"The Flayer Curse has weak contagious properties, so appropriate caution is needed. There are quite a few precision instruments in the clinic..."
As she spoke, Fran retrieved a long hose from a shop window along Fog Street, connected it to a fire hydrant, and began cleaning this Flayer.
Soon, the fragments of flesh and bone covering it were washed away, leaving only the mutated metal shell.
"We'll disassemble it before collection. It's a pity the living metal on its body is potentially polluting; otherwise, it could supplement our materials."
She then opened her medical case, took out her beloved circular saw... and began today's disassembly.
Not long after, the menacing and fearsome Flayer was reduced to a pile of components, neatly categorized and stored away by her.
Although it was just a single Flayer individual, according to the tracing technology of Mechanized Biology, she could reverse-analyze a lot of useful information. Moreover... the lingering curse attached to it also has its value.
After this, Fran performed a detailed full-body checkup on both Sigrid and Haida, confirmed there was no contamination, and concluded today's consultation fee acceptance.
It was getting late, and she was eager to return to the clinic for a bath... so she didn't even try to keep Haida for a cup of tea before leaving.
Haida didn't have any objections to this.
As a Burial Attendant who could climb to the rank of Mistress, this was her first time facing an enemy of this type.
The Flayer was clearly a pure mechanical construct, yet it inexplicably gave off a feeling of being "alive"... But upon closer examination, one would find this sense of facing a living being was a kind of illusion.
"Dr. Fran, does our world also have monsters like this?"
Although she sensed Dr. Fran seemed to have something urgent to attend to immediately, after all, she had been summoned late at night, asking a question shouldn't be too excessive...
"No."
Fran's tone was resolute and decisive.
"This fellow is not a local product. He's from a distant and dark universe... just like your sword. Speaking of which, the White Cup ancestors of the Lost Age could create similar products, but also only with the aid of many secret arts and rituals."
"In terms of technological level alone, even the White Cup cult at its peak would probably seem like infants in their eyes."
Haida nodded slightly with some understanding.
"I see."
As the night deepened, she bid farewell to Fran and Sigrid, traversed the mist path back to the Secrets-Hunter cult... to continue the sleep she had left unfinished earlier. A slight sense of satisfaction from taking down prey quietly emerged, sinking into dreams with her.
And Fran was finally able to head to the bathroom, remove her clothes and stockings damp with moisture and sweat, and wash away the fatigue.
---
The next day, South District.
Sunderland Street, Mandala Tavern.
Taverns are often bustling with noise at night and sparsely populated in the morning; it has always been so. But today was different.
Several Confidential Division agents in grey trench coats were searching for evidence in the tavern's room 8. The tall Silver Wing Locust stood among them, her fine brows slightly furrowed.
She held a slender lady's cigarette between her fingers, but it wasn't lit.
"Who on earth invented a garbage ritual like Retrospective Scrying? It fails at the slightest interference."
She complained somewhat irritably, raising her hand to light the cigarette between her lips.
"Supervisor Silver Wing Locust, it seems this technique originated from the Burial Court of the Lost Age..."
Vivian beside her cautiously reminded her.
"Don't remind me of such unimportant details... I know."
Silver Wing Locust lightly tapped her knuckles, rapping Vivian on the head.
While Sister Haida wasn't here, she could bully her a bit without psychological burden towards this agent who used to work under her.
Soon, the other agents sorted out several evidence bags and handed them to Silver Wing Locust.
"Supervisor, we found fragments of deactivated Cistanche within a large amount of deactivated flesh and severed limbs. It can be inferred the victims had entered the final stage of parasitism before death."
"Obvious." Silver Wing Locust wasn't surprised by this.
Two shattered heads at the crime scene without a drop of brain matter easily brings to mind these parasites that specifically eat brains.
The male agent then picked up the second evidence bag.
"There are also several shell casings and bullet fragments, matching the caliber of the rifle at the scene. They belonged to that doorkeeper."
"There are also traces of the third-category secret art Create Doorway on the floor."
Silver Wing Locust gently exhaled a wisp of smoke, speculating about last night's specific situation.
