The Bodies Went Missing

Four figures arrived before the manor. One parked to keep watch, while the other three slipped inside with drawn handguns, executing their tasks with practiced precision. The manor was completely deserted, save for a single light burning in the study. After searching for a moment without finding their mark, the three gathered at the cellar entrance. "What's going on? There isn't a soul in the house. A place this grand ought to keep at least a couple of servants." "It makes sense. The master went on a long journey and took the servants along. If I had to guess, the kid must have scoped out the place and crashed here while the owner was away." "All the better. Saves us a lot of trouble." Unfazed and feeling entirely secure, the intruders didn't take Wayne seriously in the least, pushing the cellar door open and strolling inside. A mere mage apprentice, not even half-baked—could he possibly turn the tables? Inside the cellar, the three discovered a tunnel, a lounge chair, a pillow, bedsheets, and several literary classics brought down from the study. "A thief is always a thief. Even with the master away, he only dared hide in the basement." This only reinforced their conviction that Wayne was an uninvited squatter. Every shred of evidence indicated that Wayne, hounded into a corner with nowhere left to run, had holed up in the basement, too terrified to show his face. "He underestimated what mages can do, thinking he could hide down here in comfort without ever being found." "The pillow is still warm. He left only moments ago." "After him!" The three followed the fallout shelter to its end and spotted an open hatch. Squeezing through, they were greeted by the labyrinthine network of the city's sewers. "..." x3 They exchanged blank looks. "What now? Keep chasing? He might already be miles away." "Keep chasing! If we don't catch him this time, it'll only be harder once he burrows deeper into the sewers. When our teacher holds us accountable, we'll all be punished." The three gritted their teeth. That little rat didn't have much skill, but he was certainly slippery, evading their grasp time and again. Yet as the saying went, a mage apprentice didn't understand real magic. He thought diving into the sewers would throw off pursuit, completely unaware that in the eyes of true mages, his hiding methods were laughably crude, leaving a trail of trackable clues everywhere. One of them cast a spell to scatter spores, linking his mind to the pollen. His senses rippled out through the crisscrossing tunnels, and his field of vision abruptly broadened. Two minutes later. "What's the holdup? Why haven't you found him yet?" his two companions pressed. "It's not that! The wind element around here is far too thin; it's slowing down the pollen's spread..." Hearing his comrades' complaints, the caster shot back at once. It was easy for them to talk standing there doing nothing. They ought to open their eyes and look—if not for the faint traces of the four elements lingering nearby, this place might as well be called an elemental forbidden zone. Several more minutes ticked by. Just as his companions were running out of patience, the man wiped the sweat from his forehead. Mission accomplished; he had found the little rat. "Move! The little rat thinks we gave up. He's already stopped." ... On the other end, Wayne scratched his head in utter bewilderment. So slow! "What's taking them so long? Good thing you lot are villains. If you were heroic protagonists coming to arrest me, I'd have already finished off the magical girl hostages three times over." By this point, Wayne had already contacted the spirit hound, Abin, having it fetch the handgun buried in the detective agency's backyard. Armed with that and the brass knuckles he carried on him, he felt victory was practically assured. The manor belonged to his teacher, and she was a High Priest of the Church of Nature who claimed to possess Londan's highest authority and strongest combat prowess. Wayne wouldn't comment on whether that was true or false. She had a magnificent chest, so she made the rules; he would just take her word for it. The spirit hound was already bound to the Death Knight, widely known to be the knight's pet. Fearing his teacher might sense something, Wayne didn't dare let Abin get too close to the manor. By the same token, the undead warhorse Yulia was kept waiting well outside the grounds; without Wayne's summons, it was strictly forbidden from approaching. Once he retrieved the handgun, Wayne sent Abin up to scout the surface. In his counter-reconnaissance experience, the enemy wouldn't consist of just three people; at least one or two would be left behind on lookout. Wayne instructed Abin not to alert them. After waiting in vain for their teammates, the lookouts would inevitably head back to their base to report, at which point Abin could shadow them and trace the vine back to the melon. If there were no lookouts, then forget he ever said anything—these people were either utter trash with zero professional discipline, or they were third-party contractors. Weighing all possibilities, Wayne decided to keep one alive. As for the other two... The scenery at the river bottom was lovely; they were welcome to take a dip. The bed of the River Thame lacked many things, but never prime seats. Adding two chairs so they could keep Abo company for a chat sounded just fine. In the distance, approaching footsteps echoed. A faint fragrance drifted in silently. Wayne narrowed his eyes, his Super Vision tracking the subtle air currents, catching sight of yellow pollen floating in the breeze that was imperceptible to the ordinary eye. The pollen settled onto the ground, and some brushed against his clothes and face. Betraying no reaction, Wayne leaned against the wall and slowly slumped down, concealing the handgun inside his sleeve as he waited for them to draw near. "Found him. The little rat ran pretty far." "That's him." One of them