Chapter 630

Xia De left the large library in the basement and then returned to the third floor to see Professor Deng En:

"Professor! Have there been any murders in the academy recently?"

"Does this have anything to do with the lost antique?"

The professor put down his pen somewhat unexpectedly:

"If you want to know, it's not impossible, but for the sake of the reputation of the Midhillburg Mechanical Academy, please don't spread it. Yes, recently a student was killed, right here in this castle."

"Female?"

"How did you know?"

Because the clothes on the female evil spirit lying on Mr. Vahl's back looked very much like the standard school uniform here.

"I have my own intelligence sources, so does the poor person who died have any connection to Henry Vahl?"

The professor was even more puzzled by this question, but still thought about it:

"At least I haven't heard of any connection. The murder happened last Monday and has not been solved yet. The school prohibits gossip among students, and the newspaper office, because of the academy's relationship, has temporarily not published this news, intending to wait until the police solve the case before reporting it."

"Do you know the details of the case? For example, the location of the body, the appearance of the body, or the location of the fatal wound."

The professor shook his head:

"I only heard colleagues mention this when eating lunch. If you want to study this case, I suggest you ask the police; there are very few witnesses, and students are strictly forbidden from discussing this matter with anyone, so you won't be able to get any information here... of course, the police in Midhillburg are very rude, and you might not necessarily be able to get the information you want."

It seems Professor Deng En has a deep prejudice against the local police.

Wanting to find out the details of an undisclosed murder case from the police is certainly not easy, but fortunately, Xia De still has the pendant given by Lei Qianya in his hand.

Thus, Xia De first went to find Captain Lades, who was monitoring Henry Vahl in the library, and informed the captain that he was temporarily leaving the academy, letting the captain investigate in the academy as he pleased:

"I will be back in about an hour or two; your investigation goal for these one or two hours is to find out the details of the murder case here."

The captain agreed immediately.

Subsequently, Xia De took a carriage to the Midhillburg Police Station and spent some effort to see Deputy Chief Gulus. After showing the pendant with the royal family crest, the deputy chief immediately indicated that he could provide help.

Reviewing the case files took some time, but Xia De still saw all the details of this case.

The dead young female student was discovered on Monday morning last week. The cause of death was strangulation with a rope, and the body was severely damaged. After examination by the local coroner, the abdomen of the body was cut open by the murderer, and the liver among the internal organs was missing.

"Actually, this case was not made public also because we believe this is one of the cases in a serial murder case."

That middle-aged deputy chief said worriedly, holding his hat.

"Serial murder case? Yes, I have heard of this matter. Then in other murder cases, were the internal organs of the bodies also taken?"

Xia De asked curiously, and Deputy Chief Gulus nodded:

"Yes, including the body accidentally discovered by a hunter on Xikar Mountain, five bodies missing hearts, livers, lungs, large intestines, and kidneys have been discovered so far. All five bodies are female, aged between nineteen and twenty-seven, and the traces of the wounds indicate that the knives used by the murderer are the same, but there is no obvious connection between them. Such a heinous case is really a headache."

"I see..."

Xia De nodded and closed the file:

"Is there a reward for the case?"

"Of course there is, the City Hall and the Police Station have a joint reward; providing clues has a reward of up to 20 pounds, and finding the murderer is 100 pounds."

"So much?"

"A serial killer is worth this price."

Xia De thought for a moment, believing that he absolutely could not miss out on such a thing as gold pounds falling from the sky:

"It is now 3:30 in the afternoon. In about an hour and a half, please send someone to the Midhillburg Mechanical Academy to find Captain Lades; yes, the captain of the Royal Army of the Wind-Rising Path, he will find the real murderer."

Xia De returned the file to Deputy Chief Gulus and originally wanted to return to the Midhillburg Mechanical Academy immediately, but hesitated and asked again:

"Yesterday, there was a vicious shooting case at the Xikar Hotel near the Midhillburg train station; do you know about it?"

He still had not forgotten that the deceased was the receiver for the Grey Gloves, and the merchant who was taken away holding two guns was also likely a receiver.

"Of course I know, this is also a quite vicious case."

"Is there any follow-up?"

"Yes, yes."

