Chapter 166 Ground work- Part 1
The clouds that had been hovering started to drizzle down the water which reduced the crowd who had been hovering around the black witch's house without going near the place. The humans believed that when a black witch lived in certain places, she or he left ill omen behind that could bring bad luck to the people if they went to close.
As the crow reduced and dispersed with the late arrival of the other councilmen who had come to inspect, they spoke to Kreme and Damien trying to get the information from what he saw and took.
Councilman Mathias was one of Alexander's friends in the council. Though the word friend was stretched, he was a man who provided the necessary information to Damien's cousin. Because of the drizzle and rain which had arrived on the land of the Bonelake, most of the evidence was hard to decipher and understand, "Did anyone see the magistrate before he was killed?" asked councilman Mathias to Kreme as he was the person who discovered the dead body.
"I don't know, Sir. I didn't go to inquire further on the man and alerted the guardsmen right away after finding his body...like this," the councilman nodded before talking to his partner. Kreme's lips pursed and he turned to Damien who was still looking at the magistrate's slit throat and the posture he sat in the chair right now, "Thank you for your help, councilman Damien and Kreme. We will have the incident filed in the court council so that further search can be done."
"Of course," Damien gave them a charming bussiness-man smile, turning around to walk out of the office, they stepped back on the wet ground with Kreme who opened the umbrella to hold for the pureblooded vampire.
The smile that had been there when he was inside had fallen down from his lips, his eyes continuing to scan from right to left without moving his neck. Picking the humans where some were wondering what was going on. It was only time that soon the humans would discover that the witch had killed the magistrate. He searched for the witch hunter knowing well that the man would linger around if he didn't find his fellow hunter.
Kreme looked back and forth, making sure no one was around to eavesdrop to whisper to Damien in question, "Did the black witch kill the magistrate?"
"What do you think?" Damien inturn asked the question to him. Placing his hands in trouser pockets, he looked over his shoulder at the door he had walked through to face back, "It is tricky, We don't know if it was the hunter or another witch who killed the magistrate."
"A-another witch?" Kreme stumbled through his words. How many more witches were there in here? Just before returning back he had heard from one of the guardsmen on how another witch was burned this very morning. Had this place turned to a witch hub?
"Many people pass by this village. The village isn't special but it is where it resides because of the black market. Thanks to the black market people drop in and out where different creatures are either invited or come in search of something they want. I doubt any would come to reside in here because not many dare with the councilmen who often visit this place or at least use this village as pitstop. It was because of the probability of having no witches in here I had Bathsheba stationed but that blew up," from his pocket, he pulled out a box and flicked it open.
Two cigars laid in the box. Pulling out one, he shoved it in front of Kreme who didn't dare to take one out of it. Pureblooded vampires had the strangest things when it came to cigars and alcohol. There was no telling if he would be in his conscious state after the first drag from it.
Seeing him not take the cigar, Damien flapped the box close and pulled the matchbox to light it up. Take a good drag, he turned to his side to blow the smoke out through his lips.
"Witches have been pouring into the four lands and we aren't sure which one they are turning their home yet. I heard that the report was sent to the councilman and Lionel is reviewing it to see if he needs to assign it to his own team," Damien raised his hand and took another puff from the cigar.
"Lionel's team? The last I heard the Duke was already working on something," Kreme couldn't help but raise the concern. He hadn't heard a team carry to tasks at a time. Especially not in their level or at least Damien's level. Usually, the council distributed work to the teams on the capability and the difficulty they could handle. Each team of the council was promoted with levels depending on which the cases were assigned.
"Hmm, that they are but the Duke is smart enough to handle. They have a new member added in there."
Kreme nodded his head, "It is a woman. There were rumours of her being a maid. It is hard to believe that a maid could crack the exam."
"Women are powerful creatures, Kreme. It is the lowest of the low people who work hard enough to come to the top. Because privileged men and women take things for granted and turn lazy which gives way to the hard-working one. Though I would say luck favors a lot," he tapped the cigar, the ends of it dropping the flakey ash down on the grown which disappeared due to the darkness that pulled over the sky and also because of the wet ground which pulled in the ash to be one with the ground.
"You are doing well though. Even the Duke and the others," the younger man added when Damien turned to look at him.
"Don't patronize me. What else did you hear from the villagers?"
Kreme replied back to his senior, "They were badmouthing Bathsheba and the man who died today. Did you know that there was another witch here."