Chapter 33

With senses beyond any ordinary man’s pushed to their limit, the whole world changed color in Lannor’s sight.

The corner of the hut where the wall met the floor reeked of Ghoul, and in Lannor’s vision it was marked out in vivid red. That had to be the way the monsters came in, a burrow in the ground.

His studded leather gloves turned over scattered chunks of flesh while his mind analyzed the story told by every torn edge.

“The fatal wound was a pierced heart. Though the Ghouls have gnawed half of it away, the knife wound is still there. A sharp double-bladed dagger ... fine quality. Interesting.”

The young man muttered to himself. It helped him sort out his thoughts.

Trace Detection was still not enough on its own, but investigation was investigation, and two thousand episodes of Conan Edogawa had not gone to waste.

“The angle of the stab into the heart ... Mentos, same as I’m thinking?”

The intelligence in his mind answered the quiet question.

“According to the body-model simulation, the dagger was indeed driven from the left side through the third rib, upward into the heart. To ensure a kill in one strike, the blade was also twisted approximately thirty degrees inside the body.”

“Ah.” The young man lifted a brow. “Steady, precise, and ruthless enough. An old hand.”

An inexperienced human, in his first real fight, would breathe too fast, his wrist would shake, and his field of vision would narrow sharply.

This technique showed not only a seasoned fighter, but a killer seasoned enough to stand close and watch the victim die from start to finish.

Lannor dug through the wreckage on the floor again and found the victim’s shoes.

Thankfully, the three Ghouls had not been hungry enough to gnaw even tanned leather, or not even the shoes would have remained.

“Judging by the size of the shoes ... the victim was around one hundred seventy centimeters tall.”

Height could not be judged by the upper body, because most men’s torsos were much the same length. It was the legs that made the true difference.

Once he had wrested that much information from the remains, Lannor finally understood why they had been so certain it was a case of cannibalism.

In his hand he held a section of upper arm bone, his fingers brushing over the pale surface.

“Bite marks. Not Ghoul teeth, human.”

And not only that, the killer had first used a blade to strip the skin from the victim’s upper arm. He may even have cut away a large piece of flesh with it.