The Flaw

The ghouls wandering nearby lately hadn't deliberately avoided passersby, and the corpses all bore their signature claw marks and tooth marks, as if they were terrified whoever found the bodies wouldn't know who was responsible. All these signs indicated that they didn't mind being discovered by humans—in fact, they might have even preferred humans to see their handiwork.

Yet despite several corpses and multiple people finding them, not a single person had witnessed the ghouls actually committing the murders, as if the creatures deliberately avoided people's gazes when killing.

There was a clear paradox between these behaviors.

While listening to the travelers and citizens earlier, none of the four had realized this problem. Having watched far too many shows involving conspiracies and intrigue in his past life, however, Lynch had instinctively sensed something was wrong, even if he hadn't been able to put his finger on it right away.

But the soldier's words just now had instantly jolted him awake.

The previous paradox could still be explained by the ghouls simply not wanting witnesses to their kills; although flimsy, it was somewhat self-consistent.

However, the appearance of the soldier Leonard made that flimsy explanation completely fall apart.

He was the only eyewitness who had seen the ghouls killing someone with his own eyes, and it was precisely because of his testimony that both Dr. Sven and the city military had confirmed the culprits were indeed ghouls.

But upon closer scrutiny, two men were attacked together by multiple ghouls. If the attackers had followed their pattern of leaving no witnesses, they should have assaulted both men simultaneously. Instead, one had nearly been torn to pieces and left at death's door, while the other hadn't suffered even a scratch—not only escaping the ghoul attack himself, but safely bringing his companion back with him.

What kind of God of War feat was that? If Lynch had never encountered ghouls before, he might have bought it, but among all the heteromorphs, he had dealt with ghouls the most and knew them intimately.

They weren't mindless, rabid ghouls; they were normal ghouls capable of choosing whether or not to attack humans. If they truly didn't want to leave any survivors, why would they let Leonard go so easily?

Once he realized where the problem lay, the whole incident was riddled with holes. Lynch frowned and briefly explained his suspicions to the three women, making their expressions grow unusually grave as well.

If Lynch's suspicions were correct, not only might Leonard be suspect, but whether ghouls were even the real killers became an open question. Miss Diana and Officer Natalie couldn't help but smile wryly; they had thought this would be an ordinary journey to suppress a mystery relic with the testers' experience to rely on, yet ever since entering, they had been hurtling uncontrollably down an unpredictable path.

Still, at least they had found a potential trigger behind all this. They could only hope the Lord of a Billion Radiance's reasoning for doing this wasn't too absurd—that was the shared thought among the four of them.

Before seeing Dr. Sven waiting at the castle gates, Lynch had spent a long time considering what attitude he should take toward her.

She held high prestige among the populace and had significant sway with the authorities. If they wanted to smoothly resolve this ghoul crisis, she was indeed their best ally.

Yet she had her own red flags. An exceptional arcanist who was worldly and widely traveled, living in seclusion in her impoverished, remote hometown—this background was suspicious in itself. After repeated deliberation, however, Lynch still decided to trust this central figure of the mystery relic.

Because her death was an established fact, a conclusion with considerable credibility.

Thus, when he met the anxious woman at the fortress gates, Lynch's first words were:

“Take me to see Leonard, as quickly as possible.”

Dr. Sven froze, glancing at Judy appealingly, thinking she had misunderstood Lynch's request.

“You heard correctly. Take me to see him. There's something wrong with this guy; we can talk on the way.” Lynch considered for a moment before adding, “Is there anything that must be dealt with ‘immediately’ that you called us over for? If not, let's go find Leonard first. It'd be best to bring that knight and a few soldiers along—it's not appropriate for us to get directly involved in this.”

Dr. Sven had seen her share of trouble after all. Seeing Lynch's grave expression, she wasted no words, gave a few instructions to the two messenger soldiers, and gestured to the four of them.

“His home is south of the city, a bit far, but I'll lead the way. No need to wait for Knight Terry and the others; they'll catch up soon.” Dr. Sven walked briskly, speaking as they went. “Your judgment was correct. There was indeed a soldier who hid that he had been bitten, and another who wasn't sure if his mark was a scratch. Counting those with obvious wounds, there are eight people in total. They... have been placed in solitary quarantine for the time being.”

Lynch frowned slightly but didn't comment. In reality, based on the experience of those movies and shows, these people remained hazards. But they couldn't simply execute everyone who had been bitten—at least not at this stage. Solitary confinement was already the least terrible choice.

“There's no sign of the infection spreading further for the moment, but we hope to uncover the root cause and eliminate the hidden danger,” Dr. Sven said in a low voice. “You seem rather familiar with what we're going through. The reason I asked you to come was in the hope that you could help us deal with this crisis.”

“We can help, but I need to confirm something first.” Lynch stopped in his tracks, tilting his head to look at Dr. Sven. “Do you truly want to resolve this crisis?”

“Hm?”

“We do have experience dealing with similar incidents, but we have zero interest in this city, nor are we afraid of the ghoul rumors. If things go south, we can leave at any moment; there's no need for us to care about the problems here. The only reason we're involved is that we get along relatively well with you and are willing to do our best to help you sort this out. So if you don't actually want to resolve the incident, you'd better just tell us directly. We'd be glad to save ourselves the trouble.”

Lynch knew his conduct was a bit risky, but given the complexity of the matter, they needed a solid rear guard. Taking this risk was well worth it.

Dr. Sven fell silent. She remained quiet for a full minute or two, leaving only the rhythm of their footsteps around the five of them, monotonous and dull.

“I do,” she finally spoke, no hesitation in her voice. “This is the city where I grew up. No matter how small or dilapidated it is, it's my home. My father, my mother, my little brother, and me—this place holds all of our family's memories. I want to protect those memories. I don't want to watch everyone turn into what Kemitt and the others have become. So please, help me.”

“Alright, even if it's a bit of a hassle.” Seeing that her expression wasn't feigned, Lynch suppressed the smile at the corner of his lips and feigned helplessness. “Then if we have time, we'll need to have a proper talk. I need to understand the situation here in detail, and we need to get to know each other better. But before that, we have to deal with the most pressing issue. Leonard most likely has a major problem.”

The clanking of metal rang out behind them. Turning back, they saw that the armored knight, Terry, had caught up with four sword-wielding soldiers at a run.

This time, Lynch didn't hold anything back, laying out every single suspicion he had pieced together. After his earlier performance, the doctor and the knight were thoroughly convinced, raising no doubts whatsoever about his well-reasoned analysis.

“So I suspect that someone is pulling the strings behind these so-called ghoul killings. Ghouls weren't the ones doing the killing at all—or at least, not the ones wandering about. And Leonard is very likely in league with them. They're the true culprits behind this ghoul incident. If we find Leonard, we can probably grab hold of their tail and figure out how they turned Kemitt into a madman.”

As they spoke, a dilapidated, ramshackle two-story house appeared before the group—the soldier Leonard's home. Through the window, Leonard's elderly mother could be seen busying herself in the kitchen, while a tall, skinny soldier stood in the living room, head lowered, looking for something.

Without a word of greeting, the armored knight Terry kicked open the flimsy wooden door. With a loud crash, the door fell inward. Both Leonard in the living room and his elderly mother in the kitchen slowly turned their heads.

Their eyes were blood-red, their expressions hideous, saliva dripping from their mouths, low growls rumbling incessantly in their throats.