Dozens of guards stood around Atkins Castle. These were soldiers transferred from the nearest city of Saro. Their task was to protect the site and not allow anyone to approach it.
Inside Atkins Castle, a cold white mist permeated the air.
The origin of these white mist is the various magic circles arranged in the castle. The magic circles maintain the temperature inside Atkins Castle at about zero degrees, so that the scene will not be corrupted by the heat.
At least until investigators are sent by the Noble Affairs Office, this place must remain uncovered.
This is also a standard operation. Since the tragedy of Atkins Castle was discovered, the nearest city of Salo has arranged all this.
The Minister of Noble Affairs Gershwin stood outside the castle. He was not a professional investigator, but came to coordinate the relationship between the Noble Affairs Office and the local area, so that when the follow-up investigators from the Noble Affairs Office arrived, they could act more conveniently.
"Here we come!" Gershwin, Minister of Noble Affairs, looked up at the sky, where a 'Starship' was descending, and that 'Starship' belonged to the Noble Affairs Office.
The 'Starship' circled in the air, as if checking the situation of the castle in the air, and then slowly landed on the open space in front of the castle.
Gershwin, the Minister of Noble Affairs, greeted him with a smile, but when he saw the person coming down, the smile on his face disappeared.
The first person to come down from the 'Starry Sky Boat' was a middle-aged man wearing the office robes of the Noble Affairs Office. This middle-aged man's eyes were sharp, and he looked like an eagle's eyes when looking at people.
This middle-aged man is Dryden, the Minister of Investigation of the Noble Affairs Office, and one of the opponents of the Minister of Noble Affairs of Gershwin.
There was not much animosity between the Minister of Investigation of Dryden and the Minister of Noble Affairs of Gershwin, but they belonged to two different camps of the Noble Affairs Office.
As long as there are people, there are factions, and so is the Noble Affairs Office.
So when the Minister of Noble Affairs Gershwin saw that Dryden was investigating the minister, his original good mood disappeared.
However, when he saw the Minister of Investigation Dryden turn around to help the next person, the Minister of Noble Affairs Gershwin hurried forward.
"Master Yix Alchemist, why did you come here in person?" Gershwin, the minister of aristocratic affairs, bowed and said.
"The Noble Affairs Office attaches great importance to this incident, so they arranged for me to come here!" Master Ix nodded with a smile and replied.
The Minister of Investigation Dryden glanced at the Minister of Noble Affairs of Gershwin. In fact, the main reason why Master Ix came here this time instead of arranging an alchemist was because his superior invited him.
On the one hand, the baron family was exterminated. The nature of this case is extremely bad, and the Noble Affairs Office needs to give the nobles an explanation.
On the other hand, there is also a reason why the Minister of Noble Affairs Gershwin was involved.
When the Noble Affairs Office received the report on the case, it used the intelligence network of the Divine World to investigate the relationship network of the Atkins family first.
Among them, the investigation focused on all the forces that had enmity with the Atkins family, and found that the most suspicious was the Luce family.
The new baron of the Luce family, Baron Arthur, did not receive aristocratic education in the great world of the gods, but lived in the Interstellar Federation.
From the perspective of people in the great world of gods, places like the Interstellar Federation are places abandoned by the gods. Without the protection of gods, the souls of the people of the Interstellar Federation are extremely vulnerable to evil thoughts.
This kind of case of killing the baron's family is extremely rare in the world of the gods. People in the world of the gods rarely do this, and only Baron Arthur from the Interstellar Federation has a high possibility of doing so.
When checking here, the Minister of Investigation Dryden found that Baron Arthur had a close relationship with the Minister of Noble Affairs of Gershwin.
Baron Arthur and the Minister of Noble Affairs of Gershwin were originally supposed to have a business relationship, but the Minister of Noble Affairs of Gershwin stayed in Luce Castle after finishing his mission, and at the same time, he wanted to influence Atkins through his own relationship. family.
After the Minister of Investigation Dryden discovered this, he was overjoyed. According to his judgment, the possibility of Baron Arthur's involvement in the case was extremely high.
Once it is confirmed that Baron Arthur is the murderer of the Atkins Castle murder case, the Minister of Noble Affairs of Gershwin will be implicated, and then they will take action to suppress it, which can completely damage the Minister of Noble Affairs of Gershwin and the forces behind it. .
