It was probably safe to say that the murder of the first subject, Morrigan Westernia, ended in failure.
I thought I had prepared for everything, but clearly, I severely underestimated how much strength a person could muster when their lives were threatened.
When 「that person」 saw me on the crime scene, I thought my life was over.
But when he looked at me, in the middle of a puddle of blood with ragged breath, 「that person」 didn’t run away nor screamed. He just smiled.
It felt… calming…
That person sheltered me. I told that person about my circumstances.
When I saw that person who listened to my words while nodding slowly, a flame lit in my chest.
I was obsessed, I told that person about everything leading to that event. –
I stuttered and probably repeated some point over and over, but that person listened earnestly.
Finally, that person finally spoke.
ーI know how it feels to be in that situation.
Unless you find the answer to this problem, it will haunt you for the rest of your life. There will be no safe haven for you.
To illustrate, even after everyone who cursed you died, they would still curse you in their death.
For that reason, you must continue your experiment.
With that, he gave me a dagger and a tattered cloak.
There wasn’t even a nick on the blade. The dagger was so sharp, it probably could cut through human skin just by sliding it. The cloth of the cloak is isolated with mana and presence, so other people couldn’t detect the wearer.
These two were very valuable items. Even I could understand that right away.
『Why do you go this far for me』 I asked, which he replied with a gentle smile.
ーIf it’s to help relief your soul, this amount is nothing.
I understand your feeling.
I never relate to any other person this much.
That person told me that we were very similar.
Similar? But how? The person in front of me was so dazzling like a shining angel.
How could a filth like me put on the same pedestal as that person?
I will definitely return this favor,
I said.
ーTo witness your soul being saved is the greatest reward I could imagine.
He replied.
Experiment.
Validation.
Subject.
That person taught me all of those unknown words.
That person taught me about the structure of the human body.
How to rip human skin, remove fat, and scrape off internal organs.
The location of what I seek in a human body.
That person provided all of these knowledge in a very kind and detailed way, so the stupid me could process it.
What should I do to become someone like that you? I asked.
ーWhat kind of question is that, you silly thing. He laughed.
ーPlease do ask if you have any question.
We’re not in a hurry, so let’s teach you things one by one.
After that, I want you to tell me the answer to that question you just asked.
I hadn’t seen that person since.
Sometimes I wondered if everything was just a dream.
However, I still held the dagger and the rag in my hand.
That person must had foreseen this, that was why that person granted me these tools so I could affirm his existence in my reality.
Back then, the adults always scold me for saying that I could hear voices that couldn’t be heard.
That was why, even today, I was not confident about everything I seen, heard, or experienced.
If I had the sense of reality, is this reality really the real reality?
If what I thought was real was just a mere imagination for other people, there would be no boundary between reality and imagination.
As for me, the only thing I certain was real were that person’s smile, that person’s words, also that person’s dagger and cloth.
So I will continue the experiment.
My reality must be waiting out there.
The second subject, Catherine Fodlett, seemed to be done better than the first.
I lure her with a harmless smile and invite her to a dark place, then I cut her throat with the dagger that I received from that person.
I was planning to finish her in one painless cut, but I didn’t expect her to resist that much so I couldn’t finish her in one cut. So I cut her once more. Then I cut her once again.
Why did she fight back even though I was being so kind as to kill her painlessly?
Why couldn’t she just accept my kindness?
Just like how my mother scolded me, I scolded the subject.
But she tried to resist even more.
The subject, she repeatedly threw curse words at me, the same awful words that my mother used to abuse me.
I was starting to lose my patience, so I cut off her nose.
She screamed. I pinned the writhing subject down.
「……I will rip your windpipe out if you don’t shut your mouth」
She trembled. She nodded while still holding her cut off nose.
Good. I cracked a small smile. She noticed that and started to feel relieved.
I lifted her chin with my free hand, then I cut her windpipe with the dagger.
「w…… wHhy……?」
She could barely voice her confusion with her cut-off throat.
But her words didn’t matter anymore.
By the time I needed to spend a lot of time and use brute force, I had lost all my kindness towards her.
