"Though this man had all kinds of flaws, I liked that he kept his word."
Shade muttered, slipping the card into his deck. Though he tried hard to restrain himself, a smile still appeared on his face. The sight of him smiling by the faint candlelight at the table with a woman's corpse on the bed behind him was strange, but fortunately, no one could see it.
Now that he had obtained the card, Shade's stated purpose for visiting the manor tonight had been fulfilled. But he still had much to do.
He turned to look at the woman's corpse and murmured softly:
"Oh, since Mrs. Haila was murdered, perhaps I can find the person who killed her."
As soon as he spoke, the wind and snow blowing in through the half-open window suddenly intensified. The howling wind sounded even more like wailing ghosts.
When Shade turned to look at the window, he saw a massive fireball shooting directly into the night sky in the direction of the distant city. Only afterward did the delayed thunderous boom reach him. It seemed the Church had already begun confronting the enemy head-on.
So, how were you going to investigate?
"She" asked softly in Shade's ear. Shade looked at the corpse again.
"There are no external wounds and no signs of poisoning. Unless I dissect the body, I can't find any clues through ordinary means alone. Fortunately, I'm a Ring Arcanist."
He took out Bone Powder and scattered it over the corpse.
"Thaumaturgy—Guiding Death."
The soul that should have been summoned through Spirit Communication did not appear. Instead, through the Vision Demon's perspective, Petrified Rose vines writhed as they grew, fastening the corpse more firmly to the bed.
But Shade's thaumaturgy had not been entirely ineffective. He heard the woman sigh, then saw