West Borough, Williams Street, where the Night Watchers' squad was stationed.
"Alright, Captain, I'll complete this task."
Inside the captain's office, Klein accepted what was, in the true sense, his first assignment since coming to Backlund.
He was to head to a nearby nursing home to investigate an incident that might involve Beyonder factors.
The specific task was as follows: a couple who had been living out their retirement at the nursing home had, just a few days ago, suddenly gone blind in both eyes. At the same time, other residents living with them had also developed varying degrees of abnormal changes in their eyes.
The materials provided above did not go into detail about what kinds of eye abnormalities had appeared.
It was only suspected that Beyonder elements might be involved, so he was asked to go and investigate the matter thoroughly.
The moment Klein accepted the task, he retrieved detailed information about the couple from the archives.
The husband was named Inspector Reed.
Inspector Reed had originally been an inspector at the West Borough Police Department. Just over a month ago, a gas pipeline explosion occurred in their home, triggering a massive fire. Their only son died in that fire, and they themselves subsequently suffered mental breakdowns and were sent to a nursing home.
This was the official explanation given to the public. As a Night Watcher, Klein had access to another set of materials.
Inspector Reed's newborn son, not even a month old, was the offspring of an evil god. Before he could trigger a major disaster, the Church of Storms joined forces with the Church of the Evernight Goddess and the Church of Steam and Machinery to eliminate this evil god's offspring in advance, preventing the spread of harm.
In that incident, disasters occurred throughout Backlund, hundreds of people died, and the area near Inspector Reed's home was reduced to utter ruin.
Their son, the evil god's offspring, naturally perished in that incident.
Inspector Reed and his wife had not completely lost their sanity; they were simply overwhelmed with grief over their son's death.
Considering that Inspector Reed and his wife had lived with the evil god's offspring for a long time and might have been infected, church personnel decided to send them to a nursing home for observation.
This should have been the best choice, yet just a few days ago, Inspector Reed and his wife both went blind, and people living around the nursing home were also affected by unknown influences.
That was why the matter was released as a task, prompting the churches to send Beyonders to investigate.
Klein was one of the two people chosen by the Church of the Evernight Goddess for this mission; the other was Leonard.
The Church of Storms and the Church of Steam and Machinery each sent one Beyonder as well to participate in the investigation.
Upon reading this, Klein understood why this task had him and Leonard assigned together, and why he had been made the person in charge.
Back in Tingen, they had once jointly dealt with an incident involving an evil god's offspring. This task was indeed well suited for the two of them.
For the sake of caution, Klein also carefully reviewed Inspector Reed's life story, as well as his experiences during the period before and after the evil god's offspring incident.
At around three in the afternoon, Klein arrived at the nursing home. After waiting for nearly half an hour, Leonard and the other two Beyonders arrived one after another.
Klein greeted them, briefly familiarizing himself with everyone.
"Leonard, haven't you been resting well lately?"
"Huh?" Klein's sudden question caused Leonard to freeze on the spot.
Even though there was no particular meaning in Klein's gaze, being examined like this still made Leonard's cheeks heat up, and he instinctively wanted to avoid Klein's line of sight.
Feeling embarrassed, that was his strongest sensation at the moment.
Fortunately, Klein didn't know about his recent romantic involvement with Seraphina, much less that Seraphina was a witch. Otherwise, he really would have died of embarrassment on the spot.
"You seem restless. Have you run into something lately?" Klein continued to ask.
"Training's been pretty intense recently, and I haven't been sleeping well at night."
Leonard made up an excuse, then urged Klein and the others to hurry and proceed with investigating Inspector Reed and his wife.
Klein did not act rashly. Instead, he first asked the nursing home director for a set of records, then had Leonard and the others go question other people, before finally going to face Inspector Reed and his wife.
This set of records detailed every aspect of Inspector Reed and his wife's daily life after entering the nursing home.
At first, the two of them often cried silently, grieving for their son who had not yet grown up.
Painful and silent, this was a true portrayal of that period of their lives.
But seven days ago, Inspector Reed and his wife began to mutter to themselves intermittently.
At first, the staff did not pay much attention, thinking it was merely hallucinations caused by excessive grief.
However, four days ago, Inspector Reed and his wife simultaneously went blind, and other nursing home residents began to develop different kinds of eye abnormalities one after another.
Only then did the staff take notice of the nearly crazed self-talk of Inspector Reed and his wife.
"Our child won't die. He's still alive, still alive."
"Yes, I even saw our child already grown up. He's on the sea now, boasting about conquering the ocean."
