After what seemed like an eternity, Sirius and Neriah stopped their foolish behavior after both Noah and Lou Yan corrected the misunderstandings. It seemed the whispers that had spread had finally ceased, focusing on today's incident.
"Did you make such a fuss over something so silly? What kind of fools are my friends?" Noah thought to himself, annoyed as he looked at the sky.
Noah noticed something important: the drone that had been hovering over the area had disappeared. However, he didn't pay much attention to it and briefly ignored the matter, then looked back at Lou Yan, who was now blushing deeply.
"Are you alright?" Noah asked quietly, noticing Lou Yan's worried expression along with her redness.
"I-I'm fine," Lou Yan stammered, unsure of what to say after such an embarrassing situation.
"Is she just embarrassed? Well, it's fine if that's the case..." Noah thought to himself, glancing toward the girl who had been sitting on the ground, kneeling. She was still there in silence, while the crowd had already scattered, ignoring her existence without care.
"How cruel. Once the drama ends, everyone leaves without a care for the aftermath, eh?… Humans are naturally greedy creatures. They devour what they desire, and if something doesn't spark their curiosity, they'll toss you aside," Noah thought quietly to himself, perhaps feeling a sense of sympathy for the girl because he had been in a similar situation before—being ignored by everyone, thrown away as if he were a broken doll,
irreplaceable. Although he was still going through that phase, the disregard had turned into disdain, and he didn't mind as long as he wasn't ignored and was still the subject of people's curiosity and attention.
"Lou Yan, who is that girl?" Noah asked with curiosity, turning to Lou Yan.
"Hmm, that girl? I think she's 'Liora Val', a first-year student from an ordinary family. I think she was a close friend of the The deceased 'Elliot Winters,' or 'Ellie' as he was called. I always saw them in the Lovers Garden; maybe they were secretly dating," Lou Yan muttered, placing her hand on her chin as she tried to recall the girl's connection with the deceased.
"I see... Is Elliot from the famous Winters family that lives in the North of the empire?" Noah asked curiously, glancing at Lou Yan from the corner of his eye.
"Yes, but he's not from the main family, just a subsidiary branch. Elliot's skill appeared when he was young, and he showed talent that caught the main family's attention. That's why he was sent to Nova Academy. But even though he was talented, he was only above average here. Due to the competition, his talent stagnated, and his grade and abilities sharply declined. The Winters family probably gave up on him and forgot about him a long time ago. Perhaps no one will come to claim his body, and his funeral will be held here," Lou Yan answered, her tone hinting at sadness and pity for the boy's difficult situation.
"A funeral here? Is there a cemetery at the university?" Noah asked, surprised by such a piece of information.
"Everything is in the university, even a cemetery. It's located near Sector 10. It's usually where the bodies of criminals who die in prison are buried. But once the serial killings began, the university started burying the bodies of students whose families didn't come to claim them in that cemetery," Lou Yan explained, her eyes going cold as she emptied herself of emotions, as if hollow inside.
"...How many students have died so far?" Noah asked, curious and a bit concerned.
"...Seven students in total, three of them whose families didn't come to claim them," Lou Yan answered coldly, her words freezing the heart and sending a chill through anyone who heard them.
Noah remained silent, and the first thing he thought of was whether his family would come for him if he were killed here, or if he would be buried and forgotten, as if he never existed in anyone's life.
[The host's calm is maintained through the passive effect "Frozen Mind"]
Noah took a deep breath, feeling the passive effect take hold, calming his mind. He sighed when he realized that thinking more about this wouldn't get him anywhere, so he surrendered to the present moment. However, there was one thing that sparked his curiosity.
"By the way, who is leading the investigation into this serial killer?" Noah asked, intrigued
"I don't think there's an answer to that. The professors and students are conducting thorough investigations, but if I had to name someone who has contributed the most so far, my answer would be the Student Council," Lou Yan responded, explaining.
