"There's only one truth. The murderer. The murderer is you … Death God Roland! You're the living omen, the Bird of Death who spreads misfortune and death. You're the legendary elite Death God student who spreads misfortune everywhere you go. Just admit that you're the one who murdered her. "
"… Harloys, if I really had such an ability, you'd be the first to die. I don't mind your joke, but you should restrain yourself. If others really believe it. If new strange rumors start spreading tomorrow, I'll make you eat cat food for an entire month. "
Indeed, the current environment wasn't suitable for jokes. We were currently in the guest area of the Bardi royal palace. Palace guards were nervously entering and exiting a room on the third floor. An elderly man's corpse was already ice cold on the red oak floorboards.
Prophet Akama was lying there with his eyes closed. However, his expression was quite calm.
There were no signs of a battle. The only fatal wound was in his chest.
"He instantly ripped out his heart. He's an experienced assassin."
I pulled off the white cloth covering the corpse and saw that there was a large hole in his chest. However, there wasn't much blood around it. Judging by how clean and efficient the attack was, it was obvious that Akama had been a professional assassin.
No matter how powerful a mage was, it would be completely reasonable for an assassin to ambush them at close range and kill them in a single blow when they weren't on guard.
However, this wasn't normal at all.
Although it was common knowledge that prophets wouldn't be able to predict their own movements, prophecy and detection abilities were the natural enemies of assassins. It would be inconceivable for a veteran Level 4 mage like Akama to not have at least ten or twenty prophecy spells on him.
Detection invisibility, enemy detection, heat scanning, automatic shields, and True Luck. The slightest touch would cause a deafening alarm. It would be incredibly difficult to get close to a prophet. Even if it was me, it would be impossible for me to ambush a prophet.
If it was me who really wanted to kill a prophet, I would rather bring my sword to his doorstep. That would be much easier.
In such a situation, only a master of stealth would be able to sneak up behind the most famous prophet in the world, Akama, and kill him in a single blow when he wasn't on guard.
My fingertips touched the corpse's skin which was gradually freezing as dark magic gathered on it.
I didn't have the reasoning abilities of an elementary Death God, but I had some of the Death God's tricks. In a magical fantasy world, it wasn't difficult to make the dead speak.
The moment I summoned the soul, I met with resistance.
"Holy Water? I've really met a veteran. "
The wet liquid on the corpse's cheeks should be the holy water. If it wasn't for the stupid priest who came to purify the corpse so quickly, then it was the assassin who splashed the holy water on the corpse.
I've asked the guards around the perimeter, but no priests have arrived yet.
That meant two things. First, the assassin was very experienced. He knew that the Holy Water could stop the Soul Summoning spell. This was common knowledge that most necromancers didn't know. The second point was thought-provoking …
"The assassin knew that the corpse would soon summon a soul, and knew that a necromancer would come to see the corpse."
There were actually many limitations to the Soul Summoning Technique that extracted corpses and the souls of the living. Corpses that had been dead for too long had already lost their vitality. It was possible to summon skeletons and zombies, but it was impossible to summon the memories of souls.
Under normal circumstances, the soul would quickly return to the cycle of reincarnation. After one or two hours, even an Undead Master's Soul Summoning Spell would likely fail. And if the Soul Summoning Spell failed once, it could not be used again.
Soul Summoning Spell extracted the memories of the target's soul shards. If the Soul Summoning Spell failed once, the soul shard would completely shatter. Naturally, it would be impossible to summon the soul again.
That was why most Soul Summoning Spells targeted the living. More than 90% of undead mages would use this spell to interrogate the living. It was effective and consumed little energy, so everyone liked to use it. The side effect was that after the Soul Summoning Spell was cast, the living would become the dead as well.
Bardi was the center of the Southern Sect. Although the Bardi Empire didn't explicitly oppose or forbid undead mages, the large number of dragons and Holy Light job classes in Bardi made the Bardi Empire unfriendly toward undead mages. There weren't many undead mages in this country.
And since the assassin had already been confirmed, an undead mage would soon arrive at the scene, which was why he had made such an arrangement.
He knew that I was coming.
From a certain standpoint, this clue might be even more valuable than the dead's words. The information from Soul Summoning Spell was scattered and insignificant. It was possible that I would learn something, or I would learn nothing.
"A spy?"
