Chapter 19: Investigating Murder
At first DM was offended that his dungeon was invaded by obnoxious adventurers from the capital who wouldn’t follow the rules, even when a Guild clerk insisted. Then, as the four guys were cast out of the dungeon and dumped on the forest floor, DM noticed experience pouring in from their dissolving gear. Between the leeches and the gear, he had brought the dungeon the majority of the way to the next level, which was exciting.
In other words, DM was kind of hoping that another rude party would intrude and force DM to take action. He’d whine and complain all the way to the bank.
Most likely, when the dungeon reached the next level, he’d get access to several more creatures. He was eager to see what those choices were so he could offer one of them to Bandit as a summoned monster, like the other girls already had. Ideally, the monster would aid Bandit as an undercover operative and in a way that was less likely to get her discovered when she used it.
Also, he realized Daphne was setting out from the capital along with her party and Alenia’s group. In the back of his mind, he was going through scenarios for how to deal with it. Having all this time to think about it was both a blessing and a curse.
Honestly, he felt bad for Daphne. She seemed to have learned from her mistakes and wanted to set out on a proper course, but circumstances were continuing to drag her in various directions. Alenia aside, maybe there was something DM could do for Daphne to help her. When he had the opportunity, he wanted to ask her what the spirits were telling her lately.
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Throughout Bandit’s mission, she avoided demonstrating any skill or ability above what a beginner-level adventurer was capable of. Her target likely didn’t realize she was stronger than she was letting on. Collectively, the group gathered herbs and fought off the occasional monster.
Unlike Bandit, Lupy didn’t particularly hold back. She demonstrated her dual-wielding ability to the fullest on the few occasions where combat came her way. Consistent with the attention Lupy received during the initial walk to the forest, many of the other participants were fascinated with her combat style and, in particular, how strong she was for her age. She was essentially a mini-celebrity among this gathering.
Bandit was happy for her. Even before her run-in with those thugs back in the city previously, she was seeming pretty down. She was still the only member of the group that hadn’t been roped into anything special. Perhaps Lupy could somehow capitalize on the warm reactions she was receiving from those around her.
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Bandit and Lupy, along with the other adventurers, were led back to the Guild by the employee. After turning in the spoils of their gathering, they went their separate ways. Bandit signaled to Lupy that they should go in different directions for now. Lupy understood and didn’t seem bothered by it, at least this time.
Bandit departed the Guild and set out toward a random road. Before she made it beyond the immediate vicinity, she heard a voice calling out to her. It was her target.
“Hey! I was planning to talk to you again before we went home!” He jogged over to her and stopped a couple of meters away, breathing heavily from the exertion.
“Why?” Bandit’s training kicked in. She felt she was doing a good job hiding the fact that she anticipated an encounter like this.
“You said you have some days until your party gets back together, right?”
“Yeah?”
“I know that’s not enough time to form a new party or anything, but I thought we could team up, at least until your party is ready.”
“Oh. I thought maybe I’d take a break since we’ll probably go on a difficult mission when my friends are back.” This was Bandit’s attempt to test her target and see how insistent he was.
“Aw, that so? Too bad, then.” He turned on his heel and started walking.
“W—Wait!”
“Hm?” He paused and looked over his shoulder.
Had Bandit screwed this up? She was waiting to see how demanding he’d be, and he suddenly abandoned his effort to recruit her. Could it be that his sudden interest in her was an innocent coincidence? If she was the more forceful one now, would that be a mistake? Either way, this could possibly be her only opportunity to confirm if he’s guilty of anything, or not, before he departed the city.
“I don’t want to work too hard, but if it’s not something too exhausting… What did you have in mind?”
“Ah!” He stepped back over to her. “I figured you wouldn’t want to pass up an opportunity. At our level, we can’t afford to waste time when we could be earning money and experience, right?”
“Y—Yeah.”
“How about we do another mission tomorrow? You and I can both handle ourselves against one or two monsters, so it should be safe even if we leave the area around the city. What do you say?”
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Vulp was studying alongside a Davidson family retainer when one of the family’s guards busted into the room. “Sir!”
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“What is it?”
“The city guard need your help investigating several murders. They’re stumped.”
“Several?” the retainer echoed back.
“Yes. Three people were killed brutally. I didn’t see it, but I heard their heads were all split open.”
“For heaven’s sake, man! This is a classroom and I’m teaching a young lady!”
“S—Sorry Sir!”
“I’m not a sorry Sir!”
“Sorry S—Er, Lord?”
“I’m not a Lord.”
At this, the guard stood up straight and went stock still, unable to think of anything else to say.
The retainer glanced at Vulp and noticed she was still dressing like an adventurer, even after progressing through several days of indoctrination into noble society. The one advantage of her being such a challenging street rat of a student was that she could actually handle descriptive situations like these without fainting or breaking down in tears. “Vulp, what did you observe from my exchange with this fool?” He gestured to the guard who was still standing there dumbly.
“Uh, be aware of your surroundings when you speak?”
“Very good. That’s exactly the type of thing a noble lady will need to worry about. What else?”
