Volume 1 Chapter 27 Something is very wrong about this Body

They were all standing around a simple table, there was a dead man lying on it.

Jack, Vero, Roberto Mosla and Captain Oliver were flabbergasted, none of them knew what to say to the others.

When Jack was chosen to investigate the two dead bodies it was as a chore, something Captain Oliver gave to him due to his supposed background.

The Stout family was well known to be great supporters of the Church’s reformist faction. As such this mission was given to Jack because of the rivalry between the reformists and the conservatives.

But their inner conflicts had led them to discover an extremely strange situation.

Strange was too little of a word to describe the body, there were cuts all over the man’s limbs.

These cuts were in turn filled with hay. Who would even fill wounds with hay?

Then there was the hand in the dislocated jaw.

So the attacker had hit the man in the jaw with enough strength to dislocate it but without enough strength to break the skull.

Then the eyes had been plucked out, so the mysterious attacker had used a kind of spoon or tool of the sort to take out both eyes.

Then the killer filled the socket holes with the flesh of a weak but stronger than average beast.

Just those specificity were strange and that was if you ignored the titanically scared expression printed on the visage.

When someone is being killed with such cruelty, they’ll usually drop the scared expression for a pained face during the act.

Then rigor mortis would keep the pained face as the last expression they ever had.

But if there was still a scared expression, it meant that the fear that the person felt as he died was strong enough to fully suppress his pain.

What kind of power is so feared that you would completely forget about pain as you get tortured to death?

All of that is if you still ignored another important point, the missing heart and the hand that filled the hole.

So when the body’s quirks were taken individually it would be strange but not impossible for it to be a serial killer’s modus operandi. But when they are all taken together, it's either the work of the most twisted and vile serial killer ever known to mankind or that person had a clear goal.

If it was a twisted serial killer, he had to be stopped and had to be stopped quickly as the killer had already started to go down the slippery path of killing.

If the killer had a goal, it could be considered worse as the situation needed them to search that person, find them and to find out their intention.

If the killer had a goal and their intentions were bad, they would have to stop the project.

So the second situation would need more energy and manpower than if it was a simple serial killer.

Jack looked at them with a look mixing shame and pride: “I didn’t tell you guys this but on my way here I found a woman with a similar condition.”

“...”

“...”

Captain Oliver looked at Jack before responding with anger: “OH, AND YOU DIDN’T THINK IT WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA TO REPORT IT TO US OR TO THE CITY GUARD?”

“I thought you already knew about it, then I forgot about it.” answered little Jack

“OH YEAH AND WHAT IS MORE IMPORTANT TO THE POINT THAT YOU WOULD FORGET ABOUT A MURDER?” asked a furious Oliver.

“I have to agree with Oliver on this one kiddo.” added Roberto

“I’m sorry, okay. I just forgot because I di… because I don’t have a good memory.” lied the kid

“Anyways, what are you still doing here?” said Roberto

“Sorry what?” asked a little confused Jack

“Come on, bring me to this body you saw.” said the impatient Vice-Captain

Jack led Roberto to the place he had seen the woman’s body on his second day in Glor.

When they arrived in the Klong district, the duo saw a large group of people.

The mob gathered around a middle aged lady, she was crying and talking with hatred about a beast who had supposedly eaten her baby boy during the night.

She said how the creature had entered her house during the night and had devoured her child.

The woman explained what the foul beast looked like, it had been as large as a table, full of scales, a monster with a large mane around the neck just like a lion.

Steel Gaze Mosla asked Jack to wait a little bit on the side and started walking toward the mass of people.

As he walked he activated a spell engraved within the cloth of his Vice-Captain of Glor’s Sin Clearing Brigade uniform.

-Glowing Banner, Light Path

His white uniform started emitting a light that wasn’t strong enough to hurt the eyes but that sent a message to the people to move.

The crowd made way for the glowing Roberto, the woman was shocked and stopped speaking.

Mosla addressed himself to the crowd and said: “This woman here is obviously in shock, can I ask anyone that is a little kind to help her go back home and make sure she is safe.”

His speech was not very impressive but his uniform gave him enough credibility and meaning for some people in the crowd to approach the woman to help her.

Satisfied the Vice-Captain went back to Jack and asked him to continue giving him directions.

He said: “I don’t think that a woman in grief should be allowed to spread lies to the rest of the population.”

“What makes you think she is wrong?” asked Jack

“There is no place inside of Glor nor is there place in the surrounding for a Beast of that size to grow. It would also be weird if a beast this size had been able to enter Glor without being noticed by anyone.” Answered Roberto

“But don’t you think it could simply be a woman crying for help and no one is there to help her. What if she needs a hero to step in and to avenge her son?” Jack asked

“Are you referring to part 5.5 of the Child King book?” asked in turn the Vice-Captain

“I was referring to A Blessed Child part 5.5 but yes” said Jack

Mosla responded: “It’s the same book, they change the title every once in a while and publish it again.”

Their talking had burned time as quickly as an ice cube would melt when put on a frying pan, they had arrived at the crime scene.

The body was pretty similar to when Jack had left it, apart from the fact that it had started to rot and flies were all over it.

The cuts were there, the heart was still missing, a scared face and plucked out eyes with fresh flesh in the socket holes.

There was only one tiny tiny little difference, something barely noticeable.

A huge chunk of the body was missing, the entire right half of the torso was missing.

We could see fractured ribs through in the gap where that flesh should have been.

Even worse, around the missing part of the woman’s torso were bite marks.

She had been eaten during the time between Jack's discovery of the body and this current instant.

“This is bad, not only do we have a serial killer that has murdered at least twice and we have a Beast that has tasted human flesh.” said Roberto with a voice full of desperation

“I know it’s not the time but this is definitely the same scenario as in A Blessed Child part 5.5” said Jack

Roberto looked at Jack with surprise and answered: “I don’t think now is the time to mention that old story”