Chapter 53

"Let's first close the door." He said, pushing the unreached door with his push symbol.

He looks around a bit and locked the area with his mana.

"hmm….let's see, a cut on her throat, by a knife? Or something else?"

His "all-seer" was already active so he arched her neck to fully view the cut with his mana-covered hand.

"Sheesh, it's not so deep and not so shallow from the looks of it. The murderer may be wanted to just silence her first, giving her a long painful death. Even a noob like me can see that without using "all-seer"."

He used his eyes to view if there are any remains of mana around her body and thankfully, there were some remains on her neck.

"Magic hmm…..so this proves it wasn't done by knife or any other tools. But which Magic symbol though? Water, earth, and fire are out of the option as all of them would leave some mark. Most likely one would be air. So it's an air symbol user. He or she may use other elements as well but this proves, Air is also part of the murderer's arsenal. Well, that is not much of a clue."

He then focused his eyes on her heart and saw the remaining of her mana slowly disappearing.

"hmm….there are still small bits of mana remaining on her heart, so it hasn't been too long she died huh." he said as he gazed at her heart with his "all-seer".

"Wait! What if my system calculated the rate of the mana disappearing from her body? It would surely lead to the moment when she started losing her mana in other words the moment when she lost her life." He said as he scanned her mana signature with his advance "all-seer".

[Mana signature detected

Scanning…..

Scan complete.

Calculating disappearing rate…..

Calculation done.

"System, use the answer to determine how much time it took for all of her mana to disappear."

'There may be some errors if she used her mana to a large amount before she died, but her job doesn't require her to use much of her mana, so the calculation should still be safe.'

Calculating….

Calculation done.

= 15:36]

"Fifteen hours, thirty-six minutes ago. Hmm...that means it was done between two pm and three pm. if I recall properly, wasn't that the time, when I and Alina left the guild. There were still adventurers and other staff working there. Damn, doesn't that means the killer killed her when there were still people around? Fuck! So we are dealing with an assassin of some sort or maybe I am speculating too much.

I guess I will ask the staffs first what happened in that time frame."

.

.

.

.

"....so, you are telling me that, you or anyone here, didn't saw the victim 'Yuna', going inside the changing room between 2 pm and 3 pm," Atlas asked the male staff in front of him.

"Umm…yeah, everyone including me, was busy looking at the angel-like Alina passing through." The boy said trying to remember that moment.

'haa…..all the staff are giving the same fucking answer, can't blame Alina being so attractive though. If no one knows, it will be a dead-end.' He thought with a sigh.

"so, anybody you know, who might know what happened in that time?" Atlas asked.

"hmm…I don't know….wait! Liyana should know!!" the boy suddenly shouted.

"oh! Where is she then?"

"Wait, let me call her."

With that, he went to search for her but after a five minute or so, he came back with a confused face.

"What happened? Where is she?"

"Umm…..she is absent for the meantime it seems." He said in a confused reaction.

"I see…..but you seem confused…. Isn't she on a holiday or a break?"

"No…she is actually a hard worker and also everyone's favorite really. She never just turned absent without any prior notice. Even the leader held her in high regard."

"hmm…..is she proficient in air symbol?" Atlas asked.

"Oh yes, she is very skilled with that one. That's one of the reasons why the leader made her temporary assistant in times when Ms. Alina was busy or absent."

"hmmm….."

"wait, you are not doubting her right?"

"hmm….why?"

"I assure you, she is not. She has been working here for a year now and I know her very well, so I assure you she has no reason to kill Yuna." The boy said in confidence.

'…..even more, reasons to doubt then.' Atlas thought.

After talking with the staff, he went to Joseph's office to procure more info on the girl who everyone called Liyana.

Knock! Knock!

Atlas knocked on his door. He wanted to see the files on the workers here, mostly on Liyana of course. There must be more detailed information of her recorded on some file and where to look for that kind of file than the head leader's office itself.

"who?" joseph asked in irritation.

"it's me…"

"come in then, you don't have to knock."

Atlas entered and saw the respected leader behind a pile of papers.

"well….you seem busy or irritated I presume," Atlas asked.

"haa…..both. I thought Liyana would still be here if Alina wasn't around but she's also nowhere to be found. Dumping all the work on me!!!"

"Well, talking about Liyana. Do you have info on her, I mean literal data, not your hour-long verbal information."

Joseph was going to say something but stopped midway. He pouted and pointed towards the drawer near him.

"what? Is she a suspect or something?"

"To tell the truth, not a suspect but the actual killer if I am right." He said.

