◈ Episode 79: Night Steps Approaching (1)
Terryna Ryanhowl, who had been leading the way, stopped and looked back.
“Captain? What are you doing?”
“… … no. It is nothing. It just felt like someone was watching over me.”
“No way.”
Lloyd said that if he fixed his glasses inside the hood, but Enya was different.
“Oh, my dear. The captain has a better sense than us, so you never know. That’s why we came here.”
“Hmm.”
It was as Enya said.
The reason the three men sent to investigate the mystery of Belvote Rickson’s death were wandering the alleyways at midnight was entirely to blame for Terry and Lionhowl.
As if she had a good sense of things, she came all the way to this place with her two lieutenants.
Lloyd was dissatisfied if that was a dissatisfaction.
For him, who values reason and scientific thinking, the sixth sense was a story from a country too far away.
“Isn’t it all about fighting and killing thugs and outcasts in back alleys anyway?”
“It’s a little different this time.”
“What’s the difference?”
“My senses are telling me so.”
“Are you feeling again?”
Even Lloyd couldn’t bear to say anything to Terrina, because Terrina was clearly his superior, and above all, her senses matched surprisingly well.
I made a lot of achievements, but I couldn’t say that it was nonsense.
Because she has done that over and over again.
Even missions that others thought were impossible, she has proudly succeeded.
That’s why even if Lloyd was dissatisfied, he didn’t reveal it.
“Here you go.”
The scene where we arrived.
Several bodies were strewn about there.
“This… … Quite a lot of dead bodies.”
“Is there some kind of war going on here?”
“There must have been a fight between the organizations.”
Terrina strode towards the corpse.
She squatted in front of one body that stood out among the corpses and checked it out.
“You are an assassin.”
“yes? What?”
“This corpse. Not just an assassin.”
Terrina frowned at the sour smell wafting from the bottle hanging from the corpse’s waist.
“Extreme poison. This is a special poison used by the Assassins of the Kalsa faction.”
The corpse itself looked no different from the others around, but it was nothing more than a disguise to avoid being noticed by others.
At Terrina’s words, Lloyd and Enya came closer to check the body.
“indeed. There are definitely signs of training. Rough hands full of calluses. Even the little scars on my body. If you look at something that’s pretty old, you don’t see it in back alley bullies.”
“and. If it’s the Assassin of the Kalsafa, that’s it, right? An assassination group from the southern Fatimid dynasty? He was very famous.”
“They’re fearsome guys who don’t spare their lives to kill their targets. But why is such an Assassin in a back alley like this… … ?”
Terina got up from her seat.
“Captain?”
“He’s a Khalsapa Assassin, but he won’t be official. He probably came all the way here after training and wandering around to gain experience, or he could have been kicked out because of his lack of ability.”
“But aren’t you a highly trained assassin?”
“okay. It is also true that they are not the kind of people who would be left out in a place like this.”
However, such a Khalsapa Assassin is dead.
It was an unbelievable result for a fight that only took place in a back alley.
“The cause of death is probably a wound on the forehead. A thin, thin blade pierced my forehead at once. And fall from above and fall down.”
Terrina looked up.
The night sky full of clouds was blocked by the walls of the alleyway, making it look cramped.
“I don’t know who the opponent was, but he was defeated by someone with considerable skill. Seeing that it was completed in one go without any minor scars on the body.”
single blow.
The Assassin of the Kalsa faction had been hit.
Terrina stopped the autopsy and moved to a more remote part of the alley.
Lloyd and Enya followed her in silence.
When they eventually reached another location, they saw another group of corpses.
“Is this, magic?”
Enya asked as she looked at the corpses scattered everywhere.
In an alley like this, it was impossible for nearly 10 people to die from being cut by something at once unless it was magic.
“I guess so. maybe.”
“Amazing. To think that a wizard would join the fight in a place like this. Then, what about that Assassin?”
“Okay.”
Then Lloyd, who discovered something, opened his mouth.
“Captain. There are more bodies over there.”
In the darkness beyond the mass of corpses, there were clearly two corpses of different causes.
