"Let's go!" Xiaobing said as he entered the cabin, finding rain leaking through the holes in its roof, and half the floor soaked. The half-broken window let in cold winds, but Xiaobing wasn't much affected by the cold as he was wearing a dry coat.
He entered the cabin's main room and placed the umbrella in a dry spot. Then he picked up a small, wet piece of wood and wedged it into a crack in the cabin wall, hanging the lantern there to light up the cabin's darkness.
After that, he placed the package containing the cakes on the bed, not paying attention to the foul-smelling coat. He then quickly headed to the small desk, placed the Sky Flower there, before fetching the empty, rusty pot, putting the fertilizer in it, and then placing the flower inside it as well.
Afterwards, he washed his hands with rainwater before returning and taking the strangely designed pistol in his hand. He regretted not bringing a quill holder or ink for that feather whose ink had dried not long ago.
Regardless of everything, he couldn't use the Abyss Pistol well and suffered from its recoil. He didn't know if this pistol had supernatural capabilities or was just an ordinary one. So he tried to pull the trigger, but it was stiff and wouldn't budge easily.
So he tightened his grip and braced the pistol better, then channeled some force into his hand and pulled the trigger down. He finally managed to move it, but at that moment, due to the strong pressure, the strange bullets flew out from the magazine into the air, though Xiaobing caught them quickly.
"Oof, that was really close!" Xiaobing said, wiping his brow. He opened his palms and looked at those bullets and said: "Why do these bullets have strange engravings? Hmmm, wait, I remember! Are these V-0 bullets? But their base isn't like the one I pulled from my heart this morning!" Xiaobing kept contemplating those bullets in his hand for several minutes before returning them to the magazine.
"I'm really tired! I want to get some rest, because I truly feel extremely exhausted, more so than last night." Xiaobing said while placing the strangely designed pistol between his trousers and underpants, and approached the bed. The moment he reached it, he smelled the scent of blood on the floor and on that torn black coat.
So he got rid of it, just as he had done with the rest of his tattered suit earlier, before lying down on the bed. It wasn't an excellent or a terrible bed, to be honest, but Xiaobing didn't object to it, content to relax while looking at the cracks in the cabin's roof through which raindrops quietly entered.
Tick tock.. Tick tock!
Suddenly he heard a familiar sound in his head, so he looked toward the clock moving its pendulum left and right on the wall. There was also the stuffed tiger above the door, looking into the cabin with wide-open eyes.
Boooooom!
A powerful lightning bolt thundered in the distance, illuminating the tiger's shape in Xiaobing's eyes. He hadn't activated his ability, so he couldn't see in the utter darkness. He had deactivated it after standing before the Sky Flower outside, and now it was under a cooldown period of two hours or more, he believed. He had used it a lot today, but that had given acceptable results, like breaking through to the second tier on the same day he obtained his path's powers.
He didn't want to eat, so he quickly closed his eyes while remembering everything that happened that day. "It was a tough day!"
...
At the café, James was sprawled on the sofa, with marks of slaps from someone's hand visible on his cheeks.
Steaky stood there wanting to burst out laughing, but James looked at him, making him turn his face away so he wouldn't see the comical smile on his face.
James had been scolded by Madeleine; because she realized they had been at old man Herbert's shop that sells lenses and prescription glasses, not at the fabric merchant and tailor's shop.
But Xiaobing had told her she lost consciousness while searching through fabrics, while the last moments she remembered were at old man Herbert's shop.
Because of that, and after just a few minutes, Madeleine scolded him severely in front of Steaky.
"Damn you, Bing! You'll see what happens to you tomorrow!" James said while covering himself with the blanket.
"Hehehe, you should be wary of our dear cook!" Steaky said, sitting on the table in front of the sofa.
...
On the Street of the Seven Blacksmiths, on the eastern bank of the river.
Several people holding different colored umbrellas stood in a circle, as if surrounding something.
And indeed, they were surrounding the scattered wreckage of a caravan, with pieces of someone's body scattered on it. There was also skin, fur, and horse meat scattered everywhere on that street.
"This is victim number 25 this month!" said a man dressed in black and white, while looking at the horrific scene before him.
"Yes! I see that! This killer has killed so many people so far!" said an old inspector wearing medical glasses, then continued saying: "We must put a stop to this!"
"You're right, sir. This killer has overstepped his bounds! We should catch him before he takes more civilian lives! But..." the man said in a sad voice and then continued: "But this killer is really elusive; we always arrive too late. And it seems he chooses his victims with great care and kills them in the most gruesome ways! And we don't know the motive behind killing the victims this way!"
"No, it's not one! It's a group of serial killers!" the old inspector suddenly replied to that man. And continued saying: "And perhaps I have found the motives, or the purpose behind all this killing!"
"Killers? And what makes you think that? And what is the motive for this killing in your opinion?" asked that person while turning his head and looking at the old inspector.
"Because, exactly at seven o'clock tonight, in the working-class neighborhood, in one of the houses, a dismembered corpse was found on the second floor. And beside it was also a picture of the city's mayor but torn and reassembled. Not only that, but there was writing using that person's blood on the walls of the room where it was found, and it said the following: 'This is just the beginning! With regards, a follower of Viscount Kolasin!'" the old man said slowly while adjusting his glasses and said: "And who do you think owns that house? It is a person of high standing in this city! He is the mayor's advisor, a noble of the rank of Baron! He is Soryang Barahatanin!"
"What! The advisor was killed, and all that happened exactly at seven o'clock? Wait, it's at the same time the Lovers' Festival started in the city center! Damn, the killer took advantage of people being busy with the festival while carrying out his crime! What is the mayor's response to this?" said that man.
"The Viscount will attend the funeral... personally, according to our intelligence information! And I believe he will offer a huge reward for anyone who finds evidence of that killer or catches him!" said that old inspector while walking and turning to leave the scene, leaving that man behind in shock.
Meanwhile, Xiaobing had reached the spot of that Sky Flower, stood, and looked down at the flower and covered it with his black umbrella.
The flower had indeed shown it was exhausted. Xiaobing didn't say anything, just covered it, then picked it up without soil and discovered it hadn't wilted, but was as it would be naturally inside soil.
...
End of Chapter ~ To be continued.