36

36

“Now then, what should we call you?” I blank out

Forgot to prepare a name. Think. I have a fake witcher necklace. Witcher. Witch hunter. Ludwig? Maria?

“Just call me Gehrman.” I blurted out.

“Was a logger and a hunter before coming here” Continue to make up things on the go.

Ludwig scoffs at the latter mention.

“You? A hunter?”

“Never said I was successful one.”

“You never said that.” He repeats. Raised my eyebrows in confusion. Ludwig seems like those people who take things too literally.

“Then does this necklace of yours keep shaking whenever it detects magic?” The Inquisitor now asks. I frowned at my necklace.

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Ludwig is a shaman, does that mean the necklace won’t stop shaking if he’s nearby?” Maria asked.

“Seems so.” My frown deepened. Started to think that making this necklace is not a good idea. If it keeps shaking on minute traces of magic I would get many false positives.

“Will it not be useless then? I heard there are many wizards in Middenheim.” Alright this thing is useless based on what Maria said. Wasted 4 souls. Can I even refund this in soulforge or perhaps upgrade it to be more specific?

“Most wizards are dispatched outside to help the surrounding villages along with the witch hunters. There are only a handful of Hierophants in Middenheim. That necklace of yours might prove useful.” the Inquisitor added

“I sure hope so.”

“I believe we have enough pleasantries.” The Inquisitor finally starts the briefing.

“You all know what happened. Cases of mutations have grown significantly after the golden light a few nights ago. But even then, adults suddenly and instantaneously turn into chaos spawns are unprecedented. Previous records suggest that this is only possible with the use of a chaos artifact. Four cases such as these happened yesterday.”

She shuffled through some reports

“All of you are personally involved in one, one within the temple district near the refuge area bordering the slums, one near the town square, and the last one is a knight panther. My men are... busy dealing with the knights. The situation there is pretty volatile. So I will leave the investigation on the town square and the temple district to the three of you. I suggest you start with the town square. One of my men will be there waiting for your help.”

“What about you?” Ludwig ask

“My presence is required to handle the knights.” Then he just nod

With nothing left to ask we exit the building and back within the alleyways

“So, does anyone remember the way out of this?” Ludwig confidently walks without a word. Maria smiles as she follows. Guess that means yes and I follow them for now.

“My necklace detects magic.” I said. “It has never been this active before.” Then I add

Kostner hums as he thinks.

I am now at the very front of the group. The rest are very behind to the point that my necklace is not shaking anymore. Now I am the canary of the party. Being the first one into danger and letting them know if my necklace detects magic.

“Don’t worry! We are right behind you!” Maria yelled in assurance from the back

“Now turn left!” Kostner yells

I turn left. The buildings start to get more and more rundown. I start to think about this sudden mutations. This must be either the Changeling’s or the Masque’s doing. Could be both as all 4 cases are in different locations. Since this happened yesterday, Ludwig and Maria are not both. Kostner might be the Changeling or the Masque. In fact, anyone could be one of those two daemons. Not to mention I still need to find Taal and Rhya.

Still deep in thought, I step on something soft. Stopping to look down, I stepped on a woman’s corpse. Looking around, there are many more corpses. Dozens. With many body parts and innards strewn around. Kostner walks towards the scene of carnage. But then he looks at my face instead and hums.

“What? What are you doing?”

“Nothing.” He then walks forward, careful to not slip or step on the bodies.

I looked back confused and saw a similar confused expression from Maria. Then it dawns on me that he is judging my reaction to this carnage. And I did not react!. A blunder on my part. Though judging by Maria’s face, he did the same to her and Ludwig.

“Did that necklace of yours react, Gehrman?” Kostner ask as I catch up to him

“No.”

“Then the trace is already cold.”

“What happened here?”

“That.”

He points at a chaos spawn with multiple wolf heads grown haphazardly all over its body. Swords still sticking to its corpse and the body riddled with bullet holes.

“Was a former priest of Ulric. He was supposed to lead the newest batch of refugees. Instead he turned into that and maul everyone here.

A deep growl comes from Ludwig seeing the chaos spawn. Visibly shaking with rage.

“How is this killed?”

“The guards hire some mercenaries to help police the increased number of refugees.” I saw plenty of corpses with mismatched armor parts. These must be whatever is left of the mercenaries.

“Any survivors?”

“Just one. A nervous female mercenary who somehow gets out unschated.” He said with a tinge of suspicion

“Now start piling those bodies!” He said to me and Ludwig“I have a corpse to dissect.”

I want to check the chaos spawn corpse too. But I am already suspicious enough as it is. As I pick one of the bodies strewn into an alley I look back. Making sure Ludwig and Maria is a far enough. The necklace started shaking.