(Oct 6)

Well, I felt extremely confident before going to bed last night, but now I’m feeling nervous.

If I do turn out to be the culprit who killed all those people, would William arrest me? What would happen to me then?

I almost considered keeping quiet but then I remembered my resolve.

I need to know if I’m the murderer, or else it’s going to slowly eat away at me from the inside.

William is smart, if I tell him that I may or may not be the culprit, he should be able to confirm or deny that possibility.

So, I’m going to William’s place now, before I change my mind again.

Wish me luck.

.

As usual, William was in his office doing his office stuff and… other office stuff, I guess (I have no idea what William does 99% of the time).

Also, there was that giant metal capsule egg thingy as well that I saw before and I still don’t know what that is either but William seemed to still be working on it.

He greeted me as I entered, and I said hello back.

I was tense and when William looked at me, he noticed that I was fidgety and stopped working on whatever he was working on.

“So, what brings you here today, Anthony? I am quite busy writing my report on the research material I’m doing, so make it quick.”

Just like William all right, always quick to the point and not wasting any time.

I took a deep breath and started to tell William about my story, about what happened and everything that was going on with me.

And as I continued to explain everything to William, I started feeling… relief…

I had been shouldering all my worries inside of me, not telling anyone all alone; but when I finally told William everything, I felt like I had a burden taken off me.

It’s like when you eat too much and feel so full to the point where you feel sick, but then you throw up and then you feel refreshed afterwards.

I told William everything.

And William just sat there quietly, listening to everything I said.

At first, I was slowly telling William what happened, but as I continued, I started speaking faster and louder and talking more about my frustrations.

When I finished talking, I was sweating and breathing heavily.

William didn’t say anything for a while either, and my throat was sore from my long talking, so I also kept quiet for a while too.

After a bit of time passed, William let out a sigh and spoke up.

“I’m a wizard researcher, not a therapist… but I guess I am your friend…”

Suddenly as he said that, I felt my dragon senses warning me about an incoming attack.

I was about to jump back in shock due to my instincts when suddenly, William slapped me in the face with a frozen fish.

It hurt.

“W-what was that for!?!?!”

William slapped me again on my other cheek.

“Tsk. Tsk. Anthony. Since when did you get so arrogant?”

Another slap on my face again with the frozen fish in his hand.

“What makes you think you are so skilled that you can kill someone unnoticed? Do you really think I wouldn’t know, if you had killed those people?”

I was dumbfounded, literally unable to speak.

“I understand your worries, but it’s all for naught. I can assure you; you are not the culprit. I would know if it were you. And you are not.”

The frozen fish in William’s hand started to melt and evaporated until it disappeared. It seemed like William had created a fake fish made from his ice magic to slap me with.

Both of my cheeks were a bit red and it hurt to talk, but I asked William how he was so sure and this was William’s reply:

“I get why you were worried but if you take a step back, calm down and put aside the emotions that are clouding your judgement, you will also come to the logical conclusion that you are not the murderer.

Ever since the assassin situation, I’ve been keeping track of your location and surroundings to make sure you stay out of trouble. Within a 24 hour time span of the incident taking place, you were nowhere near the crime scene.

Not only that, when I visited the crime scene, I didn’t sense any dragon essence at all. Your dragon essence has a very distinct magically pressure and I could recognize it easily, but I didn’t feel any of it.

Thus, I can conclude you are not the culprit. It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out.”

Needless to say, I was relieved.

I was worried for nothing.

Thank the gods.

But that got me thinking, if I wasn’t the culprit… who is?

“We don’t know yet. The investigators are still searching but this case is strange…”

“Strange?”

“Yes. The corpses were extremely ripped apart by monster claws, which normal human hands can’t do that, but if so, how would a monster get into the city and escape unnoticed?

Also, there’s the motive. Why did whoever did it, do it? Revenge? A bloodthirsty hungry monster? We don’t know. It’s too unclear, but investigators are trying their best to solve this mystery and stop it from happening again.”

So they haven’t even caught the culprit yet…

This worries me.

Although I am glad that I’m not the murderer, it does scare me to know that the real murderer is out there wandering and can strike at any time.

Was it a bad idea to bring my family to the city after all?

I’m confident I can defend myself, but my wife and Gabi aren’t nearly strong enough to defend against someone strong.

I only hope that whoever or whatever murdered those people ran away for good and won’t come back… but reality doesn’t always go as wanted.

I was lost in thought, but then suddenly William flicked my forehead and snapped me back.

“You worry way too much Anthony. In fact, recently, Briggs and Cornelia noticed that you seemed down and they told me they’re planning to have a training event to cheer you up.”

Haha… Briggs and Cornelia are probably the only people in this world who considers training as a way of “cheering me up.”

“Training event… what’s it about? And when?”

“Well, to be honest, this training event was planned for a while now because of the war possibility breaking out, the king requested us to train our troops, but we never got around to doing it.

But Briggs finally decided on a date a couple days ago. It’ll be on the 13th of this month and all soldiers will participate, including you as well.”

October 13th, okay. I’ve written it down.

“Speaking of training, there’s a couple things I want to talk to you about. Including your dragon tail you told me about.”

I had forgotten about my dragon tail until now and now William was bringing it up again.

But then, what he said next killed me.

“Anthony, I want you to not take this out of context but… can you take off your pants and turn around for a sec?”

“…”

“…”

“…Sorry William, but I’m married…”