Narrow Escape

Floating dust scattered in the atmosphere cast the world in gloom, the air heavy with an acrid, scorched stench. The deafening roar of machinery echoed all around as horse-drawn carriages hauling coal and whale oil hurtled down the street.

The gray fog zone was perpetually draped in dull gray. Seen from afar, colossal smokestacks pierced the sky like jagged fangs, belching plumes of thick black smoke, while towering cooling towers resembled obese giants, constantly spewing sour gray mist day and night.

Not far after pursuing their quarry out of the Hall of Order, their target had boarded a hired box carriage. This made trailing her far easier; Officer Natalie simply borrowed a patrol horse and took Lynch along, covertly following all the way to this vicinity.

This was a vacant industrial district. The hired carriage waited by the roadside while the “old woman” walked into the complex on foot.

Natalie and Lynch did not venture deep inside. Stationed dozens of meters away, the two hid among the boughs of a large tree, each peering through a monocular to observe the deserted grounds from afar.

Deeper in stood a cluster of dilapidated factory workshops, clearly abandoned for a long time. Yet through the glass panes, faint silhouettes could be seen moving about inside.

As the old woman approached, the figures in the window abruptly vanished. Moments later, the door swung open, and five or six people emerged to greet her.

Lynch frowned. The people emerging clearly looked abnormal.

They were brawny and burly, with rough, dark skin weathered by long exposure to the elements. Clad in coarse cloth shirts and trousers, their exposed skin was covered in intricate, chaotic tattoos.

Leading them was an old man with a head of white hair. Unlike the others, he was not burly at all, but rather skeletal, frail, and withered, reminding Lynch of his own hand the night before last.

Yet the moment Lynch laid eyes on this old man—even through a monocular from dozens of meters away—his scalp prickled with chills. His heart pounded violently as if it were about to burst, and cold sweat drenched his palms. It was only after a few moments that his racing pulse gradually eased.

Trying his best to control his trembling lips, Lynch felt as if even the thoughts in his head were shivering.

‘Travel Companion, this is a powerful Soul Severer, isn’t he?’

【Yes, the mystery intertwined with his soul is extraordinarily potent, bridging perceptual distance to stimulate your inspiration. Please be extremely careful, Lynch.】

This was the first time he had heard that voice explicitly urge caution, but Lynch had no time to dwell on it. He knew they had hooked a big fish today—a terrifyingly large one.

Nudging Officer Natalie beside him, he leaned close to her ear and whispered, “That old man... I sense immense power from him. On par with Mr. V, maybe even stronger.”

Natalie’s muscles stiffened, her expression turning guarded as she whispered back, “Victor is a rank five authority Soul Severer, which means this elder hillman might be rank six. It’s unlikely he’s crossed over into rank seven high-tier. It’s best not to stare directly at him—individuals of his caliber tend to be exceptionally sensitive.”

Lynch immediately shifted his gaze to the other brawny men, feeling the crushing pressure alleviate slightly. “So these are hillmen?”

“Yes, that’s their characteristic attire. Shh, something’s happening.”

Leading the group of hillmen, the old man came forward to meet the old woman and gave a deep bow. The old woman merely offered a reserved, slight curtsy in return, then moved her lips rapidly, seemingly uttering a lengthy explanation.

Listening to her words, the young hillmen displayed panic and fury, some even shaking their fists. Only the elder leading them kept his cloudy eyes half-closed as if half-asleep, his bark-like face completely placid.

Only when the “old woman” ceased speaking did the elder slowly nod. With squinted eyes, he gestured behind him. Two hillmen immediately returned inside the factory and soon reemerged supporting a frail hillman. Bringing him before the “old woman,” they turned his back to her and lifted his shirt.

From a distance, both Lynch and Natalie gasped in unison. Exchanging a glance, they saw mutual bewilderment mirrored in each other’s eyes.

On the hillman’s back grew an enormous tumor.

The purple tumor was larger than a fist, bulging prominently from the surface of his skin. It swelled and shrank like a beating heart, twitching intermittently. Its skin was smooth and nearly translucent, with something squirming inside.

Lynch felt chills run down his spine. It was not merely fear, but watching that squirming mass produced waves of visceral, physical nausea. Glancing at Officer Natalie beside him, her pale, disgusted expression indicated she was having just as rough a time.

As for the distant hillmen, aside from growing angrier, they showed no signs of surprise, as if already accustomed to it. The “old woman” leaned in closer to inspect it for a while, then nodded and spoke a few words to the elder hillman before pulling several small brown glass vials from her coat pocket—resembling vintage medicine bottles Lynch recalled from his past life.

The elder cracked a rare smile and personally fetched a small clay jar from the workshop, returning to the frail villager’s side. As Lynch watched intently, he thought—whether a trick of the mind or not—that the elder hillman had cast a glance in their direction as he turned.

Hm?

A jolt of terror seized Lynch’s scalp. Lowering the monocular abruptly, he looked at the lady officer. “I think he just looked right at me.”

“He turned his body this way, but that looked like a natural movement.” Officer Natalie raised her monocular to check again. “I don’t see anything unusual. Are you sure?”

Lynch resumed watching for a moment. Indeed, everyone’s actions on the other side appeared normal. Perhaps his heightened inspiration was just making him paranoid. But just as he started to relax, scenes from horror thrillers he had watched in the past flashed through his mind.

No way. I’ve seen too many scenes like this in movies—better safe than sorry.

Abandoning any concern for propriety, Lynch grabbed Natalie’s wrist and hissed, “Trust me on this. We need to leave now. Right now. As fast and as far as possible.”

