Deep in the forest, The Band of Heroes rode through the night.
Raghav and Aurelia sat in the driver's seat of the rear carriage, talking among themselves, while An and Eldrain were in the carriage in the front.
Which, in truth, was a wagon meant to carry their food and nothing more.
"He knew, didn't he?"
An looked at her husband. "About what?"
"That Aurelia would come, he was waiting for her, was he not?" "He was, do you blame him for waiting?"
Had he been in Raghav's shoes, he would have done the same, so he just sighed. "No. I did the same when I met you, remember."
Ahead of them, the road parted in two directions; one continued south, and the other diverged to the west.
"Raghav! Which way?"
At the back, Raghav pulled out the compass, and it was still pointing west. "West."
"Got it."
With their path decided. Raghav called out to them. "Eldrain, I must ask why is it that this world becomes so empty at night? Even the capital becomes a ghost town."
"You know of the horrors that exist in this world, monsters, ghosts, and vengeful spirits. You get the gist, hence people tend to stay indoors at night. Sure, the city is safe, but that is from physical threats; there is still an abundance of spiritual horrors. At night, the only people out on the roads would be people like us, adventurers or Mana users who can defend themselves."
"That makes sense, after all, in a city with over two million people, you do not know when or where someone dies and becomes a haunting spirit."
Then they got back to their individual conversations, in the darkness of the forest, two yellow eyes were observing them.
Raghav hummed a melody as Aurelia swayed left and right, tilting her head to the melody as they rode in silence, humming melodies for the next two hours.
Morning was about to break through within an hour, and they had travelled seven hundred kilometres from Rine, through the forest; the end was in their sights.
"Raghav, there is a village up ahead."
"Perfect, we will rest here for a while, feed Gati, Anu and Mili and let them rest."
As they exited the forest, the long and vast plains came into view and at a distance of twelve kilometres was a giant village surrounded by crop lands.
Raghav looked at the wooden sign posted on the side of the road.
"Welcome to Green Village- Current Population- 14,368 people."
It took them eight minutes to reach the village, and it was quiet.
Too quiet.
They looked around, hoping to see anyone, yet no one was there.
They travelled on the main road that ran straight through the village.
"Ah, there it is."
Eldrain exclaimed as he saw the tavern with a stable on the side and an empty plot of land used for storing wagons and carriages.
He stopped outside and untied Anu and Mili from the carriage and into the stables.
Without command, Gati removed herself from the carriage and walked into the stables and stood on an open spot between the other two by herself.
"Smart girl." Eldrain complimented her and began walking back to the carriages.
Something clicked within him as he frowned, looking at Raghav, who took out a clock from the carriage. "Raghav? Will we be leaving our carriages unattended?"
"Of course not. The metal carriage is protected by spells, and I will lock it. As for the food carriage, no one is going to try and steal from us." He answered as he locked the door and kept the keys in the inner pockets of his jacket.
"You are right, only someone insane would steal from two Grand Masters."
Then he looked around and saw that both Aurelia and An were missing. "Where did they go?"
"Oh, An came and asked Aurelia to accompany her as they visit the temple on the northern end of the city."
"They will be back soon. Let's tell the stable keeper that we are leaving our horses here."
At first, he attempted to look through the glass windows.
But they were of a lower quality and were more like fragile bricks.
So he knocked on the door, and the sound of footsteps came from within, and the door opened. "Yes, how may I help…"
The five feet five inches tall man looked up at Raghav and Eldrain, who towered over him at six feet and six feet four inches tall, respectively.
Eldrain chuckled as he watched the man's expressions. He pointed at him and looked back at Raghav, who was looking around, so he turned back to the man.
"Be not afraid, little fellow. We are adventurers, passing through this village. In your stables. We are leaving three of our horses, two brown horses with black neck hair, standing on either side of a pure white horse without reins. Our two wagons will also be here. Make sure no one pokes around."
