System of the Beast Slayer [litrpg Adventure]
Copyright© 2025 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 40
The second floor of the school smelled of old paper and cold light. Roy and Ffion flipped through records like men tearing at a wound. Cardell stood behind them, arms folded, watching with a cool, assessing look. She wanted to know what these two who demanded to see the registration books hoped to do.
“1256, 1257, 1258, 1259, 1260...” Between the thirteen stacks they found five blank enrollment forms, one for each of the past five years.
“So that makes five missing people, one per year,” Roy murmured to Ffion. “A pattern that simple could not be coincidence.”
“What have you two been poking at, and why have you not told me?” Cardell demanded.
“Headmistress, you keep the enrollment records,” Ffion said. “Have you ever seen these blank forms before?”
Cardell took one, turned it over twice, her brows knitting until they almost formed a rope. “These sheets are special made, one per student, and they cost. I would not waste them. But I cannot swear I never misplaced one.”
“They were not blank once,” Roy said. “They recorded a student. The writing has been erased, and with it the person described vanished. Taken by the killer, I think.”
“You sound like Ffion, all riddles and whispers,” Cardell snapped. “What could possibly creep through a city of a thousand souls and nab a student without a sound? The Scoia’tael would not dare. Show me proof or, Roy, if you lie before me, you can pack your things.”
“You want proof?” Roy said. “Wait a little while.” He was the only witness to the mark on his sleeve fading; that alone would not convince anyone. Still, he had a working idea.
“Ffion, what was the date of the last diary entry where ‘he’ appears?”
“I have read my journals dozens of times until I can recite them,” Ffion said. “It is October 4, 1258. That night Bob got blind drunk and struck me; frightened, I ran to the school, and he followed.”
“You and I agreed before, he must have disappeared between October 4 and New Year’s Day, November 1.”
Today was October 7, 1260. The fading symbol on Roy’s sleeve began to disappear near that date. Whoever drew the mark had likely vanished in that window. Two separate clues pointing to the same period could not be mere chance.
Roy’s thoughts turned sharp as a blade.
A date by itself meant little, but the stretch toward New Year mattered. The world here ran in loops, like seasons that breathed magic into certain nights. Eight power points marked the year, tied to the great holidays: New Year, Winter Solstice, Candlemas, Spring Equinox, May Day, Summer Solstice, Harvest, and Autumn Equinox. Magic hummed louder near those points. Strange things happened more often around them. If the killer struck near New Year, it was likely sensitive to magic.
Roy wrote down his first conclusion. Since 1256, a perpetrator had acted once each year, near New Year. The culprit was likely a creature sensitive to magic, either a Monster or a magically gifted human.
His second conclusion followed. The perpetrator erased nearly all traces the missing left behind; people’s memories of them, writings the victims had made, paintings depicting them, all vanished. The removal was comprehensive.
“Ffion, you wrote that your family and you gradually ignored him,” Roy said.
“I suppose I did. I divided my time evenly among the pupils, trying to be fair. That means someone could be overlooked,” Ffion answered, her face dim. “Bob is a drunk; he has no time for a child. My mother is often out of her senses. Who would notice?”
“So the victims were people everyone ignored,” Roy said slowly.
Five missing people. Even if memory and marks were erased, why did none of their families, except Ffion, seem to register anything odd and dig for clues?
Roy wrote down a third conclusion. The killer chose targets who were neglected, the kind of children no one would miss easily—orphans or those on society’s margins.
Maybe it was a selection principle of some sort, or simply the predator’s cunning. The less noticed the victim, the less upheaval their removal caused; it was a colder, safer choice for a hunter.
Roy presented his three points to Ffion and Cardell. Ffion’s surprise was mild; she had suspected much of this, but Roy’s summary pulled the threads into a sharper pattern. Cardell’s nonchalant face altered, though doubt sat in her eyes.
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