The Student Council—four students who excel more than others, representing the voice and opinion of the students in the university. Since this problem seemed to affect the students more than the administrators or professors, it made sense that the Student Council had intervened and treated the matter seriously.
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In Sector 1, behind the university's massive buildings where the school hospital was located, inside, the paramedics were quickly carrying "Elliot Winters" on a stretcher through the empty halls, running as they entered the emergency room to check on him, hoping for even a slight chance to save his life through resuscitation.
Suddenly, the door to the room flung open, and everyone turned to the door to see a beautiful girl with short, faded purple hair and shiny purple eyes, along with a short boy who looked like a small child, with pure white hair and gray eyes, wearing black earrings. He was sitting on a floating backpack. It was the Vice President of the Student Council, Aria Valeblanc, and the Treasurer, Kieran Rhydan.
"He's dead already. There's no hope of saving him," Aria said, pushing her way through the doctors toward the boy's body, while Kieran followed her silently, sitting on his floating backpack.
Aria grabbed his shirt and ripped it open to expose his chest. The cut was deep, reaching his lungs, and was blackened with black shadow-like sparks that weren't flames, yet the wound was still bleeding.
"The usual method of killing. Looks like he was killed at least a day or two ago, yet he's still bleeding like the others," Aria thought silently to herself.
There was something Aria had noticed in her investigation: all the dead had died much earlier than when their bodies were discovered, yet the wounds that caused their deaths kept bleeding and didn't heal even after their deaths. This made her believe that the killer's skill, or its effect, caused constant bleeding even after death. Such a skill would fall under the dark category, utilizing shadows, which explained the black sparks around the wound that never disappeared.
"Most likely a skill that lets him manipulate shadows. Skills like this are ridiculously powerful to the point they insult the dead. They say that if you're killed by a power born of darkness, your soul dies along with your body, and you won't ascend to the heaven. Still, no skill is invincible. Such abilities leave mana behind, like any other site where a murder took place. There must be residual mana from the killer's skill where this boy was killed. But the person we're dealing with is a professional, like a retired hunter. The residual mana is minimal, making tracking him nearly impossible... If only I could use my skill," Aria thought quietly to herself, wiping the black blood off Elliot's wound, now staining her hands. She looked at her hand in silence.
"You didn't find anything, then? Should I help?" Kieran asked, pointing at himself and smiling innocently.
"Go ahead," Aria said, her tone more commanding than requesting.
"Maybe with a bit more kindness in your tone, or maybe add a 'please' at the end, and I'll consider it," Kieran teased, but he was cut off by Arya's fierce glare.
"Do your job!" Arya said in a commanding tone, annoyed, as if she were a high-ranking general ordering a soldier.
"Y-Yes, ma'am!" Kieran said in a panic, and his floating backpack lowered to a level where it was right next to the dead boy. He held Elliot's head and gently tapped it against his head. An aura spread within Kieran's body as if his veins were glowing silver, flowing into his brain. It then transferred from Kieran's mind to Elliot's head, and the veins inside Elliot's head began to glow with a pure silver color.
"I can't believe this!" one of the doctors said in astonishment.
"This is the famous ability of the Treasurer…!" another doctor exclaimed, shocked at the rare scene he was witnessing.
"Spectral Recall…" Aria muttered under her breath, watching Kieran as he performed his task.
"Spectral Recall. Kieran's ability allows him to enter the consciousness of others. He can see their dreams, emotions, and memories, and manipulate them as he pleases. Even if the person is dead, Kieran can enter their dead mind and search it by establishing physical contact. This is the ability of the Treasurer of the Student Council, one of the geniuses at the university, with an S-rank skill, Kieran Rhydan," Arya thought to herself in silence.
After a short while, Kieran opened his eyes to the light and gently pulled away from the body, releasing the head.
"Finally, tell me, what did you see?" Aria asked, her tone eager for the information, which made sense as she had been investigating the series of murders for some time, and what Kieran had seen might be the clue they needed.
"...The Oni Mask."