The doorkeeper Gunes and the host Nikolas both fought almost with all their might, yet death still descended upon them irrevocably. Even though Black Banyan rushed to the scene immediately upon receiving the anomaly alert, he was ultimately quite slow.
By the time he arrived, the blood from the bodies on the ground had almost drained completely.
"Like crushing dry weeds and smashing rotten wood."
The word was slowly spoken by Vivian beside Silver Wing Locust, and it was indeed what she thought. Someone had ended this brief battle with overwhelming advantage in an extremely short time.
"An unknown High Priest? Or perhaps that 'Nightmare Guest' from before?"
"Black Banyan searched all night but found nothing. This ability to move secretly... Could it really be the Nightmare Guest?"
Just as she was still pondering, a tall figure in black nun's robes appeared at the doorway... It was Haida.
The reason she hadn't arrived with Vivian was because she had been trying to track the criminal's traces with Black Banyan earlier, aiming to arrest them directly. Only after confirming no results did she come to the scene to join the investigation.
Although Black Banyan, uninterested in investigating, didn't enter the tavern, Haida wasn't alone either. As she approached Silver Wing Locust, Fran also entered the room with light steps.
"Good day, Dr. Fran."
Seeing Fran enter with a smile, Silver Wing Locust inexplicably felt somewhat guilty. It was like a young person secretly smoking with Alwin and suddenly getting caught red-handed by the team leader.
Fran slightly tilted her head. Out of a doctor's concern for health, she couldn't help but remind her.
"The Confidential Division is a high-stress profession; smoking moderately to relieve mood is understandable. But one shouldn't overdo it, okay?"
"Mhm, I know."
Silver Wing Locust was worried her cigarette pack might disappear mysteriously again like last time, so she was extra careful. As a Confidential Division supervisor, being unknowingly robbed by a doctor twice in a row... would be rather embarrassing.
She felt the small cigarette case in her chest pocket; good, it wasn't missing.
Haida walked to the center of the chaotic crime scene and looked solemnly at the doctor beside her.
"Dr. Fran, this incident was sudden. The workload might be considerable, I'll trouble you."
"Between us, there's no need for such formality. Besides... this is also what a 'Medical Examiner' should do."
Fran placed her hands behind her back, revealing a cunning, low laugh imperceptibly. Her amber eyes flickered slightly, as if brewing something.
She first took out instruments from her medical case and examined all the corpses in detail and rigor. At times she seemed puzzled, at other times as if enlightened.
After a while, Fran came to Nikolas, whose head had been shattered by a gunshot, and showed the gruesome crack on this host's forehead to the people beside her.
"Gunshot wound."
"This shot almost turned his head into fragments, matching the caliber of that bolt-action rifle. Although they were all controlled by Cistanche, for some reason a misattack occurred. Perhaps the perpetrator has the ability to disrupt others."
"Disruption, huh..."
Silver Wing Locust's gaze sharpened slightly, thoughtful.
After introducing the preliminary findings used as an appetizer, Fran then walked towards Schmidt, who lay on the ground with a pierced heart.
"This deceased is the most special. There are extensive burns on his body, but none are fatal. The fatal wound is the penetrating heart damage. Another point to note is... his brain is missing."
As she spoke, she knocked on Schmidt's forehead, producing two hollow, crisp sounds.
During the earlier examination phase, Fran had already cut open his head, revealing the pale, empty skull.
"Nerves intact, blood vessels undamaged. The skull shows no signs of being opened, nor any Cistanche parasitism... Such perfect organ removal technique is rare in Norlington."
"And the last time we saw something similar was recently, at the Mirror of Enlightenment Club."
The atmosphere became tense for a moment, a name long since very familiar quietly emerged.
...Nightmare Guest.
If the Mandala Tavern incident was truly done by that fellow, it means he didn't leave Norlington as anticipated... but instead hid within the city after the first crime, only striking again yesterday.
"Quite bold."
Silver Wing Locust habitually flicked the ash from between her fingers of her lady's cigarette, then noticed the feel of this cigarette was somewhat strange.
Hard, slender, and with a peculiar sweet fragrance...