He then held his hand out, and within it was one silver coin. "Take this in advance, when we leave, you can give us the precise amount, and I will pay them and take this coin back."
The man took the coin and smiled. "You can rest assured, I will look after your horses like they are my children."
Eldrain smiled at the man and turned around, walking towards Raghav, who was crouching on the ground beside the building in front of the stable.
"What are you doing over there?" "I found blood here; it leads into the alley."
The two walked into the alley, and the deeper they went, the more blood there was.
Until it gathered in a pool behind a wooden box. Raghav and Eldrain looked behind the box.
There was the naked body of a man with his chest torn open and his genitals ripped off his body.
Raghav reached for his back pocket and pulled out a disposable glove, and put it on his left hand.
With his right hand, he turned on the torchlight of his phone and used his left hand to examine the body.
"Got anything, Detective Raghav?"
"I do, Eldrain. Judging from the skin tone, the murder took place within the last two hours, hence no foul stench. The amount of blood from the victim's mutilated areas suggests he was alive when they tore into his chest and removed his genitals. The tightness in his throat suggests, he was screaming until he died. Yet no one heard him, not even someone in the tavern across the street."
A glint flickered in the man's chest as Raghav moved his phone to look at Eldrain.
It did not go unnoticed as Raghav looked back and reached inside the chest and recovered a closed glass flask about the size of his thumb.
On it was something written in blood. Raghav handed the phone to Eldrain and took out a white handkerchief to clean the flask, and on it was written a message in blood.
"FOR AMARA."
He then placed the white handkerchief on the man's face and stood up. "Time to ask some questions."
"What do you think happened here?" "Maybe a serial killer, it matches a ritualistic pattern performed by serial killers. But it is too early to presume, as this is the first body we have seen. For now, let's focus on getting this village's chief and identifying who Amara is. Could you help me clean my right hand?"
Eldrain nodded and was about to conjure water using Mana. "Not here, out on the street away from the scene."
"Oh."
The two then walked out, and Eldrain helped Raghav wash his hands. Then Raghav shook his hand violently, drying it and took the phone back from Eldrain. "Go with the man from the tavern to get the chief; do not let him out of sight. Until we figure out who it is, everyone in this town apart from the four of us is a killer."
They both looked at the man across the road, feeding the horses and giving them individual buckets of water.
"I got this," Eldrain assured as he walked across the road.
Raghav looked back the way they had come from, and the sun could be seen rising.
He placed the flask on the box and took off his glove, putting it beside the flask.
Walking back to his carriage, and took out the copper globular pot, filling it with water before walking back outside the alley.
Facing the sun, he closed his eyes and held the pot in front of his chest. Once the sun was fully visible, he began offering the water.
His morning ritual finished, he took out the earphones from his pocket, plugging them into his ear.
Another one of his rituals, listening to songs as he imagined how the murder must have taken place.
Earphones connected to the phone, and his go to song for this ritual began to play.
A Little Death by The Neighbourhood.
No matter where a detective is, he will always be one, and that was the case with Raghav.
This new world changed nothing for him.
In his mind, he already had a rough idea as to what must have happened as he stood at the corner of the building, looking down at the blood stains on the corner of the wall.
'He was attacked here, that is for certain; as for whether he was brought here or he was already here is uncertain. Nonetheless, he was most likely pinned to the wall and stabbed in his crotch, spilling a few drops at first. The killer must have then pushed him inside, where he fell on his stomach with the knife still in his crotch, lodging it further in and increasing the blood flow. He then crawled further into the alley; he must have thought he was going to safety, yet he was just moving to where he would die.'
"Raghav! I brought the chief."
Taking his earphones off and placing them back in their case, Raghav turned around with his gaze lowered as Eldrain returned with a middle aged woman and two soldiers by her side.
He joined his hands before his chest and bowed slightly. "Good morning, ma'am. I am sorry to bring you here so early in the morning, but it was rather urgent. Follow me."