Terina realized that those two corpses were also Assassins of the Kalsafa.
“This one is the same as the first one. One died of a pierced heart. Judging by the size of the wound, he was attacked by the same person. Were you attacked from behind?”
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Assassin, who was supposed to be ambush, was ambushed in reverse.
How?
And in the case of the second corpse, the neck was cut by something sharp.
“It was the same weapon until the second corpse, but the last one is different. It’s not magic, it’s a dagger or rote. Lloyd. Check near your feet there.”
“Yes, yes?”
“There are marks left near it.”
It’s a mark, what is that… … .
Lloyd was dubious, but carefully inspected the ground near his feet.
Indeed, as Terina said, there were even minute traces of metal scratching the ground.
“This… … .”
“The weapon that killed the first two assassins must have fallen to the floor. If so, a rough picture is drawn. The Assassin of Khalsafa and these corpses were holding hands and trying to kill someone.”
However, the opponent was also not an ordinary person, but the Assassins of the Kalsa faction were reversed.
The last remaining Assassin succeeded in stealing the opponent’s weapon, but was defeated in the end.
“It was a sharp weapon that cut off the head. It specializes in cutting rather than stabbing. I must have been memorized. Judging by the wide range of the wound, it must have been a dagger. If so, it must be the sword stick you used at first.”
“Why are you so sure?”
“You might think it’s a rapier, but look closely. The body here is memorized. The opponent who killed the Assassin was a human specializing in finding other people’s loopholes. If such a human used a stabbing sword, he would use the sword hidden in his staff.”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“And this trace. Assassin dared to engage in close combat with the other side. If my opponent had been a swordsman using a rapier, he wouldn’t have tried to do that. He guessed that it was an opponent he had to stick to and fight. But the result was not.”
“You have great deduction skills.”
Lloyd couldn’t help but admire Terrina’s reasoning ability, which instantly caught the flow of the situation.
Enya didn’t have to say anything. For she was already staring at her own superior with her pensive gaze.
“Nothing. I also only learned moderately from people I knew.”
“no. Who are you saying you learned reasoning from, Captain?”
“It’s just a quick way to find clues around you rather than reasoning. He told me right away that since I had good senses, I would be able to learn easily.”
“Who is that person? And when did you learn… … .”
“It’s been a few years. It’s not an empire, it’s a fate I met by chance when I visited another country.”
“What are you doing?”
“It’s a private detective.”
“yes? Are you just a detective?”
Certainly, a detective is a person who specializes in finding clues and making inferences, so it would be a great person.
Even so, was it possible to teach Terrina, whose senses far surpassed those of ordinary people?
“Because she’s a good enough person. She’s a detective, but pretty geeky. She is just as confident in her skills as she is. Sometimes, she’s amazed at her deduction skills with her nonsense.”
“To the extent that the captain would say that… … .”
Terrina, who has always been calm and charismatic, would say that she was surprised.
“Anyway, looking at the corpses here, this wasn’t an ordinary fight. Judging from the fact that they even hired an Assassin from the Khalsa faction, the attacker must have risked their lives.”
“Could that have something to do with the death of Bellbot Rickson we are investigating?”
“I don’t know that yet. Because there aren’t enough clues. However, it is certain that there will be quite a stir in the back alleys of Laedervelk.”
Terrina checked her surroundings carefully for any other clues.
‘hmm. The fact that I roughly figured out is that there were only two people who made this whole situation.’
one male and one female.
Footprints or marks carved into some of the corpses make it clear.
‘One side is the side that uses a knife in close proximity. The other is a wizard who knows how to use magic.’
Terrina approached the wall in the alleyway and ran her fingertips across the wall.
Then I rubbed my fingers and sniffed it.
‘A subtle incense hidden among the stench of this place. Traces of that smell still remain in the alley. This is the smell of diffusing incense.’
Diffusion incense was famous for increasing the conductivity of magical power, but she knows exactly what it is used for.
when dealing with wizards.
It is used to seal the opponent’s attack magic.
‘The Assassins moved after knowing that their opponent was a wizard. but it failed Didn’t he know that he was a swordsman?’
no.
