Chapter 204 Suspicion

"There's five?" Hearing the words that came out of Valyr's mouth, Merdus furrowed his brows as a frown adorned his face. "Are you certain of your words?"

"Indeed, we are, Sir Merdus." At this moment, Tryndall was the one who responded to the question. "We have even brought memory crystals for you to look at as evidence of our claims."

"What nonsense." Merdus scoffed. "The Clossbay Killer has always been one person all this time. Even you two, who are not from this city, surely know that."

"We do, but…"

"But what?"

Listening to the conversation between the two so far, Valyr could not help but let out a sigh as he looked at Merdus. "Sir Merdus, if you could just take a look at the memory crystals, everything would make sense."

"And what reason can you two give for me to believe that the recordings of these memory crystals are not falsified?" Merdus looked back at them, the frown on his face deepening as faint killing intent started to radiate from him.

Listening to the question that was aimed at the two, the two could not help but look at each other before letting out respective sighs. Although the two of them knew that what they saw was the truth, they indeed had no way for them to prove to Merdus that what they had recorded was not falsified, lest they thought about it before they started recording.

Then again, one of the reasons why Merdus had become suspicious of their claims was due to the fact that they used memory crystals as evidence, an item used multiple times in the past by many people in order to create false evidence.

People would infuse great amounts of mana into the crystals, creating audio and video that did not exist in the first place to create false evidence, even though that was never the original intention behind the creation of the memory crystals.

'I'm sure this situation wouldn't have happened if we just told him that there was only one killer,' Valyr muttered inwardly. 'He would have even probably believed the recordings we saved on the memory crystals and wouldn't suspect a thing.'

However, just as they were thinking that they would probably have to find another way to convince the mayor, the door to the room was slammed open, revealing a young man in uniform, wearing a frantic expression as he looked around for Merdus. "Mayor, bad news!"

"What is it?" Deciding to leave the matter regarding the two in the meantime, Merdus focused his attention on the young man that had just come in. "Calm down. Take your time."

Hearing that, the young man caught his breath, gradually slowing his breathing as he eventually calmed down. Then, noticing Valyr and Tryndall near Merdus, the young man asked, "Would it be alright for them to listen to my report, Mayor?"

"We could leave, if you want." In response to the question, Valyr gave a suggestion, with both of them proceeding to stand up. However, Merdus gestured for them to sit down and shook his head, informing them through his gaze that their conversation was still not over.

"You can continue. I'm certain they won't spread a word." With these words coming out of Merdus' mouth as he radiated a bit of killing intent towards the two, the young man lightly nodded before proceeding to talk.

"Rookie Guard Alex shall be presenting a report from the Clossbay City Guards to the Mayor of Clossbay City."

Nodding in response to the young man's words, Merdus gestured for them to continue.

"According to the information the guards have collected, we have found five corpses in the alleys, all of them swiftly and cleanly cut into various pieces, as if all of them were being carved like meat. From our investigations, as well as cross-referencing of past incidents, it is safe to assume that these victims were all killed by the elusive Clossbay Killer. Protocol regarding the burial of the victims, as well as the relay of information to their loved ones has already been enacted."

"That concludes my report." After giving a salute to Merdus, the young man gave him a respectful bow before proceeding to leave the three on their own once more.

Unsurprisingly, after listening to the young man's report, Merdus had a look of shock on his face once he shifted his gaze towards Tryndall and Valyr, the killing intent surrounding them earlier now nowhere to be found. On the other hand, the two looked at each other, seemingly having the same thought in mind.

'It seems that luck is on our side.'

Though the two of them wanted to laugh at the irony of the current situation, they suppressed all of those urges as Tryndall lightly coughed to catch the mayor's attention. "Would you like to take a look at the recordings?"

After he was done getting over his shock, Merdus eventually let out a sigh before nodding.

"Yes."

…

While watching through the recordings on the memory crystals, Merdus apologized to the two of them that he doubted their words, which the two responded that it was fine. After that, the two asked the question that was weighing on their minds earlier, which was the fact that they were only ones who had accepted the quest.

In response, Merdus told them that they didn't want the Clossbay Killer to find out that he was being tracked, nor did he want to alert all of the citizens regarding the problem. Thus, he opted to limit the number of people that would accept the quest during a certain duration.

Once he was done watching through the recordings on the memory crystals both Tryndall and Valyr brought, a solemn expression appeared on his face as he pondered over something for a bit. After sometime, he looked at the two. "This is definitely more than enough evidence for the city to detain the five. However, there's one thing that's been bothering me."

"Why didn't you two apprehend the five on your own?"

"That was because these five murders were all happening at the same time," said Tryndall in response, bringing up the party chat that they had created last night to Merdus, scrolling to the part where all of the assassins mentioned that the suspect they had tracked was the Clossbay Killer. Fortunately, the party chat recorded the time when the message was sent, allowing Merdus to believe in Tryndall's words.

After that, he explained that the assassins were only hired to track the suspects and inform the two of the suspects' every move. "If it were only one suspect, we would have probably apprehended the man before heading here. But now that there's five…"

"I see." Merdus nodded after that. "Well, I appreciate that you've given the city the aid it needed. In any case, even though the Clossbay Killer is actually five people, the city shall take it from here."

"I probably wouldn't do that if I were you, Sir Merdus." Though, just as Merdus finished his statement, Valyr uttered these words to him, causing the former to raise his eyebrow in curiosity.

"And why is that?"

"The two of us feel that there's more to this matter than it seems."