“Take a deep breath?”
“Outstanding! This fool needed to pause before digging himself a deeper grave.”
“Be nice when others make a mistake?”
The retainer froze for a moment as his eyes opened wide, then he decided to move on as though that observation was never stated. “Apparently I need to go investigate a triple-homicide. This might be a good opportunity for you to learn some of what I do on behalf of the Lord. Are you willing to join me?”
“Okay.”
Honestly, he was a bit disturbed that she was so quick to agree after the guard’s description of the scene they would be walking in on, but it was convenient.
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“Yes, like that. Maintain constant pressure on the rat’s entire body. Don’t let up or it will explode.”
Shiba held both her hands over the body of a dead rat, trying to perform her first act of necromancy. Harold had finally buckled down and taught her enough of the basics that she was ready to give it a try. The key seemed to be in magically fortifying the dead body so that it could survive accepting a soul.
The type of soul she was inserting was very different from the soul a living creature held. This was a simple pseudo-soul conjured through magic. If the rat’s body was insufficiently strengthened, then it would literally explode into bits of meat when it failed to contain the fake soul. Also, if she didn’t create the soul correctly it would push outward on the body and potentially overcome her ability to contain it through body strengthening.
Shiba asked if she could apply the same fortification technique to a living person to prevent them from dying. The answer she got was, “Kinda.”
“You’re not the first to think of that, Shiba. Of course, I thought of it when I was even younger than you are now.”
Shiba decided to overlook Harold’s immature bragging and she allowed him to continue his explanation.
“You see, it is possible to apply this magic to a living person, but only if they are extremely weakened to begin with. Even if you are successful in fortifying them as a soul container, you are only buying a few short moments. If the body is unable to hold the soul, such as if the head was just chopped off, then your magic won’t prevent the soul from escaping.” Harold even gestured with his hand as though he was chopping off Shiba’s head as he said it.
He continued, “If the person died from a more gradual cause, you can extend their life slightly. What would be the purpose, though? Unless you can undo whatever is leading to their death, they’ll still die as soon as you release your fortification, or once you get too tired to keep it up.”
Shiba gave it a lot of thought until a question occurred to her. “Why don’t healers use this for treating people from, uh, gradual causes? Won’t that give them more time to heal the cause?”
“Hmph. I suppose in some very limited circumstances that could be beneficial, but the Church has the strongest influence on healing techniques and they’ll never be caught dead using necromancy techniques, no matter how many lives could be saved.”
“What about after the soul leaves the body?”
“What?”
Shiba paused and then tried to explain her question. “Instead of putting in a pseudo-soul, could we try to put the real soul back in if the person just died recently? After fixing their body, I mean.”
“Shiba, among necromancers, messing around with actual souls is a taboo. The one and only good thing the Church ever does is help to cleanse souls and pass them on to whatever comes next. Just as they would never consider desecrating bodies the way we do, we do not desecrate souls originating from the living.”
“But what if a white mage from the Guild held up the soul while a necromancer prepared the body to put it back in?”
“Shiba! That’s…“ He stopped mid-sentence and stared down at the rat corpse, likely considering more what Shiba had said. “I’m sure such a thing has never happened. Necromancers and healers, whether from the Church or not, do not work together and do not get along.”
“Why not?” Shiba thought of Kat. They were always fighting about silly little things, but they both knew they cared for each other.
“Our beliefs and principles are entirely incompatible. It’s like asking why a hungry wolf and a deer won’t be friends. I won’t say whether necromancers are the wolf or the deer, but it isn’t going to happen.”
“But what if one time a necromancer and a healer were friends and tried it?”
“I don’t know! Leave me alone! Don’t even think about trying something so crazy! Do you want to anger the Gods?”
“No…” Shiba did think it was a bit interesting that the necromancer was worried about angering Gods, but she didn’t say anything.
“Then hurry up and make a rat zombie.”
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Vulp looked down at the crime scene along with the Davidson retainer and a few representatives of the city Guard.
“Vulp, let’s start with you describing exactly what you see here.”
“Why? Do I need to be able to investigate crimes to join the family?”
“What? No. I’m interested in how you think. Whether you’re actually good at investigating crimes or not is immaterial.”
“Why are we looking at this at all? Aren’t deaths in the bad part of the city like this common?”
“Watch your tongue, Vulp. Although you bring shame to those above you, it’s true that deaths, even in the city, are not uncommon. However, three left sitting out on the pavestones like this is quite unusual. Now have a look.”
Vulp took her time circling the scene without getting too close to the bodies. The other guards gave her various looks of displeasure but didn’t hinder her. After returning to the retainer’s side, she listed off her observations over the course of several minutes.
“That was surprisingly detailed, Vulp.”
“Thank you?”
“How did you know all three deaths were caused by axes?”
“One of my party members fights with axes. I’ve seen many ax wounds so this is easy.”
“Who is that?”
“Lupy. She deals melee damage while I guard.”
“Ah, so we’ve found our murderer? Good job, Vulp.”
“Huh? Wait! It wasn’t really her!”
He laughed for a good while at her expense.