"Yes, our child has already grown up. We will definitely be able to see him again, and then hold him in our arms like we did when he was little."
"Child, when will our child come back?"
"When the time comes for him to return, he will return."
...
"What would be a suitable name for our child?"
"Baron Hastur Campbell has already promised me that he would give our child a suitable name. I've been looking forward to this day all along."
"He really is so kind."
"Yes, he has always been very kind and has taken good care of us. Without his help, our child probably wouldn't even have had the chance to be born."
"He hasn't seen our child yet, right?"
"He missed it. It's fine, we'll still have the chance in the future to bring our child before him and let him see just how adorable our child is."
"He will definitely like him, just as we like this child."
...
Klein read through all of these mad, self-directed ramblings.
If this matter was truly influenced by Beyonder factors, then these so-called insane words might conceal important clues.
In this regard, Klein had always been very vigilant.
After Klein finished reading this batch of materials, the other two Beyonders who had gone out to handle matters returned to regroup with him. Leonard did not appear, which gave Klein the illusion that he seemed to be deliberately avoiding him.
"We've already finished investigating. The other people whose eyes showed abnormalities all came after the chief inspector and his wife."
"Those people's eyes were clearly altered due to the influence of some mysterious power."
"Is this some kind of infection?"
"It's possible."
The two Beyonders then began to describe the abnormalities in those people's eyes.
Some people's eyes had turned into vertical pupils, claiming they could see the future. They repeatedly insisted that last night they had already foreseen our arrival, and even said that there would be five people in our group.
Some people's eyes narrowed into a thin slit. They said their eyes could see scenery thousands of miles away, and spoke with great seriousness as they described the conditions by the seaside to us.
Quite a few people's eyes had changed to different colors, giving rise to all kinds of strange eyes, red eyes, white eyes, green eyes, blue eyes, purple eyes...
Truly dazzling and multicolored.
There were also some people whose eyes mutated into the eyes of animals, and their behavior and temperament gradually drew closer to the animal instincts corresponding to those eyes.
"For now, we can't be sure that the source of the infection is the chief inspector and his wife. Aside from being blind in both eyes and liking to mutter to themselves, they don't show any particularly special behavior. Their mental state also looks quite normal."
Klein listened silently, feeling that the influence of this Beyonder incident was somewhat extensive.
So many people had developed abnormalities. Who knew what strange events might happen in the future.
"Let's go see the chief inspector and his wife."
Klein made a decision and led the two Beyonders toward the small courtyard where the chief inspector and his wife lived separately.
Ever since the abnormality occurred, the staff of the nursing home had separated the chief inspector and his wife from the others.
Near a cluster of flowerbeds, the chief inspector and his wife had their eyes tightly shut, supporting each other, seemingly whispering something to one another.
Klein didn't have anyone disturb them. Instead, he deliberately softened his footsteps, slowly approaching to a spot not far from the couple, and listened carefully to the murmurs coming from their mouths.
"Someone else has come. What do they want to do?"
"I don't know. We're just blind people. Our lives are nothing but darkness. What this world is really like has nothing to do with us."
"Our child, could our child also be living in darkness?"
"I don't know. It's hard for me to see him all the time. Only if he's willing can I see him."
"It's fine. He's still young right now. In the future, he won't be so willful anymore."
"Mm, let's go look in the mirror. I'm liking it more and more, examining myself through a mirror."
"But aren't we blind?"
"Yes. Only blind people are suited to look in mirrors."
Listening to these chaotic yet somewhat logical words, Klein had already gained a rough understanding of the current mental state of the chief inspector and his wife.
Madness was not necessarily madness. Perhaps after losing the light in their eyes, they truly came to see something.
There was no shortage of such examples in the Beyonder world.
If the chief inspector and his wife were truly the source of this Beyonder incident at the nursing home, then deep contact and communication would be unavoidable.
Klein slowly walked to the front of the couple and said politely, "Chief Inspector Reed, I have a few questions I'd like to ask you. May I ask if you have time right now?"
"What do you want to ask?"
Chief Inspector Reed stopped in his tracks. His tightly shut eyes made it impossible to peer through their eyes and glimpse their true thoughts.
"I'd like to know what your child looks like now."
After thinking for a moment, Klein decided to start with the child as a breakthrough point.
From the information he had read earlier, the child was the weakest point in the hearts of the chief inspector and his wife.
If they were truly influenced by some Beyonder ability, then it must be because of the existence of this crack in their hearts.