Chapter 16: CH12 March Exodus (part 5)

Not so far away, she saw Archie's school in plain sight.

'Archie is supposed to be at school... Huh...? Why are the students already going home? And soldiers?'

She spotted several children accompanied by several townsguard in a similar uniform as Archie, walking on the road where she's at. Clearly, something felt off that March rushed her way to the school out of worry. Her bare instincts tell her that something really bad happened and she needs to go no matter what.

"Uwahhh! Wahhh!"

Now that she was near, she spotted Archie out of the gate of her school, holding a girl who is her classmate to her chest, crying her eyes out.

"Archie!"

"Sister March?"

March called her and in response, Archie turned her head. She's still trying to comfort the girl in her arms, patting her back gently.

"What about school?"

"Teachers sent us away"

Archie's response is intentionally abrupt as she doesn't want to spoil the details while there is a crying girl on her arm, though. March is still oblivious to her intention.

"Did something happen?"

Archie didn't say anything in response but rather give her full attention to the crying girl, spoiling her with touch.

"Mai! Thank goodness you're safe... I am so sorry"

A woman came and hugged the crying girl tight, the woman is Mia's mother. The mother is also drenched with tears, they didn't release each other's grip and her warmth causes the little girl to cry louder.

"Umm... I offer my sincere condolence"

Archie said to them as she bows her head, following her actions, March did the same as she don't want to be out of place despite not knowing anything that transpired.

The woman look at them and smiled, but March knew she is just forcing her lips to respect Archie's sincere kindness.

After that, the mother and daughter walk away after bowing their head to say thanks.

The step and thump of horses can be heard and a white elegant carriage stops in front of the gate. The horse whined and shakes his head while the chauffeur pulled the rein.

"Murder"

March looked at Archie after she said the word.

"The principal got murdered."

Marched blinked twice in surprise but not because of the murder but the way Archie talks. For an eight-year-old girl like her, she expected a bit of worry, confusion, or fear... but no, she didn't express any of that. Rather, she acts nonchalantly like things like this are plainly normal. Her [Intent Detection] skill didn't sense any intent from Archie at all, and her [Strong Instincts] didn't manage to read her thoughts.

'She's not normal '

She guessed, maybe she is also cracked in the head like all members of the hero's party. She felt bad for her, she thought maybe because she is hanging around people like Theo or Agatha, her brain cannot function normally anymore to adapt to an abnormal wavelength.

But more than that, Archie reminds her of herself in the past when she is just an assassin in training. The need to strip away all of her emotion is necessary to accomplish her goals and she could see that Archie could be a capable assassin, but March didn't want Archie to take that path.

While deeply thinking about it, March spotted a familiar face walking out of the gate.

'Ah, Detective Noah'

The person hurriedly enters the carriage and drove away. She now realized how serious this murder is now that she saw a top detective in their country.

'Murdered? Inside the school of kids? What kind of an idiot will do that?'

She thought so after thinking about it more clearly. Any person who saw a grotesque scenario at a very young age would be traumatized for sure except for someone like Archie.

She then gave the letter to Archie. Archie reached for it with both of her hands.

"Thank you, Sister March"

After reading it, Archie responded with a wide smile on her face. Not a trace of someone who just experienced the scenery of reality for the first time.

March looked toward the gate and then clenched her fist.

'I made up my mind. Whoever did this deserves hell! I am going to hunt this idiot down'

Her motivation is not because of who they killed but rather the location of where they killed him. It is just unforgivable for her as a person whose childhood is filled with nothing but violence.

She took a step forward, yet suddenly, an old teacher in a blue uniform stop her from going further.

"Stop right there! You are not allowed to enter!"

He said while arrogantly approaching March.

"B-b-but, I am an ad-adventerer!"

March tried to explain herself, but the teacher shakes his head in denial.

"You look like a serial killer to me"

His words shocked March to the core that she can't move nor argue back. She regrets talking and questions herself, why did she even do that? Why did she even talk?

"Don't worry about it. You are March Exodus, right? The assassin of the hero's party. Your cooperation in our investigation will be helpful"

A young man suddenly spoke behind the professor's back.

In shock, the professor jumped instinctively. Even March became startled when a mysterious person suddenly appeared at the professor's back. The serious thing is, March, even as an assassin didn't detect his presence at all.

