Apparently, the first killings had only begun fairly recently. A drunken man had stumbled his way into a dimly lit alley at night, only to step right into still-warm guts splattered across the ground.

  The victim had been another man, also busy drinking that night, washing away his sorrows before falling prey and being strung up inside the very alley Jupo and Binibelle found themselves now.

  All traces of the brutal murder were gone by now, but the halfling mage was able to project a very clear representation of it for her apprentice to see–Indeed, the victim had been suspended in the air by the use of two ropes tied to his wrists, the other ends the ropes tightly wrapped into knots around the chimneys of the habitations on each side of the alley.

  “Anything that you find strange, Jupo?”

  Said Binibelle. The young man knew that this meant that there was something suspicious about the way the corpse was positioned, so Jupo circled the elevated remains, looking for any other injuries besides the eviscerated stomach, which had led to the splattering of innards.

  “Mmh… Is it the lack of screaming? You told me that when the person found the corpse, the guts were still warm… Which means everything had occurred very recently at the time, especially considering the fact that temperatures have been dropping…”

  He rubbed his chin in thought.

  The halfling smiled.

  “Not wrong, you are somewhat on the right track, though. I suppose you don’t have the eye for such things just yet–Take a close look at the victim’s mouth and jaw”

  She brought the mana-manifestation of the corpse closer, allowing Jupo to see just how detailed his master’s investigative spell truly was. It didn’t leave any details out.

  “I… I’m not sure I get it”

  “It’s fine. It is rather subtle. The victim’s jaw is not quite right, see? It feels… It goes lower on one side than the other. That’s because it is somewhat dislocated–If we go further with this, we realise that the flesh of his cheeks had small tears as well”

  “Oh! So he was muffled, but the killer took the time to take back whatever they used to silence him?”

  “That would be a fair assumption, if not for the fact that, actually, this man’s vocal cords and larynx were ripped out… It seemed like our killer took those as their snack”

  “But… How does that make sense? Such damage can very easily be lethal. If that’s the first thing the killer did, then it means that they were able to tie the victim up and disembowel him before the other drunkard showed up… The window of opportunity is minuscule!”

  “Exactly. Either our killer went down to some shenanigans, or they are stupidly fast–I would personally lean more toward the first option… Regardless, it seems that from there, they developed a taste for flesh. It’s the only victim of theirs that was not at least partly devoured”

  Jupo rubbed his nape.

  “Excuse me, Master… But how do we know that there is just one killer, or that the killings are related? This one might not have anything to do with the other ones”

  “Heheh, it’s good that you ask questions, Jupo, aren’t you a good boy? We know that the murders are all linked because of one thing that I kept to myself until now–Namely, all of the victims were found alongside a half-black, half-white balloon”

  The mage-blade apprentice blinked. Balloons were a thing that had been popularised alongside the rise of family diners using automatons as performers. Those places tended to be prime spots for birthday parties, and whoever it was who had started the trend had linked floating balloons to anniversary celebrations.

  Jupo did not really know why some balloons would float while others would not, but he was aware of the concepts, at least.

  “Huh… So the killer has a signature? That seems odd… I was expecting them to be a monster, considering that you said that they ate part of their victims… Hold on, what do the bite marks even look like?”

  “Another good question, heh? There is a fresh corpse from yesterday being kept for autopsy, I’ll show you…”

  Binibelle led her apprentice to a well-off part of the city, where a small building stood. Healers and physicians worked there for exorbitant prices, but they also performed autopsies for the sake of the guard and lord when needed.

  The cadaver was covered by fabric, lying on a table in the middle of an ominously empty room. When Binibelle pulled the fabric away, Jupo nearly emptied the contents of his stomach right there and then.

  He had once gotten his own arm torn off by the jaws of a savage abomination of steel, but the injury that had very nearly killed him seemed like nothing compared to what had happened to the person now lying still and cold on the table.

  The remains of the man had been undressed for the autopsy, so all of the injuries were clearly visible–They were numerous, many overlapping to the point that it was basically impossible to actually make a proper list of what had happened to him.

  First of all, it seemed like the killer had prioritised feeding on the soft bits. The lips, nose, ears, as well as other areas that made Jupo greatly uncomfortable… He felt like his skeleton was about to jump out of his skin.

  Any and all soft portions had been devoured without fail. That alone would be enough to make the corpse look almost inhumane, but that was far from it. The remains had been lacerated all over. Deep wounds had been opened all over the body.

  The eyes were entirely gone, replaced by haunting, hollow pits of scarred flesh and bone.

  The chest in particular had been opened up, and judging by how messy it was, it wasn’t the work of the people who had performed the autopsy. The ribs had been removed and were stored separately from the rest of the remains.

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  This had most certainly been done to get access to the organs, which were all gone without exception.

  “Fun fact: The chest was stitched shut when the body was found. The balloon was hidden inside”

  “...Master, that’s not a fun fact at all”

  Jupo sighed, looking at the rest of the body. There were several chunks missing, and it was here that bite marks were to be found–So the killer truly ate people on the spot, which Jupo was fairly certain confirmed that the killer wasn’t a person, but a monster, eating raw, human meat could not be good for anyone otherwise…

  At least, he hoped that this wasn’t the work of a person. It would be worse than if it were a rogue monster…

  The marks left by the teeth were… Somewhat strange, inconsistent, even.

