The Devil’s Cage

Teresa brought Kieran to the Edland City police station.

They didn’t go into the main building but instead to an independent three-story building behind the main one.

At the right side of the building’s main entrance, there was an inconspicuous sign.

Unofficial Forensic Department.

“You don’t have much time, at most 10 minutes… or less.”

Teresa said before pushing the door open and going it. Kieran followed close behind.

Behind the door was a long hall with doors on both sides. Other than the window at the end, light could hardly penetrate the place, it added an extra sense of eeriness to the already secluded building.

Though, neither Teresa nor Kieran were concerned about the eeriness. Both of them strolled in and soon reached the basement floor.

“Hey, Teresa. Morning!”

A middle-aged man in doctor’s robe waved his hand at Teresa. He didn’t even bat an eye at Kieran and continued, “Is it because of the Winchester House’s case?”

“Is there anything else other than that? Give me 10 minutes,” Teresa said without the slightest courtesy.

“This isn’t the attitude of begging others… but whatever, I am more scared of your “begging” mode. 10 minutes. 10 minutes tops! I’ll take a cigarette break.”

The middle-aged man shrugged helplessly and stood up, heading up to the first floor.

Teresa then headed over to the morgue further back in the basement.

Judging from the tacit agreement between the man and Teresa, it was safe to say it wasn’t the first time.

Teresa probably noticed the shock in Kieran’s eyes and she couldn’t help but explain, “Two years ago, he came across some big trouble, so I lent a hand. Although he can’t keep his original position, at least he wasn’t swept out. Hence, the relationship.”

“The “begging” mode?” Kieran was curious.

“Breaking teeth or snapping fingers,” Teresa said calmly.

“What an “unconventional” way of begging,” Kieran commented.

He didn’t doubt the exaggerated words from Teresa because judging from her temper, it was too easy for her to go crazy like that when encountering troubles.

As for the inappropriate actions of a police officer, her undercover life had granted her a distinguishable way of doing things from the other officers, just like what she was doing now.

The moment they entered the morgue, Teresa pulled out the mortuary cabinet labeled “Winchester House explosion”.

“Because of the explosion and severe burning, we still can’t identify who is who from all the bodies.”

Teresa pointed at the five shrunken, deformed charred corpses and said after pulling open the zipper.

Obviously, Kieran didn’t possess such identification abilities.

Under the severe burning, the five charred corpses didn’t only lose their faces, even their bodies had been shrunken from the size of grown men to that of children but one of the five bodies looked unusual.

The left side of its chest had a big hole, a hole that had been pierced thoroughly from front to back. The burning on the wound was natural, the wound wasn’t caused after the person died.

“This is the most unusual body among the five and also the most tragic one. His heart was ripped out before he died, that guy must have hated him to the bones,” Teresa commented.

“Yeah.” Kieran nodded, the gears in his mind spun rapidly.

“Heart got ripped out?”

The result was out of Kieran’s expectations.

According to Kieran’s theory, he as the arbiter should have left behind the crucial evidence, unless…

“There is a better arrangement? What would be better, as a direct evidence, than the executioners seeing the heart with their own eyes?”

New doubts popped up in Kieran’s mind once again. It plunged Kieran into deep thought for quite a while as he stood beside the body, yet without any valuable information given, Kieran couldn’t get anything out of it.

“Although I don’t want to rush you, we don’t have much time left,” Teresa reminded him.

“That will be enough. Given such situation, I don’t even know who should I show my comfort to.” Kieran bitterly smiled at the charred corpses.

Although he said it like that, before he left, he turned around and bowed at the dead. It was the basic respect for disturbing the dead.

Kieran, however, didn’t have the apologetic means to the dead.

Based on the main mission description, he and his arbiter identity were supposed to be a single person but Kieran would never treat the other him as the real him.

Not only because of the twisted feeling of treating a person that didn’t even exist as himself, but it was also because he also knew clearly that if he truly treated his arbiter identity as himself and took responsibility for everything he had done, the chances of him being exposed would skyrocket.

He, Kieran, is now an amnesia patient!

After greeting that forensic scientist again, Kieran and Teresa left the station together.

“Where to?” Teresa asked.

“Where you bumped into me. Someone suggested I should take more walks there, maybe my memories will recover,” Kieran joked and he followed with a question unintentionally, “Where’s Hoskin?”

“He went to investigate the university professor. That Prof. Harondentte is much more complicated that we expected. He didn’t only assume the position of archeology professor at Yuda State University but also created a club at the university named Graven. I can’t seem to find information about this mysterious club through paper materials so I sent Hoskin to Yuda State University.” Teresa answered honestly.

Graven?

Kieran muttered in his heart. He felt like he had seen the name before in some books but couldn’t exactly remember which.

But one thing was for sure, that Prof. Harondentte must be related to the mystical realm because Kieran was certain the term Graven didn’t appear in the medical books at Augen Manor.

On the way there, Kieran purposely diverted the topic to Prof.Harondentte until Teresa accompanied him back to the where he entered the car.

“My treat.” Teresa hurled over a paper bag from the back seat of her car to Kieran before driving off swiftly.

Two sandwiches and a box of milk. It was chilled but it wasn’t from last night either.

She must have bought them before she bumped into him.

Holding the paper bag with food in his hand, Kieran recalled the scene where Teresa appeared with stern tones and severe countenance. He couldn’t help but smile.

“What a dishonest woman.”

After a soft sigh, Kieran took out a piece of the sandwich, eating as he walked, continuing his interrupted search from before.

Different from the peaceful scene at dawn, the streets were filled with busy people.

Shops were all open for business, crowds of people flowing around like a river, cars were jamming the streets, the entire Edland City felt like it had woken up from its sleep.

Standing on the merry street, Kieran continued on his walk following the direction of the map in his mind.

Half an hour later, when Kieran glanced over a certain building, he stopped abruptly.