Chapter 038: Investigating the Deceased
“No problem.”
Chen Ran happened to be looking for a suitable reason to leave. At this early stage, he felt that continuing to talk to Elena would sooner or later lead to problems. This girl didn’t seem as easy to fool as he had thought.
Chen Ran stood up, gave Elena a casual nod, and said, “Let’s leave it at that for now.”
“Thank you, Your Excellency, for enlightening me. After listening to you, I’ve understood many principles I didn’t know before. I hope to have the chance to chat with you again, Your Excellency High Priest,” Elena said with a smile, rising and gently lifting the hem of her skirt. She curtsied and then walked upstairs alone.
Chen Ran turned around and said to the mayor, “Let’s go.”
An hour later, Chen Ran walked into a dark, small room filled with the strong stench of decay.
This was a morgue, where the bodies of all the recent deceased were kept.
Unlike the past few months, the number of deaths this month was relatively high, reaching one person every three or four days. Six people had already died this month. Including the deaths from the past year, a total of more than thirty people had died in the village, mostly men, with a few women.
To not disturb the slumber of the dead, and because ordinary people wouldn’t like to enter such a ghostly place, only the coroner accompanied Chen Ran to inspect the bodies.
Covering his nose with a cloth in his left hand, Chen Ran casually lifted the sheet off a body. All he saw were headless corpses, which were exceptionally disgusting and nauseating.
Fortunately, after his experience in the jungle, Chen Ran had become accustomed to dead bodies. His calm attitude earned him the praise of the coroner.
All the deceased here had died from the same cause: their heads were neatly severed by a sword, and the heads were missing.
According to the statistics of the deceased, most of the people who had died this past year were hoodlums, thieves, or bullies in the town. The few deceased women were also some of the town’s notorious shrews and gossips. So, the deaths of these people had actually brought a bit of peace to the town, and many people had cheered for it. But there were also some ordinary people with no prior record mixed in, which at least proved that the murderer didn’t only target those with a criminal past.
These tragic cases had caused a great deal of panic. Some people with guilty consciences had tried to leave Redleaf Town but were still killed by the murderer on the road.
According to the descriptions of some of the town’s guards who had seen the murderer, the perpetrator was a black knight shrouded in black mist, riding a tall, fiery horse of an unknown breed. According to the description, the black knight came and went like the wind, and it was impossible to stop him from committing his crimes. With just a flash of his blade, he would take the head of his target and leave without lingering.
The description was quite similar to what Chen Ran had encountered that day.
Chen Ran casually looked at a few bodies and stopped in front of a well-dressed one. He casually asked the corpse keeper beside him, “Who is this guy? He looks like he had some status in your town.”
The coroner nodded and said, “Your Excellency, his name is Cole. He was the son of the richest man in town and also the mayor’s future son-in-law. But a month ago, he was also killed by that black knight on his way home at night.”
Chen Ran blinked. He hadn’t expected his luck to be so good as to randomly pick Elena’s pitiful fiancé. Although it was autumn and the temperature in this underground morgue was very low, which had slowed down the decomposition of the body as much as possible, it was still badly decayed.
“What kind of person was he before?” Because of his connection to Elena, Chen Ran was somewhat interested in learning about this guy’s background.
The coroner answered honestly, “Speaking of Young Master Cole, he was also a tyrant in the town. He used to do whatever he wanted, relying on his father’s status as the richest man in town. Because his father was often away on business, he lacked discipline. Not only did he often hold debauched parties at home with his cronies and some women, but he also had affairs with many women in the town, even forcing them to submit. Afterwards, he would just pay them off. As for the engagement with the mayor’s daughter, the mayor was originally against it, but Young Master Cole’s father personally intervened. I don’t know what was said, but he agreed. After that, the mayor also received a promise and a large betrothal gift. It’s just that I didn’t expect that he and his friends would all die at the hands of the mysterious knight. Their deaths made many people in the town cheer.”
So he was that kind of person…
Chen Ran had thought that Elena’s fiancé would be some outstanding young man, but he turned out to be such a scoundrel. It was no pity that he died.
But then again, apart from the outcome, why was this kid’s life so similar to the reincarnation he had once fantasized about? He had once thought that if he could be reincarnated, he must be a rich second-generation or an official’s second-generation, with no father or anyone else to control him. He would lead his wolfhounds and evil slaves to harass beautiful women on the street, and finally marry a goddess-like wife. That would be a heavenly enjoyment…
However, he was not happy when such a thing happened to someone else.
After looking for a while, Chen Ran had a better understanding of the specific situation in the town and quickly left the gloomy morgue.
Outside the door, the mayor and a group of town guards were waiting.
Seeing Chen Ran come out, the mayor immediately went up to him and said, “Your Excellency High Priest, did you find anything?”
Chen Ran said, “I’ve taken a rough look and have a general understanding of the situation. I have a question.”
“Your Excellency, please ask. We will definitely answer what we know.”
“I heard that some of you have tried to stop that black knight. Did the black knight not harm any of you?”
A guard who had seen the black knight before stepped forward, stood next to Chen Ran, and answered, “Your Excellency High Priest, we have also tried to stop the black knight’s advance. But at that time, we were frightened by his aura and were knocked to the ground by his warhorse as we dodged. Fortunately, we were not seriously injured, and the black knight did not take the opportunity to kill me. It seems that he has a clear target for each of his actions and does not actively attack others. As long as you don’t block his path, there usually won’t be a big problem. Otherwise, with the black knight’s skills, there would definitely be more deaths in the town.”
“Is that so?”
This discovery surprised Chen Ran. Combined with the High Priest he had seen on his way here and the unlucky coachman who had died with him, it seemed that the black knight had no intention of targeting others.
Recalling the feeling he had when he encountered the black knight, it seemed that the black knight was not human, because humans rarely had such a demonic nature. And at that time, Chen Ran had not detected any normal life signs from that guy. He was more like a so-called undead creature from the demon world.
