Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 1492: Section 1493 Father Berengar Chapter 1492: Section 1493 Father Berengar Seeing Alex slowly descend from the Watchtower, his silhouette merging with the night and vanishing from his field of vision, Bertrand finally sighed softly, “What was to come, has come.”

After returning to his room, Alex lit an oil lamp and quietly looked out the window.

Although he did not know what the previous screams meant, as time passed, he faintly heard noises coming from the streets.

“Have they appeared again?” This question lingered in Alex’s mind, and beyond that, he was also suspicious of Father Bertrand, feeling that the priest seemed a bit strange. Earlier, when he stopped him, it seemed to be with ulterior motives.

As time moved forward, about ten minutes later, a figure slowly appeared in the room.

Alex said, “Mr. Pat, have you discovered anything?”

Alex had just returned to his room, but that did not mean that Angel had come back with him. Angel had first gone to the south of Gust Town to check out the scene of the incident.

“Another two people have died, and besides that…” Angel paused, his gaze suddenly darkening.

Alex waited in confusion for Angel to continue.

“Besides that, I saw the perpetrator.”

“Really? Was it Raven Knight?” Alex was startled and quickly asked.

Angel shook his head, “It wasn’t Raven Knight or Camelot, but two other people.”

When Angel said this, the Illusion Technique power near the core of his consciousness slowly took shape in front of him, forming two figures. One was a stout woman and the other was a very gaunt man looking sickly.

Angel said, “These two, they are also undead.”

Alex swallowed hard, staring intently at the two Illusion figures, muttering under his breath, “I recognize both of them; one is Mrs. Martin who disappeared yesterday, it seems she too met with misfortune, and the other…”

“Is Mr. Shrek, who died two years ago.”

The fact that the assailants were not Raven Knight or Camelot gave Alex an even colder chill. Did this mean that all the previously murdered people had become undead?

Although Alex had previously guessed as much, he still couldn’t believe it.

After a while, Alex began to come to terms with the shocking news, and once he regained his composure, he asked, “Mr. Pat, where did they go in the end?”

If he knew the destination of these undead, might it mean that he could find the person controlling them?

Angel shook his head, “They merged with the surrounding air and dissipated.”

“Disappeared?”

“To me, it seems more like they’ve entered another special space within the cage.” Of course, there was also a possibility that the undead had left the cage, but that seemed highly unlikely.

Another special space? Alex didn’t understand what this meant, but before he could ask further, Angel dropped another bombshell.

“Besides seeing those two undead, I also caught a glimpse of a figure at the scene, a human, not an undead.”

Alex suddenly looked up, “A living person? The controller?”

“Maybe, I didn’t see it very clearly, because that figure was the first to disappear. I only saw a blurry silhouette, but I am certain it was a human. They took the shells of the slain and also entered the special space I mentioned.”

“Male or female, any distinguishing features?” Alex quickly asked.

“I don’t know.” Angel, now without a physical form, could hardly gather information quickly using just a bit of Illusion Technique power: “Speaking of features… that silhouette seemed to be somewhat hunched.”

Being hunched was a distinct feature, but in Gust Town, there were no less than seven or eight hundred hunched people.

The chances of finding someone based on this trait were very low.

“Regardless, at least one thing is certain, the controller is very likely to have always been in Gust Town!” Alex said.

“Besides that information, the special space is also a useful piece of information.” The Illusion beside Angel slowly disappeared, turning into a white cage.

Until the day before, they had only considered this world as a white cage.

But today’s information confirmed the existence of another special space.

Angel tapped lightly with his finger, and beneath the white cage, a shadow appeared, which in the light looked like a black cage. This black cage might be that special space.

After Angel had finished recounting what he had seen, he posed a question, “Why kill these people?”

Yesterday’s death of Anthony and the disappearance of Martin were speculated to be because they had seen Raven Knight’s face, which might have provoked the murder.

But today’s events were strange; neither the daylight murder nor the deaths of the two people just now had any special connection.

Why were they killed?

“Could it be that they were seen during the search for Mrs. Connie in town?” Alex still used yesterday’s logic to speculate.

Angel: “They must be looking for Mrs. Connie, but if they were searching openly, more people should have seen them. If it’s a clandestine search, it would be difficult for others to discover them.”

“I’ve heard Mr. Pat say that the undead are naturally brutal. Could this simply be a case of wanting to kill?”