The chief followed after him, her eyes fixed on his back. "You do not need to apologise to me. It is a pleasure to meet the hero of prophecy. The infamous Raghav Suryanshi. But I am curious what could be so urgent?"
Those were words she was going to regret saying for a few days, as her eyes followed Raghav's hands gesturing towards the mutilated corpse.
She gasped, covering her mouth as her eyes widened. "It can't be. She's back?"
Raghav did not look at her, but his eyes moved slightly to the left. "This has happened before?"
Brought out of her shock, the chief grabbed Raghav's shoulder and turned him towards herself. "There must be a flask with a name on it. Did you find it?"
Raghav had his closed but still pointed towards the flask on the box. The chief took the flask and looked at the name. Nearly dropping it in shock, but held it together, handing it to the soldier. "Take this to Amara immediately."
One of the soldiers took the flask and ran away while Eldrain just watched the woman.
"May I have an answer now?"
The chief turned to Raghav, who still had his eyes closed but crossed his arms.
She looked between Raghav and Eldrain. "Of course, can we step out on the road?"
The four of them stepped out from the alley, and Eldrain took a deep breath. "You know something about this? Tell us."
Worry and fear were in her eyes as she gulped and froze in front of Eldrain. "It is okay, ma'am. You are safe; we just wish to know what happened in there, given your reaction. This has happened before."
"It has, Hero, it has. Allow me to start with my introduction. I am Lea, the wife of the former chief, who died a few months ago, and I took his place. Amara is one of the girls who works in my office as my assistant. She has been sick for the last two days. That man inside is her husband. The two of them are seventeen. How will I tell her that she has become a widow at such a young age?"
Eldrain and Raghav stood silent as Lea began crying while covering her mouth. Eldrain held her and comforted her as Raghav just lowered his head slightly, holding both of his hands in front of his waist.
For about five minutes, Lea kept crying.
Then, slowly but surely, she calmed down, and Eldrain helped her up.
Once she stood, she took deep breaths and looked at Raghav.
"There is an old spirit in this village, one cursed by her husband, for an act that she had no fault in. When he realised it, he offered her a way to break her curse. He told her it would be broken when a man fulfilled her one desire and satisfied her. She has been targeting women in this village for decades and offers an antidote to their lovers, if they manage to satisfy her."
Her gaze shifted to the box as she paused for a moment. "Many have attempted, but they all end up dead and mutilated with the antidote lodged in the place of their hearts. She had been inactive for nineteen years. We thought she was free, but no."
"So the women of this village are in danger once more." Eldrain commented as he let go of Lea, and Raghav's jaw clenched.
"Eldrain!" Turning to his right, he saw Raghav looking at him with that ever so serious expression. "She did not say women of this village, she said women in this village!"
It finally hit Eldrain.
"An and Aurelia!"
Eldrain ran towards the intersection and turned right, and stopped right there when he saw An.
Relief washed over Eldrain, for the second time in his life, Eldrain felt fear. Both times were for An.
An was talking to Aurelia as they were walking towards him.
She laughed and looked forward, seeing her husband.
The smile already present on her face grew even more as she saw her husband.
Meanwhile, Raghav bowed to Lea. "I apologise for the way my companion left. He was worried about our female companions. Since this is not a case of criminal activity, I will be heading back to my companions and let you and the village handle this. We will be in this village for a few hours. If there is anything we can do for you, please ask."
Lea nodded. "I know, you are on a mission, I won't hold you back."
Raghav nodded and began walking away. "Wait!"
He stopped and turned around with his gaze on the ground. "You forgot your handkerchief."
In her hands, she held the handkerchief that Raghav had used to cover the corpse.
Exhaling through his nose, he took the handkerchief back and held it to his side to prevent the blood from getting on his clothes. "Thank you. Ma'am."
With that exchange, Raghav made his way to his companions.