Upon closer inspection, she found it had somehow been replaced by a chocolate bar, the aroma of crushed nuts and cocoa butter softly diffusing.
"I baked them this morning myself. Hope you'll accept them."
Fran beside her picked up an already extinguished lady's cigarette, wrapped it in a handkerchief, and confiscatingly placed it into her own pocket.
Switched when I was distracted earlier? But... how was it so fast? I didn't even notice.
"...Thank you."
Silver Wing Locust narrowed her eyes slightly, chewing the biscuit in her mouth with slight indignation.
Crispy and richly fragrant... very tasty. Even Silver Wing Locust had to praise her skill.
Although maintaining composure is the most basic requirement for a Confidential Division agent, for some reason, facing this doctor always stirred a strange sense of competitiveness in her...
Fran truly enjoys teasing others, but usually her sense of propriety is quite appropriate. Haida was long accustomed to this.
Besides, the target this time wasn't herself...
Therefore, she didn't pay much attention to the earlier minor episode, focusing more on the details of the investigation.
"The blood vessel incision is smooth, no tearing. The skull also shows no signs of violent opening. The brain was indeed taken away out of thin air."
"But this scene has many differences compared to the Mirror of Enlightenment Club incident..."
Haida carefully examined the combat traces on the ground, trying to reconstruct last night's true situation from the clues.
"At the Mirror of Enlightenment, Priestess Dorothy was able to repel the Nightmare Guest with just one Lamp cult relic. But this time... he managed to kill all the victims while facing three opponents. It's strange."
"According to Dorothy's testimony, the injury left by S-066 Faded to Pure White should at least deprive him of spellcasting ability for half a year."
Silver Wing Locust, having arrived at the scene first and examined the evidence for a while, had naturally noticed this too.
"Indeed."
"All signs indicate that what happened here last night was by no means an evenly matched struggle, but an overwhelming slaughter."
She looked at Gunes's upper body scattered all over the floor and curled her lip with some disgust.
"A Stellar Abyss Society's 'Tide-Listener,' a 'Doorkeeper,' and a White Cup teaching assistant... on average all second-ladder secret cult disciples. Yet fighting on their own home ground, they didn't even have a chance to escape."
"The Nightmare Guest absolutely could not achieve this level while injured."
Those around agreed with this view. Fran also stood to the side, arms crossed, nodding deeply in agreement.
Haida crouched down, scooped up some of the already congealed blood plasma from the ground with her fingertips, and brought it to her nose for a light sniff.
The remaining spiritual essence in the blood had already dissipated completely, leaving only a faint salty, fishy smell.
With no surviving eyewitnesses, she couldn't use her own profiling talent for spiritual empathy. She could only roughly judge last night's situation based on experience.
Carbonized burn marks, a penetrating chest and abdomen wound, and also the shattered upper body... The perpetrator each time inflicted savage and ruthless, instantly fatal damage. Was it because they never intended to leave survivors, or because they knew in advance the victims had become Cistanche hosts?
Or perhaps, both?
"But we still cannot completely eliminate suspicion against the Nightmare Guest."
After much consideration, she said gravely.
"Supervisor Silver Wing Locust, according to the records in the General Compendium of Relics, the effect of S-066 Faded to Pure White fails under three specific circumstances."
"First, purification by specific rituals. Second, overwriting by a higher-tier relic. Third, the victim themselves underwent a transformation at the essential level."
Haida's meaning was expressed very clearly. Silver Wing Locust also couldn't help but start thinking in this direction.
"You mean... he was promoted? That Lamp Priestess's eyeball was actually the spirit-infused material he used to climb to a higher ladder?"
"If it was still the Nightmare Guest's doing, then I'm afraid that is the only possibility."
+++
T/N: Hey readers~! New Translator here! Before I say anything, I'd first like to thank the original author for creating this wonderful story. Without them, I wouldn't have the chance to share this adventure with you. I hope my translation does justice to their work, and that together, we can enjoy this story.
With that said, I'm happy to let you know I'll be uploading daily chapters. And for those who wish to support my work and gain early access, I've set up a Patreon where advanced chapters will be available.
[email protected]/PeakTL