Chapter 109: A Stimulating Night

Chapter One Hundred Nine
A Stimulating Night

The twelfth case!

That Demon murderer!

The instant Klein saw the corpse and heard the sound, every hair on his body stood on end. He knew he had walked straight into something terrible.

Within his vision, the sitting room’s decor was mainly bright yellow, cheerful and vivid. The coffee table, sofa, and other furnishings showed nothing unusual. Only the carpet had been stained scarlet with blood, and that crimson was slowly spreading outward.

Beside the female corpse, whose abdominal wound was hollow and empty, crouched a very large black dog. Its mouth was half open, revealing row after row of sharp white teeth that made one shudder. Upon each tooth grew rusty, dark-red traces, as though left by long-term gnawing of flesh and blood without regular cleaning.

At that very moment, several of the large black dog’s teeth were still tangled with bloody loops of intestine, while bits of torn raw flesh clung among them.

Its head turned. Its lava-like eyes reflected Klein, dressed like a worker, and reflected his disguised face.

“Hah!”

From the large black dog’s throat came a demonstrative growl.

It really is an animal! It is a Sequence 6 Demon—a Demon about to advance! And none of the preparations I made today are aimed at it…

Several thoughts flashed through Klein’s mind in an instant.

Abruptly, the black dog’s body swelled at tremendous speed, becoming a monster two or three meters tall. Behind it, a pair of enormous bat wings slowly unfurled, while beside its ears, goat horns covered in mysterious patterns began to grow.

Within its wet, shining fur, crimson flames tinged with blue leapt into being. A thick sulfurous stench spread outward.

Almost at the same moment, Klein pushed off the ground and, instead of retreating, swung his cane forward, charging toward the demonic giant hound like a cannonball.

Shrrk!

The black demonic hound pounced forward with terrifying agility. Its dog claws, covered in spike-like protrusions, blurred into afterimages and slapped Klein hard.

Soundlessly, the claw passed through that figure as if through air.

Klein’s figure dimmed and rapidly turned transparent.

It was only an illusion!

It was an illusion Klein had created!

By then, Klein himself had already rolled across the floor and approached the bow window. He pressed down with his left hand, pushed, and sent his entire body soaring straight toward the glass.

The instant he identified what the enemy was, he had already made his decision:

run immediately!

Seeing this, the demonic giant hound’s lava-like eyes suddenly brightened, as though flames were roaring within them.

It opened its mouth. Amid a foul odor, it uttered a word full of filth—a word that came from the language of demons:

“Die!”

Pff!

Klein’s body instantly froze. His heart seemed to have been seized hard by an invisible hand.

The figure suspended in midair immediately grew thin and pale, turning into a crudely cut paper figurine.

And that paper figurine was covered in red rust—mottled red rust!

Amid two nearly simultaneous sounds—the crash of impact and the shatter of glass—Klein’s figure reappeared. He smashed through the bow window and threw himself toward the stone-paved curb outside, while the substitute paper figurine drifted downward, burning with flames that reeked of sulfur.

The demonic giant hound growled low. It pounced again and landed on the windowsill.

A crimson fireball tinged with blue flew from its mouth, blasting toward the route by which the enemy was escaping.

Klein had just landed when he immediately followed with another roll. The crimson-blue fireball struck beside him, but it did not explode at once. It seemed to have been affected by an invisible force, delayed and slowed.

Boom!

Only after Klein had rolled, scrambled, and leapt some distance away did the fireball swell and detonate, shattering the surrounding stone slabs.

Seeing the demonic giant hound about to give chase, Klein opened his mouth as though he had been prepared all along.

He shouted at the top of his lungs:

“Murder!”

“Help!”

“Murder!”

“Help me!”

The sound seemed to have been enhanced by a special effect. In the quiet night, it carried far, waking residents along the entire street and reaching the ears of patrolmen two streets away.

The demonic giant hound’s pouncing posture suddenly halted. After thinking for one second, it retreated back into the room and began cleaning up the scene.

As for Klein’s sprinting figure, amid the cries of “Murder!” and “Help!” he vanished in an instant.

Inside a nearby house, in a fireplace whose flames had long since gone out, the remaining charcoal abruptly reignited and sent up an exaggerated blaze.

Like a magician performing a trick, Klein flashed into being inside that flame. With a light leap, he jumped out, cane in hand.

Then, using the Master Key, he opened every door and passed through every wall, fleeing rapidly in another direction.

“Hoo. At a time like this, a cry for help without Beyonder power is far more useful than firing imitation gunshots by going bang, bang, bang…” Klein sighed, taking out a bottle of Amanda hydrosol and dripping several drops onto himself.

Since that Demon’s original species was canine, he had to guard against the possibility that among its special abilities was tracking by scent.

Like this, he kept passing through buildings until he reached another intersection. Only then did Klein stop and look around.

Seeing that the area was fairly quiet and had not yet been affected, he hurried to the roadside and hired a rental carriage.

