These tall people

The image did not really convey full-fledged memories to me, but the local writing turned out to be complex, there were many traditions and only the layout of the school was simple and understandable.

When I just came out of meditation, my eyes gathered in a heap from the flow of knowledge and I had to try to put my brains in my head for another half an hour.

And the first thing I felt when I came to myself was the cloying smell of decomposition. It was worth admitting that leaving the corpses frozen overnight under the scorching sun was a dubious idea. I will justify myself by the fact that it was quite cool in the morning.

The plates found during the inspection turned out to be nominal. But it was possible to identify old Kaoshi and Toro Dororo without them. The only old man is Kaoshi. The only man not in mourning clothes is Toro (traditionally, spellcasters and students of the Chue school wore white clothes with black inserts, and mourning robes were completely white). It didn't immediately catch my eye just because all the attention was taken away by the scarlet streaks of blood.

The good-natured Thoreau was the largest of all who were present here. My eye is excellent and determining the exact height and weight is not a problem. Even if a person is lying down. So this swarthy brown-haired man was one hundred and ninety-eight centimeters tall and weighed almost one hundred kilos. A giant with a big heart, if Ye Baiyi's memories don't lie.

But even so, he doesn't look like a good warrior at all. Yes, a big one. Yes, strong. But definitely not a very good swordsman or melee. Another riddle, the answer to which can be obtained from memories, but it doesn't matter now.

It is important to find more clues.

Most of all suspicion falls on Kaoshi. A madman in power is definitely a bad idea. And Shinobi's experience says that, almost always, the most suspicious is the most guilty in the end. And then you should inspect the old man's study and bedroom.

I decided to start with the office and did not lose. In addition to candy wrappers, a lot of interesting waste paper was stuffed into the caches — as many as nine. I was especially pleased with the letters. I found a lot of private information in them and the essence of the discussions was clear, even though there were only letters from the interlocutors, but not from Kaoshi himself. Many of them caused shock by the fact that the old man did not burn them, but kept them. His hiding places were average, and the compromising material was frighteningly defiant.

Basically, these were answers from old debtors, whom Kaoshi persuaded to his side and called for decisive action to confront the union of demons and humans. People answered - some politely, some rudely - but equally: no way.

I also read the letters from Kaoshi's son. There were few of them and they were compiled briefly. In each of them there is a call to return to Chue and resume treatment.

The next find was the records of expenses, income - financial affairs. Everything was neat and smooth in the clean rooms, but the drafts contained an additional expense item and the amount there was decent.

Why would a crazy madman need such a sum? No, not like that. What can a person like Kaoshi spend money on?

For anything, it would seem: for ballots, campaign posters, for women or booze, a house on the seashore… I can go on for a long time.

But when I was a shinobi, I often encountered people like Kaoshi Tiro. Such aggressive, bad, self-confident psychos often became clients for honest mercenaries like me.

I searched the school to make sure nothing was missing and went out into the woods through the back gate to hide from the unpleasant smell.

Nothing was missing except the swords. Healers from spellcasters are not allowed to carry swords — they do not know how to use them and should not be able to. According to local traditions, a healer should not injure, should not enter into conflicts, should not kill. Must not carry a sword.

Everyone was killed quickly, masterfully and definitely did not want to cause unnecessary suffering. And at the same time, they were beaten for sure. Even the child and Toro were not spared, who could not become an object of revenge on a par with the inhabitants of Chueron.

Or the killers were told to kill everyone and simply did not expect that someone not involved in the conflict would be here on such a day. And they were not familiar with the masters of the Chue peaks.

What else?

They didn't want to be discovered. They acted secretly, came late in the evening, in the midst of the holiday, hid their faces, did not have personal belongings with them (the image would have reported this), used simple, faceless techniques so that they could not be determined by the style of combat and the nature of the wounds left. Then it's clear why everyone was killed. A three-year-old child is a bad witness, but leaving him alive is also a risk.

The day of the conclusion of peace, a large amount of money, neat killers, nothing was stolen.

Working version: Kaoshi Tiro has been saving money for a long time to use the services of mercenaries and eliminate someone from opponents, most likely demonic blood. The amount was truly colossal, which means that his target was a very large fish, say, a demon lord who showed the greatest interest in an alliance with people. The attempt failed — the mercenaries not only made a mistake, but also somehow betrayed their customer. And the demons, after signing the peace, decided to eliminate the threat so that no one could suspect them.