The noisy brat must be silenced.
Mom would scold me if I didn’t shut up.
I cut her throat several more times so that she would never talk again.
After that, I took off her cloth and revealed her sweaty body.
The damp smell of sweat entered my nose and choke me a little.
So dirty… It stinks…
Catherine Fodlett, the boutique owner, love to wear her beautiful self-tailored clothes. She looked even younger than she actually was.
But no matter how hard she tried, her human body still stank like any other human.
Was I also born from this kind of filthy body too?
I ran my dagger through her pale white stomach.
Red blood poured out and the yellow fat-layer appeared before my very eyes.
That person’s sacred dagger displayed its superior sharpness, it cut through her body without fat sticking onto the blade.
I cut through her digestive tract, full of food and excrement, and pour it out, emptying her belly.
Not only disgusting, but it was also a smelly and dirty work.
But even so, even the most unpleasant work must be finished with enthusiasm. (TL: 嫌なことほど率先して取り組まなければならない。We must have the initiative and tackle unpleasant things)
I wholeheartedly wield the dagger.
Finally, the dagger reached the part that I was aiming for.
Uterus.
The womb.
The source of all filth.
The organ that crystallized the lust of both men and women.
Even though the disgrace that I am would never have been born if this just didn’t exist.
「Dirty… So dirty……」
I murmured. I scooped out the womb with the dagger and stabbed the soft and flabby mass.
The dagger pierced through the lump without much resistance.
As I tilted the handle slightly, the blade completely severed the clump into two.
「Dirty…?」
I didn’t find the answer that I seek.
It was dirty, but I couldn’t say that it was any dirtier than the other part of her meaty body. In order to find my answer, I need to compare more wombs. One might faint if they heard about the amount of time, danger, and gruesome work that must be exerted for this task, but still, I had to do it.
If I didn’t find the answer, I would live the rest of my life in fear that I might be dirty as well.
「Even so……」
The riddle just getting deeper and deeper.
Was I dirty?
Or was I not?
「Verification… failure…」
I used my bloody finger and wrote a big X on the nearby wall.
The X was my newly created letter.
Yes and No. I didn’t know how to call something that was both dirty and not-dirty at the same time, so I made a new letter.
For someone as stupid and slow-witted as me, this was quite a great achievement, though I never showed this letter to anyone else.
If I showed it to that person, I was sure I would be praised with that charming smile.
So why did I write it big?
Of course so I could burn it into my memory. When your eyes see something big, you would immediately recognize that it is important.
Mother always slapped my hands whenever I cram small letters next to each other in my notes. She always did it again and again. The letters that mother kept scolding me for again and again was instead praised by my father for being easy to read.
I continued filling the wall with bloody X, X, and more Xs.
My fingertip felt painful and the pain was almost unbearable, but I like to think of it as a punishment for my failure during the verification process.
The verification was only just begun.
I hide my body under the cloak and slipped out from the dark alley into the crowded street.
There were several dubious looking people, but if you’re fast and can slip through quickly, the large number of people made a perfect smokescreen.
And so, I disappeared.
Among the people who lived their whole life without doubting their own reality, I disappeared.
Year 1299 Month of Vulture (12th month) Day 7, Early morning.
A woman’s mangled corpse was found.
The woman was killed by a cut through her throat. After death, her abdomen was cut open and parts of her internal organs were damaged.
It was a terrifying incident, but at this point, it hadn’t caught the eye of the busy Monokans citizens.
Although illustrated newspaper had recently picked up and published the incident, there were only a handful of people who could read, so the incident only ended up as another gossip in a random tea ceremony.
But even then, most of the sensible nobles would only raise their eyebrow and skip through it entirely. It was normal for them to avert their attention from the topic and avoid any comment if possible.
Although the security around the royal capital was relatively better than the other capital city of other countries and kingdoms, murder cases were still frequent.
But none of them was as grotesque as this one.
Also, the fact that the incident occurred in the 「New Town」 dulled the reaction of the rich nobles and merchants living in the 「Old Town」.
For the rich people who lived in the 「Old Town」, the 「New Town」 looked more like another world that had nothing to do with them.
