

Those who could defy an elder could be counted on both hands.

But the Youngest Son was trying to become one of those few.

Even though the number of fingers on his two hands was exactly his age.

“We are now withdrawing. Cailin. You are to inform Remus of this situation, and with them, establish a position near the Julsin Kingdom and detect any anomalies.”

“Leave it to me!”

“Halsin. When you return to Eclipse, report today’s events to the Head Maid.”

“I will.”

“I have someone to meet, so I'll see you later.”

Hwoooook—!!

The Griffin flew up.

The Werewolf also paid it no mind and ran as if disappearing with her own mobility.

In an instant, the middle-aged man was left all alone.

“Ah.”

With a soft, final cry, he realized he had been abandoned(?).

Tip: Tap/click the left or right side of the screen to go to previous/next chapter.