Episode 16 – ‘The woman with the X-shaped scar had no lower body. Only her upper body remained. The cause of death was excessive blood loss.’
This was similar to the process of creating artificial sculptures in the Piece Salvation Society. They carved the X-shaped scar and took something from the target. In this case, they took half of it.
Their god, the sculpting machine, handed carving knives to its believers and made them carve everything. It was a sort of ‘ritual’ offered to their god. It wasn’t strange for humans to be involved as subjects in that ritual. To them, everything is a sculpture.
It looked like today was a day off according to the schedule.
“Plona, shall we go out for a bit?”
“Yes, Sir Charles. Shall I tell Mr. Boni to prepare the carriage?”
“Yes. It seems there are no classes today.”
Plona was an excellent combatant. To prepare for any unexpected events, I decided to move with her.
Before leaving, I went to the room and pulled out a revolver. I loaded all six chambers and placed it in the inner pocket to keep it hidden. And just in case, I prepared a mask. I couldn’t let my identity be exposed.
We rode the carriage to the city. Charles wore a black tie, a bowler hat, a tight morning coat, loose pants, and carried a cane. This was similar to the standard outfit for men of this era.
Plona wore a pintuck blouse with bishop sleeves, a stiff cloche on her head, and black stockings under her gray skirt.
Plona, who went out with Charles, looked very excited from the outside.
‘Hmm. I wonder if she’s storing her mace.’
I recalled the image of Plona mercilessly beating a monster to death with a spiked mace. If necessary, she would pull out the mace from under her skirt at any time.
“Sir Charles? What are you looking at?”
“Nothing.”
Thinking about the mace coming out from under the skirt seemed awkward, so I dismissed it and got into the carriage first. Plona smiled softly and sat in the front seat. She found the recent noticeable changes in Charles quite likable.
Having observed Charles from close, she could tell what he was thinking. The previously cold look in his eyes before sleep now seemed to contain human emotions.
‘Oh, I shouldn’t get too attached.’
Plona suppressed her feelings firmly. If she got more attached to Charles, she herself would burn out. Anyone who gets too close to the sun dies.
After arriving in the city, Charles headed to the police station. There were two officers at the entrance. They greeted visitors with pipes in their mouths. One man had an annoyed face, while the other had a simple, honest expression.
“If you are a reporter, go away and don’t poke around.”
When the annoyed-faced man spoke, Charles took off his hat.
For several days, he had practiced various methods of using lamp spells. Now, through his results over the past few days, Charles realized the peculiar effects of the ‘Lamp of the Unbounded’ spell.
If he faintly lit the lamp inside his eyes, he could exert a strong influence on those who lacked or had insufficient spiritual power. It was a sort of enchantment.
The disgruntled officer felt as if he were meeting a peerless person due to the combined effect of this ability and Charles’ charisma.
“Wh… who are you?”
“Charles Hexen. Professor at Mistweaver University. I am deeply saddened by the news of a brutally murdered female student. Could you assist me so I may provide any testimony if needed?”
“Ah, come this way. Rudolph, escort this gentleman inside.”
“Yes.”
The young man with an innocent look, Rudolph, tilted his head while watching his superior’s flustered behavior. Charles realized that Rudolph was not affected by the enchantment at all.
Plona decided to wait outside.
‘Rudolph? I don’t recall hearing that name. Seems he has some spiritual power.’
Characters that don’t play a significant role in the story are generated randomly.
This man might possess some spirituality or could be a lackey of another cult.
‘No, he can’t be a lackey. I don’t sense any evil from him.’
Charles scanned Rudolph’s body with his spiritual power, but found his enlightenment level low and didn’t detect any surrounding evil magic.
Usually, people awaken through the baptisms of various cults, but such spiritually gifted individuals could also naturally appear in the wild.
Rudolph politely guided Charles to the detective in charge. Detective Luis was smoking a pipe and wore a police cap. His goatee was round between his nose and chin.
He appeared like an ordinary middle-aged detective with a bulging belly, but his eyes sparkled. Though sharp-eyed and possessing high reasoning abilities, he didn’t seem to have any spiritual power.
“So you’re a professor at Mistweaver? But why would a professor…”
After noting down trivial personal details, they conversed. Initially indifferent, Luis became more serious as he spoke with Charles.
This was partly because Charles’ story intrigued him, but also because the spirituality in Charles’ voice made him feel as though he was encountering an otherworldly being.
“So, you say you saw a suspicious person while leaving the school.”
“Yes. He looked like a factory worker, but I’m not sure.”
“Got it. Thanks for the tip.”
While talking, Charles observed Luis’s complexion. The entire time, he had a worried expression. Knowing that sculpting artifacts used in the Piece Salvation Society’s rituals could move, Charles spoke up.
“Detective, wasn’t the body missing?”
“Hmm? That’s an amusing joke.”
