Aeren left the scene behind and came to an empty room.
This room was provided by an inn, but they didn't know Aeren's identity. Though his poster was at the front desk, they let him stay because no one cared about mere posters around the place. Aeren didn't even need to disguise himself or change his name.
He watched the palace from a distance, but Aeren had nothing to do with the palace anymore. He then looked at the moon, went to his bed, and thought, Let's sleep for now.
Renn arrived at the place where Aeren had killed many people, working as an investigator. Looking at the scene, he could tell without guessing who had done this.
Renn looked at Isolde, Lira, and Elenya. He thought they would feel scared or something, but to his surprise, they were staring at the dead bodies with anger.
Renn had helped cure Isolde's fear regarding Aeren, but he didn't expect that Elenya would conquer that fear herself.
Seeing this, Renn asked, "What do you all think?"
Isolde looked at the scene and thought, How could anyone kill people like this? What's interesting about killing people? Do they think their lives are important while others are just trash? I know who did this—why, Aeren? Why do you kill people like that, and what do you think you'll gain from this?
Isolde began doubting his morals. Once she had thought Aeren might have been treated wrongly by her family, which was why he killed them. But after seeing this and hearing about what he was doing, Isolde doubted Aeren wanted anything specific.
Aeren is just killing people because he thinks they don't feel right to live. He's killing for no purpose, and if we asked him why, I doubt we'd get any answer from him.
Isolde stared at the dead bodies scattered around—children, men, women, and elderly. They were all cut down, their eyes wide. All the innocent corpses seemed to stare at Isolde, asking: Why didn't you report his crimes earlier? Why didn't you try to fight him to the death? Why did you let him live?
"There's nothing to think about. We need to kill him," Isolde said with determination in her eyes, still staring at the dead bodies.
Renn looked at Isolde's determined expression and thought, I still don't know about his full strength, but I think I can defeat him now. I don't think he could even make me feel fear anymore. The system has also updated—now it can control other skills and provide improved versions of those skills. Even if Aeren has above SSS-rank skills, the system will upgrade mine.
But what if the system can't copy his skills or upgrade them? Then problems will emerge. I'll have to rely on myself. If our skills clash, I need to be better at combat than him, or have better artifacts I can rely on. And I have both.
"Hmm, yes. Let's do it," Renn said.
Lira and Elenya heard both of them and looked at Renn and Isolde while still observing the dead bodies. Lira had known Aeren the longest, and she never understood him—what his real purpose was or what he wanted from her and others. At one point he had given up on the Elenya experiment and did nothing to her, as if he gained nothing from that experiment. But now he was killing people without any purpose.
Lira didn't care about the people here but she stared at bodies of people around and thought, What does he really want, and do we have a chance to kill him? I want to kill him, but I doubt I'm enough.
"First, we need his location," Lira said, looking at Renn. I think Renn has the power to kill him. After being with him, I've learned that when facing dire situations, he somehow finds a way or becomes stronger than his opponent. I've never seen him lose. So I can only trust him. Most importantly, I can't sense him or read his emotions and thoughts through my skills, just like with Aeren.
Renn thought about using his system to find Aeren's location. "Hey system, can you tell me Aeren's location?"
System Message:
Sorry, host. I could not find Aeren's location.
Renn had expected to find Aeren's location, but it was disappointing. He must have a powerful artifact that can hide his mana and traces from this world. What do you think, system?
System Message:
Yes, host. It's possible.
Are you not sure? Renn thought to the system.
System Message:
I'm not sure because there are many possibilities, like someone trying to hide him, or maybe he's being controlled by something or someone.
Renn had considered something like that.
How could Aeren, at the same age as me, be this powerful without a system? If he had a system, I would know. I can tell he doesn't have one, but he seems otherworldly like me. If Aeren is otherworldly like me, that means he's not from Earth. If he were, how could he become this powerful without a system? Or he is from different world but unknown to me.
If not, that leaves two possibilities: first, Aeren's body has been taken by someone, or someone is hiding him, or more...
Renn thought stop and he turned to girls, they were glaring dead bodies,
Renn notice Lira, Elenya, and Isolde and said, "We won't need to find him. He'll come on his own."
Isolde and Elenya turned their head to Renn with confusion. "What do you mean?" Lira asked.
Renn looked at them. "Don't you know we have a big festival coming? Do you really think Aeren wouldn't see this as an opportunity to find specimens for his research or whatever he wants to do?"
Isolde, Elenya, and Lira nodded, understanding his meaning. They needed to be patient and wait for him to come to the festival event.
"Just you wait, Aeren. I will kill you," Isolde declared after hearing Renn.
Everyone around heard Isolde but didn't question her because they knew they also wished for the same thing.
Aeren was sleeping at the inn, doing nothing, while they were setting his death date.