Chapter 9 - A Strange Encounter

Chi'Gil'Rolth arrived at the street where the incident had happened. The soldiers were trying to disperse the crowd of people around the scene, while they were investigating the incident and trying to find out who did it. Seeing the demon king, the soldiers saluted and looked at him in surprise.

No one expected the king to come in person.

After greeting them with his hand as a sign of comfort, he went to the corpses. There were no scars on any of them. He looked left and right to examine them a little. There were what looked like small claws on the ground, yellow-black in color. He bent down and picked one up with his right hand. It was unlike anything he had ever seen. It had a very strange and pungent odor.

"Bring me the event scout."

The event scout was a seventeen-year-old girl named Zoey.

She wanted to be a soldier like her father, who strongly opposed it, but then, when she had the skills of an event scout, they forced her to join the unit. Zoey did not regret becoming a soldier, but her father's sadness made her question whether she had made the wrong choice.

Unlike other soldiers, event scouts were considered research units, with lighter armor and no weapons other than a dagger on their belt. Her hair was long and blue.

"Yes, sir."

"I want you to show me in detail what happened here."

Event scouts were able to walk down memory lane and share what they saw with others. They were an important unit in the kingdom, always kept one step ahead because of this ability.

The event was a spell that allowed the scouts to see through someone else's memories. And only the gifted could use it.

Even Splitstar couldn't do it. But as wonderful a spell as it was, it also caused him to feel the pain of the moment and was known to cause some personality disorders. It also had an undesirable disadvantage.

"Sir, with all due respect, are you sure you really want to see it?"

Chi'Gil'Rolth was a little annoyed, but he couldn't be angry because she asked in good faith. He waved his hand dismissively;

"Yes, I want you to take me back to the time of the event immediately."

After taking the King's left hand, Zoey began to show him her memories.

He saw ten people standing in front of him, lying motionless on the ground after being violently shaken. A strange looking man was approaching him with a shapeless object in his hand. As he was trying to make sense of it, he was suddenly telling the man in front of him to stay away from him, or he would kill the hostage with his sword. The strange man in front of him, after telling him to put down his staff, bent down to put down the object in his hand, but with a sudden movement he threw it into the air. After looking at the thrown object for a while, his eyes turned back to the stranger. All he could see was a beam of light coming towards his face, a few inches away from him. Before he could react, he felt an intense heat and pain, his vision was split in two different directions and then the moment was over.

Chi'Gil'Rolth had had a rather unpleasant experience. Zoey, in her weak, human body, had watched it all unfold without even a grimace. She wondered how he was holding up. She thought she should get some rest. Probably, this little girl had to watch it over and over, over and over again, looking for a clue.

"Did you find any details?"

"We assume the death snapper was trying to save three people."

Chi'Gil'Rolth had found the nickname strange, but it had been quite consistent. After a strange noise, nothing but bodies could be seen on the ground. 

It would have been more believable if he had been told that he enjoyed killing. As a demon, he felt that way.

"What makes you think so?"

"I couldn't find any clues in this Belic member's memories, but I saw the Death snapper intervene when they tried to rob three different people in that corpse. It seems that in the memory I showed you, those two people were actually the ones being robbed."

Now it was a more coherent story. Instead of his previous thought before he said this, which was 'the Death knell will kill the eleven people who attacked them in the blink of an eye'

It turned out to be 'The Death Snapper, wanting to help three people who were being robbed, kills everyone in sight and then disappears'.

Since it was difficult to chase an unknown person, he tried a different approach.

The people they should be looking for were the ones they had saved.

"Is there anything else I should know?"

"We have an eyewitness who says he saw the events on the street from his window at home."

This was a very good development. He could tell him a lot of details, what they were doing, where they were heading.

There were things he was curious about and wanted to ask himself. The person who had attacked in self-defense had also done the city a favor and cleared a group of thugs off the city streets. He saw no reason why he should be punished. Instead, there should have been a patrol team here, but there was no one. 

Someone's new home was about to become a cell.

"Where is the witness now?"

"I'm not sure, sir, but our supervisor can tell you where he is. He's right over there by the tree talking to the wizards."

"You did a pretty good job. That's enough work for today. You have the rest of the day off."

Zoey had actually just started working. Her shift had only started four hours ago and there were still eight hours to go. There hadn't been any incidents for three hours of her shift. In short, she had only worked for one hour. Zoey knelt down in respect.