The lady officer looked confused, but seeing the gravity etched across Lynch’s face, she refrained from questioning him. Leading Lynch down the backside of the tree, they sprinted to where their horse was hitched, unfastened the reins, and mounted. Only after trotting dozens of meters did they stop muffling the hoofbeats and urge the patrol horse into a full gallop.

Only then did Lynch let out a breath of relief. Extending his monocular, he looked back toward the tree, while Natalie, having steered the horse onto the road, looked back as well.

In that instant, both witnessed a sight that made their hearts skip a beat.

The tall locust tree they had just been hiding in suddenly shuddered violently without cause, its canopy swaying.

The next moment, a gentle breeze swept across it. Under the gentle gust, the branches, the trunk, the leaves—the entire tree silently disintegrated into microscopic dust, drifting away on the wind. Yet the bird nests, dead twigs, and debris previously lodged in the tree were completely unharmed, clattering down in a rain across the ground.

Holy crap.

Lynch’s legs turned to jelly, overwhelmed by sheer dread.

Thank goodness they had bolted in time. If they had lingered even a minute longer, that strike would have caught them dead to rights with nowhere to hide. Who knew what kind of attitude the other party would take, or if they’d even survive?

Damn it all, are these powerful Soul Severers even human? How can someone casually unleash a long-range strike of that caliber?

Officer Natalie was evidently thinking along the same lines. With a grim, stony expression, she spurred the horse onward in silence. Although both understood that the attacker likely hadn’t pinpointed their exact position—hence using this sweeping method to flush them out—the chasm in power was so astronomical that neither dared stay a second longer, wanting only to put as much distance behind them as possible.

Only after galloping out of the gray fog zone, entering the Valley District, and turning onto the smooth expanse of Rhine Avenue did their pace finally slow. Looking back in lingering apprehension, the lady officer turned to Lynch, whose face was just as pale and tense. Meeting each other’s gaze, the two suddenly burst into laughter, rejoicing in their narrow escape.

“Are all of you Soul Severers this terrifying?” Lynch exhaled softly.

“He must be a rank six mid-tier. Thankfully, he hasn’t crossed the rank seven threshold, or we would have been caught on the spot.” Tossing back her loose hair, the lady officer readjusted her top hat. “Good thing you warned me. You saved my life back there—thank you.”

“I was saving my own skin, and aren’t we temporary partners anyway?” Lynch chuckled. “If you really want to thank me, why not count it as another loss to me?”

“Careful, or I’ll toss you off this horse and send you back to face him.” The lady officer still sounded uneasy. “No, once we get back, I have to inform Victor. Even if that wasn’t a lethal attack and suggests low malice, an unidentified rank six Soul Severer entering the city limits means the Watchers must be on high alert.”

“Probably pointless. They’ll likely relocate soon.”

“Even so, the Watchers need to be vigilant. Sigh, if only we hadn’t been spotted, they wouldn’t feel the need to move.”

“Yeah. But on the bright side, they probably don’t realize we caught on to that noble’s little secret,” Lynch said thoughtfully. “The Valente family... seems remarkably close with the hillmen... and that bizarre tumor. Damn it, what on earth was that thing?”

“I’ll look into the family through Watcher channels first. Maybe I can uncover their connection to the hillmen. As for the tumor, it looked deeply sinister—I’m worried it’s tied to mystery. I’ll ask someone to look into the records too; maybe some forbidden books mention it.” Speaking of records, Natalie remembered something, reined the horse to a halt, and turned around. “Before we ran into that noble, you mentioned there was another place where we could view the case files?”

“Ah, right.” Lynch tapped his head. “The newspaper office—the Rhine City Investigator.”

“Hm?”

“I saw news regarding the Bester Tunnel twice in the paper, and both mentioned the hillmen’s agitation causing fatalities. They very likely reviewed the case files or kept records of their own. But getting them to cooperate won’t be easy; I doubt your badge will hold much sway.”

“Tsk, I hate newspapers, especially the Investigator.” The lady officer gave a disgruntled flick of the reins, setting the patrol horse back into motion. “You have a point, though—they probably saw the files. How about we head over and ask now?”

Lynch held the lady officer with one arm and pulled out his pocket watch with the other. It was already three in the afternoon; time was getting late.

“Let’s do tomorrow. I’ll think tonight about how to get their help. For today, let’s head back to the Hall of Order vault to retrieve William’s Holiday Surprise, then take it to that red-haired woman to get it tested. If we can trace its trajectory, that’s best—we might even catch a culprit or two. If not, you can take the relic back to the club tonight for safekeeping. Carrying evidence everywhere makes me uneasy.”

“Sounds good.” Hearing they wouldn’t have to visit the newspaper office today, Officer Natalie’s voice brightened noticeably, and the horse picked up speed. “Bessie should be able to trace it. Although she’s only rank two authority, her research into mystery techniques and ability applications is top-notch in Rhine City. It’s just that fallen god memories suitable for her are hard to come by.”

Lynch felt the new revolver inside his holster, feeling a bit more anticipation toward that beautiful red-haired woman.

However, after returning the horse at the Hall of Order, retrieving the mystery relic from the vault, and making their way back to the street corner antique shop, they found police tape cordoning off the area.

Debris littered the ground everywhere, looking as if the place had just suffered an explosion.

A group of blue uniforms surrounded Madam Bessie’s magic shop, conducting inspections inside and out, while a crowd of onlookers stood around the perimeter, pointing and whispering.

Natalie and Lynch exchanged a glance. Thinking back to the fire at the Hall of Order, both saw mutual apprehension in each other’s eyes.

Don’t tell me something else went wrong.

Before the lady officer could find someone to question, the shop door swung open from within.

A stretcher was carried out.