Episode 34 – Anyway, there was something he figured out through the recent fortunetelling. Everen Linden had tried to kill his own daughter. There had to be a reason for it. Of course, it’s not normal for such things to happen, so it must be something required by some ritual.
Evil beings often require something when forming contracts or receiving tributes through rituals. It involves destroying what is most precious to oneself.
When a part of a person’s soul is destroyed, negative energy surges out, completing spells or fulfilling rituals through that negative emotion.
‘But he couldn’t bring himself to kill her…’
Charles suddenly felt as if he understood the sequence of events. Everen Linden had the intention of killing Cerilda Linden from the beginning.
However, he couldn’t do it himself and possibly ‘contracted’ the Taskforce Committee to do it. Vince Handel killed Everen Linden.
‘The Taskforce Committee used corpses to make dolls. I thought Cerilda Linden was just unlucky enough to get caught by Vince, who was searching for random targets. But the Linden family had exposed Cerilda to Vince on purpose.’
Afterward, Cerilda Linden was brutally murdered. Normally, she should have risen as a doll after being killed, but something went wrong.
No one knows what went wrong, but as a result, Cerilda Linden’s body was split into parts, and one part was found on the bridge.
Some pieces of the puzzle are missing. Why did the Linden couple have to kill their daughter and need her body? What were they trying to do?
‘Come to think of it, I’ve never seen Cerilda’s siblings in the main building.’
Were her siblings also killed in the same way? Charles opened the door to confirm this. The smell of chemicals still lingered in the building.
Charles moved stealthily to find another room. It seemed that there were not many employees in the mansion, making it easier to move around. Moving like a skilled thief, Charles searched through other rooms.
As a result, he found traces of other children of the Linden couple. Their rooms were neglected and dusty, but he could still tell who was who.
They all had taken photos with the Linden couple. As for the other siblings, they seemed to be unaware.
‘From what I see, it looks like the Linden couple repeatedly created orphans out of their own children.’
The Linden couple kept adopting children from the orphanage they ran. Then a sudden thought struck him. Could the missing child, Mori, be the next ‘child’?
In the meantime, with Mori missing, Everen Linden was desperately searching for the child. Then it all made sense.
Charles moved quietly but stopped in one room upon hearing butler Montford’s voice. He quietly approached and pressed his ear to the door.
“I’m sorry. I haven’t found that detective yet.”
“Montford, I’m disappointed. If you can’t find him, no one in this house can.”
It was Everen Linden and butler Montford.
“But don’t worry. I’ve released the ‘rats’ to search for him.”
“I came to eliminate the problem, not create more of them. Make sure to find him quickly so he doesn’t discover anything unnecessary. Use a ‘spell’ if needed.”
“Understood.”
Charles immediately retreated. These people knew about mysticism but were not particularly outstanding.
‘They have spirituality. They were deceiving using something.’
They were hiding their spirituality using something on their bodies.
-Paki, let me know if you find any rats nearby.
-Got it.
Charles would also try to find the rats, but with Pakinarecore on the lookout, it would be twice as easy. They must be using biological familiars to search around the mansion.
‘If they can search the mansion using the rats, that kid Mori should have been found by now, right?’
Charles decided to continue searching for Mori while moving away. As a result of searching the mansion, he eventually found the child named Mori.
Where was he? Surprisingly, he was in Cerilda Linden’s room, the first place Charles had searched. Charles hadn’t found him initially because the child was hiding among the closet clothes, as if camouflaged.
“Are you Mori?”
Mori was sucking on his thumb, seemingly hungry. Even though he heard Charles’ voice, he did not respond, and his eyes were rolling in circles. His reaction was beyond severe autism, almost at a level of idiocy.
It was no wonder he hadn’t been noticed, hiding in such a place. Charles only noticed him due to the slight movement of clothes. He detected it by the faint vibrations as Mori breathed.
Charles picked Mori up. Seeing no reaction, he began to think about what to do next when Pakinarecore spotted something outside the window.
-Master! Look at the window!
Turning his head, Charles saw a crow. The crow was perched on the windowsill, staring intently at him through the glass. It was a familiar.
-…There weren’t just rats, it seems.
At that moment, someone climbed up the wall and reached out to open the window. It was butler Montford, judging by his scarred face.
“Oh my, here you are. I almost couldn’t find you.”
Montford entered through the window, adjusting his disheveled bow tie, smiling broadly.
“You indeed are a remarkable detective. You found the child already. Impressive.”
“…”
“Now, hand the child over to me.”
“What do you plan to do by taking the child?”
“Oh dear, what do you mean by that? I plan to return the child to Mrs. Linden.”
“What are you people doing? This mansion. It’s not just an orphanage, is it?”
“Hah. If you keep saying things like that…”
Montford’s body began to change. Crack, crackle. The bones of his body swelled, turning his physique into a hulking, muscular figure similar to the Hulk. In an instant, his height shot up to 2.6 meters.