“If it was the undead killing, there wouldn’t be just these few deaths.”

After several hypotheses had been successively negated, for a moment, the motive for the murders suddenly became an enigma.

Suddenly, an idea flashed through Alex’s mind, “If it’s not due to the undead, could it be the factor of the controller? Perhaps, failing to find Mrs. Connie, the controller of the undead started to escalate the situation, which might even get out of control eventually?”

Although this speculation seemed possible to Angel, it was still just a conjecture. Without finding the controller, no definitive conclusions could be made.

With the matter at hand, Alex took out the case notes he had recorded, attempting to trace the controller’s steps through the case details.

However, at this moment, Angel suddenly said, “Father Bertrand’s behavior at the Watchtower earlier was a bit strange, don’t you think?”

Alex paused and then nodded, “Indeed, it was strange, but he shouldn’t be the controller.”

Because Father Bertrand had been by the Sheriff’s side all of yesterday, and during the recent incident, Father Bertrand was here as well, so it was certain that Father Bertrand was not that controller.

“According to the timeline, he indeed can’t be the controller. But we also can’t be sure that there’s only one controller,” Angel said, then changed the direction of the conversation, “Of course, judging by Father Bertrand’s behavior these past two days, and his reverence for death, just as you said, I don’t think he’s the controller either. But–”

“His behavior was very strange, as if he knows something.”

Earlier, when Angel had heard the scream, he was the first to rush to the scene of the crime. When he returned, he found Father Bertrand still in the Watchtower, looking at the site of the incident with a very grave expression.

This gravity even made Angel feel the despair in his heart.

It was this feeling that led Angel to believe that although Father Bertrand might not be the controller, he definitely knew some inside information.

There was also something Angel was very concerned about, yet he hadn’t told Alex.

Angel always had a premonition, or perhaps it was a wizard’s innate intuition, that Alex, like him an “outsider,” was very likely the reason for the existence of this cage.

If this conjecture wasn’t wrong, then a question mark needed to be placed by the people around Alex.

Especially Father Bertrand, who had rescued Alex, adopted him, and was devoted to brainwashing him with Holy Scripture.

After a long silence, Alex finally nodded, “Father Bertrand may indeed know something. However, based on my understanding of Father Bertrand, if he doesn’t want to talk, no one can get an answer from him.”

“That might not be the case, given that the situation has clearly changed now. He might also become a victim,” Angel said.

Angel’s words suddenly reminded Alex of something Father Bertrand had said to him: At least, the Church of Cruachan will be safe under the protection of the Father God.

Did this mean that staying in the Church of Cruachan would be safe?

Did Father Bertrand say this on purpose, or was it unintentional?

Why?

Eventually, Alex nodded, “I’ll find an opportunity to try and get some information out of Father Bertrand.”

Nightfall had faded, and a new day dawned in the morning light of Dawnlight.

What should have been a hopeful morning was thoroughly shrouded in gloom by the murder that had occurred the previous night in Gust Town.

Gust Town, larger even than Gru Town, had a population nearing ten thousand.

With so many people, under normal circumstances, the death of one or two individuals would only cause a fraction to panic; for many others, they might feel lucky or simply indifferent, not taking other people’s misfortunes to heart at all.

But with a succession of deaths, these victims, irrespective of their identity, status, residence, showed no disparity in standing.

No one could be sure that if the serial killer continued, they wouldn’t become one of the unlucky ones.

Because of this, nearly everyone in Gust Town began to feel anxious.

However, those fraught with anxiety could be divided into several categories.

The vast majority, powerless to resist, still had to live their lives, so they did what they usually did, only keeping their anxiety buried within.

An exceedingly small portion had their lives disrupted by anxiety. Some of them stayed at home trembling and dared not move; some went to church to recite the Holy Scripture, praying for divine salvation; and some sought the protection of the Knight’s guard at the Sheriff’s office.

All the above were still considered good responses. There was a portion of the populace who thought they had made a good choice, unaware that they were beginning to walk towards the Abyss.

Alex stood at the top of the church, looking towards the end of the street, where over a dozen people, with luggage in tow, were heading out of town.

Without a doubt, this group had chosen to leave Gust Town. They hoped to avoid the fate of being murdered by distancing themselves.

But what they didn’t realize was that leaving didn’t represent hope; rather, it signified true despair.