Louis’ pupils briefly widened and then narrowed again. Charles noticed this brief reaction and spoke seriously.
“I’m not joking. Wasn’t the body missing from the morgue?”
Usually, Luis would’ve given a perfunctory reply and not provided any information. However, he felt that the truth was being seen through by Charles’ voice and unconsciously answered.
“… How did you know that? Was it Vecto?”
“Vecto?”
“Did Reporter Vecto not tell you? Or another policeman? Rudolph?”
“No. That’s not important. What matters is the bizarre manner of the murder and that the body moved.”
“There’s no way the body could move. Someone must have taken it.”
The forensic team was going through a hard time due to the missing body. Although Luis was contemplating how to deal with the forensic team’s continued denials, he began to think that Charles’ suggestion of the body moving might be true.
“Let me help you find the body.”
“You? How?”
“Can I go into the autopsy room? Then I will confirm what happened.”
The power in Charles’ voice increasingly captivated Luis. Despite being captivated, Luis was a man loyal to his principles, so Charles felt the need to demonstrate some of his reasoning ability.
As he observed, Luis’ past began to unfold before him. The more Charles observed, the more precisely he could discern what Luis had done.
“Detective, you had tomato pasta earlier, right? It’s not something you usually eat, but you had it because your wife came to your workplace.”
“Huh? Y-Yes.”
Luis answered grudgingly.
“Your wife is displeased. You arranged a nice lunch to cheer her up. Why is she upset? It’s because you visited the red-light district the previous day. The person you met was a white woman in her twenties. She had bright blond hair because you liked her green eyes.”
“W-What!?”
“This time you managed to hide it from your wife, but you think she suspects something.”
“Stop, stop talking.”
Luis, flustered, put down the pipe he had in his mouth. It was because everything Charles said was true. Charles was extracting all information from Luis’ body.
The tomato sauce on his mouth, the faint kiss mark on his neck, and the long blonde hair on his clothes. The wrinkles on his forehead replayed the past information for Charles, who just recited what he saw.
Amused by Luis’s reaction, Charles laughed. Normally, people respond with anger or denial when their core is hit, but Luis was already enchanted by the faint lamp’s effect.
“By the way, if you want to hide your affair from your wife, you should start by removing the hair on your clothes.”
Startled, Luis quickly removed the blonde hair from his collar. Did his wife notice that by seeing this? But if she knew, why didn’t she say anything…
“Alright. I understand. Your reasoning ability is remarkable.”
Though aware that he shouldn’t, Luis, like a bewitched person, led Charles into the police station.
“Here it is.”
Charles’ heightened perception began to gather information around the area. The augmented data in his head reorganized.
“The forensic team left the body in the autopsy room and stepped out briefly. Judging by the faint smell, they went to smoke pipes. During that time, the body moved. The body has low motor skills. Unable to reach the ventilation duct above the autopsy room, it crawled along the floor towards that small duct.”
Following Charles’ reasoning closely, Luis noticed the slightly open lower ventilation duct and shuddered.
The lower ventilation duct was small enough that only children could fit through it. But a body with just an upper half would fit comfortably.
Seeing the bloodstains in front of the ventilation duct, Luis felt as if his world had been shattered. The idea that a body could move was breaking his conventional understanding.
“This is… What? The body moved? This is absurd… “
Calming the bewildered Luis gently, Charles spoke.
“I understand. It’s unbelievable even when you see it. But you must stay focused. This murder isn’t ordinary. Where does the ventilation duct lead?”
“Um. It probably leads to an internal storage room and then to the outside.”
Unaware, Luis’ tone had changed to a more courteous manner.
“Let’s go to the storage room.”
Luis and Charles discovered bloodstains on the ventilation duct above the storage room. The marks extended out of the ventilation duct.
Seeing this, Luis almost fainted from stress. Charles was right; the body undoubtedly managed to escape by itself.
“Detective, you focus on catching the perpetrator. I’ll assist in finding the body.”
“B-But… a civilian has no investigative authority, Professor Hexen.”
“If I were a private detective, I wouldn’t need police assistance to track the perpetrator, right? Detective Luis.”
“A-Alright. I’ll issue you a detective license.”
Charles’ smile was so enchanting that it could captivate even the stern detective Luis. It was enough to make him an object of reverence rather than mere romantic appeal.
Like a man enchanted, Luis had a subordinate issue Charles a detective license and headed out to search for the factory worker Charles had mentioned.
Charles received a detective license after paying a fee. Although he didn’t open an office, he now had enough justification to get involved with the police.
Usually, detective licenses were obtained from universities or issued by the police department, but Charles acquired it with ease.
‘I’m ahead of the other cults.’
Currently, the leaders of the four major cults were in vegetative states after receiving seeds from evil gods and suffering the recoil of that power.
However, Charles was free from that backlash since he didn’t serve an evil god. With connections in the police department and a detective license, he could anticipate other cults interfering with the police.
