Demon's Virtue
chapter-236

Eiro looked at Bahlsen with his arms crossed, waiting for him to properly explain how this alley was the place they had to start looking for the 'Collector'. And he swiftly did just that.

"You see, the Collector has a few different habits. The most important one to take notice of being that he picks his victim seemingly at random. Some of them have vague connections to each other, while others couldn't be more different. That's because he doesn't care about things like social status, age, gender, or how his victims look... simply about their parts. As if he was shopping, simply picking out the best of the best as he comes across it."

"Hm, that does make sense... If he wants to create some kind of abomination, using the strongest and highest-quality ingredients would make quite a lot of sense." The Demon pointed out with a slow nod, although he was surprised to see that Bahlsen shook his head.

It seemed like there was more to it, "'Best' doesn't mean 'highest quality' in this case. His victims do often follow something like a theme, albeit a very, very subtle one that many could never pick up. But I managed to by now. In retrospect, the theme during which my wife and daughter were killed by him was simple. They were startled by a shell-rat running over the ground in front of them while they were at the market. The collector saw, and chose them. He already picked out three targets this time around, excluding the one you are looking for, so I managed to figure out the theme this time around. And it's just as arbitrary as ever."

Eiro looked at him with a light frown, curious about what it might be. What it was that caused that man to kill all these people, "...They sneezed." Bahlsen explained, "That's all they did. It's the only connection I could come up with."

The Demon stared at Bahlsen with a frown. "How do you even make connections like that? How could you possibly know that?"

"Ah, it's simple. The collector always looks for his victims in highly-populated places. It seems to be a thrill to him of sorts. So, all that I had to do was to talk to people in the places that the victims frequented in day-to-day situations. You see, before I took on this 'position' of mine, I worked for a foreign nation for a rather... secretive part of the government. Most specifically, I was specialized in memory-manipulation. Usually I was supposed to make people forget, but I could also make them remember. Since questioning potential witnesses is part of an investigation, and making them speak surely is an ability an investagor should have, this ability was also enhanced incredibly. It became harder to make people forget, but so much easier to make them remember. And so, even details like a sneeze from a stranger could be pulled forward."

"You have quite a loose mouth for someone that I'm trusting one of my greatest secrets with." Eiro grumbled to himself, but Bahlsen simply smiled in response, "Do not worry, I have never spilled another's secret. And again, if I want you to believe the information I can give you, I must tell you how I got my hands on that information."

"So? Continue." Eiro replied while rubbing the bridge of his nose, and Bahlsen quickly grinned, "Of course! You see, I actually just finished investigating people at that place we just met at. And, it led me into this direction, because the woman that was most probably the latest victim lived around here. The collector likes killing his victims in their own homes, as something like a 'power move' of sorts. Killing them in the place where they used to live may just be symbolic. I never managed to speak to him before, so I can't say too much about his personality to come to a complete conclusion as to why he does things this way."

The Demon crossed his arms with a suspicious frown. That sounded kind of... weird. "If that's the case, then why are you even letting me come along? You nearly got him by now anyway, right? You don't need me."

"Ah..." Bahlsen replied, "That's not true. I'm not a fighter, you see, but it seems like the Collector very well may be. He is extremely talented at evading me, so a second person, which on top of that is a seemingly quite powerful fighter, may very well be an important and vital addition." The Investigator quickly explained, "And I knew I could trust you, simply because otherwise, there would be no way that you would manage to contract two spirits and have formed such a powerful connection with both of them."

"Speaking of, how do you even know about them? Can you see them?" Eiro asked. He was feeling unsure about this, as if something was wrong despite Bahlsen seeming like a good person. It was like a part of his instincts were screaming at him that Bahlsen was trustworthy, while in the back, another, hidden part of his instincts was whispering that Eiro should hurry up and just run. It seemed illogical, but it was how it was.

