The Shepherds Are Dense

Chapter 158. Suspect Alastair Ch 158. Suspect Alastair

Past 1 AM, gunshots and explosions shattered the silence, followed by a raging fire.Though the Royal Law University campus was vast, a patrolling knight quickly noticed the commotion.

Arriving at 14 Ronin Street, he saw a withered, burning lawn, scattered corpses, blood at the doorstep, and the telltale armored, rotting flesh of dead demon hounds. Realizing this was beyond his second-tier Inspector capabilities, he retreated immediately.

Twenty minutes later, the Supervisory Bureau arrived. Before that, campus staff, alerted by a call, had extinguished the fire. Per the knight’s orders, they preserved the scene beyond firefighting.

Given the severity reported, the Bureau’s response was significant. At 2 AM, twelve Inspectors arrived on griffins, fully armed.

“These are likely demon scholars,” the lead Inspector, a middle-aged woman with a monocle, declared instantly. “I see ritual spell auras.”

Her vision revealed protective ritual glows on two of the bodies.

“The effects haven’t faded. The fight was recent,” she confirmed.

“Chief Taya, look here,” a young male Inspector said, crouching and picking up shimmering red dust with gloved hands. “This is flame essence.”

“I see it,” Chief Taya nodded. “The traces suggest Devotion Path flames, amplified by flame essence for greater power.”

“Chief, the house is empty!” another Inspector reported after checking inside. “But there’s damage—signs of a fight!”

“I’ll take a look,” Taya said, then turned to the campus staff and knight. “Who lives here? A professor?”

“A student,” the knight replied. “Aiwass Moriarty.”

Taya paused, her expression turning grave. “ Aiwass Moriarty, the decorated one?”

“How many Moriartys are there, Lady Taya?” the knight quipped.

“This is bad…” Taya muttered, frowning. “Retaliation?”

She called back, “Mr. Dawn, please trace the scene!”

“Here?” a slow-moving, fifty-something law mage asked, gripping a silver elven staff with Avalon’s emblem—a silver triangle with an embedded emerald. “I can only trace the deceased’s actions within the last hour. You sure?”

After Taya’s nod, he struck the staff to the ground. Silver runes formed a magic circle, spreading instantly.

Translucent, silver outlines of the corpses rose, replaying their actions in reverse.

“Wait!” Taya called suddenly.

The scene froze.

Despite the blurry outlines, she saw a half-bodied knight wielding a greatsword, floating mid-air, appearing from nowhere with no corpse nearby.

Her face shifted. “A blade demon?”

“What?”

The others, startled, crowded closer.

“This man had a blade demon,” Taya said, eyeing the lawyer-dressed corpse with a cross-shaped burn on his face and chest. “Could he be the ‘Blade Tester’?”

The “Blade Tester” was a wanted fugitive in Lloyd’s Ward. The Bureau didn’t know their appearance, only that blade demon traces marked multiple murder scenes, indicating a demon scholar killing innocents to summon and control it.

Rare in Glass Island, the blade demon earned the moniker “Blade Tester.” Overwhelmed with cases and short-staffed, Lloyd’s Ward hadn’t identified the suspect’s gender, age, or face.

“Can we see what defeated the blade demon?”

“It was knocked back by something with massive force,” Dawn said, pointing to its trajectory. “But demon dissipation traces suggest its master died, causing its banishment.”

“Massive force?”

Taya wasn’t surprised a fourth-tier was needed to kill a blade demon outright, but the force puzzled her.

She noted the demon hounds’ corpses—armor intact, flesh unrotted, but the animating curses dispelled, turning purple meat to normal decay.

“I know Aiwass Moriarty is a priest,” a young female Inspector said, scribbling notes. “He once defeated a malformed demon with a transcendent item. He likely dispelled these.”

Taya nodded, then shook her head. “Possible, but he didn’t defeat the blade demon. A mobility-impaired priest, even with flame essence, can’t one-shot a blade demon. Someone else was here—someone strong enough to knock it back or kill it.”

“No footprints, Chief.”

“They might fly,” Taya replied. “Or it’s a spell. Spells can do this, though no Wisdom Path traces remain. A skilled mage could cast tracelessly.”

“So, a powerful mage was with Aiwass Moriarty, attacked by four demon scholars,” an Inspector murmured, noting it down.

“Not necessarily a mage,” Taya corrected. “Could be Devotion or Transcendence Path—only those traces remain. Or an Adaptability Path user, who can hide traces.”

She entered the house, her monocle revealing red and purple traces.

Tracing them, she deduced Aiwass had won. With an unknown ally, he defeated the midnight ambush.

The fat man’s head wound—blasted by a bullet—matched the unique round Aiwass used at the Pelican Bar.

He killed that one.

The other three died by fire, two instantly with no struggle or exertion, suggesting a sudden kill. Scattered flame essence confirmed Aiwass’s spellcasting.

Taya concluded it was a high-tier Devotion Path user. A blade demon slayer wouldn’t need a precision-based gun, so Aiwass likely didn’t kill the others.

If the ally was a mage, they wouldn’t rely solely on fire.

“Collect the blood for analysis,” she ordered, pointing to bloodstains.

The blood, naturally dripped at adult standing height, wasn’t Aiwass’s.

He was injured but healed instantly, as the blood stopped inside.

This supported the “two priests” theory.

Wheelchair tracks led to the living room, where a table was overturned, and a snapped candle lay on the floor, suggesting an interrupted Ember Ritual.

Did they fight each other?

No blood or bodies inside. With corpses uncollected outside, Aiwass’s body wouldn’t be selectively removed.

He was likely alive.

Taya sighed in relief. Newly appointed after Gordon, she’d be in trouble if a recently honored hero was killed in her jurisdiction within a week.

Then, she noticed faint shadows in a corner.

“…What?”

Crouching, she studied them, her face paling. “Shadow demon?!”

How could an upper-tier demon like a shadow demon be on Glass Island?

It hadn’t attacked the scholars—they were allies. One of the Noble Red Society summoned it.

Seeing the four killed, it followed the duo inside, leaving shadow traces in the doorframe.

During their healing, it struck, capturing them.

This was beyond their scope.

Taya reported it to the Inspectorate, reaching her former superior, Inspector Gordon.

Hearing of the shadow demon, he muttered, “…Alastair?”

“Is that you?”

(Chapter End)