Even though he had mentally prepared himself, Lynch still felt a chill run down his spine.
The scene before him was straight out of a classic horror movie.
The two figures, who had been busy inside the house, slowly turned their heads at the noise, their blood-red eyes meeting the gazes of those at the doorway across the room.
The air seemed to freeze for an instant. The next moment, the two bodies—one old, one young—erupted with startling speed and power, hurtling straight toward the group at the door.
Holy crap.
Lynch’s hair practically stood on end. Fortunately, it was Knight Terry, a professional warrior, who had kicked the door open. His physical instincts kicked in immediately. Terry backhanded his shield hard into the old mother’s face, sending her flying with a sickening crack of splintering bone. He then drove his boot out, planting a kick squarely into Leonard’s chest, sending him crashing backward right on top of his mother.
Holy shit, holy shit.
Only then did Lynch’s heart begin to race wildly. This was the kind of childhood terror practically hardwired into his DNA. He was immensely relieved that he hadn't done something stupid like walking up and tapping someone on the shoulder; otherwise, he'd be looking for a fresh pair of pants right now.
Roar!
The two mad figures snarled as they tried to scramble back up, but having landed in a tangled heap, it took them a few seconds to untangle. Just then, Dr. Sven, who was shielded behind Lynch, raised her hand. Her lips moved rapidly, spitting out twisted, guttural syllables before she clenched her fist with force.
【Arcana, Grasp of the Black Goat】
A bizarre phenomenon manifested. Lynch felt an unseen force sweep past him, and the two mad figures—who had just separated and were rising—suddenly froze, as if gripped by a massive invisible hand. Pinned to the floor, they squirmed and thrashed desperately, snapping violently at empty air, unable to bite anything while emitting bloodcurdling howls.
Only now did the group at the door have a chance to take a clear look at the two.
Aside from his utter madness, the tall, skinny man appeared physically unharmed, though his mouth was smeared with dried, crusty blood, making him look horrifyingly feral.
His mother, on the other hand, was covered in blood. A gaping hole had been torn into her throat, exposing shredded muscle fibers, severed blood vessels, and her windpipe. As she struggled, the torn flesh rolled and wriggled like a second mouth gaping wide, mocking everyone present.
It was an undeniably fatal injury, yet she still moved with full vitality.
Whoosh. Everyone's eyes turned toward Lynch, as if he were the one in charge here.
This immediately piled a tremendous psychological weight onto Lynch—a single word from him would decide the fate of two lives.
【As you ascend toward the Supreme, a single thought from you may determine the life and death of hundreds of millions.】
The murmur of the red moon echoed in his mind. Terrifying as the words were, they oddly soothed Lynch’s inner turmoil.
That’s right. With great power comes great responsibility. The higher your standing, the greater the pressure and burden you must bear.
No one gets to enjoy the benefits without paying the price, unless it's in a dream.
His hesitation and conflict evaporated, replaced by resolute determination. Stepping back outside the doorway, Lynch picked up a pitchfork leaning against the wall, walked silently back to the old mother who ought to have been dead, and raised the tines.
“I’m sorry. Forgive me. I promise you, I will do everything I can to put an end to this.”
Even if it’s just for this once, Lynch silently added in his heart as he brought the pitchfork down with force. Pfft. The sharp tines punched through her howling mouth straight into her brain. The thrashing and snarling ceased abruptly. In those blood-red eyes, the manic light swiftly dimmed and died.
“Dust to dust, earth to earth. Life is but a fleeting moment; only death is eternal.”
Within his soul manifestation, another speck of light appeared around the glyph representing his death authority.
【Authority, Death, Ability, Purification】
Purifies a reanimated corpse, returning it to death, effective regardless of how the corpse was resurrected.
Removing his hat and pressing it against his chest, Lynch bowed deeply to the elderly mother. Then, under the conflicted gazes of Officer Natalie and Miss Diana, he turned back to Leonard, who remained pinned to the floor.
“This man is special,” Lynch said to Dr. Sven after staring into the blood-red eyes for a long while. “Up until now, every person who went mad shared one common trait: they were scratched or bitten by other madmen—except Kemitt and Leonard. And while Kemitt was the first case, he was covered in injuries from head to toe, so we can’t rule out that he was bitten by a madman as well. That leaves Leonard as the only confirmed exception.”
“Huh?” As a healer, Dr. Sven immediately grasped the crucial point. “If he’s the source of it all, we might be able to find a way to resolve this crisis from him. In that case, we can't kill him yet.”
“He might not be the source itself, but I wager he is definitely connected to it.” Lynch pondered for a moment, then suddenly frowned. “What about the previous corpses—the ones supposedly killed by ghouls?”
Knight Terry was the most knowledgeable on that front. “Nothing happened to those bodies. After being kept for two days, they were buried in the public cemetery.”
“A thought just occurred to me. But first, I suggest we search this place. I suspect we might find a surprise.”
“We need to deal with him first,” Dr. Sven said, her expression strained. “I can barely hold him much longer.”
