Chapter 183
Voices drifted in from a distance. Footsteps were pounding toward him. Someone must have seen what happened or heard the scream and run off to call the others.
Do-Jin spoke to Orfen, whose face kept flickering through the shapes of several different children. “Go wait for me where we first met. If you stay put and behave, I’ll come find you.”
Orfen hesitated for a moment before nodding. The child vanished like smoke pulled out of the air. All that remained was the mangled corpse, the spreading pool of blood, and Do-Jin standing alone.
A few seconds later, a middle-aged knight with a belly pushing against his armor came charging in. “Haah... haah... so this is the place!”
Since the village was big enough, it made sense that a retired knight had been appointed as some kind of guard captain. He stumbled to a stop and shoved his crooked helmet back into place, his face flushed and furious.
“You... you... What do you think you’re doing here?!” His shaking finger pointed straight at Do-Jin.
Do-Jin let out a long sigh. He could already feel the headache creeping in, and he wasn’t even exhausted yet.
***
“So you’re saying you have absolutely nothing to do with this whole mess?”
The guard captain looked like he wanted to punch a hole through the table. Dragging Do-Jin into the guard station hadn’t cooled him down at all. From his perspective, it was simple. An outsider had been standing over a freshly mangled dead body. He wanted to lock him up first and ask questions later.
However, he couldn’t do that, at least not to this guy. It already pissed him off that Do-Jin was part of the Adventurers’ Guild and a Regenian on top of it. The moment he saw the badge, he almost swallowed his tongue.
He’s from Elthomagia.
He was a mage from the Imperial Tower, definitely not someone who could be tossed into a cell on a hunch.
“I see. So you heard a woman scream, you ran over, and the only thing you found was the body.” He rubbed his thick beard with obvious frustration.
Do-Jin nodded as the half-forgotten detail came back to him. He also recalled that the man’s name had been Kirkley.
In that moment, a young woman who looked like one of the clerks came over with a steaming cup. It was milk mixed with an irresponsible amount of sugar. “Here, sir... if you don’t mind something warm.”
“Thank you. I was feeling a little thirsty,” Do-Jin replied, taking the cup.
“You’re a guest here. It’s nothing.”
Kirkley glared at the flustered female clerk with an exasperated look. “Do you not see that I’m in the middle of an interrogation? If you have time to hand out drinks, then get back inside!”
She shot him a murderous look and said, “Interrogation? Seriously? This man probably got dragged into some horrible situation, and you think yelling is going to help? He needs a break, not your barking.”
“For the love of... Every time a pretty face walks in, you act like this. Did you forget how that con-artist bastard cleaned you out last year?”
“Dad! Why would you bring that up right now? You’re so embarrassing!” she yelled while stomping out of the room.
Ah. So that was his daughter. They looked nothing alike.
Kirkley sighed so hard his chest deflated. “She can’t even spare her own father a cup of water.”
Do-Jin lowered the sugary milk. Hearing the tragedy of a broke father hit a little too close to home for him to keep drinking that.
Kirkley cleared his throat. “Anyway, you’re saying you saw nothing except the corpse?”
“Yes.”
“Did you happen to see a ghost, or a vampire, or one of those spider-things that pretends to look human...” Kirkley trailed off and pressed a hand to his forehead. “Listen to me. I sound like a complete idiot. But we are knee-deep in this nightmare. People have been disappearing for months with no warning. This whole region is drowning in ghost stories, and I’m expected to pretend none of it is happening. So forgive me if I sound desperate.”
While he spoke, the guard captain dug out a thick, ugly-looking cigarette and tried to stick it between his teeth.
“Lir, light this one... Damn it.” He almost called for his daughter, then shook his head.
Then, a sharp snap echoed as Do-Jin lit his cigarette. Kirkley flinched, then gave a small nod in thanks.
“I heard the ghost stories already. People keep saying the missing ones show up in their dreams,” Do-Jin answered.
“Hah. It seems you picked up the rumors faster than I expected. Then this part should go a lot quicker. From a mage’s perspective, how does all this feel?”
“Considering you’re asking me this right now, I’m guessing the dead man was one of the people ranting about ghosts, right?”
Kirkley’s half-closed eyes suddenly widened a little. “How did you know? The bastard came in here sobbing that a ghost, no, an evil spirit, was out to kill him. Then he ends up torn to pieces. What else am I supposed to think?”
In a world where malevolent spirits were as real as wolves and trolls, his suspicion wasn’t strange at all. Honestly, pinning the blame on a convenient outsider would have been simplest for him. But dealing with a mage from Elthomagia came with its own set of headaches.
If anything, he probably preferred the culprit being an evil spirit. At least evil spirits didn’t file complaints with the Imperial Tower. That was why Kirkley looked at Do-Jin like a drowning man spotting a lifeline. The chance to ask a Tower mage for help was rare, and he knew it.
“If only one person mentioned ghosts, I might’ve dismissed it. But if multiple people claim the same thing, then yes. The odds of a real spirit being involved are high.”
Do-Jin had already decided he would use Kirkley. Pretending to sound intrigued, he added, “I actually heard more rumors at the inn. I was curious already, and now something like this happened. It makes me want to look deeper.”