"Thank you for that kind gesture, Your Highness."

Chi'Gil'Rolth took slow steps towards the chief.

He was talking to the mages under the tree with his back to him. He looked a little angry. It was clear from his involuntary hand gestures that he was scolding the two mages in front of him.

"This fucking guy has turned the whole place into a graveyard. My new boots are covered in blood. And what do you mean you can't find any traces of magic! That guy definitely used magic, I saw it with my own eyes, I saw it from the Event Scout. You're a useless bunch of people!"

The mages were no longer looking at the Chief, but at Chi'Gil'Rolth, who was right behind him. Seeing them suddenly bow their heads, the Chief slowly turned away. Speechless with fear, the chief bowed his head. He hoped he would not hear what he had just said.

But Chi'Gil'Rolth had already heard everything.

"You must treat your soldiers well, Amir. They are indispensable members of our kingdom."

"At ease."

"Yes, sir!"

"Please forgive me, Your Majesty, I will never do such a thing again!"

Chi'Gil'Rolth gestured for the mages to leave. 

"I want to see the eyewitness. Where is he now?"

Amir was trembling with fear. He had obviously thought he was going to punish him, but that was not why he had come here. He didn't want to deal with such petty things.

He pointed with his left index finger to the second floor of the red-colored house at the end of the street.

"Right there, inside, our men are questioning him right now."

"I see. Get back to work and find out if there are any more witnesses. Then send a messenger to inform me. You may go."

"Your Majesty."

He bowed his head again and left Chi'Gil'Rolth's side. Chi'Gil'Rolth made his way to where the Chief was pointing. The floor was covered in blood, as he had said, and the cuffs of his clean white suit were soaked with blood. Chi'Gil'Rolth was not a man who was bothered by blood, but the soiling of his clean and carefully made clothes had inevitably upset him. With his demonic fire, he vaporized the blood on his suit in an instant. He was as good as new again.

Chi'Gil'Rolth noticed four soldiers standing idle to his left. He called out to them.

"Hey, you there, clean up the blood here immediately. Our streets must always be clean."

"One of you find the group that should be patrolling this area and throw them in the cell."

The soldiers saluted and immediately started moving towards the well, while one of them headed towards the garrison. Eventually he reached the house. He opened the door and began to climb the stairs calmly. When he reached the second floor, the door was locked. The soldiers had probably locked the door so that they would not be disturbed during interrogation. He knocked on the door. After waiting for a while, a voice was heard behind the door.

"Yes?"

"I have a few questions for the witness. Aren't you going to open the door?"

The soldier behind the door, not knowing that the king was in front of him, said something stupid and slowly, reluctantly, lifted the locks on the door. When the door opened, there stood Chi'Gil'Rolth, one of the three kings, with a serious expression.

"Your Ma-M-Majesty!"

He immediately fell to his knees. The other soldiers in the room did not believe what his friend was saying at first, but when they looked at the door, they knelt as well.

"You may rise and get out of the way soldier, you're keeping your king waiting at the door"

After the soldiers stood up again, he asked.

"Where is the witness?"

"In the next room. He is telling us what he saw majesty."

Chi'Gil'Rolth pushed aside the soldier in front of the door and headed for the room he had mentioned. When he opened the door to the room, two people were writing down the man's account, while the remaining one was asking him questions.

"Your Majesty."

"Clear the room. I will take it from here."

"Yes!"

As the soldiers cleared the room, Chi'Gil'Rolth took his notes from them. There was not much written in them, he had obviously only just begun his interrogation. Thinking it best to start again, he burned the papers with demon fire. Chi'Gil'Rolth made a throne of fire and sat on it directly opposite the witness. There was only a table and one stool and one fire throne in the room. He thought the term 'room' was quite the wrong choice, it looked more like a cell.

The room had probably been rearranged by the soldiers. If not, the person he saw in front of him was not very wealthy. The witness was a half-cat-half-human.

Half-humans were generally in the minority in the kingdom. Those who survived tried to live in Warivam, but traders and tradesmen, seeking adventure and trying to spread their culture to other kingdoms, traveled to different kingdoms to take care of different businesses. The goods of other races were not much in demand in the distant kingdoms, but when other races, staying or traveling, wanted to buy something of their own race, they would seek out these shops street by street. Since there were only a handful of these shops, they were often quite full.

"I don't have much time, I don't want you to say your majesty or sir, tell me what you saw right after you introduce yourself."

