The Divine Hunter Chapter 19: Investigation and Triss
The outer suburbs of Vizima.
The morning mist casts a layer of gauze on the clear sky, and outside the lush grassland, a stream flows happily.
A green birch forest behind the gurgling water attracted the attention of the witcher.
"Well, this is the scene of the latest crime."
The witcher said to the crow on his left shoulder, "Maybe there are any clues left there?"
"Quack..." Golfin Crow pecked his arm in agreement, and Roy patted its little head, "Keep an eye on it for me."
"Quack!" The crow flapped its wings and flew high, quickly landing on the crown of a birch tree. Its dark pupils looked around alertly, jumping from one branch to another from time to time.
Like a lively little detective.
Roy straightened the ribbon wrapped around his chest in his gray cloak, and crossed the grass and stream. His pupils glowed like wild beasts in the night. In front of him, there appeared strips of animals floating in the air, buried in the grass, or It is a sticky or light ribbon.
Mixed with blood, body fluids, excrement, and densely packed footprints of people and animals... red, green, gray, floating in various colors.
It is like pouring a vat of colorful dyes onto a canvas with emerald green as the background color.
"There is no aura of high-level vampires... This is normal. It comes and goes like the wind, and ordinary people can't do anything about it."
The witcher squatted down and carefully separated a clump of young grass with his hands, revealing a uniformly distributed, dark brown dot-shaped blood stain. He moved his nose.
"The blood of the young man...is consistent with Kalkstein's description...he is no more than twenty years old. He was attacked when he came here to collect the fish basket, and the blood was in the shape of a splash...he had a ruptured artery at this location." Luo Yi walked to the next part closer to the woods, where the silk ribbons were thicker. He opened the grass and found the second, third... and fifth splatter-like blood stains.
Different from throwing and dripping blood stains, splash-like blood stains are usually the first splash of blood from the wound.
In other words, the murderer injured him in several different places.
"If the perpetrator is a low-level vampire driven by instinct, the first attack will paralyze the poor man, and the second attack will tear him to pieces. In two breaths at most, the fight will be over. This kind of blood stain distribution cannot occur."
Roy rubbed his chin and looked around the entire grassland... The gentle and long chirping of cicadas came from the birch forest, the gentle breeze blew, and the green branches and vines waved to him.
A thought suddenly occurred in his mind.
"'It' is deliberately torturing its prey...making the prey constantly injured and screaming in fear...but the blood obtained in this way does not meet the taste of ordinary high-level vampires."
Roy read a book about vampires called "Human Village: The Establishment and Growth of Crowds" in Kaer Morhen.
According to the book, humans secrete excessive amounts of dethyroxine and cortisol when they are fearful, which will cause the blood to deteriorate.
Dislikes most high-level vampires.
So why does it do this?
Roy frowned, having no idea for the time being.
Other than that, most of the traces at the scene have been cleaned up or confused by villagers, investigators, and wild beasts in the woods.
……
According to the information revealed by Kalkstein, the high-level vampire committed five murders within a month, all of which were located in remote and uninhabited areas on the outskirts of Vizima.
The next crime scene was also in the wilderness a few miles away from the village... Roy and Gelfin flew one in the sky to explore the way, and the other ran on the ground, and soon arrived at the destination - a division chief A hillside covered with myrtle.
The wind caresses gently, and the green leaves all over the mountains and fields quiver.
Roy turned on his witcher senses and searched the bushes.
As expected, there are no traces left by high-level vampires.
Similar to the first place, there were surprisingly many splatters of blood.
Before dying, the prey was teased and tortured by the hunter.
And the taste of blood - "A girl of seventeen or eighteen years old, as delicate as a flower, with picky taste."
"Once can be said to be a coincidence, twice, the murderer did it deliberately..." Roy picked two purple-black mountain twisters from the heavy branches of the myrtle, threw one into his mouth, and threw the other into his mouth. to mid-air.
"Quack—" Amidst the loud cry, a black shadow flew past like lightning.
