The Feast at Lister Manor

Wei En walked into the Secret Investigation Bureau, only to find the guards at the entrance looking at him with strange expressions.

What's going on?

Could my charm be so great that it transcends gender?

Wei En shook his head, hurriedly dispelling the thought; it was too terrifying.

He then arrived at the door of the Logistics and Investigation Division One office on the third floor, let out a breath, straightened his uniform, and pushed the door open.

"Morning, everyone... uh?"

The vast office was completely empty.

"Did I come too early? It's almost nine o'clock."

Wei En looked at the wall clock and scratched his head.

He didn't pay it much mind, though; he had changed jobs a few times in his past life.

Starting at a new company meant facing a new environment and getting to know new colleagues... it was normal to occasionally run into coworkers who lacked a sense of time.

Thinking this, he walked straight inside and placed his belongings on an empty desk.

Once seated, Wei En carefully examined the office.

He had to admit that the office was laid out quite comfortably—neat, tidy, and smelling fresh. He believed that working here would be a pleasant experience.

The office, nearly two hundred square meters in size, had six desks placed near the entrance. The tabletops were large, crafted from nanmu wood, and appeared quite rustic and substantial.

The center of each desk featured an intricate cutout of the Secret Investigation Bureau's firearm emblem, specifically painted in dark green.

The chairs were high-backed, fitted with soft cushions and backrests.

The same pattern was carved into the back of each chair, which appeared to be the Kaster City-State's landmark building—the City-State Council Hall.

His predecessor had been there a few times; it was right next to the Crimson Cathedral, located in the central district of the Kaster City-State.

Beyond these six sets of desks and chairs, there were two sofas placed by the window at the back, with a small coffee table in between.

It must have been a reception or lounge area, as he also spotted a cabinet in the corner nearby.

On top of it sat a complete tea set, tools for grinding coffee, a few glass bottles, and... a photograph?

Wei En stood up and walked over, picking up the photo to take a look.

"Lacy, Rogeret, a white-haired girl, a goofy-looking young man, and the one in the middle is... let's just call him the old man."

It was a group photo of five people, likely taken a few years ago. Lacy and Rogeret both looked a few years younger than they did now.

Judging by the smiles on their faces, they were all in good spirits.

Well... except for that white-haired girl—she was expressionless, or perhaps, poker-faced?

Looking at her, Wei En felt a strange sensation.

It felt as if this girl hated the entire world; her eyes were far too hollow.

"I didn't expect Rogeret to look so handsome when he smiles. What a pity."

A pity he was a mental contaminant and on the verge of losing control.

What surprised Wei En even more, however, was that the photo wasn't black and white, but in color.

This indicated that the technological level of this world was unexpectedly high, at least in terms of optics.

Of course.

Perhaps it wasn't technology, but magic... he could confirm that later.

Additionally, several oil paintings hung on the office walls.

The largest and most prominent one depicted an old man wearing a monocle, with a signature underneath—Alais Koulibaly, the 13th Director of the Secret Investigation Bureau.

Hm?

Wei En walked over to double-check before opening his panel to search through the notifications.

[You have been scanned by Alais Koulibaly's mental perception. Reward: Survival Point +1.] (Chapter 12)

"So, it was him who hit me with that mental scan the other day. And he's the Director, no less."

He recalled that on his way to the Property Management Department with Lacy yesterday, he had indeed seen the building where the Director worked—an inconspicuous little structure next to the Detention Zone.

A Director who likes to spy on his subordinates, tch!

Wei En returned to his desk, sat down, and glanced at the wall clock again.

"It's already nine o'clock. No way, right?"

He knew that if there was only one outlier in a situation, it meant the majority was correct.

Work didn't start at nine!

No wonder the guard at the entrance had such a strange look on his face...

Having reached this conclusion, Wei En felt a bit depressed.

If he had known, he would have spent more time studying those parchment papers...

Forget it.

Since he had arrived early, he would treat this as the first lesson the Secret Investigation Bureau was teaching him.

He then opened the file folder Lacy had given him yesterday, preparing to familiarize himself with the work of Investigation Division One.

Snap!

Wei En had barely flipped to the first page of the first file and glanced at it before slamming it shut.

"Is it really this intense..."

He reconfirmed the name on the file cover—Feast of the Lister Family Manor.

That was right; the name looked ordinary enough.

Unlike the other files, with titles like Living Sacrifice of the Eternal Sleepers, Assassination Case of the Storm Church Bishop, and Lilith's Doll—they looked like terrifying cases at a glance.

But why, why was there a photo like that on the first page?

What on earth did that have to do with a feast?

Wei En wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. Thinking about how he would be dealing with these cases frequently in the future, he gritted his teeth and opened the file again.

"Damn, it's still terrifying!"

On the first page of the file lay a photograph of a magnificent banquet hall.

Of course, the point wasn't the location where the photo was taken.

It was the "people" inside the banquet hall.

In the vast and luxurious hall, severed limbs were scattered everywhere, and blood had stained the carpet, the walls, and even the massive chandelier.

Beneath the chandelier stood a "pyramid" constructed from human heads.

The photo was so clear that Wei En had been startled when he first saw the scene.

The expressions on those heads were simply too bizarre.

There were men and women among them, both adults and children; it was clear they had all been participants in this feast.

The expression on every face was identical—not one of agony, but a stiff, "radiant" smile with the corners of the mouths stretched wide.

At the same time, their eyes were pale and hollow, devoid of any hint of mirth.

Coupled with the surrounding carnage and the scattered limbs, the entire image... could only be described as eerie!

Finally, in the bottom left corner, Wei En noticed a line of black handwriting: November 3rd, 1577, New Calendar, Lister Manor, 66 Roland Street, Kaster City-State.

This was a case from last year?

He took another look, then couldn't help but flip to the second page; he simply couldn't bear to look at such a scene.

"Mother of god, the cases in this world are way too horrifying."

The content on the second page was much more normal, detailing the investigation process of this case with the pleasant-sounding name.

"Feast of the Lister Manor: over 113 victims, including 32 members of the Lister family. Farouk Lister, a candidate councilor of the Kaster City-State, was also killed."

"After investigation, it was confirmed to be a sacrificial ritual of the Eternal Life Society—Bloody Eternal Life. Traces of a creature from the Deep Abyss—a Skeleton Knight—were also found at the scene."

"The case was ultimately solved by a team led by Lacy Genesis Montoya of the Secret Investigation Bureau's Investigation Division One, who killed the member of the Eternal Life Society responsible for this massacre—Bloody Boras!"

The Eternal Life Society?

A creature from the Deep Abyss, a Skeleton Knight?

Wei En couldn't find any relevant information in his predecessor's memories, so he shook his head and continued to look through the other files.

Needless to say, just like the Lister Manor case, the scenes in the files were all quite shocking.

Either eerie or bloody... not a single one was normal.

However, the one thing they all had in common was that the investigator for these cases was Captain Lacy, and in the end, the perpetrators never met a good end.

Does she like to collect the cases she's responsible for? What a tsundere.

Wei En put down the file and smacked his lips, "It's just like watching a horror movie..."