pulled a portrait from his coat and compared it against Wayne's face. "He's anesthetized by the pollen and in a deep sleep. Take him and let's go. We've wasted too much time already." "Damn it, this tunnel is so long. I'm not carrying him on my back the whole way." "Then drag him. Teacher only said he wants him alive; he never said he couldn't get banged up." The three holstered their pistols and began bickering over who would do the heavy lifting. Having chased him all this way, none of them was willing to lug dead weight back. Three monks, no water. Right then, the previously motionless Wayne snapped his eyes open. He raised his arm to bare a dark muzzle and fired three shots in rapid succession at point-blank range. Three blossoms of blood burst into the air—two in the chest, one in the shoulder. One man collapsed with a scream. The other two never uttered a sound, their wide eyes gradually turning dull and glassy. They felt only a spreading warmth in their chests, followed by a chill that swept through their entire bodies, growing heavier and sleepier by the second. "If you don't want to carry dead weight, then don't. I'm a softhearted person; let me give you a hand." Wayne stood up and snapped his fingers. Fine sparks flared across his body, igniting the pollen spores clinging to his surface. A vortex of flame swirled around him, growing in fury as it swept outward. A surging red wall of fire washed in all directions, burning every last speck of pollen in the tunnel to cinders. The mage shot in the shoulder was still screaming in agony. His two companions had been laughing and chatting a moment ago, only to suddenly become completely stable emotionally, without even their families making a fuss—a shift that terrified him to no end. Most horrifying of all, the soft, adorable prey had transformed into a hunter in the blink of an eye. Even now, he couldn't comprehend how a mere mage apprentice could be so formidable. From intentionally leaving clues behind, to feigning unconsciousness to drop their guard, to incinerating the pollen spores to eliminate every unpredictable variable... Damn it, they should have realized sooner. This was no mage apprentice; he was a battle-hardened old huntsman. *Bang! Bang!* Wayne fired two follow-up shots to ensure the pair were truly fast asleep before swinging the barrel toward the captive. "Name, gender, who you work for, and why you came to grab me. Miss a single detail, and you're dead." "I—I don't know..." *Bang!* The moment the words left his mouth, the concrete beside his ear shattered. Flying debris sliced into his cheek, drawing a line of fresh blood and sending him into shriek after shriek. "Don't shoot! Don't kill me! I'll talk, I'll tell you everything!" Wayne's gaze was utterly terrifying, and with two companions testifying with their lives, the man knew he was dealing with a cold-blooded fiend who killed without blinking. The captive dared not act tough, spilling his purpose at breakneck speed. "My name is Wesker, a disciple of the Goddess of Nature! My teacher, Joey Dobbin, ordered us to investigate you! He's the one who wants you taken, it has nothing to do with me..." Wesker sobbed, "That's all I know! Spare me, please! I swear I'll never dare do it again!" *Bang!* Wayne pulled the trigger without expression, shaking his head. "Sorry. I really wanted to let you go, but I refuse to be a man who breaks his word. You left out your gender." *Bang! Bang! Bang!* Because the man was named Wesker, Wayne made a point of putting three extra rounds into him. Looting the bodies, he retrieved three handguns, tossed his own spent weapon onto the corpses, snapped his fingers, and began retracing his steps toward the manor. He wasn't someone who liked killing; his hands trembled even when slaughtering a chicken. But when people brought the fight to his doorstep, they couldn't blame him for being ruthless. Behind Wayne, earthen walls rose, wind elements rushed in to feed oxygen, and fire elements leapt with glee. The massive concentration of fire elements caused the temperature within the earthen enclosure to skyrocket, erasing all traces of the three intruders at maximum speed. Finally, water elements surged through, sweeping up the remaining ash and flushing it into the adjacent drainage outfall. Once the cycle of earth, fire, water, and wind ran its course, the sewer returned to its former tranquility, leaving only three scorched patches to prove anything had ever happened. ... Outside the manor. The lookout waited for a long time without seeing his companions return, eventually starting the engine and driving off. With no sign of them for this long, something had definitely gone wrong. He noted the street and house number, took several detours on the road to make sure he wasn't being followed, and only then headed for his teacher's residence. Through the thick fog, an unseen pair of eyes trailed closely behind him. — Late into the night. Wayne summoned Abin in the sewers, confirmed the address of their base, and weighed the feasibility of paying them a visit to pull the weeds out by the roots. With his own current strength, it might be tough. Putting on the Death Knight persona would make it easy enough, but doing so carried a high risk that someone might link him to the Death Knight—far too hazardous to be worthwhile. After a moment's thought, Wayne dialed his mature, commanding teacher's number. Roughly translated, the call went something like this: *Teacher, your student was attacked in your own home by your subordinates. They all had guns! Waaah, I almost didn't live to see you again...