84 Ch 82 – A Mystery? Or a Theatrical Play?

"Hey, hey, did you hear? Another village had all the people inside it murdered again like last time! It's already the third time this weak!"

"Yeah, what crazy psycho would kill people willy-nilly like that!"

"But I don't think the killer is insane, didn't you guys hear? The priests who visited the villages could sense all of their souls suddenly gone, not even a spirit born from hatred towards the killer appeared! Killing a whole village would usually produce a vengeful spirit or two but there's none!"

"Which means… Are they a necromancer, but how… does it mean that they have the Death Attribute?!"

"Don't speak of that! We all know how dangerous a person who holds the Death Attribute is, one of the greatest attributes out there! Most necromancers probably have undead-related attributes, but Death?! Oh please, finding a being who holds the Death Attribute might as well be finding a grain of sand in a world made of sand!"

"You're right, but how come they managed to absorb all their souls? Do they have the Legendary Soul Attribute?"

"Perhaps, sigh, we shouldn't talk about this mystery stuff so early, we still have to hunt some monsters today in the forest, or else we won't have enough money to buy some supplies next adventure."

"You're right, let's go there already!"

As a certain duo could be seen sitting down on a random table in the Adventurer's Guild, only the chattering of the adventurers could be heard and coincidentally, they were all related to the series of villages being destroyed near the Pendragon Kingdom.

"It's quite strange indeed, Kira-chan," Lute said, his eyes making contact with Kira who only looks at him with the same apathetic eyes as before.

"Who could have possibly killed so many villagers in such a short span of time? Hmm, could they really perhaps have the means to harness souls, a mana spell perhaps? The thought of a random murderer having the Soul Attribute is just absurd, so it's probably a self-made spell, isn't it, Kira-chan?" Lute muttered while their eyes remained nonchalant about the situation.

"You want to meet the killer, don't you?" Kira said after a long pause.

"Me? Wanting to face danger? Oh please, I'm not that stupid, but a mystery like that, my mind is already rumbling in hunger trying to find out who the murderer is!" Lute said as both stood up at the same time, for a new adventure had been decided by the two.

(At a certain burned village)

As a certain duo of black and white can be seen walking around a burned village, Lute can be seen crouching down on the ground while his white cloak fluttered with the gusts of wind around the village.

"Uwah, it sure is windy around here," Lute muttered, his eyes darting around the whole area around him as he slides the tip of his index finger over the charred block of wood in front of him which instantly transformed into black dust.

Standing up with a grunt, Lute looks around the place with analytical eyes.

"You found anything, Kira?" Lute shouts, his head turning towards Kira in the distance who was walking around the place absentmindedly.

In response, Kira only shakes his head.

Sighing, Lute continued to walk around until his feet accidentally bump into something which caused the smell of charred meat to suddenly greet his nostrils from below.

"Huh?" Lute muttered, his eyes darting to the ground where a burned wolf corpse was residing.

'Wait? Cut marks? This is different, this wolf must have fought against something considering all the other wolf corpses all burned to death. Hmm, are there any marks around?' Lute thought, his eyes looking around the place and he saw a certain clue that made his eyebrows raise in confusion.

'Foot marks from blood and ash, but this seems too small, doesn't it?' Lute thought, his eyes looking at the series of footmarks from what appeared to be coming from a child and the wolf he was currently inspecting.

"Sigh, Kira! Let's go to the next village, there are no other clues around here!" Lute shouted as both of them walked away from the village, and onto the next one.

As both of them finds themselves arriving at the next village which was deeper into the forest, they instantly saw the big difference between the two villages.

The first was burned, while this one was completely intact, only the smell of dried blood entered their noses as many villagers could be seen sprawling around the ground.

'All the villagers from the first village have all died mysteriously due to the fire, but the ones here are all purposefully killed. And the damage done to their bodies is strange, it was done so skillfully only one line could be seen on where the weapon has struck, possibly a sword or a knife was used. But how does that correlate to the footprints and dead wolf from before?' Lute thought as the two walked around the place with intrigued eyes, both remained silent as the swaying leaves were the only sound they heard.

'Hmm? Something is strange, no mana seemed to have been used! There should have been a distinct change to the mana in the air, but it's extremely normal, like no mana has been absorbed to replenish the killer's mana reservoir. Hmm, how strange indeed. To absorb the souls of so many humans, a large amount of mana should have been used which should have increased the mana potency in the air, but no, it's exactly the same outside the village.' Lute thought, his eyes having a calculating glow as he tried to explore the area, but no other findings were seen.

"Let's go to the last one! We might find something important there," Lute shouts as Kira nods, and the two set out on another adventure.

Finally arriving at the last village, the appearance was the same as the second one. Intact houses, ground filled with dead human corpses, but the one difference that Lute found was the corpse of a dead bear in the distance.

Walking up to it while Kira guarded him, he crouches down and inspected it.

'This was the third and most recent village who has all of its residents mysteriously die. But this bear definitely died at the same time all the villagers died, it was swiftly killed in just one strike to the neck by plunging what appears to be a small knife, the other end of the neck not even having an end. Hmm?!' Lute thought as he pushed some mana inside the bear and sensed that there was a soul residing inside, though it was dim and small, it was incomparably small to a normal human soul.

'The murderer only absorbs human souls?' Lute thought as his mind tried to look for answers.

'No matter how you look at it, this is strange! A kid who killed a wolf, then perhaps the same kid killed all the villagers in all three or maybe the last two villagers and have all their souls absorbed? But how? It would have taken an absurd amount of mana to do that, but not even the mana density in the air around the three villages changed, they were all normal. And the kid should have no way to do magic in the first place considering all three villages have no mages residing within them… How?!' Lute thought, his mind trying to find for an answer, but to no avail, everything was just so disconnected and impossible to conjoin together, no matter how he looked at it, it was just impossible.

