The black sun hangs high

Chapter 87 Traceability
The cold air rushed along the plateau.

As the dark, somber hues of all the buildings in the royal city of Borden were replaced by pure white, snowflakes also began to fall over the distant city of Seren.

They spun and fell amidst billowing smoke, many melting into snowmelt in the rising flames before even touching buildings or the ground.

A pale curtain of snowflakes blocked out all sound from the city of Seren, plunging the city, which was crying out in pain and panic, into silence.

Early morning hours.

The spellcasters of the Legal Committee, responsible for maintaining the sealing ceremony of Seren, approached the south gate of Seren once again with a convoy carrying important supplies.

This is the last city gate that was left vacant and preserved after multiple rounds of coordination. All the other exits of Seren City have now been controlled by the armies of both Wotel and Delan. The mages of the Legal Committee who remain near those city gates only have the authority to maintain the integrity of the sealing ceremony and to determine whether any unexpected situations may occur.

The convoy that accompanied the Legal Committee mainly transported important military supplies—alchemical bombs as consumables, magical flamethrowers that ordinary people could use at will, crystal guns, and special crystal bullets that could cause small-scale fire explosions.

According to the Legal Committee's assessment, without these items, the mages and soldiers in the city would have a hard time controlling the situation.

Now, they not only need to deal with the "black mud" roaming through Seren, but also with wave after wave of riots and attacks launched by the city's residents.

As a special city that holds a peace celebration every year, Seren City naturally has abundant emergency reserves. In fact, both the Kingdom of Water and the Kingdom of Delan intentionally give preferential treatment in this regard. With their support, Seren City has never been affected by famine, disease or other problems in the past two hundred years. Because of the peace celebration, merchants and wealthy families in the city also store daily necessities and some easily preserved food.

However, the problems facing Seren now far exceed the limits that the city and its residents can bear.

The food will be eaten.

The clean water will run out.

The weapons used to protect themselves and their families will also be exhausted.

When these things that sustain people's lives are exhausted, all past hopes will turn into despair.

Not to mention, there is still such a strange and terrifying existence in the city.

Over the past period, many residents have discovered that their neighbors have disappeared without a trace overnight, whether they are elderly, children, or strong young people... No matter who goes missing, no body can be found and no trace can be found.

Everyone knows that the silt is launching new attacks every day, its appetite is growing, and as a result, more and more people are going missing. The soldiers and mages in the city are helpless against it. Since its previous defeat in the square, the monster has completely hidden itself in the city's sewers. Under these circumstances, let alone actively pursuing it, even some defensive strongholds with slightly weaker personnel and weapons will be completely swallowed up due to momentary negligence.

Under these circumstances, it is virtually impossible to completely eliminate the hidden dangers in the city.

A young mage in the group swung the Magic Path Pendulum in his hand, his gaze sweeping across the city walls of Seren and the semi-transparent ritual site covering the walls in the distance.

After confirming that the ritual site was intact, he put away the magical tools in his hands, looked at the various emergency supplies that had been delivered, and asked in a low voice, "So, besides sending these things every day, is there anything else we can do?"

"What else?"

Another mage in the group turned around and glanced at his companion: "We can't do anything outside of orders, Valery. Don't have too many impulsive ideas."

"I just feel that what we need to send in shouldn't just be these weapons; in fact... they probably won't solve any problems."

Valery said with great difficulty that the young mage from the Kingdom of Saint Steel had short hair and a resolute face, with dark brown eyes and hair. He was strong and did not look like an ordinary magic scholar at all, but more like a soldier, warrior or even a farmer.

He had worked for two years at the Serenity City branch of the Legal Committee, so he has a very deep affection for the city.

He was extremely saddened by what was happening before his eyes.

The procession stopped at the south gate of the city.

Through the semi-transparent ceremonial field, people could clearly see the scene inside the city gate. In the past few days, at this time every year, soldiers responsible for monitoring and defending the city gate would appear on the opposite side of the ceremonial field. At that time, the convoy members would transfer the supplies to large, inanimate carts and send these carts full of supplies directly into the city of Seren.

People naturally wouldn't go in.

Because once inside, one will inevitably be restricted by the ritual site and will never be able to come out again.

But today, the soldiers responsible for receiving the supplies have yet to appear.

Even through the thick ceremonial hall, everyone could feel the overwhelming sense of deathly silence and oppression.

After an anxious wait, someone finally came into view.

That was a soldier.

He was wearing the military uniform of the independent government of Seren, but his hat was gone, and the scabbard of his standard short sword hung crookedly in front of him, while the short sword itself was nowhere to be found.

The soldier's face was covered in soot and bloodstains. Perhaps because he had cried, the tears had washed away the dirt on his face, leaving several shallow streaks. He dragged his short-barreled crystal gun and walked step by step to the place near the city gate ceremony site, staring blankly at the mages "separated by a wall".

"Unload, load the trucks," a mage whispered the order. But before the workers accompanying the convoy could even begin their work, Valery nudged him lightly: "Hey..."

The monk turned his head in confusion, and then he saw that the soldier standing in the city gate was shaking his head at them.

He refused the supplies.

So far, no one else has appeared at the city gate except for this soldier.

