Chapter 32: Chapter 32: A Final Decision

The door cracked open, just wide enough for Mabel to peek through. When she saw Emil, she then swung it all the way open. In her hand was a lit candle, just barely bright enough to illuminate the doorway. The older woman asked him what she could do for him, at this time of day. Having already gone through it again in his head, he told her the lie he had come up with. A few moments passed, as she seemed to be thinking to herself.

“Well, that would explain something. Please feel free to come in.” Accepting her invitation, Emil went inside the house. They walked together through the hallway, where there were even more plants contained in pots lined up against each wall. She led him to the living room. It was a cozy-looking place, with two seats and a small table in the middle. On that table was a stack of books, along with a cup. A fireplace crackled on one side of the room. She took the seat in front of the cup, while Emil sat on the other.

“I thought old Hadwin had somehow managed to hurt himself. I ran into him earlier today, while I happened to be passing by his house. He was completely drenched with sweat, and had quite the pained expression. When I asked him about what had happened, he claimed he merely tripped while taking one of his afternoon walks through the woods, and fell onto some foliage. I didn’t get much of a chance to ask anything else, because he immediately claimed that he would be fine after a little bedrest, and went home. I thought I saw a small limp as he walked away, but with these old eyes of mine, I can never be too sure.”

She reached down for her cup, and took a small sip of the drink. The elderly alchemist looked at a nearby window. As she had been speaking, a light amount of rain had begun to come down. And as each moment passed, the rain quickly intensified into a full-on downpour. It would seem that the storm had finally arrived.

“But when I saw him again earlier this evening in the tavern, he indeed did seem fine. So I didn’t think much of it. I should have known better, that silly man always had a bad habit of putting up the tough guy facade. But I won’t waste any more of your time sweetie, that thunderstorm seems like it’ll become nasty before too long. I believe I already have a good kind of medicine for the pain in his knee. So I will go ahead and fetch it, it should just take me a moment.”

Emil made himself comfortable as she stood up and left the room. The older woman was gone for only a couple of minutes, before returning with a tied bag in hand. He got off from the seat, and she handed it over to him.

“When you see Hadwin, please tell him that he needs to brew this with hot water. It can be just boiled water or mixed with any kind of tea, either is fine. However, before drinking, it needs time to come back down to room temperature. That way, it will be at its most effective for numbing the pain,” she explained to him. Emil nodded in understanding, though he couldn't help but feel bad for duping her. But it was for the sake of the greater good.

“Oh, before I go, can you remind me where Mr. Hadwin lives again? Ben mentioned it to me earlier, but I’m not the best with directions. So I just want to make sure I remember it correctly,” Emil asked as he tucked the bag away.

“Oh of course, of course. It’s a small building near the outside edge of the town. I always forget the names of the streets too, but I have a map right over here.” Mabel then shuffled away, and brought back a rolled-up paper. She unrolled it in front of Emil, and pointed out the way he needed to go. “But before you go, I can lend you an umbrella. I can see that your clothes are already quite wet. But even so, it would be a shame if such a nice young man like you ended up getting sick from even more exposure.”

“I think I’ll be okay, thank you for the offer though. But if I do end up catching something, I wouldn’t mind stopping by your shop as a customer.” With that, Emil left her home and stepped outside to the pouring rain. He walked through her garden and went back towards the street.

He hoped Theo did a good job at burying everything in his camp, as he had instructed. His main supply bag was waterproof, so as long as it was closed it should keep the things inside it safe. He hoped so, anyway. It would be a little annoying if his stuff became soaked, and needed to be dried off in the morning. Emil looked in the direction of the inn, and then towards that of the cleric’s house.

‘He’s almost definitely home right now. I should probably just go back to the inn for now, and spend the rest of the night there. Then go over tomorrow and stake out the place until he leaves. At least, I know that’s the logical thing to do. But…’ Emil clenched his fists. He began to walk along the street, following Mabel’s directions toward the killer’s home.