Because both men and women were wizards
However, one of the two was good at handling a sword while using magic. The Assassins suffered because they didn’t know that.
‘A wizard who is good at using a sword… … .’
Terrina’s eyes shone sharply.
It was because there was a similar guy in her memory.
A human who walked around with a black shadow on his body and stole all kinds of expensive things.
The most famous thief she tried to catch when she was not yet a knight commander, but failed every time.
The thief Arsene Lupin.
‘Like the disappearance of the safe in Bellbot Rickson’s mansion. Could it be that guy?’
At some point, I thought that the rats and birds had disappeared without knowing, and I had taken my hands off this job and went to sleep.
does that mean it wasn’t
‘The phantom thief suddenly appeared again. A cryptid suddenly appeared, a werewolf. Even the secret abandoned factory where something was.’
Terrina was sure.
That all these clues are connected as one.
“Confirmation is over.”
“Already?”
“okay. I got everything I could get here.”
“Then what do we do with this corpse?”
“Leave it alone. Anyway, the corpses in these places will be taken care of by the cleaners in the back alley.”
Terrina knows the rules here. No one is surprised or questioned about the corpse.
This is such a place.
A place where even if dozens of people die, it is not even listed in the newspaper the next day.
It is natural for the world to disappear behind the futility without being able to get involved in the huge flow of the times.
“Then what are you going to do now? Does the investigation end here?”
Terrina shook her head at Lloyd’s question.
“The investigation continues.”
“However, the proper results have not come out yet, have we? To continue like this… … .”
“okay. So this will actually be the last time.”
“yes?”
“So we should go to where the last clue might be.”
Terrina turned her head to stare in the direction of the place.
“I’m going to Seorn Academy.”
* * *
Early in the morning when the birds are still chirping.
Rudger regularly went to work at the teacher’s office even on days when there were no classes, but for today, he decided to rest in his private accommodation.
It was because of the accumulated fatigue because I had been working so much lately.
The <Almighty Stone> incident, and as soon as it was over, even the affairs of the Leatherbelk back alley were sorted out.
Even so, it was bound to be a little tiring.
‘Still, it’s a good thing.’
Rudger sighed as he lay down on the soft sofa.
Because it was the first test period, I was able to make an excuse for writing test questions.
Thanks to that, it was a time when I didn’t have to go to the teachers’ office and stayed at the dorm to take a break.
smart.
A knock on the door woke him up.
Who is it? I tried to pretend it wasn’t there, but if you’ve come all the way here, you must have come to know that I’m not in the teachers’ office.
I can’t help it.
Rudger immediately got up from the sofa and opened the front door.
“ah! Mr. Rudger!”
“Miss Selina.”
When he wondered who the hell had come, it was Selina, who was the same motive at the company.
“What are you doing here?”
“ah. I heard that Mr. Rudger didn’t show up to the office today.”
“yes. Today is also a day when there are no classes, and I was having a headache because of the test questions.”
“ah. You did.”
Selina was speechless and stared at Ludger.
It was because it was the first time I had seen Ludger dressed in comfortable clothes that were just like home.
Of course, he was dressed properly in suit pants and a shirt, but that alone was new to her.
‘You also loosened your hair.’
Her hair, which she normally wore in a ponytail, was completely undone, so it looked different again.
There are a few dark circles under the eyes, perhaps because she didn’t sleep well, but even that gives off a decadent beauty.
Even if no one decorates it, it becomes a picture like this.
Selina quietly admired inwardly, but recalled the reason she had come here.
“Oh, oh really. Mr Rudger. The reason I came here is because there is a guest looking for Mr. Rudger.”
“A guest?”
“yes.”
“Why didn’t you send a servant, but Selina-sensei herself… … .”
“Ehehe. I could stop by on the way anyway, so I just decided to go. Isn’t that good for each other?”
“okay. So, what kind of guest did you come to see me for?”
Selina replied with a bright and innocent smile.
“The drivers from the Security Bureau.”
“… … .”
Rudger’s complexion hardened, but Selina didn’t notice it.