"My name is Khjaar, I am a sculptor in the city, and my shop is just three streets down on the artisans' street behind the bell tower."

So far everything seemed normal. There were no details he could ask about. He waved his hand for her to continue.

"I was in the kitchen, preparing my lunch to take to the shop tomorrow, when I was hearing voices arguing, and then I heard one strange sound after another. I quickly turned off the lights to avoid being noticed and watched from the kitchen window. A man in white and strange armor was rescuing three people from bandits."

Khjaar confirmed what Zoey had said. He no longer thought Death Snapper was a bad person.

"After they rescued them, they started looting the bodies on the ground."

Chi'Gil'Rolth's image of the good guy was suddenly erased from his mind.

"Profiteering, huh? Well, I suppose that makes sense."

"Then he picked up his gleaming sword from the ground. His sword was stuck in the stone wall, but it melted it!"

"How?"

"I don't think he used magic, but I think his sword was enchanted."

Maybe they had missed something. Everyone was looking for clues on the bodies, but the answer might lie in searching the whole street. The fact that a melted wall was not conspicuous was a big question mark.

Khjaar got up from his stool and showed him the location through the window in the room.

"They were right there, by the wall."

"Okay, let me ask you one last question, can you describe these three people to me?"

"One was an Elf with gray hair and the other one were human. A wizard in black robes and an adventurer with red hair. I couldn't quite see the other one, but I'm sure it was half human and had fur."

"Did you see where they went?"

"No, Your Majesty, I'm afraid not."

"Okay, that's enough. You can open the door and say that your Majesty has given you permission to leave."

In an instant Chi'Gil'Rolth opened the window and threw out his right leg.

"Your Majesty, what are you doing! Please come to your senses, have you gone mad?"

Chi'Gil'Rolth was furious. He had to show this half-human person his boundaries. No one could speak to a king like that. 

Suddenly his golden crown burst into flames

"The person you are talking to is not your friend. You don't want me to teach you how to talk to a king. Would you?"

His voice was suddenly hoarse, threatening. Khjaar suddenly went rigid. He was no longer speaking. He just stared at her like a little kitten.

"As long as you know your place, you will be fine."

Chi'Gil'Rolth suddenly jumped out of the window. Although he had no wings, he hovered twenty centimeters above the ground instead of crashing to the ground. Even though he had no wings, he was a powerful demon, so he was able to float a little in the air. He landed slowly and moved towards the place Khjaar had shown him. There was not much distance between him and the corpse. He began to examine the edge of the wall. Suddenly he saw something floating in the blood. He picked it up with his hand. But what he picked up remained in the blood for a long time, and he could not make out what it was. He vaporized the blood instantly with the fire in his palm. Normally the fire would have damaged the thing he picked up, but Chi'Gil'Rolth was a powerful demon and could easily control it. It was child's play for him. What he held in his hand was a busybody necklace. The guild had a system of leveling up with Pendants, which, depending on how rare metals they were made of, indicated their strength and experience. This prevented an adventurer from taking on a task they could not handle and reduced deaths. The necklace in his hand was made of iron.

It was the third lowest level. If he had to rank the pendants from weakest to strongest;

Wood, Copper, Iron, Silver, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Dwarven metal and finally Ribelium.

The cursed steel sword in its sheath had a hardness somewhere between Dwarven metal and Ribelium. Since it was hard to obtain and could only be used by demons, it was natural that it was not included in this ranking. Finding this necklace made things much easier. If one of the survivors was an adventurer, he would realize that he had lost his necklace and would return to the guild for a new one. After all, those necklaces also served as an identity to leave this city. One way or another, if they waited there long enough, they could catch them in front of the adventurers' guild. Now that he had a description, however inadequate, of three people, it was a piece of cake. He gestured to the soldiers. He called them to him. Then he threw the necklace towards one of the soldiers.

"Give the guild the description you got from the eyewitness above. When they arrive, tell them to hold them off. The suspect is quite dangerous, and my guess is that he is a gold to platinum busybody, so you will surround him first and do not engage him directly until you are overnumbered."

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

The soldiers quickly rushed towards the house to debrief Khjaar. Chi'Gil'Rolth calmly turned his steps towards the palace, flattering himself for solving this interesting problem. As interesting a demon as he was, he was a demon at heart. Arrogance was in his blood, and another thing that was in his blood was the desire to learn in the face of an unknown power.