Kapitel 70: Arc 2 - Chapter 21: Vow of Revenge (2/2)
With Lylphia leading the way, Yu and Yurine went downstairs to get two glasses of drink for themselves and then up to Sivina and Ana's room.
Their room was still in the same place, opposite Satoshi's room. Satoshi's room had been vacated after the murder and no one wanted to keep it.
The owner of the guild said that people wouldn't want to keep a dead person's room and announced that it would now be used for storage.
It was not only about that room. This murder in the adventurers' guild made people feel unsafe here, and even less trusting of adventurers. Half of the people staying at the inn had moved.
Yu said "Hello there," and entered the room.
"Hello," Sivina and Ana replied.
Compared to Lylphia, girls had not recovered yet. And that was normal, Lylphia was in shock over the death of someone she had only known for a day. Sivina and Ana had known Satoshi for two months.
But he couldn't understand Raul's feelings sitting on the bed across from them. His expression was not one of grief, he was changing the shape of his face so that his true feelings could not be seen.
"I heard you managed to learn something."
"Unexpected development, I did not expect success from you."
Instead of sitting next to Raul, Yurine dragged the chair across the room to the end of the bed where the girls were sitting. Yu was also standing with his hands on Yurine's chair.
"I already knew Yurine wouldn't lose her hardness in a few days."
Ana tried to put a wry smile on her sorrowful face.
Yu didn't like it when they were in low spirits, but as long as their low spirits didn't slow them down, Yu could ignore them.
"Tell me what you found," Yu said.
"We didn't find Sony or the killer," Sivina, the leader of her group, began to explain. "We found traces of life."
"And not in one place, but in certain places at certain intervals," Raul added.
Yu put his left hand to his chin and began to think.
The traces they found could have belonged to Sony or William Berry, or they could have belonged to someone else. Nevertheless, the fact that they were able to find something in the area where they planned to find traces was a satisfying result.
"Go on."
At Yu's signal, Sivina continued.
"Our first target was the cave you mentioned. We found evidence of short stays in the cave."
"There were scratches on the walls. Because of their shape, we don't think they were caused naturally or by an animal." Lylphia traced the shapes in the air with her finger. "It looked like a human hand, whoever did it must have done it to pass the time."
"There were some charred pieces of wood and stones scattered around. We assumed they had brought the stones to make a circle for their fire, because there is no other way for stones of that size to be dragged into the cave." Sivina spoke again after Lylphia.
"Of course, we can't definitely say that Sony or the killer was there, but I believe that these traces are important. Assuming that the people we are looking for are there, they could still be nearby."
Lylphia spoke again after Sivina. Their successive speeches were beautifully synchronized.
"I can tell by the tracks that the time they were there was not too far away," Raul, a tracker unlike the others, said. "They might have been there from time to time."
Raul's theory made sense as there are few safe places to live in the forest.
"After that, we kept looking. The trail we found belonged to the next camp. Even a stake had been left there or forgotten."
Ana was the one who spoke. Sivina continued speaking immediately afterwards.
"We also found traces of human life in an area where the trees are dense."
"We only explored the eastern side of the river and the locations we explored were no more than three hours away from the river. Finally, we found another cave, not exactly a cave, but a hollow. And inside there were traces of a fire. That's all."
Raul had the last word and completed their reports. Yu listened to them attentively.
"This is satisfactory information. Thank you for your efforts."
They now had the data to assume that their target lived nomadically in the forest. New questions were next.
"I wonder if the tracks you found belonged to someone or something that lived there? Or are we sure they were human tracks and not goblin tracks or something?"
He looked at Raul. If anyone could answer that question, it was Raul.
"I don't know."
"Uh..." Yu sighed in disappointment. "Then we will continue with assumptions."
"There's one thing I still don't understand. Why would Sony hide in the forest instead of leaving Redchapel or even the country?" Raul continued after the disappointment he made. "If I was a fugitive that people were looking for, I would have already left the country instead of staying here."
"Maybe the killer is holding him hostage," Ana theorized.
"Maron said Sony could only go as far as Redchapel. Of course, he mentioned that distance. He could also go to Southelm, but since he was last seen here, we're looking for him here. I also don't think the killer could take Sony hostage. After all, Sony is a mage, it shouldn't be hard for him to kill the killer. I can't think of any other possibility except that they're working together."
Maybe it had something to do with the Blessing that Sony had stolen. Maron insisted on not telling them and they would not get the answer until they caught Sony.
"I think we should prepare ourselves in case Sony is in cahoots with the killer." Sivina agreed with Yu.
Although they had no evidence that Sony von Bishory had helped William Berry, it was the most likely possibility.
"Maybe they are old friends," Yu said.
"Why would he want to be friends with a murderer?" Yurine asked a fair question.
"I don't know," Yu said. He rubbed his chin with his left hand. "Why would anyone want to be friends with a murderer? There was a serial killer who was very popular with women. Even though he only killed women, when he went to prison he got a lot of fan letters from women, and when he got out of prison he married one of the women who sent him letters. Maybe it's a similar situation."
"People are really stupid creatures, except for my mother."
"I wish you had put 'and except for my one and only, my darling, my Yu.'"