It was also for this reason that the Minister of Investigation Dryden applied to his superiors, and Master Ix would follow him.
In the past, when investigating cases, the alchemist would go to the scene to collect evidence. If the alchemist could not handle it, the collected items would be handed over to the master alchemist, who would handle it in the workshop.
You must know that the alchemist is very busy, in addition to his own research, he also has a lot of work.
The Minister of Noble Affairs, Gershwin, was also very puzzled. The arrival of Master Ix Alchemy made him smell something unusual.
"Master Ix's time is precious, Gershwin, don't stand in the way of the master's work!" The Minister of Investigation Dryden said very bluntly.
The Minister of Aristocratic Affairs Gershwin gave the Minister of Investigation Dryden a hard look, and the exchange of eyes between the two made the atmosphere tense.
Master Ix Alchemist ignored the hostility of the two, his position in the Noble Affairs Department was very detached, and he didn't need to rely on any forces at all.
This time, if it wasn't for Dryden's boss who investigated the minister to offer him a favor, he wouldn't come here in person.
Master Ix walked to the gate of Atkins Castle. The gate was ajar. He took out a formation disk and held it in his hand, mentally activating the formation disk.
There was a streamer of light flashing along the pattern on the array disk, and then a pattern composed of white light appeared above the array disk.
Seeing that Master Ix started working, the Minister of Investigation Dryden and the Minister of Noble Affairs Gershwin stopped looking at each other, and walked quickly to Master Ix's side.
Master Ix walked into the castle with the array disk in his hand. He ignored the corpses on the ground and just stared at the white light pattern projected by the array disk in his hand.
"Huh!" Master Ix walked for ten minutes, and walked through most of the castle, he let out a sound of surprise.
"Master, is there any question?" The Minister of Investigation Dryden asked softly from the side.
"The murderer this time is not a knight. There are no soul fragments left at the scene, as if all the souls have been cleaned up. Only believers of evil gods will do this!" Master Ix alchemy explained in a deep voice.
"There are followers of evil gods involved!" Dryden's voice of the investigating minister was filled with surprise, but also joy.
I was surprised because once there were believers of evil gods involved, the incident would expand to the point where powerful knights were required to take action. If there were temple knights nearby, they would rush over to deal with it first.
He was delighted because he suspected that Baron Arthur was involved. If this was confirmed, then neither Baron Arthur nor Gershwin's noble ministers were simple murders.
"Go to the place where Baron Chapman was killed, and the soul fragments of the knight may still be preserved after death!" Master Ix Alchemist did not continue to search, he said to the Minister of Investigation Dryden.
"The place where Baron Chapman was killed was in the dining room, where eight other knights were killed together, follow me!" The Minister of Investigation Dryden had received a preliminary explanation of the case before, and he greeted him.
Master Ix nodded and followed the Minister of Investigations Dryden, and the Minister of Noble Affairs Gershwin at the end, and they came to the restaurant together.
Although the Minister of Investigation Dryden had read the intelligence statement on the case, he couldn't help shivering when he saw the scene in the restaurant.
The blood from the nine knights, including their horses, stained the restaurant floor red.
If it weren't for the help of the ice circle, the temperature here would drop to zero, and the smell of blood in the restaurant would be unbearable.
Master Ix walked up to the corpses of several knights, and the tragic condition of the corpses did not affect him.
The growth process of every alchemist needs to go through a lot of experiments, and the bloody level of these experiments is far more than here.
Holding the formation plate, Master Ix walked over the corpses of every knight, and finally came to the corpse of Baron Chapman, squatted down and placed the formation plate on Baron Chapman's head .
However, the white light patterns on the formation plate did not move at all, which disappointed Master Ix Alchemy.
"What I can do here is very limited. Without soul fragments, I'm not as effective as your searcher!" Master Ix shook his head and put away the array in his hand.
In general homicide cases, as long as someone dies at the scene, there will be soul fragments left, and soul fragments can be collected through a special magic circle.
Although the information provided by soul fragments is not much, they can usually be traced back to the fragments before death.