Just one slightly unusual incident wasn’t enough for them to change their indifferent attitude.
However, the situation changed when another murder case was discovered on the 7th day of the month of Nightingale (1st month) in the year 1300.
The second victim was a woman who owned a tailor shop and lived in the New Town.
The victim was the Old Town Royal Theatre’s exclusive supplier. Her shop singlehandedly tailored every costume that the theatre needed for any kind of plays. Although she couldn’t be considered as wealthy and her shop was set up in the New Town, as an exclusive supplier for the royal theatre, she still had a considerable number of noble acquaintances.
The woman was also killed by a cut to her throat. After death, she was also gutted and her internal organs were scooped out.
As a result of the tragedy that struck a well-known tailor, some nobles felt a tinge of pain on their chest. Meanwhile, the other more-mean-hearted nobles felt a great thrill from such an incident. After all, these kinds of incidents made a great material for conversation.
「Good grief… You know about that social gathering that I couldn’t refuse? Every single people there were talking about the ripper all the time.
What the hell did they mean by 『Who do you think will be the next victim』? I know they’re indifferent, but this has gone too far!」
Father, who was rarely called to the high-class society gathering, came back complaining.
By the way, 「The Ripper」 was the name given to this indiscriminate serial killer.
「The people of the New Town are making a huge uproar like they tend to always do.
When facing an indiscriminate serial murderer, of course they will wonder if they’re going to be the next target」
Since Adventurer Guild was located in the New Town, mother was the most knowledgeable regarding things that happened in the New Town.
It was clear that the incident that happened during the 12th month wasn’t just a single disaster, but a series of even bigger incidents.
Also, because the incident occurred in the new town, the residents of the new town imagined that they or a close person might become the next victim, and some people fall into the state of depression.
「People are also rushing the Patrol Knights Order to quickly find the murderer. (TL: 巡査騎士団) Poor Corzei had to handle the complaints from the nobles and the regular citizens. He was pitted from the top and bottom」
Corzei was the captain of the Patrol Knights Order. As the captain of the Royal Guards, father had some encounters with him.
Although the Patrol Knights had investigated thoroughly for ten days after the second incident, they still couldn’t even see the shadow or the form of the criminal.
Eyewitness testimonies came from both old and new town citizens, but since most of them were just assumptions and prank testimonies, the knights eventually gave up on verifying them.
So instead, they went to the poorer residential area in the New Town and detained anyone who showed any sign of bad behavior. Those who went out alone and those who stayed alone at home during the night of the incident were dragged to the Patrol Knights Order’s office and subjected to violent and harsh interrogations.
But even after all those efforts, the Knights couldn’t find any trace of the Ripper. Furthermore, after their forceful investigation method, they received extreme criticisms from the citizens.
To add salt to injury, the illustrated newspaper published caricature of the Captain’s incompetence every single day. The nobles of the Old Town also voiced their request for the captain’s dismissal. But for the citizens of the New Town who lived directly under the threat of the Ripper, their situation won’t improve even if the captain of the Patrol Knights was fired.
Even in case of the oh-so-great nobles of the Old Town ordered an investigation, it certainly wasn’t because they put the safety of the lower-caste citizens of the New Town in mind.
So as the minimal defensive countermeasure for the incident, the citizens of the New Town decided to not go out at night and barred their doors and windows shut. Sadly, some poor citizens had no choice to work on the night shifts. Those people were not only live in fear of the Ripper, but also being suspected by the other citizens and the patrol knights.
「I heard that the economy is getting worse in the Old Town, but the New Town is even worse. People are too scared to go out at night.
Meanwhile, I heard that self-defense weapons and protective gears were selling like hot cakes」
Steph said after she went back from her shopping errand.
According to Steph, the atmosphere in the NewTown wasn’t only bad during nighttime, but also during the day. It seemed that the quarrel among the citizens won’t cease any time soon.
Of course, the Patrol Knights Order tried to break the fights, but then the citizens turned against them and said 「You are just as bad for leaving that murderer at large」. They then surrounded the knights and stoned them.
「So Ed, what did you see from this incident?」
Father asked for my opinion.