* Before dawn had even broken, Xifei rushed over to the manor in a flurry, heading straight down into the cellar to find Wayne. "Are you all right?" Xifei checked Wayne over, confirming he was healthy, alive, and seemingly unfazed before finally breathing a sigh of relief. As long as her student was safe, that was all that mattered! "What happened? Who were they, and why are they targeting you?" "I don't know either. They trailed me all the way from the detective agency with a very clear objective. Three of them snuck in armed with guns. According to the captive..." Wayne recounted the events, concluding with agitated indignation, "He called himself Wesker, claimed to be a disciple of the Goddess of Nature and a student of Joey Dobbin, ordered to capture me alive at all costs. Teacher, you have to stand up for me! This isn't just kicking my backside; it's slapping you across the face! They're coming after you!" Xifei: ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°) The reasoning wasn't wrong, but the phrasing was terrible. It was a vivid metaphor, though—her face was already starting to throb. He'd better not use that comparison again. Xifei frowned. She remembered the name Joey Dobbin—one of Sidney's students. After Sidney's fall, Joey had been caught in the purge alongside him and was currently suspended at home awaiting reassignment. Going by Wayne's account, Joey wasn't the mastermind behind this; Sidney was. Sidney had discovered Wayne's identity and wanted to kidnap the student to threaten the teacher. Yet... Xifei was confident she had kept the matter well hidden. Even her daughter, Veronica, didn't know Wayne was her student. How could Sidney have known? Could it be that that damned scoundrel told Sidney? No, surely not. That scoundrel might have no lower limit, but he wouldn't cross that line. Besides, what good would kidnapping her student do Sidney? Right now, what Sidney needed most was to keep his head down and make everyone forget he existed. Kidnapping Wayne and brazenly mobilizing his own followers to do it was completely out of character for Sidney. "Don't panic, Wayne. The situation at Londan headquarters is complicated—far from as simple as you think." After offering a brief word of comfort, Xifei said, "Where is the captive? Take me to him. I want to interrogate him myself." "The captive was scared to death." "Scared to death?!" "Mm. I was so startled that my finger accidentally squeezed the trigger, and he died," Wayne said, looking deeply wronged. "..." The corner of Xifei's mouth twitched violently. So that was what he meant by 'scared to death.' Forcing a strained smile, she said, "You were frightened, so a slip of the hand is understandable. It's not your fault. What about the body? Let me examine it; maybe I can find some clues." "The bodies went missing," Wayne said aggrievedly. "..." Did the bodies wander off on their own, or did you drop them somewhere while walking? Xifei pressed a hand to her face. Whether it was just her imagination or not, she caught a glimpse of her scoundrel husband in Wayne. Come to think of it, their hair and eye color were identical; there really was a resemblance. After a long silence, Xifei said solemnly, "Where did they go missing? Can they be retrieved? It doesn't matter if we can't find them, but they absolutely must not be found by our enemies. The magical world is complicated; they'll use those corpses to make an issue of this and turn around to frame you." "Don't worry, Teacher. I saw it with my own eyes—along with the handgun used in the crime, every trace went missing completely. Calculating the time, the ashes should have already washed into the River Thame," Wayne replied with equal solemnity. "Ah... well..." Xifei opened her mouth blankly, torn between relief and dismay, momentarily at a loss for how to respond. Scold him? The cleanup was immaculate; there was nothing to fault. Praise him? Praise him for what—having such a polished routine and telling him to keep up the good work? Xifei let out a sigh, realizing she had nothing left to say. "Setting aside that you are my student, someone attacking you in my home is something I will pursue to the end regardless. Get some rest and stop staying up reading. I'll give you an answer in a few days." Wayne nodded, lying down on the lounge chair and closing his eyes for a nap. "You're resting down here?" "Mm, I'm scared." "..." That... made sense. Caution was a virtue. Xifei had no words. Several consecutive days of overtime had practically drained her energy, and she intended to head up to the master bedroom for a short rest. Just then, Wayne spoke up: "Teacher, is there a magic array that gathers the four elements so mages can replenish their life essence more conveniently and quickly during meditation?" "There is such an array. But because the four elements gather too quickly, ordinary mages can't distinguish between the four in time, making it very risky. Few mage apprentices ever use one. Why do you ask?" Xifei said in confusion. "It seems like... there's an array like that right here." Wayne was curious too—this was her house, so how could she not know? Xifei froze, her expression darkening. "It's my husband's handiwork. Did it disrupt your meditation? Do you want to move somewhere else?" "Not at all." Wayne shook his head repeatedly. He had found this sacred training ground with great difficulty; nothing short of death would make him move. Curiously, he asked, "Teacher, could you tell me about your husband?" Xifei had no desire to broach the topic. Turning to leave, she said, "A bastard, nothing worth discussing. Once this recent storm blows over, accompany me back for a family dinner, and you'll see what kind of man he is." *If he's such a bastard, why don't you divorce him? And why bring a student to a family dinner?* *Teacher, you aren't being entirely honest with yourself!* Piecing together Xifei's assessment of her husband with the ambiguous relationship she shared with that high-ranking figure, Wayne arrived at a conclusion. Unless his teacher was cheating on her husband, that prominent figure was her husband! "Small world..." Wayne muttered under his breath. So it was that rascal who had wanted to stuff him into a concrete barrel and sink him to the bottom of the river. Just you wait; your happy days are about to begin.