In the blink of an eye, the two sailors died right before our eyes.
Their heads exploded into a dozen pieces, splattering gray matter and bright red blood across the walls. Blood spray hit the faces and clothes of several nearby sailors, leaving them stunned before they collapsed to the ground, retching violently.
The next moment, two eerie tentacles burst from the shattered skulls. They whipped around the enclosed cabin like arrows, rebounding repeatedly and leaving deep gouges in the thick wooden walls with every impact.
“Hmph.”
Seeing the chaos in the infirmary, Knight Rick let out a cold snort and clenched his fist tightly.
At the same time, a mass of darkness condensed in the cabin, forming a giant hand that mirrored his motion, clenching into a fist. It caught both flying tentacles in its palm.
With a booming roar, a shockwave erupted as if an explosion had occurred within the cabin, sending the sailors tumbling and crashing into the corner.
“I know who did this.”
Knight Rick stared at the giant hand in the air, deep in thought for a few seconds, then turned to look at Lynch behind him. He did not know why Lynch happened to be standing right behind him, but he decided it was best not to dwell on it.
“What was that?” Lynch stepped out with a composed expression, picked up his bowler hat, put it back on, and said as if nothing had happened, “Something iconic?”
“Yes, it is Walter Davis, a notorious water thief. He has had a two hundred pound bounty on his head for three years, but he usually only operates on the sea and rarely comes to the river channels.”
Hiss... the figure made Lynch's blood pressure spike, and his hands felt itchy, but he calmed down immediately after thinking about the tentacles that had nearly bored into his skull just moments ago.
I am a private investigator, not a bounty hunter. I cannot steal someone else's meal ticket. I will leave this for someone else to deal with.
“He is a crazed cultist whose ability is to control tentacles. He also goes by the nickname ‘the Slave Owner’. It is said he can command puppets to serve him. It seems he must have taken advantage of the chaos yesterday to get those tentacles on board and into the brains of those two men, turning them into moles to help the believers of the Ancient Flicker steal the holy memory. Fortunately, you sensed its presence in time; otherwise, if it had found a chance to slip away, it would have been difficult to identify him.”
“That move you just made...” Lynch made a clenching gesture, “Did you take him out?”
“He is injured, but not severely.” Knight Rick sighed, “Now we must find his hiding place as quickly as possible. It is possible the two parties are still together.”
“Do you have any ideas?”
Rick shook his head: “These people hide very well; it is hard to track them. I can only mobilize the church’s information network to inquire for intelligence as quickly as possible, and I hope we get a response soon.”
Lynch nodded thoughtfully, scanning the room.
The room was full of blood and brain matter. The scene was overly stimulating, making him realize a terrifying truth.
He only found the smell of blood foul and a bit nauseating; he was no longer panicked by the sight of corpses.
It had only been seven days since he transmigrated. Habit truly is a terrifying thing.
With a self-deprecating smile, Lynch carefully approached the corpses, poked them with his cane to confirm they were thoroughly dead, and then carefully inspected the bodies.
Seeing his actions, Knight Rick also consciously ordered the surrounding sailors: “All of you, get out. Report the situation here to the Archbishop. He will know how to handle it.”
“In a situation like this, how would the Night Church normally handle it?”
“Notify the Night Owls of Rhine City and have them resolve it. If they cannot handle it, we issue a public bounty for bounty hunters to take care of.”
“Night Owls? Are they similar to the Watchers?”
“Correct, they are a special department belonging to the church.”
Lynch listened to Rick’s explanation while searching the corpses, finally understanding the basic structure of the Night Church, or rather, the structure of most churches.
The Night Church is actually divided into two systems. Clergy members include both ordinary people and Soul Severers. While they have combat capabilities, they are mostly responsible for administrative work. The specialized combat units were called the Night Knight Order in ancient times, but as times changed, they were renamed the Night Owls, and they are all composed of Soul Severers.
However, due to the conflict between royal power and divine power, the church intentionally weakens local knightly forces. Therefore, outside of the Norin headquarters, the Night Church only dispatches three or four Night Owls to key cities as a deterrent.
The problem is that these people are much like the Watchers; they only know how to fight. Asking them to risk their lives against cultists is fine, but asking them to investigate a case? They might not even be as good as the blue uniforms of the Hall of Order.
That is why Archbishop Trinlais never had any hope for them from the start and went straight to asking for his most trusted person, Lynch.
“However, our information channels are reliable. Perhaps we can find traces of Davis.”
“What if we do not find him in the end?” Lynch began searching the clothes of the two corpses for a second time, including their bedding.
“Whether or not we recover the shipment, we will not hide this incident from the church. But if we can find the lost item, we can restore the honor we lost, and the church’s punishment will be correspondingly lighter. As a knight, losing the cargo is indeed my dereliction of duty, and I will accept the punishment I deserve.”
“Then let us cooperate. I will try my best to help you find the target. Helping you is also helping myself. Oh, found it.”
“What are you looking for?” Knight Rick had been wanting to ask that for a while, seeing Lynch digging around.
“Our deduction has an inexplicable loophole. For the deduction to hold, we must find a reasonable explanation.” Lynch said while tearing at the corpse’s clothing, “They were both ordinary people with no abilities. Even if controlled, they shouldn't suddenly become Soul Severers.”
“Hmm.”
“So even if they were on the ship, how could they use abilities to steal the item for the followers of the Flicker? This means that besides being controlled, they must have had other means. I am looking for that proof.”
As he spoke, Lynch pulled a neatly folded piece of paper from the inner lining of one of the men’s trousers.
With a faint, cold smirk, Lynch quickly unfolded the paper. Sure enough, the image of the Ancient Flicker appeared on the paper once again.
“This shows that the card in the box was not merely a manifesto or a taunt. It appeared in the box because it had to be there, just as it had to be here.”
“There really was something...” Rick asked with a look of admiration, “What effect does this thing actually have?”
“I cannot be certain yet. It would be best to have more information, otherwise it is just guessing. However, this thing itself carries some clues, it can... hmm?”
Footsteps sounded outside. Looking back, it was actually Archbishop Trinlais arriving with a priest. Bringing an ordinary person to such a place made the surrounding sailors nervous, and they guarded him in the center.
“What is it? Are you not worried that the supplies have been lost as well?”
“The time of death for both victims was within ten minutes?” Trinlais asked in return.
“Yes.”
“Then it is up to you.” He said, patting the priest beside him, “The Goddess holds a portion of the authority of death. He is a knight who specializes in the authority of death. One of his abilities is to sense the location of the killer at the moment of death from corpses that have been dead for no more than ten minutes.”
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