Chapter 141 – Patterns of Execution

The news of the attack spread through the capital city. The Head Judge and the Lord Officiator declared martial law and security got tighter than ever. Through her accidental efforts of saving the Head Judge and the Head Judge, Dolce was praised and got a noble title of her own. She was now Dolce Astra of Alva, an honored lady.

And this happened after the tower attack. It made no sense to her how could they award her. But she learned that it was to hide their embarrassing actions. Luckily, no one survived the attack on the tower. So in exchange for the honored title and expunging of details, Dolce accepted it.

She wasn’t fond of the expunging of details. But the Lord Officiator and Head Judge wanted to their face. So they made themselves look like brave men when the tower was attacked. She despised it and did not care for them. But the day after the tower attack. A new accident shook the city.

A building was found burned and around it was dead Bali and Cagan natives who had their heads shot. Dolce visited the site and found that they were summarily executed. She recognized what they wore and the Inquisitor who came to investigate confirmed that they were the same people who massacred the entire tower.

Normally, the Inquisitor would continue their investigation. But the banner that was placed on the ground made them conclude that the deed was done by a loyalist vigilante. The Inquisitor was impressed by the pious-like words that the vigilante did.

The Templars and the whole of Midland are fanatical and God-Fearing. So seeing the words on the ground made them thought how rightfully the killers were executed by the vigilante. No one knew who did it. But the Inquisitors assumed that justice was served.

It sounded incompetent and unprofessional. But whoever the Vigilante was. He was able to hit the pious inquisitors in the right places and made them appreciate the Vigilante for the Justice that he has done. To Dolce, it was stupid. She didn’t believe the banner and found it stupid. What was more ridiculous was that the Officiator and the Head Judge was relieved by the news. They made the soldiers lower the security of the city back to normal.

Then a few days passed and there was no sign of the infiltrators. It was relatively peaceful but there was something that bothered Dolce. To her, the whole thing seemed like it was a giant scheme. She felt like that there was someone controlling the events. There was someone putting the right pieces and someone was manipulating the events by making use of the piousness of the people.

Dolce didn’t buy whatever that banner the Inquisitors found near that burned building. She sent people around to investigate but yet she found no trace. There was trail and every path seemed like it was taken into consideration. Whoever the assailant was, Dolce thinks that he or she was a paranoid person.

…

Dolce walked into the administrative office of the city. It was an office filled with stacked documents, inks, and certainly the stables filled with scribes. Dolce walked past the lines of tables while Henry and Elesia follow behind. She sported her jacket and was visibly more armed than ever. If she didn’t learn from what happened in the party. Then she would have been a fool.

She swung the door open and swaggered inside the room. The man in glasses and unruly beard looked up at her. His feathered pen stopped moving, he pushed his scroll of paper aside. “Welcome,” he said. “Are you perhaps the honored lady that wanted to know about the recent deaths of the capital?”

“Yes,” Dolce nodded. She sat on the chair and faced the man. “Have you tallied them all?”

“Of course,” The man opened a drawer under his table. He took out a tube. “These are the recent deaths. Of course, I have to narrow it down to the important ones.”

“Good.”

She took the tube and pulled out the document. She examined the document and found out that there have been recent killings in the fringes of Holy Midland. Most of them are officials and their deaths are either because of mutilation or through a shot in the head.

“All the same,” she murmured.

“What do you mean?” asked the man in glasses.

“There’s someone killing them. I am sure you notice the patterns?”

“Indeed,” the man nodded. “Does the honored lady think that there is someone doing all the killing?”

“I do,” said Dolce, folding her arms. “I have many criticisms about the Inquisitors. But they did a good job scouring that burned building. They found the noble that they dragged. He was mutilated. All the ‘officials’ that died have their cheek skinned. Not to mention that the officials died through a bullet in the head.”

The man in glasses nodded. “Pray tell, honored lady,” He said. “What makes you so sure that the person doing all these killing are the same person? It could be a group.”

Dolce smiled. “The man or woman for all I care is thorough. There are no bullets left or shells he or she would leave behind. But however, this person is. He or She is using the same pistol that the demesne of the Maltius La Fende.” she pulled a bullet. “Each bullet wounds match the others.”

“He could have burned or hide the body,” exclaimed the man. “Why didn’t the assailant do it?”

“Because the assailant wanted to sow fear,” she said. “The assailant wanted a chain reaction. Do you know that there is a rogue vigilante out there, that’s dealing justice? That man wanted to sow fear and he wanted people to know who he was killing and the officials to know that he is after them.”

The man in glasses narrowed his eyes. “So what does this killer want to achieve in all of this killing?”

“Who knows?” Dolce said. “But I’ve got all I wanted. I thank you for this document. You’ve been very helpful.”

“It is a pleasure of mine to serve.” the man made a heart salute and bowed.

Dolce left the office and went straight to the car. Although she has no care for whatever happens to the officials of the city. She needed to know who the killer was. Because if the gun and ammunitions used by the assailant belong to the Demesne. Then she can guess why the Princess sent her here.