Chapter 207: Chapter 207: The Corpse-Eating Blood Clan_1
Aiden had anticipated that after he had taken nearly all the benefits, the Witch Coven would certainly not let things rest so easily.
Having not been ambushed on the way back, it was quite likely that they would block him at the prison. On his way to the heresy tribunal to deal with the aftermath, Aiden guessed that Qiqimora might have already sneaked into the prison waiting for him.
"The warden should be clear about why I have come," narrowed her eyes Qiqimora.
"To invite me to dinner? I’m sorry, but as you’ve also just heard, I have plans tonight," Aiden leaned back in his chair with ease.
Unlike the first meeting with Qiqimora, filled with surprise and doubt, after observing her battle with Sister Neve, Aiden had somewhat figured out the effect of Qiqimora’s divine words.
Aside from erasing her presence, she seemed to be able to eliminate specific targets’ interference and influence on herself or on others; presumably, she navigated the prison unimpeded by using this power.
Aiden could see the limitations of this ability; firstly, the number of targets that could be selected was limited, mostly fewer than three, and secondly, the nullification was probably bidirectional, otherwise, they could have just killed Sister Neve on the spot then and there.
After all, this prison was still his home turf, and he didn’t intend to start a conflict with the Witch Coven just yet.
"Please don’t try to joke your way out of this," Qiqimora’s gaze was serious.
"Don’t worry, I do plan to have a proper talk with you, but not right now," replied Aiden, seemingly at his leisure.
"What do you mean?"
"After battling the Harvest Mother Cult, we haven’t had a proper rest in two days; at least let me get some good sleep before discussing this matter," even placed his feet on the table, "In the afternoon. I will initiate contact with Abigail myself in the afternoon. Just wait patiently; I’m not going to sprout wings and fly away."
He had both the necessity and the status to maintain composure; with both divinity and Sister Neve’s remains in his possession, he held the trump card in the negotiations.
Qiqimora stared at him for a long while before finally sighing, "Alright, since the warden has said so, we can only give you that much face. I’ll relay this to Abigail, and hope you aren’t just toying with us."
"Of course, then I won’t see you out," Aiden gestured toward the door.
Qiqimora rose, smiled politely, gave Aiden a curtsy, then vanished into thin air the next second.
...
In the morning, in Northwind Town, the heresy tribunal arrived at the abandoned mine to carry out post-battle investigations and take care of the bodies.
As expected of the predecessors, every action they took was thorough and clean.
Senior Judge Rebecca, in charge of the investigation, couldn’t help but admire as she looked at the corpses scattered across the abandoned mine.
According to Aiden, the majority of the forces here had been slain by the Witch Coven. But after all, it was Aiden himself who proposed the idea of using the Witch Coven — a tactic the heresy tribunal would never resort to.
Of course, if it had been the Aiden of the past, he likely wouldn’t have considered partnering with a coven of witches, and one could only wonder what kind of shift in mindset he had undergone while working in the prison these past years.
"Captain..." A team member searching below approached to report.
"Have you found the target body?" Rebecca asked immediately.
"We’ve found them, there are only two bodies that haven’t completely decomposed at the site," a team member lifted his hand, pointing into the distance, "one headless corpse, and another body with severe head damage, whose fragments of clothing can be pieced together into a black nun’s habit."
"Hmm, that should be it," Rebecca nodded.
Neve Barres, who had been deemed an accomplice in the "Harvest Mother Cult Case" by the Heretic Judgment Bureau for aiding Father Bales in establishing the cult, had already died. Nevertheless, it was necessary for the Heretic Judgment Bureau to recover her body for confirmation.
The team member’s description was almost consistent with what Aiden had previously told them. Aiden claimed that the criminals with him had seen Sister Neve fight with the Great Witches. During the battle, Sister Neve used "Bizarre Life Alchemy" to create a headless decoy to bear the injuries for her, but was then immediately killed by a sneak attack from Great Witch Lamia.
As for the other bodies at the scene, they were basically homunculi created by the cult. The so-called litter of corpses was essentially the remains of homunculi that hadn’t fully decomposed, with only the body left by Sister Neve being somewhat more intact.
"But Captain... there seems to be a problem with that body," the team member suddenly added.
"Problem?"
"You’ll know if you come and see."
The team member led Rebecca to where Sister Neve’s body was located. By then, the scene’s collection work had largely been finished, and the body had been moved to a special recovery bag, ready to be taken away.
Since the body had no clothes on, the investigators had temporarily covered it with a white cloth.
The team member stepped forward, slowly lifting the white cloth to reveal the deceased from the head to the shoulders, and then pointed to a spot on the neck of the body: "Look, Captain, right here."
Rebecca took a close look and immediately froze, "Bloodstains?"
There were two puncture wounds on Sister Neve’s neck that looked as if they had been made by a needle. Such wounds were not unfamiliar to the investigators of the Heretic Judgment Bureau — these were the "bloodmarks" left by bloodsuckers when they sunk their sharp fangs into their victims.
It seemed that Sister Neve had been bitten by a bloodsucker recently — "recently" generally would not exceed two days, as the wounds from a vampire’s bite usually healed very quickly, unless the victim died from loss of blood.
Vampires... Aiden hadn’t mentioned any blood clan involvement in his confession, and there was no intelligence indicating that any of the Great Witches who participated in the battle were bloodsuckers.
"Have you found out when the bite occurred?" Rebecca asked casually.
"Well..." the team member hesitated, "According to the current investigation, these bloodmarks seem... to have been bitten after death."
"What?" Rebecca furrowed her brows.
Although vampires drinking from corpses was not unheard of, it was extremely rare. Most bloodsuckers only accepted drinking fresh blood directly from living beings unless they had no other choice.
They regarded the blood of the dead much as ordinary people regard moldy, furry bread.
"There are traces of blood magic used on the body. After such a long time, the blood in the body should have completely coagulated, but when we found the body, the blood inside still had fluidity. Look, the black blood that flowed from her wound. Although viscous, it is still liquid," the team member began to explain, "Moreover, the bloodmarks on her neck show no signs of healing, which means she either died from exsanguination due to the biting before death or was bitten after death. And the preliminary inspection of the body indicated that the fatal injury was a mechanical hit to the head... so the likelihood that the bloodmarks were left post-mortem is higher."
Rebecca was stunned. In the time from the battle’s end to their arrival at the abandoned mine this morning, a vampire had appeared here and bitten the body to feed.
Was it just a starved, non-discriminating, wandering bloodsucker passing by, or could it be that a bloodsucker had been keeping an eye on the Harvest Mother Cult until their destruction in the siege?