'This guy is not from this city '

March already memorized any particular persons of interest. Nobles, royals, powerful people, and fellow assassins, any particular person that is noteworthy to remember is already inside her head but this person in front of her is a person she didn't recognize despite his strong charismatic aura.

And charisma is a skill that could control the masses, and manipulate people without their awareness, a very powerful inborn skill that only a few people could have.

The young man smiled at her as if reading her thoughts. He bend his knees and bowed his head.

"Nice to meet you, Miss March, my name is Fifth. I am one of the current lead investigators from the Neldan Kingdom, we just came here just a few hours ago so you might not be familiar with my face"

When he returned from doing his court bow, March saw his eyes, and the number '5' is embedded in his pupils with a blue glowing tint in the center of his green iris eyes. Looking at it for an extended duration, March felt a degree of discomfort.

"You might be asking why outsiders like me are here..."

Fifth opens up his palms while talking.

"It is because that person... or thing killed several nobles in my country as well, it already killed several officials in other cities like the one in Azaroth. Apparently, this case is not just your problem"

March suddenly became alerted by what he said. She knew that it is an international problem, it is already dictated in the young man's tone. They could be dealing with a powerful and clever terrorist that has enough power to dodge the authority, which means that the whole country is in danger. But that is not the problem for March.

"T-thing?"

Fifth smirked at her question.

"Curious?"

He said while the professor slips out of their sight out of awkwardness. He felt just out of place.

"We call it the 'Reaper Case' for a reason"

"I heard of it! Mia told me about the reaper she saw last night"

Archie butt into their conversation, Fifth looks at her with a kind gentle smile as he approached and patted her head.

"Child of God, Can you tell me what she saw?"

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Archie gulped her saliva before talking.

"She said to me that, last week. When she was sleeping, she wanted to go to the bathroom but when she opened her eyes... She saw a face of a smiling old priest poking in her window looking at her father."

Fifth's eyes widen out of interest while March suddenly felt shivers on her spine when she heard about the priest.

"The thing is, it passes through the wall and entered the room where she screamed. Fortunately, the reaper leaves them alone after she did that"

March gets stiff and pale that she didn't move even an inch of her finger. It is obvious in her body language how she felt around ghost stories that she can't handle the beat of her heart. Fifth look at her then look back at Archie, trying to get rid of his impulse to laugh.

Then Archie continued to share the story.

"I thought she was just scaring me at first, but after she told me that, we heard a noise... then we found her father suddenly got murdered. Sister March, I saw his corpse. He was impaled in the flag pole!"

'Impaled in the flag pole? It's no mere 7 inches but 600 inches in length!'

March has this terrible visualization of how the principal got impaled, in her mind, the pole entered his body through his butt.

The fifth stared at her while having this image, his face already tell his disgust. He cleared his throat and speaks.

"That's basically what the Reaper is. If you saw the reaper, someone close to you will die. At least, that's how the rumor goes"

March's eyes suddenly suffer from nystagmus, a condition where her eyes uncontrollably move due to her strong emotions which she could not comprehend. It is the same feeling of deja vu, yet there is a sense of fear from the unknown part of her memory.

She remembered then. She also saw it, she saw the 'Reaper'.

"Sister March?"

March looked at Archie's innocent eyes.

'I can't possibly tell her that I saw the reaper'

And that particular reaper is looking at Archie's brother.

She simply does not know what to do or how she would tell her, it is beyond her social skill. So she forced a smile into her face to hide it, Fifth looks at her dubiously and slowly shakes his head left and right.

"We don't know yet if it is a real person or a bad omen, but we can't allow it to kill more people. So..."

Fifth holds March by the shoulder but later moves his head backward after he smelled something bad emanating from March's body.

"W-will you help us?"

He said with a straight look hiding his dislike of the scent by stopping his breath.

"This case is deeper than it looks. I would love to have your cooperation."

He followed. But instead of responding, March simply bows and then disappeared.

After she disappeared, Fifth is in a hurried need to inhale a lot of oxygen and he drops down with his knees bent on the ground due to dizziness. Archie rubbed his shoulder to console him.

They look at each other both wearing neutral faces.

March ran away as fast as she could. Running away from the fact that there is a possibility that Theo may die.