Bahlsen just smiled and slightly turned his head toward where Nelli and Gondos were currently floating in the space inbetween this realm and the spirit realm, where only Eiro was supposed to be able to see them, "I can see any sort of connection where others can't, and that includes those of arcane, divine, or otherwise magical natures. I can see the thread connecting you with two beings floating beside and around you. The only case where I've seen something like this before was when I was speaking to a spirit mage, but the connection was weak, as if it could rip at any second if even a bug sat down onto it. But the connection between you and your two spirits is different. It is like... a thick rope that would be able to hold up five of you."

"...I see." Eiro replied before scratching the back of his neck. He slowly turned to the side and looked at Nelli and Gondos, who were staring back at him, "Are you sure this is a good idea?" Gondos asked, simply wanting Eiro to be careful with thsi guy, since he seemignly felt the same things that Eiro did. But Eiro probably didn't have much of a choice, and he didn't particularly want to just let this guy run around while he knew about Eiro. He could kill him of course, but somehow, Eiro was just feeling a bit bad for this guy.

"I guess there's not much else to speak about then, huh? Just use your powers to find the corpse, and then I'll take it from there." The Demon suggested, and it seemed like now Bahlsen was the curious one, seemingly wanting to know how exactly Eiro was thinking of finding the killer.

But for now, he seemed to have pushed those thoughts away and simply proceeded to look around this place. This was the first time Bahlsen was silent for more than ten seconds while nobody else was speaking. It was like he was suddenly hyper-focused on the world around him, trying to look for anything that might be of help to him.

Of course, Eiro did his best to keep Bahlsen's eyes in sight so that he could figure out what exactly he was looking at the whole time. Maybe he could pick up a thing or two. Either way, for now, Eiro just waited a little longer. He still had a week left, so it wasn't really an issue if Bahlsen took his time.

Although, just then, Eiro's thoughts started to drift. He was thinking about Bahlsen's words. The killer was a fighter, which made sense if he liked violently killing people for fun. But it seemed like he was a rather capable fighter as well, probably a pretty strong one. And right there, Eiro noticed something that was off, and added one last mental connection to figure out a small mystery on his own, while Bahlsen did his thing.

Two of the quests would have resulted in Eiro being hunted publicly. Neither a merchant nor a warden should have immense combat prowess or even the time to leave to hunt Eiro themselves. So, they would make this public and put out a bounty for Eiro. Depending on the information they received when they became 'aware' of Eiro, they may also reveal that he is actually a monster. These are definitely things that he would like to avoid. He didn't want his secret to be revealed, obviously.

However, when it came to the Killer, it was different. If he was so strong, then he would probably directly kill Eiro, which is what the quest penalty sounded like anyway. But surely he wouldn't end up revealing information about all this, since it may reveal his identity as the killer. So, he would go hunt Eiro himself. That meant that the reason for this penalty were different to the reason for the other two penalties. Rather than being inspired by the fact that Eiro wanted to hide who, or rather what, he was, it should be inspired by something else. By the fact that Eiro didn't want to die, and his fear of death that he has carried with himself ever since he first saw his fellow Lesser Imps spread thinly over the forest ground all the way back then.

So, it was clear that the Killer was an incredibly powerful person. Who knew, they may even be part of the organization already, although it seemed a bit unlikely for that to become a quest then. On the other hand, Eiro didn't really know how the quest-system worked, so it could be something like that.

But just as Eiro was thinking about this, Bahlsen started to leave this alley as if in a trance, simply following an invisible trail. They continued through the streets of the slums while the investigator was continuosly looking around himself to find as many clues as he was walking as absolutely possible.

And so, Bahlsen and Eiro soon stood in front of the front door of a run-down building. Eiro pressed his palm onto the wall making it up and slammed his foot into the ground while closing his eyes and trying to 'sense' anything around him, before he started to frown deeply.

"That's weird..." The Demon muttered. He pushed the rotten wooden door open and made his way through the small, dirty rooms, quickly followed by Bahlsen. And then, Eiro soon stood in another room, before once more pressing his palm onto the wall. But this time, instead of trying to sense the things around him again, he revealed something that was there until just now. The figure of a young dead woman hidden in plain sight. The issue was that the dead body was perfectly hidden using stealth. The sort that let you blend into your environment.

The same kind that Eiro was trying to learn from the stealth token he always put into the puppet.