  The width of the marks varied wildly, and the teeth all seemed to be impressively thin and pointy. In certain areas, it looked more like the victim had had a run-in with a porcupine.

  “Right. So it really just looks like we have yet another monster loose in Tolten… I don’t think any beastfolk or demon species have that sort of teeth, at least, none that I am aware are present in the city”

  “That’s a fair assumption, but did you notice the width of the bite marks?”

  “Master, there are bite marks everywhere. How could I know the width of just one bite?”

  “By using an investigative spell, of course”

  As Binibelle spoke, a set of marks suddenly lit up with a mana blue glow. Jupo raised an eyebrow.

  “That’s surprisingly small”

  “Isn’t it? I was expecting something much larger and hulking as well! But it almost feels like… It looks more like the mouth of a cute little lady, wouldn’t you say? My mouth width is about on par with this”

  The halfling pulled back the fabric on top of the corpse.

  “Our killer certainly has the means to distort my attempts to find out their appearance. Normally, I would be able to manifest a representation of the killer out of mana with just this, but when I try, nothing happens at all”

  “I feel fairly confident that our culprit walks on two legs, though. I was able to find handprints in the body, probably from when our fellow held onto the victims while biting into them, and guess what? Small, five-fingered, dainty little hands! I am quite confident that our brutal killer looks like a woman of petite stature”

  “Huh… So… They–She could meld into a crowd without problem?”

  “Well, she might be humanoid, but she might not look like a typical person either. At the very least, I don’t think we’re dealing with a person here. At best, a sapient monstrosity who just so happens to resemble, or take on the form of, a woman.

  Binibelle created a silhouette out of mana.

  “If her proportions aren’t messed up, then I reckon she is somewhere in between one meter and sixty-five centimeters tall, and one meter and seventy-five centimeters tall… She probably has very small, soft features as well. My best guess would be that she looks mostly human, but has a handful of traits that would make her look odd nonetheless”

  “As I say, though, most of what I am stating are just guesses”

  “Is it really, though? You told me that there were some witnesses…”

  Binibelle chuckled.

  “Oh… Do you think that I am just going from one thing to the other to teach you, but that I actually know more than I am letting on? You’re goddamn right! Let’s go, a young boy saw our culprit face-to-face”

  Jupo sighed.

  “How did he survive?”

  “She just let him go”

  “Why?”

  “You can ask him yourself”

  Rather than heading to a house to speak with the witness, they headed to a well-guarded area of the city where guards stayed, and also where criminals were jailed while their punishments were being prepared.

  There, they met with a timid-looking teenager, who was staying here alongside his parents.

  Binibelle signalled for Jupo to do the conversation.

  “Hello, what is your name?”

  “...Heldion”

  “That’s a nice name. I am Jupo, an apprentice mage-blade. There is my master, Miss Binibelle”

  The teen turned as red as an orange as he looked over at Binibelle.

  Jupo supposed that it was good that he was behaving like a normal boy his age.

  “Could you tell me what happened when you met that person?”

  Heldion swallowed his saliva as he remembered what had happened.

  As per usual, he had spent most of the day with his friends, messing around and having fun in the city. Ever since the purple-eyed monster that he and his friends had encountered inside the old Nebulo household had gone away, their parents had allowed them to go out again.

  The other day, though, they stayed out too late, and as they split up to go back to their respective homes, Heldion ended up walking all by himself as it was getting dark–The days were getting shorter, and he remembered that his breath was visible that night.

  He passed by an alleyway after taking a shortcut through a poorer area of town. It may be poor, but it was still very safe. It usually was, at least.

  His gaze was attracted to the alley because of a bright light within. A lantern was on the ground, providing perfect illumination for Heldion to see a black and white figure on top of someone else, making weird noises.

  At the time, he had had absolutely no idea what he was looking at and felt no fear whatsoever. He just thought that they were two people who might need some help–After all, the figure on top was probably helping the one on the bottom. It had certainly been a more plausible explanation than what turned out to be true…

  Thus, Heldion had stupidly called out to the people in the alley, prompting the black and white silhouette to stop moving, barely even glancing at Heldion before rising, pressing one hand against the other person’s face in the process.

  There was a sick crunch-like noise, which Heldion had later learned had been the dislocating of the man’s jaw.

  The moving individual rose in a bizarre manner, almost weightlessly, but deliberately slowly, as if putting on a show, standing tall on the tiptoes before suddenly turning around with a twirl, leaning forward with both hands behind their back–Only then had Heldion realised that it was a clown. A black and white clown girl behaving in a cutesy manner.

  Her face was utterly covered in blood as she made big, unnatural strides toward him, once again appearing weightless as Heldion had remained frozen in place the entire time.

  She raised one hand and passed it in front of her face, and like a magic trick, the blood was completely gone.

  Heldion had nothing against clowns personally, and even if the black and white colour scheme was unusual for a clown. At the time, he had been unable to see the state of the other person, and from his perspective, the blood had only been present for a split moment before vanishing.

  He was confused and a bit worried about being approached by a stranger, but not yet truly scared.

  “Aherm… I am a bit ashamed to admit it, but… She was also very cute, and that made me feel safe…”

  Heldion had not felt safe for very long, however.