「Un…… For now? Nothing」
Of course the Ripper case reminded me of the slasher who also reincarnated to this world, Kizaki Tooru.
I was also worried that the whole situation was similar to the case of 「Jack the Ripper」 from my world.
「But something feels out of place. Though even to say, I knew it because David-niisan told me」
The Ripper didn’t even try to hide its work.
When Kizaki killed more than a hundred people in his previous life, he probably used his own basement to prevent the incident from being exposed. But then, there was also a possibility after coming to another world, there was no one that could restrain him so he no longer needs to hide his crime.
But in that case, another question popped into one’s mind. 『What had he been doing during the first 6 years after reincarnation?』.
「For an apostle of the evil god, what was being done was way too small-scaled」
Mother said the same thing that I was thinking.
She said it right.
Compared to what the other evil god’s apostles did, what the Ripper had done was nothing more than small scale incidents.
Goleth was leading the 〈Black Wolf Fang〉 and spearheaded an attack to invade the kingdom. Gazaine also took over the assassination cult 〈Yatagarasu〉 and tried to take over the country.
Thinking about Kizaki Tooru, as someone who was personally chosen by the Evil God from a different world, I didn’t think he would only do something this small-scale.
「That’s why, there’s nothing we could do now besides wait and see how it goes. There was also a chance that the Patrol Knights Order might be able to capture the Ripper」
Either way, I wasn’t the only one who could catch the slashing demon.
I was confident in my ability to catch the slashing demon if I ever met one, but it was impossible for me to find the Ripper in such a huge town.
Besides, that kind of work should be left with the Patrol Knight Orders.
Although they were receiving harsh criticism from the illustrated newspaper, as far from what I got from father, the Patrol Knights Order wasn’t incompetent in the slightest.
As the one who popularized the press printing typography, I did feel responsible for how quickly the irresponsible gossip articles spread. Since His Majesty maintained a calm judgment on this murder case, we had no choice but to wait for the situation to subside.
ーIn short, if it was only up to this point, this murder case had nothing to do with me.
It was probably safe to say that the murder of the first subject, Morrigan Westernia, ended in failure.
I thought I had prepared for everything, but clearly, I severely underestimated how much strength a person could muster when their lives were threatened.
When 「that person」 saw me on the crime scene, I thought my life was over.
But when he looked at me, in the middle of a puddle of blood with ragged breath, 「that person」 didn’t run away nor screamed. He just smiled.
It felt… calming…
That person sheltered me. I told that person about my circumstances.
When I saw that person who listened to my words while nodding slowly, a flame lit in my chest.
I was obsessed, I told that person about everything leading to that event. –
I stuttered and probably repeated some point over and over, but that person listened earnestly.
Finally, that person finally spoke.
ーI know how it feels to be in that situation.
Unless you find the answer to this problem, it will haunt you for the rest of your life. There will be no safe haven for you.
To illustrate, even after everyone who cursed you died, they would still curse you in their death.
For that reason, you must continue your experiment.
With that, he gave me a dagger and a tattered cloak.
There wasn’t even a nick on the blade. The dagger was so sharp, it probably could cut through human skin just by sliding it. The cloth of the cloak is isolated with mana and presence, so other people couldn’t detect the wearer.
These two were very valuable items. Even I could understand that right away.
『Why do you go this far for me』 I asked, which he replied with a gentle smile.
ーIf it’s to help relief your soul, this amount is nothing.
I understand your feeling.
I never relate to any other person this much.
That person told me that we were very similar.
Similar? But how? The person in front of me was so dazzling like a shining angel.
How could a filth like me put on the same pedestal as that person?
I will definitely return this favor,
I said.
ーTo witness your soul being saved is the greatest reward I could imagine.
He replied.
Experiment.
Validation.
Subject.
That person taught me all of those unknown words.
That person taught me about the structure of the human body.
How to rip human skin, remove fat, and scrape off internal organs.
The location of what I seek in a human body.
That person provided all of these knowledge in a very kind and detailed way, so the stupid me could process it.
What should I do to become someone like that you? I asked.