'It's not my problem!'

She said to herself while she ran. But a moment later, she stopped in her tracks and looked back at the school.

On second thought, she returned back.

March secretly entered the school without alerting anyone to investigate the crime scene.

The area of the murder is surrounded by soldiers and investigators including Fifth who is currently taking a break. March activated [Invisibility] and [Stealth] skills to pass through them and get close to the corpse as close as possible.

The crime scene is also protected by a barrier that could blur the scene from the inside. March used [Short Range Teleportation] to bypass their security measures.

'Lucky me, then didn't invoke spells to detect intruders'

But at the same time, it also felt weird that they didn't do it like they usually do. Most of the time, they will put some kind of a detection spell so that assassins like her would not modify the crime scene or steal shreds of evidence.

After she entered, her eyes got wide in shock due to the state of the corpse. It doesn't compare to what she imagined it to be.

'No bruises, no sign of struggle and he died immediately. The pole entered his skull and out of his genitals, this is not a normal murder. It is like he falls vertically inverted from the sky.'

The principal is invertedly impaled so that his intestine is exposed from his genitals. His brain is scattered on the floor, still dripping wet from the blood spill. His face is screaming, and his pants and underwear disappeared from the scenery.

She looked up and saw his undies fluttering on the top of the flagpole. March slapped her face before she even accidentally laugh.

He died physically and socially, the worse possible way to die.

March noticed a strange bleeding on his chest, she hooked the man's shirt upwards with her fingers out of curiosity.

'There is also a torn skin on his chest. Torn... skin? Why would a ghost do this? Even if it is a person, what kind of spell would allow him to pass through walls? Can we even kill him if that's the case?'

The best case scenario is that the 'Reaper' is just a person who developed new skills that allow him to pass through walls or at least make it seems like he is capable of doing it. He will be tough to deal with as there are no spells yet that could counteract such magic but it is not impossible. The worse case is if the 'Reaper' is actually a reaper, an omen that means irreversible death.

March's index finger flinch when she realized another fact.

'If the perpetrator could actually pass through walls, he needs to materialize before committing a physical crime'

She look left and right, then rummage the corpse for more clues but she found nothing at all. She scanned through the scene and found no footprints or weapons hidden in plain sight. She took a taste of his blood and found out that he is not poisoned or had eaten something malicious. There are also no other wounds aside from the one inflicted from the flagpole.

'This is impossible, the killer leaves no trails behind. He did his job cleanly. It is like... a work of another assassin.'

She shakes her head in desperation.

'Why am I so useless!? If I don't do something, Theo will actually die'

She concluded two possibilities, first... the reaper is different from the killer meaning there are two subjects of interest in the crime scene and second... the reaper and killer are one and the same. The first possibility has two sub-possibilities, first is that they work together, or second, they do not and it is a matter of coincidence, the reaper only acts as an omen.

'Suicide is not viable, the buildings around here are shorter than the flagpole and its location is spacious enough away from the buildings... there is no other way he would die aside from falling from the sky but how?'

She scanned the body for 'mana traces' inflicted but she found nothing at all. Mana traces are fragments of mana that are inflicted on a certain body when an attacker use spells that leave certain information like the user's mana type and DNA.

Investigators often use this to track down offenders when they use magic to commit a crime and there is no way to fake it unless when mana traces evaporate after two days.

Using stronger magic will leave more mana traces with a prolonged lifespan.

Touching the soft flesh of the corpse, March found something interesting.

'Wait a minute! The corpse is still fresh, he probably died not more than one hour ago but how did Fifth get to this city immediately? It is like he knew that the murder will take place before it even happen'

Indeed, it will take them at least eight hours before reaching Malduth from the nearest city possible with a carriage. Fast transfer of information is possible with the latest mag-tech but why would the native tell these kinds of information to outsiders?

'Is it simply a coincidence?'

While deep in her thoughts, the investigators stood up.

"This case is really a pain in the ass"

A man said while he scratched the back of his head.

They deactivated the barrier and entered the crime scene. March took this opportunity to leave silently but despite her [Stealth] and [Invisibility], Fifth's numbered eyes follow March's path as she leaves with a cunning smile on his face.

...

Because March was deep in her thoughts, she forgot to give the rest of the letter to Basilisk and Misty.

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