Science/Magic 119 Putting Your Idea Into Use

Just one minute after Liu Ying's punch blew part of the building away, a crowd had formed around it. At that moment, the city guards arrived after hearing the commotion.

But when they entered and saw the carnage inside the building, their expressions turned pale.

Fifteen minutes later, the captain of the city guards arrived accompanied by a detective.

"… Damn, whatever did this was very ruthless." The detective whistled.

"What do you think, detective?" Asked the captain. The detective brought his hand to his chin and observed the scene with a look of focus.

After a few seconds, he sighed. "Give up, you probably will not find the culprit."

"Huh?"

"If I'm not wrong, whoever did this was not alone. They were two, no, three. Each one a very powerful practitioner, probably around the B-Rank, and at least one of them was at the Rank. Look here." The detective then pointed to the bodies that had either a hole on their chest or on their heads. "Judging by the fluctuations coming from the corpses, they were C-Rank practitioners, but each one of them was killed after one attack and they were unable to struggle. Moreover, the wounds had traces of burns. Probably a powerful fire mage killed them all as soon as he arrived. And believe me, only an Rank mage can do something like that."

The captain nodded. "What about the other bodies?"

"Three B-Ranks." The detective affirmed without hesitation. "They offered a bit more of struggle and probably tried to escape, but they were killed before they succeeded. Judging by their injuries, one of them was killed by a martial artist and the other by an enemy wielding a sharp weapon. The problem, though, is the third person."

The detective then pointed to a dried-up body with several disgusting tentacles protruding from its chest.

"You see, the people behind this were very meticulous. I asked around and nobody heard anything besides the final explosion that blew away part of the building. Thus, I dare to affirm that the explosion was something unexpected. Most probably, the last B-Rank realized he did not have a chance to escape and used something akin to a forbidden technique to increase his strength exponentially and bring his enemies to the grave with him. He failed, obviously, but his sudden increase in power was unexpected, and it took by surprise the enemies and when they clashed, the explosion happened."

"And the reason you said I will not find the culprit is…"

"I told you, the killers were very meticulous. If not by the last explosion, nobody would have known about this homicide until tomorrow morning at the earliest. People like these will definitively not leave behind clues. I'm sure that even if you ask around to know if someone saw something suspicious, you will get nothing. In fact, there is a big possibility of the killers leaving the city soon. By then, finding them will truly be impossible."

The captain wrinkled his brows. Although he could see the truth behind the detective's words, they left a bad taste in his mouth.

The detective saw that and patted his shoulder to comfort him. "Just forget about this. From what I can see, the people killed here were members of a criminal syndicate. They probably offended someone they couldn't offend and were killed due to that."

The captain sighed. "I understand. However, I'll have to inform my superiors first. I'll tell them about your suggestion and they will decide if we continue investigating or close the case."

But at that moment, a smiling man walked towards the captain.

"Captain Hugo?"

"It's me."

The man took out a document and passed it to the captain.

"I have an order from the city lord. From now onwards, this case is under my jurisdiction. You can leave."

The captain's expression changed, but before he could say anything, he was stopped by the detective.

"Leave it. It's better if you don't get anymore embroiled in this."

"What are–"

"Have you not noticed? Whatever happened here probably involves more than you can afford to know." The captain's expression was grave.

The smiling man showed a brief expression of surprise and moved his gaze towards the detective.

"You are a very sharp person, mister."

For some reason, the detective felt chills on his spine.

…

In the middle of the crowd, a hooded person was looking towards the building with a frown on his face.

Nothing could be seen about him besides the fact he was relatively short, and his nose.

His nose was sniffing repeatedly.

"Dammit." Cursing under his breath, the hooded person turned around and left the place.

Quickly, his figure disappeared between the crowd.

…

Bloed and the girls returned to their inn without any problem.

After they returned to their rooms, Bloed helped Liu Ying to her bed.

"Are you alright?"

"I am, don't worry. Just a bit tired."

Bloed frowned. He could see that Liu Ying's face was pale. The only reason she did not collapse before reaching the inn was that Bloed and Regina helped her in the way.

"… The Blight… It sure is frightening." Liu Ying suddenly said.

"It is." Bloed nodded.

Liu Ying clenched her fist with a bitter smile. Today, she had learned why the Blight was so feared.

It was a clash, less than one second, and she was victorious. But despite it, she lost almost all the mana in her body during the process.

If she would have been alone and the Blight would have not collapsed after her attack, then she could have been killed easily.

"… So this was what the books meant when they talked about monsters that devoured mana, huh."

"Well, you were an entire rank weaker than it, so its energy devour was more effective than normal. Against a Devourer of the same rank, you would have been able to resist it a bit more. Don't worry, you will get better after one night of rest."

Liu Ying nodded with a forced smile.

"Master, what are we going to do now?" Regina asked.

Bloed thought for a moment before replying. "Let's observe the situation tomorrow to see. I don't want to let the matter of the Devourers like this."

Regina frowned. "Master, it's obvious that the people behind the Devourers are not weak. I don't want to pour cold water on you, but our strength is far from enough to get ourselves involved in this kind of situation."

"You are right. Therefore, we will ask for help from people able to get involved."

"Mm? Do we know someone like that?" Liu Ying asked confused.

Bloed smiled. "What are you talking about? I'm just putting your idea into use. Regina, can you get me a pen and paper?"

...

P4TRE0N: patr-eon.com/aidnovels

Chapter end