Reminder

Leaving the church, they arrived at the graveyard. The sky had already grown completely dark.

Only the lights of the distant church illuminated the area, allowing them to make out the gravestones.

Before long, the two reached a spot near the edge of the graveyard.

These were all fresh graves, belonging to those who had died in the Nest Beast disaster some time ago.

Isabella looked at the graves, her heart filled with guilt.

Then Isabella walked behind the headstone of one grave. She had already caught the stench of decay.

There was a hole there, and quite a bit of rotting flesh was exposed within it.

Bleached bones had been casually tossed aside, and the entire corpse had been cut open.

The rotten stench hit them head-on, but Isabella did not retreat from the smell. Instead, she frowned as she examined the traces around her.

"Stealing human body parts... Is there a Wizard in Dorsal Fin Village?" Isabella asked with an ugly expression.

Wizards were individuals who practiced Meditation Techniques but did not believe in gods.

The earliest Wizards had been Demon worshippers. They obtained Demons' spells from Demons and called themselves mages.

However, they later suffered severe suppression from the various churches. Gradually, mages had no choice but to change their ways, hoping to break free of Demonic influence and create spells that belonged to humanity.

Thus, Wizards came into existence.

Even now, Wizards occupied a state of being accepted, yet not fully accepted.

Some Wizards simply could not change their habits and still researched all sorts of strange things.

There was even a saying that the calamities across the land might very well have been caused by certain Wizards studying some taboo and unleashing it.

In short, although Wizards were not quite universally reviled, they were not far from it.

Most Wizards either obediently submitted to the Church's surveillance and control, or desperately concealed themselves.

Under such circumstances, materials for certain wizardry experiments were not easy to obtain.

Since some Wizard spells originated from Demons, wizardry also lacked no bloody practices that required human body parts.

It was only natural for Isabella to suspect a Wizard first.

But she soon noticed another problem. "Why wasn't the skull taken?"

Demon spells favored things such as heads, hearts, and blood.

Yet while this corpse was missing its heart, its skull had not been touched.

"No, it isn't just missing its heart. It's missing all of its internal organs." Naimus spoke up to remind her. "It's only because things like the liver, kidneys, and intestines decay quickly that some completely rotted remnants were left behind."

"Anything that was preserved even slightly better has already been taken away."

Naimus's reminder finally made Isabella think of Whale-ification Disease.

"Not a Wizard. If it were a Wizard, they would most likely have some concealment spell. I wouldn't have discovered it so directly."

"It was a Whale-ification Disease patient." Isabella was quick-witted and swiftly arrived at the correct answer.

Naimus was the same. From Isabella, he had learned that she had directly spotted the Village Guardian, yet dismissed it as an "illusion."

"So the Old Priest wants something from Whale-ification Disease?" Naimus believed that whatever a person did, they had a purpose.

Even if it was merely for amusement, amusement itself was the purpose.

If the Old Priest had merely ignored it, the problem would not have been so serious. But he had actually helped.

If Naimus had not arrived, Isabella would never have discovered the problems that followed. That made things very interesting.

"The simplest explanation is that he wants something. Did the Old Priest discover Controlled Whale-ification in the Village Guardian? Or is he raising whales, needing all the whale products produced after Whale-Men Whale-Transform?"

As Naimus speculated, he increasingly felt that the Old Priest was hiding some secret.

"I found some traces. The question is, do you want to keep pursuing them?" Naimus pointed at a bent blade of grass nearby and asked Isabella.

Isabella glanced at Naimus, then at the forest, which had become a mass of darkness in the night.

"Of course we pursue them. Whale-ification Disease is extremely harmful. We cannot leave it uninvestigated!" Isabella nodded seriously, and a faint glow began to flow around her body.

From the distant church, a wisp of Power of Faith flew over and landed directly on Isabella.

Divine Art: Shelter.

'Believers gather around the gods, and the gods shelter their believers. Beneath the gods' glory, all harm shall be avoided.'

Under the effects of the Shelter Divine Art, its recipient could gain safety. No matter where they were, the power of the Divine Art would steer them toward safety.

After casting the Divine Art, Isabella raised a hand, and a sphere of light floated beside her.

Spell: Illumination Orb.

Then Isabella headed directly into the dark mountain forest, working with Naimus to search for traces left by the other person.

It had to be said that Isabella truly had courage. She was not some pampered noble young lady. She was a priest who could enter the crowds and feel the people's emotions, a member of the clergy and true believer who could come to a remote mountain village and hunt a killer in the wild at night!

Naimus smiled faintly and followed after her.

Although Isabella's limited experience still prevented her from truly understanding what real evil in this world could be like, she had not chosen kindness merely because she was naive.

The road at night was not easy to travel, but fortunately, one of them was protected by a Divine Art, while the other possessed physical attributes beyond the limits of the Black Stone Breed.

Before long, the two had followed the traces for quite some distance.

"No more traces." The Village Guardian had run quite fast through the mountains, and with the complicated terrain, he had quickly gone beyond the range of normal tracking.

"It seems we can only conduct a large-scale search of the surrounding area tomorrow." Isabella spoke unwillingly, her eyes sweeping over the surroundings.

"Once we return, we must report this immediately."

"But do you think this can be reported smoothly?" Naimus looked at Isabella and asked.

"You and Jacques came to investigate something, didn't you?" Without waiting for Isabella's answer, Naimus continued.

Isabella instantly tensed up. She did not know why Naimus had suddenly brought this up. Was he planning to silence her?

"There may be some problems in the village, but that problem should not be focused on me."

"Do not place too much trust in outward appearances. People always overlook someone's problems because of their identity and certain superficial traits."

"What exactly are you trying to say?" Isabella could not help frowning at Naimus. His words seemed to carry a hidden meaning.

"You should be suspicious of the doubts you had in the church earlier." With that, Naimus walked away into the distance.

Leaving Isabella standing there in a daze.

Thank you all for your support.