708 A Weird Case (2/2)

”A sorcerer was killed by ordinary people and artists?” Even Anna found it unacceptable. ”Did you mention knights?”

”There was a knight, but he was also killed.” Gulf was apparently scared when he described it. ”There was no sign that the knight used his blood power, or residue of any magic. It suggests… It suggests that they held a 'festival of killing' as ordinary people, and… and based on the position of bodies, none of them attempted to escape.”

That was much more detailed than the information the Congress of Magic gave to Katrina. Considering for a moment, she asked, ”Could they have been affected by illusion? I'm told that the altars of certain cults may influence the mind and make the believers do the most unbelievable things.”

”You are truly a noble lady. You know cults rather well.” Gulf's fear was gone and said with a smile, ”That's a possibility, which is why the case is described as demon worship. At least, devils wouldn't let their believers attack each other. Even though they were to gather the pure power of faith through slaughter, they wouldn't have chosen their followers as the targets. Of course, I don't know how the Church ascertained that the victims were all demon believers. Perhaps, they were just 'ordinary people'…”

”It sounds really weird and much more terrible than the bards' stories.” Anna patted her chest. ”Uncle Gulf, is there anything else that is strange?”

”Strange?” Gulf recalled carefully. ”The victims all looked peaceful after their death, as if they were freed but not killed by each other. Right, Ivan felt cold when he entered the hall, but it was still warm in May.”

Anna's curiosity was fully activated. She kept asking for more details, but that was as much as Gulf knew. He couldn't help but sigh, ”There may have been anomalies, but Ivan was too horrified to notice them. After the Church's investigation, the villa was cleansed by holy light for fear that the demonic air would affect Calcate City. So, we'll never know the anomalies even if there were any.”

”The Church cleansed the villa with holy light…” Katrina repeated it. That was a major setback for her investigation. It meant that few valuable traces could be found on the spot.

Then, pretending to be curious, she asked, ”Did Ivan remember anything else later? It's been several months.”

”That's right. Did he?” Anna nodded. She was upset by the 'broken' story.

Gulf tried to put on a smile, but the smile only gave away his panic and fear. ”Ivan had nightmares every day from witnessing the bloody scene. Also, the Church gave him a huge reward. So, he came to my place to drink every day, and he could only go to sleep when he was too drunk to remember anything. However, one week after the case, he accidentally fell into the river when he was drunk, and he drowned.”

”Well…” Anna felt coldness surging into her heart, and she did not dare ask any further.

Katrina felt more or less the same, but she was more wary and frustrated than scared. Although the mission would be considered accomplished if she brought back the files she collected so far now that all the leads were gone, she still wanted to investigate more as an excellent arcanist who had intense curiosity and desire of exploration. ”Do I need to sneak into the inquisition in Calcate City and peep at their files of investigation?”

She was not very confident about that, because such a major city must've been under the watch of a red robe.

Having been scared by the demon worship case, Anna had a few cups of wine to suppress her shock, before she returned to the hotel with Katrina. At this moment, Yakov, who reported the activation of his blood power to the city hall, had come back.

He was sharing the news that he would be officially knighted one week later with other mercenaries in ecstasy, when he saw that Anna and Katrina walked in pale. His smile was gone, and he asked concernedly, ”What's wrong?”

Seeing no strangers around, Anna told him the intelligence they obtained from the tavern.

”An official sorcerer… What did he look like?” After hearing her introduction attentively, Yakov asked after a brief hesitation.

Anna pointed at her eye. ”He had a black mole next to his left eye.”

”A black mole…” Yakov repeated and did not say anything more.

Katrina looked at him and went back to her room, claiming that she was tired.

When the night was dark and quiet, a shadow flashed out of Katrina's room like a cold window and snuck towards the district of nobles.

Before her journey, she had exchanged for a bottle of potion that could activate her blood power, considering that it might be inconvenient to perform magic in the Schachran Empire. After the long-time modifications of the Congress of Magic, the power triggered by the potion was already as good as the power triggered by oneself. However, its effect was still limited, and the receiver could not reach the level of grand knights.

In the hustling wind, Katrina, who had activated the blood power of 'Snowstorm', seemed to have been melted into the environment. Although the Church had cleansed the villa with holy light, she was still going to investigate it in person. This was similar to experiments. One could only believe it after they confirmed it personally. Furthermore, it was highly unreasonable that an official sorcerer would worship a demon soon after he came to Calcate City.