Seeing Lynch hesitate, Officer Natalie stepped forward without a word. She whipped her long leg around and stomped heavily on both of Leonard’s shins. With a sickening crunch of breaking bone, Leonard’s lower legs twisted visibly out of shape.
Yet, as if feeling no pain whatsoever, his legs continued to writhe frantically, completely heedless of the jagged bones protruding through his skin.
“Allow me.”
Watching Leonard continue to struggle, Miss Diana sighed. She glided over to him, first jamming a wooden stick into his mouth so he reflexively clamped down on it. Then, swiftly tilting his head up to expose the nape of his neck, she drew a long steel needle and cleanly, precisely drove it into his cervical vertebrae, giving it a flick.
The frenzied Leonard still tried to snap his jaws, but both his roars and his violent squirming halted. The room instantly fell into dead silence. Dr. Sven tested interrupting her arcana, releasing her hold on Leonard, only to discover that while he could still twist his neck and attempt to bite, the rest of his body was completely paralyzed.
The soldiers reflexively took several steps back, their faces pale, staring in terror at the seemingly delicate and frail Miss Diana. The count's daughter paid them no mind; she simply twirled the steel needle between her fingers and turned to smile at Lynch and Natalie. The smile gave Lynch the chills, making him feel as though his own head were already rolling around in a sack.
Someone promptly stepped up and secured the stick in Leonard's mouth, neutralizing the dangerous threat once and for all.
“Are there any other members of his family?”
A soldier who knew Leonard answered, “He’s an only child. His father died long ago, so it was just him and his mother living here.”
Lynch nodded. “Then let’s search the place, everyone. Be careful. If you see anything suspicious, don’t touch it carelessly—report it immediately.”
Upon hearing the translation, Knight Terry barked orders for the soldiers to begin searching. Dr. Sven asked, “What was that suspicion you mentioned earlier?”
“I think I understand why the ghoul killings avoided witnesses. The point wasn't that they were afraid someone would see ghouls killing people. Quite the opposite—the killer was afraid someone would see that the culprit wasn't a ghoul at all, but a human.”
“But the wounds on the corpses matched the marks of ghouls perfectly,” Dr. Sven said in confusion.
“The human heart can be far more terrifying than any ghoul. If someone is determined enough, they can do anything. Back in my hometown, there was a case where a killer made a cast of vicious dog teeth to mimic maulings. It’s entirely possible to forge ghoul claw marks and bite marks.”
The surrounding listeners wore thoughtful expressions.
“The killer’s purpose was likely experimentation, and the goal of that experimentation was this plague. But in the process of experimenting, multiple deaths were inevitable, which would undoubtedly alert the city guards. By sheer coincidence, ghouls were roaming nearby, so the culprit simply used ghoul marks to disguise their crimes. The earlier corpses showed no abnormalities probably because the experiments failed—they failed to turn into these zom... madmen.”
Dr. Sven’s eyes widened in realization. “Until this time, when it finally succeeded?”
“Yes. I suspect Kemitt was a sacrifice of the experiment, while Leonard was very likely an accomplice.” Lynch let out a scoffing smile. “What Leonard didn't realize was that he was the real subject all along—the primary vector meant to spread the disaster. Kemitt, whom he killed, was merely a backup. That’s why Leonard became the only infected person to turn into a madman without suffering any prior injury, and the first victim he created was his own elderly mother.”
The faces of Knight Terry and Dr. Sven turned grim. They understood all too well that if Lynch hadn't spotted Leonard’s anomalies, the consequences would have been catastrophic the moment this mother and son escaped into the streets.
“This guy wasn’t a professional criminal, so he wouldn't have been thorough in covering his tracks. If my guess is correct, we're likely to find plenty of interesting evidence in his home. With some luck, we might even find clues pointing to the true mastermind, or perhaps even the source behind all this.” Lynch shrugged. “I can’t guarantee it, so let's all pray our luck holds up and we can—”
Thud, thud, thud.
Before he could finish, a soldier came running over in a hurry, wearing a strange look on his face.
“Sir, everyone, please come see this.”
Trading glances, the group followed behind the soldier out of the dilapidated house with uneasy anticipation.
Only upon stepping outside did Lynch notice that a dozen or so auxiliary soldiers had arrived at some point, completely cordoning off the perimeter. Lynch couldn't help but shoot a glance at Knight Terry, realizing he might have underestimated the city lord’s confidant. Constrained by era and geography, Terry might have lacked breadth of knowledge, but his ability to read situations and adapt on the fly was in no way inferior to the trained professional police back in Lynch's former world.
As an agricultural town, most households were equipped with small barns, and Leonard's was no exception. His barn stood behind the house, a crude cylindrical structure.
The moment they walked in, the musty odor characteristic of granaries hit them full in the face. Just as Lynch wrinkled his nose, Officer Natalie took a couple of quick strides, placing herself ahead of him and Miss Diana.
Hm?
Catching the scent more closely, Lynch detected a faint tang of blood beneath the thick mustiness.
It seemed this was what the soldier had discovered.
There probably wasn't any immediate danger, but caution was always best. Lynch turned the ring on his middle finger—The Compassion of the Neighbor—and followed the officer's example, shielding the flank of the other two ladies with his body. After all, they hadn't encountered real danger yet, so there was no need to call out the real Judy.