Speaking of this matter, Deputy Chief Gulus held his head again, indicating a headache. He sat beside his desk piled with files and complained to Xia De:

"The murderer, that is, the merchant from Carsonrick, Bain Bennett, committed suicide early this morning."

"Suicide?"

Xia De felt he was not that surprised, so he asked again:

"Committed suicide in the police station? Is it confirmed to be suicide?"

"Yes, he died by hitting the wall directly in the interrogation room. This is a huge scandal, fortunately, it hasn't exploded yet. Also, the body of the deceased in the shooting case was moved, and the evidence for this case is also missing."

"What was lost?"

"The murderer's fountain pen."

Xia De nodded and did not ask any more questions.

There was no intelligence inside that fountain pen; he had confirmed this. In other words, the incident at the Xikar Hotel, suspected to be an internal strife of the Grey Gloves, had already killed two receivers. Now that the fountain pen was stolen, it meant that besides the current two deceased, they should have a third companion.

And that companion likely did not know details such as the time and place of the handover.

Xia De could almost be certain that the last companion was Professor Higgins, a linguistics scholar from Carsonrick who lived across from the two "merchants."

"But those who knew the handover location are all dead, and there is no intelligence in the fountain pen. If everything is normal, then the Carsonrick people will not be able to receive those goods."

Xia De sighed in his heart and then threw this matter to the back of his mind again.

(Little Mia is running...)

The internal organs of different people being taken away is very consistent with the characteristics of some illegal rituals. And the soul of the dead female student entangling Henry Vahl, who was suspected of stealing the antique bronze jar, actually already explained who the real murderer was.

Returning to the castle where the academy was located, Xia De wanted to find Henry Vahl immediately. He didn't care about any evidence; forcing a confession from the other party didn't have any moral pressure for Xia De either.

But Henry Vahl was gone, and even Captain Lades, who should have been investigating inside the castle, had lost his trace.

"I left for an hour and ten minutes..."

But fortunately, that folklore professor, Professor Deng En, was still in his office. When Xia De knocked on the door and entered, Professor Deng En thought Xia De had already found the bronze jar.

"No, no, no, I just wanted to ask, does this castle have any secret passages or secret rooms? That jar must be hidden in a place where people can't see."

Xia De asked, and the professor nodded immediately:

"Of course they exist. The predecessor of this castle was a defensive fortress on the front line of the Delarion Kingdom border. I'm afraid only the Delarion military knows how many secret passages and secret rooms exist here. But what is certain is that the place you mentioned definitely exists."

Hiding that huge bronze jar required space, and if Xia De's line of thinking was correct, the murderer of the serial murder case was also that Henry Vahl, so he must possess a secret space large enough inside the castle.

Professor Deng En had no other clues here, but when Xia De flipped through the case files at the Midhillburg Police Station, he had already seen the specific location of death. Although the deceased was strangled by a rope and there were no obvious bloodstains, since there was a cruel dissection afterward, the traces of blood must be very obvious.

Before knowing the location of death, Xia De had no way to distinguish which bloodstain was the one he was looking for in such a large castle. But since he knew the specific location and even saw several cruel black-and-white photos in the file, then the next thing was no problem.

After all, before his spell upgrade, Xia De could distinguish bloodstains from a hundred years ago in his own basement, thereby finding hidden walls.

Bidding farewell to the professor, he went to the southeast corner of the fourth floor of the castle, and at the entrance of the women's restroom, he very smoothly saw large traces of blood on the wall and floor.

Xia De was very glad that these bloodstains moved toward the stairwell instead of inside the restroom, otherwise he would have really encountered big trouble.

That clear red halo led Xia De from the southeast corner of the square-shaped castle, all the way through the stone corridor on the east side, and arrived at the classroom area on the west side of the castle. Subsequently, he came to the fifth floor from the stairs, passed the office of the noisy mathematics professors—the voices inside were discussing the issue of different remainder term expressions of Morse expansion, the quiet Luo De Card Club—the door was tightly closed with a note on it saying "Closed for three months due to suspected illegal gambling," the academy newspaper office where students went in and out—this was a non-profit newspaper published by the Midhillburg Mechanical Academy itself, and the red halo actually entered the broom closet.