Kirkley’s eyes brightened immediately. “You would investigate? If a mage from the Imperial Tower steps in, I would be... no, we would be grateful.”
“I will need information. Especially from the people who claimed they saw the ghosts in their dreams. I want reports from nearby villages too, not just this one.”
“Leave that to me. This whole region would answer when we ask for cooperation anyway. I will write you a temporary investigator’s authorization under my seal.”
This was the power of a prestigious title. A moment ago, he could have been treated as a suspect, yet now everything had opened up.
“I always thought every mage was a stiff-necked bastard who acted like they were made of gold. I guess that is not entirely true. Ah... that’s not something I should be saying in front of a mage.”
“It doesn’t bother me. Most mages really are like that, so you’re not wrong.”
“Hah. You’re a surprisingly decent one. Here. Take this.”
He shoved the hastily scribbled document toward Do-Jin. With this, Do-Jin could walk around every village in the region and gather information without anyone stopping him.
“It feels a bit strange to ask this, but if you make any progress in your investigation, could you tell me first? I know it sounds embarrassing, yet results matter for my position. In return, I will make sure your name is included properly in the report to the lord so you receive whatever reward comes with it.”
A quest window popped up in front of Do-Jin. It was a formal request asking him to investigate the case tied to the evil spirit.
“Of course. But if I need additional cooperation while I’m working on it...”
“Just say the word.”
“There is something I want right away. Like I said earlier, I need the names and residences of everyone who talked about seeing a spirit in their dreams or whatever it was.”
“I could call all of them here. Should I bring in the ones from other villages too, so you can question them at once?”
“This needs to stay quiet. I want to investigate without the targets knowing anything.”
“Hmm, so that is how it is. Then I will start by giving you the list of everyone who came here to complain or caused trouble over it. I will pass the rest along later.”
Do-Jin received the records of the people who had filed ghost reports or caused drunken chaos in taverns while ranting about evil spirits.
If I dig into these guys, something’s bound to show up.
The disappearances kept happening. It could simply be random crimes, but Do-Jin sensed that the Cult of Ruin was somehow involved.
Hmm... Should I investigate quietly or poke the hornet’s nest and see what comes crawling out?
Do-Jin decided to think about it later and stood up. “I’ll stop by another time to pick up the rest of the documents.”
“Thank you. If you find anything during the investigation, please inform me immediately.”
“I will.”
Once outside, he could tell it was still deep into the night. It was the perfect hour to be asleep, but Do-Jin had no intention of resting. He had to meet Orfen. When he called the boy’s name at the spot where they’d first met, a faint presence stirred at his feet. This time, the Wraith Cluster took the shape of an ordinary child again.
“You came fast, sir.”
“I need to hear everything that happened,” Do-Jin said.
That was his first problem. Their memories were in shambles. Maybe too many recollections had blended together, or maybe the trauma was so deep that huge chunks had simply rotted away. The whole situation felt wrong from the start. The children were dead and had become ghosts, yet they still wandered around searching for their missing parents. Given the circumstances, the children should have died with them.
“We asked the adults. They wouldn’t answer at first, but they eventually did. Most of them said it was another adult’s fault. That is when we went to ask that adult instead.”
It looked as though the children were consuming one person’s memory at a time and hunting for clues inside those memories to track down the culprits.
“Did they tell you why those bad adults did something like that?”
“Hmm... they said they got paid. But they also said it wasn’t just about the money. They kept saying they didn’t have a choice.”
“Has something like today happened before?”
Orfen nodded slowly. That meant this wasn’t the first time they killed someone. “They only answered when they admitted they did something bad themselves.”
“How many people admitted it?”
“Two...? Maybe it was the first one... no, maybe five? I don’t know. I asked too many people, and now everything is mixed up.”
The overlapping silhouettes of the children wavered like unstable shadows. Do-Jin waited for Orfen and the other children to settle down, then asked, “Is there another adult you’re still questioning right now?”
Evil spirits born from resentment usually had a clear purpose and a consistent pattern of action until every grudge was settled. They rarely tormented the innocent without reason. If they kept returning to the same person for answers, it meant they had sensed guilt or something similar drifting in the fragments of that memory.
An unfamiliar girl stepped forward and answered, “Yes. There’s a lady I was supposed to ask today. I asked her eight times already, and she still didn’t answer. I’m going to figure out where my mom went today for sure.”
Do-Jin crouched slightly and asked her as gently as he could, “Would it be alright if I asked her for you today?”
The girl’s eyes sharpened the moment she heard that. “No. If she answers, she’s supposed to get punished right away.”
She radiated bloodlust and darkness that felt far too heavy for a child’s voice, but Do-Jin didn’t waver.
“If we rush it, it’s going to get harder to find your mom. If I ask her and get the answer, I’ll tell you right after. You can punish her then, can’t you?”
The girl’s glare softened instantly, almost like someone flipped a switch. Her eyes shimmered, and she looked embarrassed as tears welled up again.
She nodded. “I’m sorry I got mad. I’ll do it your way.”
“It’s alright. Thank you.”
Do-Jin chose the woman who would have been the children’s next victim as his first investigation target.