The first noble killed was found wearing a mask.

She fell out of her window, already wearing the mask.

Her son said that he heard something and went to see if she was still working.

He didn’t see anything, as the moment he looked, something covered his eyes, and by the time he got it off she was gone.

People didn’t understand the mask until the second noble was killed.

The second noble had no witnesses. It was a seemingly impossible murder. All the doors were alarmed at all times, and the window was almost fifty meters off the ground.

The second noble was also wearing a mask. It was a user who realised that the masks’ designs were based on letters.

The first was an M.

The second was an A.

People began to theorise what it was spelling out.

Some said it wouldn’t spell out anything, or that it was a coincidence.

The most popular theory was that it would spell “MASK” or “MASKS”.

Then came the third killing.

Some of the nobles were getting nervous already, and this did nothing to assuage their fears.

The victim was one of a fairly powerful martial artist. He was stronger than most of the other nobles and was famous for mastering the art of using weapons as well as his body.

He was killed by a sword.

Every weapon in his house was broken from use. There were no weapons found apart from his.

None of his weapons had blood on them.

His mask read “N”

The nobles began to realise who were being targeted.

They were after a group of expansionists who favored clearing monsters out of forests so that they could be used safely.

It was the only connection the three all shared.

Some people thought it was random, and that the pattern was false.

The next killing confirmed it.

Although a competent fighter, the victim was more known for his diplomacy and charm.

He was concerned for his life, so he had taken precautions.

There were magical traps everywhere everywhere. If an intruder entered, he would be frozen, burned, electrocuted, and everything else he could think of.

The traps were set off normally, but their effects did not seem to work.

The diplomat was killed by a rapier. He had clearly taken quite a few blows, but the last one was fatal in any case.

His final trap walled the assassin in his house.

When it was seen go off, they knew he was dead.

There was an explosion from the inside, blowing open a large hole in the wall.

Over a hundred soldiers charged at the hole in the wall.

They couldn’t see the mage, so they made a new barrier and searched.

They found a much smaller hole on the other side of the wall.

There was much anger and profanity.

He was wearing an I on his mask.

The fifth killing happened soon after.

The victim this time was a swordsman. He hired players as guards.

The players didn’t notice one of them slip away from her post.

None of them ever knew that she changed her clothes and and went to the swordsman’s room wearing a mask. Nor would they know that she returned without it and changed their clothes.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

They would, however, know exactly what was on the mask.

This time, it was plain that the victim’s blade tasted blood.

The floor and the victim’s clothes had also tasted blood.

Even the walls got a bit of it.

When the body was found, it was burnt to a crisp.

It was wearing a mask with an “A” on it.

“Well at least he got quite a few of ‘em before they took him out.”

His name was Seg, and he was a player.

“Did you question the hired guards?”

“Yes, but they were all unharmed and clean. Whoever did this bled a lot. We’re guessing a monster.”

“No, it was a group. If they were monsters, they were humanoid. He killed a lot of them, and the bodies were removed.”

“I see.”

“If we’re unlucky, everyone he hit died, and the dead won’t lead us to the killers.”

“And if we’re lucky?”

“Then one of them’s alive, and we can get a tracking spell with the blood.”

He walked across the room, his boot splashing in puddles of the stuff. It reflected light in rainbows.

’It’s almost pretty,’ he thought.

He muttered a few words in the mage tongue.

It was a tracking spell of his own creation, which would work as a tracking spell for all the blood in the room.

He felt the mana flow out of him and flow into the blood.

What happened next seemed to go in slow motion.

As the mana left him, he felt the magical equivalent of the sound made when you force a door.

He smiled, as this meant someone warded it against tracking, which meant in turn that information could be gained from it.

And he was going get the information.

Then he felt the mana behind the “door”.

There was more mana than there should have been.

It could be compared to forcing a cheap door, only to find that inside the house everything is made out of solid steel.

There is only one reaction.

Hoping to keep with at least once a day, but now that I have more to do than nothing, may have to slow down at points.

____________________________________________________________________

’Uh oh.’

He saw the blood begin to grow and turned to run.

He saw the fire burst out of it, and explode, following the trail of blood through the whole room.

He hit the floor outside hard, as the flames billowed out of the room.

He got up, and ran with a limp out of the house as the flames spread.

’This could cost me my job.’

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