“So it WAS him. Killing his party members wasn’t enough. The bastard and his damn backer killed the kids as well and ruined everything for me. We need to skin these cold-blooded criminals alive after capturing them.”
Lin said out aloud after seeing both the reports. It was useless to dig any further after seeing so many substantial pieces of evidence.
“Lin, I respect you as my senior, but please don’t drag our party and association in this mess any more than you already have. Sure, we can do anything we want to do with Dom Walker if he gets captured by us.
But forget about his backer. He is bad news. Not just for you, me or the association. But for the entire city of Osan. I’ve known cities that were more prosperous and prominent than ours getting wrecked after they made the mistake of involving themselves in the kingdom’s power games. Isen Osan is not even worth a fart in the big league’s eyes. Our worth is even lesser.”
Ela held Lin’s shoulder and said everything. She was saying no to her superior which was a form of disrespect. But Lin knew there was no malice in it. And he was worried about the same thing as well.
“What should we do then?”
Lin asked helplessly. No matter what came out of the investigation, Isen was on his case. Lin had to withdraw inside the academy and resume his lecturing again if he wanted to have some peace of mind.
“Simple. Redact everything about the backer from the report. Blame everything on Dom Walker. And punish him. I’m sure his backer wouldn’t mind us taking care of a nuisance.”
Ela replied calmly.
“But we can’t do anything about the reports already submitted to the kingdom and LA academy. Who would we call Dom’s accomplice?”
“Just keep that part of the case open to speculation. Kill Dom without taking him into custody. That way he won’t renege on his backer and make troubles for him as well for us.”
“What about Matt, the only guy alive from Dom’s Raiders? He’ll make noise if something about our report and investigation seems half-hearted to him.”
“That might indeed be a problem. But he is just an F Rank hunter in the initial stage. I’m sure the OB wouldn’t mind if we discredit him a little before getting him out of the association. That way his rants would seem like him getting back at us for kicking him out.”
“And when did you come up with this entire game? Don’t tell me you thought all this on the spot.”
Lin had to ask after hearing Ela’s every full-proof explanation on how to make this problem go away.
“Yesterday. After I saw the footage of Dom Walker’s talk with Julie. Unlike you, I’ve met him in the OB a couple of times. It was indeed him. No doubt about it.
I was only wondering how he was so hammered not to speak normally during that footage. But after seeing the ladies and estimating the guy’s recently changed lifestyle, I’m more shocked that he could still function the way he functioned at all.
So if it was indeed Dom. And if we assume all that he said during the footage to be true. Then today’s outcome was a foreseeable event. I couldn’t sleep at all last night thinking about the repercussions of our investigations and came up with this plan.”
“Alight. Let’s do it your way then.”
Lin agreed with Ela’s plan. They weren’t justice seekers. They were hunters. They knew about how to skin their prey. But they also knew about how to save their hide.
Lin’s only regret was that he wouldn’t be able to think about ranking up anytime soon after he resumed being a lecturer. But his life and safety were more important at this point.
****************
A week later!
Nina had come back from her trip to the city of Lauren. She had carried a lot of ingredients in her ID stone. But that wasn’t enough. She had to use a couple of E Rank storage space artefacts to pack all the stuff.
Eren greeted Nina with open arms. He inhaled her musky scent mixed with her new go-to EDP he had gifted to her. Nina too felt at home after taking Eren in her embrace.
Eren used his hands again to grab Nina’s butt and gave them a firm squeeze. Nina was kinda expecting this so she didn’t flinch.
“Little rat, behave! We are at doorsteps. Let me come in first.”
Nina pulled Eren’s cheeks with equal enthusiasm. She was in a good mood today seeing Eren after a week.
But then Nina remembered Eren would be gone for five academic years. And he might not come back to her after he is grown up and gets a place of his own. That realisation suddenly hit her and made her sad.
Eren observed the sudden drop in Nina’s mood and understood she was thinking about his eventual departure from this place. He tried to pacify her:
“Aunt Nina don’t worry. For me a week and five years are all the same when I don’t get to see you. I’ll come back as soon as those wretched academic years get over.”
