After about an hour, someone kicked one of the doors open and rushed to the hall. He opened the door where the detectives were in and placed his laptop on the table in front of them.

“I finally found something. Look at this, Ben.”

“Ack! What is it, Rhys?”

“I think I found something useful. Come here, all of you!”

People gathered around him at his call. Kairen was curious as well so he also went closer to see what he was talking about. After everyone gathered the man named Rhys clicked a few times on his laptop and opened some screens.

“Look here. I searched the background of all the victims as I was told to and in the end, I could find this.”

An image of a building filled the screen. The name [Reclawa’s Mascry Company] was printed in a big beard on the entrance of the building. Rhys continued with his explanation.

“As the name shows, this place was a company that dealt with mascry. It was founded 11 years ago by someone named Brett Reid. It had quite a good business, the products were in good quality, and they earned a lot of money back then.”

He clicked a few more images. In these new images, the same company was seen burning.

“But five years ago, the company was destroyed. Everything was burnt down to ashes. It was reported that the fire started because of an accident while dealing with mascry. Its manager, Brett Reid, was also reported to die in that accident.”

“How does it relate to our current case?”

“Well, you can see how if you look at this.”

He opened something else again This time, they were some lists.

“The first list is the names of Brett Reid’s business partners who helped him in founding the company 11 years ago and had great shares of the benefits after that.”

“Oh…”

All of them could see the names Ain Warld and Zak Clark written there in big letters.

“And this one is a list of shareholders, the board of directors members, some companies that had connections with it and such things.”

Looking closely at the names, they could see the names of all 10 missing people. All of them were either shareholders or had a high position in the company.

“You mean the disappearance is related to this company?.”

“Well, nothing is for sure but I guess there might be some connections.”

“Hmm.”

“Is there anything else? Any enemies, someone who wanted to harm the company, a debt they didn’t pay, or anything else like that?”

“No. I haven’t found anything yet.”

Ben rubbed his chin and looked at the names once more.

“I guess we have to talk to these guys before anything else.”

Ben showed three names. They were the only shareholders that hadn’t disappeared yet.

“If what we think is true, the next person may be one of these three.”

“I think the same. We need to visit them before that.”

Ben rose from his seat and patted Rhys’s shoulder.

“You really did a great job!”

Rhys rubbed his nose with joy.

“I know right?”

“Continue your investigation. Search if there were any quarrels or disagreements between these people. And also look for possible rivals of the company who may want to harm them.”

“Yes.”

Picking up Rhys’s laptop, Ben went to lieutenant Thain’s room hurriedly. He came back after some time, saying that he got permission. Ben, Kairen, and an officer got in a car and moved towards the house of one of the three remaining shareholders.

The woman’s house was big and luxurious, befitting a rich shareholder. She greeted them and guided them to a guest room. She didn’t get surprised when Ben started explaining the reason they were there as if she already knew it.

“Then, we’d like you to cooperate with us.”

“What am I supposed to do?”

“First of all, please let our mage place a temporary tracker on you. It is for your own safety.”

“…Ok.”

With that, Kairen cast a spell and placed track magic on the woman. It wasn’t as strong and accurate as the spell that professor Exell used, but it was enough for a situation like this.

“Also, we’d like you to inform us if you know of anyone who may be behind this incident.”

The woman touched her wrist with her long fingertips. She thought for a few moments before shaking her head.

“I am not sure… I don’t remember there being anyone among us who would want to harm others…”

“Was there anyone among you who had unique skills?”

“…N-No.”

The woman desperately shook his head.

“Also, I recommend you to stay home and don’t let anyone in. If still don’t feel safe, you can request the police for help or ask them to prepare a safe place for you.”

“Ok.”

Ben looked at his watch and got up.

“Well then, we have to leave.”

“Thank you for coming.”

Kairen also got up and followed Ben. They got in the car again and headed to their second destination.

Ding-Ding

“Ah, my phone.”

Ben picked up and answered his phone. While listening to the speaker, his face got distorted and his eyebrows bent to a frown. He finished his call and horridly told the driver to go the other way.

“What’s happened?”

“They have found Ain Warld.”

“Really? How?”

“…His corpse was found inside his car.”

“….”

His what?

***

[Ain Warld, the managing director of Weltyngs company who was reported to go missing 15 days ago was found dead exactly in the same place that he had disappeared from CCTVs’ view. The police have been investigating the case but no clues were found about the murderer even by using magic. It is suspected that the culprit is also a unique skill user-]

Kairen looked away from the TV that was showing today’s news in the dormitory’s cafeteria. He already knew everything, why would he listen to the TV again?

“Man, your mission is really cool…”

“Cool my ass, it is crazy!”

It really was crazy! Kairen had to create trackers with magic, meet with a beautifully chopped and burnt corpse, use Trace magic until he was out of mana, and run around the whole day. Yeah, his mission was really COOL!

“Stop nagging. At least your mission seems better than his.”

Serria looked at Reyan who was staring blankly at his plate. His face was swollen in the shape of a few lines as if he was hit by the prison’s bars. It really felt like he was going through so much suffering, it was obvious just by looking at his soul-less expression.

“Just what is he doing in a prison?”

“It seems like he had a fight…”

“Does he go around beating the prisoners?”

“Maybe…”

“They started it!”

Reyan suddenly punched the table. Cracks appeared on the area where his fist hit. He started yelling all of a sudden.

“That bastard! How dare he… HOW DARE HEEEE…”

CRASH

One part of the table broke and fell to the floor.

“…”

“…”

The whole cafeteria became silent. Everyone there turned to look at Reyan who suddenly started yelling. The table he was sitting at was half broked and his friends were looking at him with their mouths wide open.

Reyan was so angry that it felt he was about burst into fire at any moment. Kairen and Serria instinctively distanced themselves from the crazed man. They both silently exchanged glances.

‘Who is he talking about?’

‘I don’t know. I swear, I didn’t annoy him today!’

Reyan was still angrily mumbling something under his lips. The cafeteria staff who came to clean up the broken table couldn’t approach Reyan as he seemed like he would beat the crap out of the first person that came to his view.

‘Should we try calming him down?’

‘Look at him! He is mad! I don’t want to get beaten up.’

‘Yeah… me too…’

They could both feel the gazes of people on them. It was really uncomfortable. They took one step back at the same time.

‘We run! We don’t know that man.’

‘Yeah, we don’t know such a person.’

With a silent agreement, they both turned and ran away. They didn’t want to be the unlucky person who would confront an angry Reyan and get beaten up.

***

In the next two days, no one got missing anymore. But instead, two other corpses were discovered. Both of them were cut and burnt in disgusting ways. Kairen would have to visit their corpse and the location where the body was found and use Trace to see if he could find anything.

The result was the same every time. The trace of the dead man suddenly appeared out of nowhere. He tried to see if there was any trace from the murderer left on the body or not, but there was nothing.

“Ack. I can’t find anything.”

Rhys who had been struggling with his investigation for two days scratched his back. He couldn’t find anything about what happened to Reclawa’s Mascry Company despite his hard work.

“My head hurts.”

Ben, who apparently couldn’t sleep for two days was massaging his temples.

Kairen wasn’t any better. He was forced to use his mana until he was about to faint. He was dozing off in a corner of the hall.

“Mr. Ben?”

An officer who just climbed the stairs called Ben at the moment.

“A woman is here. She said she had something to tell you.”

“Hmm? Who?”

When everyone turned to the stairs, they could see a woman behind the police. They knew her, she was the same person that Kairen placed a tracker on.

“I… I have something to tell you….”