ーWhat kind of question is that, you silly thing. He laughed.
ーPlease do ask if you have any question.
We’re not in a hurry, so let’s teach you things one by one.
After that, I want you to tell me the answer to that question you just asked.
I hadn’t seen that person since.
Sometimes I wondered if everything was just a dream.
However, I still held the dagger and the rag in my hand.
That person must had foreseen this, that was why that person granted me these tools so I could affirm his existence in my reality.
Back then, the adults always scold me for saying that I could hear voices that couldn’t be heard.
That was why, even today, I was not confident about everything I seen, heard, or experienced.
If I had the sense of reality, is this reality really the real reality?
If what I thought was real was just a mere imagination for other people, there would be no boundary between reality and imagination.
As for me, the only thing I certain was real were that person’s smile, that person’s words, also that person’s dagger and cloth.
So I will continue the experiment.
My reality must be waiting out there.
The second subject, Catherine Fodlett, seemed to be done better than the first.
I lure her with a harmless smile and invite her to a dark place, then I cut her throat with the dagger that I received from that person.
I was planning to finish her in one painless cut, but I didn’t expect her to resist that much so I couldn’t finish her in one cut. So I cut her once more. Then I cut her once again.
Why did she fight back even though I was being so kind as to kill her painlessly?
Why couldn’t she just accept my kindness?
Just like how my mother scolded me, I scolded the subject.
But she tried to resist even more.
The subject, she repeatedly threw curse words at me, the same awful words that my mother used to abuse me.
I was starting to lose my patience, so I cut off her nose.
She screamed. I pinned the writhing subject down.
「……I will rip your windpipe out if you don’t shut your mouth」
She trembled. She nodded while still holding her cut off nose.
Good. I cracked a small smile. She noticed that and started to feel relieved.
I lifted her chin with my free hand, then I cut her windpipe with the dagger.
「w…… wHhy……?」
She could barely voice her confusion with her cut-off throat.
But her words didn’t matter anymore.
By the time I needed to spend a lot of time and use brute force, I had lost all my kindness towards her.
The noisy brat must be silenced.
Mom would scold me if I didn’t shut up.
I cut her throat several more times so that she would never talk again.
After that, I took off her cloth and revealed her sweaty body.
The damp smell of sweat entered my nose and choke me a little.
So dirty… It stinks…
Catherine Fodlett, the boutique owner, love to wear her beautiful self-tailored clothes. She looked even younger than she actually was.
But no matter how hard she tried, her human body still stank like any other human.
Was I also born from this kind of filthy body too?
I ran my dagger through her pale white stomach.
Red blood poured out and the yellow fat-layer appeared before my very eyes.
That person’s sacred dagger displayed its superior sharpness, it cut through her body without fat sticking onto the blade.
I cut through her digestive tract, full of food and excrement, and pour it out, emptying her belly.
Not only disgusting, but it was also a smelly and dirty work.
But even so, even the most unpleasant work must be finished with enthusiasm. (TL: 嫌なことほど率先して取り組まなければならない。We must have the initiative and tackle unpleasant things)
I wholeheartedly wield the dagger.
Finally, the dagger reached the part that I was aiming for.
Uterus.
The womb.
The source of all filth.
The organ that crystallized the lust of both men and women.
Even though the disgrace that I am would never have been born if this just didn’t exist.
「Dirty… So dirty……」
I murmured. I scooped out the womb with the dagger and stabbed the soft and flabby mass.
The dagger pierced through the lump without much resistance.
As I tilted the handle slightly, the blade completely severed the clump into two.
「Dirty…?」
I didn’t find the answer that I seek.
It was dirty, but I couldn’t say that it was any dirtier than the other part of her meaty body. In order to find my answer, I need to compare more wombs. One might faint if they heard about the amount of time, danger, and gruesome work that must be exerted for this task, but still, I had to do it.
If I didn’t find the answer, I would live the rest of my life in fear that I might be dirty as well.
「Even so……」
The riddle just getting deeper and deeper.
Was I dirty?
Or was I not?
「Verification… failure…」
I used my bloody finger and wrote a big X on the nearby wall.
