"How is this possible?"
The Matron’s voice cracked as she brought a trembling hand to her lips. Her eyes were wide, staring at the half-buried remains lying in the garden soil behind the central orphanage building.
The garden, usually filled with a sea of bright flowers and the brilliance of youth, felt colder now.
A chill wind brushed across the grass, carrying the scent of damp earth and something older, something rotten.
"Can you tell us about this man?" Captain Hunt wanted to identify the body as soon as possible while he had sent the other two officers to bring a whole team from their office. This was no longer a matter of simple murder.
With three bodies surfacing in less than a few days, it was clear that a serial killer had struck the orphanage or worse...
It was someone from the orphanage.
He also came to believe that the death of the little boy was no suicide. Though there was no proof to support his beliefs.
Sister Agnes’s lips moved, but no words came out. Her eyes darted back and forth over the corpse as if refusing to settle on it, like a child scared to stare too long at the dark.
Mrs. Walker tried to answer in her stead, but her voice wavered.
"Mr. Clark... he was a teacher here. Taught literature to the older children. But, we saw him the day before yesterday, and he was there with us paying respect to Young Torus, who had just passed."
Her eyes drifted towards the man lying in the dirt with his upper half exposed. His face was pale, and his body was cold.
Mr. Huggins’s round face turned slick with sweat. His shirt clung to him as he whispered, almost choking on his words.
"T-then who the hell was the man with us two nights ago? If this here is Mr. Clark... then who—no, what—was that?"
Captain Hunt’s jaw tightened as he crouched near the corpse, careful not to touch it. The soil around the body looked disturbed, like something had forced its way up instead of being dug down, "it could have been him. The man was dead for less than 12 hours when we first found him."
"What should we do now?" Sister Agnes muttered, shaking her head as though trying to fling away invisible thoughts. Her rosary beads clinked in her hands, moving too fast, and her lips whispered prayers that made no sense.
"Until further notice, there will be no classes. Make sure the students stay in their dorms. This matter is too severe for us to handle. We can only inform the Order of The Seven..."
Sister Agnes froze; she stared at the man without blinking. She finally recalled that the orphanage was the property of The Order, so it was natural for them to handle the situation since the situation had already reached this point.
She gave a stiff nod and forced her lips into a thin, trembling smile. "Yes... of course. I will send the message to Father Augustus myself."
Captain Hunt nodded before saying, "until they arrive, my team and I will do our best to gather any information we can get from the bodies. But first..."
He turned around and looked Sister Agnes in the eyes and said, "I will take a walk in the building where the students live."
... Thɪs chapter is updatᴇd by 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵※𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮※𝓷𝓮𝓽
"Why is studying so difficult?" Kyle looked up at Sally and asked with a pitiful look on his face. He was sitting on the chair, doing his homework while the white-haired girl was watching over him doing it.
The others were also doing their work; maybe it was the competitive spirit inside them that had been ignited seeing each other working.
Jinn, however, was lying on his bed, cross-legged and with his arms closed. His body shimmered with faint light, unseen to others.
He continued to meditate until...
"He is coming." The voice whispered in his ears, waking him up from his trance-like state. Jinn slowly opened his eyes; the glow surrounding his body faded away.
As if on cue, the door to the room opened, showing someone standing there with a serious look on his face.
Standing at the entrance of the room was none other than Officer Hunt, the captain of the law enforcement unit.
"Jinn Alcott." Without looking at anyone else, the man called the black-haired out from where he stood. "Come with me; I have some questions for you."
"Jinn..." Sally immediately placed Kyle on the bed and looked at him with a confused look on her face. Although she did not know who the man was, his uniform made his identity clear.
"Sure~" Jinn ignored Sally’s gaze and got up from the bed.
"Stay in your beds; it is about time for you to sleep soon." After a quick look at the rest of the kids in the room, he took Jinn away.
Captain Hunt did not take Jinn far; once they arrived at the empty stairs, he paused and turned around to look at the boy walking behind him.
"Here should do fine." He said with a gruff.
Jinn looked the man in the eye and asked, "So what was it that you wanted to ask me? It must be important since you went through so much trouble to bring me here."
"Hmm, I only heard your praises from Sister Agnes, but you really have a brilliant mind." The man praised Jinn, but his expression remained as sharp as ever. "So your sharp mind should have an idea what I am here to ask about."
Looking deep into Jinn’s ever-so-calm gaze, he continued to ask.
"Where were you at the time of Torus Moon’s murder?"
Jinn’s eyes narrowed slightly as he hummed. "Murder, huh?"
He stepped forward, closing the gap between them. "I will answer the question if you tell me something."
Without even waiting for a reply, he went on with his question.
"Have you read a book called Beginner’s Guide to Controlling Dragon Energy/Qi?"
Jinn suddenly raised his hands, a silver hue embracing his fingers. Before the man with the thick mustache could even react, he slashed down his face and answered the question himself.
"Because if you had, you would realize that A spiritualist can tell when someone else is using their powers before them. Especially when their control over their dragon energy is as weak as that of a toddler."
His words hung in the air as he watched the man’s body twisting. It shrank while some of the mass exploded, turning into a Pink colored mist with hints of azure color.
The multicolored mist slowly covered his body before dispersing.
"Why else did you think I came here with you so calmly, Geralt?" With a serene look on his face, Jinn looked at the startled boy who now stood in place where ’Captain Hunt’ once stood.