Chapter 59: Chapter 53

“The moonlight shines down upon us and paints the world in a gentle light. It´s midnight, the time when most sleep, the time when everything is possible.” I said in the middle of a crossroad and held the map right in front of me.

“You seriously don’t know where we are anymore?” asked Luna, panting heavily behind me. She soon looked over my shoulder and the corners of her mouth wandered downwards. “You are holding it wrong.”

“I´m not?” I said indignantly, but also slightly embarrassed. I didn’t know where we were, nor where we could get to one location marked on the map.

“See this arrow here? It points to the north and you always hold a map so that north is up … you don’t know what you are doing at all do you?” Luna said and took the map out of my hands gently. She was already looking around for an orientation point as I answered.

“Well, theoretically …” I was taught how to use a map. I may have forgotten it slightly, just because a map was utterly useless in purgatory. There were neither roads nor any other orientation points for the majority of purgatory after all.

Luna soon found what she was searching for and oriented herself in the moonlight. I didn’t know how she found our location out, but I did have to admit that she had done so very efficiently. Soon afterwards, we found ourselves in front of six drunken men who lived near where the victim died.

“And how do we convince them to tell us everything?” asked Luna right in front of the drunk men. I scratched my cheeks as my usual methods definitely wouldn’t work here.

“I don’t know, I´m usually not the one searching for murderers.” I said as I grabbed the cheeks of a man who barely noticed I was here.

“What do you mean?” She said while I let go of the man.

“… nothing. Let´s go to the next location, this is useless.” I looked at every man and knew they were all completely drunk. Some were snoring already, some already puked into a corner and none of them seemed to realize our presence.

We left the area for the next marked point, only to find the exact same situation. We always saw a few men, completely drunk. After the fourth spot we visited though, I grew impatient, but also a bit suspicious. It was unusual for so many men to be outside this late. Sure, here and there were these groups that played cards or drunk until they were completely wasted, but to find them at every murder scene was quite unusual.

“There are way too many soldiers awake where we went, don’t you think?” I asked as we were right in the middle of our way to another spot. The makeshift street was completely deserted as it should be around this time. Luna was constantly yawning and clearly wasn’t in her top form anymore.

“What do you mean? There are quite a few up at night … like this one.” She pointed towards a soldier who was currently walking towards us after he walked out of a smaller street.

“No, I don’t mean someone like him. You are the master of patterns, what does it say if there is always a group of drunk men at a murder scene?” I asked while glancing at the man. Around this time, you could never be suspicious enough of someone. After all, they could be monsters disguised as humans, or even worse, stupid.

“I don’t know … I´m too tired for my magic … huh?” I stopped walking just a second after the man passed us. Something just didn’t feel right about him. It wasn’t his standard military clothing, nor the sword that dangled from his side. He looked normal, no matter how I eyed him, but something else seemed out of place. I just couldn’t put a finger on it at that moment.

“Hey, you!” I turned around and saw how he froze completely, but only for a millisecond. He turned around as well, a friendly smile on his face. I suspiciously inspected every centimetre of him, from his black shoes to his brown trousers and his white shirt. He was a perfectly normal human, at least until I looked closer at his face. He did have blue human eyes, a human nose, a human mouth and so forth. What I couldn’t see though was his soul.

“How are you doing that?” asked I as I stepped closer to him and stared into his eyes. There was just not a single glimmer in them, no red, no blue, and definitely not the darkness that I saw in a mirror. It was just nothing.

“What do you mean?” The man asked and tilted his head. I couldn’t ask how he hid his soul as that would probably reveal the secret to Arthur, which I needed to avoid if possible. As such, I had to ignore his hidden soul, but it was still strange to see such a person here at this time.

“Who are you?” I asked him in a threatening tone that left no room for refusal.

“Colonel Hannibal Smith, Supply Corps!” He saluted in an orderly manner that left absolutely no room to question his connection to the military.

“And what are you doing here?” I continued to question, still incredibly suspicious about his hidden soul.

“I delivered beer to those that were impacted by the death of our comrades. May they find a new home soon in another world.” Did I think too much into this? Was he the reason for the suspicious beer drinking?

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“See, that’s the reason they were all up.” Luna concluded and continued swiftly: “I´m sorry that my friend has questioned you like this. She gets paranoid when she is tired.”

“Oh, do not worry about that. Luna, Lucinda, if you would excuse me now. Have a great night.” He said and turned around to continue his beer deliveries.

“Goodnight.” Said Luna and took my hand. I was still deep in thought as she pulled on my hand and forced me to take a few steps backwards.

“Luna … did you notice anything?” She sighed as if she couldn’t believe that I still had suspicions about him.

“I´m tired. I just want to go to bed. Please, Lucinda, let´s forget about him and check one last spot, alright?” She tried to pull my hands once again, but I refused to move this time. This man was absolutely suspicious.

“How did he know my name? I asked Arthur to keep quiet about me as much as possible and Markus was the public image as we dealt with the bandits … nobody except the officers should know me, let alone you.” I said and squinted my eyes as the man I had no knowledge of ever meeting before went around a corner.

“I don’t know … maybe a friend told him about you. It´s not like we aren’t incredibly out of place in an army.” Luna said and tried to justify his knowledge. I hated to admit it could be like that, but that wasn’t the only incredibly fishy statement he made.

“Alright … and how exactly did he deliver the beer? Judging by the number of people he got drunk, it must be quite a sizable amount.” I said and dragged Luna in the other direction, trying to follow the man.

“True …”

“And how exactly did he carry this amount? With his hands?” I asked and Luna finally let go of my hand. I dashed after him as fast as I could and slithered across the corner. Luna was close behind me, having finally concluded that this man may indeed be one of the murderers.

Just one look into the street made me turn around instantly, bump against Luna and gently lay my hand over her eye. She didn’t have to see how the man had impaled himself through his jaw into his head and laid on the ground, the sword still inside his corpse. The wind brought a sweet scent towards us as blood gushed out of the wound onto his shirt.

“Luna, I want you to turn around and look away. Can you do that for me?” She was already surprised by my earlier actions, but still nodded nonetheless. I should have realized earlier how tempting it must have been for a thirteen-year-old to just ignore my words and look. She did turn around as my hand was still right in front of her eyes, but she instantly turned her head around as soon as her vision returned.

“What …” began Luna, but she soon proceeded to throw up the skewer she ate earlier. I patted her back but chose to stay silent otherwise. Whatever I would say, I was sure that it would be the wrong words. As soon as she finished though, I pressed her into my arms and forced her to look away.

“Let´s go back, shall we?” I tried to comfort her, but I knew this would be a hard task. She was just too innocent to be dragged into such a gruesome scene.

“Hmm.”

I swiftly woke a nearby normal soldier up and informed him of the situation. After making sure he knew what to do, I held Luna's hand and dragged her away from the scene as she glanced there from time to time. Her skin was incredibly pale as I pulled her to where we came from.

“Lu …” She said, choosing the nickname she gave me instead of my actual name.

“Yes?” I asked sweetly and smiled, trying to cheer her up.

“That’s the wrong direction …”

Damn it.

 

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