Because when a person is killed, the emotion is the strongest, and this strong emotion directly affects the soul, making this part of the soul fragments more difficult to disappear than the rest of the soul.
Of course, this time is also limited, usually after two days, the soul fragments will disappear.
At this time, it was less than two days before the incident, so it is impossible for so many victims to have no soul fragments left.
Knights like Baron Chapman, who are very close to the knights of the earth, have soul strength far exceeding that of ordinary people, and the residual time of soul fragments should be longer.
Until now, Master Ix Alchemist can be 100% sure that someone has cleaned up the souls at the scene.
Apart from the priests of the temple, the only people with this ability are believers of evil gods.
"Excuse me, I'll ask my subordinates to search!" Dryden's Minister of Investigation thanked him with a bow.
He waved his hand behind him, and the five investigators who followed him quickly got into work.
"Gershwin, I heard that you have been very close to Baron Arthur recently, and you even made an alibi for Baron Arthur?" The Minister of Investigation Dryden looked at his subordinates to investigate, and turned his head to his side said Gershwin, Minister of Noble Affairs.
"I don't need to report to you what kind of friends I make!" Gershwin, the Minister of Noble Affairs, replied stiffly.
"I don't care if you make friends, but Baron Arthur is a major suspect in this case. Have you considered the consequences?" Dryden's Minister of Investigation asked in a deep voice.
The Minister of Investigation Dryden said that he asked this question in front of Master Ix Alchemist, which was also his intention.
Afterwards, there was the proof of Master Ix Alchemy, which was much more useful than the evidence from the investigation.
"You can investigate the whereabouts of Baron Arthur, but you suspect a baron at will without evidence. Have you considered the consequences?" Gershwin, the minister of noble affairs, asked in the same tone. .
Although the Noble Affairs Office has great powers, in the final analysis, the Noble Affairs Office is an institution that serves the nobles.
If one suspects a baron for no reason, conducts an investigation without any evidence, and if the due investigation conclusion is not obtained, then the Minister of Investigation of Dryden will suffer the consequences of dismissal.
You must know that in the great world of the gods, the nobles are a privileged class, and the nobles have great power. Once someone dares to challenge the power of the nobles, they will be excluded by the noble system.
"I will have evidence!" The Minister of Investigation Dryden said confidently.
The work of the investigators was carried out very quickly, and reports were sent to the Minister of Investigation of Dryden one after another.
The Minister of Investigation Dryden looked at the report in his hand and was secretly shocked.
"The murderer possesses an extremely sharp weapon, at least a third-level weapon, and possibly even a fourth-level weapon. It probably has the strength of an earth knight, and at the same time has the means to clear souls!
In addition, the treasure house of the Atkins family was evacuated, and there was no trace of damage to the treasure house. There may be an alchemist involved!
Judging from the scene, the possibility of the participation of the followers of the evil god is very high. I want to report to the higher authorities and ask for human support! "The Minister of Investigation Dryden said in a deep voice.
Master Ix Alchemist nodded in agreement, and the Minister of Noble Affairs Gershwin would not say anything against it when Master Ix Alchemist agreed.
The Minister of Noble Affairs, Gershwin, still had great confidence in David. He believed that this had nothing to do with David, because he saw with his own eyes that David had just been enlightened as a knight.
If before the knight enlightenment, with David's extraordinary combat power, there is still a possibility, after the knight enlightenment, the extraordinary power will be suppressed by the knight pattern, David just wants to act, but he doesn't have the corresponding ability.
As for whether David has helpers, the Minister of Noble Affairs Gershwin is more clear about this.
He and Priest Forbes brought David from the Interstellar Federation to the Great World of God. David had no one else in the Great World of God except the people in Luce Castle.
Even if David wanted to know the believers of the evil gods, he didn't have time to do so.
Therefore, after Dryden's investigation minister said that believers of evil gods were involved at the scene, Gershwin's noble affairs minister believed that David could not be involved in these matters.
"Master, please help open the liaison circle!" The Minister of Investigation Dryden bowed to Master Ix Alchemist.
There are two ways to open the contact circle, one is to activate the power of the blood, and the other is to activate the spirit. The Minister of Investigation Dryden is just an ordinary official, and he cannot open the contact circle.
(end of this chapter)