"How you can be my one and only?!"
Yu had a strong urge to squeeze Yurine's cheek. It used to scare him when she got angry, but now he thought she was just sweet.
"To be happy, I don't deserve..."
Today, every time he felt happiness, negative thoughts came to his mind again. It was different from yesterday. Maybe this was his way of punishing himself against happiness.
"You had something to say too." Lylphia brought up what they had talked about in Yu's room.
Yu nodded. He had spoken to Yurine upstairs and now he could explain his theory here.
"I have a theory based on our research." Yu looked at Sivina and Lylphia. "The killer may be choosing knights to kill."
"Satoshi..." Sivina silently recalled the name of her dead friend.
"He was not a knight."
But here were two people who were knights and therefore likely to be targeted by the killer.
"What gave you that idea?!" Raul became angry, thinking Yu tried to blame Sivina. He raised his voice, as Satoshi often did.
Yu had previously thought that he loved one or both of the two girls, but after his sudden anger, he could believe that he was in love with Sivina. Unlike the hopeless Satoshi.
"Apart from knights, he has also killed ordinary people or other people who are loyal to knights, but his main target has always been knights. I don't know his motivation for killing the knights' servants, maybe it's linked to hatred of knights, but the reason he kills people who are not knights is probably to hide his real goals."
A painter could paint a bright sun portrait and add a few small hills in front of the sun, but it was still a sun portrait.
"The killer wanted to get into Sivina's room that night, I think. So that's my theory, there's a possibility that it's not so."
When Yu spoke his idea, Sivina put her hand to her chest and lowered her eyes to the floor. Clearly, as expected, she was blaming herself.
"Lylphia is a knight too, you can't blame Sivina directly!"
At first Yu had tried to ignore Raul's anger, but now it was getting too much for him to ignore. Raul stood up and shouted, louder this time.
"Sit down and don't raise your voice in front of me again." Yurine, unlike Raul, spoke calmly.
"We are not your servants!" Raul countered Yurine's calmness by shouting back.
Yu couldn't see Yurine's face, but he could feel the cold wind against his skin. Sensing Yurine's mana surge, Ana stood up and sat Raul down.
"I don't blame Sivina, in fact I prefer Satoshi's death than Sivina's. Sivina doesn't need to blame herself for it either, it just happened. If you want to blame someone to ease your conscience, you can blame me for bringing you here."
The first part of what he said was sincere, but the last part was just to calm them down. Even though Yu blamed himself for the murder, he was afraid they would blame him.
"Out of curiosity, why Sivina and not Lylphia?" Ana didn't want her friend to be blamed either, but instead of getting angry like Raul, she took Sivina's hand and asked calmly.
"So far, with the exception of Satoshi, we have no data that the people the killer targeted were able to use magic, so we can assume that he didn't target mages. He probably would have been happy to kill Lylphia, but since she was a mage, he must have been afraid to attack her."
If the killer was also unable to use magic, he might have seen mages as a dangerous opponent for him. An ordinary person could be held by the arms and prevented from moving, but as long as the mage's mind was clear and he had mana in his body, he could cast spells even if he could not move his arms.
Lylphia was wearing a knight's uniform from the Wizarding Academy. So it was easy to recognize that she was a knight who could use magic.
Sivina wore a knight's uniform from Elhaven. While there was always the possibility that anyone could be a mage, Sivina could have been targeted, as knights who could use magic were rare outside the knights of the Wizarding Academy.
"Unless he has done extensive research on all the knights in the country, he must have found out about Sivina the day we arrived here, when we left to do research."
"But he accidentally entered Satoshi's room and not ours, you say."
"Yes, that's what I'm saying, Sivina, and I'm telling you not to blame yourself."
In order of importance, Sivina was higher than Satoshi. His healing magic was rare, but they already had a healer, and a knight's strength was also important. Although Yu considered Satoshi closer to him, he would have preferred the killer to kill Satoshi and not Sivina, and so it was.
"And you are a girl and Satoshi was a boy. I think if Satoshi were here and I am the one who died, Satoshi would say it's okay because you are the one alive."
He wasn't totally okay with Satoshi's death, he felt sorry for him, he felt pain and he blamed himself for causing it.
But he couldn't face them in a low mood and demoralize the group even more.
"So, what do we do with this information?" Yurine turned her head and asked Yu.
"Today we will continue the investigation and tomorrow we will go to the Berry family home. If they don't turn us away at the door, I have some questions I want to ask about William. If we're lucky, our theory will be right and we'll find out what he has against the knights."
"Why does the killer choose knights to kill?" This time it was Lylphia who asked the question.
"This is where the second murder is important. Thomas Chember was a bad person by all accounts and there may have been a personal issue between him and the knight, maybe his hatred of knights was born because of him. Maybe he only does it because killing knights satisfies his ego."
Ego satisfaction, revenge and entertainment could have been different motivations of the killer.
"I have a plan." Yu made eye contact with Sivina. He wanted to see the determination in her sea-green eyes. "Our goal is to meet with the Berry family, but I don't want to be the center of attention. Sivina, will you swear a vow of revenge for us?"
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
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