‘Even if it’s for one night, I can’t wait. I just can’t stand the thought of him sleeping in bed, knowing full well that he ended the life of a little girl today.’ Even picturing it in his head made him feel disgusted. He knew it was a fool’s errand. After all, what did he even plan on doing when he did get there? Emil didn’t know yet, but he couldn’t just leave it alone. Tonight, his anger and rage were his guiding emotions, overriding everything else. And if he was being honest with himself, he was perfectly fine with that.

It took him a little longer than expected to get there. The wind and rain only got worse as he walked. Emil constantly needed to keep an arm up to stop it from going directly into his eyes. But he managed to push through the terrible weather, and his target was now right in front of him.

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It was a small house, one that had a lot of space between it and the neighboring buildings. The wood it was made from seemed old and had missing chunks in certain places. From where he stood, Emil could see light spilling out from a window on the side of the home. Keeping some distance from the actual building, he went around to that window to see if he could get a better look. Shadows moved on the ground in front of the window, like something was moving around in front of the light source inside.

Emil slowly approached the building while being careful about his position, just in case the cleric looked through the window. However, as he got closer, he could hear a muffled sound coming from somewhere inside the house. The rain made it impossible to tell what it actually was. But curious to find out, he went all the way up to the wall and pressed his ear against it.

“-What I said, yes.” A voice, one that definitely sounded like the cleric’s. But who was he talking to? He could only pick out bits and pieces. Emil pressed himself even further into the wall. He covered his other ear to try and block out the sounds of the wind and rain. Closing his eyes, he attempted to focus only on what was being said.

“-And that’s why I said you should wait.” That was the mayor talking! “This is the last thing I needed. Vice-Count Dietrich is planning to visit this town in just a few weeks from now. You know what that means, don’t you? If this girl’s death is still what everyone’s talking about by the time he arrives, then we’ll have an even bigger problem on our hands. One that I can’t make go away. So you better hope I can get things to quiet down and become old news by then.”

“I understand that, but how I was supposed to know that the little devil had a knife on her? What was I supposed to do, just let myself bleed out to find the dang thing? Even with the treatment you had done for me, I’ll probably have that scar for the rest of my life!” Hadwin exclaimed.

‘Little devil? Little devil!?’ Emil began to grind his teeth. ‘That piece of absolute garbage. You dare to kill a little girl, and now you insult her for trying to defend herself?’ He felt like his heart was about to explode out of his chest. It took every ounce of restraint he had to just stand there and keep listening.

“I know. But for now, just keep your head down and let me take care of everything. If it comes down to it, I can have it so some evidence is planted on someone. Then I can just put that person through a quick trial and have them executed. Justice will be dealt out, and hopefully that will be enough to make the common people happy. Does that sound good to you?”

“I don’t like the idea of there being a needless death, but alright. I’ll stick to whatever you think is best. Does that mean we’re done here, then?”

“I suppose so, yes. However, I have no desire to go out into that storm. So if you don’t mind, I’ll sit down and perhaps start reading one of your books. You don’t need to keep me company, so if you want to go to bed, feel free. I can let myself out whenever the weather begins to die down.”

Emil almost couldn’t believe what they were saying. Were the two of them really hearing themselves? It was one thing to want to frame someone for murder, that in itself was horrible. However, it was something else entirely to refer to that as “needless” while being the killer who ended all those young lives. That was it. He had wanted to do things the correct way, to go the legal route. But it was now obvious to him how that wasn’t going to work.

‘Theo,’ he sent out a mental command to his undead creature. ‘Come to where I am, I need you. Try to remain careful with staying high enough out of sight while being cautious with the high winds. But still, get here as soon as you can.’ His mind was made up. In the graveyard, he had made a promise to the ghosts of those murdered children. That he would drag their killer to them, and if the law couldn’t do the job, then he would personally make that monster pay.

Tonight, while the storm raged on, he would make good on that promise. By his own hand, the cleric and mayor would receive their comeuppance before sunrise. He would get this done by any means necessary. In his mind, they were longer humans that deserved any kind of decency.

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