Golfin landed on the beech branch with a berry in his mouth, raised his beak, and swallowed the fruit visibly from his neck.
"Is this possible? It's a psychopath... It doesn't just kill for food, it gets pleasure from torture and killing."
Roy took a deep breath and couldn't help but feel that the air was a few degrees colder.
High-level vampires have strength and lifespan far beyond ordinary people.
Although there are some individuals who abide by the rules of human society, such as the Queen of the Night and coroner Francis, who Roy has met several times.
But in fact, most high-level vampires only regard humans as a low-level animal, a source of their food, and slaves they can laugh at and play with at will.
They look down on humans.
Thus, the cage school, the freeing school, the humanistic care school and other schools of raising humans were born.
……
Just like some humans, they hunt wild animals such as wild boars, wolves, and deer for fun.
Correspondingly, some high-level vampires also seek pleasure in torturing humans.
However, in the past century, most high-level vampires have disappeared. They lurk more secretly in mountains, wilderness, deep caves, or in human society.
Their ability to disguise themselves as humans rivals that of shapeshifters.
Under normal conditions, the demon hunter's badge cannot detect their magic power fluctuations.
In the north, such blatant and provocative hunting behavior has not occurred for a long time.
Roy's personal guess is that this has something to do with some kind of order from their leader, the Shadow Elder.
……
"So this high-ranking creature on the outskirts of Vizima is an unruly lunatic and an intruder..." The demon hunter stood at the top of the hillside, looking across the mountains of myrtle, beech, green grass, and poles. The more he thought about the sparse village in the distance, the more likely this possibility became, "The Queen of the Night became angry because of this, and without even communicating, she directly went to Kalkstein to buy 'black blood' to deal with this arrogant high-level vampire!"
"Maybe I should try my best to get it done directly instead of leaving it to Kalkstan." He lowered his head and thought, but his eyes suddenly noticed something abnormal under his feet,
"Hmm...what is this?"
The demon hunter's eyes narrowed, he squatted down against the root of a beech tree, and picked up a small and exquisite mushroom in his hands.
The size of a fingernail, with a bright red cap and a white stipe.
Referred to as "red umbrella, white pole."
Roy's eyes became deep.
"Fluorescent mushrooms in the cave..." He thought. Logically speaking, this type of mushroom should not exist near this hillside.
But it cannot be ruled out that it was carried nearby by wild beasts in the mountains.
He blew a loud whistle, and Golfin immediately circled around the hillside.
No caves were found.
Roy was secretly concerned.
……
Half an hour later, the witcher crossed the grassland, the winding stream, and the small bumps of earth, and approached the third of the five crime scenes - a leafy sycamore tree full of nuts, surrounded by In the clearing among the woods.
However, he was still more than a hundred meters away from his destination. He suddenly stopped and hid in a clump of redbuds.
Gulfen Crow flew down to a branch in front of him as if nothing had happened, cleaned his feathers, and quietly looked at the crowd below.
There were six people in the Wutong Forest, five of whom were wearing bright silver white steel armor and scarlet cloaks, with a white rose emblem on their left shoulder and a long sword on their waist.
Tall and strong, they should be knights of the White Rose Knights of Vizima. They are surrounding the entire forest, digging deep into the ground to search.
In front of them, there was another woman in the center.
She wore a hunting suit that was easy to move around - an amber tight-fitting leather jacket embroidered with complex patterns, decorated with a green waistcoat and red-brown **** sleeves, with a slight slit on the chest, revealing a touch of delicate skin.
Coupled with slim-fitting trousers and shallow-rooted deerskin short boots, the figure is flattering.
Her appearance is also outstanding.
She has long, fluffy reddish-brown hair pinned back, eyes as blue as cornflowers, a slightly tilted nose, a few freckles dotted on her cheeks, and a beauty mark at the corner of her mouth. Her temperament is a bit like someone who has never experienced the world girl.
The azure heart-shaped pendant inlaid with silver and diamonds on her chest swayed gently as she turned her head.
Appear playful and sexy.