The X was my newly created letter.
Yes and No. I didn’t know how to call something that was both dirty and not-dirty at the same time, so I made a new letter.
For someone as stupid and slow-witted as me, this was quite a great achievement, though I never showed this letter to anyone else.
If I showed it to that person, I was sure I would be praised with that charming smile.
So why did I write it big?
Of course so I could burn it into my memory. When your eyes see something big, you would immediately recognize that it is important.
Mother always slapped my hands whenever I cram small letters next to each other in my notes. She always did it again and again. The letters that mother kept scolding me for again and again was instead praised by my father for being easy to read.
I continued filling the wall with bloody X, X, and more Xs.
My fingertip felt painful and the pain was almost unbearable, but I like to think of it as a punishment for my failure during the verification process.
The verification was only just begun.
I hide my body under the cloak and slipped out from the dark alley into the crowded street.
There were several dubious looking people, but if you’re fast and can slip through quickly, the large number of people made a perfect smokescreen.
And so, I disappeared.
Among the people who lived their whole life without doubting their own reality, I disappeared.
Year 1299 Month of Vulture (12th month) Day 7, Early morning.
A woman’s mangled corpse was found.
The woman was killed by a cut through her throat. After death, her abdomen was cut open and parts of her internal organs were damaged.
It was a terrifying incident, but at this point, it hadn’t caught the eye of the busy Monokans citizens.
Although illustrated newspaper had recently picked up and published the incident, there were only a handful of people who could read, so the incident only ended up as another gossip in a random tea ceremony.
But even then, most of the sensible nobles would only raise their eyebrow and skip through it entirely. It was normal for them to avert their attention from the topic and avoid any comment if possible.
Although the security around the royal capital was relatively better than the other capital city of other countries and kingdoms, murder cases were still frequent.
But none of them was as grotesque as this one.
Also, the fact that the incident occurred in the 「New Town」 dulled the reaction of the rich nobles and merchants living in the 「Old Town」.
For the rich people who lived in the 「Old Town」, the 「New Town」 looked more like another world that had nothing to do with them.
Just one slightly unusual incident wasn’t enough for them to change their indifferent attitude.
However, the situation changed when another murder case was discovered on the 7th day of the month of Nightingale (1st month) in the year 1300.
The second victim was a woman who owned a tailor shop and lived in the New Town.
The victim was the Old Town Royal Theatre’s exclusive supplier. Her shop singlehandedly tailored every costume that the theatre needed for any kind of plays. Although she couldn’t be considered as wealthy and her shop was set up in the New Town, as an exclusive supplier for the royal theatre, she still had a considerable number of noble acquaintances.
The woman was also killed by a cut to her throat. After death, she was also gutted and her internal organs were scooped out.
As a result of the tragedy that struck a well-known tailor, some nobles felt a tinge of pain on their chest. Meanwhile, the other more-mean-hearted nobles felt a great thrill from such an incident. After all, these kinds of incidents made a great material for conversation.
「Good grief… You know about that social gathering that I couldn’t refuse? Every single people there were talking about the ripper all the time.
What the hell did they mean by 『Who do you think will be the next victim』? I know they’re indifferent, but this has gone too far!」
Father, who was rarely called to the high-class society gathering, came back complaining.
By the way, 「The Ripper」 was the name given to this indiscriminate serial killer.
「The people of the New Town are making a huge uproar like they tend to always do.
When facing an indiscriminate serial murderer, of course they will wonder if they’re going to be the next target」
Since Adventurer Guild was located in the New Town, mother was the most knowledgeable regarding things that happened in the New Town.
It was clear that the incident that happened during the 12th month wasn’t just a single disaster, but a series of even bigger incidents.
Also, because the incident occurred in the new town, the residents of the new town imagined that they or a close person might become the next victim, and some people fall into the state of depression.
「People are also rushing the Patrol Knights Order to quickly find the murderer. (TL: 巡査騎士団) Poor Corzei had to handle the complaints from the nobles and the regular citizens. He was pitted from the top and bottom」
Corzei was the captain of the Patrol Knights Order. As the captain of the Royal Guards, father had some encounters with him.
