Xia De toyed with the ugly small wooden carving in his hand, when Priest Augustus suddenly stopped and motioned for Xia De to look to the side:
"We've arrived."
Number 12 Hangerton Garden Street was the Freeman family's original residence. Now the family had moved out, and the Priest, relying on his strong charisma, had actually managed to borrow the keys to this house, which had not yet found a buyer.
The family seemed to have left in a hurry; moving day trash was still scattered in the garden where weeds grew wild due to neglect. But they hadn't moved out too long ago, so the place only looked slightly messy.
The Priest held a string of keys and unlocked the iron lock entangle around the fence. They walked about a dozen steps along the path to the front door. During this time, neither Xia De nor Priest Augustus felt anything unusual.
"From the information we have, apart from Mr. Freeman, no one else in the family encountered an accident. Mr. Freeman's death also went through a very long period, so I don't think the danger here will be particularly great."
The Priest said to Xia De, who was surveying the garden, while holding the keys:
"But don't let your guard down. Whether it's an evil spirit or a relic, both have the ability to kill us directly, so be sure to be careful later."
"I understand, Priest."
The Old Priest nodded, bowed his head, closed his eyes, and quietly prayed to Mr. Dawn. Then, he gripped the holy emblem hanging on his chest, confirming that this divine item with exorcism abilities was fine, before using the largest key on the string to open the front door of the house.
Upon entering, there was no strange smell, but because the house had been sealed for some time, tiny dust particles could be seen floating in the air under the sunlight when the door was suddenly opened.
Xia De casually closed the door, then reached for the wall and turned on the gas lamp in the hallway.
Priest Augustus then held up his holy emblem, rotating it evenly around him while muttering incantations. Xia De also used the Miracle Echoes of the Past and Blood Echo to investigate the surroundings. The former only allowed him to hear neighbors talking as they passed on the street outside, while the latter showed no overly obvious bloodstains.
"It's probably not an evil spirit, but there's definitely something evil here."
The Old Priest frowned deeply:
"If it really is a relic, then we might be in trouble. How about this, I'll take you to see where Mr. Freeman died. After he fell from the trapdoor in the attic, he rolled down the stairs connecting the third and second floors, and unfortunately broke his neck."
Even though it was daytime and seemed safe, the two had no intention of splitting up and searching separately; it was safest to stay together in such a dangerous place.
The house was almost completely emptied, with only a few scattered items on the floor and dust marks on the walls from where picture frames had hung for years, indicating that this had once been a warm home.
There were no problems going upstairs. At the turn of the stairs leading up from the second floor, Xia De's eyes finally caught a clear blood-red glow. The bloodstains on the ground were spread in patches, likely from where Mr. Freeman was broken open when he fell motionless.
The Old Priest squatted down, a corner of his Destiny Ring revealed. After the Necromancy Ling Rune radiated spiritual light, the Priest touched the floor with his hand, which glowed faintly gray, while Xia De maintained the use of the spell, looking up.
Very strangely, clear bloodstains remained not only on the landing at the turn of the stairs but also on the stairs themselves, extending down from a higher point. Although the amount was not large, it indicated that Mr. Freeman was already injured before he rolled down the stairs.
"Was he injured when he fell from the attic to the third floor, or was he already injured in the attic?"
Xia De wondered, and Priest Augustus also stood up at this moment:
"I sense the fear of a Soul; he experienced extreme fear before his death. It wasn't fear of death, it was completely different."
"How was Mr. Freeman's body handled?"
Xia De asked. If there was a body, he could have directly used Soul Echo.
"According to his family's wishes, he was cremated and buried in Tobesk's public cemetery," the Priest said, looking up with Xia De. Even if he hadn't been cremated, given the current weather, the body probably wouldn't have been sufficient to support Xia De's necromancy.
"Let's continue upwards, I've seen some bloodstains."
Xia De suggested.
So they went up to the third floor, and sure enough, the bloodstains extended from the trapdoor leading to the attic. Xia De found the small mechanism to activate the trapdoor by the window. Amidst the sound of gears turning inside the wall, a square opening appeared in the ceiling, and an iron ladder was lowered.
The two still couldn't sense any traces of elements, so Xia De went first, followed by the Priest, and together they climbed into the attic.
The attic had also been emptied, leaving only some cardboard boxes by the wall. The bloodstains appeared from the right side of the attic, but the place was now too clean, so seeing the bloodstains was useless.