Smiling at Charles, Montford chuckled.
“You’re not fazed at all. It turns out you’re a spiritualist too. What business do you have, infiltrating this mansion?”
“You invited me, remember?”
“Oh dear. Even so, don’t you know the rule among spiritualists not to interfere with others’ territories?”
Of course, he knew. Spiritualists are fundamentally isolationists. They rarely leave their domain or reveal their abilities to others except in special gatherings or meetings.
But breaking that tacit rule and interfering meant… it was a declaration of war.
“I’ll subdue you first and then we’ll talk.”
Charles picked up a bronze candlestick nearby. Montford approached him with a grin.
“What do you plan to do with that puny stick? Hahaha.”
Montford’s huge fist swung towards him. Charles put the child down on the floor and dodged backward. Ignoring the child on the floor, Montford charged at Charles.
Another punch. The sound of air tearing could be heard as it whooshed past Charles’ head. One could feel the immense mass from the sound alone. Getting hit even once could send him flying backward due to its power.
Charles decided not to use his gun. He intended to subdue Montford quietly by drawing upon his inner spells. As Montford swung his human-sized fist again, Charles jumped up, timing it perfectly.
He jumped about 2 meters off the ground to reach Montford’s head with the candlestick. Montford smirked as he saw the sharp end of the candlestick, thinking it wouldn’t do much harm.
As he expected, the candlestick barely penetrated his skull, only damaging the surface. But now Charles’ spell was complete.
The Inferno of the Void.
A spell that creates an ultra-high temperature area in midair. As the fireball floated in midair, it quickly soared to nearly 900 degrees. Upon reaching the melting point of brass, the candlestick melted and dug into his face.
Montford screamed in agony, trying to shake off the molten brass with both hands, and scratched his face, but the brass clinging to his hands was melting his skin.
As Montford’s screams filled the air, Charles used the power of dominion on him.
Montford tried to resist the mental intrusion but stopped resisting upon hearing Charles’ words.
“If you don’t resist, I will end this pain.”
He then stopped resisting, completely succumbing to Charles’ power of dominion. Charles cut off Montford’s sense of pain completely.
“Your name?”
“Montford Vincent.”
“Your master?”
“You are my master, Sir Charles.”
“Good. What are your abilities?”
“I have the power of transformation… I can change into other people or bizarre creatures.”
That explained his Hulk-like transformation.
“Tell me about Cerilda Linden’s death.”
“Cerilda Linden was meant to be a sacrifice for Everen Linden. But Everen couldn’t bring himself to kill his own daughter, so he entrusted the task to someone from the Taskforce Committee.”
“I know. Vince Handel, right?”
“Yes. Under Everen’s orders, I stayed with Vince Handel disguised as a person named Vince, using my transformation ability.”
So he was the Evening Vince. Charles knew about the Evening Vince, who escaped police attention due to having an alibi. It seemed he had used his transformation ability to become the muscular giant Evening Vince.
“On the day Vince Handel committed the crime, I managed to track down Cerilda Linden’s body to his hideout because we had to retrieve her body.”
“And then?”
“I had a conflict over her body, encountering a peculiar man with a monocle and a cutlass. He appeared and sliced the body in half. A three-way battle ensued. We fought until we reached the bridge. I fled with the upper half of the body. At that moment, the police arrived.”
So that’s why the upper half was found on the bridge… It appeared that the Brotherhood of Fishermen was also deeply entangled in this case. Thinking it was a strange coincidence, Charles continued.
“Alright, I understand. But what was Everen Linden planning to do with Cerilda’s body?”
“Well…”
At that moment, Montford stopped breathing. Although Charles had cut off his pain, it seemed he couldn’t escape his fatal wounds. Realizing that the power of dominion had completely severed, Charles stood up. There was nothing more to gain from a dead man.
“Ha.”
Charles exhaled in disbelief. Despite Montford’s agonizing screams, no one came to the room.
Even though there should have been several servants, they remained still? This meant such incidents were common in this mansion. Charles carried the child and slowly walked downstairs. Several familiars still kept an eye on him and Mori.
The familiars seemed to belong to Everen Linden rather than Montford. Reaching Everen Linden’s room, Charles found it empty.
Looking around, Charles found a bookshelf. One of the books stood out from the others, slightly worn.
As he pulled it, a spiral staircase leading downward revealed itself. It seemed they had fled this way. Contemplating whether to leave Mori behind, Charles decided against it, fearing it was too dangerous, and opted to bring him along.
He had a hunch. Mori was undoubtedly as key to this issue as Cerilda. As they descended, Mori began to tremble. The child clung tightly to Charles’ coat, shrinking in fear.
“I can’t help it. It’s safer inside than outside.”
Descending, Charles discovered a peculiar place. Yes, it could be described as a hospital ward. The marble-decorated floors. Several elevated beds.
Near them stood Everen Linden, waiting for Charles.