"....well, are you sure? That's quite an accusation you are making. You just started investigating like what, half an hour ago?"

"ha….I know, I know. She wouldn't do this, yada…yada…"

"....well, you are right that I trust her but if I choose to trust between you and her, I would easily trust you who is a fellow Alibion adventurer. So keep doing what you think is right. I won't interject. "

"Ohh!!" Atlas said in surprise.

"….why?" he asked Joseph.

"For reasons, you don't need to know." He said writing on some papers on his desk.

"hmm...ok…."

He went to the drawer and searched for the file he was probing for and finally found a data book on the staff members then started searching for the name Liyana right away.

After flipping every page, he finally found her and to his surprise, she seemed to be the same girl he met when he first arrived here. Yes, she was the receptionist who suddenly asked him to show his face out of nowhere. He showed the picture of the girl to Joseph.

"Is this the same girl name Liyana, whom you were talking about earlier?"

"huh, yes…" he answered.

"I see…..i will check out her location and try to ask questions if necessary."

"I already told you, you do you. In the end, it's your responsibility." He said, still trying to write using his thick fingers holding his thin pen.

"….ok."

Atlas went his way out, closing the door when suddenly he heard something break like a stick.

"haa!!! Why can't I fucking write??!!!" Joseph's loud voice echoed out.

'Now I feel sad for him…' he thought.

He had taken the page from the file and from her recorded information, her home was located at the noble's section.

"And it's near Bela's Mansion. Is there some kind of link here that I am not seeing? I guess I will find out when I'm there."

He teleported near Bela's home right away, appearing somewhere in the alley. There were some people there when he appeared out of nowhere but he wasn't worried as he did it on purpose to experiment with something for himself.

He walked towards the two simple guards who were shocked and scared seeing a man appear out of nowhere. They were just simple guards who didn't know anything about 'Blink' let alone full-on teleportation.

Looking at the masked man coming near and near, they wanted to run away but they were already scared shitless from the aura the mysterious man was giving away. Their mouth shut, hand and foot shaking in dread. The next one even peed his pants when the tall masked man stopped right before him.

"haa…..you had to pee your pants with just a little bit of my aura huh," Atlas said.

Both of them said nothing, only looking up to him in full fear and dread.

Atlas only sighed and went a step closer.

"Alibion" he suddenly said.

With that single word he used his aura concealing to the maximum and jumped towards a roof nearby. For him he just his technique and jumped to a higher plane but for the both of them who were shivering in fear, after a single blink, he was gone.

"wh…where did he go?" one of them asked.

"I don't care, t..thank god he l..left us. I….I thought m..my end was near a second a..ago." the one who pissed his pants said still shivering.

"what?"

"….what?"

"wait….what were we talking about?"

"huh?....did you forgot? There was a.....? what was I saying Before?"

"….i don't know, wait why do I smell piss?"

"Yeah, me too. It stinks."

"…..wait it's coming from you." He said looking at him and saw his wet pants.

"Did you pissed your pants!!??" he shouted.

"Wait what??!! I did??!"

.

.

.

.

Atlas was listening and watching both of them bickering from the nearby roof and smiled.

"Experiment successful I guess." He said with a smile.

"But damn! How is this even possible? There really must be someone, truly fucking powerful to enchant people like this with a single word. Have to ask Bela if I meet her."

Atlas looked around and gazed at the huge mansion. It was a colossal building with a massive garden of its own. White towers standing tall at their four corners. The color of the palace-like mansion was fully white, attracting more attention than necessary. The statues, carvings, even the architectural design of the building itself were marvelous.

"A fitting home for her, I suppose."

After gazing contently at her gorgeous home. He focused on the side where his current goal was.

He increased his vision at a certain house nearby and peeked inside. After confirming it was suitable to teleport. He used it right away appearing inside.

To his shock, the room was completely empty. No sofas, chairs, or even crystal lights. He scanned around with his "all-seer" but found nothing.

"I guess, I was right. Ha…..but it seems she already escaped. Well, I have her picture, so there is no getting away from me."

"well, you are on the wrong on that." A seductive voice echoed from behind, suddenly hugging him.

Atlas knew who she was, her voice and the feeling of her twin peaks on his back already gave her identity away.

"And why's that Bela?" Atlas asked.

*****

Thank you for reading! The next chapter is free on patr eon (https://www.patr eon.com/Highelder), eight chapters beyond that for three dollars, and many more for five dollars (five-chapter release a week at this tier).

And if you want to ask any questions I'm in discord: https://discord.gg/QbWyAP3Y8j