Triss Merigold
Age: 41
Gender: Female
Identity: Warlock, Royal Advisor of Temeria
……
"Why did Triss come to this muddy water?" Roy, who was hiding in the bushes, rubbed his chin. "Have the five murders in the suburbs attracted the attention of the upper echelons of Vizima?"
"Yes, this is what Yada wanted to ask me for back then!" He thought thoughtfully,
"This royal advisor is assisting the Knights of the White Rose in tracking down the murderer."
Triss, Triss, you have no idea what terrible thing you are facing.
"Anyway, she counts me as a one-sided old acquaintance. If you can help, please help, by the way..." Roy remembered another thing. Triss was also a victim of the Battle of Sodden Mountain like Coral. Or, although she survived the battlefield tenaciously, her body and mind suffered severe injuries.
It took many years to heal.
"Find an opportunity to remind her? But she is not a coral, and she cannot spoil me. She will not believe that I am pretending to be a ghost... I will do this when the time comes."
The purposes of the Knights of the White Rose and the Demon Hunters do not conflict. But Roy tried not to expose his actions against high-level vampires.
Who knows if that thing will have other companions, who will come to settle accounts with him in the future.
……
In the sycamore forest.
Fritz, who had a few pimples on his face, glanced at the high sun, his cheeks wrinkled like bitter melons, and his left hand tried in vain to block the sun - the dazzling sunlight made him dizzy and his abdomen was bloated.
He rubbed his belly in embarrassment.
Immediately afterwards, a continuous gurgling bowel sound made his face turn red.
Especially when the stunningly beautiful lady looks over here.
Oh my God, making a fool of myself in front of a lady as beautiful as a fairy, the lover of my dreams, is this God’s punishment for my greedy mouth? !
"Hey, why did you eat that steak last night?!"
He wanted to dig a crack in the ground and get in.
"Fritz, if you really can't stand it, go and solve your personal problems first!" The leader of the Cleveland Cavaliers smiled gently at him and patted his shoulder with his thick and strong palm, "We'll watch over here."
"Everyone has such a day, for the honor of Bai Qiangwei, please be patient!"
"Go, Fritz!"
"What are you so shy about, a grown man?!"
"Shall I choose a tree for you? Just do it directly!"
A group of colleagues immediately responded with good-natured "ridicule".
"Oh, thank you, boss!"
The sorceress’s gaze was like a thorn in her back.
The young White Rose Knight quickly covered his stomach and rushed into the woods at a sprint speed of 100 meters.
Before the volcano in my body was about to erupt, I found a big tree and squatted down!
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The sound of gunfire is loud! A thousand miles away!
He narrowed his eyes comfortably and curved the corners of his mouth slightly. He let out a contented groan, his cheeks flushed with happiness.
He was extremely happy, in a state of ecstasy, and seemed to have hallucinations before his eyes. A graceful yellow butterfly flew past, performing a beautiful dance from left to right.
He was intoxicated, with a silly smile on his lips, and sat back with a stiff expression, sitting on the pool of warm stench.
"Hey...man...I didn't mean it...but a man always has to be tested like this, well, it's better than going to the cesspit." An apologetic male voice sounded, "Now let's talk about the progress of the investigation, What clues did you find about the five deceased people and the murderer?"
"The five...the five deceased were all young people..." Fritz replied dully and mechanically, "three men and two women, ranging in age from fifteen to eighteen...from five different villages...the time of death was There is also night during the day,”
"They... have simple interpersonal relationships and have never had any deep hatred with anyone... ruling out the possibility of a vendetta."
Fritz continued, "The five deceased died in extremely tragic ways and were torn into pieces by something."
This can perfectly mask the symptoms of excessive bleeding.
"After analyzing the wounds, the forensic doctor ruled out the possibility of wild dogs, grizzly bears, leopards and other wild animals."
"The Sheriff believes that the murderer may be a ghoul or evil spirit..."
Roy shook his head. These two monsters would not tear people into pieces, they would only bite them into pieces.