Only after the carriage had driven for a long stretch through the deep night did Klein truly let out a breath and know that the Demon would not catch up.

The Master Key really is strange… It actually made me get lost directly into a murder scene. In the future, when using it, I must be cautious, cautious, and even more cautious… That really was an animal turned into a Demon… Where did its potion and formula come from? Does it have a human companion? How did it choose the targets of its earlier serial murders?

Hm. What is worth feeling relieved about is that after this point has been confirmed, it will be much harder for it to commit crimes again. The probability of it being caught will rise greatly…

Thought after thought and doubt after doubt emerged in Klein’s mind, while the carriage sped along broad, empty roads, racing between gas streetlamp after gas streetlamp.

Suddenly, Klein’s heart stirred. A scene naturally appeared in his mind:

Pea vines hung down from the sky, intertwining into a dense forest road, while the coachman, utterly unaware, drove the carriage onward over those green plants.

Not good!

Without hesitation, Klein threw himself toward the carriage window, intending to jump into the street.

Bang! The carriage shook, and he was bounced back.

At the same time, one pea vine after another truly dropped from above!

Klein frowned and tried to manipulate flames to ignite the carriage, but his snap failed to make any sound at all.

Then the surroundings became strangely quiet. Even the sounds of horse hooves stepping on green plants and carriage wheels rapidly rolling over them vanished.

Klein forced himself to calm down. He looked out the window and saw that the carriage had already traveled along the path woven from pea vines and risen into the air.

This—this is not Backlund…

His eyes narrowed slightly.

Just then, the carriage stopped. Outside the window was a hammock-like seat formed from pea vines connected in midair.

A pair of feet in black leather boots dangled from it. A gentle yet emotionless voice entered Klein’s ears:

“What were you doing just now?”

It is the woman from the museum… the one suspected to be a high-Sequence powerhouse… She does not seem to have recognized me. After all, I used Azik’s copper whistle as a disguise earlier… She must have heard the cry for help and come to investigate…

At that moment, Klein’s thoughts became extraordinarily active.

He deliberately swallowed and said, “I am a private detective. Together with many friends, I am investigating the recent serial murder case.

“I have a magical item called the Master Key. It can open doors and pass through walls, but it causes one to get lost.

“It was during that process that I ran straight into the crime scene. Because I was no match for the murderer, I could only run while shouting for help.”

Every sentence I said is true…

Klein silently added in his heart.

After he finished speaking, there was a brief silence outside. Yet he felt a gaze pierce through the carriage, pierce through all obstructions, and directly examine the items he carried.

Good thing I was cautious and left Azik’s copper whistle and the bookmark above the gray fog…

At that instant, Klein felt extraordinarily thankful.

Caution and prudence were indeed useful!

After that indescribably unbearable silence, the gentle but emotionless female voice finally spoke.

“That key carries a certain curse. Do not use it unless necessary.”

The moment her voice fell, everything around him abruptly changed. Pea vines, forest road, path leading into the air—everything vanished completely. The carriage was still traveling along the street, moving between elegant black iron gas streetlamps.

Klein kept his heart raised until the carriage arrived near the East Borough. He paid eight soli for the fare.

Under normal circumstances, rental carriages would not enter any street in the East Borough, because they were very likely to be robbed.

Inside the one-bedroom apartment on Black Palm Street, Klein changed clothes and went straight to sleep. He made no attempt to return to Minsk Street after midnight. With the twelfth murder case appearing, Backlund’s situation would certainly become even more tense. Outside, there were bound to be all kinds of inspections.

Nor did he immediately go above the gray fog to study the secret of that “bookmark.” He acted exactly as he had described to the mysterious woman earlier: merely a low-Sequence private detective with a few Beyonder abilities.

“Tonight really was full of accidents. Quite stimulating. All I did was steal something… Hm, most of the problems should be blamed on the Master Key…”

Klein mocked himself once, then quickly fell asleep.

The next morning, breathing air that stung his throat and nose, he leisurely returned home, retrieving the newspapers and letters from his mailbox on the way.

After opening the door, he casually spread open the newspaper and saw, as expected, the front-page headline:

“The Twelfth Case!”

“The Demon Reappears! Police Claim Killer Has Been Locked Onto!”

…

As for the theft of exhibits from the Kingdom Museum, it was mentioned only in an inconspicuous place, and it did not even state what had been stolen.

The unstamped letter delivered with the newspapers was a water bill that required Klein to pay it himself. He glanced at it once, then casually tossed it onto the coffee table and went upstairs to boil water for a bath.

Only when steam filled the bathroom did he seize the opportunity, take four steps counterclockwise, and enter above the gray fog.

Inside the towering, unchanging ancient palace, Klein sat down and picked up the bookmark on which Emperor Roselle’s image was drawn.

“Obtaining you really was not easy…”

He lightly rubbed the surface of the stiff paper and sighed without sound.