Valery noticed something and stepped forward to try and communicate with the soldier, but the soldier slowly walked to the city gate and sat down, leaning against the wall bricks that had been blackened by fire.

He opened his ammunition pouch, selected a crystal bullet made by Merlinle and the Legal Committee workshop, and tremblingly loaded it into his crystal gun.

In the silent morning, under the watchful eyes of the mages, the lone soldier, bathed in the falling snowflakes, turned his somewhat outdated short-barreled crystal gun upside down, pressing the muzzle firmly against his chin.

The trigger was pulled.

The isolation of the ceremony site meant that not a single gunshot was heard, just like the shells that had landed in the city earlier.

Valery, who witnessed this moment, couldn't help but shudder. He looked at his equally dumbfounded companion beside him, wanting to say something, but in the end, he swallowed all his words back.

……

Hugh put down the newspaper he was holding.

There is still no news about Seren in today's Borden newspaper.

The conference of the allied nations, chaired by Princess Sophia, has concluded successfully at the Adron Hotel. During this time, the envoys and officials of the Kingdom of Delan, who were also staying at the Adron Hotel, tried more than once to speak with the leaders of the Kingdom of Wotel, but their requests were completely ignored.

During the meeting, Finn Asalair, a mountain elf mage who served as the steward of the Walter royal family, made a brief appearance. He used magic to issue an extremely stern warning to the visitors from the Kingdom of Delan, stating that if the visitors from the Kingdom of Delan continued to offend the dignity of the Kingdom of Walter and the royal family, they would be stripped of all foreign guest privileges and expelled from Borden.

On the newspaper pages, reporters even photographed the scene of Butler Finn reprimanding the Delan officials. In the animated magical image, the elven royal butler's arrogant demeanor was on full display, while the Delan people opposite him, suffering such treatment, could only swallow their anger, each of them with a twisted and ferocious expression...

"The Waterloo people will definitely love this news..."

Hugh put down the newspaper he was holding.

The snow fell all night, turning the entire Ernst Manor into a silvery-white world. Standing at the window, he could see the servants pushing small "snow melters" along the roads. These special and ingenious alchemical gadgets could quickly melt the nearby snow, making them perfect for clearing the roads.

The drink in his hand was still a refreshing herbal tea.

Just when Hugh thought the classic "locked room mystery" scenario was about to unfold in Ernst's manor, all the unusual phenomena suddenly ceased.

No more strange events occurred in the latter half of the night.

However, Hugh remained highly vigilant. In the latter half of the night, the mad rat Sniggy was ruthlessly exploited by Hugh. Under his orders, Sniggy ran through almost every floor. In order to confirm as much as possible what the so-called "family will" in the manor hotel was, Hugh even instructed Sniggy to crawl through the sewers again and successfully sneak into room 410, where the accident had occurred earlier.

As Zeke Ernst had previously revealed, the Ernst family did not interfere much with what happened at the manor hotel. After the accident, all they did was take away Miss Elena, the victim, and use a magical ritual to seal the broken windows and the room doors.

As for the messy room, they didn't clean it at all.

Therefore, in room 410, Hugh, relying on Sniggy's eyes and the traces left at the scene, roughly reconstructed what Elena had experienced in the room.

"When the accident happened, Miss Elena should not have fallen asleep yet. Judging from the books that fell on the bed, she was reading before bed... Elena is also a literature enthusiast, and she probably prefers military themes. There are several best-selling books on the market on her bedside table, which is very much in line with Miss Walter's style."

Hugh gently twirled the magic ink pen, mentally reviewing and organizing his findings from the previous night: "Like most people, Miss Elena only used the bedside lamp when she read before bed, which was the one that was later thrown out the window. That's why the whole room went dark after that lamp flew out the window."

He put down his ink pen, picked up his teacup, and looked at his untouched, soft bed: "The attack on Elena came without any warning... When the attack occurred, the lamp hanging above was first impacted and shattered, and then the attack officially began... Elena was thrown off the bed by that unknown thing. In the process, she may have accidentally knocked the lamp to the ground, or she may have grabbed it in the chaos."

"The things on the desk were in complete disarray. Miss Elena had clearly struggled violently, but then the window was broken open, and the force tried to push Miss Elena out of the window. And then what I saw with my own eyes."

Hughes looked up at the ceiling.

"The first metal bullet hit 'that thing's' head, but eventually the bullet embedded itself in the ceiling. It is clear that what constitutes 'that thing's' body is probably not a solid object. What interfered with it was not the impact of the bullet, but the magic crystals embedded in the bullet."

"Then came the second and third shots... leaving marks on the two walls of the room. The second magical bullet left only a limited mark, mainly because most of its magic was exhausted upon contact with the target."

After finishing the last sip of tea, Hugh put down his teacup and casually tied his already rather long hair back around his head.

"This allows us to draw a preliminary, rough conclusion: the unknown force existing in the manor hotel may not be a particularly powerful entity. Regardless of whether its previous actions were a test or something else, judging from the results, magic of the level of magical bullets may already be enough to hinder it."

"However, there are still doubts here. What was its purpose in launching the attack? If it was to kill Elena, then judging from the traces in the room, it didn't need to make such a big fuss. This behavior seems more like a deliberate demonstration, just like those killers who deliberately provoke others."

(End of this chapter)