Rounding several mounds of straw, the group spotted four auxiliary soldiers clustered around a woodpile that had already been pulled apart, revealing what was hidden inside.
Just as Lynch had anticipated, hidden within the woodpile were two oversized claws and a pair of sharp, wolf-like dentures. Forged from metal, they were razor-sharp and smeared with grimy blood and bits of flesh. The blood had long dried into a dark crust, with a few flies buzzing around them.
“They really exist.”
Though Lynch couldn't understand the language, one look at Knight Terry’s expression was enough to guess what he was muttering. Taking a few hurried steps forward, Terry rushed up to the two bizarre props and examined them closely.
Lynch inspected them as well. The oversized claws looked somewhat like the glove of that dream slasher from horror films back in his previous life; slipping them over hands would leave massive claw marks. Meanwhile, the teeth closely resembled the look used by the female reporter, Maya, back then, and matched the bite wounds found on Kemitt’s body.
“These things have zero combat effectiveness,” Officer Natalie muttered beside him. “They only look menacing, but have no practical utility. If anyone tried to fight while wearing them, the first person they'd kill would be themselves.”
“What about an ambush?”
“It’d be hard to ambush anyone with those on, even with extensive training.”
“Unless the target was restrained?”
“Exactly.”
While the outsiders conversed in low voices, Dr. Sven and Knight Terry finished their inspection of the murder weapons.
For now, they could conclude that these were indeed the weapons that had left the wounds on Kemitt. As for whether the previous killings had been perpetrated using the same tools, that could only be verified by exhuming the graves and performing autopsies, though the probability was exceptionally high.
To Terry’s disappointment, however, apart from these two items, no other suspicious objects were found. The group combed through the entire residence repeatedly until late afternoon, yet turned up empty-handed.
“Looks like our luck isn’t great,” Officer Natalie sighed with regret as she watched the people in this relic memory bustling about. “We went through all the trouble of tracking down this place, yet failed to find any evidence pointing to the real mastermind. What a shame. The real culprit is still lurking in the shadows, ready to make their next move at any moment. It’s still very dangerous.”
“Finding this much is already remarkable,” Miss Diana countered defensively. “There’s no way I could have suspected Leonard so quickly, let alone realize this was man-made. Could you have?”
“I couldn't have either,” Officer Natalie said, rolling her eyes. “I’ve just witnessed even more astonishing feats from him before, so my expectations were sky-high. Besides, I was expressing regret, not complaining.”
The two ladies glared at each other, then turned their gazes toward Lynch at the same time.
Wait, you two were bickering back and forth just fine—why look at me? I'm not touching that death trap of a question.
Keeping his thoughts to himself, Lynch shrugged. “We've already found it. Having these items is more than enough.”
“Huh?”
Three gasps sounded simultaneously, including one from Lady Judy, who had been watching the spectacle from the back the entire time.
“At least for them, it's plenty.”
Lynch smiled. Seeing that Knight Terry and Dr. Sven also wore disappointed expressions, he walked straight over, crouched before the murder weapons, and casually remarked, “The craftsmanship is very rough, clearly rushed on short notice. Wouldn't you agree, Sir Knight, Dr. Sven?”
Dr. Sven blinked in surprise, nodding as she translated for Terry.
“It makes sense. After all, the ghouls only began wandering around the vicinity seven days ago. The mastermind's plan to use ghouls as a cover couldn't have started before then. And since the first victim turned up three days ago, that means they had only four days to prepare these two murder weapons. With time so tight, rough craftsmanship is only natural.”
With a faint smile, Lynch flicked the metal claw with his finger, producing a clear, ringing chime.
“Sounds nice, doesn't it? Good ring means good iron. So here’s the question: what are you brooding over? In a town of only eight thousand people, how many craftsmen can forge work like this? We have the murder weapons right here; tracing them back to their maker—isn't that basic investigative common sense?”
“Wait, wasn't this Leonard's... Ah, right! Unless Leonard committed all the previous murders, which is obviously impossible. Therefore, these weapons could only have been handed to him by the true mastermind, and because time was tight, Leonard hadn't returned them yet. As long as we find where the weapons were forged, the true culprit won't be able to hide!”
Knight Terry’s eyes lit up instantly. Babbling in a language Lynch couldn't understand, he strode toward his subordinates, not forgetting to call back over his shoulder to Dr. Sven:
“Dr. Sven, I’m heading out to trace the origin of these weapons immediately. You—”
“Have your men transport Leonard back to your barracks; I’ll follow right behind,” Dr. Sven replied. “This affliction is spreading too aggressively. Fortunately, we have Leonard now. I’ll try to uncover the source through him. If we can find a cure, we won’t have to fear whatever plots the culprit has in store.”
As the saying from his hometown went: a single word awakened the dreamer. Having found their directions, the two threw themselves into action, completely forgetting about Lynch standing beside them.
Lynch wasn't offended in the least. He merely spread his hands toward the three ladies. “See? Didn't I say it was enough?”
Rate on N.U.