The most expensive thing on Chueron's territory was weapons. The swords were taken away. This will help to throw suspicion on thieves who are not interested in revenge, and therefore the corpses are not disfigured. And it is also a symbol: healers should not carry weapons and should not enter into conflicts.

The second working version: Differs from the first in that the demons acted smarter and during an audience with the emperor told about the attack and their findings and demanded punishment for the perpetrators. Perhaps they provided some more interesting information about Chueron's actions and the emperor perceived such behavior as treason and ordered everyone to be executed. I sent a personal detachment of well-trained soldiers. They fulfilled the will of their master and took the swords not only as an edification, but also as proof that the emperor had resolved the issue and the criminals were punished.

The second version is too similar to the truth. Even intuition agrees with her. And Shinobi's intuition is a capricious, meticulous thing.

If you think about it, it was the imperial elite guards who could so impersonally and emotionlessly kill thirty-seven people, if you count with me. And it was they who would not be able to recognize Toro Dororo as a guest, and not an inhabitant of Chueron.

If demons were attacking, they would have waited for Thoreau to leave. They couldn't help but recognize him. After all, he is not the last person in Chue, and Chue supported the demons in every possible way. They definitely had to cross more than once during the many years that negotiations were going on.

No more thoughts. And it's worth leaving this case for now and doing the cleaning.

The image, in addition to the layout of the school, gave me information about the list of literature that is stored here. Many interesting things could be found among medical and philosophical treatises, but the most relevant were the writings about the care of corpses. There are only three books: "Saving an empty vessel", "Secrets of dead Flesh" and "Ten books about fragrances". The last one was not only about dead people, but about everything in general. It was huge and old. I was hoping to find something in it that would help eliminate the smell, and I was right.

I hid the bodies in the shadows and started preparing the missing potions. I knew how to cook according to the recipe, but I also had to go to the forest for some hay, so I finished it only by lunch. Some decoctions had to be infused, but the most important one could be applied this minute, which I did.

The cloudy greenish liquid smelled a little of pepper and wormwood. That's why it was hard to believe that this was my salvation from the stench.

I found smoking sticks, dipped them in a dubious brew and set them on fire with a light release of chakra, that is, now - spiritual energy. I left a few right on the ground in the center of the yard and one next to the bodies.

At first nothing happened. Although I was surprised that the sticks caught fire at all. Then a strong smell of sandalwood and pepper began to spread from them. I was already afraid that I had done everything wrong and now I would have to breathe a wild mixture of pepper and corpse decomposition, as the smells began to go away. And everything.

As described in the book about aromas, the smell of smoking sticks soaked in a decoction of hot pepper and five field herbs is able to neutralize any rot.

In this world, it was customary to bury the deceased in wooden coffins deep underground and in no other way. That is, I had to make thirty-six coffins and dig thirty-six graves. And all this without using clones. And my relationship with the earth element was strained. I had to do everything with pens.

In short, I've been messing with this for two days, and this is with the active use of spiritual forces and without breaks for sleep and lunch. Meanwhile, there were decoctions with which I wiped Toro Dororo's body to stop the decomposition process.

After I had finished digging the last grave, I placed an open coffin at the bottom of each one. In them he laid out the bodies of everyone dressed in shrouds, except Toro. And that's why one coffin was left empty.

There were thirty-six corpses, but Toro was not part of the Chueron School, which means his body will need to be taken to the peak of the Chue warriors and buried there.

Thirty-five in total.

But there is one detail. Those who carried out the massacre killed thirty-seven people and, considering who it could be, one should not hope that they did not count the number of those executed.

There were thirty-seven corpses when they left. Corpses should not come to life. Therefore, there should also be thirty-seven corpses left.

The empty grave belongs to a certain Mr. Mo, who decided to join Chueron no earlier than the morning of the terrible day. His fate was cruel: he died during the attack.

In his grave lay only the clothes in which I woke up.

After finishing the funeral, I moved Thoreau's body to the reception hall, washed it with the solution again and changed into clean clothes.