"Actually, I've always suspected."
As Xia De squatted down to examine the cardboard boxes, Priest Augustus suddenly mentioned:
"I've always suspected that all of this was actually Mrs. Freeman's doing. She made some noises in the house to scare Mr. Freeman, then used drugs to affect Mr. Freeman's mental state. Finally, she avoided everyone and pushed Mr. Freeman down from the attic, creating the illusion of an accidental death."
This kind of speculation was a bit too terrifying, more like a plot from a court political novel. Xia De turned to look at the Priest with some surprise:
"Do you have any evidence?"
"No, it's just guessing based on the darkest side of human nature... Just consider it a possibility I've put forward."
But this possibility did exist, because they really hadn't found anything suspicious in the house.
In the boxes in the corner of the attic were the paintings of the deceased Mr. Freeman from when he was alive. Not every painting an artist makes can be sold, let alone practice sketches, which are worthless to a minor painter.
The sketches in the boxes were considered Mr. Freeman's relics, but it was unclear why Mrs. Freeman hadn't taken them with her.
The paintings themselves were ordinary items, with the specific painting date written on the back of each. The earliest one was a work from half a year ago, and the most recent ones were completed in the last week or two, which was around the time Mr. Freeman claimed there were problems at home.
In this world, while the profession of artist is not as dangerous as that of a folklorist, it is still more dangerous than that of ignorant ordinary people. Mental issues can greatly affect a painter's creative style. Mr. Freeman originally tended to use vibrant colors to depict scenes under the sun, but the three oil paintings from the recent period were almost entirely in cool tones, and there were some strange things in the pictures.
"Priest, look at this."
Xia De pointed to one of them, a work from the week before Mr. Freeman's death. The painting depicted the Freeman family's garden, drawn from an upward-looking perspective, almost turning their own house into a haunted house, and in the second-floor window, a very blurry figure clearly stood.
"Was this something strange he saw, or just a family member by chance at the window?"
The Priest was also very puzzled.
And in another painting by Mr. Freeman before his death, he painted his own living room. Wooden carving tools were already present in the painting at that time, and next to them was the small Priest wooden carving that Priest Augustus had given him. It seemed Mr. Freeman intended to carve based on it.
"So, why was he obsessed with wood carving?"
In an oil painting from two weeks before Mr. Freeman's death, some wooden boxes stacked in the corner were depicted. At this time, his mental problems were not yet severe, and his use of colors and composition methods were relatively normal.
Xia De looked at this third oil painting and asked Priest Augustus:
"Priest, look at these boxes. Aren't they the wooden boxes used by the Kingdom Post Office for shipping?"
No one had ever sent Xia De anything other than letters, so Xia De didn't know much about it. But Priest Augustus recognized them:
"That's right, they're Post Office shipping boxes. Look, he even drew the metal corner protectors used to prevent the wooden boxes from falling apart during transport. These black corner protectors indicate that these are valuable items. The red label on them indicates that they were shipped from Carson Rick."
"Did Mr. Freeman come into contact with anything strange in the last two weeks?"
Xia De proposed a conjecture, then pointed to the content of the oil painting:
"Like these things shipped from afar."
Priest Augustus frowned and nodded:
"That's possible. We can ask together when I return the keys later. However, we still need to thoroughly search this house to see if it has any other problems."
Thus, the time came to eleven in the morning, and it was still foggy outside. Xia De and Priest Augustus finished their final search of the garden, left the garden, and locked the fence, planning to take a carriage to return the keys to Mrs. Freeman.
The entire house was completely normal; Xia De had almost touched every inch of the walls, but he still couldn't feel any traces of elements or spirits. The Priest even suggested checking the corners of the garden, to prevent anything from being buried in the ground, but in fact, they had overthought it.
Wasting two hours with nothing to show for it left both of them a bit dejected. But after all, they were out to try their luck for 15 credits, so not gaining anything was something they had anticipated.
So they first had lunch together at a restaurant in a nearby neighborhood, discussing the truth behind the painter's death and joking about providing inspiration to Dorothy. After eating, the two took a carriage to the apartment where Mrs. Freeman and the children were temporarily renting.
The apartment was also in Tobesk East District, a twenty-minute walk to their destination. This was an ordinary street in the city, with both shops and apartments for rent along the road. On Thursday noon, people came and went, making it very lively, and it was only three streets away from Dr. Schneider's psychology clinic.