Chapter 68: Chapter 068 The Truth
Roger looked at the elderly man before him with a bewildered expression.
Has this guy gone mad?
This thought involuntarily popped into his mind, but immediately after, a flash of Spiritual Light crossed his mind.
“If you say you’re Gilmore, then where’s the real Hannam?”
“I knew it!” Roger clenched his fist and exchanged a glance with Henrik.
“It’s a kind of Soul Exchange Technique!” Henrik seemed to have thought of something.
“A type of Voodoo Skill!”
“It’s a forbidden Evil Skill that, through a complicated ritual, enables the soul of the Spellcaster and the soul of the person being spelled to be exchanged, a means of attaining eternal youth in a certain sense!”
“That powerful? If the exchange goes on without limits, wouldn’t that mean one could live forever?” Roger exclaimed in astonishment.
“It’s not that simple, each soul exchange inflicts irreversible damage on the soul, and after no more than three exchanges, the soul that can’t bear it anymore will completely collapse.”
“Believe me, you wouldn’t want to know the terrible consequences of a soul collapsing.”
“Furthermore, in terms of operation, the choice of person for the Soul Exchange is also extremely strict,” Henrik explained.
“Even so, it’s still quite terrifying,” Henrik added.
“Plus their own natural lifespan and three more exchanges, wouldn’t the Spellcaster be able to live nearly 300 years!” Roger said. “If this method spreads, I believe countless wealthy people would be willing to spend all their fortunes on it.”
“Compared to a young body and a long life, any wealth is insignificant,” Henrik nodded. “In fact, there have indeed been people who have done this, more than once, but their ends were all extremely tragic.”
“Inside the Hunters Guild, there’s a special operations unit that deals with similar incidents; each one of them is an Elite Hunter, all above Transcendent!”
Henrik looked at the elderly man sitting on the bed, “So tell us, what exactly happened?”
After some time to recover, the real Gilmore also calmed down.
“Please believe me, I am innocent, I didn’t kill anyone, everything was done by Hannam!”
“I am a horse riding coach. I used to be a promising athlete before I got injured, and after retiring, I was honorarily affiliated with the association, occasionally coaching members; my life was quite relaxed.”
“Until one day, Hannam found me,” Gilmore drifted into his memories.
“He told me his wife, Edith, liked horseback riding, so he wanted to hire me to come to his estate to be Edith’s horse riding coach.”
“I’ve done similar work many times, so without any hesitation, I agreed immediately. The salary he offered was very high, and he even arranged a residence for me in Swamp Town.”
“So I left Bordeaux City and came here with him.”
“Edith is a beautiful woman, but through some time of interaction, I found out that she seemed to have no interest in horseback riding; it appeared she was learning to ride just to cater to Hannam’s hobby.”
“It seems their marital life was not harmonious.”
Henrik sneered, “So you just rode the lady of the house?”
“To commit such an act, you’re clearly not any good either.”
“No, it’s not like that!”
Gilmore hastily explained.
“It was Edith who took the initiative, she seduced me!”
Henrik stared at Gilmore, “Do you think we are fools to believe your ghost stories?”
“The manor is only so big, even if Edith were insane, she wouldn’t give up her bright future under the drive of desire.”
“According to normal logic, Hannam is now in his sixties. At most, waiting another 20 years, she would be able to inherit Hannam’s estate, and by that time she would barely be 40 years old.”
“If well-maintained, she would be no less attractive than a 30-year-old woman, beautiful and wealthy. What kind of man couldn’t she find then?” Henrik pressed.
“Normally, that would indeed be the case, but Edith secretly told me that she had once accidentally seen Hannam’s will. If without offspring, after Hannam’s death, Edith would at most get only 10% of his property.”
“So she urgently needed a child!”
“That’s why she turned to me…”
“And then you took advantage of the situation to have an affair with her?” Henrik said through gritted teeth, while Roger looked on.
But for some reason, he always felt that Henrik’s tone was filled with intense envy.
Gilmore did not explain, “Three months later, Edith got pregnant, and she was overjoyed. She then planned to secretly give me some money and have me leave the manor.”
“Knowing Edith was pregnant, Hannam took great care of her. But just before I was about to leave, Edith had an accident and fell down the stairs. She herself was not much harmed, but the child was not saved.”
“With an incident , naturally, Edith wouldn’t be able to do much anymore, and I, taking the opportunity, submitted my resignation, planning to leave Hannam Manor.”
At this point, everything was still developing normally, but thinking about the subsequent tragedy, Roger was clear that something unexpected must have occurred.
“I returned to Bordeaux City, continued mentoring the members, and just like that, another couple of months passed by. Then one day, Edith showed up at my door again!”
“She couldn’t reconcile with the loss of the child from the accident, so she hoped I could help her again, and just at that time, Hannam happened to be away from the manor.”
“She gave me a sum of money. In fact, I was a bit afraid, but for some reason, I simply couldn’t refuse Edith’s seduction, so I sneaked back to Swamp Town and secluded myself.”
“Then took every opportunity to secretly meet with her.”
“Everything went very smoothly, and before long Edith was pregnant again.”
“And I lost my value to be used.”
“Never had a woman brought me so much pleasure like Edith did. There was a time when I was so obsessed with her that I even thought of storming into the manor.”
“But just then, I suddenly heard a piece of news that Edith had miscarried again, another accident.”
“Two consecutive accidents, such unusual coincidences made me sense something fishy. I didn’t dare stay any longer, packed my bags overnight, planning to leave Bordeaux City.”
“I couldn’t resist her temptation, so since that’s the case, I’d just leave this place, never to come back.”
A flicker of terror crossed Gilmore’s face.
“But not long after I left, I was knocked out by someone. When I woke up again, I saw Hannam sitting across the table from me!”
“He was seated in the shadows, his gaze on me like that of a vulture.”
“Then he took out the evidence of my affair with Edith. At that moment, I suddenly realized something; perhaps Hannam knew about us from the start.”
“Just out of love for Edith, he had been tolerating it.”
“But what Hannam said next made me understand what a real demon is!”