Nina smiled hearing that. She had underestimated Eren’s EQ.
“Hmph! Who’s worried about your absence, little rat? I’ll probably enjoy not being ogled at by a horny teenager all the time.”
By now they both had entered the inner sanctum of the ground floor. Eren had already made breakfast. He would have it with her after she freshens up.
“Erni, tell me what did you do all week? Hehehehe! Did you perhaps avail of ‘self-help’ thinking about me?”
Nina asked while she had the first bite of her breakfast. She has gotten fresh. Eren had made poached eggs with toast.
“Please! I’d rather save my energy for our post date adventures in the coming days. What about you?”
Eren was oozing confidence while he was having his bite. The past week had been fruitful for him. He had started sensing mana around him now after the repetitive meditations based on his past experiences. He was much faster than in his previous life because of it.
Plus, his framing of Dom Walker had gone smoothly. Nina asked about the same after she sensed the unusual calm in the city even after it was known that Isaac Osan had been killed.
The city’s law and order should have been strained attempting mass arrests of suspects. But she didn’t see or hear about such a thing from her carriage service.
“Enough joking around, Erni. Tell me what happened to Isaac’s case? Did the suspect get caught or something? I was in a hurry doing a lot of things in the city of Lauren. So I couldn’t keep a tab on these things.”
“Hahaha! You’ll be surprised if you know the identity of Isaac’s killer!”
Eren laughed genuinely thinking about poor Dom’s situation. The guy couldn’t complain now that he was dead.
“Hmm? Why? Is it someone we know?”
Nina asked as she had another bite of toast.
“Yes. Dom Walker is Isaac’s killer. He first wiped out his party. Then when he was running away from the crime scene via a different route he was caught by Isaac’s party. So he killed them off too.
They say that Don had help when he did these crimes, which had accompanied him during his second visit to the woods. That unknown person was the reason behind the Osan woods’ disturbance. They also managed to tame the demon beast.
That person’s identity is not known. So he is being referred to as the Osan Woods’ Butcher. The bounty contract has gone on his head. Dom is missing and considered a fugitive.
Some say Dom is killed by the OWB (Osan Woods’ Butcher) while others claim he is on his way to leave the kingdom. A few others even testified that he is still living in the city of Osan.
There’s a lot of news and gossip about Dom. But surprisingly, not even a peep for the OWB. Even Isen didn’t come forward to release any further statements after the killer’s link with Dom was established.
I think there’s some whitewashing going on in the backdrop. Because now some news is even claiming Dom didn’t return from the woods after killing his party members. We both know it’s not true.
But nobody is satisfied with only a few versions of events it seems. Instead of finding the identity of the OWB, everything has been made to look like it starts and ends with Dom and nobody else.”
Eren gave Nina a brief retrospect of the news that was being circulated during the past week. Eren had started selling the stockpiled potions in the apothecary. His customers would inform him about recent events.
What the customers didn’t know was that they were talking to the elusive Osan Woods’ Butcher himself when they told him about such news.
During this past week, Eren had gotten himself busy creating a lot of fake and confusing trails of Dom that led to nowhere and everywhere. Reen worked hard for this and was given her due reward in the form of ‘sumptuous food’.
The cocktail of real and fake news was created by him. But it was served to perfection by the city’s administration. Eren guessed that the city didn’t want to offend any bigshot from the kingdom in their search for justice.
That served Eren’s purpose. He had given that statement during his interview with Julie for this very reason. He wasn’t sure if his trick would work. But apparently, he had underestimated the city lord’s wariness for the kingdom’s royal experts.
Isen Osan was a minor baron in the kingdom. He didn’t have stakes high enough to question the kingdom’s role in the woods’ disturbance or the murder of his grandson, irrespective of whether it was true or not.
And therefore, nobody could know the real identity of the OWB. Who, by the way, was busy flirting with his aunt at the time!