"But Consultant Triss found that the deceased all had one thing in common...never had sexual experience. This should be the criterion for the murderer to select his target."
"So that high-level vampire is really a sophisticated pervert, virgins and virgins, pure men and women, the blood of fear after being tortured." Roy complained, "The taste is different."
He concealed the ominous feeling in his heart. People who are so particular are usually old antiques.
And vampires become more powerful as they get older.
"So we have ruled out ogres with low IQs..." Fritz paused, "Advisor Triss believes that the perpetrator is a cursed werewolf, hiding in a certain village, disguised as a normal human being The werewolf."
Roy shook his head again. The death of the victim was indeed very similar to that of a werewolf committing a crime.
However, the transformed werewolf will emit a strong body odor that is different from other wild animals... If a werewolf commits a crime, the smell will usually be left at the scene and last for a long time, which cannot escape the nose of the witcher.
But Roy didn't notice.
"We have searched all twenty-five villages in the crime area, and no strangers have come or gone in the past month or so... In addition, Ms. Merigold used mind-reading skills on thirty-seven suspects."
"The possibility of their committing the crime was ruled out one by one."
This saved me a lot of effort.
Roy felt that this trip was worthwhile.
"We mobilized the villagers to search the area within a five-mile radius, but could not find any clues."
"The investigation has temporarily reached a bottleneck...Ms. Merigold believes that there are clues left at the scene, so we return to the search and patrol."
"Have you found this thing?" Roy suddenly took out the cave fluorescent mushroom found in the previous place from his arms.
"Sir... Mr. Cleveland, I have found this kind of mushroom, but no one paid much attention to it."
Such an important clue has been ignored.
Sure enough, only witchers have such strict logic?
Roy shook his head, his guess becoming clearer.
The high-level vampire is not hiding in the village, it is very likely to be hiding in——
"What are the Knights' plans next?"
"Bait operation...according to our investigation, the murderer commits crimes nearly once a week, and it is almost time for the next killing." Fritz confessed without any resistance, "We have already selected the target, a ten-year-old He is the six-year-old knight's apprentice who will lead the murderer to reveal himself."
"When and where will the action take place?"
"At eight o'clock tomorrow night, on a full moon night...five miles east of Luma Village, in the open space on the bank of the Kuli River."
Roy's heart moved. He didn't believe that Gao Sui was so easily fooled, otherwise the Queen of the Night would have caught that guy long ago.
But I still have to go join in the fun tomorrow night.
The complex gestures of the five fingers of his left hand began to be slowly withdrawn, and Roy smiled apologetically at him, "Okay, man, you have never seen me, you will forget all the conversations between us. You only remember that you just You pulled for too long and your whole body collapsed. You accidentally sat down...well...it took you thirty seconds to regain your strength."
He glanced at this ugly face with acne, felt a little bit unbearable, and quickly added,
"You spent these thirty seconds reviewing your past life... Today's experience is a cruel trial. Only blood or stench can water the most beautiful roses. You don't feel ashamed, you are full of joy, because You have thrown away the shackles of vanity and are one step closer to true knightly honor!"
"You have captured the essence of the knight!"
The words fell.
The demon hunter's figure instantly turned into bubbles~IndoMTL.com~ and dissipated in the air.
Fritz, who sat down on his own feces and urine, shook his head as if he had just woken up from a dream. He moved his nose, subconsciously touched his sticky **** with his right hand and stretched it out in front of his eyes.
Despite the stench.
But he smiled calmly, and his eyes quickly changed from confusion to determination.
At this moment, timidity, confusion, nausea, and all other negative emotions left him.
He felt like he had won a tough challenge.
For myself, nothing is difficult in the world and the road ahead is smooth.
"Fritz," he casually wiped the yellow and sticky dirt on the rough bark of the sycamore tree, lifted up his trousers with confidence, put on his white steel armor, and walked with his head held high. Walked the way we came.
There was fire in his eyes, and his voice was sonorous and powerful, "From today on, you are a true Knight of the White Rose!"