"That's possible. I need to confirm it further."
I waved my hand and got up.
To be able to easily approach archmage Halent and obtain his trust, to be able to learn about my arrival, and to know about undead magic … Rather than a veteran top-level assassin of unknown origins, I was more suspicious of the other mages who came together with archmage Halent.
It was likely that some of them didn't want me to know the truth.
Halent didn't seem to be in the Bardi Empire right now. He hadn't even returned from the Bardi Empire after the foreign envoy was assassinated. I recorded some of my deductions and the situation of the crime scene. I wrote a list and tossed it to one of the guards. I had him give one copy to Halent and one copy to the archmage from the Truth Symposium.
As for finding out who the spy was, I didn't intend on interfering. That was because unlike detective stories where it would be easy to find out who the spy was, finding out who the spy was in this generation was incredibly difficult and troublesome.
Traitors wouldn't write their betrayal on their faces. Randomly suspecting someone without any clear clues would only create more distrust and chaos.
Even if there was a clue, you could accuse the traitor, but the traitor could also accuse you of framing the traitor. The mages' experience and experience in faking the traitor would be so outstanding that even the mages themselves wouldn't be able to tell. The result would be that in the end, power and reputation would be the deciding factor. The victor might not be the real deal.
The Truth Symposium had never been completely united. Many of the archmages here had come into contact with taboo magic and the Chaos Abyss. It was only natural that some of them would be related to the Chaos Faction. Knowledge of taboo magic, the power of the Chaos Abyss, and "truth" would be more than enough as payment.
Back in the day, Aso had been able to sneak into the Truth Symposium. Archmages from other species and factions would be able to do the same. I had long since guessed that there would be archmages who weren't on the same side as us. Now that the archmages had acted in order to cut off my investigation, this might not be a bad thing. A powerful archmage capable of killing Akama would definitely not be cannon fodder. Perhaps I would be able to dig out a nest of them.
This would be quite troublesome, and it would be easy for me to get dragged into this mess as well. I didn't intend to get too deeply involved.
Although this seemed to cut off all clues, prophecy magic was a major magic system. The Mage Country wasn't too far away, so I could simply look for other mages.
This also confirmed one of my suspicions.
"I'm constantly being watched. Not only that, I've already come into contact with the archmages' sensitive areas. They've been forced to take action."
It was to be expected that I would be watched. However, this made me heave a sigh of relief. If I didn't spy on the archmages, then the archmages wouldn't care about me at all. That would mean that I wasn't a threat to them at all.
It was now almost certain that the Chaos Girls were related to the Dimensional Door. In that case, I would probably need to start gathering information on the Chaos Girls.
The simplest method would be to find an Awakened Chaos Girl. "What a headache. Eliza has been constantly contacting me."
The silly cat, who would always comment on me, was currently remaining silent.
I had been hesitating over whether or not to go find Eliza for the past few days. However, I had so many things to do, and nobody knew where Eliza was currently.
"… Going there to find her probably won't be possible in just a few months."
Actually, the fact that nobody knew where Eliza was was already a great explanation.
It was likely that she was no longer in this plane. It was impossible for her to go to the Chaos Abyss. In that case, considering her situation, the Fire Elemental Plane was the most likely location for her. However, the Fire Elemental Plane was vast and dangerous. If she wanted to hide from me, it wouldn't be an easy task.
"Forget it. Let's keep a close eye on Leona."
My System had already confirmed that Leona was a Chaos Girl. Perhaps as long as I took her with me, I would be able to learn more about her sooner or later.
I had so many trivial matters to take care of, and I didn't have any time to cultivate. Naturally, I would have to postpone creating my sword. As expected, if I wanted to cultivate, it would be better to find a remote mountain or forest.
However, I wouldn't be able to have such an attitude right now. It was likely that the battle against the Undead Emperors was right around the corner. Halent was probably busy with this major event.
I had far too few chips on hand. If I joined now, I would only be able to be a hired thug. If I lost, I would have to take the blame. If I won, I wouldn't get any benefits. Perhaps I wouldn't even be able to gain any favor from Halent. This wasn't what I wanted. However, there was no reason for me to refuse.
"Roland."
Suddenly, I heard a voice. However, it didn't belong to my System or the noisy silly cat. This deep and low voice instantly helped me calm down.
"Boss Aillé? You're awake? "
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