Although the Patrol Knights had investigated thoroughly for ten days after the second incident, they still couldn’t even see the shadow or the form of the criminal.
Eyewitness testimonies came from both old and new town citizens, but since most of them were just assumptions and prank testimonies, the knights eventually gave up on verifying them.
So instead, they went to the poorer residential area in the New Town and detained anyone who showed any sign of bad behavior. Those who went out alone and those who stayed alone at home during the night of the incident were dragged to the Patrol Knights Order’s office and subjected to violent and harsh interrogations.
But even after all those efforts, the Knights couldn’t find any trace of the Ripper. Furthermore, after their forceful investigation method, they received extreme criticisms from the citizens.
To add salt to injury, the illustrated newspaper published caricature of the Captain’s incompetence every single day. The nobles of the Old Town also voiced their request for the captain’s dismissal. But for the citizens of the New Town who lived directly under the threat of the Ripper, their situation won’t improve even if the captain of the Patrol Knights was fired.
Even in case of the oh-so-great nobles of the Old Town ordered an investigation, it certainly wasn’t because they put the safety of the lower-caste citizens of the New Town in mind.
So as the minimal defensive countermeasure for the incident, the citizens of the New Town decided to not go out at night and barred their doors and windows shut. Sadly, some poor citizens had no choice to work on the night shifts. Those people were not only live in fear of the Ripper, but also being suspected by the other citizens and the patrol knights.
「I heard that the economy is getting worse in the Old Town, but the New Town is even worse. People are too scared to go out at night.
Meanwhile, I heard that self-defense weapons and protective gears were selling like hot cakes」
Steph said after she went back from her shopping errand.
According to Steph, the atmosphere in the NewTown wasn’t only bad during nighttime, but also during the day. It seemed that the quarrel among the citizens won’t cease any time soon.
Of course, the Patrol Knights Order tried to break the fights, but then the citizens turned against them and said 「You are just as bad for leaving that murderer at large」. They then surrounded the knights and stoned them.
「So Ed, what did you see from this incident?」
Father asked for my opinion.
「Un…… For now? Nothing」
Of course the Ripper case reminded me of the slasher who also reincarnated to this world, Kizaki Tooru.
I was also worried that the whole situation was similar to the case of 「Jack the Ripper」 from my world.
「But something feels out of place. Though even to say, I knew it because David-niisan told me」
The Ripper didn’t even try to hide its work.
When Kizaki killed more than a hundred people in his previous life, he probably used his own basement to prevent the incident from being exposed. But then, there was also a possibility after coming to another world, there was no one that could restrain him so he no longer needs to hide his crime.
But in that case, another question popped into one’s mind. 『What had he been doing during the first 6 years after reincarnation?』.
「For an apostle of the evil god, what was being done was way too small-scaled」
Mother said the same thing that I was thinking.
She said it right.
Compared to what the other evil god’s apostles did, what the Ripper had done was nothing more than small scale incidents.
Goleth was leading the 〈Black Wolf Fang〉 and spearheaded an attack to invade the kingdom. Gazaine also took over the assassination cult 〈Yatagarasu〉 and tried to take over the country.
Thinking about Kizaki Tooru, as someone who was personally chosen by the Evil God from a different world, I didn’t think he would only do something this small-scale.
「That’s why, there’s nothing we could do now besides wait and see how it goes. There was also a chance that the Patrol Knights Order might be able to capture the Ripper」
Either way, I wasn’t the only one who could catch the slashing demon.
I was confident in my ability to catch the slashing demon if I ever met one, but it was impossible for me to find the Ripper in such a huge town.
Besides, that kind of work should be left with the Patrol Knight Orders.
Although they were receiving harsh criticism from the illustrated newspaper, as far from what I got from father, the Patrol Knights Order wasn’t incompetent in the slightest.
As the one who popularized the press printing typography, I did feel responsible for how quickly the irresponsible gossip articles spread. Since His Majesty maintained a calm judgment on this murder case, we had no choice but to wait for the situation to subside.
ーIn short, if it was only up to this point, this murder case had nothing to do with me.