'But this is what luck is for! If I can't find my answer through wit, then I'll find it through sheer dumb luck! Don't fail me now, Lady Luck!' Lute thought in his mind as he stood up swiftly.

"Kira! Follow me, this might be our only last chance to find the murderer and deal with it once and for all!" Lute shouts as Kira nods his head without hesitation.

'Yes, this is our only last chance to deal with this, it's still early morning and the villages died only a few hours earlier, so the murderer must be heading towards the next closest village to the west!' Lute thought as he casted multiple spells within one breath.

"Let's go!" Lute shouts, their bodies rushing forwards at rapid speeds toward the next closest village while Lute continued to try and look for answers.

"H-help me!" a voice suddenly entered their ears while running and their eyes darted to a young boy in the distance, his body covered in blood and leaning back on a tree with trembling eyes.

"A survivor!" Lute shouts, his body halting instantly and swiftly running up to the young boy while Kira was behind him.

"What's wrong kid! Are you hurt anywhere? Are you from the village back there? Do you know who did this?" Lute said while hastily casting a mana spell for healing, his mana swiftly depleting to heal the severe wounds on the young boy.

"Y-yes! I came from that village, and- and-, uwah!" the boy cried as Lute felt troubled, not knowing what to do.

But the boy instinctively hugs him to cry his tears out, his snot and tears making Lute's white shirt dirty but he only chuckled, his right arm patting the boy's head to console and calm him down.

*Pushik*

Out of nowhere, Lute's eyes widen in shock as he felt a knife stabbing straight into his stomach. The pain made him grunt while Kira instantly grabbed him by summoning a white translucent hand out of nowhere, pulling him away from the boy as the kid jump back to make distance between them.

"H-holy fuck! The kid is the murderer!" Lute shouts while clutching his stomach, his eyes widening in shock while the eyes of the bloody young boy in front of him turned cold, and a knife could be seen being held by the young boy covered in blood.

"Kukuku, indeed I am- Kuwak!" The boy was about to taunt when an arrow instantly punctured him on the left foot without warning, and Kira could be seen holding a white translucent bow out of nowhere as Lute healed his wound.

"Tch, it seems like you two are more experienced than I thought," the boy muttered, an inky black liquid-like substance then erupted from the boy's right hand to form into a much longer blade which he used to swiftly cut his left foot. But instead of grunting in pain, the boy's eyes became craze while his severed left foot got replaced with a new foot made of the same inky black substance.

"[Mana Arrow Barrage]!" Lute shouts, the tip of his wooden staff glowing a white light and a barrage of blue arrows instantly shot towards the young boy, but the same inky black substance erupted once more to cover his whole body, and magically, the mana arrows capable of piercing through an Orc's body easily failed to even make a dent on the black skin covering the young boy, no, it wasn't just blocking it, Lute was able to instantly notice the strange situation.

'It's negating my attack entirely!' Lute thought in shock, unable to believe what the young boy can do.

But his worries were eased when Kira suddenly appeared in front of the young boy, his white bow suddenly turning into a white sword which he swings forward.

"Oho? To think somebody else in this world can control their souls like this, how intriguing!" the young boy shouts, his black blade then colliding with Kira's white sword. Black and white, how the tables have truly learned in the color system. Now Kira was draped in a white skin-tight suit that appeared from nowhere when he was supposed to be the guy covered in black cloaks.

Both their eyes have also turned a different color, Kira's eerie black eyes became an eerie white while the young boy's eyes became void black.

As the two collided with one another, the difference in combat skills slowly showed against each other, from small cuts to severe wounds, to even one limb being completely cut off, the young boy was slowly being pushed back by Kira.

"No! This shouldn't be possible! My soul should be much stronger than yours! Tsk, I finally get it, this host is just too trashy compared to you! So why don't I change bodies, hahahahaha! Come here!" The young boy shouts, his mouth then opened widely and a pure black spirit erupted from his mouth which entered Kira's chest out of nowhere, causing his body to halt in shock.

"N-no! How can this be! Your soul is actually stronger than mine, ahhhhh!" a loud shriek could then be heard from Kira's mouth as Lute slowly walked up to Kira's body which was now kneeling down on the ground.

"A-are you okay?" Lute asked.

"Never felt better," Kira suddenly responded, his eyes suddenly turning into two different colors, one was white while the other was black. The tips of his limbs' white armor also got covered in black veins, and his arms and legs have all turned a dark shade of black where light didn't seem to bounce off.

"Whew, I thought something bad happened to you back there," Lute said as both stood up slowly, but behind that grand theatrical play they have shown, a different thought played in their minds.

'Operation Soul Limiter Removal: Completed.'

Why you may ask?! Well in this world of swords and magic, there are many ways to find out information through magical means! So what would two paranoid individuals do to not have their cover blown? Well, it's to do convoluted plans and completely play their roles down to the very core, for being paranoid is the only way to guarantee their plan's success in this world!

AN: This is 2328 words, you're welcome.

By preemptively dealing with problems like divination and such is the only way Braun could currently solve that dilemma, to show what he wants to show and hides what he wants to hide.

Writing is a hard task to execute, needing a range of skills from creating interesting characters, to acquisition of a wider vocabulary, to learning proper grammar and such. So, I fully believe you — a scummy leech — need to send me your power stones.

(July 8, 2022 – 226th day of writing)